Here’s the Revvy quote of the day:

“As the attack on the Repository has shown, the Silver Bloods are no longer a myth we can choose to ignore. We must act quickly. Corcovado must hold.” – Lawrence Van Alen

EEEE!!!! The book comes out October 28th! Order your copy now from B&N or Amazon!

I can’t believe we are so close to pub! And yes, all those who are attending SCIBA – the SoCal Indie Booksellers Assosh, I will be signing and giving out early copies of the book! Exciting!

I just got a huge box of Revelations books—they look gorgeous!!!

Oh, and did you know the paperback of Angels on Sunset Boulevard is out? It’s an LA-noir story featuring sexy missing rockstars, cute preppie boys and cool skater girls. Order on Amazon or B&N!

And I’ve been meaning to gush, gush, gush about the Nick and Norah movie. You HAVE seen it, right?? If not, get thee to a movie theater immediatement! It’s fah-boo-lous, and so real and gritty and swoony and just like the book. Congrats to Rachel and David!!! It’s so great to see a movie that captures the spirit of the book, just like the LOTR movies. I mean, it is THAT good. And Michael Cera, Can you even?? And Kat Dennings—sooo beautiful.

I also wanted to say a big THANK YOU to all my non-Angry Mom supporters out there. The Cool Moms. You guys rule. And everyone who emailed to show their support. I heart you all. And I’m cool, nothing really bothers me too much. The best thing to happen to your career? Bad, Bad, Bad reviews, Career-Killing reviews on your first book. Seriously. Because once you’ve been through the fire, you can handle anything and you KNOW the only way to win is to keep writing and keep publishing. So. I am Teflon Author. I’ve been grilled and roasted and predicted to fail. But who’s laughing now? BWAH HA HA HA…

Okay I am really not that psycho.

I’ve got to go take the kid to Mommy & Me. It’s been Nanny & Me for her for the last six weeks. I think I should show my face, don’t you think?

xoxo
Mel

It’s T-minus 19! We are 19 days away from the release of REVELATIONS!!!!!! AAAHHH!!!!

So to celebrate I will be releasing a random quote from the book every day.

“No one has done a five-star New York bonding in decades.”

Oooh!!!

Hehe. This is fun. The book comes out October 28th! Order your copy now from B&N or Amazon!

Right now I am in two different places in book process. On the one hand, I am in the final stretch on GIRL STAYS IN THE PICTURE, where suddenly the whole book SNAPS into focus and I start cutting, editing, revising to make the book work. It’s weird when this happens, because you kind of toodle along, writing hundreds of pages, knowing subconsciously things are not really working, and then you suddenly realize BAM! I DO NEED TO CUT THAT OUT AND REVISE THAT AND CHANGE THAT AND SNAP SNAP SNAP and it comes into clear focus for the first time. I guess this is what they mean by the “Process”. You have to get on the ride, it doesn’t just come immediately. It’s a nice groove to be in, but it’s hard work too because you kind of have to really THINK about the book for the first time even though you’ve been working on it for months.

And on the other hand, I’m in outline stage for BLUE BLOODS 4 and it’s still clear sailing, and everything seems so fun because nothing has been tested yet. In the outline stage I put in EVERYTHING and then later I cut, cut, cut.

I get a lot of emails asking how to keep working on a book, how to get the story down. Really, the answer is: keep working. If you keep working on it it will come to you. The other part of the advice is: take breaks. I need a restorative break between my books so I can have enough juice in the tank for the next one. You need those times where you are NOT thinking to help you think when the time comes.

