Yearly Archives: 2010

Hello!

It’s been quiet over here lately. Just been immersed in work, which has kind of taken over as my deadline looms nearer and nearer.

My typewriter is angry! It’s saying, “Feed me your book! Feed me your book!”

I must comply!

In other news, we rented Star Blazers on the Netflix. I wonder if I will love it as much as when I first saw it. Or if it will be hokey and lame and somehow destroy my fond memories of loving it in childhood.

Hmm. Seeing this photo I got excited. It looks kind of awesome! Maybe you CAN go home again. At least, pseudo-anime-wise.

Happy Wednesday!
xoxo
Mel

I am appearing with a bunch of cool smart YA fantasy chickadees on the Smart Chicks Kick It Tour this fall! Catch me Sept 18th in SF and Sept 20th in Pasadena.

Here is the full tour schedule!

September 13th—Tour launches at Book People in Austin, Texas w Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Holly Black, Rachel Caine , & Cassandra Clare 7:00 pm BOOKPEOPLE BOOKSTORE

September 14th—B&N The Woodlands in Houston, TX w Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, & Rachel Vincent. 7:00 pm B&N, THE WOODLANDS 1201 Lake Woodlands Drive The Woodlands, TX 77380

September 15th—Blue Willow in Houston, TX w Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Holly Black, Sarah Rees Brennan, & Cassandra Clare 7:00 pm Remote location details to come Off site event hosted by: BLUE WILLOW

September 16th—Lemuria Jackson, MS w Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, & Sarah Rees Brennan 6:00 pm LEMURIA BOOKS 202 Banner Hall 4465 I-55 North Jackson, MS 39206

September 17th—Poisoned Pen Phoenix, AZ w Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Holly Black, Sarah Rees Brennan, Kimberly Derting, and Becca Fitzpatrick 7:00 pm Hosted by POISONED PEN at the Scottsdale Civic Library Auditorium (holds 300 people)

September 18th—Keplers SF, CA w Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Melissa de la Cruz, Becca Fitzpatrick, & Rachel Vincent KEPLERS (Remote location details to come )

September 20th—Vroman’s w Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Rachel Caine, Melissa de la Cruz, & Mary Pearson 6:00 pm VROMANS BOOKSTORE

September 21st —Mysterious Galaxy w Melissa Marr, Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Mary Pearson, Rachel Caine, & Carrie Ryan Time & Remote location: Encinitas County Library, 540 Cornish Drive,Encinitas, CA 92024

September 22nd —Anderson’s Chicago w w Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Jackson Pearce, Jennifer Barnes, & Carrie Ryan 7:00 pm ANDERSON’S BOOKSHOPS 123 West Jefferson Avenue Naperville, IL 60567-3832

September 23rd —Dayton OH w Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Jackson Pearce, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, & Kami Garcia 7:00 pm “BOOKS & CO: AT THE GREENE”

September 24th —Cincinnati w Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Jessica Verday, Jeri Smith-Ready, & Margaret Stohl 7:00 pm Joseph Beth

September 25th —Toronto w Alyson Noel, Kelley Armstrong, Melissa Marr, Jeri Smith-Ready, Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl 2:00 pm CHAPTERS BRAMPTON 52 Quarry Edge Drive, Brampton, ON

xoxo
Mel

So, the Oscars! That was fun. I am never that into it but somehow I caught the fevah and I was excited to watch even though everyone who we all thought would win, won, so that was kind of a snore. But it was great to see all the pretty dresses. Sandra Bullock looked faaahbulous and somewhat like Georgina Chapman, the designer of Marchesa who made her dress, with that hair and those lips. Didn’t you think?

Sandy:

Georgina:

And whoa, Katherine Bigelow is 59! That is insane! Let’s hope we all look THIS GOOD at 59! Wow. Rock on. (This is not an Oscar shot, but god she looks pretty here.)

I did not understand Zac Efron’s hair, which made him look like an exclamation point. I wonder if he will transition from pretty boy to serious actor like Leo. (Yes we are on first-name basis.) Not with that hair he’s not!

Those were my thoughts upon watching the show. I also thought Alec and Steve needed better material, with all that talent, so many jokes fell so flat and corny…and those loooong puff-up-your-butt speeches before the Best Actor and Actress awards? Jeez. As my six-year-old nephew said, “Get on with it already!” I don’t know about you but I find too much praise just as cringe-worthy as too many insults. You’re never as great as they say you are, nor as bad as they say you are.

