Mundie Moms

Monday, May 6, 2013

Shadowhunter Seasons: Spring

Cassie has given us our favorite Shadowhunters in the FallWinter, and now we have Spring!



Taking  a break briefly from the tarot card project, I asked Cassandra Jean to draw the four seasons as the four Shadowhunter series I have either written or planned right now — The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, the Dark Artifices, and The Mysterious TLH. 
Here TLH takes the season of spring in Hyde Park. In this case, though, I’m not going to name the characters, except that Matthew and James are front and center, and in the background, in a rowboat, you can see Will, James and Tessa. I might revisit this after the Midnight Heir comes out. :) Some characters you may be able to guess, others perhaps not.


What's your favorite Shadowhunter season so far? Mine is the Winter.

Blog Tour: Silent Orchids by Morgan Wylie; Excerpt & Giveway


Welcome to today's blog tour kick off for Morgan Wylie's Silent Orchids, hosted by InkSlinger. I'm excited to share with you an excerpt from debut author Morgan Wylie from her Silent Orchids. You can check out the interview Readers Wonderland posted today with her. 

Excerpt for Silent Orchids: The Age of Alandria~Book One

Daegan heard the whispered voices in unison chanting what he assumed had to be the ancient prophecy he was told about. Over and over again the whispered chants rang in his mind until Daegan, hands clutching his head to keep it from exploding, couldn’t take it anymore and yelled out loud, “Silence!” A man a block away turned to see where the shout had come. He could not see Daegan, but apparently he could hear him.
Daegan couldn’t think straight. What is going on? Instantly, the thought ran through his mind: The Orchids. They were speaking to him. The words of the prophecy cycled through his head. This time he controlled it. He paid attention to the words, tried to make sense of them. There was sadness and despair in the undertones of the voices, but as the chant went on they gained strength... and hope. As Daegan reflected upon what his part could be, for the first time in a long time, he dared to believe... and to hope.
All was silent again in his head, just in time for the whisperings of the wind to carry the last words he heard the Orchids speak, “They are coming for her.” And with it the faintest scent of something familiar danced past Daegan’s nose. He inhaled deeply then exhaled with a sigh. The smells of Alandria. Home. But also danger. Then he heard the crack of thunder from a stormless sky.
A gate had opened.
Instantly, his defenses were up. He got that prickly feeling that made the hairs on the back of his neck bristle right before danger or right before he had to carry out one of Maleina’s sentences on someone undeserving. It felt... wrong. Daegan jumped down out of the tree from the highest branch. It was a high jump, but not for him. No longer invisible to this realm, he startled the man on the corner that thought he was alone when Daegan landed without any effort and ran past him. Drawing a knife that was sheathed at his wrist, he ran up the stairs to Kaeleigh’s apartment and without knocking, he flung the door open.
“What the...?” Finn shouted as he grabbed Kaeleigh and shoved her behind him. At the same time Kaeleigh shouted, “Oh my god, Daegan!”
“We don’t have time for pleasantries or explanations. Others have come. I will not let harm come to her,” Daegan said as he strode into the room extending his knife.
Finn turned toward Daegan, keeping himself between Kaeleigh and who he viewed as the potential danger: Daegan.
Kaeleigh gripped Finn’s arm from where she stood behind him. “Finn, stop this. Daegan has already proven he’s not here to hurt me.” She looked at Daegan. “Daegan, this is Finn.”
Finn, never taking his eyes off of Daegan, said with sarcasm, “You’re going to protect her with that little knife?”
Daegan stared intently at Finn, then with a small smirk he replied, “This knife has been through a lot, but no, not just this...” He slipped out from under his other sleeve a second knife. He twirled them both around effortlessly and fluidly in his hands almost like a choreographed performance. “If those don’t work, I also have this,” and from where it must have been sheathed under his jacket at his back, he reverently pulled out a very wickedly dangerous-looking sword with some kind of runes etched into the hilt. It was lethal and magnificent and otherworldly.
There was a glint in Finn’s eyes as he took in the weaponry, nodding his approval even though he knew Daegan didn’t wait for it. He pulled out his own knife—which was really more of a short sword—that had been sheathed inconspicuously under his pant leg. Daegan nodded to Finn and took his position on the opposite side of Kaeleigh so she was in between them both. Kaeleigh stood in shock, her mouth practically on the floor.   
“Finn, why on earth have you been hiding a knife like that?” she asked, still in shock. Kaeleigh did not believe that she was truly in danger. They are totally overreacting. They have to be. Aren’t they?
“And who is ‘coming for me’?” She shot a look at Daegan, but it was Finn who shushed her and pushed her to get behind him again.
For the first time in a very long time, Finn could feel the darkness in others from the other realm. His realm. It had been too long. Drawing his knife out in front of him, Finn stiffened. “They’re here,” he whispered.

