One, and this is addressed mainly to booksellers and librarians: I've gotten a lot of emails lately from YA booksellers and librarians who are holding parties for the releases of Breaking Dawn and Brisngr, etc, wanting to know if I had any promo items I could send for party giveaways. The answer is yes I do, and if you want stuff, like postcards, bookmarks, chapter samplers and the like, you can email me at the address on my profile page and I'll send you stuff. Stuff, I got lots of. [ETA: This offer only open to bookseller/librarian types! I should have mentioned that.]

Two, the official release date for City of Glass is March 24, 2009. As of the moment it has a laydown date which means they won't be selling any copies before that day, but you can be pretty sure you'll be able to get it on that day.

Three, this is the last post I'm going to be making on this journal. I've decided to update exclusively from now on at cassandraclare. Long ago, I thought it would be a good idea to have one blog about just book stuff and writing and another blog about personal stuff, but then I realized that my writing stuff and my personal stuff are entirely mixed in together, and since half the time I could never decide which blog to put an entry on, I would just not update. So this is my attempt at streamlining. Thank you to all the people who've been reading here, and I'll be continuing to blog about my writing and the Mortal Instruments books over at cassandraclare, so if you'd like to friend that journal, I'd love to see you there.

All the best,

Cassie

So I've heard from several UK booksellers (and buyers) that City of Ashes is now out in the UK and Ireland – or, you know, trickling out as books do. I'm not going to be in London for the launch this time, which makes me sad, because I love London and I still get excited seeing my book in bookstores there. And I was hoping to do some signings and meet my readers in the UK. So I am sad about this. But there is a good chance that I will be in London in September, and so hopefully I can set some events up then.

In the meantime, if you're feeling broke, you can pick up free copies of several chapters of City of Ashes at Starbucks all across the UK and Ireland. It's part of a promotion they're doing with the National Literacy Trust trying to get teens (and everyone!) to read more books. Since I won't be over in the UK to actually see my book in Starbucks (a very bizarre idea and one of the few things to have impressed my parents) — anyone who catches sight of the teasers:




in Starbucks and sends me a photo, I'll send you a signed copy of Ashes. :)


ETA: On another note, I'm going to be shutting this LJ down in a short while and doing all my updating over at cassandraclare. I'm suffering from too-many-blogs-itis, and I have to do something to consolidate. So if you're interested in keeping up, I'd love it if you'd friend me over there (and feel free to unfriend here.)

Now that Publisher's Weekly has made the announcement, I can finally talk about my new series, which I am super-mega-yowza excited about! From the press release:

While The Mortal Instruments is set largely in present-day Manhattan, The Infernal Devices takes us back one hundred and forty years to the heart of Victorian England, exploring an earlier era in the history of the Shadowhunters — a time before the Accords, when Downworlder and Shadowhunters were at each other's throats. A time when orphaned teenager Tessa discovers she isn't human after all, but a warlock, capable of changing her shape to resemble anyone she desires to be. Tessa must use her power to descend into London's supernatural Downworld, where vampires stalk the gaslit streets of London, werewolves slink in the shadowy lanes of Whitechapel, and warlocks hold masquerade balls for demons and Downworlders in opium-smoke-filled ballrooms. But living in Downworld isn't simple — Tessa has to learn to trust her natural enemies, the demon-killing Shadowhunters, if she ever wants to control her powers and find her brother. Torn between the darkly gorgeous and devoted Will, a Shadowhunter hiding a deadly secret, and the brooding Jem, whose addiction to a demon drug is slowly destroying him, Tessa must draw on all her strength to save her brother and keep herself alive in this deadly new world.

I always knew I'd be done with Clary's story after City of Glass, but I wasn't done with the world of Shadowhunters and Downworlders. I wanted to do more in that world, with that mythology. On the other hand, I also always wanted to write a historical fantasy novel set in Victorian England, preferably with steampunk elements. At some point, I decided to combine the two — to write about Shadowhunters in a different city than New York, and a different time than now — a time before the Accords, when things between Shadowhunters and Downworlders were considerably less peaceful, and the Shadowhunters lacked some of the technology they employ today. Not to mention a time when there were some truly fabulous clothes, especially for men (Frock coats! Gloves! Boots! So hot!)

