Liv Spencer's Blog

Obviously we had to do this to celebrate!There will also be a listening party with baking of cookies. Because bakers gonna bake bake bake bake bake.

Well, Jen and I have really been neglecting this website of ours — oops! — but we’ve been doing lotsa stuff elsewhere…

Over on Wattpad, we have been posting up a storm: after our Taylor Swift fan fiction Know You Better wrapped up (and we’re at 222,000 reads!!), we kept up the Swift party with an excerpt from our bio on the Fearless One with our version of Cliff Notes, our Swift Notes to Red! But that wasn’t enough! We love the Wattpad community and all the feedback on our stories, so we decided to try something new and awesome: a choose your own adventure style Taylor Swift fan fic — Sweeter than Fiction. We’re only up to chapter three, so there’s still plenty of time to get in on the action and help decide what Taylor will get up to next. We’re having a laugh and a half coming up with wondrous ideas of what fun lurks around the next corner.

While it’s been a while since we blogged about Pretty Little Liars, that doesn’t mean we are not still deeply invested in it. I joined Heroine TV’s Lucia and guest host Tash to talk ALL about the Halloween special and about the first three episodes of the spin-off series, Ravenswood, which I am loving. Tune in here!

And not to be left out in the cold, check out this review of our Mortal Instruments companion guide, Navigating the Shadow World, over at Between Dreams and Reality

Navigating the Shadow World is an indispensable book for all the TMI fans and it’s an excellent companion guide.

Woot!

And next up on the agenda: Catching Fire! Only two more sleeps…

xo Liv

a.k.a. Jen & Crissy

The super Swifties at the Taylor Talk podcast had me on to talk about Taylor Swift: The Platinum Edition. We also did some tough Taylor trivia, in case you want to really put your knowledge of the Swift One to the test. You can stream the episode on their site or download it on iTunes!

Big thanks to Adam and Taylor Talk for having us on!

Recently Crissy & I chatted about Navigating the Shadow World and the the Shadow World in general on the Ultimate Urban Fantasy Podcast. Archer, Ravynheart and Sherri were awesome hosts and we had a great time. Tune in for a fun discussion on what makes TMI great, being authors & editors, various creatures of the Shadow World, & more!

Looking better in black than the widows of our enemies…

So this Wednesday Crissy & I skipped out of work early (because: priorities!), donned our Shadowhunter gear (despite it being broiling hot — we needed some kind of cooling rune), and runed up to see the long-awaited The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.

And what did I think? Well, fantasy adaptation wise, it wasn’t the golden standard of Harry Potter (or at least that’s my golden standard), but it was a solid beginning for the series.

Some things that I thought were awesome:

Top marks to Lily Collins and Clary and Robert Sheehan as Simon — brava! They just nailed it. Most of the acting was good, in fact, with one notable exception (but we’ll save that for the next list). And I think Jamie Campbell Bower really proved to us Jace is less about the abs and more about the attitude (though he had the abs too!).
Everything looked fantastic: the sets (Toronto, you are a sexy Brooklyn), the costumes (although I would have liked to see some hilarious Simon tees), the special effects (that Ravener demon was soooo gross, and also pretty scary!)
Pacing: things moved along nicely and the movie covered a lot of ground without ever seeming rushed or too slow.
Getting to see Joceyln be all bad-ass Shadowhunter at the beginning was wonderful, since that’s not something we get to see in the book — it’s great to see the amazing Lena Headey let loose before she has to make like Sleeping Beauty for the rest of the film.
I loved that Valentine’s demons took the form of ravens — such a clever connection to Huginn and Muninn.
Fun fight scenes: loved Isabelle with that flame-spurting pack, especially.

Some things that were not-so-awesome:

Godfrey Gao as Magnus: while he did look the part (so handsome!), his delivery was sadly lacking. It was heartbreaking to see the most magnetic character of the series seem so wooden — Magnus’s real magic is how he can charm a room.
The script, at points, could have been better. The scene when Jace switches loyalties seemed abrupt (even more abrupt than in the book), as did Clary’s  realization Alec loved Jace, and the ending seemed like they were trying to mash all the important stuff from the end of the book together at the expense of natural interaction between Clary and Jace.
Exception to special effects excellence: schmaltzy fake fireflies and plants blooming in the greenhouse. Between that and the booming love anthem, things were getting pretty Disney-fied in there. I mean, it’s the greenhouse scene — it’s romantic enough on its own!
The silly floating portal bubbles. Unnecessary.

Some of the adaptation choices were interesting and made sense (sure, Simon doesn’t need to become a rat) although others were less successful (I missed the Renwick smallpox hospital — which was a better place for Jocelyn — and Alaric sacrificing himself for Luke), and some I found really troubling (Clary being an instant rune savant, and then using her powers to bibbity-bobbity-boo her trashed apartment? That totally trivializes her power and is one of those things that could be the easy answer to any future sticky situation, whether its a Valentine showdown or cold food at Taki’s).

So do I hope that we end up with more Mortal movies? By the Angel I do. There’s a great foundation here and it was super fun to have the Sight and see the Shadow World come to life in a whole new way. But I also think there’s room for these movies to be even better — I can’t wait to go to the next opening day.

