City of Fallen Angels!!

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Valeee siiii soy una pesada que no hace más que subir entradas al blooog, pero esto me pareció interesante! =D

Por cierto para los que se han leído El Tributo de la Corte Oscura (Holly Black): la segunda parte es Valiant, y por lo que dice en la entrevista a continuación, Cassandra Clare ha dicho que hay un personaje de Valiant que sale en Ciudad de Hueso [sólo por comentar un dato interesante XD]





3) What is City of Fallen Angels about? When will it be released?

City of Fallen Angels takes place after the events of City of Glass. It splits its focus between Jace and Clary and Clary’s best friend, Simon, and how he adjusts to life as a vampire, but it’s still an ensemble-cast story, and all the characters from the Mortal Instruments series appear in it: Jace, Isabelle, Alec, Magnus, Luke, Jocelyn, Maia, and many more. (It even helps to have read The Clockwork Angel before you read CoFA, because some of the characters from the ID series do show up in it. However, it isn’t required.) City of Fallen Angels takes place several months after the events of City of Glass. In it, a mysterious someone’s killing the Shadowhunters who used to be in Valentine’s Circle and displaying their bodies around New York City in a manner designed to provoke hostility between Downworlders and Shadowhunters, leaving tensions running high in the city and disrupting Clary’s plan to lead as normal a life as she can — training to be a Shadowhunter, and pursuing her relationship with Jace. As Jace and Clary delve into the issue of the murdered Shadowhunters, they discover a mystery that has deeply personal consequences for them — consequences that may strengthen their relationship, or rip it apart forever. Meanwhile, internecine warfare among vampires is tearing the Downworld community apart, and only Simon — the Daylighter who everyone wants on their side — can decide the outcome; too bad he wants nothing to do with Downworld politics. Love, blood, betrayal and revenge: the stakes are higher than ever in City of Fallen Angels.
***The cover art for this book has not yet been released.


City of Fallen Angels is set to be released in March, 2011.




4a) Whose point of view is City of Fallen Angels told from?

Like all the other books, it’s a mixed POV.That means some scenes are told from Simon’s point of view, some from Clary’s, some from Jace’s, etc. Much like City of Glass.





b) Are you going to write a book in which Jace and Clary get married?

I just don’t see a teenage wedding as in character for Jace and Clary, so no. No children either. For these particular characters, I do not think that would work.





c) Are you going to re-write the Mortal Instruments series from Jace’s viewpoint?

The popularity of this question is because of Midnight Sun, right? Hey, I loved what I read of Midnight Sun on Stephenie’s website, just as much as the next person! But I think one of the reasons retelling Twilight from Edward’s perspective worked so well was that in the Twilight series we’re only ever in Bella’s head — we never see what Edward is thinking. He’s something of a mystery to us, just as he is to Bella. But in the MI series we’re frequently in Jace’s head, and therefore I think a similar experiment wouldn’t work. Pivotal scenes in the books are from Jace’s viewpoint already, so they’d either have to be dumped wholesale into the new version or pointlessly rewritten, again, from the same point of view. Also, I have to say, the idea just doesn’t interest me, for whatever reason, and honestly, I do think you have to write what sparks your passion.





d) Why is it so long before City of Fallen Angels comes out? Why is it not coming out in 2010?

Because I already have a book, Clockwork Angel, (which is the prequel to the TMI books: a prequel means that it takes place in the same world, but happens before the events of City of Bones) coming out in 2010. It takes me about a year to write a book; I’m not a lightning-speed writer, and my books are very very long. That means I generally put out one book a year, and my next book is The Clockwork Angel.

“But why is the next book Clockwork Angel?”

Because I initially never intended to write any more books in the Mortal Instruments series at all. City of Glass was meant to be the last one. By the time it came out, in March 2009, I was already well into working on The Clockwork Angel, the first book in The Infernal Devices, a companion series to The Mortal Instruments. I didn’t even get the idea for writing City of Fallen Angels until the middle of 2009 (to give you an idea how of book publishing works, for City of Fallen Angels to be published at any point in 2010, I would already have had to have turned in a complete draft of it by at least June 2009.)

