Cassandra Clare was born on July 27, 1973, in Teheran, Iran, and spent much of her childhood travelling the world with her family. Her real name is Judith Rumelt, and Cassandra Clare is her pen name. After college, she lived in Los Angeles and New York where she worked at various entertainment magazines. She started working on The Mortal Instruments series in 2004 and became a full-time author in 2006. Her first novel, City of Bones, was published in 2007 and received numerous awards including An American Library Association Teens Top Ten Award in 2008, the Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award in 2010, and the Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Readers Choice Award in 2010. She is also the author of the Infernal Devices series and Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd.