Yearly Archives: 2008

ALA was fun! Thanks for all the awesome librarians who stopped by and said hello! I think I have recovered now from signing so many books. The first time I ever got carpal tunnel syndrome was when I wrote the first Au Pairs book. Motha-fracking hand HURT after that—I think I was writing so fast, and it was the first time I had to turn in a book in three month’s time. Funnily enough, that was the first and last time it happened—I think my muscles just got used to the strain. Because they don’t throb now.

Anyway, speaking of things that throb—Mo Willems is the heart-throb rockstar of the Library Convention! I mean, librarians were SWOONING over him. And seriously, when I saw him at the Hyperion cocktail party I was like, “Who is that guy? He looks like McDreamy!” No, he is Mo Dreamy! And who is he you ask? Well, if you are under the age of five, you know the answer to that. He’s like the uber-bestselling award-winning writer of all things Pigeon and Knuffle Bunny and Elephant and Piggie. Anyway, he’s also really nice. And his line (of people who wanted his autograph) put all the other author’s lines TO SHAME. And he was signing T-shirts! (One librarian came up to my line afterwards and was like, “He signed my shirt! Sigh…” as if he were Jon Bon Jovi and he’d just John Hancocked her chest!) If you click on the link and look at the pics, they do not do the Mo justice, btw.

Mo was my biggest star sighting, next to Jon Scieszka (Stinky Cheese Man, Smash Crash) who also has that rockstar sheen at ALA—it’s all about the length of your LINE man, and these two dudes were like the biggest stars at the convention. I loved it.

Mike and I had a blast. I had my hair blown out for the first time in months (oh the days in New York when it happened every day) and my hair right now is BLONDE. Kind of scary. I didn’t plan on being blonde, but my stylist got a little excited (he was also doing Kimora Lee Simmons’ hair that day—she’s REALLY tall) and put in way too many highlights. So now I’m a California blonde. Then I wore a cute little Jane Mayle dress and my new backwards Marc Jacobs heels – you know, the one where the heel is at the bottom of the toe facing the wrong way, so the shoe kind of hangs in the air, it’s such a Dada shoe, more a sculpture than footwear really—j’adore. Mine are the brown suede with orange leather piping, not the shoe in the link. I can’t find a picture of my shoes, but they ROCK. Mike wore his new Helmut Lang suit and looked so handsome. (Mike Dreamy? I have to, right?) Not many guys can pull off the Helmut. You have to have the skinny artsy Euro look, it’s basically MADE for architects.

At one point I was seated across the people who wrote “Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!” and they also had the mega-line. My editor explained that they had just won a little something called The Caldecott. (Which is the huge best-book medal given to kids books.)

I’m not an awards-whore. Which is lucky for me, since my books are not the awards-type. In fact, while it is gratifying that the Blue Bloods books have been lauded so much (someone at the convention told me it was on the Nevada Best Books list—yay), it’s just icing. I’ve never liked the Academy Award movies (Atonement—argh—that movie blew! puh-leeze!) or the books we’re all supposed to be reading that win all those literary prizes (Although I do love Jhumpha Lahiri and Junot Diaz). In fact just the word “literary” makes my skin crawl, because it’s just rooted in this cultural snobbishness that dismisses so much of what I like, like Bridget Jones or um…novelizations.

‘Cause you know, you’re not supposed to like things that actually give you pleasure and make you turn the pages. And you’re REALLY not supposed to like books that are total whore-products as in, let’s suck-out-every-last-dime-from-this-stupid-consumer. Like Star Wars novelizations. But I was a kid and I didn’t have that mindset, and I really, really enjoyed them. (The first one is even written by George Lucas himself! And if I remember correctly gives us a lot of info on Wedge Antilles, Luke’s friend, who ends up to be a tiny character in the movies but had a bigger role in the novel. Really cool.) I even bought the awful Phantom Menace novelization when it came out – big mistake. (Not all novelizations are equal.) I also used to read the Star Wars book series, but haven’t picked it up in a long time (because one has to have time to have a life!!). But the other day I saw the new one: Star Wars: Revelation (coincidence?? I think not! LOL) and read the back and read about Darth Cadeus, who is apparently Jacen Solo, the son of Han and Leia who ends up on the Dark Side.  And I was SORELY tempted to get sucked back into the galaxy far, far away. I mean, DARTH CADEAUS!!! How can you resist?

