Cassandra Clare Foyles Event

On Wednesday 26th I was lucky enough to attend the Cassie Clare talk and signing at Foyles. Me and Liz from Planet Print made our way there (eventually) and waited eagerly for the event to start. Cassie had a special guest with her, none other than Sarah Rees Brennan, who was 'hosting' Cassie (meaning she asked all the questions). The two were absolutely hilarious, and them bouncing off each other was fantastic. Cassie answered loads of fan questions and I tried to write down some of her answers, which I've written up for you below:

SRB starts off by asking CC about life as a writer, mentioning all the immoral and terrible things she has done in the name of research. CC counters by talking about the time she and SRB came to London to do research for Clockwork Angel, and SRB was pretending to know all about Victorian architecture. She pointed out Victorian drains, Victorian doors etc, as well as a Victorian window, which CC took a picture of. Then they both realised that through the window, there was a naked man, making eggs, staring at them. CC also mentions the time Holly Black wanted to be tied up and put in the boot of a car for research (for the curseworkers series I assume.)

Questions:

Would you ever write adult fiction?

CC: If an idea occured to her, says that idea of having a real job bores her, so when she thinks about writing adult fic the first thing she thinks is "what is their job" and then she falls asleep.

Who is the inspiration for your characters?
SRB: They're all based on her [on SRB]
CC: Yes, they're all based on aspects of SRB's multiple personalities. Seriously a mash up of RL people, people she's read about, fictional characters, but in process of writing their personalities develop to the extent that they are unrecognisable from the people they were originally based on.

Can you tell us more about the Dark Artifices? 

DA is possible next project, set in present day but still in shadowhunter world. Will follow a female shadowhunter [characters from CoLS and CoHF will reappear] as well as checking in with the Mortal Instruments characters that are still alive *big audience drawing of breath at this point*. Will be set in LA as CC knows the city well and doesn't feel it has very much urban fantasy treatment.
SRB: So basically you're telling us to look out for 12 year old shadowhunters from MI and wonder if they'll grow up hot? [MI is 'stuck' in 2007, so characters from then will have aged about 5-6 years in DA]

Will Sebastian ever feel remorse?

SRB launches into big speech about how much she <3 Seb. CC mentions that SRB often sneaks in and rewrites scenes to make Seb the hero in them. CC says that Seb has no choice in how he is, bad nature coupled with bad nurture has left him with no freewill, which is unfair. Only emotions he has ever shown were jealously about how Valentine treated Jace and disappointment that Clary isn't more like him.
He also has a stone named Fred, who is his only friend.
That isn't true.
SRB: It's not true....yet.

What scene from the film are you most looking forward to?

CC answers she is most looking forward to Magnus' party and the motorcycles.

Can you recommend some good books?

CC recommends HB's Curseworkers series, Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor and the Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness. Oh....and SRB's books too...

Will Tessa ever go to South Carolina?

CC explains SC joke. Says that she could, but that doing so held serious consequences in that era, life changing consequences.

How hard was it to link the family trees of the Mortal Instruments characters with those of the Infernal Devices characters? [my question, yay!!]

CC: It was complicate but fun. She figured it all out before she wrote the series. They're 5 generations removed, and she didn't want people to figure out who was related to who too soon into the book. The Lightwood family was fun to write as they are the opposite of the Lightwood family in MI

Can I touch your mango?
CC: Mangos are out of season.

How do you plan what will happen to your characters?

CC explains microplotting, where friends get together to talk through events of whole book and figure out how each character gets into their situations and what happens to them.
SRB interjects that atleast one person will try to run away during this process and will have to be dragged back
Anecdote about how, in Mexico, SRB and HB had to act out a romantic scene between Clary and Jace. The respective husbands and boyfriends suddenly became v. interested in this process and wanted to observe to give 'comments'.

Would you pick Jem or Will?

SRB: Why choose?
CC: Love them both equally, for different reasons. Jem is emotionally strong and physically weak, Will is emotionally weak and physically strong.

If you could meet one of your characters who would it be and what would you do?


CC says she will go for 'safe' answer of shopping with Magnus
SRB would (predictably) go on a date with Sebastian, so she can declare the extent of her compassion for him.



Teasers given: (so look away now if you don't want them!)




One of the main characters will die in the next two Mortal Instruments books.
[On Alec and Magnus' relationship] Alec will do things that aren't a good idea in CoLS
[When asked about the Seelie queen and the bell she gave her in CoFA] Seelie queen is playing a long game. There is something she wants from Clary. Jace will be missing at the start of CoLS-will Clary get desperate enough to ring the bell?


And there we have it! They answered a lot more questions than this, but I decided to just pick out a few. I totally did not do the hilarity of their banter justice, but hopefully this'll be interesting to read anyway!

I'm so glad I go to the event, and meet Cassie and Sarah, and thanks to them for making it such an entertaining and worthwhile trip!