Bio and Contact

Please read the below before emailing!

BIO:

Cassandra Clare was born to American parents in Teheran, Iran and spent much of her childhood travelling the world with her family, including one trek through the Himalayas as a toddler where she spent a month living in her father’s backpack. She lived in France, England and Switzerland before she was ten years old. Since her family moved around so much she found familiarity in books and went everywhere with a book under her arm. She spent her high school years in Los Angeles where she used to write stories to amuse her classmates, including an epic novel called “The Beautiful Cassandra” based on a Jane Austen short story of the same name (and  which later inspired her current pen name).

After college, Cassie lived in Los Angeles and New York where she worked at various entertainment magazines and even some rather suspect tabloids where she reported on Brad and Angelina’s world travels and Britney Spears’ wardrobe malfunctions. She started working on her YA novel, City of Bones, in 2004, inspired by the urban landscape of Manhattan, her favourite city. She turned to writing fantasy fiction full time in 2006 and hopes never to have to write about Paris Hilton again.

Cassie’s first professional writing sale was a short story called “The Girl’s Guide to Defeating the Dark Lord” in a Baen anthology of humor fantasy. Cassie hates working at home alone because she always gets distracted by reality TV shows and the antics of her two cats, so she usually sets out to write in local coffee shops and restaurants. She likes to work in the company of her friends, who see that she sticks to her deadlines.

City of Bones was her first novel.

ABOUT GETTING IN TOUCH.

Please read the below before emailing, especially if you are asking about movies, casting, writing advice, or help with a school project.

1) So, can I email you?

Yes. I’m always happy to hear from readers who want to share their opinions of the books, their experiences, or who have questions or comments. However, I do ask that you read the Frequently Asked Questions page to make sure your question hasn’t already been answered before you email me, especially if you have a question about whether there will be a TMI movie (I don’t know right now, but there’s information about it on the FAQ page), wish to suggest actors for said movie or wish to be cast yourself (the movie isn’t casting right now, and I have no influence over the casting and cannot help you get cast), have a question about the release date of an upcoming book, or if you plan to send me your story/poem/song/novel to read. If you email me a question that is asked on my FAQ page, I will just wind up redirecting you to that page; if you send me writing, I will have to delete it without reading it. I am sorry, but I cannot read unpublished work that is sent to me. Yes, that includes synopses and detailed descriptions of your unpublished work. Please try a critique group like www.critters.org instead.

2) Do you have writing advice?

If you want writing advice, it helps if you have a really specific question. Requests for general advice just get redirected here: http://www.cassandraclare.com/cms/writing/ because after all … that is my general writing advice. That’s why it’s there!

4) I’m a student who needs an interview for a class project/ a r3port/ my high school newspaper/ a paper on your books/ a careers project/ any school project. Can I send you a list of questions?

I’m sorry, but no. I understand that many high school career projects, business classes, and school newspapers ask you to send questionnaires to writers asking them about their writing, and about writing as a career, but I get so many of these every day that if I sa down and answered them all, that’s all I would ever do. I have a page with the most common questions and answers that appear on these questionnaires at my  questionnaires page and you are welcome to use them to enhance your project.

Contact:

[Right now I'm moving so do not have a snail mail address. All correspondence must go through email. I am sorry, but that means that right now I can't do signed books or bookplates. Check the FAQ page for information on how to get a signed book.]

Email me at: cassandraclare at gmail.com