And speaking of novelizations, my FAVORITE one ever was Robotech End of the Circle. It is actually one of my favorite books of all time. Oh yeah, when people ask me what my favorite book is I’ll say War and Peace. Because W&P is actually one of my favorites and it sounds better to say Tolstoy is your favorite rather than reveal that one’s favorite book is Robotech: End of the Circle, a book that is a novelization of a cartoon.

That’s right. A novelization of a cartoon.

But it was anime! I’ll protest. LOL.

This is a book that was most likely written by a humble ghostwriter toiling for a “despised” book packager. But it is well-written and awesome pawsome. Good writing comes in many shapes and forms. You should check out all the Robotech novelizations too. They rock. And how great that they are bringing Robotech to the big screen??? I can’t wait!

Am I your Internet Best Friend? By that, do you know more about my life than those of your real friends? That’s okay. I have lots of Internet Best Friends too. This guy is my new IBFF: And here’s his blog on why cultural snobbishness sucks. And I love that his name is Prince.

Anyway, I have fun surprises and announcements coming up vis a vis the poetry contest and Revelations publication. So tune in, Tokyo!

xoxo
Mel

Hey kids,

Those of you fabulous librarians attending the annual ALA conference in Anaheim this weekend, come over and say hello!

I’ll be signing at several booths on Saturday, June 28th:

11am – 12 noon Simon & Schuster Autographing Booth #2449
1-2pm, Hyperion Autographing Booth #2555 (Giving away Masquerade AND the Revelations chapter samplers!)
2-3pm BWI/Follett Autographing Booth #2234

Then I’m waltzing off to check into the Grand Californian hotel right smack in the middle of California Adventure, and then later that evening hob-nobbing with the other fabulous Disney authors at the swanky cocktail reception and then going off to the “Family” dinner, which is for staff and authors only. Dontcha love it? I love Momma Disney. We even got one-day park hoppers to go to the Disneyland parks! Yeahhh boyyy.

So when am I going to email the chapter sneak peeks? I don’t know yet. Hyperion has not given me the go-ahead yet. But I promise to send them as soon as I get the green-light.

I’m so excited for ALA, I’ve never been, and life has been really fabulous lately. And it’s awful because I can’t blog about it because I have such a big mouth. All I’ll say is the other day I had a super-awesome lunch with a beyond fawsome celebrity, who was just as gorgeous, NICE and funny as she is on television, and it was like girls just hanging out…and then last weekend we were invited over to stay at one of my husband’s client’s vacation homes, which was like staying at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water (you know the most famous house in America. Well this is the second most famous and historical house in the country—architectural buffs can probably guess where we were). The whole thing was kind of like a dream. Everything was so perfect and beautiful, and if you had told Mike and I that our lives would be THIS fun and fabulous when we were striving over-achievers in New York twelve years ago, we would have said…

You bet your ass!

I remember when I was twenty-two and my friend Morgan and I were invited to a party thrown by his neighbors next door, and Morgan lived in an East Village tenement, and it was so funny because the people next door were in their 30s and their party was lame and lights were on, and everyone kind of had that starting-to-be-fat look. And Morgan and I were only there for the FREE DRINKS. Back then we would travel ANYWHERE for a free cocktail. I still have this mentality. I’ll look at an invite and go, “Hmm, there’s a party for some lame boutique an hour away. But I kind of want to go, for FREE COCKTAILS.” I mean, c’mon.

Anyway, Morgan and I were surreptitiously drinking all their alcohol, and we were talking about what a lovely apartment it was compared to Morgan’s light-less hovel. (I don’t even remember if his place had any windows!) And this place was triple the size of his, which made it easily one of the larger apartments we had seen in New York at that time. And Morgan said he would KILL for a place like this and would be happy if in ten years he had one of these apartments.