The first book in the series, The Clockwork Princess***, will be published in fall 2010****, followed by The Clockwork Prince in fall 2011 and The Clockwork Kingdom in summer 2012. There's a ton more information on the (very basic right now) website, where you can read the full press release, and over at the fansite.

Some people have asked me if Jace, Clary and the others will be in the ID series. The answer is mainly no, because it takes place about 145 years ago. But some characters — like Magnus — who are immortal, do recur; and you'll start recognizing the names of various families, like the Lightwoods and the Waylands, and realizing their relationship to the current characters, as you read.

Anyway, I am super excited about these books and I can't wait to get started on them!

***All titles, at this early date, are subject to change.
**** For those of you in the UK/Aus, The Infernal Devices will be coming out from Walker Books just like the MI series, but we're going to do our level best to make sure the books come out at the same time overseas as they do here.

Next weekend I will be signing in New York City at Books of Wonder for the anthology, Magic in the Mirrorstone, with contributors Cecil Castellucci, Holly Black, Tiffany Trent, Beth Bernobich, Craig Gidney and editor Steve Berman. The signing will be at:

June 8th, 1pm-3pm
Books of Wonder
18 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011

Come on by!

ETA: I am so sorry to all those who attended the event and discovered I wasn't there! I wound up in the emergency room this morning, and though it turned out fine and I'm all right, I wasn't able to make the signing. I hope to make it up to you at the next one!

Cassie

I've been so looking forward to showing this off — the cover of City of Glass! It may be my favorite out of the three, or I may just be loving it because it's so new.




Now to forestall the inevitable questions: the boy on the cover is neither Alec, nor Simon. Instead he's a new character, called Sebastian — if you read my mailing list or the fansite forums you probably know about him already. He's a new character in City of Glass, having been mentioned only in dreams and images previously (astute readers picked out that he's the dark-haired boy with black wings who Clary is dreaming about in CoA.) [Ah here's what I said about Sebastian on my mailing list: "Sebastian is a new character in City of Glass. He's a Shadowhunter. He's a cousin of the Penhallows, who are friends of the Lightwoods', and he grew up at the Institute in Paris. He's about seventeen."] I know it's unusual for a series book to feature a new character on a cover, but we thought he was important enough to go for it. Below Sebastian is Idris and the City of Glass, which Clary and the others visit in book three. The translucent glass-looking structures, are the "demon towers" that keep the city safe from invasion . . . or so they think!



The cover — text, images, etc — isn't final, but it's very close.



( Much more gi-hugic version under cut. )

I've put up the first chapter of City of Glass (well, actually my boyfriend did it because I don't have the slightest idea how to update my web page:

http://www.mortalinstruments.com/COGchapter1.html

Those who went to my signings on tour will be familiar with this already. For you guys, and for fun, I'm also going to paste in a cookie from CoG under the cut. And because it will be a while since I update again, since I am about to 1) turn in the final edits on City of Glass and 2) run away to Italy, where I will stay until stress levels return to normal. Also, I might buy some shoes there. Mmm, shoes.

ETA to add: I'm too wracked with deadline horror to actually be able to post at the moment, but Rachel Caine (you may know her from her terrific Morganville Vampire books) has posted at her LJ about the upcoming Twilight essay anthology from BenBella books; I'm one of the contributors. It was edited by Ellen Hopkins of Glass and Crank fame. Check it out here.


( City of Glass cookie )

I got the cover for the German edition of City of Ashes (which is coming out this June):




With all the foiling and whatnot, these covers are much prettier in person, but they still look nice onscreen.


Also, I got my first-draft cover for City of Glass and it is hot. No shirtlessness this time, but if it keeps on as it looks like it will, it will probably be my favorite of the three. Here's a tiny little piece of it, just for fun:



I also wanted to take a moment to show some of the fanart I've gotten lately, because it always takes a long time to get the pictures up onto the website gallery. So . . .


