Yearly Archives: 2008

We got a lot of entries about Michael and Gabrielle (aka Charles and Allegra) – I’m so glad you guys find their love story as intriguing as I do! In fact, their story is the crux of the Blue Bloods arc, I think. Why did Gabrielle choose to love a human? Why does Michael ask for her forgiveness? Mmmm…stuff to ponder. You’ll have to read the rest of the series to find out!

This poem reminds me of my own poetry, and I like the last line a lot.

My Unending Love

I loved you, you know
I was devastated when
You chose him
I couldn’t believe you would
Defy our destiny.

I loved you, you know
As I was meant to
You loved me for a time
As well, until
He came along.

I loved you, you know
Until he stole your heart
Away from me
Away from my warm embrace.

I loved you, you know
You destroyed me
When you bore him a child
I was yours and you were mine
Forever.

I loved you, you know
I told you I didn’t love you
Anymore—

I lied.

-Mary Kate A.

Again, the last line of this poem KILLS me. Love!! Also, it’s really hard to write a poem that rhymes that still has cleverness and tells a story.

ANGEL
From the beginning of time they were meant to be
Sharing a blood bond that was plain to see.
And all this time he’s still wondering why
Why did she leave him without a goodbye?

Angels in heaven answer his cries
Give him a reason why the truth became lies.
And when the steel from his heart begins melting away
Give him a reason to continue to pray.

For he has lost a soul mate; a human played and won
The person she once was is now lost and gone.
The savior of the People, the angel Gabrielle,
Resides inside a coma, trapped in a shell.

They promised each other forever, but she left him all alone
And he became Charles Force, a man whose soul is stone.
Now the steely magnate, the one they fear
But deep inside the crevices, he cries his tears.

So he’s here today, holding her hands in his
Why won’t he resurrect her, why did it come to this?
He knows her life depends on him, her last remaining breath—
It’s almost ironic for he’s the angel of her death.

-Shan S.

As my Aussie/NZ relatives say, NOICE!!!! Very cool people. Next up: Top Funny Poems.

xoxo
Mel

Dudes and Dudettes,
There are still a bunch of winners to be announced! So if you didn’t make it yesterday or in the semis, you might be one of the finalists! Or one of the grand prize winnahs!!

Today I bring you the top love poems. I’m a sucker for a good love poem, and I really enjoyed reading all of them.

The majority of the entries dealt with the Schuyler/Jack relationship. I liked this one the most because it was simple and it ended really well. This is about Jack.

Green eyes like emeralds;
They burn with insatiable fire.

Only one thought lingers within,
Only one girl,
Only one holds his heart.

An uncontrolled passion;
A passion deeply concealed.

A love that runs deep beneath the glassy surface;
A fear that runs deep beneath the glassy surface.

Only one thought,
Only one person, can give him his Light.

-Lila N.

And this one is from Schuyler’s POV. This poem reminds me of the kind of poetry I used to write. I like the repetition of “I can’t” in the last lines, and I think it ends really well too.

My heart is pumping at the speed of light
My hands are vibrating
My palms are sweating
My brain tells me to scream but my mouth stays closed
I can’t tell what I’m feeling
I can’t say what to do
I can’t think of the answer
Just of you.

-Jessica H.

There were also a ton of poems about Mimi and Jack’s relationship, and this is the one I liked the most, because it showed Mimi’s serious side, and her heartbreak.

I want you to know
I love you with all of my soul
And every life we’ve lived
Every single touch and sweet kiss
Has proven we’re still strong
For centuries still to come.
But now everything’s gone wrong—
I thought I was the only one.

-Kassy P.

We also got tons of poems about Schuyler and Oliver, which were very sweet and had a different flavor from the Jack/Sky poems. It was interesting to me that the poems about the Jack/Sky relationship dealt with him being tortured because he was torn between Sky and Mimi, or Sky being tormented because she couldn’t have him, whereas the ones from Oliver’s point of view were more confident about his love. I’m not going to say if you guys are right about this—you’ll have to read the book to find out! But I did like these poems a lot because they were so sweet.

I love the title and the last lines of this one:

My Sky

Her eyes are so gentle,
Her touch makes me shiver,
Her smile could light a darkened path,
Or melt a frozen river.

She knows me better than anyone,
And for her I would gladly die,
I am her Oliver,
And she is my Sky.