Often when I tell people that I planned to end the TMI series with Glass, they are puzzled, in a sort of “Why don’t you just keep writing books about the Mortal Instruments characters forever?” kind of way. The answer to this is severalfold:

By the time I was done with City of Glass, I had lived with those characters for almost six years, constantly, every day. I needed a break. I was excited about writing The Clockwork Angel in a way I just wouldn’t have been excited about writing another Mortal Instruments book — which I had no plans to do anyway. It wasn’t until I had finished the first draft of Clockwork Angel that I was able to think about the TMI characters again, and what might happen to them after City of Glass — and that whole thought process was sparked off by what happened in Clockwork Angel, and how it connected to the events in City of Fallen Angels. Without TCA, there would be no fourth Mortal Instruments book at all.

Secondly, to me these are not totally separate series so much as connecting parts of the same, overarching story of the Shadowhunting families of the Lightwoods, Morgensterns, Herondales, and Waylands. The correct order to read the books is in publication order — characters from The Clockwork Angel show up in Mortal Instruments 4, and it will make better sense to you if you’ve started Infernal Devices already. You don’t have to read TCA — both series are totally comprehensible on their own, and neither spoils the other — but in much the same way that reading The Magician’s Nephew is more fun if you’ve read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, reading City of Fallen Angels is more fun if you’ve read The Clockwork Angel first.

I know that starting a new series is a different experience that revisiting characters you already know and love. But no one knew or loved Jace, Clary, Alec, Simon, Magnus and the rest before they read City of Bones, and in the same way, I confidently believe readers will come to love the characters in The Clockwork Angel just as much as the ones in the Mortal Instruments. I know that I do.





e) Will there be another book in the Mortal Instruments series after City of Fallen Angels?

*distracts with clog dance* What was that you said? Oh, right. I don’t know that right now.





f) Will Jace and Clary be in City of Fallen Angels?

Having said that the book will “focus more on Simon and how he adjusts to life as a vampire” seems to have set off a flood of rumors that Clary and Jace are not in this book at all, or are only in it peripherally. Nothing could be farther from the truth. They are in City of Fallen Angels. They are in it plenty. Like the previous books, CoFA shifts through multiple character points of view, including Simon’s, Clary’s, Jace’s, Isabelle’s, and even Magnus’. You will find out what it is like for Jace and Clary to be having a relationship now, and find it out from their viewpoints. However, there is also a strong plotline for Simon in this book, in which he is more than an adjunct to the larger drama around Clary and Jace.





g) What gave you the idea to write City of Fallen Angels when City of Glass was supposed to be the last book in the series?

I had indeed initially planned not to write more Mortal Instruments books after City of Glass. Two things happened to change that: One, I had written a plot for a graphic novel about what would happen to Simon after the events of Glass. When the graphic novel didn’t work out, I was left with this storyline and nothing to do with it — it wasn’t enough for a whole book on its own. However, while I was writing the first book in The Infernal Devices, The Clockwork Angel, which deals with Jace, Clary, and the Lightwoods’ ancestors, the way events played out in it gave me the idea for a new villain and conflict that might beset the cast of characters from The Mortal Instruments, and connect up to the plotline from the planned graphic novel. I’ve always liked stories where the distant past comes forward to affect the future, so, without being spoilery, when I realized I could connect the events of Infernal Devices to the few loose ends left at the end of Glass, I realized I wouldn’t want to pass up writing that story, especially considering how much chaos I knew it would bring to the lives of Jace, Clary, Simon, Alec, Magnus, Isabelle and the rest!





5) What are the Infernal Devices about? What is Clockwork Angel about? When does it come out?

The Infernal Devices are a trilogy of prequels to the Mortal Instruments books, set almost 130 years ago. They deal with the adventures of a Downworlder girl named Tessa in a Victorian London where the Accords have only just been finalized and tensions between Shadowhunters and Downworlders are running high. It’s a romantic adventure centering around the Lightwood, Herondale, Wayland, and other Shadowhunter families you’ll know well from Instruments; Magnus Bane appears in them, and I generally recommend you read Clockwork Angel before City of Fallen Angels, as the characters from one series connect to the characters in the next (though, as it says here, neither series spoils the other.). You can find out more at: http://www.theinfernaldevices.com/infernalfaq

Jacket copy: “When 16-year-old Tessa Gray crosses the ocean to find her brother, her destination is England, the time is the reign of Queen Victoria, and something terrifying is waiting for her in London’s Downworld,where vampires, warlocks and other supernatural folk stalk the gaslit streets. Only the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the world of demons, keep order amidst the chaos.
Kidnapped by the mysterious Dark Sisters, members of a secret organization called The Pandemonium Club, Tessa soon learns that she herself is a Downworlder with a rare ability: the power to transform, at will, into another person. What’s more, the Magister, the shadowy figure who runs the Club, will stop at nothing to claim Tessa’s power for his own.

