Yearly Archives: 2009

The Friend Sandwich

Today was a good day. I did not cry today. I’ve been grief-stricken for a while, it’s weird how when you lose someone you really UNDERSTAND certain words, like GRIEF-STRICKEN and LOSS. I just don’t think I really understood what those words meant before. But now I do. It’s weird how things change you—how you look at everything just a different way. Like ever since my dad died, I’ve kind of been in a ‘whatever’ state. Like: nothing can make me as upset or sad as that, and everything IS the small stuff – and you know how they tell you not to sweat it? It turns out they were RIGHT. Nothing is as awful as losing someone you love, and it just brings everything into this clear perspective. For instance, guilt. Who needs it? Who has time anymore? Why waste life on feeling guilty? Guilt is a useless emotion. Goodbye, guilt. I’m not wasting my time on you anymore.

Also, FRIENDS. Friends are wonderful. I was just in New York and my old friends—friends who have known me for twenty years (oh my god I am OLD), friends whom I have danced “The Sandwich” with (you know that dance where three of you kind of grind into each other naughtily) – best practiced with two gay men and a girl or two girls and a gay. Straight men, fortunately, (or unfortunately for them) are never welcome in The Dance of the Sandwich. Anyway, my friends greeted me at this fancy schmancy restaurant with WHOOPING, ARMS-RAISED, BELLY-LAUGH HELLOS. Is there anything more wonderful than being greeted in this manner? I don’t think so. They made me really happy. And then today I got a lovely card from another friend, handmade and beautifully written, a condolence about my dad passing. And it made me so happy—because some people can be SO wonderful can’t they? And there is still happiness and Sandwich dances in the world. So, a good day.

When something terrible happens to you, it is amazing how wonderful your friends are. I don’t think I could have gotten through this without my friends and you guys too – all you guys who wrote me about losing your dads or moms or grandparents. I cried at every email. Thank you for sharing your stories with me and for opening your hearts.

xoxo
Mel

My New Projects Are Officially Announced!

Hyperion and Disney Book Group released this announcement yesterday:

NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR MELISSA DE LA CRUZ SIGNS MAJOR MULTIBOOK CONTRACTS WITH HYPERION AND DISNEY BOOK GROUP

November 16, 2009 – Ellen Archer, President and Publisher of Hyperion, and Jeanne Mosure, Senior Vice President, Group Publisher, Disney Book Group, today announced signing best-selling writer Melissa de la Cruz to major multibook contracts with their respective divisions of The Walt Disney Company. Richard Abate of 3Arts Entertainment negotiated both deals. 

The Hyperion deal, for two books in a new adult fantasy series, marks Melissa de la Cruz’s first foray into adult paranormal fiction.  The two novels will follow the lives of the Beauchamp girls, who live in the fictional town of North Hampton, as they struggle to stop an arch nemesis and restore the delicate balance between good and evil. De la Cruz will weave characters from her best-selling Blue Bloods young adult series into the novels. Ellen Archer, President and Publisher of Hyperion, has acquired World rights and Brenda Copeland will edit. The first novel, WITCHES OF EAST END, will be published in Spring 2011.

“Melissa is wonderfully creative and her enthusiasm for this project is infectious,” said Archer. “We are thrilled to be publishing this inventive series and to introduce her books to an adult audience.” 

Disney-Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group, acquired two books in a brand-new series—WOLF PACT—as well as three companion books to de la Cruz’s best-selling BLUE BLOODS series. Wolf Pact will follow the adventures of Bliss Llewellyn, a central character in the Blue Bloods novels, as she goes on a quest to find the legendary Hounds of Hell and convince them to join the Blue Blood vampires in their war against the Silver Bloods. The Wolf Pact series will reinvent the myth of the werewolf in the same way that Blue Bloods breathed new life into the vampire genre. The first book in the series is scheduled to be published in Winter 2011. BLUE BLOODS: KEYS TO THE REPOSITORY, slated for Summer 2010, will contain never-before-published short stories and an encyclopedia to the Blue Bloods world. BLUE BLOODS: BLOODY VALENTINE, a romantic novella, will be published in Winter 2011. BLUE BLOODS: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL will be published in Summer 2011. Jennifer Besser, Executive Editor, Disney Book Group, acquired North American rights for Wolf Pact and World rights for the Blue Bloods books. She will continue to edit de la Cruz. 