Right now I am in the middle of my book and must go back to it after I take the kid on her weekly playdate. This whole balancing the work and the mom thing is really hard, because as much as you think “Oh it’s just ONE playdate a week!” I always grumble and complain and want to get out of it, not because I don’t want to see the other moms—I LOVE seeing my friends and it actually makes me a happier person when I see them—but it’s just the physical separation from the computer and work that I find painful. I always think, “Oh I could get so much work done if I didn’t have to go on this DANG playdate!” But then in the end it is fine, I make my word count, my kid got to go to the park with friends and I got to chat and be a normal human being for a little while instead of a hermit attached to a keyboard.

Well we are off to the park!

xoxo
Mel

It’s Oscar night which means traffic, traffic, traffic and staying as far away from Hollywood Boulevard as possible. At this point, I only watch the Oscars for the clothes… who really cares who wins anymore? My favorite movies never win. Except the year Lord of the Rings finally won. This year, I’m rooting for Inglorious Basterds, the best movie of 2010, funny, shocking, witty, suspenseful with awesome dialogue (“This is the German three!”) and absolutely no chance of winning.

But who cares about the movies? Let’s talk about the clothes!

One of my favorite Oscar dresses is Julia Roberts’ Valentino dress. Just the perfect Oscar dress: elegant but interesting—very memorable. It’s so simple and yet so good. When I got married in 2002, I was mulling having my bridesmaids all wear the ABS version of this dress. My BFF Jennie said DO IT! DO IT! WE’LL ALL BE JULIAS! But in the end I nixed the idea as I thought it would kind of make my wedding a joke. And hoo boy did I NOT have A SENSE OF HUMOR about my wedding. I was very much bridezilla in the end. So no Julia Bridesmaids for me. But every time I see this dress I remember that idea and picture them in it and I laugh.

My next favorite Oscar dress is Michelle Williams’ yellow Vera Wang. I thought she just looked STUNNING, and so stylish, with that flat-curled hair and those bright red lips, she looked amazing. What a happy moment for her and Heath right then—new parents, and the Oscars. The air of tragedy that lingers above this photo—showing a happy time that did not last, adds to its mystique I think. But really even without that the dress, the whole look, is crazygood.

I also love Nicole Kidman in this green Galliano for Dior. I love the unexpected color and the chinoiserie styling. I think it’s important to not look like some prom queen at the Oscars, but to somehow find a dress wherein you look like yourself, only different, only better. Too many actresses show up in those unfortunate cupcake dresses, which I think is due to the girly-gene bred into our DNA. I myself wore a cupcake dress to my wedding. When I look at my wedding dress today, I feel affection for it, but part of me wishes I had worn a severe Helmut Lang dress or a simple sheath instead, dresses that were more flattering to my profile. I look SO MUCH better in the simple black Martine Sitbon dress I wore to the rehearsal dinner, with my hair down.  But no, for some reason, I had this idea that I had to look like CINDERELLA on my wedding day. So I had my hair up and everything. Disney has a lot to answer for, as I’m sure we’ll see a lot of cupcake dresses tonight.

But here is Nicole during the Nicole and Tom years.

I also love Madonna in the white fur and white gown at the 1991 Oscars. Channeling Marilyn Monroe, and with the perfect accessory on her arm—Michael Jackson! I am on the generation of women and gay men who think Madonna can do no wrong. The marvelous Miss M. Worship!

The Oscars is so boring now because no one wears anything interesting. Cupcakes on parade. I love Bjork in the swan dress by Marjan Pejowski, just because, why not? Interesting, a personal statement, of course she thought people would make fun and would not get it, but did she care? HELL TO THE NO. I once wore a Bernhard Wilhelm jedi dress, a dress that made me look like a space alien, to the Webby Awards (the Oscars’ dingy dingy DINGY little cousin) ten years ago, when the little fashion website my friends and I started was nominated. We lost to Paper that year. (We won two years later, finally, but that year none of us went. We were tired of losing. Oh well!)

Of course you cannot talk about crazy dresses at the Oscars without talking about Cher. 1986. Bob Mackie. Excellent!

That about does it for the Oscars. I also love Feminista’s take on dressing Gabby for the Oscars. It will be SUCH a shame if no designer steps up to outfit the glorious Miss Sidibe. A real CRIME OF FASHION. But I know that whatever she will be wearing, it will be interesting, a personal statement, and all HER. Say no to the cupcake!

xoxo
Mel

So, on Friday night I am having a not-so-quiet dinner with my family in Palm Springs. We’re out on the patio. Sinatra is playing. The kid is jumping up and down on her chair. Mike and I are just trying to eke out a little relaxamacation time after a busy week, and then my iPhone starts buzzing with all these emails flooding in…

They all say the same thing: Congrats!!! Heard about Au Pairs!! You must be so excited!!

