Hey guys! I have something really exciting (well, to me) to share!

A week or so ago I was contacted by Reelz Channel to do a guest blog about The Mortal Instruments and what fans might be expecting from the movie. Well, that blog is live now and I’d love it if you would go check it out and leave a comment (there or here) to let me know what you think!

So click here for my Mortal Instruments movie blog!

In case anyone hadn’t noticed the severe lack of updates here at MS over the last few months, here’s what’s been going on:

SITEFAIL. I was having a lot of trouble with the coding of the old page–specifically the news component–and have been trying to fix it for a while. It was getting spammed and it was just a mess. It was kind of embarrassing. But we are officially switched over to WordPress, and things are running smoother than ever! (Seriously. Ever.)

So! Since I’ve been an awful webmaster for the last few months, let me tell you about the things that are new and shiny:

• All of Cassie’s pages are complete. 
• TMI book page is now complete with placeholder covers for the next three books.
• TMI characters are now represented with character art by Val Freire.
• TMI Graphic Novel page is up with all the images we have so far.
• TID book page is up.
• All Fan pages are complete.
• NEW: Meet the Contributors.
• NEW: Apply to be a Contributor.

Things that I still have to finish:

• Updating TMI character bios to make them CoG-compliant.
• TMI quotes from the end of CoB and on.
• TID character bios.
• TID quotes.
• One anthology is missing.

The things I’m missing are mostly content things–and I could use Content Contributors to help out with that! Apply here.

And a relaunch giveaway? Of course.

The prize is a little prize pack made up of a blank journal with Clary, Jace, and Simon with artwork by Val Freire (pictured right) along with a TMI postcard and signed City of Glass bookplate. How can you win it? Like this:

• Become a Mundie Source subscriber by clicking here and registering. This will sign you up to get updates whenever new news is posted on the site and will also give you an account with which you can comment on news stories. (+15 points)
• Leave a comment on this entry telling me what you think of the new site design & content. (+5 points)
• Tweet this and leave a link to your tweet in the comments (+3 points) : RT @MundieSource has relaunched! Check it out to win a TMI prize pack! http://bit.ly/bSLusx
• Former follower of @mundiesource on Twitter (+3 points)
• New follower of @mundiesource on Twitter (+2)

Each point is a separate entry into the contest. Your name will be entered once for every point. The contest is open for two weeks and will close on October 5, 2010. It is open internationally.

EDIT: Your comment has to be approved, so don’t worry if it doesn’t appear right away! If it isn’t there in 24 hours, repost.

Here is the second September cookie, which Cassie just posted on Twitter:

“You think you’re a vampire,” Simon’s mother said, numbly. “You think you drink blood.”

“I do drink blood,” Simon said. “I drink animal blood.”

“But you’re a vegetarian.” His mother looked to be on the verge of tears.

“I was. I’m not now. I can’t be. Blood is what I live on.” Simon’s throat felt tight. “I’ve never hurt anyone. I’d never drink someone’s blood. I’m still the same person. I’m still me.”

His mother seemed to be fighting for control. “Your new friends — are they vampires, too?”

Simon thought of Isabelle, Maia, Jace. He couldn’t explain Shadowhunters and werewolves, too. It was too much. “No. But — they know I am one.”

“Did — did they give you drugs? Make you take something? Something that would make you hallucinate?”

“No. Mom, this is real.”

“It’s not real,” she whispered. “You think it’s real. Oh, God. Simon. I’m so sorry. I should have noticed. We’ll get you help. We’ll find someone. A doctor. Whatever it costs —”

“I can’t go to a doctor.”

“Yes, you can. You need to be somewhere. A hospital, maybe —”

He held out his wrist to her. “Feel my pulse,” he said.

She looked at him, bewildered. “What?”

“My pulse,” he said. “Take it. If I have one, okay. I’ll go to the hospital with you. If not, you have to believe me.”

She wiped the tears from her eyes and slowly reached to take his wrist.

It really is kind of like he’s coming out of the closet, isn’t it?

Cassie just posted the first part of the September CoFA cookie on Twitter. She will be doing TWO this month–one that is primarily for people who have read Clockwork Angel and one that is Simon-centric. I’ve pasted the first below. No spoilers for CA, but you’ll understand it more if you’ve read it.

“Camille,” Magnus said. “It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

She smiled. Her skin looked whiter than he recalled, and dark spidery veins were beginning to show beneath its surface. Her hair was still the color of spun silver and her eyes were still green as a cat’s. She was still beautiful. Looking at her, he was in London again. He saw the gaslight and smelled the smoke and dirt and horses, the metallic tang of fog, the flowers in Kew Gardens. He saw a boy with black hair and blue eyes like Alec’s, heard violin music like the sound of silver water. He saw a girl with long brown hair and a serious face. In a world where everything went away from him eventually, she was one of the few remaining constants.

And then there was Camille.

“I’ve missed you, Magnus,” she said.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but this made me bounce with glee.

Reelz Channel asks the question: Are The Mortal Instruments the next teen phenomenon?

They list a bunch of series that have the potential to be the next YA novels to explode onto the scene, but here at Mundie Source, we think The Mortal Instruments is the series that has what it takes to take the YA world and Hollywood by storm. As the author of the article writes, “The books have sold a ridiculous amount of copies both domestically and internationally, and with good reason — if anything was to overtake Twilight, it would be this.”

Will TMI become as big as Harry Potter and Twilight? As of right now, Cassandra Clare is slated to turn out five more books in the next three years–meaning she will have nine novels published. If she continues her trend of debuting at number one on the NYT Best Seller list (congrats again, Cassie!) and the MI film adaptations get the green light in Hollywood, things will definitely get bigger and bigger for our dear Cassie.

And considering that her signings quickly become standing-room only, it’s pretty obvious that she’s like a rockstar of YA–and by adding that fancy purple streak to her hair, we think she knows it, too.

I asked Cassie to do a short interview for me, and she totally came through. My questions are bolded below, and Cassie’s answers are the regular type. Enjoy!

So I’ve tried to come up with questions that I didn’t think you’d answered a million times before. It’s completely possible (and likely) that you’ve answered a bunch of these, but I tried (AND I checked the FAQ!). 

We’ll start with an easy one: Was there any particular reason you dropped the “The” in The Clockwork Angel and just went with Clockwork Angel? When I was at work, someone sitting at the table next to me commented that it was “clearly meant to be a play on A Clockwork Orange.” Was there any specific reason behind it or did it just sound better as CA instead of TCA?
The answer is: I didn’t. My publisher dropped it because they thought “The Infernal Devices: The Clockwork Angel” was too many “the’s.” I could have put up a fuss about it but it seemed minor! And it’s certainly not a play on A Clockwork Orange; much as I am fond of that book, there is, you know, an actual clockwork angel in “Clockwork Angel.”