I know how I feel,
I have always loved you,
I know this is wrong,
But I want you to love me too.

She is a vampire,
I am only a guy,
But I could be her sun,
She could be my Sky.

-Natalie K.

This poem reminds me a lot of e.e. cummings, who is one of my favorite poets, hence this poem really spoke to me:

She yelled ‘let’s sink the sun
And dance in the night
All the other stars may shine
But the sun must go’

And he replied with ‘anything for you, dear’
And ran off in search of rope
To catch the sun
Even though he was afraid of the dark.

– Darylove

This one is from Schuyler’s point of view. I thought this was well done, although I wonder if Schuyler’s a bit more ambivalent in her feelings towards Oliver than this poem imagines.

First taste

His neck:
So tender,
So soft;
Inviting.

His smell:
So luscious,
So succulent,
divine.

I listen:
His heartbeat
Soars rapidly,
Nervous.

I feel:
Starvation consuming
My heart.

My lips:
Touch skin,
Warm.
Lovely.

The crimson
Dashes through me
To veins
Of blue.

I push:
Away, from
Hunger, for love.

And there
He sits,
Astounded and dazed:

My love.
My life.
My joy.

-Macy P.

Yay!!! You guys are the best!!! I really love all these poems, more to come tomorrow….

xoxo
Mel

As I was judging the poems, trying to figure out the Top 35, I realized I really liked ALL the poems in the Top 55, and that I wanted to honor everyone (and it ended up being a Top 51 since some of the poems were written by the same authors.)

So 25 semi-finalists will receive the chapter sampler AND a lipgloss in “Vixen”! Because you are all vicious vixens!!

Big kisses and congrats to the following:

Diana H., Danny R., Lily C., Byankeegirl28, Cara L., Lauren L., Maddeline V., LehPrincess, AudreyTran, Carolyn L., Nel M., Alysse S., Blair B., Shayla E., Nikki M., xmegggss, Sutton F., Gabrielle C., Tiffany L., Alyson N., Gabrielle S-N., Allison G., Kali O., Hannah W. and Amy S.

Then I ended up with 26 Finalists, 23 of whom will receive the chapter sampler and a lipgloss six-pack “Fiesty Kitten” by Urban Decay! (Mwowwwrrr!)

The top three winners will win, in order: Third Place: $50 Gift Certificate to Sephora.Com, Second Place: $75 Gift Certificate to Sephora.Com, and First Place: $100 Gift Certificate to Sephora.Com. I’m a former beauty editor, and I can’t think of anything more fun than being able to spend money on make-up.

I will be publishing the Top 26 poems every day this week (um, until Thursday, because I’m on vacay on Friday—we’re taking the kid to Disneyland, toodles!)

First off, I really want to thank everyone who submitted a poem. It just blew my mind that there were so many entries (I mean—three hundred!! How fracking cool is that??) And they were all REALLY REALLY good. It was so hard to choose a favorite, even 26! And please know if your poem did not make it into the finals, it does not mean your poem was not good (it was!!!) everything is subjective, and these are the poems that spoke to me the most.

One thing you will notice is a lot of the winners wrote shorter poems, the simpler and more succinct ones had a better chance of winning because it’s just SO MUCH HARDER to make a long poem very good all the way through. Whereas you can really polish a short simple gem of a poem. Also, it’s very hard to write a clever rhyming poem. I also tended to favor poems that had an unexpected POV. A lot of the poems that came in re-told the plot of the books, so the poems that had more of an original viewpoint tended to speak to me more.

Congratulations everyone! You will be receiving instructions in your emails. Thanks for playing and I hope we can do this again soon.

Just a note: I did some minor editing on the poems for clarity purposes.

Today I give you the top poems about Schuyler.
I loved these poems about Schuyler, because I could feel the love the writers had for the character.

I liked the lyricism of this one. It almost reads like a song, it’s so pretty:

Sky

Skin of summer stars
Veins of deepest sapphire blood
Heart of the Angels.

-Melissa C.

I loved the last lines of this one. I also liked the imagery and playing with the colors—in my book the colors are very important aren’t they? ☺

Blue

Green is a powerful color,
The color of emeralds,
The color of money,

The color of envy.
That potent hue surrounds her,
In the inaccessible eyes of her crush,
Replicated in his egotistical, hostile twin.