“Melissa is an unstoppable talent,” said Mosure. “We’re delighted to be continuing our relationship with her.”

Melissa de la Cruz is the author of the New York Times and USA Today best-selling young adult series Blue Bloods, published by Disney-Hyperion. The Van Alen Legacy, the latest book in the Blue Bloods series, debuted at #3 on the New York Times Children’s Series Best Sellers List, #12 on the USA Today Top 150 Best Seller List, and #4 on the Wall Street Journal Hardcover Fiction List. The Blue Bloods series has sold more than a million copies, is published in over twelve countries, and has appeared on numerous best-seller lists both domestically and abroad. Entertainment Weekly named Schuyler Van Alen from the Blue Bloods series as #9 in their Top 20 Vampires of all time. De la Cruz’s books have been honored by the American Library Association as a Top Ten Quick Pick, the Chicago Public Library’s “Best of the Best,” the New York Public Library’s Books for the Teenage, the TAYSHAS High School Reading List (TX), the Bank Street Children’s Books List, and many statewide reading lists.
Melissa de la Cruz began her writing career as a freelance journalist in New York City. She has worked as a fashion and beauty editor and has written for many publications, including The New York Times, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Allure, The San Francisco Chronicle, McSweeney’s, Teen Vogue, CosmoGirl! and Seventeen. She has also appeared as an expert on fashion, trends, and fame for CNN, E! and FoxNews. De la Cruz is the author of many critically acclaimed and award-winning novels for teens, including the Au Pairs series, the Ashleys series, the Angels on Sunset Boulevard series, and the semi-autobiographical novel Fresh off the Boat. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.

Hyperion, founded in 1991, publishes general-interest fiction and nonfiction hardcover, trade, and mass-market paperback books for adults, and includes the Voice, Miramax, ABC Daytime Press, and Hyperion eBooks and Audio imprints.  Hyperion is the adult trade book publishing unit of the Disney/ABC-Television Group, which is part of The Walt Disney Company. For further information, please visit http://www.hyperionbooks.com.

Disney-Hyperion Books is an imprint of Disney Book Group (DBG); additional DBG imprints include Disney Editions, Disney-Jump at the Sun Books, and Disney Press. DBG is part of Disney Publishing Worldwide, the world’s largest publisher of children’s books and magazines, with over 250 million children’s books and over 400 million children’s magazines sold each year. Headquartered in White Plains, New York, Disney Publishing Worldwide publishes books and magazines in 85 languages in 75 countries.

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Pretty cool for school huh? I’m so glad the announcement is finally out – have been bursting to share for so long. I’ve been working on all the books since the summer and they are all in various stages of completion. I am so excited about everything, and yes, entering the adult market again. Although I feel like books like Blue Bloods and Wolf Pact and Witches of East End are for all ages really.

So, that’s my story. Just working. But also going to a lot of art lectures and benefits and traveling to New York in December and then Italy for New Year’s. It’s all vacation therapy over here. Retail therapy has not been cutting lately. Although I am kind of loving all the pre-Thanksgiving sales. 😉

xoxo
Mel

New Office Address

Hi all,

I finally have a new office address where you can write me (you know for those class assignments your teachers make you send – which are too fun to read).

Office of Melissa de la Cruz
3940 Laurel Canyon Blvd. #1268
Studio City, CA 91604

You can also send self-addressed stamped envelopes to the above address and we will send you bookplates. Bookplates are stickers with my signature that you can put on your books. And a couple of you have emailed asking if the signed book you bought from Target, Walmart, K-Mart, or the local grocery store, really *IS* my signature. It is! It is! I signed about a thousand books at the Levy warehouse, which ships them to various outlets. So yeah, that’s my autograph! Cool, huh? I had fun doing it and I heard I might have broken the record for fastest-books-signed-in-an-hour. Take that, Dan Brown! Heh!