Now since moving to Hollywood, and I mean it literally, we live smack in the middle of Hollywood, in the hills above Warner Brothers and the Disney studios, we see a flashing “NBC” sign from the living room and our cheese shop is next to the CBS studios, and yeah, ABC is down the block too. At the Cheese Shop we see a lot of actors from The Office. (Oscar is there a lot) and at our sushi place we always bump into cast members from Scrubs. It’s funny to live in TV Land. Anyway, since moving to Hollywood a lot of our friends are now in “the business” (no one says “industry” anymore – considered gauche for some reason). Anyway, now it seems we know a lot of people who make our favorite movies and TV shows and it’s nice because while we are in Hollywood, Mike and I are not really “in” Hollywood since he designs and builds houses and I write books (not screenplays). And we love hearing the gossip and all the background info, etc., but we are not obsessed because, it’s not OUR business really. We’re like the outsider-insiders. But anyway, I feel like things are about to change and I am going to get a lot more obsessed as the year goes on…

As all our Hollywood friends were emailing me… because as the author, I am of course, the last to know…

THAT THE AU PAIRS MOVIE HAS A DIRECTOR!!!!

RJ CUTLER!!!

He made the September Issue. One of my favorite movies ever. Up there next to Unzipped. Grace Coddington, I worship you. I thought Anna Wintour came out great in it too. I loved how she decided things so quickly. I wish I could make decisions like that.

Here is the man himself. With the woman herself.

Here is the September Issue.

CA-CHUNK that is one fat magazine. The only thing that can be fat in Vogue is Vogue itself! Haha!

And here is the link to the Deadline Hollywood (Nicki Finke) piece that says we are shooting this summer in East Hampton.

Oh, and Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys is coming to the small screen as well! It’s going to be a reality show on the Sundance Channel. For a while I was so peeved because it felt like everyone I knew in New York was getting a reality TV show. (Many of them on Bravo.) And where the hell was MY reality show damnit! Well, here it is! Finally! And here I am in Page Six.

Fun, right? I am really happy. But not as happy as I could have been if it had happened, say, ten years ago, when I was an arrogant little snit of a writer who thought the world was going to worship at my Christian Dior stilettos. If this had happened ten years ago, I would have been a little monster. I was puffed up with myself already (and I had not yet even achieved anything I had planned out to achieve—I was just CONVINCED, CONVINCED that it was all going to happen to me. Because I was a GENUIS! I was BRILLIANT! I was a STAR! The bestseller list. The adulation. The movie premiere. Hello!) But it took a lot longer to get to where I wanted to be, and along the way, my dad got cancer, and I had a baby, and I dunno… I guess I kind of grew up.

I just realize now that it is so much harder than I thought it would be. I hit the best-seller list on my fifteenth book. Au Pairs was supposed to be the “one” to do it, but we never did make the list, for some reason or another. And it took Blue Bloods a couple of years to catch on. And once something really awful happens to you—like losing your dad—I dunno. I love my career, and I’m awfully proud and excited if the movie happens, but I’m just different now.

Now when someone asks me why I’m happy, I’ll say it’s because my marriage is strong, my kid is great, and my mom and my sister’s family and my brother and his wife and my extended family of in-laws and cousins and all my dear friends are all with me. I spent so many years chasing this dream of the Glamorous Life and the Beautiful People and like Simon Doonan (who has a TV show also! Just like everyone I used to know in NY), anyway, like Simon says, the Beautiful People are the ones that surround us.

Not to get so cheese-meister but you know what I mean. (This is such a random aside, but in emailing my editor today I came up with the word Chugly. Cheesy and Ugly. Chugly. Dontcha love it?)

And it does not mean I will not be stalking all the awesome celebs on the movie red carpet! As long as they are not chugly! Haha!

More news to come!!

xoxo
Mel

What a fun day. I started off being a “testimonial” caller to my dear friend Karen Robinovitz’s show on HSN. Karen’s beauty company, Purple Lab, was debuting on the Beauty Report. I called in to talk about how awesome Karen is, and how fabulous her products are. Karen and I were both struggling fashion journos back in the day, and we wrote two books together, “How to become famous in two weeks or less” and “The Fashionista Files.” The New York Times called our Fashionista book “unexpectedly poignant” and that we were two girls with our “nose pressed against the glass” whose love for fashion had “beggared them both”. Karen and I had a good laugh about that one, especially since back then it was oh so true.

