Welcome Turkish Blue Bloods!

I just learned that a Turkish publisher has just picked up the rights to publish Blue Bloods and Masquerade in Turkey! Hooray!

The books are also published in France and Germany. (The Au Pair is published in ten countries. So those other seven, what are you guys waiting for? LOL.)

Things are good over here. I finally FINALLY ***FINALLY!!!!!!*** finished REVELATIONS. Sent the copyedit and all the additions and fixes off to my editor today. Excuse me while I collapse.

Woohoo!!

I have a good feeling about this book. But you know, I have a good feeling about ALL my books. I stand behind each one. I do the best I can, I push myself as hard as I can, and as much effort goes into the books that have not sold as well (I’m looking at YOU, How to become Famous and Fresh off the Boat) as the books that sell like gang-busters (The Au Pairs and Blue Bloods series).

I just hope you all enjoy it. And I have sneaky feeling you will, because *I* very MUCH enjoyed writing it. Although it was much much harder to write than Masquerade. Revelations is my FOURTEENTH novel. Isn’t that crazy? You would HOPE I get better with each one. And I would hope that you are right.

Anyway, your poems are awesome pawsome. And I’ve gotten requests to SHARE the poems I wrote when I was a teenager, so I hunted down my old journals in my library. And I found one from my senior year in high school. All I can say is: YIKES!!! Do you really REALLY want me to share?? I felt SICK with embarrassment reading them. I don’t know if I’m ready!

But I thought I would share some of the “inspirational” quotes I found written in the inside of the cover. When I was seventeen I was BIG on inspirational quotes.

“Writers read everything with a grinding envy or a weary contempt.”  – John D. Macdonald—> I like this quote a lot. I think it explains a lot about writers. You either wish you’d written it, or you totally dismiss it ‘cos it’s terrible. Writers: we are not nice people.

Anyway, here are some quotes about writing poetry:

“True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance,
‘Tis not enough no harshness give offense,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense.”
-Alexander Pope

(This quote was from my Freshman English poetry book called “Sound and Sense”. Do you guys still use this in high school? My copy is so marked up.)

And another quote about poetry:

“A poem should be equal to,
Not true.
For all the history of grief,
An empty doorway and a maple leaf.
For love,
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea,
A poem should not mean
But be.”

-Archibald MacLeish

The above was my favorite FAVORITE poem when I was seventeen. I always loved those images of the empty doorway as a sign for grief and the leaning grasses signifying love. Sigh.

But here’s my favorite quote inscribed in my journal from 1989:

“People are so sodding thick and selfish. I’m selfish, but at least I admit it.” – Ian McCulloch

Ian was (is?) the lead singer of my favorite favorite FAVORITE band when I was seventeen: Echo and the Bunnymen. I saw the Bunnymen in concert when I was 15. I swooned. I love the quote because I am still like that. I’M SELFISH. BUT AT LEAST I ADMIT IT!  LOL.

And I still also love THIS quote which reminds me of how YOUNG I was:

“Ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?” – The Joker, “Batman” the Movie—-> This is exactly how I wrote it in my journal. I find this terribly, terribly hilarious. Because, I mean, what a corny line, right? And it’s from some big Hollywood movie! But you know, if I were a teenager today, I think the line I would inscribe in my journal is “Go get ‘em Tiger!” – Mary-Ann, “Spiderman 2” the Movie. (I mean, wasn’t that an AWESOME thing for her to say? I LOVED that. And there’s something about this quote about Batman that I like, about dancing with the devil, and the pale moonlight. I dunno. I still like it.

And what’s wrong with Hollywood movies? Hollywood movies are awesome. I loved loved LOVED Sex and the City, Iron Man and You Don’t Mess With the Zohan. Indiana Jones was lame.

Here’s one that also shows how young I was:

“I’ll make your heart smile” – Depeche Mode, “Strangelove”

You know how I always have quotes in front of my books? It’s because when I grew up I read a lot of Stephen King and he ALWAYS put song quotes as epigraphs. And it was so cool, because he wouldn’t quote from boring old texts, but rather from pop songs. I really loved that about his books.

Because there is NOTHING worse than being a culture snob.