(  fanart under cut )

I promised various Powers That Be that I'd blog while on tour, but so far I haven't had a chance. Three things you learn when on book tour:

1) Sleep whenever you can
2) Every hotel, everywhere in America, has cobb salad on their room service menu
3) Free time is a myth


So I'm blogging on the run here at my San Francisco hotel, before I head out to Cody's Bookstore in Berkeley. I decided to cobble together a few of my favorite photos from various events.

At Books of Wonder in NYC, where I signed with Marissa Doyle and Isamu Fukui, reading came bearing these Fabulous Shirts. They gave me much joy:




In Phoenix, I signed with Lisa McMann, author of Wake, at various locations. This is us in Changing Hands bookstore.


At Changing Hands I also picked up this t-shirt for my boyfriend. Everyone says boys in books are better...



We also went to a library where they had totally awesomely decorated the whole place with items themed after our books. Here Jace is sporting the classic sleeveless turtleneck look. :D


In LA, my hometown, I met up with Beth Duncan, a teacher whose whole class had read City of Bones and gave me a notebook full of their reviews and thoughts. It was gorgeous. They also made rune-design demon hunter t-shirts. How cute are they?


They said they would make me a shirt, too. Yay! And then in Glendale, where I regaled everyone with the story of How Holly Could Not Get Enough Coffee To Survive While We Were In Italy, someone made me these gorgeous bookmarks:





And then, in Huntington Beach, I encountered a girl wearing this shirt:




Wait a second — that's a Midnighters shirt! Damn you, Scott Westerfeld!

*I also read Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson while on the plane to Phoenix. It was awesome and I am in love with Spencer. Read it now!

I came back from Italy to a bunch of good news! First, The New York Post featured City of Ashes as a recommended book, and even mentioned my event at Books of Wonder tomorrow.

Secondly, City of Ashes debuted at #3 on the New York Times Children's Bestseller list!




Which is huge! And awesome! But then, just as cool, City of Bones is back on the Times list, this time on the paperback list:



Not to mention that City of Ashes hit the USA Today bestseller list at #96 which is pretty damn awesome considering that the USA Today list counts every single book for sale in the entire country, including self-help, cookbooks, and those Whatever For Dummies books.

Listing with my first book was fantastic, but listing with my second book is in some ways even better, because it means people liked the first book enough to run out and buy the second, and the fact that CoA has moved higher up the list means the audience is only growing. So thank you guys, everyone who went out and bought the book, or forced their parents or loved ones to buy it for them, or put it on reserve at the library, or tortured your local bookstore into carrying it. It's all down to you.

*** Last year when I listed I posted a What Happens When You Hit the Bestseller List" post, including all the phone calls I made that day. Sadly, when your second book hits, mostly only your friends in publishing realize why it's still a big deal. I called my dad after I found out, and he said,

Dad: But you were already on the list.
Me: So every time someone has a birthday, do you say, "Who cares, you already had a birthday?"
Dad: No, I say, "Congratulations on not dying partway through the year."
Me: Well, that's encouraging.

And now, off to celebrate.

From April 6-18th, I’ll be touring for City of Ashes. A list of the events and locations is below. I hope you’ll be able to come and see me! (And remember, if you've got a postcard, bring it to the event!)

Sunday, April 6
1:00 PM
Books of Wonder
18 West 18th St.
New York, NY 10011

Monday, April 7
6:30 PM
Barnes and Noble Park Slope
267 7th Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11215

Tuesday, April 8
7:00 PM
Joint Event with Lisa McMann!
Borders
6555 E. Southern Ave., Ste. 1502
Mesa, AZ 85206

Wednesday, April 9
4:00 PM
Joint Event with Lisa McMann!
Phoenix Public Library
Burton Barr Branch
1221 N. Central Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85004

7:00 PM
Joint Event with Lisa McMann!
Changing Hands
6428 S. McClintock Dr.
Tempe, AZ 85283

Thursday, April 10
5:30 PM
Joint Event with Lisa McMann!
Phoenix Book Company
4134 East Wood St.
Suite 290
Phoenix, AZ 85040

