Today we welcome the lovely Miss Sarah Mlynowski, author of many amazing books including the wonderful Magic in Manhattan series, the latest book, Parties & Potions is out now! I thought I’d ask Sarah about her um…shopping habits! Because, c’mon! We need to know!

1) Do you consider yourself a shopaholic? And if so, what’s the particular addiction? Shoes? What? And if NOT, what kind of shopper are you?

Hi Melissa! Thanks so much for taking the time to ask me all these questions. I don’t think anyone has ever asked me about my shopping habits before…which is a shame because I LOVE to shop. I shop in department stores, at boutiques, at drug stores, on-line. I have two recent addictions: nail polish and books. I’m a big pink fan—pink polish and pink books.

2) Do you have a favorite designer? Who and why?

I love all things Theory. My sister used to work there and she got me hooked—the 30% family discount didn’t hurt. I’m not so into patterns, and I like how their clothes are mostly solid colors.  (I’m short and I’ve convinced myself that solid colors make me look taller.)

[I love Theory also!! Their white shirts are the BEST. And I agree about solid colors=more height.]

3) What’s the one thing you would love to buy but haven’t?

A MacBook Air. I really, really want one. They look so light and fluffy.  My laptop is kind of on its last legs, so I might get one when it dies…just hoping it doesn’t die before I back everything up. I’m really bad with the back up. Maybe I should do that right now. Okay now. Soon, I swear.

4) What’s your proudest purchase?

The no-name high black boots I bought in 2002. I tried on about a hundred pairs before I found the perfect ones. Plus, I discovered them two blocks from my apartment, they were cheap, and I still wear them.

5) Is there anything in your closet you regret buying?

Um, yeah. The Tory Burch slip-ons that give me blisters because they’re too small. The Mary-Jane Cole Haan heels that give me blisters because they’re too big. I’m like Goldilocks with shoes.

[And of course we need to know about the books too! So some book questions…]

6) What is the new book about?

Parties & Potions is the fourth book in the Magic in Manhattan series. Rachel and her sister are both debuting at a magical party called a Samsorta, which is a debutante ball for witches. Of course the ball has boys…cute, charming, witch boys. Sure, Rachel is still madly in love with her boyfriend Raf…but Raf doesn’t know her big, witchy secret. And she can never tell him. Or can she?

7) What are you working on now?

A new novel called Gimme a Call.  It’s about a high school freshman who finds a magical cell phone and can call herself in the future as a senior. If only Future Me could e-mail myself the finished draft…

8) How is it different writing for adults than it is for teens? Can we expect more adult books? Which type of book do you prefer to write?

It’s not that different…my tone and voice are pretty similar. I do feel more pressure writing for teens than I do for adults since 14 is much more impressionable than 24. When I write for teens I’m extra careful about having characters swear, drink or hook up. When I write for adults I dive right into bad twenty-something behavior…it’s a swearing, drinking and hooking up extravaganza.
I’d like to write another adult novel again, but I’ve been pretty busy with my teen books lately. I like writing both, but my true love has always been YA.

9) You’re pregnant. Yay! Are you shopping for the baby? What are you buying? Stroller of choice?

I actually haven’t bought ANYTHING yet. And I’m due at the beginning of March! I’m superstitious, so I didn’t want to get anything too soon. But now I have to get cracking. Today. (Right after I back up my files.) And stroller is up there on the list, although I don’t know which one yet. I did see a really cute pair of pink Baby Uggs at Bloomies last week, but I’m worried I’ll get the size wrong and give Baby blisters…

—-

I bought my baby Baby Uggs too. She NEVER wanted to wear them. Sigh. But I think I’ll try again now that she’s a toddler. Thanks so much for stopping by, Sarah! And do catch Sarah on the rest of her blog tour:

Teen Book Review, Wednesday 1/14
The Well Read Child, Thursday 1/15
Page Flipper, Tuesday 1/20
E. Lockhart, Wednesday 1/21
Bildungsroman, Thursday 1/22
YA Books Central, Friday, 1/23
Ally Carter’s Blog, Monday 1/26
Cynsations, Tuesday 1/27
Random Buzzers, 1/28 – 2/6

xoxo
Mel

Good news! The short story I wrote exclusively for Target, which is from Jack’s point of view and gives a new perspective to the ending of Revelations, is now available for everyone to enjoy!