But look at the byatch now!!!

Isn’t she gorgeous?? Karen is the best kind of girlfriend -the kind of girlfriend who will lend you her Proenza to wear to the prom. I’m incredibly proud of her and her new beauty products. (My current obsession is the Silk Sheets foundation!)

After I talked to Karen on Live TV, I banged out a thousand words on Misguided Angel, fixing a knotty problem that I had been angsting about the whole week. It’s so great when the writing goes well, it feels like everything else is going well too.

Then I went shopping to celebrate.

I bought these new Chloe sandals. They are SO cool when you tuck your skinny jeans into them. Rock on.

And my latest obsession are these Ippolita bangles. I have been obsessing about them for a while and finally bought a bunch. I plan to wear them with lots of white linen. White linen, a tan, and a stack of silver bangles. I am READY for summer!

How about you?
xoxo
Mel

I get a lot of emails from you guys who want to be writers, and want to be published NOW.

Now of course, there are a bunch of young writers who are publishing today.

One of my favorites is fashionista darling Tavi, who is thirteen years old and just adorable. Not only does she worship at the altar of Commes des Garcons but she is also a pretty savvy kid.

Look how cute she is in this bow!

And here she is with the MiSshapes, who were the inspiration for Taj and Johnny’s band the MiStakes in Angels on Sunset Boulevard. (Yes, I know, too cruel to mention Angels since the sequel is not yet forthcoming. But one day, people, one day.)

I sometimes worry what is next for Tavi, if you’re front-row at Marc Jacobs at thirteen, where else is there to go? But she seems like she has a good head on her shoulders and will probably run the world one day.

Tavi, our future world leader.

Of course, not everyone can be so precocious and lucky. But here’s the great thing. If you want to be a writer, you can be as old as the hills and no one will care.

There is no reason to hurry.

Here are some of my favorite writers who didn’t publish until they were ancient.

Judy Blume didn’t publish her first book until she was 31! (Which is not that old really but I remember when I was 12, 14, 15, god knows I thought 31 was geezerville.)

Julia Glass didn’t publish her first book until she was 46! (You guys think this is one foot in the grave, right?) 🙂  And not only did she publish her novel at that age, she even won the Pulitzer Prize!

Well, how about Frank McCourt, who didn’t publish his first book until he was sixty-six! (He was practically almost dead! I joke, I joke.) And he won not only the Pulitzer but the National Book Award as well!

I know what you are thinking…I don’t want to wait that long. I want to be published NOW. Also, I want to make a living as a writer. I am going to be a STAR!

If you want to make a living as a writer, you will have to learn to say YES to everything, and write about many things which you may not have any interest in. Like how to apply sunscreen. (I think I wrote this article every summer for many women’s magazines for many, many years. I never go to the beach now without slathering on the SPF at least AN HOUR BEFORE. You need to give it time to sink into your skin.)

Sure, you could sell your first novel for gazillions and move to Aruba on your advance, but that possibility is about as likely as winning PowerLotto. It’s a jackpot kind of scenario, and it’s not one that happens to about oh, 99.9% of us.

PowerLotto = Publishing NOT!

Here’s the thing about writing. It doesn’t pay that well, at least in the beginning, and it may not pay that well for a long time, if ever. A lot of writers publish one or two books, realize there’s not much money in the game, and move on. I’ve always noticed how there’s always a bunch of these “socialite” writers who come out with a novel or two, are celebrated for it, and are never heard from again. A lot of writers do other things on the side, like teach or work for magazines and newspapers. A lot of writers have financially supportive spouses or parents who help them pay the rent while they write.

You have to be prepared for all of these things to happen to you if you want to be a writer.

You have to love it enough, because writing is a pain, and struggling is a pain, and at the end of the day, you have to figure out if it is worth it, if publishing that book, which no one will have heard of, is worth it, because even when you do acquire a modicum of success, no one you will ever meet socially will have heard of you or your book, because unless you are Dave Eggers or David Sedaris, or have written The Da Vinci Code, Bridget Jones’s Diary, or Twilight—books that have broken through the pop-culture ether so that people who DO NOT READ BOOKS or READ ONE BOOK A YEAR (which is the majority of adults in this country) will have heard of it, and will look at you approvingly.