© 2013 Morgan Wylie


About SILENT ORCHIDS


Published by: American Majestic Entertainment
To Be Released on: May 7th, 2013
Purchase from: Amazon 
Series: Age of Alandria #1
Add it to Goodreads


A dying realm.

The ancient evil of the Droch-ShĂșil has been unleashed.

The Orchids have been silenced… but for how long?

Daegan, elite of the Ferrishyn warrior tribe of Faeries, is charged with a mission to find the Sol-lumieth, a mysterious new power that could change the fate of all in the realm of Alandria. But he is conflicted by his purpose, and he cannot trust the motives of those he serves. He has too many questions and they must be answered.

Kaeleigh, a girl abandoned as a small child just outside Missoula, Montana, is now 18. She is trying to discover who she is and where she belongs. In her heart, she feels she has family out there… somewhere. Desperate to unravel the mysteries of her past, she embarks on a journey that will forever change her along with her two best friends, Finn and Chel—who have secrets of their own.

ABOUT MORGAN WYLIE:


Morgan Wylie has been writing on and off throughout her growing up years, but started seriously working on her first novel in the Spring of 2009. 7 months pregnant with her first child, she didn't start off with a lot of focused writing time. But Morgan had an epiphany, if you will, and the story flashed before her so she began to write. And she’s still writing. Her debut Young Adult fantasy, SILENT ORCHIDS, will be out this summer.

Visit Morgan via her: Website | Twitter | Facebook 

The Giveaway:
Enter for your chance to win 1 of 2 prize packs being giving away during the durations of the tour. This includes a signed copy, digital soundtrack, an ebook and swag and 3 winners for SILENT ORCHIDS ebooks during the Blog Tour!

Cassie Answers a TMI Movie Related Question About Jace Killing a Demon


Cassie answers a fans questions pertaining to the demon killing in the TMI Movie in Clary's apartment. It's an interesting question, and one I hadn't even thought of. There's so much more to the movie than the snippets we're seeing from the trailers. Here's what Cassie said:


“Hi! I was just wondering how you feel about Jace being the one who kills the demon in Clary’s house in the movie? In the book she is the one who kills it and I feel like that is a really important moment. I’m not sure I like the fact that Hollywood has turned her into just another woman that needs a man to come save her. Big fan by the way, I love your books! — brijstat”
I guess my first thought was: Why are we assuming there’s only one Ravener? If there’s one thing Hollywood likes, it’s taking one monster and making there be EVEN MORE MONSTERS.
But then I have no basis for that guess, it just made sense to me that there would be a demon for Clary to kill and one for Jace to kill, since he’s been pretty cold and brutal in the trailer up until then and she needs a reason to trust him. (Also, there seems to be a lot happening in terms of that scene that isn’t in the book – I don’t remember writing a scene where Clary uses a fridge door to block herself while her kitchen explodes.)
However, I’ve no idea if that’s what happens or not. I just think we’ve all had the experience of watching a trailer and realizing that our assumption about how one scene went, was not at all how it turned out to actually be in the film. I haven’t seen the final cut of the film. I don’t know the answer or how the scene plays out.
And I feel I bit awkward defending or discussing something I didn’t make happen, wouldn’t know about happening, and wouldn’t even know the reasons behind the choices as to why it happened. Moviemakers make the decisions about what to cut out and what to leave in and what to change. It’s what they do.
All I can say is that yeah, I definitely would be upset if Clary was turned into a girl who needed a man to come save her. She’s the one who goes to save Simon, who saves her mom, who saves Jace in the end. I very much wanted that arc to stay in, since it’s who Clary is. This is a hero story about a girl. She’s the hero. It was something I kept saying through the production — agency, agency, give Clary agency. As in, she’s the one who makes decisions, moves the plot, takes the risks.
So, basically — I don’t know what’s happening in the scene but I’m not going to make assumptions till I see the whole film. I want to see what else they’ve done with her character, what else they’ve given her to do, if she still throws knives at werewolves, if she kills vampires and demons — there does appear to be this fairly cool shot of her holding off what looks like an army of demons on her own.