Friday, April 11
4:00pm In-store writing workshop event
Mrs Nelson’s Toy and Book Shop
1030 Bonita Avenue
La Verne, CA 91750

Saturday, April 12
11:00 AM
Mystery Bookstore
1036-C Broxton Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90024

2:00 PM
Barnes and Noble
7881 Edinger Ave.
Huntington Beach, CA 92647

Sunday, April 13
2:00 PM
Mystery & Imagination Bookshop
238 N. Brand Blvd.
Glendale, CA 91203


Monday, April 14
4:00 pm-5:30pm Cody’s Books
2201 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley CA 94704


7:00 PM
Books Inc., Palo Alto
Town & Country Village
855 El Camino Real, Suite 74
Palo Alto, CA 94304

Tuesday, April 15
7:00 PM
Copperfield’s Books Petaluma
140 Kentucky St.
Petaluma, CA 94952

Friday, April 18
5:00—6:30
COMICON
New York ComiCon City of Ashes signing
Jacob K. Javits Center
655 West 34th St.
New York, NY 10001

Two pieces of CoA news: One is that City of Ashes is Cosmo Girl! magazine's first ever book club selection. There's a review up, along with discussion questions, an alternate first chapter that didn't make it into the book, and other stuff, including recipes. (Yes, recipes. They got a little crazy over at the magazine, but they love the book so I don't mind.)

The second is that City of Ashes is now out in bookstores!


I've already heard from people who've ordered it in stores and gone in to pick up their copies; I've heard tell of sightings of it in the wild, but not yet seen one myself. I did however get this in the mail:





A DUMP BIN!

Some girls like fancy dresses, I always wanted a dump bin. And now I have one! Now, I went online to see if I could find an explanation of what a dump bin was, and the best one I could find was Scott's 'O Mighty Dump Bin.' Basically they're those displays you see in bookstore with books living in them like moles in a whack-a-mole game. Now the photo I have of this dump bin was taken in the corner of my apartment (behold messy cardboard box etc.) and it's likely I'll never see a dump bin in a store, because they tend not to put them in stores in New York (no space) which is where I live. So the first person who takes a photo of the Ashes dump bin living out in the wild and sends it to me, I will send you a signed copy of the book. **

I'm off to London Wednesday, so I'm going to call this the official City of Ashes response post (like I did for City of Bones last year) and stick it to the top of my LJ. If you get a chance to read the book and want to drop by and tell me what you think, go ahead!*

*ETA: I recognize that CoA may not be out in all stores yet, because it's early (slightly before the official release date, though official release dates are meaningless to any book without a specific laydown date, like Harry Potter and the Twilight books have) BUT it'll be out everywhere within the week, so check with your bookstore if you want to know exactly when. And this post will stay up for a while. :)

ETA to add: Thank you Jaime and Brian who sent dump bin photos from Georgia and Virginia! You guys win. Anyone else is welcome to send photos but you'll just get thanks and glory. Well, mostly just thanks. ;)

ETA: Call for postcards is over! And remember, bring your card to the event! You'll get a cool thing if you do.



I had said I wasn't going to go on tour for City of Ashes, but apparently I spoke too soon! Looks like I'll be going on a several-city tour next April: I know I'll be in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix, and if I find out about more locations, I'll update here and let you know.

I'll be sending out tour postcards like I did last year, and asking people to bring them to events — so drop your address in the comments here if you live anywhere near any of those four cities and think you might be able to make it to an event. Post anonymously and no one can see your address but me. :) I'm going to leave this stuck to my LJ top for a while, so you have time.

ETA: For those asking, the tour will probably be around April 6-18, and will several events in each city (like this one):

ETA to add: City of Bones hit the Spiegel Harcover Bestseller list (Germany's version of the NYT bestseller list) at 43 this week — so CoB is now a bestseller in two countries. Yeow.


Just a note to say that City of Bones is now out in Germany, where the title is . . . City of Bones. Apparently keeping the English title is not that unusual (with the "Chroniken die Unterwelt", which I am guessing is "Chronicles of the Underworld" as a sub-title.)