Today’s the day! The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones in theatres. Woot!

To celebrate, we have a couple of cool things a-happening:

1 — Our pal Kate at Read the Screen was kind enough to interview Crissy about the book (Jen was trekking in the wilds of Newfoundland at the time; she’s the Sporty Liv to Crissy’s Ginger/Posh hybrid). And Kate’s giving away a copy of our book! Which will sign and personalize and maybe even draw a rune in if you want!

Just comment on this post with your favorite Shadowhunter Chronicles character.

2 — Fan Expo Canada starts tomorrow, and our publisher ECW Press is giving away a TMI prize pack: a Cineplex movie gift card ($25, so you can take a mundane to see TMI), the official movie companion, and a signed copy of Navigating the Shadow World. All you have to do is drop by booth 842 and draw a rune (one of the TMI ones or make up your own!).

Jen will be representing Team Liv at Fan Expo Canada this year, so say hi to her at the ECW booth and check out the panel she’ll be on Sunday at 2:45 p.m.: “So You Want to Write About Horror?” (room 713). She’ll also be happy to sign a book for you, which will be on sale at the ECW booth all weekend long.

xoxo

The Mortal Instruments City of Bones: The Official Illustrated Movie Companion — wooh, that’s a mouthful! — is a full colour, full of photos companion book to the first of what will hopefully be a six film series. Much like the illustrated movie companions to other major YA franchises like The Hunger Games and Twilight, this book provides a general rundown of the “making of” and is filled with stills from the film. Not as many behind the scenes/making of shots as I would have expected, but the book is fairly short (clocking in at 128 pages total).

The book briefly covers Cassie’s story of writing the series, how key crew got involved (like Harald Zwart), the casting, and the filming. By far, my favorite chapters were those on designing the sets, the props, and costumes and makeup looks. It really feels like they went above and beyond to make sure every detail and choice was thoughtful and extra awesome.

The rest of the material covered was pretty familiar — and maybe that’s because we cover similar ground in our “making of” chapter in Navigating the Shadow World. So for fans new to the series, or more familiar with the books than with the movie, this could be an informative read.

My main complaint with it was it was too short and too cursory. More please! I think, as a fandom, we love detail and in depth/insider reveals and this book, while well written and cracking the odd TMI insider joke (much appreciated!) was too short to really get into things. There were a few script pages with Zwart’s doodles or initial designs and it would be awesome to see more of that stuff. Like Catherine Hardwicke’s Twilight director’s notebook type stuff.  Or like that first Twilight illustrated movie companion that went deeper into the filmmaking process.

All in all, a good quick read that will get you even more psyched for TMI: City of Bones!

Looking to kill a little time while you wait for August 21st to roll around and City of Bones to hit the big screen? Well, have we got the free ebook for you.

One of our favorite parts of writing Navigating the Shadow World was diving deep into all the literary references that Cassandra Clare makes in The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices for our “Shadow World Book Club” section of our guide to the series. For each Shadowhunter Chronicles book, we wrote a rundown of the literary references Cassie made, putting our English literature degrees to good use!

We thought it would probably be just as interesting for other TMI/TID fans to go back to the source material — to the texts that inspired Cassie as she was writing her epic stories — as it was for us. So we created a free ebook for you! The Shadow World Book Club: Companion Readings to The Mortal Instruments & The Infernal Devices has a curated selection of readings, all of which are mentioned in a TMI or TID book (or sometimes more than one!).

The Shadow World Book Club: Companion Readings to The Mortal Instruments & The Infernal Devices is a curated selection of the poems, plays, and works of fiction that Cassandra Clare quotes from in the Shadowhunter Chronicles. Liv Spencer highlights the specific text used in each volume of The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices in this companion reader to Navigating the Shadow World. With selections from Hamlet, A Tale of Two Cities, Tennyson, Dante, and many more!

You can download a free PDF or an ePub file here from our publisher’s website (or for Apple iBookstore people, here’s the link!)

xoxo

 

Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader, edited by Cassandra Clare

I’m a longtime fan of what Smart Pop Books does with their series of accessible but smart essay collections on awesome pop culture franchises. (A Visitor’s Guide to Mystic Falls? Highly recommended for the TVD watchers among you.) And this book does not disappoint.

The book begins with an introduction by Cassandra Clare, recounting the story of how she came to create the world of the Shadowhunters, which is a fascinating read. I’d heard bits and pieces of the story before, but to read it all in one place and in context is great. What follows is a series of essays by various talented writers on topics ranging from art as weapon, law in the Shadowhunter universe, New York as setting, Simon as Jewish vampire hero, Malec, tattoos, villainy, friendship, and — naturally — incest. While the essays are incredibly thought-provoking and smart, they are never academic or a drag. Entirely a pleasure to read (and especially fun to jump between authorial voices in each essay), Shadowhunters and Downworlders makes you think about The Mortal Instruments series in new and interesting ways — even if you don’t always agree with the argument being made. It’s like being in a room with a bunch of super informed, well spoken friends having great conversations about this beloved series.