Just so you know, I don’t actually work in that office, my assistant just picks up the mail there. Not that you all are stalkerish in any way, but just thought I would add that. 🙂

Again, thank you for all your letters offering condolence and sympathy. It is very hard to believe my dad is gone. I go between stunned-staring-out-the-window-in-silent-shock to blubbering to just coping. I cried so much in the past week I bruised my eye. Did you know that can happen? That you can cry so much your eye hurts and turns red? And also sometimes you can cry so much that no tears fall anymore? It’s weird. Anyway. The writing really helps, I feel very focused now. And it helps to talk about it. I don’t think I’ve ever really understood death before—just how brutally final it is and just how terribly short life really is. Even if you die at 100 I think it will still feel short, because life is so wonderful and for it to end seems just too awful for words. Anyway…back to work for me.

xoxo
Mel

Back to Work

My dad passed away a week and a half ago after a six-year battle with cancer. Thank you everyone for all your kind thoughts and emails, especially those who shared their own stories of losing parents to this terrible disease. It has brought me great comfort to know that my readers care so much. Thank you.

I am back to work now, I find working and writing and immersing myself in the world of the Blue Bloods is a huge distraction and very therapeutic. So thank you for reading the books too. I am working on lots of fun stuff like Book Five, Misguided Angel, and the first Wolf Pact book, as well as other projects which I will hopefully be able to share soon.

Have a wonderful week and thank you all for everything.
xoxo
Mel

Rest of Book Tour Postponed

Hi all,
So sorry but due to my dad’s illness I have to postpone the following Van Alen Legacy events. The Nov 1st event at Vroman’s in Pasadena, the Nov 4th event in Vancouver, and the Nov 5th event in Victoria. I was so looking forward to seeing all of you in your fabulous ball gowns. The events will be rescheduled for around January/February.
Thanks all for understanding and for all your very kind emails. I hope to see you next year.
xoxo
Mel

Happy Days and the Silver Linings

Today is a very, very happy day. The Van Alen Legacy hit some sweet spots on several bestseller lists (#3 at the NY Times, #2 on Bookscan Juvenille, #12 on USA Today, and many more). I am very thankful to all of you for reading and buying the books. They are a pleasure for me to write, and the fact that you guys are there for the ride with me—there’s no bigger thrill for an author. I have been writing professionally now for about thirteen years. I went full-time more than ten years ago. For me, just to be able to support myself on my writing was enough of an achievement, so all this is just the gravy and the cherry on top.

Just because I hate hearing about “overnight successes” here’s my story: Blue Boods was my sixth novel. I had no idea it would be the one to “break out” but I had a lot of faith in it. The series didn’t hit the “lists” until Book Three: Revelations. For book four: The Van Alen Legacy, we had a first printing of 260,000 copies, then went to print for 35,000 more before it even went on shelves. (We just went back to print again. Whee!)

I am incredibly moved by all of my readers’ devotion and love of the series. Thank you so much for caring about the characters and the story. When my editor told me how well we did on the first week out of the gate, I cried.

I cry a lot lately. As you guys who read this know, my dad is battling cancer. It’s a battle that has become very very difficult of late. It is very hard for me to write about, as it is a kind of sadness that colors everything in my life, I cannot even articulate the pain that my family is feeling right now. Those of you who have dads—hug your dad right now. RIGHT NOW. I never took my parents for granted. I knew I won the “parent lottery”. I come from an incredibly close, incredibly loving family. My dad is the best. But I did take for granted that we would have him around for a while longer—because he is so brave, because until this year, we never really “saw” the disease affect him all too much—of course, there was the chemo and all its side effects and all that. But for the most part, he still lived his life, just on a slower level. But now things are different. He is very, very, very sick. It is so hard to accept. I don’t want to write too much about it—because it is something we are going through right now, and I am still a bit incoherent about it. But I wanted to mention it…we all know that every grey cloud has a silver ling, and the fact that you all read my books is a very wonderful silver lining indeed.