To read it, go to www.bluebloodsbooks.com/target. It will ask you for a secret password. The password is BLUEBLOODS in all caps. We will be fixing the site so that you will no longer have to key in the password in the future, but for now, you still need it.

And again, Blue Bloods IV: The Van Alen Legacy comes out this September!

We are casting for the photo shoot for the cover of the book right now. It’s like America’s Next Top Book Cover Model over here. Heh. My editor sends me model cards and I send back comments, so yes, it is EXACTLY like ANTM.

Also – please do stop by this Friday, January 16, as the effervescent and awesome Sarah Mlynowski will be joining me on her blog tour, answering all my shopping mania questions. Sarah’s new book Parties & Potions in the Magic in Manhattan series is out now! Tres fun, hilarious and sweet, just like its author! (How cute is HER author photo by the way??)

xoxo
Mel

I have a new author photo! Check it out!

I am sitting in our living room in our fabulous B&B Italia Gaetano Pesce Up chair. Isn’t it gorgeous??? We call it the Dr. Seuss chair. Actually that is not right. We always call it “our fabulous B&B Italia chair.” Other people (guests who shall not be named) call it the Dr. Seuss chair. Design barbarians!!

That’s all for today. Gotta get these copyedits for GIRL out the door!

xoxo
Mel

I just heard from my editor at Hyperion that BLUE BLOODS IV: THE VAN ALEN LEGACY has a pub date! It will be out September 1, 2009. Yay!!! I love the month of September, especially since it’s my birth-month.

Plus there are so many fun songs with September in them, like “Try to remember the kind of September when life was slow and oh, so mellow….” (from the Fantasticks, but here’s one where the fabulous Julie Andrews sings it) and Earth Wind and Fire’s “Do you remember the 21st night of september? Love was changing the minds of pretenders, while chasing the clouds away…” (all together now “da da da… say that you remember da da da…dancing in september…da da da…chasing the clouds awaaaayyyy….”). Good stuff!

And here’s some other fun stuff. Here’s the synopsis and cover for Girl Stays in the Picture. Isn’t that such a great cover??? I love how hot she looks.

GIRL STAYS IN THE PICTURE

If you can’t be a mega-selling teen pop star, maybe you can join her entourage…

Devon—one name only, please—-is the latest and jail-bait-est pop star to hit #1 on the Billboard charts and she’s making her big screen debut in “Juicy”. But after a stint in rehab, the studio isn’t so sure she’s their girl anymore. If they cut any more of her lines, she’ll be a silent film actress! Can Devon regain her star status? She needs to watch her back and make sure that flash doesn’t catch her causing a scene, and we don’t mean the kind you can yell “Cut!” after.

Livia has lost the weight and gained a reputation for attitude in the Hollywood party scene. Her dad’s an Oscar-winning producer, and with a hot Beverly Hills boyfriend on her arm as well as her photos all over the pages of Gossizzle.com, Livia looks like she has a perfect life. But looks can be perfectly deceiving…

And there’s fresh-faced Casey, who left a job bagging groceries at the Piggly Wiggly to play personal assistant to her best friend….and Devon’s biggest rival. She’s got the biggest crush on the biggest star of the film—a hot Brit known for loving and leaving them. Will Casey stay true to herself while trying to find a place in his universe?

Stars. They’re just like us. But what does that mean for the rest of us? Stay tuned, people.

xoxo
Mel
(I still can’t get those September songs out of my head!)

Fun stuff today!

First off, the Blue Bloods series is back on the New York Times Best-seller List this week at numero otcho!!! That’s number eight in gringo.  (It will be printed on Sunday but the pub houses find out Wednesday night and you get an email from your editor telling you). Happy happy dance! And it’s also back on the USA Today Top 150 List as well! Oh-yeah-Oh-yeah-It’s-my-birthday-Oh-yeah… (Do you remember that? Whenever something happened that was good you’d sing It’s-ma-birthday-it’s-ma-birthday…blame Fitty! Or was that just me and my gay gang?)

I did an interview with the hilarious and awesome Alexa Young, author of the Frenemies series to celebrate the release of her new book FAKETASTIC. If you like The Ashleys, you’ll love Frenemies and Faketastic!!

And for those of you who ask for writing tips and aren’t content with the writing tips on this blog, I’ll point you to Ally Carter’s great blog post about how the publishing business if not for wusses and also her best advice for aspiring writers.

I’m so glad Ally is writing about writing because now I don’t have to. 😉 Because you know, what I really like to write about on my blog is shopping.

