September Newsletter: New snippets and more!

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Cathrin in Book News, Cassandra Clare, Sword Catcher, The Last Hours // 1 Comment

Happy October! It’s a new month – can you believe that 2020 is almost over? – so we all know what this means: a newsletter recap! Cassandra Clare’s September issue of her monthly newsletter included snippets, artwork, event announcements and more! Let’s jump straight in.

First of all, there’s a new Chain of Iron snippet and I’m a bit concerned.

She glanced around. “Why don’t we practice the ceremony?”

“The parabatai ceremony?” said Cordelia. She had to admit, the thought had a certain appeal. “Do you know all the words?”

“I watched James and Matthew’s ceremony,” said Lucie. “I think I remember. Here, pretend where you’re standing is a circle of fire, and I’m standing in a different circle of fire.”

“Hopefully we will be wearing gear,” said Cordelia, arranging herself in the imaginary circle. “Our skirts would quite go up in flames.”

Lucie thrust out her hands and indicated Cordelia should do the same. They clasped hands, and Lucie, an intense look of concentration on her face, began to speak: “Though most parabatai are men, the ceremony uses words from the scriptures that were spoken by Ruth to Naomi. By one woman to another.” She smiled at Cordelia. “Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after me, for whither thou goest, I will go —“

Lucie suddenly jumped as if stung, and dropped her hands. Alarmed, Cordelia moved toward her, forgetting about the imaginary fire rings in her concern. “Lucie, is everything all right —?”

I hope everything will be okay.

We also have a new Sword Catcher snippet, which I’m particularly excited about!

Shocked, Kel could only stare as the new arrival made his way into the room. The dancers were still moving about, as were a few servants carrying bronze bowls of rosewater, apparently needed for the performance. In the gallery, the musicians tuned their instruments. No one had noticed the cloaked figure save Kel. He alone watched as the stranger — who was not at all a stranger — made his way to the shadow of an archway, and drew back the hood of his cloak.

Distance and shadows made little difference. Brown skin, tousled dark hair, smile like the curve of a scimitar. It was Conor, and he was obviously, life-alteringly, drunk.

Looks like Conor is up to no good! Sword Catcher, Cassie’s first adult fantasy novel, is set to be published in fall 2021 and I really can’t wait to meet Kel, Conor, Lin, and all the others!

Cassie and artist Gabrielle Bujdosó have been working on The Last Hours tarot cards for the past couple of months and yesterday’s newsletter revealed another card:

I know you can’t see who Anna is carrying, but I ‘d like to pretend it’s Ariadne. 😉

And now for the announcements:

I know we’re all hoping that 2021 is going to be much better than 2020 and there are at least two glimmers of hope – Chain of Iron is released on March 2, and Cassie is publishing a 2021 calendar!

We’re transforming Charlie Bowater’s gorgeous character illustrations into a 2021 calendar, which will be available soon. In addition to Charlie’s beautiful art, the calendar will include fun information about the characters (as well as their various social engagements). Details and the preorder link will appear in our October Newsletter!

Here’s a mockup page*, so you can get a sense of what the finished product will look like…

*not final!

This looks so cool! I can’t wait to find out what new information we’re going to learn. 😀 As soon as we have a pre-order link, we’ll share them on twitter @TMI_Source and our website!

The other two announcements are really exciting for Cassie’s Brazilian and Singaporean readers:

For Brazilian fans: I’ll be doing an Instagram Live to the celebrate the release of Chain of Gold in Brazil!

October 17, 2020
7pm BRT
Instagram Live with @galerarecord

November 1, 2020
Singapore Writers Festival

I’ll also be appearing at the Singapore Writer’s Festival on November 1!

Details here