Flecks of green, in the eyes of her best friend,
Always there to support and soothe.

Green are the eyes in the distance,
In the perfect reflection of her face: her mother.

Not entirely perfect.

This girl has the eyes of a man she never knew,
Her eyes are blue.

-Gabrielle W.

I thought this poem was a neat description of Schuyler’s internal conflict. Very nice:

Split

I’m falling,
Spinning,
Calling,
Your name.

The lights,
The fame,
Am I
The same.

Confusion,
Intrusion,
Real human,
Blue Blood illusion.

My heart’s been,
Shattered,
Broken,
Battered.

It’s splitting,
It’s quitting.
Not that it mattered.

Human.
Angel.
Split in two.
Am I red,
Or am I blue?

-Melissa B.

These next ones are the top haikus. I think it’s so difficult to write a great haiku, and I was really impressed by these.

This first one deals with the thoughts of one of Mimi’s human familiars. I thought it was an original point of view and I liked how simple and resonant it was.

A ceremony,
Ancient and filled with my blood
My last tie to her.
-Katie M.

This one I liked a lot because again, it was simple and succinct, telling a whole story in a few lines. 

Transformation

Memories combine
Drift into another world
Let this life begin.
-Alyssa B.

Yay! And that’s all for today. Look for more winning poems tomorrow!

xoxo
Mel

Okay, we’re down to the Top 55!

Sorry it’s taking so long – but I really want to read the poems very carefully and consider the merits of each one. I’ll post the Top 35 next week and everyone who entered the contest will receive an email with instructions. Thanks for your patience!! Chapter samplers and prizes should be going out by the end of next week.

Whew!

xoxo
Mel

I have narrowed the winners down to the Top 117! I know, I know, but it’s SO HARD to choose. But I think I’ll just keep narrowing down until I get a Top 35.

In other news, I am still sans Birkin. Instead I’ve been workin’.

The Birkin fever has abated somewhat. (I mean who has the time to go to Beverly Hills and grovel for a handbag? Not me, right now, I’ve got deadlines I tell ya, deadlines!)

But I did do some retail therapy at the Neiman Marcus sale. I’m feeling big chunky jewelry lately. Oh man, does this mean I’m entering my Stevie Nicks phase? Some wise gay man said that the older a woman gets the bigger her jewelry becomes. That we’re all destined to be Mrs. Roper with her muu muus and ropes of turquoise. LOL! Anyway, I bought this exQUIsite necklace – three layers of chunky chunky CHUNKY turquoise, quartz and moonstone. GORGEOUS by Stephen Dweck. And on sale ($693 from $1800). And a HUGE takes-up-half—my-ring-finger carved turquoise ring ($336 from $700). Which I wore to dinner at Paperfish last night with my crisp white DVF dress and my white Escada high-heeled sandals (free! they were a gift from the designer – they sponsored my Fashionista Files book tour).

I also bought a Marni dress that looked like a sack on the rack but looked really slouchy and cool once you put it on, like super-rich-hippie chic, a steal at $400 from $1200, and a See by Chloe dress – a printed little shift dress $240 from $700.

Then my friend Minty and I went to Barneys and had a super socialite sighting—all three Miller sisters! Pia Getty, Marie-Chantal of Greece, and Alexandra Von Furstenberg. They were all blonde, tan, and TINY. Alexandra was wearing this really cool almost florescent-orange blouse with a black bow on it (Marni?) and the smallest pair of jeans I have ever seen. She was SO THIN. Pia had on a lavender shift dress, and Marie-Chantal was wearing some kind of white cashmere sweater and a skirt. They were all there with their kids and nannies and shopping all over Barneys. Minty joked that we should be European paparazzi. It was really sweet—they were just a bunch of sisters hanging out with their kids, shopping. They all have really good hair: like buttery buttery blonde with caramel low-lights. M-C’s was the most platinum I think. How do they get their hair to look so “undone” and yet look so perfect? It was very “wild, blonde mane” but also you could tell very expensive.