What have I bought lately? Lots of Marni, basic tops to get me through the season in rich jeweled colors, this gorgeous gray silk Marni coat with three-quarter sleeves, a new Chanel bag (the classic tote in chocolate brown) and an insane fur vest with a jaguar print. I’m contemplating the peep-toe boots – either the high Marni ones or the Chloe ones with the wrap-around thing going on so it looks kind of fashion pirate-y. I always like a new boot for the season.

xoxo
Mel

Events page is updated with my tour appearances! Come see me! I’ll have Revelations tattoos and Blue Bloods t-shirts! Oh—-wait – for the NYC library I might not have the T-shirts yet. Spoke too soon. Hopefully I will have them for the rest of the tour. Eeep! So much to do…so much to do…

Today I share with you two reviews that I thought were interesting. One is about Blue Bloods, where the reviewer likened my style to Bret Easton Ellis’s (in a good way, she’s a fan of Ellis too). I just glowed when I read this. I looooove Ellis. In fact, I wanted to be a writer because of Jay McInerney’s Bright Lights, Big City and Ellis’s Less Than Zero. I was a suburban kid who dreamed of being glamorous and tragic. I despair that I am too cheerful to ever really achieve that level of langour and cool. Also, I get slammed a lot by the non-fashionable for writing about designer labels in my books. And it’s nice to see someone who gets it.

I also got my first Angry Mom email about The Ashleys. I guess I should be glad it’s just the first one. Angry Mom finished the book and concluded that I was pushing “superficial values” (you know, because of the brand-name dropping), blah blah blah, and challenged me—as a MOM, to write a better book. She says she never censored her daughter’s books before, and she picked up the Ashleys because she was curious about what her daughter was reading, and she was horrified, HORRIFIED. Ah well. I have to say right now: some people get you and some people don’t. Angry Mom does not get me. She did not find my book funny. Or a fantasy. Or a satire.

I do not know what to do with these people. All I can say is MY mom let me read whatever I wanted. And sure, sometimes she looked at my books and had a concerned look on her face.

My mom (picking up my book Flowers in The Attic, which I was reading in sixth grade (in which a mom poisons her four children and two of them become um, romantically involved with each other, Eep!): “Is this for your age?”
Me: “Uh-huh. Everyone in school is reading it.”
My mom: “Oh, ok.”

My mom (picking up my book Princess Daisy which I was reading in seventh grade (in which a brother and sister become um, romantically involved with each other, Eep!). “Is this for your age?”
Me: “Uh-huh. Everyone in school is reading. it”
My mom: “Oh, ok.”

She never took a book out of my hands. And yes, she TOLD me not to read their books—my mom and dad had a huge library of books, and they read for pleasure – there was lots of Harold Robbins and Sidney Sheldon on those shelves. And Jackie Collins too. Yes, they had the classics as well, but I was drawn to the ones with the lurid covers of women wearing leaopard-print coats and obviously nothing underneath. So of course, I snuck them out and read them. But I have to say: I was eleven, and I read The Carpetbaggers, and though I understood it was dirty, I didn’t even really get it. I didn’t understand it and it went over my head, so I stopped reading Harold Robbins.

And did I think romantic relationships with one’s relatives was a good thing after reading V.C. Andrews and Judith Krantz?? What do you think? LOL!

Well. Maybe Angry Mom was right. My mom was wrong to let me read whatever, because I grew up to write superficial books! SNARF!

Anyway, here’s a mom who does get it. She reviewed my book on Amazon and here’s what she has to say:

“The Ashleys Birthday Vicious reminds me of 18th and 19th-century comedies of manners by Sheridan, Somerset Maugham, Moliere and Oscar Wilde. Smart teens will probably recognize it for the fantasy it is—-and maybe parents and teachers can point them to its earlier literary models.”

Yeahhh, boy!!! Moliere, Wide, Maugham and Sheridan!! Woo-hoo!

Some people get you or they don’t. The people that get you compare you to your idols, the greats. The people that don’t think you are trash.

I have always been a “divisive” author. I learned this early in my career. I am not a one-author-for-everyone kind of flavor. You gotta get me to like my stuff.

Kind of like Rachel Zoe, whom the Times called “a pox of humanity”—I mean, c’mon! Why are fashion people slammed so nastily? Really? A Pox on humanity? Like the Nazis? Rachel Zoe? URGH! I mean, so she shops a lot and spends too much money and re-did the furniture in her house for a shoot (um, Fendi Casa was a sponsor – which meant she did not pay for those new couches. Puh-leeze. It was a stunt for the show. Hello.) I think Rachel Zoe is funny and cute and fashion-mad. I love all the fur and the gold jewelry and the hilarious assistants. Can I get hair like Tay’s? I also love Brad’s preppie look. Of course I have a fag hag crush on him. I gotta love someone while Ryan from Flipping Out is off the tube!! Ryan: Call me: I lofff you.