When I was in creative writing class at Columbia, there was a student who wrote a story, and it always stuck in my mind—his story was about a really happy day—and how happy the characters were, but they were happy in innocence, because somewhere, right at that same moment, their parents were being killed in a car crash. I always remembered it because it seemed so profound—that you can have this beautiful happiness, and not know that somewhere, something very terrible was happening to you, you just don’t know it yet.

I guess life is just like that. My dad’s cancer has colored and enriched my life for the last six years, and having this experience, it changes you. I guess I always think about my dad when things like bestseller lists happen because so many of us think that that’s what life is about: getting ahead, the numbers game, etc. But there really isn’t anything more important in our life than the people we love. My dad takes so much joy out of my success (he danced in his hospital bed when he heard the news about the “lists”), and that is what makes it so much sweeter—knowing that I have so many people to share this with—especially all of you who made it possible. What I wish for all of you today is to realize how much you love your loved ones and be kind to them. Everyday. Because life is so so very very short. And to realize happiness comes from the small things in life. My dad taught me how to be happy every day. He is a man who looks forward to what he is having for lunch.

Thank you all for reading the books and for being there for me.

xoxo
Mel

I’m on Tour. Come See Me!

Hey everyone!

Hope you are all enjoying reading The Van Alen Legacy. I’m so super-psyched from the reviews and emails to get your feedback on it. I’m pretty darn proud of that book, so I’m so happy that you are loving it! It’s like a boost that is carrying me up and transporting me to all these cities… oh wait, that is a plane. Heh. Yeah, so I’m on tour RIGHT NOW, so come see me!

xoxo
Mel

October 07, 2009 (7:00 PM)
Van Alen Legacy Ball in Wichita!
Watermark Books & Cafe
4701 East Douglas
Wichita, Kansas 67218
Come in your Blue Bloods finest to celebrate at the Van Alen Legacy vampire ball! Reading, signing and beauty give-aways!

October 08, 2009 (7:00 PM)
Van Alen Legacy Ball in Skokie!
Barnes & Noble
55 Old Orchard Center
Skokie, IL 60077
Come dressed in your Blue Bloods finest and celebrate with me at a Van Alen Legacy vampire Ball! Reading, signing and beauty give-aways!

October 09, 2009 (7:00 PM)
Van Alen Legacy Ball in Downer’s Grove!
Anderson’s Bookshop
5112 Main St.
Downers Grove, IL 60515
Come in your Blue Bloods finest and celebrate with me at a Van Alen Legacy Ball! Reading, signing and beauty give-aways!

October 10, 2009 (6:00 PM)
Van Alen Legacy Ball in Memphis!
Davis-Kidd
387 Perkins Ext
Memphis, TN 38117
Come in your Blue Bloods finest and celebrate with me at a Van Alen Legacy Ball! Reading, signing and beauty-giveaways!

October 11, 2009 (2:30pm-4:30pm Panel and Signing)
Appearance at the Southern Festival of Books!
210 Louise Ave Nashville, TN
Legislative Plaza, Room 30
Panel “Young, Fanged, and Undead: Novels Teens Can Sink Their Teeth Into”
With Authors: Daniel Waters, David Macinnis Gill, and Daniel Kirk

November 01, 2009 (3:00 PM)
Van Alen Legacy and Secret Society Ball in Pasadena!
Vroman’s
695 E. Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91101
Come in your Blue Bloods and Secret Society finest and celebrate with me and my friend debut YA author Tom Dolby! Reading, signing and beauty give-aways!

November 04, 2009 (Time TK)
Van Alen Legacy Ball in Vancouver!
Vancouver Kids Books
3083 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC V6K 2G9, Canada
Come in your Blue Bloods finest and celebrate with me at a Van Alen Legacy Ball! Reading, signing and beauty give-aways!

November 05, 2009 (7:00 PM)
Van Alen Legacy Ball in Victoria!
Chapters
1212 Douglas Street,
Victoria, British Columbia V8W 2E5, Canada
Come in your Blue Bloods finest and celebrate with me at a Van Alen Legacy vampire Ball! Reading, signing and beauty-giveaways!

Target In-Store Promotion

Hello Hello!