And I looked at him, and said ARE YOU KIDDING? IF I’M LIVING IN A NON-ELEVATOR NO-DOORMAN BUILDING IN TEN YEARS ON THE FIRST FLOOR IN THE EAST VILLAGE YOU MIGHT AS WELL SHOOT ME!

I mean…REALLY.

What is the point of having no life in high school so one can go to a fancy Ivy League college and then graduate so you can sweat it out at some bank while working feverishly on your novels and working all the time…just to end up THERE?

No friggin’ way.

Which doesn’t take anything away from all the fun things that are happening now, believe me I don’t take anything for granted.

So work hard, dream big, and don’t ever think that you’re not worthy of a full-service pre-war building in Manhattan. You might not end up there, but you’ll end up somewhere close.

In other starfracker news, a Beastie Boy just moved in across the street. (Mike said hi to him yesterday when they were both taking out the trash for garbage day.) And you know Captain Kirk lives up the hill yes? It’s nice here in LA-LA-LAND.

xoxo
Mel

I will be accepting poems until June 20th at midnight. After that, any poems sent in will be read but not considered eligible for the contest.

Winners will be announced the week after July 4th. You’ve got to give me time to read them all! There are so many!

Also: PLEASE do not send me your stuff (novels, short stories, etc) to read. I can’t read them for legal reasons, so please don’t send them to me. Maybe one day I will teach a writing class and will invite you all to join, but that day is not today. I’m so glad so many of you want to be writers, and I ENCOURAGE you to follow your dreams and write your way to success. But I cannot provide feedback on your writing.

I will however, post all 35 winners on the blog and provide reasons on why I chose those poems!

It’s SCORCHING out here. It was 100 degrees outside. I was sweating in my own house! And we had the A/C turned up all the way to eleven. Hopefully the installation of our faaahbulous Knoll curtains on all the windows will ameliorate the situation. We practically live in a glass house there are windows everywhere. Which is kind of funny. When we lived in New York we had TWO windows for the entire apartment. And all New Yorkers craved LIGHT, LIGHT, LIGHT. And now in LA we have TOO MUCH light.

Speaking of ‘ameliorate’ I got a snotty email from a disgruntled dude who’d stumbled on my books in the library, read them, and wanted to let me know he thought I was showing off my vocabulary by putting words like “ameliorate” in my books. Showing off my vocabulary??? Is all I do!!! I distinctly remember when I LEARNED the word “ameliorate” which means to IMPROVE OR RESOLVE things. I just liked that word a lot. And I put it in all my books. I also like the phrase “well-appointed home”. I think I also put THAT in all my books. All the rooms in my books are well-appointed. LOL.

It’s kind of funny to be dinged on my vocab, since in person, I’m just like, you know, talking like this all the time and incredibly casual. I never use big words. EVER. Mostly because I didn’t grow up here, so I don’t know how most words are SUPPOSED to sound. And I ALWAYS say them wrong. For instance, I say “woooned” for “wound” and pronounce the “L” in “almond” and “salmon”. And kind of end up looking like an idiot like that Nomi in Showgirls who says “Ver-says.” I never seem simply FOREIGN, like quirky cute French people because I have an American accent so people assume I should know better. There are tons more words I mispronounce. To the amusement of first, my college friends, and now, my husband. I also say stuff like “Open the TV!” and “Close the light!” which really bugs him. He thinks our daughter will grow up talking like a fracking foreigner but really, she will grow up correcting her mother like my siblings and I did for our parents and laughing in their (my) face.

Anyway. A reader in Shaghai just emailed me my favorite new word; Fahhwwwsome – a combination of Fabulous and Awesome. Which are two of my favorite words! Hey, that is simply, fawsome!

xoxo
Mel

Welcome Turkish Blue Bloods!

I just learned that a Turkish publisher has just picked up the rights to publish Blue Bloods and Masquerade in Turkey! Hooray!

The books are also published in France and Germany. (The Au Pair is published in ten countries. So those other seven, what are you guys waiting for? LOL.)

Things are good over here. I finally FINALLY ***FINALLY!!!!!!*** finished REVELATIONS. Sent the copyedit and all the additions and fixes off to my editor today. Excuse me while I collapse.