Anyway, one more week left in the poetry contest! I hope my quotes have inspired you!

xoxo
Mel

I’m sorry I haven’t blogged in a while. It’s because I’m STILL writing REVELATIONS. And it comes out in October? Uh. Yeah! There’s so much MAJOR stuff going on and I just want to make sure I get it right, so I’m just sweating out the last hundred pages to make sure it all hangs together.

The other day we had brunch with our favorite TV writer friends, and they were talking about THE PRESSURE of making sure your script is all right. And I thought, oh, that must be really hard. Because I don’t feel that pressure really. And then I thought WHAT THE FRACK AM I TALKING ABOUT? OF COURSE I FEEL PRESSURE. I FEEL SO MUCH PRESSURE I HAVE GAINED TEN POUNDS AND AM BREAKING OUT!

And all the pressure comes from me. You know how when you raise kids, you’re supposed to try and get them to ACHIEVE stuff so that in the end, they’re working hard not to please their parents, but to PLEASE THEMSELVES? So yeah, I guess my parents did a really good job because all the pressure I feel is FROM ME.

The thing is, I reject stress. I think of writing as easy, and la-di-dah, who cares what anyone thinks about my writing, zoom zoom zoom. Not caring what anyone thinks is a great way to function. Because it allows you to be free.

But I forgot that I really care what *I* think.

And the book just isn’t up to MY STANDARDS yet.

Hence the last-minute rewrites. And the hair-pulling. And the sleepless nights.

When I was a club kid, dancing at 6am at the Sound Factory (um yeah, I used to get up at five in the morning to GO CLUBBING. Now that was the WAY TO LIVE, my friends) we use to dance to this song called “THE PRESSURE”. And it had this gospel beat and this hypnotic techno-umsk, umsk, umsk thing and when they put on THE PRESSURE everyone would RUN to the dancefloor and GO WILD. It was really fun. So now this song is the sound track to this book..

(Okaaay. How much do I love the Internet? I have been looking for this song to re-live my clubbing days and here it is: The Pressure by Sounds of Blackness, Junior (“If Madonna Calls”) Vasquez remix!!! Yeaaah boyyy!!!)

“My back is against the wall,
more bills than money can pay (sing it, sistah!)
but I know just who to call (Madonna?)
when I gotta fight..
THE PRESSURE, THE PRESSURE, THE PRESSURE of the world…
Umsk, Umsk, Umsk,
THE PRESSURE, THE PRESSURE, THE PRESSURE of the world!”

Wow. That was really fun. For a second there it was 1991 and I was in a wifebeater tanktop with ropes of fake pearls and cutoff shorts and fishnets and Doc Martens dancing in the middle of sweaty club with my gays and we were so young and fabulous and fee-yerce. (By the way I love that fashion line Young, Broke and Fabulous. Says it all!)

You know what else is fun? YOUR POEMS. Oh mah gawd. You guys are beyond awesome. And yes, I will share my juvenellia (spelling?)—I just found my journal from high school. Lots of mawkish poetry. Good times.

And in other news, I just finished LOVE THE ONE YOU’RE WITH by Emily Giffin. I heart Emily Giffin. There is just something about her books that are so great. I think it’s because she really gets you into the mindset of the character. And she just gets so many details right—like how people act and where they shop and how they talk. Good stuff.

On a totally DIFFERENT note I also devoured Elizabeth Scott’s LIVING DEAD GIRL, which was harrowing, wrenching, disturbing and unputdownable. Really dark, awful stuff but written so beautifully. You must read this book also. It comes out in September. I really believe in evil in this world, that it is a real thing you have to watch out for, all the time. My husband says I am neurotic and paranoid, but as they say, Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.

