Hey guys,

I know, I haven’t been blogging as much lately. Mostly it’s because I Twitter and it seems to Twitter AND blog is just too much me, me, me stuff. Also, I’ve been dealing with a lot of family stuff. Not just all the weddings and raising a bright and energetic almost-three-year old, but as some of you who have kept up with my blog for a while now know, my dad has been fighting cancer for the last couple of years. It’s one of those low points in his treatment lately. We are all good and Pop is okay but you know how chemo is—lots of complications and side effects. I have a heavy heart these days, and am taking a more reticent route at least blog-wise.

The weird thing about cancer is that you could be totally fine for a day or for most days, and my dad is one of those people who has this great spirit and all we do is laugh and joke about all the crazy things that have happened to him (black humor a family crutch), so most of the time you are pretty much fine. You can read books and watch TV and go to dinner and hang out with your kid and laugh and feel good about the world. But then once in a while you just find yourself sobbing on the couch or while you are driving, as the sadness is just overwhelming. We’ve been pretty lucky so far, as lucky as you can be with the kind of cancer he has, but you know how it goes.

In a way, it has made life sweeter and more bitter. We feel things more. Celebrate more heartily. And regardless of all the crying my family does at weddings they are mostly tears of joy (Or “TEARSOFJOY!TEARSOFJOY!” as my uncle said as he walked my cousin down the aisle.) As for Twittering about cancer, well, that just seems wrong, doesn’t it? So. There it is. I have been shopping a lot (retail therapy another family crutch) but it’s like putting a band-aid on a gaping surgical wound.

Anyway. All the Blue Bloods stuff is incredibly exciting and one of the things that has always consoled me other than the support of my family and friends is my work. It is wonderful to escape into my books and I’m excited for all the Van Alen Legacy events Hyperion is planning, including more fun stuff you will see soon.

I will be Twittering sneak-peeks from Van Alen Legacy every day starting Sept 6th until pub date. Follow me here to get them. And celebrating pub day at the St. Louis County Library with a fabulous ball. Radio Disney will be playing what they assure me will be gothic and vampire-appropriate songs and we can all get dressed up (or not! if you don’t want to dress up – no worries at all!).

What else? Oh I know, I haven’t been answering questions. I’m sorry. It’s been hard to concentrate on anything but the books and my family and friends who have become so dear to me. I will soon. Thank you for sending them and thank you for writing me. I’m sorry it takes me a long time to get back to those who have written me, but I do read all the emails that come in and they brighten my day when I hear from you guys. Also I am going on tour. I’m sorry if I’m going to your neck of the woods this time, but I will be touring again next year and the year after that and hopefully every year so at some point in the future, hopefully I will be visiting your town or a town not too far from yours. It amazed me so much all the kids and parents who drove hours and hours to come to the events, I am humbled and flattered more than you can imagine.

xoxo
Mel