Woohoo!!

I have a good feeling about this book. But you know, I have a good feeling about ALL my books. I stand behind each one. I do the best I can, I push myself as hard as I can, and as much effort goes into the books that have not sold as well (I’m looking at YOU, How to become Famous and Fresh off the Boat) as the books that sell like gang-busters (The Au Pairs and Blue Bloods series).

I just hope you all enjoy it. And I have sneaky feeling you will, because *I* very MUCH enjoyed writing it. Although it was much much harder to write than Masquerade. Revelations is my FOURTEENTH novel. Isn’t that crazy? You would HOPE I get better with each one. And I would hope that you are right.

Anyway, your poems are awesome pawsome. And I’ve gotten requests to SHARE the poems I wrote when I was a teenager, so I hunted down my old journals in my library. And I found one from my senior year in high school. All I can say is: YIKES!!! Do you really REALLY want me to share?? I felt SICK with embarrassment reading them. I don’t know if I’m ready!

But I thought I would share some of the “inspirational” quotes I found written in the inside of the cover. When I was seventeen I was BIG on inspirational quotes.

“Writers read everything with a grinding envy or a weary contempt.”  – John D. Macdonald—> I like this quote a lot. I think it explains a lot about writers. You either wish you’d written it, or you totally dismiss it ‘cos it’s terrible. Writers: we are not nice people.

Anyway, here are some quotes about writing poetry:

“True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance,
‘Tis not enough no harshness give offense,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense.”
-Alexander Pope

(This quote was from my Freshman English poetry book called “Sound and Sense”. Do you guys still use this in high school? My copy is so marked up.)

And another quote about poetry:

“A poem should be equal to,
Not true.
For all the history of grief,
An empty doorway and a maple leaf.
For love,
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea,
A poem should not mean
But be.”

-Archibald MacLeish

The above was my favorite FAVORITE poem when I was seventeen. I always loved those images of the empty doorway as a sign for grief and the leaning grasses signifying love. Sigh.

But here’s my favorite quote inscribed in my journal from 1989:

“People are so sodding thick and selfish. I’m selfish, but at least I admit it.” – Ian McCulloch

Ian was (is?) the lead singer of my favorite favorite FAVORITE band when I was seventeen: Echo and the Bunnymen. I saw the Bunnymen in concert when I was 15. I swooned. I love the quote because I am still like that. I’M SELFISH. BUT AT LEAST I ADMIT IT!  LOL.

And I still also love THIS quote which reminds me of how YOUNG I was:

“Ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?” – The Joker, “Batman” the Movie—-> This is exactly how I wrote it in my journal. I find this terribly, terribly hilarious. Because, I mean, what a corny line, right? And it’s from some big Hollywood movie! But you know, if I were a teenager today, I think the line I would inscribe in my journal is “Go get ‘em Tiger!” – Mary-Ann, “Spiderman 2” the Movie. (I mean, wasn’t that an AWESOME thing for her to say? I LOVED that. And there’s something about this quote about Batman that I like, about dancing with the devil, and the pale moonlight. I dunno. I still like it.

And what’s wrong with Hollywood movies? Hollywood movies are awesome. I loved loved LOVED Sex and the City, Iron Man and You Don’t Mess With the Zohan. Indiana Jones was lame.

Here’s one that also shows how young I was:

“I’ll make your heart smile” – Depeche Mode, “Strangelove”

You know how I always have quotes in front of my books? It’s because when I grew up I read a lot of Stephen King and he ALWAYS put song quotes as epigraphs. And it was so cool, because he wouldn’t quote from boring old texts, but rather from pop songs. I really loved that about his books.

Because there is NOTHING worse than being a culture snob.

Anyway, one more week left in the poetry contest! I hope my quotes have inspired you!

xoxo
Mel

I’m sorry I haven’t blogged in a while. It’s because I’m STILL writing REVELATIONS. And it comes out in October? Uh. Yeah! There’s so much MAJOR stuff going on and I just want to make sure I get it right, so I’m just sweating out the last hundred pages to make sure it all hangs together.

