Hi all,

Sorry I have been MIA—it’s been all Blue Bloods 4 all the time, with a dash of Angels on Sunset Boulevard 2 and Girl Stays in the Picture 2…I guess I am a sequel-writing machine! As terrible and cheesy as that sounds—yikes! Let’s say a series-writing machine. That sounds better, doesn’t it? We are very late on the fan mail, I am so sorry – about four months’ late…please be patient, we will answer them all but it will take a while to get back to you. But it is so wonderful to hear from everyone and when I have a pub date for Van Alen Legacy I will share it with all of you ASAP. I don’t want to reveal the expected date quite yet because I am still working on the book and I want to make sure I make my deadline and then hear from my publisher before getting everyone’s hopes up. But I think it will sometime in October.

Life has been hectic with trying to get the books done and the life lived—the house maintained, the kid stimulated (I snuck in reading Caitlin Macy’s Spoiled in between—there’s a culminating line in one of the stories that goes “YOU HAVE TO STIMULATE CHILDREN!” Which I find kind of hilarious to quote), and the marriage on an even keel. Oh! And get the books written too while you’re at it, right?

I swear I have never been as tired as I am now that I am a working mom. And I like being a working mom. I like my work. And I like being a mom. And all moms work—even if they don’t work outside the home, there is just so much involved in having a steady, stable life that encompasses a happy family, good friends, and successful careers. Sometimes it feels like we are just on this tightrope-balance-beam and one little wobble in one direction (for instance: ignoring your family so you can write, or ignoring your books so you can be with your family) will send the whole enterprise crashing down, and you are left with, choose one: a broken home, or your career in shambles, or your house in disrepair.

Everything takes so much energy! And so much of it has to be happy and positive—I WILL get this book done and it will be GOOD, I AM NOT TOO TIRED to read to my child AND later talk to my husband in a meaningful way and not just recite the whole litany-of-chores-list wherein conversation is just made up of, “Did you send the renovation plans to the contractor?” “Do you know the light in my office isn’t working?” and “It’s trash day!”

Good god. No one prepared me for this. Which is a bit of a lie…since my parents were big on, you know, parenting. In that, growing up, there were a lot of lectures on how to: choose and keep a husband, how to negotiate a deal (my former investment banker dad is my go-to guy for every book advance), how to be happy (those weren’t lectures, my parents taught us that by being happy themselves). But I don’t think I quite was ready for the whole having to do everything and make sure dinner is healthy and organic please, by the way. And while you’re at it, make sure the kid is in the right ballet class! Aahhh!

My husband tells me I am driving us crazy in my quest to have this full and happy life, in that the aspiration towards my goal is actually killing it, and to be happy you’ve got to let go a little. As in: so the kid ate M&M’s today. Let’s not beat ourselves up over that. Or: so the book is late. I did not make September. I could cry about it or I could put my head down and keep working. We are just doing our best and I need to cut ourselves a break.

So that’s what’s been going on here. But I am really really happy with the book, much happier than Revelations or even Masquerade. I wrote Blue Bloods so long ago I don’t remember how I felt: relieved, I think, but also really apprehensive. I had no idea if I had pulled it off. But this new one I think it is THE BOMB. And also is very satisfying, to read AND write. And I’m looking forward to writing Wolf Pact, and the new Blue Bloods trilogy, with new characters and new drama…and lots of other new projects I can’t talk about just yet.

I will be on the main Target stage at the Los Angeles Festival of Books in a few weeks! Come see me! I’ll be talking about the Blue Bloods series and giving a sneak read from Van Alen Legacy. Check the Events page for more details. And for those who want to know about my Book Expo appearance, I will be promoting Van Alen Legacy but I don’t think we will have galleys at that point. Oh and I’m doing some appearances in Houston in June because the lovely winner of the Blue Bloods shopping spree lives there and we’ll be lunching and shopping and I’ll be appearing in a couple of bookstores.

Thanks again for all your patience and I just love hearing from everyone, so keep those emails coming!

And here’s a photo of Mattie I took yesterday in front of our house. She can pedal now!!!

xoxo
Mel