Remember shopping?? I’m sure YOU do. Because even in down economies, people like to make sure their kids have books and clothes. Yay, teens! Yay, parents!

Apparently we are all supposed to go shopping in our closet these days. Which is kind of fun when you think about it! And makes you really smug: Oh THIS old thing? It actually IS an old thing I pulled out of my closet! Last night I put on my vintage-looking black Libertine for Target dress that I’d never worn (I bought it a year ago for $39 but I like to let the fashion cycle pass, especially for the Go-from-Target line before wearing them. Because otherwise you end up seeing WAY too many people in the same clothes. Like this striped Proenza-for-Target coat I bought, I wore it when it first came out and I could not go anywhere in New York without seeing some other chick in my coat. So now I wait a year or two before wearing them.) Anyway, I wore my Libertine Target dress belted with my Hermes belt, my peep-toe heel Marni knee high boots, and my Balenciaga wool and suede jacket with the big military buttons that I bought a year ago for my January book tour, my multi-colored sheer Missoni scarft, and to complete the outfit: my YSL black oversize Muse bag.

I looked in the mirror and I was like, I LOOK FANTASTIC!! I had had my haircut that day at Warren Tricomi (Edward cut my hair for years in New York) and I looked like my old self. The one who used to go to Fashion Week and get photographed by Bill Cunningham.

So where was I going looking so fly?? You’ll laugh. Okay. We went to dinner. (But not anywhere where people are seen, you know, it was more like “the place around the corner” in Sex and the City lingo. As Carrie says: I’m NOT a neighborhood restaurant girl. I’m not either, but we didn’t feel like hiking all the way to Bev Hills for once.) And then we went to the movies. And I was sooooo uncomfortable in my outfit. I was sitting in the theater and slowly and surreptitiously began to take off the layers: first went the jacket and scarf. Then the belt. Then the boots. Unfortch, I could not take off what was really killing me: the Spanx. Nope. Those, of course, had to stay on.

Let’s just say I couldn’t wait for Revolutionary Road to end! And you know what, if I wanted to be entertained by fighting I could just stay home and fight with Mike. 😉 Kidding! (Sort of.)

But as for real shopping-shopping I have been taking advantage of all the sales (and also not. Also just buying spring clothes full-price. O’well. I can’t help it.) I bought my Oscar de la Renta dress. It is beyond. I mean: WOW. It is so well-crafted and SO flattering. Now I understand. His clothes make you look gorgeous! I have no waist. I’m a straight up-and-down girl. No hips. But no waist either. But in the de la Renta, I had this tiny nipped-in-waist. It was body-conscious without being at all unsightly. No bulges. No weird bumps. Just precision engineering. Amazing. I’m a convert. And seventy percent off!!! Mine is the brown tafetta one with gold flowers. I think I’ll wear it to my brother’s wedding in May.

I also bought two new Diane Von Furstenberg dresses for Spring. DVF is the pretty girl’s secret. My friend Minty who always looks perfect swears by them. The dresses are SO flattering and well-made. Designer genius all the way and they cost $300 on average. I never used to wear DVF. I always thought it was too I don’t know, feminine for me. I used to work at an edgy fashion site, I wore Daughters of the Whatever (I can’t remember the label’s pretentious name but it was something like that) and Bernhard Wilhem (Bjork’s favorite designer) and As Four (they are now Three As Four). I liked things that were…UGLY now in retrospect. I liked them more for the shock value and the fashion snobbery than actually looking good. I think I was able to pull off these clothes because 1) I was much younger and 2) I was much thinner. (See my earlier post about how young skinny people can look good in anything.)

But now I don’t want to look like a fashion freak. I want to look….nice. And in DVF you actually don’t just look nice, you do look a bit fashion-forward too, and most importantly, you look like yourself, only better. Not so fat. Not so washed-out. (And you know what I mean by not so fat. Even skinny girls feel fat. But please, don’t get all ana on me. Rexy ain’t sexy.)

