Publisher’s Weekly had the exclusive today!

And here is the formal announcement from Disney Publishing Worldwide. Kind of love that! So official!

Disney Publishing Worldwide Announces Finale of Blue Bloods series
with Three-Book Deal by Best-selling Author Melissa de la Cruz

New York, March 17, 2011—Disney-Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Publishing Worldwide, has acquired the seventh and final installment of best-selling author Melissa de la Cruz’s hit Blue Bloods book series and two companion novels. The agreement was negotiated by Emily Meehan, Executive Editor, Disney-Hyperion, and Richard Abate, 3 Arts. Lost in Time, the sixth book in the Blue Bloods series, releases on October 4, 2011, with the final book slated to be published in Fall 2012. There are more than 3 million books in print in the series.

“I am incredibly excited as the Blue Bloods story reaches its dramatic conclusion in the long-awaited finale,” said de la Cruz. “I started writing the Blue Bloods series seven years ago, and it’s been an amazing ride with my fabulous readers and my fantastic publisher, who have stood behind the books from the very beginning.”

“I’m not only Melissa’s editor, I’m one of her millions of fans who has been ever-desperate for more Blue Bloods books,” said Meehan. “I’m thrilled to bring the finale to life, and to extend the longevity of this blockbuster series with the opportunity for new storytelling and characters in the companion novels.”

Melissa de la Cruz (http://www.melissa-delacruz.com) is the author of many best-selling novels, including the first five books in the Blue Bloods series: Blue Bloods, Masquerade, Revelations, The Van Alen Legacy, and Misguided Angel; the Au Pairs series; the Ashleys series; and Angels on Sunset Boulevard. She lives in Los Angeles, California with her husband and daughter.

About Disney Publishing Worldwide
Disney Publishing Worldwide (DPW) is the world’s largest publisher of children’s books and magazines, with over 250 million children’s books and over 400 million children’s magazines sold each year. Disney Publishing Worldwide consists of vertically integrated publishing imprints including Disney Book Group in the U.S., Disney Libri in Italy and Disney Libros in Spain, as well as an extensive worldwide licensing structure. DPW also publishes a range of children’s magazines globally including Topolino, Le Journal de Mickey, and Donald Duck, as well as family titles in the U.S. which include Disney FamilyFun. Disney English is DPW’s English language learning business, including Disney English schools in China and a worldwide retail licensing program. Headquartered in White Plains, NY, Disney Publishing Worldwide publishes books and magazines in 85 languages in 75 countries.

Needless to say I’m over the moon about all this… and also very emotional… It’s been seven years of writing the series, and the story is coming to an end. I’m consoled by the fact that I have a fresh new story with new characters on deck, but that’s still aways yet. For now I’m concentrating on giving my beloved Blue Blood vampires the best ending ever. I’ve been working on Book Six and Book Seven simultaneously, and it’s an ending that I’ve planned from the beginning, so part of me is a bit… overwhelmed. Seven is the magic number. I was born on September 7th, and it’s always been my lucky number, and I hope you all will enjoy reading it!

xoxo
Mel

SUNDANCE CHANNEL’S HIT SHOW “GIRLS WHO LIKE BOYS WHO LIKE BOYS”

IS BACK FOR SEASON 2

NOW CASTING AUSTIN, TX

THIS GROUNDBREAKING SERIES CELEBRATES & EXPLORES THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WOMEN & THEIR GAY BFF!

NOW CASTING STRAIGHT WOMEN WHO HAVE FOUND REAL, LASTING LOVE WITH THEIR GAY BEST FRIEND IN AUSTIN!  TO SUBMIT, SHOOT AN EMAIL TO:

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Send us a bio of who you are including name, age, and occupation.  Tell us why you’d be great for the show.  Why MUST we cast you?  Wha’s happening in your life?  Why is your relationship like none other?  What’s going on in your relationship that makes it so special?  Why do we need you?  Attach a photo & phone number where you can be reached.

** MUST LIVE IN AUSTIN THE AREA. **

A fun sneak from my new book WITCHES OF EAST END, which publishes June 21st!

From Chapter One:

There he was again. The problem. Not Bran, not the sweet man she had pledged to love forever—he had been stolen away by the crowd and was now in the middle of chatting up her mother. His dark head was bent over Joanna’s white one, the two of them looking like the best of friends.

No. He was not the problem at all.

The problem was the boy staring at her from across the room and from all the way down the length of the great hall, Freya could feel his eyes on her, like a physical caress. Killian Gardiner. Bran’s younger brother, twenty-four years old, and looking at her as if she were on sale to the highest bidder and he was more than willing to pay the price.

Hyperion will be releasing a fun free e-book with the first 3 chapters, and extra information (family tree, character backgrounds, SPELLCIPES—oh yeah. Spellcipes!!) soon! Watch this space!

