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

We went to Santa Fe, New Mexico over the weekend for our annual NYC-gang trip. We have been traveling with the same close group of friends for many years now, and even with the coming of children we still try to get together once a year in a new city. It’s sometimes difficult to agree on WHICH city, which leads to such stories as “The Ottowa Incident” (yes, the gang went to Ottowa: why, I can’t tell you, but safe to say, that was a year when consensus ruled over reason. There was nothing to do in Ottowa but bicker. Although “there were some nice museums” someone will always add.) Anyway, Santa Fe was a glorious host city: the food was divine and while most of the art was quite bad (we are Art Snobs I’m afraid) we did get to visit the Georgia O’Keefe museum.

Being an Art Snob meant that like my friends, I was quite dismissive about Georgia O’Keefe: oh that lady who painted those huge flowers in a pro-vo-ca-tive way. Hmmpf. Sure, some people like them, but not moi, although it would be amusing to see them.

Well, I have a new appreciation for good old Georgia. First of all, when you enter the museum you see this AWESOME picture of her.

And she’s about SIXTY years old in this photo! But look at her! With the flirty smile of an eighteen year old! But the lines of experience and wisdom that comes with age. Hopping on a motorcycle for a ride through the desert! As soon as I saw this photo I thought, I LIKE this woman.

Then we sat through this little documentary they made about her. I knew a little bit about her background (those PRO-VO-CA-TIVE flower paintings) and knew she had been married to the famous photographer Alfred Steiglitz, but I had no idea that it was HIS photographs of her that led all the art critics and the establishment to decide she was nothing more than a painter of “sensual” flora.

His intimate photographs of her caused a sensation and DEFINED Georgia to the world on his terms before she could do it herself. The photos are from their early life together, when infatuation is at its peak, and they are quite wonderful, really. But he was seeing her through this lens of early admiration and new love and while it’s FINE for him to see her that way (as his lady lovah), it seems quite another thing for the WHOLE WORLD to see her that way, don’t you think?  (He was also twenty-some years older than her, so there’s another layer for you.)

Here is one that I can show. The rest are NSFW or NSFYAAUTHORTOSHOW.

Georgia had her own exhibition of her flower paintings only AFTER this exhibition of photographs was already shown to the art world. And by then, because Alfred saw his lover as this sensual, sexual artist, the art world only saw her paintings through this lens, and decided those cool oversize paintings of flowers? They were all about girly parts!

Which was apparently NOT WHAT GEORGIA WAS GOING FOR AT ALL. She was experimenting with abstraction, with line and curve. NOT ABOUT GIRLY PARTS.

Here is one of her Manhattan paintings that I love.

It was amazing to me that even if Georgia was so upset by what happened—her art DEFINED by a man—and HER man no less—before she could speak for herself—-she still married and stayed with Alfred and they were together for twenty years until his death. That seems like a lot of love and forgiveness on her part as well.

And it was only after his death and her move to New Mexico that she became known on her own terms. She forged this entire new career on her own, creating new work (those cool desert landscapes and the skull paintings) and having the world finally see her through her own eyes. Anyway, look at that GRIN on that motorcycle picture. Doesn’t she look free?

Her story reminds me of that movie My Brilliant Career, where Judy Davis plays an aspiring writer who gives up the love of her life (Sam Neill) to write books because otherwise, she will be Distracted. The movie seems to say: You Can’t Have it All. It’s the Dude or the Manuscript. I remember watching that movie and thinking OH C’MON! You can have it all! At least, I’ll try to!

With Georgia O’Keefe it seems she had it all—the dude and the art, she lived through the fire of art world put-downs ( the “provocative” label persists till today), and weathered it all, to emerge, in her late years, as a full-on desert warrior artist icon.

This is an iconic photo of the young Georgia taken by Alfred. Intense. Troubled. Sennnnssssual.

And here she is as the Icon of the Desert.

She looks pretty bad-ass right? I don’t know about you, but I’m kind of looking forward to growing old. As long as I can do it the Georgia way.

Happy Monday all!
xoxo
Mel

A reader asked me what I am reading currently. I thought I would blog about it.