The book achieves what Jen and I hope Navigating the Shadow World will for TMI & TID enthusiasts: it takes a beloved subject and casts new light on it, sparking consideration, debate, and probably a re-read or two. (Not that we need much encouragement to pick up the books again!)

Highly recommended! You can read excerpts from the book on Smart Pop Books’ great website.

And, after the jump, a selection of quotations that I found particularly evocative!

“Seeing past the glamour — past the superficial — takes effort, but it’s a critical step Clary has to take in order to reconcile what she has been seeing with what’s really there and to walk confidently through the city she thought was home as something more than an interloper. It’s the only way she can learn to navigate the once-familiar streets without getting lost, and without being afraid.”

“In the scenario of the uncanny city, the protagonist isn’t questing for the portal home, she’s questing for a way to be at home.”

From “Unhomely Places” by Kate Milford

“The true measure of a hero is what a person does with what they have, how hard they’re willing to fight, and how far they’re willing to go to set things right.”

“Clary, though … Clary is like you, or me, or that kid in class who’s always drawing instead of taking notes. We know this girl. And that’s part of what makes Clary such an amazing heroine. Because she manages to do extraordinary things using talents she honed during a mostly ordinary life.”

From “The Art of War” by Sarah Cross

“No matter how hard he might be working to exorcise Valentine’s twisted teachings, to Jace, emotions and connection are still a weakness, and humor is the way he tries to keep his distance from the things out there — demon or otherwise — that might hurt him.”

“The most insidious thing about the Sebastian-controlled Jace was how much like Jace he remained. Enough like Jace that he was afraid Alec and Isabelle wouldn’t believe he was cured when they came to visit him in the hospital. Enough like Jack that even Clary had her doubts about what was best for the man she loved.”

From “Sharper Than a Seraph Blade” by Diana Peterfreund

“Over and over again, these supposedly trustworthy adults abuse the faith of their children — and that isn’t to mention all the times that adults in the highest positions of authority in the Clave abuse their power for their own misguided purposes.”

“The problem with Shadowhunter Law is that it’s not a law of physics. It’s a social contract, and as with all social contracts, its only magic is the magic of mutual agreement. Its power derives from belief in the impossibility of defying it — which means there’s nothing more threatening than an outsider who can see the Law for what it is. A choice.”

From “When Laws Are Made to Be Broken” by Robin Wasserman

“Simon’s retention of his Jewish beliefs and identity in the face of circumstances in which it would behoove him, help him, to give them up echoes the Jewish people’s ability not only to endure and to survive but to believe in the face of persecution, even when it would be easier to let go.”

“He demonstrates more than any other character in the Mortal Instruments that it is not our blood but our actions that define who we are.”

From “Simon Lewis: Jewish, Vampire, Hero” by Michelle Hodkin

“Blood, whether the blood of the angel that makes a Shadowhunter a Shadowhunter or the blood that ties you to your family, is important in the Mortal Instruments series. Jace and Clary’s blood has brought them together, united them, and then threatened to separate them forever. It has twisted them, turned them, and defined who they are. But now we know the truth of it, and we know where they stand. Or do we?”

From “Brotherly Love” by Kendare Blake

“On some level, a friendship always requires a choice. And, as the Mortal Instruments clearly demonstrates, that choice can be one of the most important ones we ever make.”

“Relationships are power in the Mortal Instruments, and friendship has a place of pride, treated as carefully and with the same respect as familial bonds and true love. This is a series about a family chosen, not just born.”

From “Asking for a Friend” by Gwenda Bond

“To be human is to wrestle with two related but contrasting ideas: that our nature is inherently compassionate but that we will act without compassion often, and we must accept not only that it has happened before but also that it will happen again. Fundamentally, then, to be human is to know what is good, to be tempted by what is evil, and to choose to strive, over and over again, for the former over the latter.”

From “Villains, Valentine, and Virtue” by Scott Tracey

“the risk of dying young, being a Shadowhunter, being mortal, gets associated with divinity, with the way that things should be. And on the other hand, immortality is linked to the infernal.”

“One of the things that we sometimes forget about immortality is that it’s not invulnerability. Death can come to all the immortals in the world of the Mortal Instruments.”

From “Immortality and Its Discontents” by Kelly Link and Holly Black

“Blood doesn’t matter. Tradition doesn’t matter, and following the accustomed forms and rules of family doesn’t matter. Love is what matters. Love is the song you hear even while you sleep, and you know you are healed, adn safe, and where you belong.”

“We need more scandalous books by deviant wenches.”

From “What Does the Deviant Wench Think She’s Doing? Or, Shadowhunters Gone Wild” by Sarah Rees Brennan

We’re still madly writing our Red fan fiction, Taylor Swift: Know You Better, over on Wattpad. We’ve reached track 8, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” and we’re celebrating the halfway point by offering a contest for our amazing Wattpad readers! So if you’re a Wattpadder, head over and enter — you could win a copy of Taylor Swift: The Platinum Edition and a cameo in a future story! (Plus you get to see everyone’s favourite lyrics in the comments, which is super fun.)

And while we’re talking fanfic and the awesomeness of our readers, take a few minutes to watch this awesome trailer that Hilda Therese made for Know You Better.