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
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
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!
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. š
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