Author Interview & Contest with Cassandra Clare

This week my guest here on Amberkatze's Book Blog is author Cassandra Clare. Cassandra is the writer behind The Mortal Instruments series and the upcoming Infernal Devices books.

Here is your chance to get to know Cassandra better and also win one of her books. Enjoy the interview and make sure you enter the contest!

-------------------------

Amber - Welcome to Amberkatze's Book Blog! It is great to have you as a guest here and I hope you will enjoy your time here ;)

Amber - Did you always want to be a writer? What other jobs have you had?

Cassandra - I always wanted to be a writer. I always loved writing. And reading. Most people who love to write, start with a love of reading. I started writing books when I was about 12. They were all terrible and all in different genres. I wrote a terrible vampire novel and a terrible mystery novel and a terrible romance novel and a terrible Arthurian novel. Then I went to college and I took some writing classes, and I didn’t really enjoy them all that much, and I figured maybe I didn’t want to be a fiction writer. After college I worked as a journalist and I also worked part-time in a children’s bookstore. It was working in the children’s bookstore and starting to re-read the books I’d read when I was a kid that rekindled my desire to write.

Amber - How did you end up writing Young Adult? Was it planned? What about the paranormal genre?

Cassandra - Well, when you sit down to write a book about teenagers and there's magic in it, then it often ends up being shelved/marketed as young adult fantasy. But it isn't the writer who makes those categorical marketing decisions. You just write the book you want to write.

Amber - Are you anything like your characters? Are any of them based on people you know?

Cassandra - No. Sometimes minor characters have the names on people I know — Simon’s friends Eric, Kirk and Matt are all the names of friends of mine. But I don't put myself or people I know in my books. These characters are created to fit the needs of the story and to be very much themselves. Sometimes they incorporate aspects of people I know, or have met, like Simon’s sense of humor or Clary’s artistry. Jace, alas, is definitely not based on anyone real.

Amber - The Mortal Instruments series has three books so far. What is next? Book four or something new?

Cassandra - The series I am working on right now is called The Infernal Devices. The Infernal Devices is a series of prequels to The Mortal Instruments, set in 19 $B!l (Bth century London. It won’t have our current characters in it, except for Magnus Bane, but it does deal with their ancestors. You can find out more by clicking here!

Amber - The covers for the Mortal Instruments series are gorgeous. Did you have any say in how the finished book would look? How much input do you really have as an author once you have handed your story over?

Cassandra - I didn't have any say in how the first finished book looked. The way it looks is exactly how it looks when the cover image first landed in my inbox. I do like the covers, but it wouldn't have made any difference if I didn't. An author, especially a first-time author, has very little influence over what goes on their covers. I did get some input into the third cover, only because we wound up having a conference about who we thought should be featured on that cover and they listened to my suggestions. That's unusual though.

Amber - You are going on tour soon and will actually be visiting Vienna, Austria (where I am!) as well as some other places in Europe. Seeing as authors rarely come here I have to ask how did this tour come about? (more information here!)

Cassandra - Well, I've been very lucky, and the Chroniken die Underwelt books have been a big success in the German language. They've sold well enough there that my publisher thought it would be a good idea to bring me over to meet readers and get a chance to talk to them about the next series: The Infernal Devices. I'm very excited to get the chance to go!

Amber - How important it is for you as an author to keep up with all these websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace etc. Do you think all these sites are good or bad for authors?

Cassandra - I think as an author there's a fine line there. You want to have an online presence so you can reach out to fans and readers. You want to be able to easily get information out to them, and get their feedback yourself. But you don't want to spend so much time monitoring Myspace and Twitter that you have no time to write your books, which is of course, the most important thing.

Amber - What do you like to do to relax?

Cassandra - I like to travel.

Amber - Lots of authors have playlists for their books. What music or bands would find their way onto a playlist for the Mortal Instruments Series?

Cassandra - You can find playlists for the Mortal Instruments books here:

Click to see Playlists

Amber - Thank you so much for being a guest on Amberkatze's Book Blog. I hope you will pop by again sometime and I hope to see you in Vienna in November!

Cassandra - Yes, hope to see you then!



--------------------

Contest Time

This week you could win a 'Mortal Instrument' book of your choice.

All you have to do to enter is recommend a book! I am sure you all have one (or even more) books that you want to tell the world about. Well here is your chance. Feel free to link to your review, tell us a little about the book or just give us the title and author so we can check it out for ourselves!

No Recommendation (Title & Author Please!) = No entry!

The usual rules apply!

Earn another entry for each place you link this contest on the net. Make sure you add links here for me to confirm your entries!

You can also earn extra entries by emailing your friends about the contest. Just make sure you send a copy of your email or receipt to me at Amberkatzes_book_blog at gmx dot net.

I will offer more prizes if my Amazon Associates account gets more money!! So please make sure you order at Amazon.com through the links around the site and help keep the contest coming!



The contest will stay open until Sunday 9th of August 2009 4pm CET and the winner will be picked by a randomizer. Entrants should check back to see if they have won. I do not hunt down winners and will pick new winners for any prizes not claimed within 7 days.

If you are claiming a prize, have emailed me and have not heard back before the 7 day limit is up then post a comment here on the blog. Your email may get sucked into my spam filter.