Mortal Instruments author Cassandra Clare will collaborate on a digital short story series called The Bane Chronicles, working with The Lynburn Legacy author Sarah Rees Brennan and The Name of the Star author Maureen Johnson.
This spin-off series, set in Clare’s “Shadownhunters” universe, profiles the character Magnus Bane. Margaret K. McElderry Books, an imprint at Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, will publish the first title in February 2013. Each of the ten Bane installments will come out on a monthly basis leading up to the release of The Mortal Instruments film adaptation. In 2014, the publisher will release a single volume containing all ten stories.
Here’s more from Publishers Weekly: “The novelty of this approach is new enough, Galen said, that S&S is having to do some things ‘on the fly.’ Unfamiliar with this type of schedule, which invokes Aaron Sorkin more than Charles Dickens, S&S is, Galen explained, still working out ‘the whole process of delivery, editing, and distribution.’ Also being worked out, albeit in a different way, is how readers will take to this model. Given the growing number of options to deliver staggered content in a quick manner, projects like The Bane Chronicles are cropping up more frequently.”
In the past, Clare (pictured, via) and Johnson both submitted short story pieces for a horror anthology called Vacations From Hell. Clare and Brennan contributed to a vampire anthology called The Eternal Kiss. Earlier this year, Clare announced a middle-grade fantasy project that she will be working on with The Spiderwick Chronicles author Holly Black. In her personal life, Clare enjoys a great friendship with all of her writing partners.