The other day we had brunch with our favorite TV writer friends, and they were talking about THE PRESSURE of making sure your script is all right. And I thought, oh, that must be really hard. Because I don’t feel that pressure really. And then I thought WHAT THE FRACK AM I TALKING ABOUT? OF COURSE I FEEL PRESSURE. I FEEL SO MUCH PRESSURE I HAVE GAINED TEN POUNDS AND AM BREAKING OUT!

And all the pressure comes from me. You know how when you raise kids, you’re supposed to try and get them to ACHIEVE stuff so that in the end, they’re working hard not to please their parents, but to PLEASE THEMSELVES? So yeah, I guess my parents did a really good job because all the pressure I feel is FROM ME.

The thing is, I reject stress. I think of writing as easy, and la-di-dah, who cares what anyone thinks about my writing, zoom zoom zoom. Not caring what anyone thinks is a great way to function. Because it allows you to be free.

But I forgot that I really care what *I* think.

And the book just isn’t up to MY STANDARDS yet.

Hence the last-minute rewrites. And the hair-pulling. And the sleepless nights.

When I was a club kid, dancing at 6am at the Sound Factory (um yeah, I used to get up at five in the morning to GO CLUBBING. Now that was the WAY TO LIVE, my friends) we use to dance to this song called “THE PRESSURE”. And it had this gospel beat and this hypnotic techno-umsk, umsk, umsk thing and when they put on THE PRESSURE everyone would RUN to the dancefloor and GO WILD. It was really fun. So now this song is the sound track to this book..

(Okaaay. How much do I love the Internet? I have been looking for this song to re-live my clubbing days and here it is: The Pressure by Sounds of Blackness, Junior (“If Madonna Calls”) Vasquez remix!!! Yeaaah boyyy!!!)

“My back is against the wall,
more bills than money can pay (sing it, sistah!)
but I know just who to call (Madonna?)
when I gotta fight..
THE PRESSURE, THE PRESSURE, THE PRESSURE of the world…
Umsk, Umsk, Umsk,
THE PRESSURE, THE PRESSURE, THE PRESSURE of the world!”

Wow. That was really fun. For a second there it was 1991 and I was in a wifebeater tanktop with ropes of fake pearls and cutoff shorts and fishnets and Doc Martens dancing in the middle of sweaty club with my gays and we were so young and fabulous and fee-yerce. (By the way I love that fashion line Young, Broke and Fabulous. Says it all!)

You know what else is fun? YOUR POEMS. Oh mah gawd. You guys are beyond awesome. And yes, I will share my juvenellia (spelling?)—I just found my journal from high school. Lots of mawkish poetry. Good times.

And in other news, I just finished LOVE THE ONE YOU’RE WITH by Emily Giffin. I heart Emily Giffin. There is just something about her books that are so great. I think it’s because she really gets you into the mindset of the character. And she just gets so many details right—like how people act and where they shop and how they talk. Good stuff.

On a totally DIFFERENT note I also devoured Elizabeth Scott’s LIVING DEAD GIRL, which was harrowing, wrenching, disturbing and unputdownable. Really dark, awful stuff but written so beautifully. You must read this book also. It comes out in September. I really believe in evil in this world, that it is a real thing you have to watch out for, all the time. My husband says I am neurotic and paranoid, but as they say, Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.

I am the type who RUNS home from the cab to the front door anytime I got home late, or even starts RUNNING down the street even if no one is chasing me. Right now we have this super-maximum burglar alarm that will emit a decibel-blasting SHRIEK if any of our motion-detectors are set off. When I lived in New York I never took the subway at night alone. I had five locks on my door. Now I always valet at the mall because of parking-lot kidnapping. I *ALWAYS* believe the worst is around the corner, and that a happy safe life comes from VIGILANCE. My husband (a confident American who grew up in a family that NEVER LOCKED THEIR DOORS. They DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE THE KEY IS. I mean, the first time I slept in their house I was convinced axe murderers were coming to get me), anyway, he thinks I live in fear. And you know what? I do. But it’s not a crippling fear. I mean, I fly, I go out at night, I do stuff. But I try to do it in a way that won’t make anyone ever think that I am a target. I believe that bad things happen. And that’s why Elizabeth’s book is so scary. Because very very bad things happen. So you must do everything you can do to make sure they don’t happen to you.