Anyway, I also bought several new perfumes from Jo Malone, I had run out of my staple Tuberose, which smells like happiness—just so fresh and clean but also quirky enough to keep it interesting instead of just pretty. I get so many compliments whenever I wear this. It simply smells DELICIOUS. But I thought I’d branch out a bit and buy some new scents – so I bought a bottle of the Lotus Blossom & Water Lily and a bottle of the Dark Amber and Ginger Lily. The Lotus Blossom smells like sunshine and the Dark Amber is really sexy and smells like a woman who knows her way around nightclubs and chilled martinis and money.

The other day at Fred Segal I also bought some new perfumes – Rose de The from France, which is what I’m wearing all the time now – it smells like summer in Provence and from Serge Lutens I bought Datura Noir, which smells like St. Barth’s at sunset-kind of loamy and sultry and mysterious and rich, like you just stepped off a hundred-foot yacht.

I’m a bit on a perfume kick right now as you can see.

It’s so funny how you can trace your life in the scents you wear -in junior high there was this French baby perfume we all adored, I can’t remember the name of it-ugh-but I begged and begged my mom for it to buy it for me at Rustan’s in Manila. Then in high school I was an Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche girl, then in college: sophomore year was all about Fendi (the signature scent: very woodsy), then junior year was all about Chanel No. 19 and senior year Chanel Cristalle. Chanel No. 19 and Cristalle always reminds me of being young in New York—lots of good memories.

I can even remember the scents my friends used to wear: Fendi reminds me of Molly, a fabulous sophisticate who introduced me to nights at Au Bar, dancing in velvet cocktail dresses with piles of fake pearls, and her now-gay ex-boyfriend Constantine, the two of them had this jet-set lifestyle of standing table at nightclubs and their own apartments in Manhattan—they were very the movie “Metropolitan” – the UHBs – Urban Haute Bourgeoisie (all that at nineteen! And I wore Fendi because Molly did and I wanted to be just like her.) My BFF Jennie used to wear Issey Miyake (the signature one) and Carolina Herrera after college. Mmmm. Those girls smelled good.

When I first started dating Mike I used to wear Barneys Route du The, which is still his favorite perfume of mine. (Very light and girly and pretty.) So that perfume always reminds me of us when we first met.

I don’t like cologne on guys too much, I really think it has to smell subtle and almost like nothing at all—just a hint of clean-smelling manliness. My dad used to wear Paco Rabbanne and I still think that smells great-like security and home. I heard about this fabulous Creed cologne that I must get for Mike. He used to wear this Emporio Armani cologne we got from a swag bag, which smelled fabulous, but it’s gone now. 🙂

Now the smell I love most is the baby after her bath. She smells so good you could just eat her right up. Maybe it’s the California Baby lavender scent, but I think it’s because she smells like love.

xoxo
Mel

Only about sixty more poems left to be read! Whoo…powering through.

I’m sorry it’s taking so long, but I’m also trying to finish two books, write a new TV pitch, and raise a kid…

I know things are overwhelming when all I do is tune out and obsess over a new handbag!

That’s right. Still in the clutches of Birkin fever. Yesterday I devoured “Bringing Home the Birkin” by Michael Tonnello. Two manicured thumbs up!! Hilarious, gossipy, bitchy and insider-y. Michael figured out “the formula” to buying a Birkin. Basically you just need to be a SERIOUS buyer. Show them you mean business and that you’re a regular customer. He would buy a thousand dollars worth of Hermes trinkets, then CASUALLY ask if they had any Birkins. Every time I have gone in to ask about the Birkin, I have no intention of buying it right then. I just want to SEE one. But now I am ready. The husband has given the go-ahead. Birkin greenlight! Of course, Mike reminded me that he’d already agreed to buy me a Birkin two years ago, but I decided it was just to gross to spend that much on a handbag.

But now, I really, really, really want one.

So off to Beverly Hills I go…

This blog has become a Birklog, hasn’t it? Sigh.

Other shopping updates: I finally bought one of those maxi dresses. You know, the spaghetti-strap dress that goes all the way to the floor. Very hippie 70s Cali beach chic. I finally found one that DID NOT MAKE ME LOOK PREGNANT. Joie. $325. Bloomingdale’s. Tres comfy. I also bought a crisp white Diane Von Furstenberg shirt dress. ($149 from $400!) And a James Perse t-shirt ($39). I’m not a t-shirt girl. I think to be a t-shirt girl you need to be the thin-upper-arms-and-protruding-collarbone girl. I am not that girl. I am the no-butt-and-skinny-legs girl. You only get to be one kind of girl. (Although I guess supermodels gets to be both, but they are a different species.) Normal girls either look thin on top or on the bottom. It’s taken me thirty-six years but I finally realize I cannot do every trend and should just highlight the assets and hide the “problem areas”. (I still remember the Beverly Hills 90210 episode where Kelly and Donna talk about their problem areas and it was the first time I thought, oh my god, I HAVE PROBLEM AREAS???)

