Recap of TMI Source’s 10th anniversary chat with Cassandra Clare

To celebrate TMI Source’s 10th anniversary, Cassandra Clare joined me in a special Instagram Live. We chatted about Chain of Iron and its sequel Chain of Thorns, release dates for Cassie’s upcoming releases, The Wicked Powers, Cassie teased everyone with a secret project and also revealed when to expect the first Chain of Thorns snippet. I summed up the most important bits of information below but you can also watch the chat on our Instagram. There are spoilers for Chain of Iron in the chat and recap so you have been warned. 😉

First Cassie and I chatted about the two worldwide giveaways that are until tonight at 12 am EST/9pm PST. The first giveaway (titled giveaway #4 on Rafflecopter) is very kindly sponsored by Cassie so she revealed what one lucky winner is going to receive: a set of postcards, Shadowhunter poetry fridge magnets, a special candle and a Shadowhunters tote bag.

Furthermore, someone can win a $15 Hebel Design gift card (giveaway #5) and one item that can be bought with this gift card is the new All the Stories are True book. A version of this book was a pre-order incentive for Queen of Air and Darkness, but now it’s available to anyone! You can follow this link to pre-order your copy on HebelDesign.com. There is a very limited number of copies so you better pre-order yours soon. The final piece of merch that is going to be available this year, also on Viviane Hebel’s website, is the Shadowhunters 2022 calendar. Cassie recently shared the first artwork – link here – and also shared what readers can expect from the calendar. The calendar, with artwork by Charlie Bowater, covers the first three big series, The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, and The Dark Artifices. “Each page is gonna have two characters on it interacting. It could be Will and Jem, it could be Alec and Jace, it could be Alec and Magnus, it could be Kit and Ty. Each page is also going to contain a letter from one of those characters to the other character.”
Now let’s dive into the real summary:

• The ending of Chain of Iron – WHY? “Chain of Iron is a book whose theme is about secrecy and miscommunication. The end of the book comes out of the many, many secrets and miscommunications of the characters.” Two things play into the ending: the inevitable results of not being truthful with each other that you’re going to have and Cordelia’s heroic journey. She came to London to save her father, to be parabatai with Lucie to be with James, to have friends and to be a hero. All of these things are taken away from her at the end of the book, she has lost everything that she wanted so this [fleeing to Paris] is an act of despair. You often make a big gesture if you have lost something big in your life. She feels she must do something even if it’s a temporary thing. James had to make a choice at the end of the book, and Cassie doesn’t regard it as not choosing Daisy. He is choosing his family because it’s clearly an emergency. He also would have had to explain so much in a very short amount of time if he had entered the train.
• There is one romantic scene in Chain of Thorns that Cassie is excited for us to read because she thinks it’ll surprise us. There is one romantic scene that doesn’t play out in the expected manners where people will think “Woah, I did not know this was gonna happen!”
  