I am the type who RUNS home from the cab to the front door anytime I got home late, or even starts RUNNING down the street even if no one is chasing me. Right now we have this super-maximum burglar alarm that will emit a decibel-blasting SHRIEK if any of our motion-detectors are set off. When I lived in New York I never took the subway at night alone. I had five locks on my door. Now I always valet at the mall because of parking-lot kidnapping. I *ALWAYS* believe the worst is around the corner, and that a happy safe life comes from VIGILANCE. My husband (a confident American who grew up in a family that NEVER LOCKED THEIR DOORS. They DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE THE KEY IS. I mean, the first time I slept in their house I was convinced axe murderers were coming to get me), anyway, he thinks I live in fear. And you know what? I do. But it’s not a crippling fear. I mean, I fly, I go out at night, I do stuff. But I try to do it in a way that won’t make anyone ever think that I am a target. I believe that bad things happen. And that’s why Elizabeth’s book is so scary. Because very very bad things happen. So you must do everything you can do to make sure they don’t happen to you.

Oh man, sober note to end this blog!

And I was just dancing around to THE PRESSURE and missing my old friends. Anyway, back to work.

xoxo
Mel

Woo! Poems are flooding in—so much fun to see! I’m not going to read any until the last day of the contest (June 20th!) since I want to read them all at the same time and make my decisions then.

And because EVERYONE is a winner in MY books, even if you don’t get to win the chapter sampler, if you simply entered the contest we will send you something good. No one writes a poem for nothing! 🙂

In answer to a commenter’s question -yes, even if you are in a foreign country you are free to join the contest! We ship airmail over here at the Meldlc offices.

I wrote a long and detailed BEA blog but I mistakenly closed that window before saving it. Ugh! So now you are getting the short version. Kathleen Duey! Elizabeth Scott! Neil Gaiman! I wore a Balenciaga floral dress and Louboutin glitter heels on Friday and a Trina Turk mod tunic and Proenza for Target white pants on Sunday.

Send in your poems!
xoxo
Mel

Hi all,

I’ve got good news and bad news.  The bad news is that the Blue Bloods: Revelations sneak-peeks haven’t arrived in your In-Box. I’m sorry!!!! It turns out I spoke too soon—I found out there are some clearances my publisher still needs to secure before I can send. Hopefully we will be able to send soon, I’ll keep you posted!

But the GOOD news is that I have about THIRTY-FIVE of the printed four-chapter samplers that we gave away yesterday at BEA – it was soooo awesome to meet all the girls from the Blue Bloods message boards: Team Fabulous: Amanda, Rhiannon, Alyssa and Kady, and I also loved meeting Brittany, Alyssa, Patricia, and all the girls who got their families to fly or drive them all the way to see me!! It was so so SO much fun to meet all of you.

So I have all these copies of Revelations: The First Four Chapters to give out. How can you get your hot little hands on them? By entering the BLUE BLOODS POETRY CONTEST!

Here are the rules:

1. You can enter as many poems as possible, but can only win ONCE.

2. Poems can be in any form: free verse, haiku, villanelle, epic, Dr. Seuss-style, whathaveyou.

3. Poems should be spell-checked. If your words are spelled correctly that gives you huge ups. I don’t mind misuse of capitalization so much—e.e. cummings never capitalized and did niFTy things like THis. But I do have to say, it is easier to read correctly capitalized verse. So, up to you.

4. Poems should be about the Blue Bloods universe. Or in the voice of a Blue Bloods character. Up to you. You could pen a poem about Jack’s hotness, Mimi’s bitchiness, a ballad to Schuyler and Oliver, or about Michael and Gabrielle, anything you can come up with. Or you could write a poem in the voice of a character. (Just make a note of who is supposed to be speaking.)

5. I’m looking for creativity and polish, but also humor and originality. I was a huge poetry-entrant when I was in high school (and won a bunch), so I think this is a fun experiment.

6. We’ll post the best poems on the site of course. We will have a grand prize, a first runner-up and a third-runner up, who will receive goodie-bags from my vast goodie-bag closet as well as the chapter samplers.

7. Poems are due by June 20th.

8. Poems should be e-mailed to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with the subject header: POETRY CONTEST.

Good luck! I can’t wait to read what you come up with!

And just to answer future questions: YES, I WILL send the sneak-peeks before the book comes out, I just don’t know WHEN yet. I’m really sorry about getting everyone’s hopes up. But I do hope to fix this situation SOON.

xoxo
Mel

Just a reminder that I’ll be signing books at BEA this year for Hyperion and Simon and Schuster.