Lately I have been reading a lot of food books. My dad died of cancer, and something that happens when someone you love dies is that you get a kick on the seat of your pants about your own mortality. I was the type of person who scoffed at vegetarians and yoga, that Rupert Holmes “Pina Colada” song was written for ME (“Coz I like Pina Coladas, and taking walks in the rain, I am NOT into yoga, I am *INTO* champagne!”) Especially if it was sung by Kiki, the boozy 60 year old drag queen persona of Kiki and Herb fame, a character played by the genius actor Justin Bond. I wanted Kiki to sing at my wedding. My husband said No. It’s still a sore point.

Anyway… So. I was a red-meat-eating, martini-drinking, hard-living kind of gal. I think I counted French fries as a vegetable. And anyway, who ate? Back in my 20s I was a size two! I did not eat. I did not starve, mind you. But I did not eat that much either. But just because I did not eat a lot did not mean I ate well. Mostly I just skipped meals and drank a lot of coffee. Anyway, I thought eating healthily was something only annoying people did to make the rest of us look bad. But now, I’m older, and much wiser, and much kinder to myself. As much as I still like to indulge, I save those times for special occasions (which I really really REALLY look forward to: it’s like meeting your past self) and make my every day life more about eating well. I always enjoy reading cookbooks anyway, and food memoirs, so now I read food philosophy books also. Did you read about how you could be of normal weight but SECRETLY OBESE? Oy vey. I figured I have to get smarter about what I eat if I want my kid to eat well.

I really liked Michael Pollan’s Food Rules because it is so simple. A fast quick read. Helpful to remind oneself how to eat and shop. I have recently switched from Diet Coke to Iced Green Tea. Same amount of caffeine, and hopefully less cancer!

I always enjoy girls with attitude, and found the “vegan rant” Skinny Bitch very amusing and helpful. It’s a bit severe. We are not going vegan anytime soon. But helpful to keep you from reaching for those sodas—which have formaldehyde in them—which, honestly, I still enjoy once in a while at the movies. (You gotta live a little even if it means you die inside.) And hey, formaldehyde – it just means I am getting preserved earlier! Heh. But I’m just kidding. The kid has never had a drop of soda. I can’t seem to shake the habit at the movies, but am trying.

People always ask me to recommend some YA books. Rachel Cohn writes books that will make you cry and think. And they’re incredibly sexy and romantic as well. I highly recommend all of them. This is her latest book. What a lovely cover! I can’t wait to read it on the plane tomorrow.

Also, Elizabeth Scott. I can’t say enough about how ROMANTIC her books are. I just adored Perfect You. I read it in one sitting in the middle of a deadline and just devoured it. The guys in her books are so heart-breakingly real and gorgeous and you just fall in love with them.

I’ve said before that War and Peace is my favorite book and it is just incredibly romantic, with Natasha and Prince Andrei and Pierre and Nicolai and Princess Maria. There are these wonderful balls and sleigh rides (it sounds like Currier and Ives already) and bankruptcy and war and romance and faith. I spent three weeks of my 23rd year reading this book on my futon. I remember feeling depressed during that year and this book lifted the gloom. You don’t have to read the WAR parts, just the PEACE parts. I like my romance against an epic backdrop, and I like stories where there IS romance but it’s not the center of the story, or it is SNEAKILY the center of the story.

And you MUST see The Young Victoria. Because OMG SWOON. SO romantic. I like a strong heroine and the fact that she had all the money and the cards and he was a really, really great guy. And she was just lucky. Because he could’ve been a scoundrel but he wasn’t. And he died so young and she mourned him forever. I mean, can you even? I like romance when it is also about tears and partnerships. Yeah, and c’mon how hot is he???

People also always ask me about Blue Bloods’ influences. And it’s what you would expect: Stephen King, Anne Rice, Tolkien, Tolstoy, Sex and the City, Harry Potter, Flowers in the Attic. But I also really like soap operas. My favorite ones were Dynasty and Falcon Crest. But I just realized my love for soap operas goes all the way back to my childhood. To this Japanese anime called CANDY CANDY about a little orphan girl who has all these mean things happen to her but then grows up and dates the cutest boy. I can’t remember all the details and there isn’t an English language DVD to buy at the moment (SADLY!) but I did find these on the web which just jolted my memory.