It is almost time for The Van Alen Legacy’s release!! The book officially comes out on Tuesday, October 6, 2009. I’ve heard some stores are shipping them already and that some stores have also put the books out on shelves. Whee!

Target is promoting the books BIG-TIME with a huge in-store promotion. If you buy your copy from Target, you will receive a sticker on your book that will lead you to an online site where you can access a secret deleted chapter from The Van Alen Legacy.

Read the chapter only AFTER you read the whole book. Target is very sorry, but due to their current delivery/warehouse changes, the promotion is only available in-store and NOT on-line, as we had been told earlier.

If you do not live near a Target and cannot get to a Target, the deleted chapter will be posted on January 6, 2009 on my website. Target has the three-month exclusive on the story.

You can also order the book on Amazon, or on Barnes & Noble or buy from your local indie bookstore. My favorite indies are Vroman’s in Pasadena, Book Soup in LA, Copperfield’s in Petaluma, Storyopolis in Sherman Oaks and Blue Willow in Houston.

I’m really excited to meet a lot of you on tour! I’m sorry if I’m not going to be in your neck of the woods this time. And you don’t have to dress up to come to one of our Van Alen Legacy Balls—only if you want to. I always like to get dressed up so I am. 🙂

Hope you are all having a great fall! It’s my favorite season. My birthday is in the fall (thanks for all the great bday wishes btw) and I got married in the fall, and my kid was born in the fall. And of course, it’s Halloween! Remember no skank-o-ween (as in midriff-baring outfit plus devil or pussycat or mouse headband). Over here at our house we are going to do Star Wars family, with husband as Darth Vader, me as Princess Leia, and the kid as Yoda, or Princess Yoda as we need to call it because Mattie will not wear anything that is NOT princess-related. So Princess Yoda it is! We are test-driving next year’s Star Wars Day Comic-Con costumes of course, although husband tells me that he would NEVER wear a Target-bought Darth costume to Comic-Con, he will have to “make his own” or “die of shame”.

Am getting ready to pack all the clothes I bought for tour, and while part of me is excited to wear all the bounty, I am also half inclined to just throw in a lot of black shirts, black pants and black sweaters and call it a day. Sometimes, even I can be too tired for fashion.

Have a great weekend everyone!
xoxo
Mel

Van Alen Legacy Trailers!

Here’s the super cool video my friend’s company made for the book!

And here’s the super cool video my publisher made for the book!

The book comes out October 6, 2009! And I hear some stores are putting them out early. And if you buy your copy in-store at Target, you will receive a sticker with instructions on how to read a deleted chapter from the book online that is a Target exclusive promotion. The deleted chapter will be available to everyone after three months on my site!

Enjoy!
xoxo
Mel

The Blue Bloods Forum Chat!

Had a really fun chat with the readers over at The Blue Bloods message boards. Thought I’d share the questions and my answers so everyone can enjoy! Transcript has been slightly edited for better clarification.
xoxo
Mel

Q: I know you can’t give us any spoilers… but I was wondering if there would be closure at the end of the book? From the green-eyed cover girl its obvious Mimi is quite intently planning her bonding ceremony/wedding to Jack… so the question is, will we found out the outcome of that or will we be left hanging?

A: Yes there will be closure! There will be new questions opened in this book, but some very old ones that people want to know will be answered!

Q: So, I personally ship Jack and Mimi and was curious as to whether you honestly like how Jack is when he’s around Mimi or when he’s around Sky? Is he more of himself with the other? Which shipping do you like better?

A: I think Jack is a very complicated person and is being pulled in a lot of different directions, he’s always wanted to be more than he is, always been drawn to the Light. He and Mimi are very dark angels, they are the angels of the Apocalypse and Lucifer’s strongest former generals. In Jack, I always saw a character who lived pretty much the same life for centuries—but then there is this new thing, this new factor in the equation—embodied in Schuyler, which he’s never encountered before. So what does he do? Would he follow his heart or do his duty? So it’s hard to answer, because I have a lot of sympathy for Jack, I never like doing what I’m supposed to do either.

But on the other hand, I also have an enormous sympathy for Mimi… so it’s hard to answer your question!  I think as a writer you just write your characters as truthfully as you can and then they choose for themselves what is right for them.