David Sedaris. The only author that most people at dinner parties have heard of. What up with da monkey?

Someone once said the only difference between a unpublished writer and an published writer is that you go from UNKNOWN to OBSCURE. Most of us toil in the grey zone of semi-obscurity, even with our “New York Times best-selling” banners. (Especially since there are now about 100+ New York Times bestsellers a week.)

But IS it worth it?

Yes.

Of course!

Yes! A hundred times Yes!

YES!

I can’t imagine doing anything else, and to get paid for it is even better. But I have to say. Even when I was just making $10,000 a year as a writer -when my yearly writing income barely covered my handbag bills, (I supported myself as a computer programmer for nine years), I loved it, and I treasured every cent I made from that $10,000. Whereas the money I made from writing computer programs? I burned through it, as if I were allergic to it.

I read a lot of of articles bemoaning the fact that so many people want to be writers, and that they are all just frog-marching into debt, because if you go to writing school, you are just out $200k and you’re not going to get a cushy law job after you get that masters. But here’s the thing. You don’t HAVE to go to writing school. I didn’t. You CAN if you want to, but you don’t HAVE to.

And SO WHAT if so many kids want to be writers? I think it’s AWESOME! There’s always room for new voices. Sure, it gets tougher all the time, but that doesn’t mean you’re not going to be the lucky person who breaks through. You know? It could be you! So keep trying!

It took me nine years and fifteen books before I hit the best-seller list.

Revelations, the one that did it for me.

Charlaine Harris wrote twelve books before she hit it big with Sookie Stackhouse!

Charlaine’s advance for the first book in the Sookie Series? FIVE. THOUSAND. DOLLARS.

I used to sit in a cubicle dreaming of when my life would change, and when it did, I was ready. I read this EW interview with Tina Fey where they asked her, Did she think all this (blockbuster movie, Emmy award winning TV show, stardom, etc) was going to happen to her? And she said YES. She’d always believed it would happen, and it’s not a surprise to her that it did.

Tina Fey, current world leader.

Be practical. Make sure you can support yourself and your dreams first. Then dream all you want. But remember: there’s no hurry.

xoxo
Mel

Now do not get me wrong. Like any good American, I like the Superbowl. In fact, coming from an immigrant family, we somehow understood that not only did we have to LIKE the Superbowl, we had to LOOOOVE it. As in, our first year in America we were all decked out in matching red 49er t-shirts and my mom made “bean dip” which was a food substance we had never eaten before. We were very intrigued by this “bean dip” which was a three-layer dip with refried beans, guacamole, and cheese. Processed deliciousness! (I have to add that when we moved to America we all gained about twenty pounds each because, oh, silly us, we thought it was normal to eat fast food all the time, because hey! The Americans, whom we wanted to emulate, did so!)

Bean dip. Just add Fritos. (Or Fritos Scoops!)

Fortunately that was the year 1985, when Joe Montana thrillingly led the 49ers to victory. (I think I can replay that play in my head, we had a VCR and my dad watched it all the time. We always cheered every time. I dunno. It made us feel somehow, very American.)

Joe Montana. Our hero. I wish I could find the photo where my sister and I met Joe Montana at a party in San Francisco. We look like his long-lost Vietnamese children in the photo, we just look SO psyched.

From my family, which was very sports-oriented since both my dad and my brother were both athletes, I married a man who has no interest in sports at all. At first when I met my husband, I thought it was very un-American to not like sports. Like ANY sports? Not even tennis? (which is really so British!) No. Not even baseball which has a patina of nostalgia already and was a sport even nebbishy writers for the New Yorker whom I used to date liked? NO!

NO SPORTS AT ALL! AND ESPECIALLY NOT FOOTBALL!

Which was really, fine with me. Mike explained that in America, there are two camps, especially if one is male. There are the jocks. And there are the geeks. You have to choose which camp you are in. And once you are in that camp, you can never, never never , NEVER like anything that the other camp likes. It’s like the core of his identity.

The jocks like Dave Matthews, pushing people into lockers, and of course, the Superbowl.

Dave Matthews. Bleggh. I knew there was a reason I did not like him or his “music”.

The geeks like the Stars (both Wars and Trek – I love that 30 Rock joke don’t you?), heavy metal, and despise the Superbowl.

