The Cassandra Clare Instruments

–from her personal website–

Up and coming into the movie scene is yet another YA novel-based film. “C’mon, we’re already tired of all those Twilight riff-offs!” Oh, no, no, NO! Believe me, you will like this one. Why? Because the film’s based not only on a well-acclaimed YA novel, but one which is also a winner of numerous awards like the 2010 Georgia Peach Book Awards for Teen Readers and the winner of the American Library Association Teens Top Ten Award. People, we’re talking about none other than the grand, prestigious and mysterious Mortal Instruments series! And who do we need to thank for this creation? None other than our Author of the Week, Ms. Judith Rumelt, better known as Cassandra Clare.

Ever thought of the origins and bases for the many deadly places in the world of the MI series? If you’re travelling since your youth like Cassie, then you’d know the answer! Cassie was born to Elizabeth and Richard Rumelt, July 27, 1973, at Tehran, Iran. Her daddy, also a novelist, is more renowned as a professor. Her granddaddy, on the other hand, is the acclaimed film producer, Max Rosenburg.

Her father being a visiting lecturer in many universities around the globe, Cassie and her family needed to move about from country to country every once in a while. This is why at the young age of ten, she had already lived, albeit temporarily, in Switzerland, England and France. During High School, though, she decided to return to Los Angeles, and after graduating, she started working in the writing industry. The Hollywood was one of the first. She then started splitting her time between Cali and NYC.

Before entering the fiction industry, she first began penning fanfiction about her favorite books, like Harry Potter (the title of her fanfic was ‘The Draco Trilogy’) and The Lord of the Rings (‘The Very Secret Diary’ for this one). They became popular in the internet, of course, but she scrapped them off the website she posted it on. Why? Because she was about to publish her first novel, The City of Bones, under her current pen name, Cassandra Clare.

Simon and Schuster first published the book which was based on Dystopian Manhattan in 2007. It revolved around the lives of Clary Fray and Jace Wayland, future survivors. Upon its release, the novel had enjoyed much popularity that it ended up on the list of the New York Times Bestsellers.  The trilogy was then completed by the next two novels, City of Ashes and City of Glass.

Cassie is also a good friend of novelist Holly Black. In fact, they’ve shared some character mentions and plot cliché’s from each other’s works. Currently, Cassie is living with her husband, Joshua Lewis, her three cats and a bagful of ideas at Amherst, Massachusetts.

And that’s it for our Author of the Week! Tune in every Mondays to find the most compelling trivia and get the strangest sneek peaks on our favorite authors!