Oh man, sober note to end this blog!

And I was just dancing around to THE PRESSURE and missing my old friends. Anyway, back to work.

xoxo
Mel

Woo! Poems are flooding in—so much fun to see! I’m not going to read any until the last day of the contest (June 20th!) since I want to read them all at the same time and make my decisions then.

And because EVERYONE is a winner in MY books, even if you don’t get to win the chapter sampler, if you simply entered the contest we will send you something good. No one writes a poem for nothing! 🙂

In answer to a commenter’s question -yes, even if you are in a foreign country you are free to join the contest! We ship airmail over here at the Meldlc offices.

I wrote a long and detailed BEA blog but I mistakenly closed that window before saving it. Ugh! So now you are getting the short version. Kathleen Duey! Elizabeth Scott! Neil Gaiman! I wore a Balenciaga floral dress and Louboutin glitter heels on Friday and a Trina Turk mod tunic and Proenza for Target white pants on Sunday.

Send in your poems!
xoxo
Mel

Hi all,

I’ve got good news and bad news.  The bad news is that the Blue Bloods: Revelations sneak-peeks haven’t arrived in your In-Box. I’m sorry!!!! It turns out I spoke too soon—I found out there are some clearances my publisher still needs to secure before I can send. Hopefully we will be able to send soon, I’ll keep you posted!

But the GOOD news is that I have about THIRTY-FIVE of the printed four-chapter samplers that we gave away yesterday at BEA – it was soooo awesome to meet all the girls from the Blue Bloods message boards: Team Fabulous: Amanda, Rhiannon, Alyssa and Kady, and I also loved meeting Brittany, Alyssa, Patricia, and all the girls who got their families to fly or drive them all the way to see me!! It was so so SO much fun to meet all of you.

So I have all these copies of Revelations: The First Four Chapters to give out. How can you get your hot little hands on them? By entering the BLUE BLOODS POETRY CONTEST!

Here are the rules:

1. You can enter as many poems as possible, but can only win ONCE.

2. Poems can be in any form: free verse, haiku, villanelle, epic, Dr. Seuss-style, whathaveyou.

3. Poems should be spell-checked. If your words are spelled correctly that gives you huge ups. I don’t mind misuse of capitalization so much—e.e. cummings never capitalized and did niFTy things like THis. But I do have to say, it is easier to read correctly capitalized verse. So, up to you.

4. Poems should be about the Blue Bloods universe. Or in the voice of a Blue Bloods character. Up to you. You could pen a poem about Jack’s hotness, Mimi’s bitchiness, a ballad to Schuyler and Oliver, or about Michael and Gabrielle, anything you can come up with. Or you could write a poem in the voice of a character. (Just make a note of who is supposed to be speaking.)

5. I’m looking for creativity and polish, but also humor and originality. I was a huge poetry-entrant when I was in high school (and won a bunch), so I think this is a fun experiment.

6. We’ll post the best poems on the site of course. We will have a grand prize, a first runner-up and a third-runner up, who will receive goodie-bags from my vast goodie-bag closet as well as the chapter samplers.

7. Poems are due by June 20th.

8. Poems should be e-mailed to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with the subject header: POETRY CONTEST.

Good luck! I can’t wait to read what you come up with!

And just to answer future questions: YES, I WILL send the sneak-peeks before the book comes out, I just don’t know WHEN yet. I’m really sorry about getting everyone’s hopes up. But I do hope to fix this situation SOON.

xoxo
Mel

Just a reminder that I’ll be signing books at BEA this year for Hyperion and Simon and Schuster.

The Hyperion signing, where we will be giving out copies of the chapter samplers of REVELATIONS, is this Friday (May 30th) at 2PM. I will be at Table Four in the Autographing Area.

For Simon and Schuster I will be signing copies of The Ashleys: Jealous? on Sunday (June 1) at 10:30 AM at Table Fourteen in the Autographing Area.