Q: Why did Lawrence have to die? He was the best.

A: I was heartbroken that Lawrence had to die—but as you will see in Van Alen Legacy, there are consequences to actions…

Q: Is there anyone who has died in the series, so far, that you really wish didn’t have to?

A: I wish they could all live forever, but I really wanted to write a series that had real impact—that there was such a thing as death and finality even in the immortal world. Because that’s what we have to deal with in our own lives. I wish I could bring them all back! But you know, you have to be truthful to the story you are telling, and life involves a lot of suffering.

Q: I was wondering if you could describe Mimi’s headdress and face painting at her after party in Masquerade. I want to dress up like her for your book signing. Also, for the release of Book 5, would you consider coming to Highland, IN or someplace near there? It’s close to Gary.

A: I always imagined Mimi in some kind of fabulous huge Native American headress with white feathers, and then super-cool face painting with black lines on her cheeks and something really fierce on her forehead—maybe look up some Native American traditional dress online? She would have to look like a warrior, so maybe a Cherokee? Weren’t they the fiercest of the tribes?

I only go where my publisher sends me, and that’s based on bookstore interest in the area, so the best way to get me to your hometown would be to bug your local bookstore to invite me. I would love to come to Indiana if they send me! I do try to go to new places for every tour to give everyone a chance to meet me. I love meeting you guys!

Q: If a blue blood’s bond dies from a Silver Blood attack, is that Blue Blood allowed to take another as their spouse?

A: Blue Bloods who have lost their bondmates are allowed to marry – but it would be just a normal human joining, not a heavenly one – kind of like a marriage of convenience, like the one that binds Charles Force and Trinity Burden. Trinity lost her soulmate in the Wars, and Charles was shunned by his vampire twin, Allegra.

Q: Does each vampire look the same in each cycle? Like does Mimi always have blonde hair and green eyes?

A: Since they’ve been around for so long, I would think that they wouldn’t necessarily look exactly the same all the time for each cycle, the spirit is not bound to genes, like in humans. But some of their essence is the same, so I always imagine that Mimi’s eyes look the same in a way, maybe if not in color, but in shape, or in some other kind of way that is recognizable as Azrael.

Q: If a Blue Blood child were to die before the transformation, would the Blue Blood in him/her be dead for good?

A: The Blue Bloods are long-lived and cannot be killed in any normal fashion, they would have to be killed with a weapon that held the black fire, that is the only way for the blood to be destroyed. But their blood would have to be saved in order to be reborn, so if the young Blue Blood was “killed”, let’s say in a car accident, and if they were able to save the blood that held the immortal spirit, then the spirit would not die. However if no one is able to save the blood, then yes, that spirit would never be called up again, and would, in a sense, be dead. But that really doesn’t happen with the Blue Bloods…they are very careful to keep the living blood protected.

Q; Where is the blood kept of those who are in the passive state, who has access to it, and can it be corrupted? And how was the blood preserved before modern technology, i.e. electricity?

A: The blood doesn’t need technology to be preserved, it is living, no matter what temperature, it’s immortal, so there’s no reason for it to be preserved. But it is guarded. And we’ll find out more in the later books about the rules that govern the cycle and how it all works! I had a chapter in Van Alen Legacy that dealt with this but I had to take it out for pacing purposes, but we’ll see it in a future book.

Q: Who’s Regis when Michael is in the passive state?

A: There is a Regent that he names to lead the Conclave when he is not in cycle.

Q: How long were Allegra and Steven married before Schuyler was born? And when is her birthday, just out of curiosity?

A: This will be answered in future books and Allegra is a Leo.

Q: I understand the whole bringing blue bloods back through implanting them into other blue bloods to carry on the line…but, I was wondering that if two Blue Bloods wanted to produce children the natural way, and not use implantation, would they have a Red Blood? Are they even capable of producing or does one parent at least need to be a Red Blood?

A: They would not be able to reproduce, so even if two Blue Bloods wanted to, they could not. Schuyler is the only one who is a new spirit, and her father is human.