The article also intimated that we can’t celebrate shopping or glamour because of dire economic times. Which I think is all B.S. Now more than ever we need our escape, our trivia, to be amused by the very, very small problems of very, very rich people. Sure, maybe some want the Sturm & Drang but as for me, I think of Fred and Ginger and all those beautiful ballgowns and those insane penthouses and how they lifted everyone during the Great Depression.

I want more feathers and sequins and frivolity! Bring it!!

xoxo
Mel

I am about to go into a meeting so this is going to be short. This weekend: Nicole Richie at the Pottery Barn Kids at the Grove! With Joel Madden! Exciting. They were picking out lamps with her mom. The funniest thing was the salesclerk who said in a very loud whisper. “Yeah, that’s PARIS HILTON. She comes in here ALL TIME TIME.” I was like, hello???? That’s NICOLE!! You have your Simple Life castmates wrong! Nicole has a baby and is shopping for kidstuf!!! Actually I overheard that they were shopping from Xtina Aguilerra’s registry.

Nicole was very LA-chic in a sheer drapey sweater, sheer scarf wrapped around her neck, and long t-shirt over skinny-skinny jeans and flats. She looked great and tiny but not scary-tiny. More like celebrity tiny. Celebs are always mini-sized. You have to be, because the camera adds ten thousand pounds! But WHY ARE those 90210 girls so tiny? The Gossip Girls look slender and healthy. I also think the main actress Shanae—don’t you love creative spellings of creative names??—looks WAY too old to play a high-schooler. I was seriously watching my first episode and I was like—wait—why is that guy talking to her that way, like she’s a child—-she’s the MOM right—no WAIT—she’s the daughter!! Yikes!! But how awesome to see Kelly and Brenda back on the screen. Boo hiss for not paying Tori enough to come back too.

I am obsessed with the Rachel Zoe show. I die, I die. Didn’t you love when she spent like the equivalent of her husband’s car in half an hour at the vintage store??? I’ll blog more about this later since I have to go or I’ll miss my meeting, but hope everyone is out there shopping. Your economy needs you more now than ever!!

Yours in Chanel,
xoxo
Mel

I’m going on tour for Blue Bloods III: Revelations and Ashleys IV: Lipgloss Jungle this October/November. I’m going to be in a few cities: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin, Phoenix. I’m sorry if I’m not hitting your town this time around. I try not to be away too much from the baby, plus I have Blue Bloods 4: The Van Alen Legacy due, like, tomorrow!

I’ll be in New York City fete-ing my book at bookseller and press luncheons and librarian conferences but I do have one public event I can invite you all to and would love it if you’d come and hang and we can talk vampires and fashion and whatever else you want to talk about. Writing? Oh yeah. We can def talk about that too!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008
4:00 PM
Library Visit
New York Public Library – Tompkins Square Branch
331 E 10th St
New York, NY 10009
(212) 228-4747

Hope to see you! And check out the events page for updates on the tour schedule!

xoxo
Mel

You know it’s a Page Six morning when your phone rings at 7AM and again at 7:15 and both callers want to talk about your newest Page Six mention! One to let you know you made the paper and the other to ask IS IT TRUE??? 🙂 Yes, Tom and I are thrilled that our book Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys is becoming one of those addictive reality series on Bravo.

And Blue Bloods III: Revelations also got a nice mention in the Page Six magazine. I want to add, I was LAUGHING when I said “You never hear of a fat vampire!” I mean, really…do you? All the vampires I loved growing up (Lestat, Louis, etc) were rockstar-skinny and fabulous.

Being an ex-NYC journo and a friend to many current and ex-Sixers, it’s always a thrill to find my name in the boldface type. This is what I went to New York for, after all!

