Guest Post from Anna of AnnaReadsBooks: COLS Launch Party Re-Cap & Giveaway

Happy Day After COLS Release Day! Last night was Cassie's COLS Launch Party and the lovely Anna from AnnaReadsBooks was there! I'm so thrilled to have Anna on the blog today to talk about last night's events. I've also included a few pics she sent me from the party.

Here's ANNA: 

Just got back (last night) from the Cassie Clare release party and had such a blast. There were 400 signing tickets given -- and even more people there -- so I was counting my lucky stars to be one of the first in line at #11! Not to mention how lucky I was that Cassie's only U.S. signing for City of Lost Souls was so close to sweet home Chicago!

The event started with the City of Lost Souls playing on the big screen in the concert hall. The crowd was gasping and hooting throughout! Then, the actor who plays Jace (who is also the cover model on the book) came out to intro Cassie, the star of the night.

(the actor who plays Jace with one of the fans at the event)

She asked the crowd some trivia questions, like asking us to name on item on the menu at the restaurant they're always frequenting in the books. (Correct answer: Coconut pancakes.) And we found out people flew in from as far as Fort Worth, Philadelphia and L.A. just for the event. Amazing!

A few tidbits from the Q&A:

- Cassie always planned for Simon and Isabelle to get together because she loved doing a gender swap on the typical "tortured boy and shy girl" storyline.

- Someone in the crowd asked about the incest storyline and Cassie joked," I just got to the end and I was like: 'I know! INCEST!'" But in all seriousness, she had it planned all along and got the idea from a documentary she saw about a man and woman who were both adopted, married and later found out they were actually siblings. On Jace and Clary at that point she says: "This is REALLY forbidden love."

- There was a lot of talk about manga. And good manga. I could not follow along and only learned that I've been pronouncing "manga" wrong for a VERY long time. Whoops?

- Cassie said she wrote much of City of Bones while working at a New York City tabloid. The news would only come in late at night, so while everyone else sat around and shopped online, she wrote.

- Will's hatred for ducks comes from a real-life experience in London with author Sarah Rees Brennan in which she and Cassie accidentally fed duck pie to a bunch of "cannibal ducks," who then proceeded to chase them. "Never trust a duck!"

- Will or Jem? "If I were Tessa, I'd run off with Magnus," Cassie says.

- She says she has "a zillion" cast updates but can't talk about any of them yet. Though, she did say that they auditioned about 100 actors for Magnus this week.

- The idea for City of Bones came to her in a tattoo shop belonging to the woman who now designs the runes for the books.

- SPOILER ALERT FOR CITY OF HEAVENLY FIRE: At least one major character will die.

- If she wasn't an author, she would be a "crazy cat lady." Joking! She said she'd just like to work with animals.

- Simon and Jace's "bromance" is a bit off in City of Lost Souls for obvious reasons...but it will be back on in City of Heavenly Fire.

- A fan asked what type of character Cassie would be, and she replied: "You want to be like Percy Jackson or Harry Potter. But you'd probably be like Edmund in Chronicles of Narnia." Everyone wants to be a hero, she says, but that's not how it always works out.

- Magnus was based on her friend John, who had "the magical ability for glitter that would never wear off." One night, they were grabbing a soda at a pizza joint after a night of clubbing, when the woman behind the counter turned around, saw John and promptly dropped his drink, proclaiming, "Never in my life has I seen such a shining man." And, thus, Magnus was born.

- Simon and Tessa are the characters most like Cassie, and Magnus is the most fun to write.

- Church is an homage to Holly Black's angry cat.

- Why is Magnus banned from Peru? Cassie imagines its has to do with the Nazca Lines in Peru, huge and mysterious drawings in the ground that are said to have magical powers and are now a protected "wonder of the world"-type site. "Magnus got drunk and threw up on them."

- She hasn't nothing against adult novels and would consider one if she had a good idea once all her current series are finished. She'd likely do something high fantasy, along the lines of Game of Thrones.

Phew! So much good info, and Cassie was just hilarious and delightful. And now I have all my books signed, so I am such a happy camper.

While people waited for their numbers to be called for the signing, they could take photos with "Jace" or get runes "tattooed" on their backs. So fun and cute.

(Anna with Cassie)

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Thank you SO MUCH Anna for this post and giving us a sneak peak over all the fun of last night's COLS launch party. 

Thank you to Anna, we're giving away these two COLS goodies from last night's party.

a Rafflecopter giveaway