The Hyperion signing, where we will be giving out copies of the chapter samplers of REVELATIONS, is this Friday (May 30th) at 2PM. I will be at Table Four in the Autographing Area.

For Simon and Schuster I will be signing copies of The Ashleys: Jealous? on Sunday (June 1) at 10:30 AM at Table Fourteen in the Autographing Area.

So come see me—and lots of other awesome authors—Sherman Alexie, Neil Gaiman, etc are all going to be at the expo!

xoxo
Mel

It’s a happy Friday.

First off, gay marriage has now been legalized in Cali! Woo-hoo! Now all my dear friends can get married and I can subject them to bridal showers and coffee pots and raunchy bachelorette parties in Atlantic City via white limo and homemade Comsos (oh yeah that’s how I rolled when I got hitched) everything they did for me when I got married. When Mike and I got married, I was paralyzed by guilt that we could get married while so many of our best friends could not. It is a human rights issue people!! And here in Cali we have stem cell research and emissions laws and now gay marriage. Yeah! Our closest friends are a circle of gay couples, most of whom have been together as long as Mike and I have been, and yet Mike and I are the only ones who have tied the knot with the requisite blowout and New York Times wedding announcement. Oh yeah, we made it into the paper. Suck it! Just kidding.

You do know the hoo-ha that goes into getting into the Times wedding announcements yes? You know how in Sex and the City Charlotte dances around when they hear that she made it? Well, that’s exactly what happened to us too. There was dancing. There was smugness. As a social highlight I would say getting your announcement in the Times is like getting into an Ivy League school. It means absolutely nothing and absolutely everything at the same time. To those of us who grew up with dads who put “ALL3IVY” on their license plates because all three of his progeny went to schools in the same ancient athletic league, getting into the Times was a big deal. Especially since my sister, who got married first, got her announcement in too. So there was MEGA pressure when I got hitched. Would we make it? Yes we did. Next to the Veuve Clicquot we served at the reception (one of the things I always remember fondly was drinking a glass of champagne at our wedding and thinking HOLY COW! THEY SPENT ON THIS SH-T! and then realizing *we* had doled out the dollars for the yellow boys and laughing maniacally). The second fondest memory was of floating away on our honeymoon with a copy of the Times, our announcement (with photo!) safely tucked under the seat.

I’m in a good mood. My cold has finally abated. And yes, I’m sorry this and the latest posts have been a bit delirious. (A commenter said delusional—but I think delirious is the more apropos word.) I’m just a bit giddy. It’s summer. I have copyedits due and a fun fun fun new novel to write- my new series GIRL STAYS IN THE PICTURE, which we’re kind of calling the “GIRL” series (it used to be called Social Life).

Btw, if you have emailed me BEFORE December 2007 and you have not yet received a reply, then email me again. Because I am now caught up with all the emails and everyone up to December 2007 should have received a reply unless you changed your email address or your email to me ended up in Spam for some reason. I’m hoping to be FULLY caught up in the next week or so. So bring ‘em on!

xoxo
Mel

I just got my schedule for BEA – so all you Blue Bloods fans who are coming to the convention—I’ll be signing on Friday, May 30th from 2-2:30 PM at the Traditional Autographing Area – Table 4.

I heard the chapter samplers of Revelations looks fabulous!! And I’ll be running a contest to give them away to five lucky winners. Will let you know what the contest is and how you can win soon.

Still sick over here. And finished the Host. Now am moving on to Charles Bock’s Beautiful Children. I love the title. But before I can get to that book, I finally got the copy-edit back on Revelations!!!! Yeaaahhh Boyyyy!!! When I was in college my friends and I always said this to each other when we were psyched about something. Weren’t we dorky? And yet we thought we were SO cool. A friend of mine writes that he was just looking at photos from college, and said it was like looking at shots of junior high when he was in college. Everyone looked so young and awkward. “I know I wasn’t that cool. But I had some cool friends. And yet no one looks cool. Sorry, friends.” Well. I have to disagree. I looked at photos from college too. And yes, we did look YOUNG. But looking at the shot of me in my vintage pajama top and black silk jersey pants, I have to disagree on the awkward jibe. Okay, so maybe I needed to pluck those eyebrows better. Hmpf. Btw, this is why stars in their 30s can still play high-school kids. Because you can look young for a LONG time because people who are actually in their late teens and early 20s look TWELVE. But on another tangent, don’t you think everyone actually looks the best when they are older? Like Demi Moore? and Sarah Jessica Parker? Although when I think of this argument, Blake Lively’s gorgeous face comes to mind, and I sigh.