Also more news: My dear friend Caroline Suh’s awesome, thought-provoking and inspiring new film FRONTRUNNERS is coming out next month! It’s about the student body election at NYC’s brainaic Stuyvessant High School. Right now it’s going to be showing in NYC, LA, Boston, Berkeley, San Francisco, Denver and Philly.

xoxo
Mel

I just yelled at my husband because he threw away last night’s pasta. WITHOUT. ASKING. ME. I was really counting on eating that pasta for lunch, and now I am starving and have no food. Argh! It’s enough to make you get a divorce!

Seriously. This is what marriage is like. You get divorced because…HE THREW AWAY MY LUNCH!

Your honor, you understand right? I mean, I cannot continue to be married to a man who cleans the fridge without asking his spouse if oh, there MIGHT be something in there that she would like to eat for lunch after waiting several hours to eat because she was so busy writing A NEW BLUE BLOODS SHORT STORY.

But NO. It is gone.

DIVORCE!

Oh, we laugh, we laugh. But this is what marriage is like.

Which is why I love romances. Because they are such fantasies. Marriage is hard work and lots of annoyances and learning to live with another person without driving each other cu-RAY-zee. And still finding a shadow of the person you first met in the person you are currently married to. TREASURE THOSE FIRST TWO WEEKS WITH YOUR NEW LOVE, girls, because in the future, TWELVE YEARS down the line, THAT IS ALL YOU HAVE to hold on to that allows you to sigh, shut up, stop shouting already and heat up last night’s pizza instead.

Grumble.

Anyway, yes – new Blue Bloods short story! EEEEEEE!!! Exciting! I was getting goosebumps myself writing it. But how will you get your hot little hands on it? Well, I will reveal all soon—it’s part of a fun promotion for the new book!

In shopping news, I have three words. LITTLE. MARC. JACOBS.

Can you die???

Marc Jacobs for ages 1-6!

So of course I had to buy Mattie the little black tulle party dress, with the matching velvet jacket and the Juicy Couture white peacoat to go on top of it. SICK!!

I told the salesguy at Fred Segal they are ENABLERS!!!

I bought my first Marc Jacobs dress when I was 29, at the outlet, for $31. It was so cheap I hyperventilated and almost fainted. They had to go find Mike to help me. Only when I calmed down was I able to shop.

Oh well, she’ll probably stain it with yogurt and I’ll kick myself. But for now, I’m enjoying looking forward to seeing her as a mini fashionista.

xoxo
Mel

In between all the writing and re-writing of books and television pitching, the past week has been a flurry of Obama fundraisers. It seems me and you and everyone we know is throwing one. It’s been really fun seeing old friends and donating to all of their causes which all go to the same place. Mr. David Plouffe – I hear you! Everytime I get one of those e-mails from the Obama camp asking for as little as $5, my heart breaks a little and of course I donate. I mean, hello! It’s five bucks! You could have a latte a day or help get the President of Awesome elected.

I have not been blogging about politics because it’s a tricky thing to write about, politics is yucky and divisive and ruins dinner parties—always resulting in two seething sides thinking the other are complete and utter idiots. And this is a shopping diary after all. But then maybe I’m over-thinking it. Maybe this presidential election is just like shoe shopping. Like, would you buy a pair of old Ferragamos that are crusted and make your feet hurt so much they make you SO cranky which are paired with a pair of knockoff go-go boots that wouldn’t allow you read the books you want to read? The Shoe-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? I mean, shades of Dolores Umbridge, hello!

Or would you buy the shoes that you can BELIEVE IN!

Obama ‘08! Vote for six-inch crocodile-stamp YSL platforms! Because if Obama were a shoe, he would be an aerodynamic sleek, trim, Prada Sport loafer. But with the soul of the YSL pump—they’re so high they reach towards heaven! They lift you up in a spirit of change my wardrobe! Okay. I know. The metaphors are starting to fail me. And if Biden were a shoe I think he would be like one of those comfy Clark Wallabes they like so much back East.

