The cover is exclusively available on EW.com for the week! See it here!

What did you think?? Let me know in the comments on the blog post!

I really love it, I think Beth Clark, our zahmazing art directrice did it again!!! It’s so beautiful and gorgeous and exactly what I had in mind.

Newsletter subscribers got a little sneak peek of the books a couple of weeks ago, I thought I’d share it with you all today to celebrate Misguided Angel cover day!

Blue Bloods: Keys to the Repository will be out June 29, 2010. The book is partly an encyclopedia, partly a dictionary and contains new short stories about Jack, Schuyler, Kingsley, Mimi, Dylan and Bliss and sneak peeks of Wolf Pact and Misguided Angel. I am really excited for you all to read this book as it contains lots of fun background information on our favorite elite vampires!

Here is a fun sneak-peek from the book!

From Schuyler’s story:
Three stolen kisses—what did it matter, really? Jack was never going to be her boyfriend, she thought, as she turned right onto 96th street. He was never going to sling his arm around her as they walked down the hall, never take her to Winter Ball, never declare his love over the PA system by mangling the lyrics to “Come on Eileen” as Jamie Kip did so charmingly last week when he serenaded Ally Elly before the Head Girl had cut him off. But Schuyler didn’t want any of that—did she? She had never yearned for popularity. It struck her as absurd anyway, to want popularity. Popularity was fickle and elusive, like trying to catch fireflies in a jar. You were either born with it or relegated to wallflower status according to the mysterious and unknowable workings of the universe.

You can pre-order on Amazon, B&N, and from your local indie bookstore.

The fifth novel in the Blue Bloods series, Misguided Angel, will be out October 5, 2010!

Here is a fun sneak-peek from the book!

There were seven of us at the inception of the order. A conclave was called to address the growing threat posed by the Paths of the Dead. Along with myself, present at the gathering were the Emperor’s cousin Gemellus, a weakling; Octilla and Halcyon from the vestal virgins; the head of the Imperial Army, General Alexandrus; Pantaelum, a trusted senator and Onbasius, a healer.
In my prodigious research, I have determined that Halcyon was most likely the keeper of the Gate of Promise, the third known Gate of Hell. I have come to the conclusion that this gate is instrumental in uncovering the truth behind the continued existence of our supposedly vanquished enemies. This is the gate we must focus on, the most important one in the lot.
-From the personal journal of Lawrence Van Alen

You can pre-order on Amazon, B&N, and from your local indie bookstore.

I’m also part of this fun contest! Lots of cool authors are in it, have fun playing!

xoxo
Mel

Just wanted to share the coolest reader email I have received in a while.

Hello, I am currently in Afganistan and just finished reading your Blue Bloods trilogy. I will have to say that your books are amazing. I could not wait to return to base from a convoy or a mission, take a shower and just relax reading them. I can’t wait to get my hands on the next series.

I just wanted to write to you and say that your books are being read by my soldiers now and they are becoming fans of the books as well. These type of books keep our minds out of this conflict and lets us relax for a few.

Sincerely
Corporal J.O.
U.S. Army
3/8 Cav Ft. Hood

Thank you corporal! I am so flattered and moved that our boys are reading the Blue Bloods! God bless our troops! I’m sending the soldiers early copies of KEYS TO THE REPOSITORY when they come in. Anything I can do to help!

xoxo
Mel

How BEAUTIFUL is this cover???? Our genius art director Beth Clark has done it again! When I saw it this morning I went WHOA!!!

This book is out June 29, 2010! Right in time for your Fourth of July vacay, what’s better than beaches and vampires? Nothing, my friends, NOTHING.

Also, the cover for MISGUIDED ANGEL will be revealed EXCLUSIVELY to EW.COM next Wednesday March 24th on their Shelf Life Blog. There will be a short interview with me as well. Cool beans, and if you click on their blog now you can see the cover for Cassandra Clare’s new book Clockwork Angel – a pretty awesome cover too! I like it a lot because the guy on the cover kind of looks like Chuck from Gossip Girl, and I am all Up with Chuck.

In more news, I will be on the YA panel at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival from April 24-25. And to my French-Canadian fans it looks like I might be in Montreal this November!

xoxo
Mel

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