Mundie Moms

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Help Honor the 15th Year of SPEAK with Laurie Halse Anderson


Help honor the 15th Year of SPEAK with Laurie Halse Anderson. Find out more HERE.

#TMITuesdays / City of Heavenly Fire: Official Countdown Widget

Ooooh Mundie Moms, it's getting real now. We have an Official Countdown Widget to City of Heavenly Fire! Go and get yours here.

Here's what Cassie had to say about it on her tumblr:

City of Heavenly Fire illustration by Cassandra Jean
It’s time to start the official countdown to City of Heavenly Fire coming 5.27! Grab the #COHF countdown widget now.

And get ready for #TMITuesdays! Starting next week there will be a new #COHF related info revealed every Tuesday until the book goes on sale. Above: One of Cassandra Jean’s ten illustrations for City of Heavenly Fire. Each is a scene from the book.

Cassie's Latest Q&A plus Fan Art Update


We're catching up on Cassie's latest tumblr posts where she answered a few more questions and posted the latest fan art. You know we're loving all these answers and the fan art is making these characters so very real, we're having trouble containing our natural fan girl  tendencies:

Q. You use a lot of other languages in your books and I was wondering how you did the translations? Or do you speak them? I’m writing a book and including other languages and I was wondering if I could use Google Translate?

Cassie: First: Definitely, I do not speak Mandarin, Welsh, French, and Spanish. I’m conversational in French and speak some Spanish and Italian.

Secondly, no, Google Translate is never a good idea except if you’re trying to get a basic idea of what a website is about or something like that.

The translations in my book are done by native speakers — the French was translated by Angélique Issen who runs TMIFrance, and the Mandarin was translated by native speaker Margaret Pon, who is the mother of the lovely Cindy Pon. The phrases, and then the translations of the phrases, then go to Wolfstone Translations to be checked over. I would never do the translations myself! *— even though I’ve lived in France, literally the worst translations you can get are if you think you know a language, or if you do know a language well enough to chat in it, but you don’t know the idioms, you don’t know when things are supposed to be inaccurate because that’s how it’s colloquially spoken (“I’ve got all the feels” means nothing at all in standardized English, but all languages have expressions like it) and you don’t know how the same word is interpreted differently in different locales (“pants” in America and “pants” in England.)

You’re never going to get every single thing about a language right, and there will be native speakers who disagree with other native speakers about how language should be used. Language is a mutable thing. Consult native speakers; if you can’t, work with a reputable translation agency. Ideally do both.

And now: DIRTY HUNGARIAN PHRASEBOOK.

* The only exception I can think of would be the Spanish in TiD, because the only person who speaks it is Gideon, who just learned it — there’s no reason his Spanish would be accurate.

Q. Hi Cassandra! So my friend and I have been a bit obsessed with TLH, especially the relationship of Cordelia Carstairs and James Herondale. We both are HUGE Jordelia shippers, and know little to nothing about the two. It is known that they are married with a child (Owen) but know one has done anything with their relationship. We both are overly excited to see what happens and if there is a depth relationship there at all. So my question was, is there going to be an in depth relationship between the two? Wouldn’t it be a bit awkward because of Lucie being Cordelia’s best friend and James being Lucie’s brother? Also one last question, does Cordelia live in Idris or close/in the London institute? Thank you for you time! :) — partyingwithmagnus

Cassie: Jordelia! I am tickled pink there is a ship name for this.

I’m still learning about Cordelia and James myself. We know from The Midnight Heir that James is in love with someone else. The book is based on Great Expectations, with James as Pip and not!Cordelia as his Estella. (Tatiana Blackthorn is Miss Havisham, so you can figure it out if you’ve read TMH.)

I don’t think Lucie would mind Cordelia being in love with James. She’s a very practical girl, and it’s not like she thinks her brother is never going to have a love life. Might as well be someone she likes. If only James was more malleable!

The Last Hours also deals quite a bit with Clave politics, and moves back and forth between London, Cornwall, and Idris. Cordelia splits her time between Idris, Paris and London and does live in London for the action of the series, along with her family.

Q. HI CASSIE! So the thing is that I am doing(more like trying) a Family tree with ALL the characters of the Shadowhunter world and I want to know if Charles or Matthew Fairchild, Jessie Blackthorn or Alistar Carstairs had children? It would mean a lot if you can answer me, I am stuck at this part of the tree. Anyway, I love you Cassie so much and your books and your characters they are all so perfect. — icityofdauntlesstributes

Cassie: I can’t answer you, unfortunately! I left quite a bit out of the family tree on purpose so as not to spoil too many developments in Last Hours. Quite a few others are misleading — at least one of the marriages listed is arranged, another is a political sham, some of the death dates aren’t really death dates but people being turned/becoming Mundanes, etc.