• It is possible that Magnus will catch one of our beloved couples in a certain ‘moment.’ It will happen to him “at least one more time.” I mentioned that it had become a kind of theme after the same happed in The Infernal Devices and The Dark Artifices. Cassie added that Magnus probably doesn’t like it, it just has become his fate.
• There is a reason why Lucie flinched when she practised the parabatai ceremony with Cordelia. It has nothing do to with the parabatai oath and Lucie’s powers, though.
• James’s middle name Morgan is due to Will’s Welsh heritage. It’s a nod to his mother’s side of the family. Morgan means ‘protector of the sea’ and Cassie “thought it was a really nice name.”
• We are going to see more of James and Lucie’s relationship and how James is going to react to what Lucie did at the end of Chain of Iron. James has been protective of Lucie in the past books, but we’ve seen more protectiveness between Cordelia and Alastair because there is more conflict in that relationship. The books have been a great opportunity of showing different sibling relationships. Matthew and Charles have a complicated relationship, Cordelia and Alastair a complex one and James and Lucie’s is peaceful.
• Effie will return in Chain of Thorns and so will Brother Snackariah. 😉
• Constantinople and chess are both mentioned again in Chain of Thorns. “We’ll return to Constantinople because it means something to Cordelia and James.” Cassie cannot play chess because she isn’t good at seeing ahead on the board.
• Grace’s feelings about her parents were taken away after she got her power and we might find out more about the Cartwrights.
• Cassie has seen many theories about Cordelia’s globe necklace – like it’ll enable Cordelia to speak different languages – and we will find out more about it. I wasn’t allowed to share my theory so we’ll see whether I was close. 😉
• Chain of Thorns opens with Matthew and Cordelia in Paris. Matthew’s time in Paris will have similarities to Oscar Wilde’s time there but there are also going to be differences. Matthew also wants to tell people his secret, “especially his family, especially his parents, especially James.” Telling Cordelia was easier for him because she doesn’t know and love Charlotte.
• Tessa and Lucie are overdue for a conversation but Cassie hasn’t finished writing Chain of Thorns yet. In the original draft of Chain of Iron they did have a conversation but then Cassie had to take it out because Will and Tessa had to know less about what was going on. Tessa and Lucie will have a conversation because Tessa can relate to Lucie having an odd power. The original conversation is going to be shared as a deleted scene. 😀
• At some point we’ll find out why there is a portal in the London Institute to Cornwall. Cassie has been working on a secret project that might answer some questions! It’s a side project that won’t interfer with anything else. The idea behind this project is the different connections between The Dark Artifices, The Last Hours and The Wicked Powers. She’s doing it alone and it would be for free. More information in a future newsletter so make sure to subscribe to Cassie’s newsletter!
• There will likely be an epilogue at the end of Chain of Thorns, but it won’t be the same as the epilogue of Clockwork Princess. “It’s gonna offer a different experience.” It’s still going to be somewhat bittersweet because we know that mots of these characters are dead in the time that we live in.
• Cassie confirmed that the first edition of Chain of Thorns would have a bonus story about the family tree from Clockwork Princess in it. It will be explained why the family tree is wrong. There have been a few hints why the family tree is messed up. Cassie wants to do more family trees after The Wicked Powers. She has a lot of plans, like a guide to the Shadowhunter world, updating the Codex with maps, sharing birthdays and more!
• Release dates for Chain of Thorns, Sword Catcher, The Black Volume of the Dead and also The Wicked Powers are a bit complicated because she is currently working with two different publishers and has to juggle different deadlines. Chain of Thorns is definitely published in 2022 and Sword Catcher either at the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023. She also has to take Wes’ schedule/deadlines into consideration for The Black Volume of the Dead so this book might get published after the first The Wicked Powers book. As soon as Cassie knows the release dates, she will let us know!
• The London town house that Jace mentioned to Kit in Lord of Shadows is the same house that James and Cordelia own in 1903. Cassie’s maternal grandfather Max Rosenberg used to live in Curzon Street and there’s also one of Cassie’s favourite book shop in that street: Heywood Hill (10 Curzon Street).
• Cassie doesn’t like talking about POVs because she wants to have the liberty of changing POVs as she writes and doesn’t want to say something that might turn out to be untrue. She was very firm about Kieran not having a POV in Queen of Air and Darkness and then she had to add it because there was nobody else to narrate a scene in the book. A Livvy’s ghost POV in The Wicked Powers would be interested, but Cassie doesn’t know whether we’d have one or not.
• We don’t know whether Kit actually exists in Thule, but the question of Kit in Thule will definitely be addressed in The Wicked Powers. Thule is definitely mentioned and discussed in the trilogy.
  
• Cassie also gave advice on how to include good foreshadowing in books: finish your draft first and then add the foreshadowing in the second draft.
• Writing under Covid restrictions has been difficult for her because she usually meets up with Holly (Black), Kelly (Link) and her assistant. They had to switch to Zoom, but have actually now managed to meet again in person! Everyone has been vaccinated but they still kept plenty of distance between them. The current situation has given Cassie a great appreciation for what she had before.
• Cassie actually didn’t have any plans for the new tarot cards by Gabrielle Bujdoso but since her readers seem really interested in them, she might do a poll on Twitter and talk to Gabriella.
• We can expect the first Chain of Thorns snippet in June! Cassie wants to polish her draft first before sharing a snippet.

That is it. I am so much looking forward to the first snippet, the deleted scene and the secret project. If you share this recap online, please give TMI Source credit.

I hope you enjoyed the chat, thank you once again for all the questions and for celebrating TMI Source’s 10th anniversary with me. I’ve read all of your messages and truly appreciate your support ❤