Friendless and hunted, Tessa takes refuge with the Shadowhunters of the London Institute, who swear to find her brother if she will use her power to help them. She soon finds herself fascinated by — and torn between — two best friends: James, whose fragile beauty hides a deadly secret, and blue-eyed Will, whose caustic wit and volatile moods keep everyone in his life at arm’s length . . . everyone, that is, but Tessa. As their search draws them deep into the heart of an arcane plot that threatens to destroy the Shadowhunters, Tessa realizes that she may need to choose between saving her brother and helping her new friends save the world… and that love may be the most dangerous magic of all.”


There are three books in the Devices series. The first is The Clockwork Angel, the second, The Clockwork Prince, the third, The Clockwork Princess.

For those still confused about The Infernal Devices, its relationship to The Mortal Instruments, and which to read first, there is a simplified explanation here.





5) When will The Clockwork Angel come out?

It will be released worldwide in English (in the US, Canada, Ireland, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand) onAugust 31, 2010.





6) Where did you get the idea for the Mortal Instruments books?

The idea for the Mortal Instruments came to me one afternoon in the East Village. I was with a good friend of mine, who was taking me to see the tattoo shop where she used to work. She wanted to show me that her footprints were on the ceiling in black paint — in fact the footprints of everyone who’d worked there were on the ceiling, crisscrossing each other and making patterns. To me it looked like some fabulous supernatural battle had been fought there by beings who’d left their footprints behind. I started thinking about a magical battle in a New York tattoo shop and the idea of a secret society of demon-hunters whose magic was based on an elaborate system of tattooed runes just sprang into my mind. When I sat down to sketch out the book, I wanted to write something that would combine elements of traditional high fantasy — an epic battle between good and evil, terrible monsters, brave heroes, enchanted swords — and recast it through a modern, urban lens. So you have the Shadowhunters, who are these very classic warriors following their millennia-old traditions, but in these urban, modern spaces: skyscrapers, warehouses, abandoned hotels, rock concerts. In fairy tales, it was the dark and mysterious forest outside the town that held the magic and danger. I wanted to create a world where the city has become the forest — where these urban spaces hold their own enchantments, danger, mysteries and strange beauty. It’s just that only the Shadowhunters can see them as they really are.





b) Was the whole series planned out in advance, or did you make it up as you went along?

I always had the story plotted out from the beginning. I sold the series as a trilogy. That means I had to submit a detailed outline to the publisher of each book in the series. Your publisher wants to know not just that you know how to start a story but also that you know how to end one, and that nothing too crazy happens. So I had the story plotted out, because it was required. I also always knew it would be a trilogy. It is structured on the hero’s journey to the Underworld — the theme of the first book is descent, thus each epigraph makes reference to descent (“The Descent Beckons”, etc.). The theme of the second is hell or the underworld, and all the epigraphs make reference to hell or the underworld (“the Gates of Hell”). The third book’s theme is ascent or heaven, and all the epigraphs make reference to ascent or heaven (“The Road to Heaven”.).





7) Have the Mortal Instruments books been translated into other languages?

Yes. The Mortal Instruments trilogy has been sold in Italy, Germany, France, Spain and South America (though distribition varies country to country — please email me if you’re in a South American country and want to know if the books will be available where you live) , Israel, Bulgaria, Poland, Brazil, Portugal, Finland, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Turkey, Indonesia, Russia, Hungary, Greece, and Denmark. You can find a list of all the countries the books are available in and who publishes them there, plus see some of the foreign editions with their covers here.




8) Who is your favorite character from the Mortal Instruments books? Which is your favorite of the books?

It doesn’t work that way, at least not for me. There are things I love about almost all the characters — I suppose I do feel a greater sense of connection to more significant characters like Isabelle than I do to Kaelie the waitress — but I don’t like Alec better than Isabelle or Magnus better than Simon. I even love Valentine and the Inquisitor. Of all the characters, Simon is probably the one who is the most like me.