So come see me—and lots of other awesome authors—Sherman Alexie, Neil Gaiman, etc are all going to be at the expo!

xoxo
Mel

It’s a happy Friday.

First off, gay marriage has now been legalized in Cali! Woo-hoo! Now all my dear friends can get married and I can subject them to bridal showers and coffee pots and raunchy bachelorette parties in Atlantic City via white limo and homemade Comsos (oh yeah that’s how I rolled when I got hitched) everything they did for me when I got married. When Mike and I got married, I was paralyzed by guilt that we could get married while so many of our best friends could not. It is a human rights issue people!! And here in Cali we have stem cell research and emissions laws and now gay marriage. Yeah! Our closest friends are a circle of gay couples, most of whom have been together as long as Mike and I have been, and yet Mike and I are the only ones who have tied the knot with the requisite blowout and New York Times wedding announcement. Oh yeah, we made it into the paper. Suck it! Just kidding.

You do know the hoo-ha that goes into getting into the Times wedding announcements yes? You know how in Sex and the City Charlotte dances around when they hear that she made it? Well, that’s exactly what happened to us too. There was dancing. There was smugness. As a social highlight I would say getting your announcement in the Times is like getting into an Ivy League school. It means absolutely nothing and absolutely everything at the same time. To those of us who grew up with dads who put “ALL3IVY” on their license plates because all three of his progeny went to schools in the same ancient athletic league, getting into the Times was a big deal. Especially since my sister, who got married first, got her announcement in too. So there was MEGA pressure when I got hitched. Would we make it? Yes we did. Next to the Veuve Clicquot we served at the reception (one of the things I always remember fondly was drinking a glass of champagne at our wedding and thinking HOLY COW! THEY SPENT ON THIS SH-T! and then realizing *we* had doled out the dollars for the yellow boys and laughing maniacally). The second fondest memory was of floating away on our honeymoon with a copy of the Times, our announcement (with photo!) safely tucked under the seat.

I’m in a good mood. My cold has finally abated. And yes, I’m sorry this and the latest posts have been a bit delirious. (A commenter said delusional—but I think delirious is the more apropos word.) I’m just a bit giddy. It’s summer. I have copyedits due and a fun fun fun new novel to write- my new series GIRL STAYS IN THE PICTURE, which we’re kind of calling the “GIRL” series (it used to be called Social Life).

Btw, if you have emailed me BEFORE December 2007 and you have not yet received a reply, then email me again. Because I am now caught up with all the emails and everyone up to December 2007 should have received a reply unless you changed your email address or your email to me ended up in Spam for some reason. I’m hoping to be FULLY caught up in the next week or so. So bring ‘em on!

xoxo
Mel

I just got my schedule for BEA – so all you Blue Bloods fans who are coming to the convention—I’ll be signing on Friday, May 30th from 2-2:30 PM at the Traditional Autographing Area – Table 4.

I heard the chapter samplers of Revelations looks fabulous!! And I’ll be running a contest to give them away to five lucky winners. Will let you know what the contest is and how you can win soon.

Still sick over here. And finished the Host. Now am moving on to Charles Bock’s Beautiful Children. I love the title. But before I can get to that book, I finally got the copy-edit back on Revelations!!!! Yeaaahhh Boyyyy!!! When I was in college my friends and I always said this to each other when we were psyched about something. Weren’t we dorky? And yet we thought we were SO cool. A friend of mine writes that he was just looking at photos from college, and said it was like looking at shots of junior high when he was in college. Everyone looked so young and awkward. “I know I wasn’t that cool. But I had some cool friends. And yet no one looks cool. Sorry, friends.” Well. I have to disagree. I looked at photos from college too. And yes, we did look YOUNG. But looking at the shot of me in my vintage pajama top and black silk jersey pants, I have to disagree on the awkward jibe. Okay, so maybe I needed to pluck those eyebrows better. Hmpf. Btw, this is why stars in their 30s can still play high-school kids. Because you can look young for a LONG time because people who are actually in their late teens and early 20s look TWELVE. But on another tangent, don’t you think everyone actually looks the best when they are older? Like Demi Moore? and Sarah Jessica Parker? Although when I think of this argument, Blake Lively’s gorgeous face comes to mind, and I sigh.