Smoke on the Water. Mike says this is “our song”. Which came from someone asking us the inane question, “Do you guys have a theme song?” As in a theme song to our lurve? Mike and I both shuddered at the cheese factor and he answered, “Sure we do. Smoke on the Water!”

Ever since then, it’s been Smoke on the Water.

I even kind of like it now.

Mike’s family has been in America since like the 1800s or something. They are from the middle of the country. They are like Chevrolet-commercial American. They’ve never even bought a Japanese car until the 90s! (And when they did it was a behemoth Sequoia, which was their “small” car since their other three cars were Suburbans.) How could they be American and not like football??? How??? Was this even allowed????

Suburbans. Huge cars. And perhaps not so bad now that all those Toyotas are being recalled, for I dunno, KILLING their drivers?

The Chevy Suburban. It’s got a lot of junk in the trunk.

I have since understood that my husband comes from the Kurt Anderson, Michael Chabon, Zach Braff’s character on Scrubs type of American male. Art rather than Sports. Museums instead of lacrosse. (For those who get the BB reference. Heh.) Conventions good. Arenas bad.

Kurt Andersen. Our hero. When I was a young writer he looked at my clips and pronounced them “very entertaining.” Yeah! Unfortunately he never did hire me to cover fashion for his website. They went under before I got the assignment. Oh well. I would love Studio 360 if I listened to Public Radio. But I do not. (I like to sing along to FloRIda instead of listen to people blather on.) But Mike listens to it and he tells me what happened. I get the Cliffs Notes version of the show.

In honor of my all-American husband, every year we still participate in the Great American Holiday. We have a party. (We do have a giant screen plasma. Some things are shared by All Americans regardless of where they stand on the Jock-Geek divide.) We invite friends over. And then we watch the Commercials. We LOVE the commercials! Superbowl commercials rule! We are quiet and pay attention during the commercials. Then when the game comes on, we mute it and we eat and talk about the AWESOME commercials.

And that, my friends is how to have an anti-Superbowl party.

Come for the beandip. Stay for the Domino’s ad.

xoxo
Mel

A friend asked me a question recently, the question was “Do you ever worry you will run out of ideas?”

It’s funny. Usually people ask me *where* I get my ideas.

I’ve never been asked this question before.

The answer is No.

Usually I have so many ideas, more ideas than I have the time to write the books that come from them. Sometimes I have so many ideas it is hard to pick one. And sometimes I’ll have an idea in the back of my head that I thought about a long time ago and am still kind of mulling that somehow ends up in the present book I am writing.

Some books I have yet to write include:

Stuck Up Trendy Asian Bitch or S.T.A.B. -> remember this derogatory term? It was so very 90s. It was hurled against “Asian girls with asymmetrical haircuts holding shiny patent-leather backpacks in SoHo” or so someone explained to me when I was in college. Well, I didn’t have a shiny leather backpack (too poor back then) and my hair was more of a growing-out-perm-hence-ponytailed-all-the-time situation, so I didn’t think the slur meant me. But I thought it was funny (I usually think offensive things are funny) and it stuck in my mind. And so when I was 22 I wrote a novel about three trendy Asian girls living and loving in SoHo. My agent wasn’t able to sell it but it did get the interest of a young smart editor at Little Brown, who encouraged me to keep writing and gave me lots of tips on the publishing business.

I still feel very fond of this idea and someday hopefully I will get to write it. Sometimes I feel I am too old to write it anymore. So if there are any young trendy Asian girls out there who want to write this story, please do so. Because I really want to read it.

Some very trendy Asian girls. Goodness we are a trendy people aren’t we?

Tragic Filipino “Thorn Birds” style novel -> I started writing a few pages of this novel when I was in my late 20s. It’s about a fabulous Filipino Chinese family, beauty queens, mah jong and forbidden love.  I found these pages again recently and thought “hey! This is good!” However it has sat on a pile and I have yet to write it. I imagine I will be in my sixties when I write this novel.

Here are some Filipino Beauty Queens. Those are some big-ass crowns! And also, the trophies are as tall as the queens. I could not find a photo of the trophies though. The beauty queen culture is huge in my mother country. In fact I cannot believe I was never a beauty queen! I was robbed of my heritage. (Unfortch my parents thought they were incredibly tacky. Which they are. But still.)