But a Birkin looks good on everyone.

Ciao!

xoxo
Mel

Last night Mike and I hit a couple of parties—there was a party at a fancy furniture store where we admired furniture and sipped champagne and then we went to go celebrate Jasmin Rosemberg’s new book HOW THE OTHER HALF HAMPTONS at the swanky Sofitel hotel. I really enjoyed this book, and I think all those Au Pairs fans out there will too. It’s about three girls who go to the Hamptons and live in a “share house” – or as Jasmin says, “imagine a very very crowded elevator”. It’s a perfect summer beach read: lots of hot-tub hookups and girl bonding! Anyway, the party was much fun and reminded me of hanging out a nightclubs because the drinks were served bottle-service style: a bottle of Krol vodka, glasses, ice and chasers on the table and then you had to mix your own drinks. Jasmin was gorgeous in a hot pink dress, and all the young people (talk about making me feel old!) were very cute in that cast-of-the-Hills way: everyone in little cocktail dresses with long, blown-out hair and great tans.

Another book I’ve been meaning to blog about is Terri Brown’s Read my Lips – about a deaf girl who becomes the school’s hottest gossipeuse. A fun and fab page-turner with a twist! I did a guest-blog for her launch on June 11th, and if you scroll up and down you’ll see other fab g-blogges like Ellen Hopkins, Scott Westerfeld and Lisa McCann.

In other news, I have read about two hundred of your poems and I am really blown away. It just thrills me to find so much love for the characters. Very, very, very cool. I’m sorry it’s taking longer than expected to figure out the winners. I had no idea we would get so many poems! But yes, I will post them here and explain why I picked them.

Hyperion is doing a really fun contest to promote Revelations—will let you know the details as soon as I know, but the grand prize is a shopping spree and lunch with me in your hometown! Yes, that’s right, I’m coming to YOU if you win! I’ll let you know how to enter as soon as I know myself. 🙂

Anyway, speaking of poetry, I was reading a really interesting article on John Keats the poet (Ode to a Grecian Urn, etc.) in the New Yorker. I had no idea he died so young (but then isn’t that the case with poets? Don’t they all die young? Rilke did too). What I found so interesting was how the article talked about Keats’ burning AMBITION to be a poet, and to be immortalized through his writing, and how tragic it was that he died before he ever reaped the benefits of fame and adulation especially since “no writer ever yearned for fame more ardently than Keats.” While he was alive, his poems were badly-reviewed and he was dismissed as a writer. But now he’s considered one of English literature’s greatest poets. Anyway, there was a quote that I thought I would share with all of you: Keats wrote “I should write from the mere yearning and fondness I have for the Beautiful even if my night’s labours should be burnt every morning and no eye ever shine upon them.”

And then I read this article about Ricky Gervais in Salon. (He’s the guy who played the British boss in the British office, which is one of the funniest things you will ever see in your life, although I think you all need to be much older and have experience working in a boring office to really appreciate it. You simply have no idea what mind-numbing means until you’ve worked for a big corporation.) Anyway, Ricky Gervais is very famous now, and he says, “I get very excited about creating stuff just from scratch. You’ve got to be in this work for the right reasons—being rich and famous ultimately doesn’t mean anything.”

BEING RICH AND FAMOUS DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING!

What Keats and Ricky Gervais are saying is that it’s really just the writing—the work—that gives the most satisfaction. Of course, Keats never experienced fortune and fame, and Gervais has. But I’m sure Keats would have come to the same conclusion even if he had.

Because ultimately, it’s not about the book tours, or bestseller lists, or all the fun perks that come with being an author that make you want to be an author. It’s about being able to think up stuff from scratch and cackle at your desk and enjoy moving your characters around. And then make a living from it! That’s what’s most amazing to me. Yeah, there will be days when writing sucks and it’s work and you hit a wall and wish you’d never even thought up this stupid book. But even on the worst writing days, it’s still good to write.  It’s just fun. Writing is fun.

