Cassandra Rose Clarke: Getting to know the characters

May 2, 2014 Author Feature, Blog Tour 22

Cassandra Rose Clarke joins us today as part of her Blog Tour for THE WIZARD’S PROMISE, to tell us a little bit about the characters we can expect to meet in the first book of her Hannah Duology. This book is set in the same world as THE ASSASSIN’S CURSE.


The Wizards Promise

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I’m nearing the end of the blog tour for The Wizard’s Promise, and although I’ve had ample opportunities to discuss Hanna—which makes sense, seeing as how she’s the main character and as such is definitely the focus of the book—I’d like to take a chance to talk a bit about some of the other characters from the novel. I’d like you have the chance to get to know them a bit more. I will try to keep things relatively spoiler-free, though!

Kolur: So this is Hanna’s apprentice master. He’s an old fisherman (well, old in Hanna’s view, anyway) and friends with Hanna’s mother, a former pirate. He’s got a secret. A big, big secret, and when Hanna finally discovers it—well, she’s not sure how to react. Because it’s that kind of secret.

Frida: A friend of Kolur’s that Hanna meets after their fishing boat gets blown off course. She’s a rather mysterious one: a witch who seems to know more than she lets on. (That’s a common theme with the adults in Hanna’s life: they always tend to know more, and be more, then they let on.) Hanna has a complicated relationship with Frida. As a witch, Frida is living Hanna’s dream—but her secretiveness makes Hanna wary. Still, she does teach Hanna a handful of spells.

Asbera & Finnur: I feel a little bad grouping these two together, but I also don’t think they’d really mind. Asbera and Finnur are a young couple Hanna meets once she parts ways with Kolur, and they prove to be an absolutely steadfast pair of friends when she needs them most. When I was writing the story and got to the point where Hanna meets them, I just felt so bad for her and everything she’d gone through that I knew she needed to have a couple of allies. Both of them fish for a living, just like Hanna does, and they help her adjust to the strange new island where she’s having to make her way. Asbera in particular has a fondness in my heart.

Isolfr: And finally, we come to Isolfr. He’s the mysterious boy in the water, and Hanna has no idea what to make of him.

Isolfr was a really fun character for me to write, both as a potential love interest and as a non-human character. Because I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to mention that he’s non-human: after all, Hanna initially sees him swimming in freezing Arctic waters in the middle of the night. Not typical human behavior, really. What was fun about writing him was trying to find a balance between exploring his other-worldliness and grounding him enough that Hanna’s initial attraction to him feels based in reality. I also didn’t want him to be too perfect, a problem with a lot of non-human love interests, and so I found I had to toss a third aspect into the mix. And now that the book is out there in the world, I hope you all read enjoy reading about him as much as I enjoyed writing him.

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Hits shelves May 6, 2014 from Strange Chemistry

Cassandra Rose Clarke

Cassandra Rose Clarke grew up in south Texas and currently lives in a suburb of Houston, where she writes and teaches composition at a local college. She graduated in 2006 from The University of St. Thomas with a B.A. in English, and two years later she completed her master’s degree in creative writing at The University of Texas at Austin. In 2010 she attended the Clarion West Writer’s Workshop in Seattle, where she was a recipient of the Susan C. Petrey Clarion Scholarship Fund.

Cassandra’s first adult novel, The Mad Scientist’s Daughter, was a finalist for the 2013 Philip K. Dick Award, and her YA novel, The Assassin’s Curse, was nominated for YALSA’s 2014 Best Fiction for Young Adults. Her short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons and Daily Science Fiction.

The Wizard’s Promise (Hanna Duology #1)

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Tabitha (Pabkins)

When I'm in the zone I can flip book pages faster than the eye can see - screaming "More Input!" I'm a book, yarn, & art supply hoarding goblin who loves to draw, make toys and craft all sorts of creepy cute things. My current habit is to listen to audio books while I'm arting it up!
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22 Responses to “Cassandra Rose Clarke: Getting to know the characters”

  4. Melliane

    It’s really nice to learn more about the characters like that. I saw the book around a lot, and it makes me curious. thanks for sharing

  7. Jessica @ Rabid Reads

    Lovely to learn more about some of the other characters in this book. Great post, Tabitha! Hopefully one day I’ll get around to reading the Assassin’s books that I already have, and will make my way to this one 😉

  10. Kirsty-Marie

    I haven’t read The Assassin’s Curse yet (I do own it, just haven’t gotten to it), didn’t know there was a spin-off type series either, but always appreciate learning about the other characters involved (because obviously, we always hear about the main leads most of the time)
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