Here’s Candy:

And here she is with Anthony. I think Jack Force has some Anthony DNA in him because I think Anthony was my first crush. I think I was eight years old when I started watching Candy Candy. At some point in the 70s the Philippine government BANNED all the Japanese animation because it was “corrupting our youth”. Of course by the time they took them off the air, the corruption was complete! At least in my head. I already had a fondness for soaps by then!

Well. I should go. Have fun storming the castle!

xoxo
Mel

This year I am trying not to buy so many clothes. Or at least do no more mindless shopping, which like mindless eating is the kind of shopping you do when, say, you’re just taking the kid to her music class – but oh looky! There’s a Nordstrom, how did that get there? And a thousand dollars later you are leaving with a shiny new Marc Jacobs cape which you have worn exactly ONCE. And no more buying stuff from Gilt.com before eating breakfast. But just because we are curtailing over here does not mean we are cutting it out entirely. The horror! There are so many great things for spring so I thought I would share them with you. I have thought long and hard about what I want to buy this season so that I am not as tempted to just buy, well, anything new and sparkly I see when I leave my house. Instead, let’s call this meaningful shopping. In that desire is built in for a couple of weeks, debated through endless emails with like-minded fashionable friends, and then finally the coup de grace: PURCHASED! And hopefully worn more than once.

My friend Tom Dolby and I are obsessed with this lady who was featured in Domino who only had FORTY things in her closet – and that’s all she wore and she was super-stylish. So you know: trying to do basics and not trends and to live and look more stylish than trendy. It’s a hard thing to do for those of us who live and die by what’s new (as Karl Lagerfeld said, “I have to wear what’s new, it’s my job.”), but it’s no longer my job to be on the cutting edge. There are way too many once-in-a-lifetime outfits in my closet than day-to-day savoir faire.

A navy-and-white striped t-shirt. It’s a staple. I bought this one from Calypso. It’s so comfy and very flattering. Looks great under a blue blazer with three-quarter sleeves (get your old J. Crew ones shortened at the tailor’s) and a white silk scarf.

I am also loving scarves. I have a couple that are artsy and have lots of little bits hanging off it like those Balenciaga scarves from a few years ago. But I also just like a nice sheer silk scarf. Does many wonderful things for the neck. Mainly, hides it. Jigsaw makes some nice ones that aren’t too expensive either. I like this one for the fun checker pattern.

Although if you want to get fancy. This LV stole always “steals” the spotlight. My friend Minty was wearing one to a party the other month and all the girls POUNCED on it. The next day several of us had bought it. Something about that leopard against the pink, I think. And also the way Minty wore it: over a white tanktop and jeans. Tres casual. Like, this old thing? Pshaw. I always need my clothes to say something. Maybe that is my problem. But still: a gorgeous scarf. Guaranteed to make you the prettiest girl in the room for an evening.

Lately I am wearing a lot of long sheer tunics and short Helmut Lang jackets over them. It makes you look so much thinner! Who needs to go to the gym? Well, we all do for our health. But you know what I mean. Sometimes you can do yourself no favors by just dressing fat. Try to dress thin. Long layers and skinny jeans seem to do it for me.

I love Alexander Wang t-shirts. Comfy, flattering and relatively affordable! Look how drapey they are. And they’re very sexy on. Especially with leather leggings.

This year I cannot get enough of Stella McCartney’s new collection. This jacket is insane. I have been obsessing about it for a month now with my friend Kam. Every day we email each other begging the other to buy it so that at least the other can live vicariously. Oh dear. I might have to capitulate. But only *for a friend.* You know? Ha! An upgrade to the J. Crew blazer.

Well that’s all I have in my closet today. Happy Tuesday everyone!

xoxo
Mel

Some fun photos from the tour! Been meaning to put these up forever. Thanks again to everyone who came (and dressed up!)

Here is the kid in a mask! My littlest fan. Heh.

Here are some lovely dressed up readers!

Look at that ballgown! Awesome!

Gorgeous feather headband! And a dress inspired by Mimi’s masquerade ball dress! Hi Jackie!