What else have I bought: A new Zac Posen dress from the Spring line (another sexy skin-hugging dress. I think maybe all this sexy dress shopping is in response to all those blobby dresses I bought two years ago.) Green knit with flamenco neckline. Mike liked it and he almost never comments on my clothes. Stella MCartney sweater. This was outrageously expensive. It’s one of those drapey wrap-y sweaters but short-sleeve and you can wear it two ways (which halves the price, right?). Mine is in ivory, not navy. I wear it almost every day. So a good investment I think. I hope. And lots of Chloe. Chloe boots and pumps both at seventy off, you know the patent-and-suede pointy ones? This one in purple and the pumps are electric blue. A new Chloe sweater from the new collection. Also hideously pricey but again, I wear it all the time so worth it. Then went outlet shopping over the holidays and hit the Jimmy Choo outlet and snagged one of those evening bags that used to be $1500 for $400. Gold metallic leather with the signature buckle. And croc-embossed knee-high boots. And a sequin short mod shift dress from Banana Republic that was $50 from $200. Cap-sleeves and so cute and a lot of fashion for a little price as fashion editors like to say.

And did you guys get the Thakoon at Target line? I love this shirtdress. SO great on and at $39. But if you’re like me be smart and wear it in two years when no one remembers it!

xoxo
Mel

This blog has logged Two Million Hits! Wow. That is cool. I also stumbled upon some ranking that figured out who and how many people read this blog. It’s no surprise that most of you out there are teens. Hi teens! Specifically teen girls. Hi girls!

I went to an all-girls school up until college and at my school every assembly, every class, was always begun by the teacher saying a cheery (and somewhat motherly) “Hi Girls!” to us. We always had warm cookies after assembly. And our school was housed in this beautiful Beaux Arts mansion. There was this grand marble staircase that we trudged up every morning, the same one our seniors wearing white tea dresses slightly above your ankles, gloves, and holding a bouquet of roses glided down on during commencement. (You had to bring your dress to be approved by the Dean. It couldn’t show too much skin and it had to be exactly the right length.)

As much as I bitch and moan about my high school experience, some parts of it still make me smile. And yes, for those who have asked, the school in Blue Bloods is based on my school. I had to imagine what it would be like if we had boys in it. But most of it—even the ghost of the founder rattling around the attic classrooms—were straight from the rumors we girls told each other back then.

I just wrote a little synopsis of The Van Alen Legacy for my newsletter and I thought I would share it wit’choo:

BLUE BLOODS: THE VAN ALEN LEGACY:
Now that the Conclave is in ruins, will Charles find it within himself to have the courage to lead the Blue Bloods once again? Will Schuyler discover her life’s true quest? With Oliver’s help, she just might…Meanwhile, Jack and Mimi’s bonding draws ever closer. Nothing can come between them now, or can it? And will Bliss ever regain dominion over her own self? Find out in Fall 2009!!!

xoxo
Mel

First off, Happy New Year chickens!!!

It’s 2009, do you know where your books are???

I’m sorry for the radio silence over the holidays. We had quality family time and no nanny which means I had no time for anything other than the kid, the husband, and the extended family. It was nice to take a bit of a break -I was starting to feel truly burnt out at the end of last year but this morning I woke up just RAZZZING to go.

I read a lot of good stuff over break: Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, which I could not put down all day yesterday, 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher, which I devoured in two hours on the couch after Mattie fell asleep, What Happened to Cass McBride, which I read during our Palm Springs vacay, Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, which I’ve been peppering my husband with tidbits from in every conversation (don’t get me started! But did you know you only need to be “smart enough” and not “super smart”? Smart enough goes a long way!). I haven’t read a lot of YA lately and it was nice to get back in and find out the water’s so nice and warm. Great books all and heartily recommended by moi. My next reading batch is E. Lockhart’s Frankie Landau Banks book, Sarah Mylnowski’s Parties & Potions (Sarah is stopping by my blog on her online tour! I will post more deets when I know them!) and Holly Black’s The Good Neighbors.

As those of you who met me on my book tour know, I really don’t read a lot of YA other than Diana Wynne Jones (who is more fantasy than YA in my opinion) and I read a lot of cooking memoirs instead, since I can’t read in my genre. Well, I think that was just hoodoovoodoo on my part, because I believed I didn’t want anyone else’s teen voice in my head while I’m writing my own teen books. Because now that I have started reading YA again (I used to devour Gossip Girl and Clique books like candy), I’m really happy with the books I’m reading. And I finally got to read Twilight, too! After watching the movie I could not resist. And I’m happy to report they are so different from my books that it was another escape. I’m looking forward to picking up the House of Night and Vampire Academy series also. Lots of good YA stuff out there!