Mack Saves Manhattan -> Harry Potter meets King Arthur in New York. Does that sound like every other Harry Potter clone or what? I wrote about 80 pages and set it aside. A lot of this book ended up in Blue Bloods, including the elite private school setting and the fantasy aspects. The King Arthur aspect did not make it in though. By the time I wrote Blue Bloods I was more into the Paradise Lost myth. Also, when I was writing this my editor at the time told me Meg Cabot was writing Avalon, her take on the Arthurian legend. So I put it aside. I’m fond of it but I don’t think it will ever see the light of day since like I said, the best parts ended up in Blue Bloods.

The Convent of the Sacred Heart. Where I went to high school which became the inspiration for the school in MSM and Blue Bloods. Isn’t it gorgeous? And Lady Gaga is an alumni of the New York branch! Convent girls rock!

Thirty Year Old High School Student Novel -> Remember that article about that guy from Princeton who was a runner who they found out was 31 and not 19? Remember him? It made me wonder, if you could go back and do high school all over again, with what you know now, how would it work? It had a slutty girl protagonist in her 30s who wants a do-over in her life so she goes back to high school and tries to get a fresh start. I wrote about 80 pages. (80 pages for my writing is equal to the 3-month term in relationships. The time when I decide either to stick it out or break up.)

Drew Barrymore starred in Never Been Kissed where she plays a journo who goes back to high school and makes out with her teacher. Probably another reason why I abandoned my novel. Hollywood had already gotten there first! Damn them!

Drew is so cute isn’t she? I love her Globes dress! And the making out with Justin Long!

The Fortune Hunters -> I actually had a contract for this novel, which was supposed to be my second adult novel after Cat’s Meow. I had to cancel the contract and return the money since I got busy with the Au Pairs series and my agent told me I had to “concentrate” as in figure out what to do with my career as I was all over the place (adult fiction, adult non-fiction, YA fiction, magazines, etc.) The novel was going to be based on a serial column I used to write for Gotham. It was a re-imagining of Vanity Fair. Some of this book also ended up in Blue Bloods.

The latest issue of Gotham. That’s Miss Jackson if you’re nasty!

A lot of these failed or non-starter novels are from my 20s, when I was trying to figure out what to write after Cat’s Meow. As you can see, I started a lot of things but then ended up not making a lot of them happen. Nowadays this doesn’t happen anymore, since when I write novels now they are already under contract, but also because I feel like I’ve finally found my niche and this is where I am supposed to be, writing about vampires who are fallen angels, hell hounds, witches and norse gods in the Hamptons.

Grey Gardens, which inspired my new adult series The Witches of East End. (Coming 2011 from Hyperion!) Yeah I know they already made the TV movie but mine is just inspired by the story, not the same story at all.

My friend also asked me if it’s easier since I write a series since I have a “formula.”

I laughed. For me, the fun thing about the Blue Bloods books is that there is no formula. Each book feels like a whole new one to me, with a new setting and new problems.  I think if I had a formula I would be so bored. The series keeps my interest because it changes all the time. Sometimes it’s a romance. Sometimes action. Sometimes fantasy. Sometimes a love letter to New York. Sometimes my characters are ancient creatures full of wisdom. Sometimes they are impulsive foolish teenagers. For me each book is very different.

Here is a famous formula.

I don’t think there is a formula for my books but it would be fun to imagine!

SKY + JACK – MIMI / OLIVER * VENATORS – BLISS =  BLUE BLOODS ? 😉

xoxo
Mel

Today’s blog is about doing something even if no one who looks like you is doing it.

My brother has been e-mailing me constantly about this kid Jeremy Lin from Harvard. Jeremy is the first Asian American basketball star with a real shot at the NBA. Here’s Jeremy. Isn’t he hot?

He’s led Harvard to its first winningest season in, let’s say, several hundred years, because unlike Princeton’s b-ball team, Harvard has notoriously sucked at hoops. (Hey I can say this, I went to Columbia where we had the losingest football streak in college history – forty years I think – without a win. And I say this *with pride*. I love being from a non-jock school.)

Anyway, back to Jeremy. I’ve read the countless articles my brother has forwarded me (my bro was a varsity high school b-ball player back in the day—his GPA raised the team’s overall GPA by like ten points. Oh and yes he went to Harvard) and it’s amazing how much racism Jeremy has encountered in his nascent career.

Simply because there are no other Chinese kids who play basketball.

Oh Yao Ming doesn’t count. First of all he’s from China-China, the red heartland, he’s seven feet tall, and he’s seen more as an exception—a glorified exception—to the rule.

The rule says Asian-American kids don’t play basketball.