You guys are too adorable!

Black dresses are always good for masquerade balls!

Fabulous masks! (The winner of the contest on the left!)

A few more masked teens!

The crowd in Wichita!

And here are the two thousand books I signed at the Levy warehouse (which sends books to Target, Walmart, grocery stores, and other big box stores!)

Photoblogging is fun!

xoxo
Mel

Last Friday, I turned in my book, BLUE BLOODS: KEYS TO THE REPOSITORY, which includes expanded character profiles, a summary of the story so far, four short stories as well as sneak peeks at BB5: Misguided Angel and the new BB spinoff, Wolf Pact. For some reason I thought this would be an easy book to write, since it wasn’t a novel, and it sort of was easier, but it also sort of wasn’t, because in order to write it I really had to *know* every aspect of the story so far, and hint at the future story without giving it away. And it was in writing this book that I realized, MAN, MY STORY IS HUGE! (That’s what she said – snarf! Okay, sorry, I am juvenile today.) But what I mean is, when I first imagined the Blue Bloods series, I imagined this large, sprawling epic with tons of characters and back story… and what I have written is a large sprawling epic with tons of characters and back story. Heh. Which made summarizing it quite a challenge. I also had to make sure that I wasn’t contradicting anything that came before, but I also took it as a chance to FIX things that for some reason or other, slipped through the cracks when I was writing the books.

A couple of things that have always bothered me about the first Blue Bloods book is that it went to print with two big contradictions: one is the age that Allegra died – did she fall into a coma giving birth to Schuyler or did she fall into a coma when Schuyler was three years old? (Both are stated as fact in book one). Originally when I wrote the first draft, I had Allegra fall into a coma upon childbirth. But then I realized that I wanted Schuyler to have some MEMORY of her mother, and also, that Allegra succumbed to the wasting illness of not taking Red Blood because something HAPPENED in her life that caused it, which was not the birth of her daughter. (What happened? Something with her human husband, of course!) But for some reason in my countless re-reading of drafts and copyedits and final passes I still didn’t catch all the references to Allegra’s coma/Schuyler’s birth. Sigh.

The other thing that I’ve always wanted to correct was the question of whether there are only Four Hundred Blue Bloods in existence or Four Hundred living at a time (again in BB1, both are stated). I had always meant it to be Four Hundred at a time, and only for the New York coven, since I wanted a large story and since these vampires were so powerful it wouldn’t make sense if there were only four hundred of them ever. Especially with some of them being taken every hundred years or so. (Heh. My editor wanted to call it “The Three Hundred and Seventy Five Ball if that were the case.) The Four Hundred figure was important to the story because several myths have said that when Lucifer fell, four hundred angels fell with him, and because I wanted to tie the Blue Bloods’ history to that of New York Society, I also wanted to tie it into Mrs. Astor’s Four Hundred – the number of people who could fit into her ballroom and therefore, the number of people who made the cut into high society. Again, I should have caught it after countless re-readings but I didn’t and that inconsistency really grates on me.

KEYS TO THE REPOSITORY fixes and explains all the contradictions and inconsistencies. Very satisfying process that is. I just noticed, for instance, that Charles is described as sixty years old in BB1 and Allegra as a woman in her 40s. And they are twins, how? Tolstoy used to call these kind of mistakes “sunspots” in that the author is so close to his story, you are almost blinded to the small details. For me, part of it is because while I write a front story, there is a back story that will only come to light after you have read all the books, so I have to make sure the back story is consistent as well.

So that’s the great part of KEYS. It’s like a do-over to set the story straight as we go forward. It’s also a fun way to get back into the story and the characters so that when you read the next book, you’ll be completely caught up. I love companion books. For instance, in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, one of the things that always bothered me was that he describes Co-Op City as in Brooklyn. Everyone who has ever lived in New York knows Co-Op city is in the Bronx. In the companion book, he explains why that happened, in a scenario similar to the one I described above. He wrote it, it didn’t get caught during the fact-checking and copy editing, and yeah, it’s a mistake, and one he’s lived with. And he said, “It’s fiction. Maybe in this world, Co-Op city is IN Brooklyn. Also in writing the series, he ditches some characters, changes the names of others (Elaine becomes Susan, etc.)  and that’s just part of the writing process.