I don’t have a favorite of the books, either. Each one had things about it that were enjoyable and also painful to write.





9) Which characters are on the covers of the Mortal Instruments books?

City of Bones: Jace

City of Ashes: Clary

City of Glass: Sebastian (and in answer to the oft-asked question: Why does he have wings? click here as the answer is spoilery.)

City of Fallen Angels: Don’t know yet!





10) Is that Val and Luis from Holly Black’s Valiant in that scene in City of Bones where Jace and Clary are going downtown with the Silent Brother?

Yes, it is. Holly and I are friends; I helped her edit Valiant and she helped me edit City of Bones. That’s why we thank each other in our acknowledgements sections. We often joked that our words are connected and overlap; look for a mention of Jace in Holly’s upcoming book, The White Cat.





10) I have an idea for what should happen in the fourth Mortal Instruments book/in Clockwork Angel! Can I email it to you?

Please don’t. In fact, don’t do this to any writer — not only is it (unintentionally, I know) insulting to imply that the author you’re writing to can’t generate their own ideas, it will just about absolutely ensure that you will never see that plotline you like in any book they write. Writers want to avoid even the appearance that they have intentionally used someone else’s idea in their work, so telling your favorite writer that you want “x” to happen in their next book is the way to make sure that if they were already planning to include “x” in their next book, they will now delete it.



14) How do you pronounce the names in the books? Maryse, Clave, stele, Alicante, etc?

All the people and place names in the books are real names. Even Idris and iratze are real words. You can find out their pronunciation by doing this:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=stele+pronunciation

Really, it works, I promise. :) The reason I don’t provide a pronunciation guide to the words in the books is that when I was a kid, I used to read all these fantasy books and just make up how the words sounded in my head. Whenever I found out that the author or someone else pronounced the words differently, I’d be really disappointed. If you *want* to look up the standard pronunciation of the words (which is what is used in the audiobooks) then you can use the above method. But you should also feel free to pronounce them as you like.




14b) How do you pronounce Jace’s name?

Rhymes with lace. All the characters in the books have names that are real names, not made up. You can find the pronunciations by googling “jace name pronunciation’ and the like.





15) Where do the names in the books come from?

The names in my books come from all over the place. Sometimes they can take a long time to develop. Clary Fray is named after two friends of mine. Her name was originally Valerie Frayre (after the artist who does some of the character art on the artwork page), then Valerie Frayne, then (when a friend of mine was also writing a book with a heroine named Valerie) Clary Frayne, then Clary Fray (my editor’s choice) — then when I realized Clary was a nickname, she became Clarice, and finally, Clarissa. (She’s not named after me. She is named after my friend Valerie Frayre, and my friend Clary.) Jace was originally Will, but Jace is a name I always liked, and it needed to be something that could be short for Jonathan (and now Will shows up in Clockwork Angel instead). Max and Isabelle are named for my grandparents. Alec’s name was originally Alex, but Alec is a more interesting version of Alexander, I think. Simon and Maia are named after friends of mine, while Maryse, Robert, Jocelyn and others are simply names I picked out of baby name books and the like. (Luke Garroway I picked because it sounded a bit like loup-garou, which is French for werewolf.)

The names of the angels and seraph blades: Ithuriel, Raziel, Israfiel, etc. come from sources of angel mythology. Paradise Lost, the Bible, the Talmud, the Koran, the Enochian magic system, and so forth. They are all, as far as I know, sourceable to specific mythologies. I did not make any of them up, nor did I make up any of the names of the demons, which come from sources of demon mythology like the Lesser Key of Solomon and, of course, the Bible.





16) What do the runes in the books look like? They are made up — not based on any specific pre-existing runic language. I think they should look like whatever you imagine them to look like. I did hire an artist, Valerie Fraire (yes, the one I originally named Clary after!) to design a set of the runes for me:






18) In x scene in one of the books, a character was about to say something when they were cut off by another character, or something happening. What were they going to say if they’d been able to finish?

Yeah, I do that a lot! The answer is: there is no answer. Having characters begin to speak but not finish what they were going to say creates what I think of as a space in the book for the reader to fill in what they think the character was going to say. Just saying what it was destroys that space (and frankly, while I usually know what they were going to talk about, I don’t usually even know what they were going to say. Because they never said it.)





Pollo!