But seriously. I know I can sound like a dumb fashion person. But why are people who like fashion automatically dumb? Is it because the unfashionable are scared that the fashionable are secretly judging them and deeming their wash-and-wear wardrobe inferior? Well yes, we are, but so what. SNARF! Anyway, I am making light of this because I do find screechy lecture-y political blogs to be off-putting from both sides. But this is a very important election, and it’s not a time to be cynical or indifferent or too-cool-for-school. Put that ironic hipster posture away.

I came from a country (god, don’t you hate when immigrants say that? It’s so cringe-worthy sometimes) but here goes—I came from a country that threw out our dictator by gathering in the streets, one by one, sent via text to cellphones, to meet and rally and stand up for change and be counted. My family moved here because America, as flawed as she is, is the last and best hope for the world. This is like the Luke Skywalker of countries, you know. Luke: he’s a bit brash, doesn’t think things through, but he has a good heart. This is all we got. You know what I like most about Americans? Idealism. Can-do-it-ness. The Hollywood blockbuster. This is the land of happy endings. And the land that created New York. A crazy cosmopolitan city where it really doesn’t matter where you’re from, because I came from nowhere, and I was able to be somebody in New York. The land that created Barack Obama is a pretty awesome place to be from, I think.

Anyway. I know. Leaning towards sentimental earnestness here.

And all that being said, some of the closest people in my life are Republicans. Like my mom. But we are able to love each other and disagree. Mike’s parents are Republicans too (or as I like to call them “the enemy”—Republicans – not my in-laws—until I remember my mom is one.) My mom is not the enemy. She is my mom and momsome. You know how some moms are just okay at being moms? Well, my mom is an awesome mom. Momsome. I remember in college, people were jealous of me because of my mom. My mom is stylish AND can cook. As Randy Pausch said, I won the parent lottery. My parents are awesome. So how can I hate Republicans—my mom is a Republican. Sigh.

And I was happily reading Jen Lancaster’s books until she came out as a Republican. I STRUGGLED with that one, my friends. How can this funny, gay-friendly gal be a red-state chick? Did I want to keep reading?? Or did I want to throw her book across the room?? And then I realized I was being RIDICULOUS. Everyone has a right to their opinion, and their vote, and Jen Lancaster is not the enemy either. And yes, I still like her books and I even read her blog. So that makes two Republicans who are not the enemy. Which means maybe Republicans are not the enemy? Maybe we’re just a big, sprawling country with dozens and dozens of differing opinions, which during election season is boiled down to only two choices, and well, you gotta choose one. And as Jen says, underneath it all, don’t we all like Sex and the City? So: Repubicans: Not the enemy. Sex and the City hatahs, however: I’ve got my eye on you.

So while I am still a card-carrying, bleeding heart, SUV limousine liberal (although I still pause before putting the Obama 08 sticker on the back of the Mercedes. I mean, I don’t want to be that big a tool. Although I have outfitted the kid in Authors for Obamawear), I am not as bad as I used to be. These days, I don’t change seats at weddings when I find out the people next to me voted for the Decider. In fact, one of my very dear friends, to whom Revelations is dedicated, is a Republican. She and her husband (who is also a wonderful person) met while they were both working in the Bush pere campaign. I take our friendship to mean I am, indeed, an open-minded person. Hmmm. Or maybe just my sister is, because she met them first. Ha!

In this election, I think what matters most is that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and their own vote, so even if my mom gets hazed at the dinner table by her family of Democrats (my dad and mom are the Filipino James Carville and Mary Matalin), she has to suck it up, and we have to suck it up that we can’t change her mind either.

As Ali G. says, Res-pek!

And that’s it for me. I just got another email from Mr. Plouffe and have to dig out my trusty Mastercard. Is it Plooo-fay? Or is it Plooofff? Either way I kind of dig it.

xoxo
Mel

Hi all,

If you signed up for the newsletter but have not received the sneak-peek at the first four chapters of Revelations, please do not worry. We are doing our best to make sure everyone who wants them gets ‘em. We’re all about customer service here at Casa Blue Bloods. (Or Casa Sangre Azul.) If you signed up before Sept 5th and did not get them, your email server might have bounced it back. Our email server will try up to three times to send it to you.  And if you signed up after Sept 5th, we are shooting to send it to all the new subscribers by Monday. The best way to make sure you will receive one is to email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with the subject heading. “SEND ME THE SNEAK PEEK!”