Publishing a series while you’re still writing it is almost like ‘writing out loud’ – you’re still in the middle of the story and thinking of it while you’re writing it. But that’s exactly what I love about writing Blue Bloods, I’m never bored, it’s always a challenge, and I try my hardest to get the books in the best shape I can in the deadline given me, and that’s all I can do.

In an ideal world, I would write the books and work on them until the end of my life and then release them only when they are absolutely perfect, like JRR Tolkien, who published the Lord of the Rings in his sixties. But then who’s to say anyone would want to read them forty years from now? I am a working writer, working on a series that is continually expanding and growing but one that is still adhering to my original outline I wrote in 2005. It’s fun. It’s wild. And the coolest thing of all is that you all are reading it!

Sneak peeks to the sneak peeks to come!

Happy Monday!
xoxo
Mel

Happy New Year to all!

Wishing you a happy and prosperous 2010!

When I was growing up in Manila, this was (is?) the standard Filipino New Year’s greeting– a wish for prosperity, which always brought to mind an image of a Daddy Warbucks-like character puffing on a cigar. Or maybe it was the little old rich guy from Monopoly. Prosperity seems an old-fashioned thing to wish to people, and somewhat materialistic, but it is not. It means we wish you a year filled with joy and abundance instead of anxiety and diminishment. So: Daddy Warbucks it is.

Anyway, I have been receiving a lot of emails asking about the sequels to Girl Stays in the Picture and Angels on Sunset Boulevard. While there always seems to be a very chest-puffing and triumphant announcement when NEW projects are born, usually when projects die…they die in a whimper. There’s shame and failure and embarrassment when a project does not come to fruition. And that’s what I’m going to talk about today.

Sadly, I don’t have very good news today about these books. 2009 was a very tough year for me, and a few of the things that were left by the wayside were several books that I really wanted to write. Let’s get to each book in turn.

Angels Lie: the sequel to Angels on Sunset Boulevard. I have been writing and rewriting and tearing my hair out at the writing of this book for the past three years. Last year, after turning in Van Alen Legacy, I took a week off and dived right back into Angels 2 so I could make the November 2009 publication date. My editor had come up with a great plan: repackage the book WITH the first book, I was even given leeway to completely rewrite the whole thing to make a brand-new novel. I was pumped, I was excited, I wrote the book through several drafts.

I was about to send it to my editor when I did one more re-read and came to the blunt realization that I could not release the book. I wasn’t happy with it—it felt rushed, it felt forced, and I was so exhausted already. I knew I had to rewrite it but I did not have the mental capacity to do so. I was on the verge of a breakdown when I had a second realization: I didn’t have to do this to myself. I didn’t have to drive myself crazy. I could just cancel the book and return the advance. I would buy myself some peace, and some time.

I am so very sorry for those of you who are still waiting to find out how this story ends. But I am just not ready to tell it—I am blocked on it—I thought I knew how to end it, but I don’t. Not right now. I believe I will write the sequel at some point, but I can’t tell you when, or if it would ever be published even, since the contract has been canceled. I’m truly sorry—but I would rather not release a book that I didn’t feel was worthy than release something that was half-baked. Believe me, releasing the book would have been the easy way out.

And when I said no to that, I realized that I didn’t have to continue to write the GIRL series either. I sold the GIRL series almost four years ago, and it kept getting pushed back and pushed back because of my schedule. I loved writing it but at the end of that book I was bone-tired. I was so tired last year, tired of being sad, tired of working too hard, tired of the writing treadmill. Maybe I’m just in a different place than I was four years ago, I don’t know, but the days when I could turn around a revision in two weeks are long gone.

I know some of you guys are still waiting for short stories to complete the Ashleys series too, and I’ll write a story that will wrap up the GIRL series as well. I meant to do this by the end of last year but did not have the chance to do so. I can’t apologize enough about keeping you hanging, and I will be posting these stories at some point in the future.

Thanks for understanding. Sometimes, like this post says, you have to know when to quit.

xoxo
Mel