Meeting Cassandra Clare!

Left to Right: Cassie, my friend Izzy and me

On 2^nd June, my best friend Izzy (who is also a massive fan) and I splashed out on a huge amount of cash to spend the weekend at the Hay festival. This is a literacy festival hosted in the town of Hay-on-wye, just on the border between Wales and England. We went to see the one and only Cassandra Clare. It probably would have been cheaper to go to her London signing, but when she announced she was going to the UK, it was orginally just Wales. We saw an opportunity and grabbed it. Apart from camping in the rain and getting no sleep, it was an amazing experience. To be honest there wasn’t much more eventful things going on that weekend so I am going to skip right to it.

Cassie Clare is one of my all-time favourite authors and I love both The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices series. This was my first book signing since Malorie Blackman; back when I was thirteen, so to say I was exited is an understatement. 

Things mention in the Q&A.

There was much talk about her past and influences, the amount of research that goes into each of her novels and discussion about the upcoming film adaptation of City of Bones.

• Part of her childhood took place in England, where she developed a love of British Literature. 
•  At the age of 12 she started writing a series known as “The Beautiful Cassandra”. The lead, Cassandra, would ultimately get the guy but, as Cassie didn’t know what happened after a couple got together, she killed the males off. Cassandra had many boyfriends in her time.
• She wanted to write a fantasy series with a strong female protagonist as she felt the genre was dominated by male protagonists.
• She discussed how much research went into each of her novels; more for The Infernal Devices as it is based in Victorian England. London looks very different now. 
• About one third of Clockwork Princess is based in North Wales. Being 3/4 Welsh, this appeals.
• Will and Cecily will speak Welsh to each other. 
•  Cassie would like to write more about the Paris Institute but it is hard to do research in French.
• The movie will start filming in August and will take two and a half months to film.
• One of the main reasons Jamie Campbell Bower got the role, of Jace, in the movie was because he was one of the few actors who understood Jace was being sarcastic in the audition scene.
• Cassie doesn’t want a cameo but she wants her cat to be Chairman Meow for Magnus’ party.

She also read a scene from Clockwork Princess, which isn’t out until March 2013. It was a scene between Will and Cecily. We only just got introduced to Cecily in Clockwork Prince so it was nice to find out more about her character. Just from the short scene, I love her already. She is so stubborn.

Afterwards there was the book signing. People literally ran to the tent where this was happening. I was quite shocked, at first, but we started running too. The bookshop was a little crowded. Three other authors were signing, including Philippa Gregory. But we got to stand next to this table of awesome.
 

Cassie was so nice to talk to. Izzy had brought her copy of Clockwork Angel to get signed. Cassie asked if she was Team Will, Team Jem or Team she runs off with Sophie. We jokingly went with the third option; neither of us can pick between the first two. I pointed out that I share my name with Simon’s sister. I know it’s common but not in books that I read. She asked if I had a brother. He is not called Simon but as he spends so much time out of the sun he practically is a vampire. I am so glad she allowed for pictures. (Us with Cassie see above.)

Cassandra Clare was one of the authors who turned my hobby, of reading, into an all-out obsession, all those years ago. I am so glad I finally met her.

Becky