I know none of us would judge a book by a page taken out of context or a summary, so I figure, you have to see the whole film, and then, if you’re not happy with how they treated Clary’s character, you have the whole context to look at it in. I mean, maybe she doesn’t kill that demon, but maybe she does something more badass right before or after. We don’t know, so I’m going to wait and see. 
(You may disagree, which is fine. But I am so totally not the right person to ask about this stuff. If there are changes, I don’t know why they were made. If you want to know how I feel about them, I don’t know because I haven’t seen the whole film. I am useless.)

May News from Harper Teen

Harper Teen has a few exciting things happening this month. Don't miss TONIGHT'S Pitch Dark Twitter chat!


Join Elizabeth Norris, Kiera Cass, Aprilynne Pike, and Amy Tintera 
for a Twitter Chat on Monday, May 6th at 9PM EST! #PitchDarkDays

Get the complete tour schedule here!
And don't forget to follow along with our live tweeters!
Tuesday, May 7
8:00PM EST
@MyShelfAndI

Wednesday, May 8
7:30PM EST
@ohaiitschey

Thursday, May 9
8:00PM EST
@pageturnersblog

Friday, May 10
7:00PM EST
@yabookscentral



HARPERTEEN IMPULSE
Get your hands on ALLIES: AN INSIGNIA NOVELLA by S.J. Kincaid, 
THE WITCH COLLECTOR PART II by Loretta Nyhan, 
THE GET OVER by Walter Dean Myers, 
and PLAYING KEIRA (the companion to YOU LOOK DIFFERENT IN REAL LIFE) by Jennifer Castle!


How loves free books?! We do! Check out Harper Teen's FREE MAY Book:



HOUSE OF SECRETS by Chris Columbus & Ned Vizzini
From Harper Teen: This month, we are reading HOUSE OF SECRETS, the new bestseller from Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini! Wait, Chris Columbus? Chris Columbus of Home Alone, The Goonies, and Harry Potter movie fame? YES, that Chris Columbus! Wait, Ned Vizzini? Ned Vizzini the author of IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY and THE OTHER NORMALS? YES, that Ned Vizzini! Chris and Ned have teamed up to create HOUSE OF SECRETS, an amazing middle grade fantasy that you can share with your readers.

Mundane Monday #183: The Infernal Devices Love Story

Happy Mundane Monday!

I LOVE this! This is something I found while on Tumblr last night that was posted by willisthatyou. It's a beautiful collection of Cassandra Jean's artwork featuring a timeline of the love between Will, Tessa and Jem in Internal Devices series. SPOILERS are featured in these pictures, and in the quote from Cassie below.










“…because in the end this was never the great love story of Tessa and Will (though they have a great love) or Tessa and Jem (though they have a great love) or even Will and Jem (though they have a great love) but the love of Tessa, Will and Jem. The three of them. When Tessa and Will kiss on the stairs at the Institute, they hear the violin: that symbolized Jem. When Tessa and Jem kiss at the end, Will is very much present for both of them: it is no dishonor to his memory, but rather the greatest thing they could have done for him: the thing he would have wished for above all other things, that the two people he loved most in the world would be happy when he was gone. They are and will always be, a triad.” - Cassandra Clare 


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