I guess I just feel happy with where I am in my work. More secure maybe. Blue Bloods IV: The Van Alen Legacy is going really well, and I think you guys will enjoy this book because it answers so many questions. Of course, there are still unanswered questions, but big big stuff is answered. Also: there are rumors on the Internet that Book Four is being released January 2009. This is so untrue and I’m sorry for whoever spread this rumor. The book will not be out until Fall 09 at the earliest, if I hear otherwise, I’ll let you know of course!!

Anyway, I guess I’m feeling zen about my work because even if this turns out to be another five-novel year, which it’s shaping up to be, I’m okay with it. I realized that in the past, DENYING that I had this much work to do only made me miserable. Resistance is misery, Acceptance is freedom. I read that somewhere over the break, and it is so so so true. Now that I ACCEPT I have all these books to write, I just get really excited about them. And when I ACCEPT my workload, I do stuff like schedule my days so that it all gets done (as much as possible) on time. But when I RESIST my workload and my deadlines, I just plow ahead and cram and then angst and wail. I procrastinate because I am in denial about how much work there is. But with acceptance comes rigor and discipline and writing.

Which means: gotta get back to it. Books aren’t going to write themselves!

I wish you all very happy and a very prosperous New Year. God knows we need one!

xoxo
Mel

Not a creature was stirring, not even a….Silver Blood Vampire!!! (Aieeeee! Smash! Crash! Fangs!)

Santa…red blood or blue?

Ho, ho and HO!

Merry Christmas Blue Bloods faithful!!

I promised a TINY TINY TINY peek at the Van Alen Legacy and here it is:

“Schuyler walked quickly through the museum’s empty galleries. It had to be here. It had to be. Yes. There it was. Just as he had predicted.”

I know it was infinitesimally small, but chickens, it tells you a lot: Schuyler is in a museum. But what is she looking for? And who predicted she would find it? Hmmm.

It’s a mystery wrapped in a chicken tucked in a duck stuffed in a turkey…

I know, I’m getting a bit loopy from all the champagne.

But I promise more TINY peeks.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good (fright) night!!

xoxo
Mel

As you can imagine, the week has been a flurry of X-mas shopping, and of course at our house we pronounce it “ex-mas” just because we are fun that way. You know what else is fun? Having lunch with my friend Rachel Cohn! Who is so funny and bitchy and hilarious. Rachel schooled me in proper gym motivation. I was telling her how I have not been to the gym in forever and she said it’s because my gym has no motivation factor. For instance, her gym, Equinox, is next to a fabu coffee place where she knows all the baristas and can have a wonderful frothy cup of latte after working out! So that’s the secret: my gym is not next to ANYTHING. And I do remember when I lived in NYC and went to Equinox I would always go because I would get a smoothie after. (Which totally negated the calories lost on the treadmill but whatevs, I went to the gym!). Rachel showed me pics from the Toronto premiere of Nick and Norah (if you haven’t seen it you MUST) and we gossiped about Hollywood which is always fun.

More Xmas shopping awaits but tune in next week for a TINY TINY TINY peek at Blue Bloods IV: A New Hope. I mean. The Van Alen Legacy!

xoxo
Mel

Here’s a fun interview I did with Monster Librarian!

Go read it. Okay. So now you know about the Blue Bloods spinoff, WOLF PACT! It’s about werewolves, but it’s also integral to the Blue Bloods mythology, and big things happen in Book Four that will also mini-launch Wolf Pact. Fun, fun, stuff.

And I will have a Christmas surprise for Blue Bloods readers—check out this blog next week for a fun TINY, TINY, TINY sneak-peek at Book Four, The Van Alen Legacy. I know it sucks that you have to wait a year, but seriously, that year will be over before you know it!

It’s rainy and gray here in LA, which I would love but since I have to schlump around for Christmas shopping I don’t heart it THAT much. Also, I’m getting my new author photo taken today. I haven’t had a new one taken in a while. Mostly because in the intermittent years between the last one and this one, I did have one taken but it was three months after I gave birth and BOY does it SHOW on my puffy face. In fact, I was about to submit that to my publisher as my new author photo but I was just horrified by how pregnant I still looked (In the FACE!) that I quickly scheduled a photo session pronto. Vanity, thy name is author.

Here’s a fun site a friend sent to me, about writers and artists’ daily routines. Interesting that most creative people have a pretty stable routine. I did an interview where I describe my typical day and it sounds a lot like the days I read about here. I’ll post the link to my interview when it’s up.

xoxo
Mel