And that’s why I’m so glad you all wrote poems, and who cares who wins—because you all won already—you know? And yeah, I realize I don’t think I would be this optimistic and rosy-eyed if I was still a struggling writer. You know before I published my first book I would go to bookstores and be so ENVIOUS I would feel SICK TO MY STOMACH that I couldn’t even READ any more books because the thought that I might not be a writer was too depressing for me.

But now that I’m on this side of the fence, I have to say: it’s the work that matters, not what comes with it. And that’s why you do it. Because if you wanted to be rich and famous there are a lot more ways to go about it that are probably much easier and less stressful. (But here again a caveat: Really? Because from my experience and what I’ve seen from successful people—everyone has to work really really hard for every penny. There is no such thing as easy money. Seriously. Sure some people are born wealthy, with a head start but that comes with its own set of worries. No one has a perfect life. We’re all just trying to make our way in this cold cold world.)

I thought it was so interesting how one of the reasons Keats’ ambition was so strong was because he didn’t come from nobility like Lord Byron or was rich like Shelley and he knew “how precarious his fortunes really were.” That maybe he wouldn’t even get a CHANCE to be a poet because he came from a working-class family.

Anyway, those are the thoughts of the day. Funnily enough I’ve never been big on Keats. My favorite poets are Yeats, Rilke, Sharon Olds and James Merrill. In my other life, I used to want to be a poet. (Yeah, I KNOW!) But now I’ve decided to give him another chance.

Have a great day everyone!
xoxo
Mel

I hope everyone had a happy Fourth. I spent my holiday weekend at the fabulous Estancia resort in beautiful La Jolla (or as my sister and I have called it the whole time leading up to our vacation: Essstannnsssiaaahhhhhh!!!). Don’t I sound like the Price is Right announcer? “And in THIS showcase, a week at the FABULOUS Estancia resort in BEAUTIFUL La Jolla!! This could all be yours…if the price is right!”) I’ll bid ten thousand, Bob! I actually KNOW someone who went on the Price is Right and WON. I think he won a dishwasher and a trip somewhere. Isn’t that great?

This place where I have lunch—the Farmer’s Market at the Grove, is next to the studios where they tape the show, and you’d always see all these old ladies with “Barker’s Beauties” t-shirts on them. Old ladies and young college kids are the PIR audience. Love it!

Anyway, had a lovely time tanning in our private cabaaanahhh…and then took the kids to Sea World the next day. Which was EXHAUSTING with our one and a half year old. Is it just me or does the dolphin show suck now? I remember going to Sea World and thinking it was beyond awesome—but this time it felt like the dolphins weren’t COORDINATED. Let’s get those dolphins jumping higher! All together now! A lot of the show is just devoted to splashing the folks in the “Soak Zone”. It appears an authentic Sea World experience entails being soaked to the skin by a rampaging dolphin and or killer whale.

Unfortunately we did not even get to see the star of Sea World, Shamu, since Mattie squirmed so much at the dolphin show we had to leave halfway. But we did see some penguins, polar bears and white whales, which was nifty. Then we all went back to our hotel room and collapsed.

Today I worked on my new GIRL book (it’s my new Au Pairs-like series and the first book is called GIRL STAYS IN THE PICTURE). And my new TV pilot. (Which is still super-secret but I love kind-of talking about it.) My TV project is an original idea and not based on my books. I’m sorry I have no news on my books that have been optioned, but i hope you like the TV show if it gets picked up.

And I’ve also begun to read all your fantastic, amazing, awesome poems. I’m really TOUCHED by all your talent and how much you love the Blue Bloods books. Some of the poems have made me laugh out loud (in a good way – they were meant to be funny), some of them left me speechless with awe, and all of them made me think of how cooool and smart you guys are. I love each and every one of them because I knew there was effort put into every one. I’ve read a hundred poems so far and it’s been a really, really interesting and overwhelming experience.

And the good news is—YOU ARE ALL WINNERS!

I told Hyperion how over three hundred of you entered the contest – and they are PRINTING UP THREE HUNDRED COPIES OF THE CHAPTER SAMPLERS SO EVERYONE GETS ONE!!!

How cool is that???