The website is also up, and since I don't speak a word of German I can vaguely figure out from it that you can send e-cards and download things, but I'm not sure about much else. I also learned the book is about this:

Gut aussehend, düster und sexy. Das ist Jace. Verwirrt, verletzlich und vollkommen ahnungslos. So fühlt sich Clary, als sie in Jaces Welt hineingezogen wird. Denn Jace ist kein normaler Junge. Er ist ein Dämonenjäger. Und als Clary von dunklen Kreaturen angegriffen wird, muss Clary schleunigst ein paar Antworten finden, sonst wird die Geschichte ein tödliches Ende nehmen! Das fulminante Debüt der neuen Bestsellerautorin Cassandra Clare eröffnet dem Genre eine neue Dimension: Urban Fantasy – Die Fantasy des 21. Jahrhunderts! weiterlesen ...

which Babelfish translates thusly: Well looking, darkly and sexy. That is Jace. Confused, in the long run and perfectly notionless. Thus Clary feels, when she is pulled in in Jaces world. Because Jace is not a normal boy. It is a Daemonenjaeger. And as Clary of dark creatures, Clary is attacked must find immediately a few answers, otherwise history will take a fatal outcome!
The fulminante debut of the new best-seller authoress Cassandra Clare opens a new dimension to the category: Urban Fantasy – The Fantasy 21. Century!

Poor Jace. It's hard to be notionless in this world. :D I love the word Daemonenjaeger (which I'm guessing is "Demon-Hunter") though. Any of you all lovely readers who read German and happen upon a copy, do let me know what you think.

I got my box of Danish City of Bones in the mail, which means that City of Bones is now out in Denmark, or will be in the next few days. In Denmark, the cover looks like this:



I'm sort of amazed that so many of my foreign publishers are using my US cover. It's very unusual. I mean, I'm happy that they all think it's such a good selling point, but I kind of miss seeing varieties of cover art. I also cannot begin to tell you what "Daemonernes By" means. But I am excited to have a book out in another country! It is very cool.

In other news, City of Bones is now out in paperback. I only found this out myself when I went to the Barnes and Noble in Union Square to see the lovely Libba Bray do her Sweet Far Thing, and there it was on a table. It was kind of a jolt, but in a good way. It also reminds me that City of Ashes will be out soon — 33 days!

*points sideways at flashy new icon*

Simon and Schuster has made a cute downloadables site for The Mortal Instruments, with desktop wallpapers, message board avatars, a countdown timer to City of Ashes and screensavers (one that even pulls my blog into the screensaver itself. Though I'm not sure exactly why you'd want that, so I'm considering daily weather updates to keep the screensaver relevant.)

There's also a brand new excerpt from City of Ashes up there (I want to call it a cookie, but it seems strange to call it a cookie when it's all official and stuff!).

The Pulse Blogfest is also coming up, where a ton of authors will be answering questions online for two weeks — including Holly Black, Scott Westerfeld, Ellen Hopkins, DJ MacHale, Claire Dunkle, Annette Curtis Klause, Kenneth Oppel, and Susan Cooper (!!!). I'll be answering questions, too. The questions can be submitted over at the Blogfest's Myspace page and "The questions can be about anything -- about writing, about books, about life -- you name it! However, the questions should be something that any author can answer -- we're not looking for questions that are meant just for one particular author."

So if you have author related queries, go forth and ask them. Sample question: "Why are you writers all so strange?" See, it's easy.

Walker sent me over the final cover for the UK edition of City of Ashes, and I like it quite a lot. It's going to have gold foiling overlay in real life, so will of course look different than it does here, but still . . . fun!








[CoA is out in the UK in late June/early July.]

I'll be signing books at the Harvard Book Store (1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge) next Saturday from 1:45 to 2:30, along with a bunch of shockingly more cool than me writers like Donna Jo Napoli (Bound), MT Anderson (Feed), Kelly Link (Magic for Beginners) and Lois Lowry (The Giver). Schedule:


1:00-1:45: James Kelly and Elizabeth Haydon

1:45-2:30: Donna Jo Napoli and Cassandra Clare

2:30-3:15: M.T. Anderson and Kelly Link

3:15-4:00: Lois Lowry and Sharyn November

7:00-8:00: Orson Scott Card

Also, I posted a scene from City of Ashes on my Myspace blog earlier; you can find it here. Jace, manacles, the Silent Brothers. Not as kinky as it sounds, but enjoy (I hope!).

