Newsletter Recap: new ‘Chain of Thorns’s art and snippet + a ‘Sword Catcher’ snippet

*dusts TMI Source off* Happy 2022 (yes, I know we’re already 25 days into the year)!
Things are slow right now, but that’s simply because Cassandra Clare is very busy writing Chain of Thorns, Sword Catcher, and Secrets of Blackthorn Hall!
Subscribers to Cassie’s newsletter were treated to a short but very nice email update yesterday so I’m sharing the content with you today.
Chain of Thorns snippets are what everyone is always super looking forward to so here is a new snippet with accompanying art!

Cordelia and Matthew stood, arm in arm, watching the river flow beneath the bridge. The Seine rolled on from here, she knew, piercing the heart of Paris like a silver arrow just as the Thames did London. “We are not here just to forget,” Matthew said, “but also to remember, that there are good and beautiful things in this world, always. And mistakes do not take them from us; nothing takes them from us. They are eternal.”

She squeezed his gloved hand with her own. “Matthew. Do you listen to yourself? If you believe what you say, remember that it is true for you, too. Nothing can take the good things of the world from you. And that includes how much your friends and family love you, and always will.”

So gorgeous! And I completely agree with Cordelia.
Cassie said that Chain of Thorns is “currently chugging its way through the unfortunately still-in-the-middle-of-a-pandemic publishing tubes.”
She also revealed that the cover for the final The Last Hours book is

“double-sided, meaning there are in essence “two covers” — you will be able to flip over the cover and use the inside art as the cover if you want to. The inside art is also gorgeous. (This of course applies to the hardcover, since paperbacks don’t have jackets!)”

This sound so cool, I wonder who or what is going to be on the inside of the cover.
There’s still no word regarding a cover reveal since it’s up to Cassie’s publisher but once more information has been shared, you’ll definitely find out on our Twitter and/or Instagram!

The other snippet that was shared, is of course from Cassie’s upcoming adult novel Sword Catcher:

It gave off a soft but potent light, in which Kel finally saw his companion clearly. He was dressed in black. Not Merren’s rusty student black: this man’s clothes were rich and expensive-looking, from his velvet frock coat to the blackthorn-wood cane upon which he rested his left hand. A gold ring bearing the sigil of a bird — a magpie, Kel thought — gleamed on his bare left hand. His eyes were the only thing about him that was neither black or white. They were a very dark green, and seemed to hold a strange light inside them. He said, “Do you know who I am?”

He goes round all in black, like Gentleman Death come to take your soul, and his carriage wheels are stained with blood.

“Yes,” Kel said. “You’re the Ragpicker King.”

The Ragpicker King – currently also the title for the second novel of this duology – is such a mysterious person and I do hope we’ll find out more before the first book is published. Talking about the first book, it appears that Sword Catcher‘s release date got pushed back to fall 2023.

Fingers crossed we’ll know the exact date soon because I really want to read this book. 🙂
Cassie is actually

“finishing up Sword Catcher — not that it will be done after it’s handed in; because it’s a totally invented new world, I’m going to be working with conlangers to invent new languages for the different countries that make up the world, and with mapmakers to create a map of Castellane, the city in which Sword Catcher takes place, and Dannemore, the continent that contains Castellane. (Castellane is a city-state, so is it’s own country and city at the same time.) I’m also working with a very cool artist to start debuting pictures of the characters, so you can start to get to know them a bit. March’s newsletter is going to be entirely devoted to Sword Catcher, so keep an eye out for that.”

Yes, give me all the maps and maybe also ‘dictionaries’ for these new languages! 😀 I’m excited to see these character pictures – I need faces for Kel, Conor, Lin, Mayesh, and also the Ragpicker King!

That’s all for today. I hope there’ll be more news soon. Have a good day/afternoon/night!