EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Cassandra Clare talks closure, what to expect in CLOCKWORK PRINCESS
TMI Source: How hard was it for you to say goodbye to The Infernal Devices?
Cassandra Clare: I’ll miss the characters, because I love them dearly. I feel like I’ve done right by them and by the story. I feel like it ended in the right place, so I feel good about moving on to other projects. But it’s like sending a child off to college: you’ve done what you can by them, now they have to go out in the world and survive on their own!
TMI Source: There’s been huge anticipation for Clockwork Princess ever since Clockwork Prince was released. How does that excitement make you feel?
CC: Excited! : ) But really, it’s tremendously flattering that people have fallen so hard for Tessa and Jem and Will and the others. I didn’t know what to expect when I started The Infernal Devices. I was told historical fantasy didn’t work, that readers would put off by the setting and the language, yet readers have showed up with great enthusiasm. Especially after Clockwork Prince – that book was designed to rip your heart out and I really wasn’t sure what the reaction would be!
TMI Source: What are your hoping readers take out of Clockwork Princess?
CC: I hope they feel that it has a fitting end, that it says something important to them about love and about life.
TMI Source: What can fans expect in Clockwork Princess?
CC: More amazing outfits and fight scenes and longing gazes! People can expect to see through not just the development of Tessa, Will and Jem, but Charlotte and Henry, Gideon and Gabriel Lightwood, the futures of Sophie and Jessamine, and the seeds of a lot of what will come to flower in The Infernal Devices.
TMI Source: What was the most challenging part of writing Clockwork Princess?
CC: Tying everything up in a reasonable number of pages. There is so much character and so much story. Also there are a lot of scenes set in rural Wales, which required me to do not just research but spend a great deal of time in rural Wales, taking pictures and notes and even mountain climbing. I’m really bad at the last part.
TMI Source: You said you cried writing a scene in Clockwork Prince. Did you cry at all while writing Clockwork Princess?
CC: Yes, at the epilogue.
TMI Source: With Clockwork Princess being the final book in the series, will fans find closure with the ending?
CC: I really believe they will. I think that the end feels very much like an end, much more so than City of Glass.
TMI Source: Are you ready for the pandemonium that is going to be the fandom’s reaction to Clockwork Princess?
CC: Ready as I’ll ever be? No, I take that back. On March 19th I’ll be ready as I’ll ever be!
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Stay tuned tomorrow for Part 2 of our exclusive interview with Cassandra Clare in which she reflects on The Infernal Devices.
TMI Source 
*TMI Source: How hard was it for you to say goodbye to The Infernal Devices? *
*Cassandra Clare:* I’ll miss the characters, because I love them dearly. I feel like I’ve done right by them and by the story. I feel like it ended in the right place, so I feel good about moving on to other projects. But it’s like sending a child off to college: you’ve done what you can by them, now they have to go out in the world and survive on their own!
*TMI Source: There’s been huge anticipation for Clockwork Princess ever sinceClockwork Prince was released. How does that excitement make you feel?*
*CC: *Excited! : ) But really, it’s tremendously flattering that people have fallen so hard for Tessa and Jem and Will and the others. I didn’t know what to expect when I started T*he Infernal Devices*. I was told historical fantasy didn’t work, that readers would put off by the setting and the language, yet readers have showed up with great enthusiasm. Especially after *Clockwork Prince* – that book was designed to rip your heart out and I really wasn’t sure what the reaction would be!
*TMI Source: What are your hoping readers take out of Clockwork Princess?*
*CC: *I hope they feel that it has a fitting end, that it says something important to them about love and about life.
*TMI Source: What can fans expect in Clockwork Princess?*
*CC: *More amazing outfits and fight scenes and longing gazes! People can expect to see through not just the development of Tessa, Will and Jem, but Charlotte and Henry, Gideon and Gabriel Lightwood, the futures of Sophie and Jessamine, and the seeds of a lot of what will come to flower in *The Infernal Devices*.
*TMI Source: What was the most challenging part of writing Clockwork Princess?*
*CC: *Tying everything up in a reasonable number of pages. There is so much character and so much story. Also there are a lot of scenes set in rural Wales, which required me to do not just research but spend a great deal of time in rural Wales, taking pictures and notes and even mountain climbing. I’m really bad at the last part.
*TMI Source: You said you cried writing a scene in Clockwork Prince. Did you cry at all while writing Clockwork Princess?*
*CC: *Yes, at the epilogue.
*TMI Source: With Clockwork Princess being the final book in the series, will fans find closure with the ending?*
*CC: *I really believe they will. I think that the end feels very much like an end, much more so than *City of Glass*.
*TMI Source: Are you ready for the pandemonium that is going to be the fandom’s reaction to Clockwork Princess?*
*CC: *Ready as I’ll ever be? No, I take that back. On March 19th I’ll be ready as I’ll ever be!
I was in Wales yesterday (only flying visit)but it is amazing :green hills cover in fog, stone houses , grass fields with sheep and little ponys and sun ,oh how I miss sun (Its raining and snowing since forever in Nottinghamshire) ;(
I was thinking about Will and how hard it must be to leave for London and i cant wait to “see ” Will’s Wales in book.
Dear Cassie ! You amazing and you never failed:) I bet we will all love Princess as we did all your books 🙂
I am dying with anticipation. We got a snow day where I live today, so hopefully I’ll get one tomorrow too, and I can spend the whole day reading. 🙂
i cannot to wait this but it’ll be sad. i hope to get it today or tmw!
i mean tmow or wed
(NO SPOILERS just my overall opinion)The book’s ending was perfect. I know for a fact the rest of the fandom will agree that Clockwork Princess is by FAR the best book Cassandra Clare has ever written. It is absolutely beautiful and I can’t wait to finally talk about it with the rest of the shadowhunters! (I was one of those people who recieved the book early. I wish I’d waited so I could read it along with you guys.) BUT YOU WILL LOVE IT!
Does anyone know if the family tree will be in all editions of CP2 or is it just special editions or American editions?
I cant believe someone told her historical fantasy doesnt interest readers. HELLO?! What about this huge movement called Steampunk? And what about how much money the new Sherlock Holmes movies reel in?! I want to smack whatever moron said that because Infernal Devices is my favorite of the two series, and there’s just something so romantic and the world before the 20th century industrial boom. Cassie clearly knows her readers better than the executives, since she’s a reader too.
When a writer writes from their heart, the readers feel it. That is what I feel reading The Infernal Devices series. I love the era it was set in and I find it to be a very innocent and romantic period in time. A writer who writes with love, will always have readers that love them and their work. Thank you Cassandra Clare, for sharing this beautiful story with us, I love it more, every time I read it. Waiting with anticipation for Clock Work Princess to be on the shelves.
I want to kick something after reading Clockwork Princess… nuff said.
thank you so much for writing TID and for introducing to us the most amazing and most bad ass characters i have ever met. I’LL MISS EACH AND EVERYONE OF THE CHARACTERS IN THE SERIES
I cried after reading the infernal devices and during as well might I add..I know it’s like three years later but I only just discovered this hidden world and i must say I’ve never felt more attached to a series or the characters in it. It was beautiful to say the least. I feel as if everything that happened happened before my very own eyes and I felt a special connection to the love and hope every character has for each other and their fate. The series Cassandra Clare has written has inspired me to cherish what I have more and even take up Latin so I can sound as cool and majestic and romantic as these shadowhunters do and of course tessa. I love how the entire series feels like one long book instead of three seperate ones and the era its set in. I have never been so emotional over something in my life. The clockwork angel itself is a very good contribution to the meaning behind the story to tessa and this secret world.
Pulvis et umbra sumus
“We are but dust and shadows