(And talk about burying the lead in this blog!)

But I still want to honor the Top 35 with a special prize, and extra special prizes will go to the Top Three poems.

And yes, I’ve asked again about when I can release the chapter samplers to my newsletter subscribers- they are still checking – so I’m sorry I have no new news on that. BUT, here’s a sneaky suggestion—the first chapter of Revelations is in the paperback release of Masquerade, which I believe is shipping from Amazon and Barnes and Noble right now. So that’s one way to see it! You can just go to your bookstore and read it. (I won’t tell.) Or better yet BUY a copy. I know some of you have been waiting patiently for the paperback so here’s your chance!

More good news – Hyperion and Simon & Schuster are sending me on tour in October to promote my various releases—Revelations and the fourth Ashleys book: Lipgloss Jungle. I’ll post the tour schedule as soon as I know where they’re sending me.

And congrats to everyone who entered the contest! You will be notified by email to send your address to us so we can send you a hot little chapter sampler. And I’ll be sharing the winners very soon—hopefully this week if my work allows it.

xoxo
Mel

Yesterday I went shopping. Oh yeah, shopping is GOOD right now. Everything is on sale!!! They’re practically GIVING Lanvin bags away at Barneys. Well, not really, since a thousand bucks for a handbag is still insanely overpriced considering those SAME bags used to be seven hundred dollars (which was the top price for Prada bowling bag in the mid-90s) but because of the crazy exchange rate, now bags start out at stratospheric prices (three thousand? Are they serious? And that’s not even for Chanel or Hermes!) that when they go on sale, they are still in the are-you-kidding rate.

Which makes you (or um, me) just want to go ahead and get that Birkin…because if prices are insane, why not not just have the insane handbag? Loyal readers know I have been obsessing about this bag for decades. On the one hand, you can buy a SmartCar for the same money. (I kind of want a SmartCar in the same way I want a new handbag. They’re SO cute! But I know I’ll be tired of it after a season.) On the other hand…can you really pass down a SmartCar to your grandchildren? Yes, Birkins are that beloved. I was just at a baby shower, and when the expectant mom arrived, none of us wanted to hear about how the pregnancy was going, instead, rumor had it our friend had just Birkined, so it was all “SHOW US THE BIRKIN!” I can report it was caramel with gold hardware and oh-so-yummy. Then another dear friend confessed the other night at dinner that she also, had just Birkined. Black with silver hardware. All us girls at the table demanded she bring it next time for the famous Birkin viewing.

So apparently, the waitlist is bogus. What one must to to acquire one of these bags is to hit the Hermes store everyday when it opens and ask them, casually, if they MIGHT have any Birkins lying around. And perhaps you will be LUCKY enough to be ALLOWED to buy one. Can you imagine? And yet, it makes the Birkinization even more sweet, doesn’t it?

In other news, my new book GIRL STAYS IN THE PICTURE, is my new Au Pairs-like series and it is so yummy and delicious. Champagne showers in St. Tropez anyone? Bring your Birkins!

xoxo
Mel

I have books due, of course, but feel like blogging…so here I am. I just read some librarian’s blog that said “Melissa de la Cruz was nothing like I imagined her to be.”

And then there was nothing else.

It’s driving me crazy! (Thanks a LOT GoogleAlerts!) Did she mean, “She was nothing like I imagined her to be, SHE WAS SO MUCH NICER.” Or “She was nothing like I imagined her to be, SHE WAS SO MUCH PRETTIER THAN HER PICTURES” Or “She was nothing like I imagined her to be SHE LOOKED NOTHING LIKE HER PICTURES” (I’ve gotten that. Hey: it’s photoshop. Kimora Lee Simmons looks nothing like her pics either! LOL.) 

Mike says I am too nice and that I have to be more of a “star”. More of an “OF COURSE YOU WORSHIP ME, I AM A STAR AND MY BOOKS ROCK.”

Which seriously, some of the authors do really well—it’s not even snobbily. Just as their due.

Alas I am not like that. In fact, I am so so so thankful that I have this job and that people want their books signed and like the books so much—that if I could give everyone a big hug I would. I blame my parents. I come from some very sweet people.

Oh well. I’m going to work on the star persona.

Your comments will now be answered by a bevy of assistants.

Can you FEEL the ICE?????

xoxo
Mel