Q; Also, how does being a Silver Blood affect the implantation/natural production in general?

A: Remember the Silver Bloods are Blue Bloods, except that their bodies house multiple spirits instead of just one, so they would not be able to reproduce either.

Q: Let’s say that Jack decides to be with Schuyler and he breaks his bond to Mimi, assuming that he survives whatever the consequences are, could he ever get back with Mimi in another life or would the bond be broken forever?

A: The bond would be broken forever. That’s why it’s such a serious decision!  There’s no turning back if he does it.

Q: I was wondering if you’ve ever had any dreams from one of your character’s point of view and if you’ve ever used that in your writing?

A: That hasn’t really happened, my dreams are more of writing the books, missing my deadline, sitting in front of the computer. How sad! LOL! But I think about them all the time, mostly the story and how they are reacting to the things that are happening to them.

Q: Which character would you say you can relate to the most?

A: It’s hard to say because when I envisioned the three girls, they each have a part of my personality, and they are each a product of my experiences…that said, in the first book, a lot of Schuyler’s alienation and sarcasm is mine, and then Mimi is just the easiest to write because she says all the things I wish I could say but never do. And I just love Bliss, I feel very protective of her. And she’s so surprisingly strong.

Q: If you could take the place of any of the characters, which character would that be and why?

A: They all have a pretty hard road ahead so I don’t know if I would want all that responsibility! I’d be one of the vampires who didn’t care about the Code, and would just be shopping and doing silly things. ☺

Q: If Kingsley is a Silver Blood and he is supposedly good, and Silver Bloods need Blue Blood to carry on, then how is Kingsley kept alive and tamed without sacrificing blue bloods?

A: This question will be answered in Van Alen Legacy.

Q: Being a half-blood, is Schuyler able to eventually bond and continue the lines of blue bloods? Or will her next of kin be more and more dilute?

This, I think is one of the biggest questions of the whole series, and will be answered in the final book. I’m sorry! But isn’t it fun to find out through the story instead of just me telling you?

Q: In Van Alen Legacy, will Jack and Sky get a chance to be together again, basically will there be romance…I know you can’t give spoilers but is there a possibility or is it really OVER?

A: There is a LOT of romance in this book, and you will find out the answer to your question when you read it. I can’t say more than that! ☺

Q; Does Jack have to verbally declare that he’s going to deny their bond, if he chooses to denounce it or could the bond be declared void another way?

A: You will see in Van Alen Legacy, I think action speak louder than words so I don’t think just saying it does anything, he actually has to DO something about it if he chooses to break it.

Q: When are Schuyler’s and Jack’s birthdays?

A: I think Jack is an Aries and Schuyler is a Virgo.

Q: What was Allegra’s role exactly on the committee? And why was Charles chosen as Regis instead of her?

A: Allegra never wanted to be Regis, it’s not her place. Charles is the archangel Michael, and he has always been the leader, Allegra had a big role in the Blue Blood community but not necessarily in their leadership, she was more a spiritual leader than someone who ran the organization.

Q: In Blue Bloods it’s stated that Schuyler is descended from two presidents, but then in Masquerade Lawrence says that Blue Bloods aren’t supposed to hold office. What’s the deal? Are the presidents on her father’s side?

A: As Cordelia said, no one really adheres to the Code anymore, so there have been a lot of Blue Bloods who have held office. It’s not something they wanted to happen, but certain Blue Bloods have done it anyway. The series is about the decline of the Blue Bloods’ world and their values, and how the Van Alens want to bring it back.

And as for your question about Sky’s dad, you’ll find out in the book I’m writing now, Misguided Angel, a little more about his background!

Q: I’m a Jack/Mimi fan. Will we ever find out how they fell in love, and also why they were made human twins in this cycle when they never were before (according to Masquerade)?

A: Hmm… I don’t know. Possibly.

Q: If Jack goes through with the bonding would his feelings for Schuyler just disappear because of the reunited connection with Mimi or would he still long for her? And if he did still want to be with her, what would be the consequences for him cheating on Mimi?

A: If he bonded to Mimi, he would completely forget about Schuyler, there would be no cheating.