Btw, isn’t Gossip Girl AAHHHSOME??? Can Chace Crawford BE any hotter?? I loved that shot when he was standing in a suit and some kind of unbuttoned shirt with the cuffs peeking out, when he was telling Vanessa he was going to take the subway. SWOON!! And I love Nate and Vanessa. I also love Chuck and Blair. I think Chuck is kind of my favorite. Although I also like Dan although c’mon, would anyone be THAT stupid? Especially Mr. Top of His Class boy? And I love all the bags and what they’re wearing and Blair’s flowered headbands. And I love how Little J got caught in the Valentino. Hilarious. But what up with the dorky-cool Asian girl they are hanging out with now? Nelly Yuki? Why does the Asian girl have to be dorky? Ugh. So unrealistic. When I was at Columbia the hottest girls in class were Korean and Chinese. And not Asian-girl hot like in Mean Girls where they all hung out with only other Asians and spoke in a foreign language. They were all-American down to the offhand Nantucket wardrobe and low, gravelly Northeastern prep school accents. I paid homage to two of them in Masquerade (the Chinese twins.). Anyway, even though the show is still depicting minorities as hard-working dorky kids, I still kind of heart the show a little more than the books now. I thought it was funny how Blair and Serena made fun of Nelly Yuki’s name because it was kind of fun to say it aloud. My friends and I used to do that, with Jennie Kim, my BFF, and it’s not even as funny a name as Nellie Yuki but we always called her JENNIEKIM!!! One-name-only. Which is still fun to say. You have to be able to laugh at yourself. When I was in collage the cutest guy freshman year called me Melissa DE LA SOUL!!! all the time because De La Soul was really big then.

Do you remember de la Soul? They sang Me Myself and I, and Jennifer Oh Jennie (which we also used to sing to Jennie all the time. I still do.) Why weren’t they in the Forgotten Nineties Band? Oh and when Lisa Loeb on Gossip Girl played Stay I totally remembered being nineteen and being in love with this boy who transferred to another college, and he was one of my best friends, and we were in love but didn’t tell each other and I remember hanging out with him and helping him pack and all I played on his Sony cassette was that album from reality bites, with “STAY” over and over again thinking he would get the message. He didn’t. He left. We’re still great friends, btw. And he’s great friends with my husband. Which is funny how that happens, but nice too.

In fact lots of boys I used to be in love with are still my friends now. And no, of course I’m not in love with them anymore! Mike and I have been together for twelve years and really, our relationship is so much work there is no time to even think of anyone else. I once asked Mike during the Spitzer scandal if every guy really is that sex-obsessed and he said maybe those guys who go into politics are, since power+sex is a thrilling combo, but he’s never been a power-hungry guy. He said the most cheating he would ever do would probably be buying lots of expensive modern furniture behind my back. LOL. So girls, marry architects not politicians. And no, my husband does not read my blog. Because if he did he would die of embarrassment and he’s too cool to tell me what I can and can’t write. In fact, the ONLY time he ever read my blog was when I said that Philippe Starck, this designer is like “a god in our house because Mike is an architect”. And Mike totally freaked out because it’s just not true—I mean, it’s true in a sense, but not really true. Because apparently saying something like that makes Mike very very uncool. And Mike is like Paulie Bleecker from Juno. He’s very cool. (And he tries really really hard. Which is cool because it’s so earnest. Which is even better than cool. You know? Mike is my Paulie Bleecker.) So I told him, okay, first off, none of your architect friends or clients read my blog. And if there ARE readers who are architects which I highly doubt, since my readers are mega shopper vampire fashion and book freaks, but anyway if any architect is reading this, Mike would just like to clarify that while he likes Philippe Starck’s stuff, he does not think he is a god.

Anyway, I should get to that copyedit now, and putting together the sneak peeks!

I think we will shoot to have the sneak-peeks out by May 30th, the same day that the BEA people get their hands on the chapter samples. So if you haven’t signed up for the newsletter yet, do so today!

xoxo
Mel

I’ve been battling a cold for the past two weeks, as has my child (last night: fever of 102, out of baby Tylenol, 2AM trip to the Ralph’s. Ooo, that was FUN.) But seriously, it’s times like that that remind me of how much parents really matter. Because even though I felt on the edge of death, the thought of my daughter (she’s a girl not a boy even though her name is Mattie. Which is short for Mattea which was my Spanish great-grandmother’s name) being so sick shot a bolt of adrenaline through me and Mike that for the hour that we freaked out and struggled to take her temperature and desperately consulted the baby books and considered calling my mom or his brother the doctor, we totally did not even think of how tired we were or how late it was, just the BABY IS SICK!! AAAH!!

She’s fine now. Still has the sniffles but her fever’s down, thank god.

But as for me, I’m still sniffling and shuffling. Part of me is kind of enjoying this because since I’m sick, I can’t be expected to work (as if anyone expects me to work but me!) and I just curl up on the couch and read THE HOST. I’m really excited for this new Stephenie Meyer since I would *love* to read Twilight, and friends, I tried, but I couldn’t get past a hundred pages, not because the book wasn’t great, but because I just couldn’t read about anyone else’s vampires but mine. You know? And I met Stephenie at a conference a few years ago and she told me exactly the same thing. She said she has a hoard of all the new vampire books including mine and she hopes to read them in the far future, when she’s totally done with her own vampires. But I’m TOTALLY psyched for the movie somehow. I dunno, why is it that reading about other people’s vampires feels weird, but watching them on screen does not feel like I am betraying my Blue Bloods? Have you guys seen the trailer? Hot hot hot. I’m excited!

In my first novel Cat’s Meow, the main character writes three-word fashion reviews. (McQueen: Volume! Extravagance! Carnavale!”) so I thought I would do the same for the recent books I’ve read.

Jhumpa Lahiri: Unaccustomed Earth: Unsettling! Powerful! Inspiring!

Jennifer Weiner: Certain Girls: Love! Love! Love!

Okay, so three words obviously isn’t enough for a novel. But for a fashion line, I do think it’s succinct! Haha. I loved that Jen Weiner’s new book had a YA angle—one half of the story is told by a twelve-year old girl which she does really well. Can we expect a new YA from her soon? I think we should!

That’s all for now. Updates on the sneak-peeks soonest. And I’ll be at BEA in a few weeks—come see me!

xoxo
Mel

Hey Beautiful People,

Calm down, calm down. I have not sent out the sneak-peeks yet! I am waiting to get a clean, copy-edited version from my publisher (which should happen very soon!) So I would say, look for it in a month or so. I know what you’re thinking A MONTH?? A FRACKING MONTH???

But please! Patience!

Patience will be rewarded.

I have to say I’m really jazzed with all the excitement however. I get excited too. And I wrote the thing!

I’ve been MIA because I just turned in the final draft of Book Four in the Ashleys series: Lipgloss Jungle and am deep into the first drafts of both Angels on Sunset Boulevard 2: THE STRIP and GIRL STAYS IN THE PICTURE (which is my new summer series—it used to be called Social Life). But you know, all work and no blog makes Mel a dull girl.

And man I’ve been up to utter fabulousness lately! Last Monday we were invited to party with Jade Jagger at the Chateau Marmont! I have friends in fab places—a dear friend of mine is a grand poo-bah at LVMH, the company that sponsored the party (Belvedere vodka), and so we were invited to dine with ninety of Jade’s closest friends (we were counted in that number, natch) and so on Monday, I put on my new Marni five-inch patent platforms—glossy black and the palest yellow and the coolest shade of gray, my gray studded Vena Cava mini-dress, my SPANX tights and a black Chloe blazer, and Mike put on his new Gucci corduroy coat and skinny YSL jeans and his Miu Miu shirt and off we went.