Here’s a quote from the first article: “Immersed in the game as he was, Jeremy never thought he was anything but a normal kid who liked basketball. Until, that is, the insults came at him, the taunts to go back to China or open his eyes. He was an Asian-American basketball player, an oddity and a curiosity in the cruel world of high school, where nothing is safer than being like everyone else.”

Here’s a quote from another recent ESPN article: “Even Lin, who won numerous player of the year honors as a senior at Palo Alto High and led his team to a state title, famously did not receive a single Division I scholarship offer.”

NOT A SINGLE ONE!

And here’s another quote from another Asian-American basketball player. “Ng, who plays guard at 5-7, believes Asian-American players are often judged unfairly. “People just look past you,” he said. “It’s like they don’t even see you.”“

LIKE THEY DON’T EVEN SEE YOU!

When my dad coached my brother’s fourth-grade basketball team, they were relegated to the “B” team because, hey, what does some Filipino dude know about hoops? My dad used to play college ball, not that anyone cared, and like Jeremy Lin’s dad, he was OBSESSED with the game. My dad always said if you’re an immigrant you have to work twice as hard to get to where you want, and Pop wasn’t insulted. He just sat back and let them see the results. He trained those kids, running drills, teaching them the basics, taking it really seriously.

And that “B” team? Three years later they went on to win the seventh-grade league championship! The “pile” photo where all the players are collapsed in an ecstatic heap on my dad after the last buzzer is classic Hollywood Americana.

Will Ferrell? I have a movie for you.

Except maybe Jackie Chan should star in it.

Here’s a New Yorker article that also reminded me of Pop and my bro’s b-ball domination. Pop was a big believer in the FULL COURT PRESS.

When I first wanted to be a writer, I felt like Jeremy. I just thought I was just a normal kid who liked books. But it did worry me a little, being Asian-American, because while there were some very respected Asian-American authors like Amy Tan out there, most of the Asian-American writers were writing very tragic, sad tales about ethnic issues and alienation that were very heavy and not at all like the books I wanted to write. My favorite authors were all white: Stephen King, Anne Rice, JRR Tolkien, Frank Herbert. There didn’t seem to be a way to be a writer, and an Asian-Am writer, without having to write an ethnic book. And I wanted to write The Lord of the Rings, not Joy Luck Club.

The Joy Luck Club. The kind of book I did not want to write. (I dunno. I liked my mom. Heh.)

So what to do?

Honestly, I don’t really know. You just kind of muddle through and you find a niche for yourself and as long as you keep pounding on that door, someone—finally—will have to let you in.

I started out writing book reviews (and always got hit with the ones with Asian themes or written by Asian authors. I’ve read enough tragic tales of China to last me a lifetime), then I found a niche in fashion since no one was covering it at the paper where I was writing. Then you kind of stay in the fashion ghetto for a while, writing about shoes and lipstick, until you get moved up to the women’s mag ghetto where you write about relationships and sex. When I wrote my first YA book the Au Pairs I was really excited because it was a chance to write the kind of fun, frothy commercial fiction that I loved as a kid (I was always thrilled that the company I was working with had been the masterminds behind Sweet Valley High.) And then from there, my editor asked me if I wanted to write horror/fantasy.

And finally! This was it! My chance! To write the kind of book I’d always wanted to write!

I get so many emails from readers who can’t believe someone from their background (immigrant) or who looks like them (Asian) or has a similar last name (Spanish) can write popular fiction.

Of course, now that vampires are hot,  there’s all this “TWILIGHT RIPOFF!!” screeching that the genre is getting now.
Sigh. This is lame. It’s a beautiful cover and why can’t any writer write a girl-falls-in-love-with-paranormal-paramour without getting the TWIFIGHT label?

Now it seems I am relegated to the vampire ghetto, or the paranormal ghetto. You know, the thinking that ‘your book wouldn’t do half as well if Twilight wasn’t around.’ Maybe. But maybe, because I did write my book a year before Twilight even hit the shelves, I was just lucky enough to be standing (writing) in the right place in the right time? Maybe? Years after this trend finally fades away to just us die-hards, I’ll *still* be writing these kinds of books.

It’s been five years since I wrote the first Blue Bloods book, which is pretty cool. Here’s an early version of the KEYS TO THE REPOSITORY cover. This is not the final version. (I have no idea what the final looks like yet.) But thought it would be fun to show!

Because I never feel like I’m stuck in the ghetto. In my mind, I live on Fifth Avenue, across from the Metropolitan Museum. 🙂

xoxo
Mel