Hey kiddies.
I’m sorry I don’t have time to comment back lately. And we are waaaay behind in all the emails. I read them all, you know, but it takes a long time for me to write back because I always want to attach the latest MELDLC newsletter with news on all my upcoming books and stuff. But the thing is, the latest newsletter is still unwritten! Because a couple of my books are being re-shuffled around in the schedule and I have to figure out what I want to say in the newsletter exactly. I realize this is an incredibly lame reason why your email has not been replied to, but fear not, one day you will get a personal note from me with a handy-dandy newsletter attached! This is my goal for this year, to get all the emails replied to and start 2008 with an empty in-box.
Anyway, the paperback of Angels on Sunset Boulevard is being sent back to the drawing board. You know that zo zexy cover? Sales wasn’t feeling it. I thought it was hot, but they know that they’re doing. So Angels is coming out in paperback next fall (instead of next spring), along with Angels on Sunset Boulevard Two, or The Strip. Which is soooo hot it’s burning my fingers as I type! (God I’m a cheeseball.) What else is coming to Fall 2008? Blue Bloods: REVELATIONS! Whoo hoo. It’s juuuuicccy. I promise once I have something to put up, like a chapter or an excerpt or something, on either of these books, I will do so. But right now everything is in very messy first-draft phase.
Right now I am in the middle of revising THE ASHLEYS: JEALOUS? and my head is going to explode. I have read and re-read this book so many times I think I’m going to go insane. So I’m taking a little break and blogging.
Did I say I love revising? I hates revising. I hates it. I hates it. But I’m almost done, Hallelujah! The only thing that is keeping me going is that I get to have a fun fun spa treat when I turn it in. My brother got me a gift certificate to the Beverly Hills Hotel La Prairie Spa for my birthday and I promised myself I would hurl myself at their massage table as soon as I hit "Send" on the manuscript.
I finally figured out what my family can give me as presents–because I never ever like any clothes or jewelry anyone else picks for me (you can’t really shop for fashionistas since they shop all the time themselves). But I’ve become a spa junkie ever since my daughter was born.
When I lived in New York, my favorite spa was the La Prairie Spa at the Ritz-Carlton. Oh my god, if you haven’t been there, you HAVE to go. It’s the best spa in the world. It’s beyond fabulous. So I was delighted to find out they have one here, at the Beverly Hills Hotel. I kind of want to rent a bungalow there for a day too.
By the way, the St. Regis Monarch Beach is amazing. Our suite came with its own butler! At first I was like, what do I need a butler for? But you know I was pressing that butler button every five minutes. I am totally sad I am now home and there is no butler to order around anymore. I totally regressed to my pre-immigrant self, to the kid who grew up with nine maids in Manila.
When I was growing up, the maids used to dress me while I was still asleep for school. I would not even bother to wake up until I had to get into the car. I totally remember lying down, eyes totally closed, while they put on my school uniform, socks and shoes. And I was like, ten years old or something. How SICK is that? This is why my husband thinks I am totally lazy. Once you have house-staff you’re pretty much ruined for real life.
The only thing my family’s old lifestyle prepared me for was to write my books set in high society. I know from spoiled, man.
In the meantime, our curtain lady is coming this week and we’ve finally decided what to do about the curtains (automated for sure–one of our friends once said our house was "slightly more advanced than everyone else’s, almost like living in the near-future" so of course we must automate!). Now we are on to landscaping the property. We’ve got to re-do the decks and put in fountains and gazebos and fire pits and maybe even a waterfall. They’re very popular in the hills where we are, and the idea of having our own little waterfall is very appealing.
I’m sure it’s going to be a nightmare to construct it all though. Those things always are. And when we finally get the house totally done, I’m sure it will be time to move… Such is life!
Anyway, the Ashleys are calling me back to finish their story, so I must go back and see what those crazy girls are up to. Seventh-graders are SO demanding!
xoxo
Mel