In other news, my birthday was wonderful, thank you for all your birthday vicious wishes. 🙂
Mike took the day off and we went to see a Vicky Christina Barcelona matinee, the new Woody Allen movie, which was entertaining and amusing and a lovely fantasy about bohemian life. I love how in Woody Allen movies all the artists and musicians and painters live in homes that only hedge fund managers could afford in this day and age. But that’s part of the charm—the poet who lives in a crumbling estate, the composer who lives in a Tribeca loft so expensive that even the star of the movie could not afford to live there. If only! After the movie we went jewelry shopping at our favorite Beverly Hills jeweler and bought my earrings. I went with these insanely heirloom-y amethyst and diamond drops instead of the diamond hoops. Somehow, the diamond hoops didn’t make me as swoony as the first time I saw them.

But the most lovely part of my birthday was that I got to celebrate it with my dad, who shares the same birthday as me. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know my dad has cancer. He’s had it for five years now, and he’s undergoing a pretty severe chemo treatment right now—nine months straight of chemo every week, the longest he’s ever had it. It’s been really really hard on him and us too, since the worst thing in the world is to see someone you love suffer so much. I think that’s why there’s been so much shopping going on in my life lately. As my mom says, we don’t go to therapy—we go to the mall. Working it out on the sales rack. Anyway, we had our usual double birthday with the two candles on our Baskin Robbins ice-cream cake. (We kick it old school ever since the kids came along—-ice cream cakes are the best! And thirty-one flavors makes the best ones. Coldstone’s sucks!!)

And there’s nothing nicer than old friends remembering your birthday, even if they were a day late (Jennie! who said, “I succcck!!!!” and Tom “I was in New Jersey!”) or a few days late (Garret, who said, “uh, it was Sept 9th wasn’t it?” No, but thanks for almost remembering!), and new friends taking you out to fabulous Italian dinner complete with candles on cupcakes for dessert. (Thanks Minty and Sofia!!)

It’s cold and rainy here in LA, which is is kind of nice.

xoxo
Mel

Some dear friends of mine put this show together and you should watch it!!! I’m soooo hooked on it because I love the cheekiness and the bitchiness. Always good things in a show, I believe. For us O.C. and 90210 fans! Click here to watch: Sorority Forever!

I have to admit, I was never much of a sorority girl. In fact, just the mere THOUGHT of it made my skin CRAWL when I was in college. I went to Columbia. Bohemian hippies were the ideal. We thought ourselves the proud descendants of beatnik, peacenik, anti-establishment types: the spiritual kids of Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac.

My girlfriends and I opted to dress DOWN because we were worried we would be MISTAKEN for some ditzy sorority chicks. Of which they were few and far between at Columbia. (See: Jack Keroac, descendants of). We believed in natural beauty, in not combing our hair, in wearing ripped jeans and flannel.

Well you can imagine HOW FAR that took us. My mom took one look at me when I got home after one semester at Columbia and shrieked, “WHERE DID MY PRETTY GIRL GO???”

So I had to dial-down the Sofie B. Hawkins look a bit. We were still grungy. But now we were glungy. Glamorous and grungy. More Talitha Getty than Janis Joplin. We wore lipgloss with our battered suede jackets.

And now that I am older, and wiser, and not so knee-jerk to everything and have met and become friends with a wide range of people…I’ve mellowed. One of my best girlfriends, Minty, was the PRESIDENT of HER sorority. I probably would never even have thought someone like Minty, who always looks perfect and perfectly patrician, could be a friend back in my fist-raised-in-protest college days, and yet, we are so close and I love her to death. So I know keep a more open mind about these things.

Some girls want to join sororities, some girls don’t, and that is all perfectly fine. Since at that age we are all alike underneath the mascara (or no mascara) anyway: we are all completely obsessed with boys.

Right? 😉

xoxo
Mel