Pre-order from Amazon.
Pre-order from B&N.
Pre-order from Books-A-Million
Pre-order from your local indie.

xoxo
Mel

Pant, pant, pant.

That’s how I felt watching this cover shoot. My goodness! That dude has some abs right?

And here is the final cover!!

Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. DYING over here.

Right now I am finishing both Lost in Time and Wolf Pact. Both are incredibly fun to write and so exciting. I am totally obsessed with both and can’t wait for you guys to read!

xoxo
Mel

Hi all!

You can see the cover for the sixth Blue Bloods novel: LOST IN TIME over on MTV’s Hollywood Crush.

Isn’t it awesome?? So hot, hot, hot!!

Am knee-deep in the book right now, which is my favorite one yet. So excited for you guys to read it in October!

xoxo
Mel

I talk about YA fantasy, Witches of East End and Wolf Pact here.

And a bit about fashion and Blue Bloods here.

xoxo
Mel

I’ve been on a blog tour for Bloody Valentine, which has been a lot of fun!

I started over here at Bookworm Barista, talking about the book, Warning there are spoilers, so make sure you have read the book first before clicking.

At Dreaming Books, I write about the challenges of writing series.

Over at Monster Librarian, I talk about how libraries influenced my books!

I am not a Romantic, I write, for SitThereAndRead. But I sort of am since it’s a love blog to my husband. (Avert your eyes!)

Writing is Hard, it’s not for the weak, I write about the experience of writing Witches of East End, for My Pile of Books .

Enjoy!

xoxo
Mel

Thanks all for all your wonderful art, trailers and poems for the Make-up Bag Giveaway! Giveaway is closed as of today, January 26, 2011. Do not worry if you have not yet received a confirmation email, as we are still going through the pile, but our email account tells us we’ve received enough for each of the bags that we have on hand.

In other news, I am on the blog tour for Bloody Valentine starting today!

Today I’m on Blue Duck Book Reviews talking about why I wrote the stories I did. There are some spoilers in my comments, so don’t click unless you’ve already read the book! More to come…

xoxo
Mel

More of my fan art favorites from the makeup bag giveaway! It’s not really a contest since everyone who sends me a link to a drawing, a collage, a fan-made trailer, a review, a poem, or anything creative, gets a signed Blue Bloods makeup bag! Just please DO NOT SEND FAN FICTION. It is not part of the giveaway as I cannot read it. We still have a bunch of bags left so send them over! Send to my email: melissa at melissa dash delacruz dot com, subject ART CONTEST.

On to my faves!

This is a fun collage by Jessica A. I love the bleeding heart!

Another fun collage by Chelsea, I like the view of Florence and the mask! So cool!

Lauren did a rendering of the Archangel marks: Lucifer and Michael’s. They actually look pretty bad-ass here, which we could never get right on our side. Thanks Lauren!

We got a couple remixes of our covers, and this one I liked a lot from another Jessica A:

And here’s one the best manga-inspired fan art by Seosa. Pretty awesome:

All of you, not just the ones shown here, are so talented!! I’m so glad to hear this has been fun for you, it’s been very fun for me too!  Thanks for sending them in. I promise I’ll get to the poems soon. Just easier to post the art right now.

xoxo
Mel

Friends are so important for a happy life, and I am so blessed to have so many wonderful friends. I have old friends from college who remember me from my class president/club kid days, friends from the fashion and magazine world who remember me from my crazy-obsessed-fashionista-who-would-die-to-get-photographed-by-Bill-Cunningham days, mommy friends with whom I can commiserate on the difficulties of marriage and child-rearing (SO difficult! which is why you need mommy friends to complain to), and lately I have been lucky enough to have become friends with a wonderful group of writers. I’ve never had very many writer friends (outside of the journo and fashion worlds) and I’m so happy to have gotten to know the lovely ladies (and a few gents) from the YA world. What a fun, funny and supportive bunch! And whenever I get the chance to see them, I JUMP.

I’m here in San Diego for my pre-sell tour for Witches of East End. Here’s the view from my hotel of the San Diego Harbor. Loverly.

It was fun meeting everyone at ALA Midwinter conference – I can’t wait to hear what you think of the book!! And a few of my writer friends were holed up in a villa overlooking the sea.

Here they are!

L-R Kami Garcia of Beautiful Creatures fame (note headphones and cute smile!), Carrie Ryan (Zombie queen of Forest of Hands and Teeth stardom) holding up an ARC of Witches (thanks Carrie!), our fabulous den-momma Melissa Marr (who is Wicked and Lovely just like her awesome dark-faerie books), Cat Caine (sweet artist hubby to Rachel Caine) and Rachel Caine (vamp goddess of Morganville Vampire acclaim, who is in the zone in this pic, Rachel gets up at 5AM to write, she is a PRO).

Anyway, it was a fun day full of writing and gossip with friends…and tonight I get to meet some booksellers and talk up my book… and maybe make some new friends!

xoxo
Mel