Q. Is city of heavenly fire going to be the final book of the MI series? If so, are you planing to continue the infernal instrument series? — sadowoolcock

Cassie:  City of Heavenly Fire is the last book of TMI. I am not going to continue TID per se, though The Last Hours continues with the story of the next generation — the children of Will, Tessa, Sophie, Gideon, Gabriel, Cecily, Charlotte, Henry, etc. TDA likewise continues five years after City of Heavenly Fire with new characters, who you will meet in Heavenly Fire. Then the Shadowhunter world wraps up with  (That’s the plan, anyway.)
Anna by CassandraJP.

And Cassandra Jean drew Anna Lightwood:
More Anna Lightwood! Still trying to figure out how I best want to draw her. 
(Anna Lightwood a la The Last Hours written by cassandraclare)
“Anna, with her confidence and her rejection of binary gender identity in a more repressive time… ”

I know we're loving Anna's character already -- she's going to be wonderful to read.

Deception's Princess by Esther Friesner, Waiting on Wednesday #208



Published by: Random House Children
To Be Released on: April 22, 2014
Pre-Order from: Amazon | The Book Depository 
Add it to Goodreads

Some lies lead to true adventure...

Maeve, princess of Connacht, was born with her fists clenched. And it's her spirit and courage that make Maeve her father's favorite daughter. But once he becomes the High King, powerful men begin to circle—it's easy to love the girl who brings her husband a kingdom.

Yet Maeve is more than a prize to be won, and she's determined to win the right to decide her own fate. In the court's deadly game of intrigue, she uses her wits to keep her father's friends and enemies close—but not too close. When she strikes up an unlikely friendship with the son of a visiting druid, Maeve faces a brutal decision between her loyalty to her family and to her own heart.

Award-winning author Esther Friesner has a remarkable gift for combining exciting myth and richly researched history. This fiery heroine's fight for independence in first-century Ireland is truly worthy of a bard's tale. Hand Deception's Princess to fans of Tamora Pierce, Shannon Hale, and Malinda Lo - (Per Goodreads).

Yesterday, while creating the list of April 2014 YA releases, I stumbled upon a book that I hadn't heard of before, Deception's Princess by Esther Friesner. Now that I know about it, I can not wait to read it. First off, look at that cover. I love it. Second, it's set in Ireland! I don't know why, but I'm a sucker for an Irish / Scottish setting. Well probably because I've been itching to visit both countries for years now, and reading books set there is the closest I'm getting to go there. Between the cover and the synopsis, I'm hooked! This is one book I'll be picking up later this month when it's out.

What book are you waiting on?

Take a Bow Epilogue


You guys all know how much we love Elizabeth's books, and a few days ago she released the epilogue to Take a Bow. SPOILER WARNING: don't click over unless you've read the story and be prepared for some FEEEEEELINGS. 

Here's what Elizabeth had to say about writing the epilogue:

When I first wrote Take a Bow, I included a “10 Years Later” epilogue that let the reader know what ended up happening to Emme, Ethan, Carter, Sophie, Ben, and Jack after graduation from the New York City High School of the Creative and Performing Arts. It’s just a short snippet but answers a lot of questions I get from readers about “What happened to…” We didn’t include it in the book because my editor and I preferred the book ending the way it did with (again, SPOILER ALERT!) Emme, Ethan, Jack, and Ben stepping out into the spotlight to perform at graduation. 

I always knew I was going to post this, but wanted to wait until enough time had passed (I can’t believe it’s been two years!). So without further ado, the (unedited so please excuse any errors) Take a Bow epilogue. Take it away, Emme!
Okay, are you ready, Mundie Moms??? Click on over, here.

Casey’s experience at the UK Divergent Premiere. VIDEO VLOG.


Hey Guys! Casey here SO I was invited to the Divergent Premiere in the UK on the 30th of March. I was so excited and couldn't contain myself. The fan event before the premiere was amazing. You could get a fake tattoo, shooting practise and all sorts. When we got into the cinema my stomach was in butterflies. The film was amazing. I was so worried that I wouldn't like it. I hope you guys like the movie! It comes out in the UK in 3 days!! and all you American peeps that got it first.... what do you think of it? LET ME KNOW!!! Here is my video from the day! oh and check me out with a very attractive Dauntless gentlemen up top. *faints*

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