First, I want to thank everyone who submitted an entry. They made me laugh, chortle, grin, sniffle, and inflict them on my editor. They really made me feel the love for this book series, and for that, I am grateful. And I hope you all enjoyed the entries as much as I did.

And now, down to the nitty-gritty. I thought it would be hard to choose winners; it was impossible, but I did it. In each category there is now a winner, a second, and a third place.

Once I post the winning entries, if you won a copy, I want you to get in touch with me at the email address on my profile page, and tell me which entry was yours, and where you want me to send the book.

As far as prizes go: If I don't hear from the winner in a week, the book goes to the second place winner and if I don't hear from *them*, in another week it goes to the third place winner. In the meantime, if you got second place, you still get something, but it's a surprise what, so you should email me. If you got third place, well, you get glory. :) I hope that suffices. Now on to:


( CITY OF ASHES ARC giveaway contest winners under the cut (also photos and video, so may be a slow load)! )

The City of Ashes ARC giveaway contest is now over! Thanks to everyone who entered. I'd planned to post up the winners shortly after the contest ended, but I'd expected a lot less entries than I actually got (more like forty than four hundred!) Not that I am complaining, because I think it's fantastic that people had so much fun with this! — I'll be taking the next few days and judging the entries, and I'll post up the winners when I'm done.


( German cover )

The CITY OF ASHES ARC giveaway contest is now over! Thanks for entering!





So the five shiny Advance Reader Copies of City of Ashes that I requested from my publisher have arrived, and I deem November (what's left of it) to be City of Ashes ARC giveaway month here on my LJ. Last year when I gave away arcs of City of Bones I picked people randomly out of a pool of addresses, but this year, now that you may actually have had a chance to read book 1, I thought I'd have some fun with the giveaway for book two.

So here's how it works: the contest starts today and there are five categories and one ARC for winning in each category. Each catgory requires you to do a funky, fun or creative thing. You can enter the contest more than once as long as you enter in different categories (so you can enter up to five times. You can, however, only win once.) The categories are as follows:

Categories

1) Writing: write a drabblette (a word I just made up) which is a story of 200 words or less set in the Mortal Instruments world. It can be about anything, set at any time, just keep it under a R rating, please. :D Alternately if you don't like writing fiction, you can write 200 words of a poem or an essay (like a short essay about which ship is your Mortal Instruments ship and why.)*


2) Art: Create a piece of fanart related to Mortal Instruments. Again, it can be anything you want, of any scene or character or location, in any medium. Drawing a comic or cartoon counts. Photography counts, too.

3) Video: Create a fanvid, a movie, or a book trailer. Book trailers look kind of like this. This category is more work, but that means less entries so you'll have a good chance of winning. :D

4) Book location: Take a picture of a copy of City of Bones in a weird location. On top of a school bus, in a fish tank, at the circus, whatever. You have a month to do this so feel free to wait for that trip to the Ice Hotel.

5) Miscellaneous: Make up your own entry.The only rule is that it has to be Mortal-Instruments-related. Bake a cake in the shape of Jace, be like Kinsey and make a shirt, create a lolcat cover (these may inspire you) for CoB, cosplay, do puppet theater - really, just go nuts.

How to enter

Just post your entry or a link to your entry here on my LJ. Include your name (real name or whatever nickname you want to be known by.) Keep in mind that eventually you'll have to give me your address if you win (one win per address) so I can send you the book, but don't post it here.

Contest end

The contest ends December 9 (one month from now and conveniently right after I get back from vacation.) This post will stay stuck to the top of my LJ until then. On Dec. 9, I'll stop entries, and start judging the entries; some time after that, I will post the winners. I hope you guys will have fun with this, so let me know if you have any questions!


*If you want to write something longer, you can, but enter it as 'miscellaneous' instead of a drabblet.