I was driving around yesterday and the iPod spat out TinaMarie’s “Lovergirl”. I heart this song so much. It brings me back to 1985, when we first moved to the U.S. That song should not bring back good memories, because that was a hard year for me and my family…we had to leave Manila and our lovely home and all our things and all our friends and family…but when I hear that song I remember being EXCITED about life… hearing that song on the morning commute to school, my dad at the wheel, I usually got shotgun ‘coz I was the oldest, and even though school was pretty miserable…why is it that when I listen to that song I remember feeling happy?

I think it’s because everyone has an inner life…and my inner life was pretty great, because I loved books and art and music, and even though I was lonely at school and had no friends, I had this wonderful family around me, who treated leaving everything behind and starting anew in America as a Great Adventure. Also, something about that catchy beat and TinaMarie’s tough-girl-rap is so hilariously cheesy and great at the same time.

Anyway, all this is a big introduction to my news: we have ourselves a cover! Oh yes. The Van Alen Legacy has a cover!!!! And it is sooooooo pretty and romantic and gorgeous. I will share once it is 100% done, as we are still tweaking with colors still. But my editor loves it, I love it, my husband loves it, the sales team loves it, so there’s a lot of love going around.

Shooting down more rumors about the Blue Bloods series. Is the Internet a huge game of telephone? You remember that game, you sat in the circle and the first person whispered something to person next to them and so on and so on and then the person at the end has to say what he/she heard. And it’s ALWAYS wrong.

Anyway, the latest rumors are about the Blue Bloods movie. Because I had an animated trailer produced for the third book, there’s a misconception that there is a movie or TV show coming out, and that it might be animated. I am here to say all that is wrong. I produced the trailer in anime style to promote the book. That’s all it is.

And I’m sad to say there is no movie in development. There was a TV show at one point, and we got close enough to getting it made that I was starting to, you know, get that big head that people get when they think their project is actually going to get produced. But the journey to TVland is a very long and very fraught journey, there are so many hoops to jump through, and so very many people have to say YES before you actually get on the network schedule.

We got about midway through the process, with lots of Yes’s piling up, and you know, my head kind of getting HUGE, (oh yes, ask Mike, I was kind of annoying to be around during this time). But then we got stopped cold in our tracks.

A big bad NOPE.

Then pfffftttt—all the air went out of my balloon-sized head.

I got back down to earth. And I think I was sad for a day but then the next week, I was fine. I finished a book, I wrote new outlines, I wrote a new proposal, and I know one day not far in the future, I’ll go on the Hollywood merry-go-round again.

The funny thing is: I’ve been on this road for ten years now. Hollywood is sooo seductive. It’s a dream factory. The first time was with the How to become Famous reality show, that was going to star me and my co-author Karen. We really thought this was going to happen. And then it didn’t. And the movie didn’t get made either. After that, I swore I would never believe anymore. Not until I saw my show on TV or the movie in theaters.

But you know what: I am an eternal optimist. And I BELIEVE. I really thought that by this time, Blue Bloods would be in pilot mode and picked up for series. But we got killed before we could even write a pilot script (the first episode of a show that’s a test episode).

It was a fun couple of months, and the people I met and worked with were awesome, and I know one day, like I said, I’ll get my head puffed up again and maybe my heart broken again. But so what?

I have my books. It was always my dream to be a novelist. The TV show or the movie or whatever comes from it, is just gravy. A bonus.

In the end, it’s the books that are the most important. (Although I don’t mind driving to the studios for meetings: I have to say: it’s ALWAYS a thrill.)

So: The news: No movie. No TV show. At this time. Maybe one day. Who knows?

But what I do know is:

GIRL STAYS IN THE PICTURE is out June 2009!

BLUE BLOODS IV: THE VAN ALEN LEGACY is out September 2009!

WOLF PACT (The awwwwwsome Blue Bloods spinoff about werewolves) is out Spring 2010!

And there will be more Girl books and Blue Bloods books and Wolf Pact books in the future…

In the meanwhile, the iPod is cranking out another fave song: Don’t Stop Believin’!!!! Oh yeah!! (Hold on to that feeeeeeling!!!)

xoxo
Mel