Cassandra Clare updates her fans on her book schedule

Back in March Cassandra Clare shared a tentative schedule for her future books and today she sent another newletter to share yet another update. Ok, deep breaths, Shadowhunters, because we know that this is going to upset some of you.

So, time to tackle a serious topic — my schedule.

Well, okay. It’s serious to me, at least. : )

As a lot of you know, the publication schedule of my books went like this:

• Spring 2017: Lord of Shadows
• Fall 2018: Chain of Gold, the first book in The Last Hours
• 2019: Queen of Air and Darkness

Folded into that were the last two books of Magisterium, and the first two books of The Eldest Curses, my co-written series about Alec and Magnus. You can see a pretty accurate interpretation of the schedule here on tumblr.

One of the things about being an artist, though, is that try as we might, life always gets in the way of our schedules. Writer’s block, illness, family tragedies — these are all things we can’t schedule for, and that delay or reschedule us. During the last year, I’ve had to deal with all three — several bouts of pneumonia, the death of my stepfather, and some pretty bad writer’s block.

Writing is both my job and what I love to do most. It’s also really hard work. And sometimes what that means is that in order to rediscover joy in the writing process I have to put aside something I’m stuck on and work on something else. In this case, partly because I hadn’t been able to do the research I usually put into my historical novels, I was stuck on Chain of Gold and I turned to writing Queen of Air and Darkness, partly to free up my writer’s block. As I continued, I realized I’d hit the critical point where I had more of QuAD than I did of Chain, and that if I wanted to have a book published in 2018, it would have to be Queen.

My publisher was also very anxious that my next book be Queen. They wanted to keep the momentum from Lady Midnight and Lord of Shadows going, and while writers can always disagree with their publishers, it’s easier if you work in tandem. So we decided that the books would be flipped, and my new schedule looks like this:

• Spring 2017: Lord of Shadows
• Fall 2018: Queen of Air and Darkness
• 2019: Chain of Gold, the first book in the Last Hours

I know this will be a disappointment for people who’ve been waiting a long time for the continuation of The Infernal Devices, and for that I am extremely sorry. Sometimes you can’t entirely control what your muse wants — and I’ll be happier going in to Chain of Gold with time to do the kind of in-depth research I believe a book set in 1903 needs. I always want to give my readers the best books I can write, and sometimes that means altering what I thought I’d be writing and writing what I need to be writing instead.

The publication date of Queen of Air and Darkness will be announced this November. I’ll be keeping you up to date on it. In the meantime, a definite date has been set for the first book of the Eldest Curses, called The Red Scrolls of Magic: March 5, 2019. (This date was set by my publisher and is unaffected by any schedule changes or writer’s block: it actually is rolling along beautifully. It’s just what they think the best time to publish it is!)

In addition, for those who are mourning Last Hours/Infernal Devices withdrawal, it looks like a new short story project along the lines of The Bane Chronicles is on the horizon, starring one of the most important characters from Infernal Devices and tracing a path through the stories of several of the Last Hours’ characters, including Anna Lightwood and Matthew Fairchild. I’m extremely excited to share that news with you soon!

Thank you all so much for your patience, and I hope that excitement over Queen of Air and Darkness will offset some of the sadness over Chain of Gold. Definitely response to the end of Lord of Shadows made me feel like my readers really wanted, and deserved, some closure, and I’m excited to bring you what happens next for Emma, Julian, Mark, Cristina, Ty, Kit and the rest!

You’ve all been there for the books in the past when there were delays and reschedulings and sudden last minute title changes with passionate love and support — I couldn’t ask for any better readers!

xox

Cassie

Just for fun, a glimpse at a work in progress by Cassandra Jean—Tessa reading to Will and Jem from her favorite novel!
If you missed last week’s email that included an exclusive sneak peek, my upcoming appearances, and (of course!) the Reginald Update, you can see it here.

We know that some fans are going to be disappointed because of the changes but we hope that everyone is going to be understanding and supportive.

You can leave some nice messages for Cassie in our comments below 😀

We had a quick chat with Cassie and included an updated (yet still somewhat tentative) book schedule:

2017

• The Silver Mask* (Magisterium #4): 10 October
• The Mortal Instruments: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 1**: 31 October
• City of Bones 10th anniversary edition: 7 November

2018

• The Golden Tower* (Magisterium #5, final book): August, September or October
• Queen of Air and Darkness (The Dark Artifices #3): fall 2018

2019

• The Red Scrolls of Magic*** (The Eldest Curses #1): March 5
• Chain of Gold (The Last Hours #1): fall?

2020

• The Lost Books of the White *** (The Eldest Curses #2): spring?
• Chain of Iron (The Last Hours #2): fall?

2021

• The Black Volume of the Dead*** (The Eldest Curses #3): spring?
• Chain of Thorns (The Last Hours #3): fall?

After 2021

• The Wicked Powers

* co-written with Holly Black
** other volumes to follow
*** co-written with Wesley Chu

Cassie is also working on ten TLH short stories “in the leadup to the publication of Chain of Gold” and “a new short story project along the lines of The Bane Chronicles”.

Furthermore, a secret high fantasy novel (or trilogy) that’s not related to The Shadowhunter Chronicles is in the works.

We can’t wait to find out when Queen of Air and Darkness is going to be published and we’ll inform you as soon as we know the date!

PS. Have a look at past issues of Cassie’s newsletter here.

Update (12th September): Cassie revealed the new title for Magisterium #2 – it’s now called The Golden Tower – and she told us which book follows The Red Scrolls of Magic: The Lost Book of the White. We changed the book titles in the tentantive (!) book schedule above.