The Dark Artifices is a Go!!!!

Cassandra Clare has signed up for a new fantasy series set in the Shadowhunter world!!

Margaret K. McElderry Books (an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing) announced that Clare has agreed to a three-book deal for “The Dark Artifices,” set in modern Los Angeles.

The first book is slated for a 2015 release.

“The series follows Emma Carstairs, the fiercest warrior and most skilled young Shadowhunter since Jace Wayland, and Emma’s sworn partner in arms, Julian Blackthorn,” the statement reads. “Despite Emma’s complicated feelings for Julian, the two must band together to investigate a demonic plot that stretches from the warlock-run nightclubs of the Sunset Strip to the enchanted sea that pounds the beaches of Santa Monica.”

Clare said in a statement that she was sure readers would love both her new and her established characters.

“I know readers will come to love Emma, Mark, Cristina and Julian just as they have loved Jace, Clary, Will, Tessa and Jem,” she said. “Readers have often asked what will happen in the Shadowhunter world after the events of the ‘Mortal Instruments’ and this series will give them a chance to find out.”

"It takes place five years after the end of TMI (ie in 2012) and deals with the Shadowhunters of the Los Angeles Institute. There is a tangential connection to the characters of TMI but they are not main characters. The main characters are teens (meaning that during the events of TMI they’d be 11, 12 years old.) The main female protagonist’s name is Emma, the main male protagonist’s name is Julian. They are both Shadowhunters. They both have always known they are Shadowhunters. There is love, magic, romantic confusion, etc. and so on. I have not sold these books; I haven’t written any of them, I won’t until I’m done with what I’m writing now. So I don’t have a pub date beyond “after CoHF.”"

"As it’s set 5 years after the end of CoHF it is reasonable to assume that surviving characters from TMI will make cameos. They will be in their early twenties so you’ll get to see what they’re up to in their more adult lives…we would see where they are in life, where their relationships are, how they’re moving into their positions of power in the Clave, etc."

"Also, if you are curious about the characters from TDA, look out for characters either in or mentioned in CoLS and CoHF who might be 11, 12, 13 years old. (As five years later, they will be sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen.)"