Btw, isn’t Gossip Girl AAHHHSOME??? Can Chace Crawford BE any hotter?? I loved that shot when he was standing in a suit and some kind of unbuttoned shirt with the cuffs peeking out, when he was telling Vanessa he was going to take the subway. SWOON!! And I love Nate and Vanessa. I also love Chuck and Blair. I think Chuck is kind of my favorite. Although I also like Dan although c’mon, would anyone be THAT stupid? Especially Mr. Top of His Class boy? And I love all the bags and what they’re wearing and Blair’s flowered headbands. And I love how Little J got caught in the Valentino. Hilarious. But what up with the dorky-cool Asian girl they are hanging out with now? Nelly Yuki? Why does the Asian girl have to be dorky? Ugh. So unrealistic. When I was at Columbia the hottest girls in class were Korean and Chinese. And not Asian-girl hot like in Mean Girls where they all hung out with only other Asians and spoke in a foreign language. They were all-American down to the offhand Nantucket wardrobe and low, gravelly Northeastern prep school accents. I paid homage to two of them in Masquerade (the Chinese twins.). Anyway, even though the show is still depicting minorities as hard-working dorky kids, I still kind of heart the show a little more than the books now. I thought it was funny how Blair and Serena made fun of Nelly Yuki’s name because it was kind of fun to say it aloud. My friends and I used to do that, with Jennie Kim, my BFF, and it’s not even as funny a name as Nellie Yuki but we always called her JENNIEKIM!!! One-name-only. Which is still fun to say. You have to be able to laugh at yourself. When I was in collage the cutest guy freshman year called me Melissa DE LA SOUL!!! all the time because De La Soul was really big then.

Do you remember de la Soul? They sang Me Myself and I, and Jennifer Oh Jennie (which we also used to sing to Jennie all the time. I still do.) Why weren’t they in the Forgotten Nineties Band? Oh and when Lisa Loeb on Gossip Girl played Stay I totally remembered being nineteen and being in love with this boy who transferred to another college, and he was one of my best friends, and we were in love but didn’t tell each other and I remember hanging out with him and helping him pack and all I played on his Sony cassette was that album from reality bites, with “STAY” over and over again thinking he would get the message. He didn’t. He left. We’re still great friends, btw. And he’s great friends with my husband. Which is funny how that happens, but nice too.

In fact lots of boys I used to be in love with are still my friends now. And no, of course I’m not in love with them anymore! Mike and I have been together for twelve years and really, our relationship is so much work there is no time to even think of anyone else. I once asked Mike during the Spitzer scandal if every guy really is that sex-obsessed and he said maybe those guys who go into politics are, since power+sex is a thrilling combo, but he’s never been a power-hungry guy. He said the most cheating he would ever do would probably be buying lots of expensive modern furniture behind my back. LOL. So girls, marry architects not politicians. And no, my husband does not read my blog. Because if he did he would die of embarrassment and he’s too cool to tell me what I can and can’t write. In fact, the ONLY time he ever read my blog was when I said that Philippe Starck, this designer is like “a god in our house because Mike is an architect”. And Mike totally freaked out because it’s just not true—I mean, it’s true in a sense, but not really true. Because apparently saying something like that makes Mike very very uncool. And Mike is like Paulie Bleecker from Juno. He’s very cool. (And he tries really really hard. Which is cool because it’s so earnest. Which is even better than cool. You know? Mike is my Paulie Bleecker.) So I told him, okay, first off, none of your architect friends or clients read my blog. And if there ARE readers who are architects which I highly doubt, since my readers are mega shopper vampire fashion and book freaks, but anyway if any architect is reading this, Mike would just like to clarify that while he likes Philippe Starck’s stuff, he does not think he is a god.

Anyway, I should get to that copyedit now, and putting together the sneak peeks!

I think we will shoot to have the sneak-peeks out by May 30th, the same day that the BEA people get their hands on the chapter samples. So if you haven’t signed up for the newsletter yet, do so today!

xoxo
Mel