It was a really fun party because it was so intimate, and they had all of the lobby of the hotel and the gardens, which were gorgeous, all these candles and crystal everywhere in the greenery. There was this cool silver Venetian mirror and they wrote down all the people at the table so you could see who was expected at the party and where you were seated. We were in the number two table, next to Jade’s. Jonah Hill from Superbad and his entourage were at our table—- and it was TOTALLY like an episode of Entourage—just a bunch of young scruffy guys just PSYCHED to be there, and Bail Ling and her boyfriend were next to us. Bai Ling is that somewhat hilarious Asian actress who is famous for appearing in tabloid papers’ “WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?” wardrobe critiques. I’m happy to report she looked quite chic and lovely that night, in a great little black dress and heels.

The Hiltons were there—it was our second Nicky sighting in a month—too funny! She was wearing a black dress from Jade’s new line, and had her hair up. Her legs are very tan. And Paris was there, looking gorgeous. You know, I have to say, I saw the pictures from the party of all these people and the pictures really don’t do them justice. They are SO much prettier in person. Paris has like a seventeen-inch-waist. She is TINY. And so fragile and delicate looking. She has this very chic blonde bob now, and she was wearing this very sparkly chiffon dress and looked every inch like a star. We also saw Rachel Zoe, the stylist, looking fab in a down-to-there maxi dress, very tan, very 70s-Halston-y. And Alana and Kimberly Stewart, both very blonde and in very tight dresses.

Oh and Jade was very beautiful, of course, her mom is Bianca Jagger, so you know, good genes to start with. She was also wearing some kind of 70s hippie flowing dress of some sort. The crowd was very New York for LA, lots of couture, lots of great clothes, very very chic. Usually you go to LA parties and it’s a little bit of the hoochie-chic. But this was so not that starlet crowd. It was very New Yorky in that there were a lot of fun fashion people. And we smoked and drank and had a blast. When you go to these things, there’s just this contented buzz in the air from being in such a magical place, and surrounded by famous people. I’m sure the Vanity Fair Oscar parties are like that times like, a million. You just get high off all the fabulousness.

We left after dinner at the same time as the Hiltons did, which was kind of funny because as we were getting int our car, Paris and Benji Madden (oh yeah, it was totally US Weekly in the flesh!) were getting into theirs, and a couple of paparazzi just JUMPED out of the bushes in front of us, totally scaring the SH_T out of us, and then we just began to giggle because we were kind of blocking their shot. I have to say, getting papped is kind of scary and pretty yucky in the end—I actually felt sorry for Paris and Nicky as the photographers clamored around their cars. It’s just very…rude and aggressive and kind of violent. And yeah, okay, famous people should expect it as part of their job, but really, Sean Penn, yeah, he makes sense now. (For those of you who don’t remember the 80s Sean was famous for fighting with paparazzi when he was married to Madonna.)

Anyway, totally bought up at storm at Barneys too. Got the Balenciaga floral camouflage gladiators. The Marni platforms. Then a blue sparkly jersey dress from Geren Ford and a cool knit one from Mayle. Then got a couple of sundresses from this boutique on Montana, a black one and another yellow one, with big jewels sewn into it, and then these cool knit flowy pants from Vivienne Tam, a black shirtdress from Nanette Lapore. Oh and I ordered a Goyard tote and got my name (MEL) and stripes customized on it (it should be available in six weeks!).

I’ve decided I’m not going to buy any more big designer-designer dresses and stick to high-end shoes and bags instead. I can justify a two-thousand dollar handbag, but a fifteen-hundred dollar dress? That seems crazy. Especially when you can buy a great Philip Lim dress for under $500. Speaking of, I bought one of his shirts he did for the Gap and it is just beautiful—great fit and so chic! I got the one with the rounded collar and the fluttery sleeves. And I bought one of those brown platform sandals that Pierre Hardy, who designs for Balenciaga, did for the Gap. Isn’t it great how they get all these designers to do their stuff for cheap?

So I think I’m all set for the summer. I’m going to bang out these books and then take a nice break. We’re going to the beach for the summer- we got a house in Ventura, it’s not the Hamptons, but what is. It’ll still be nice even though we miss our old Shelter Island house.

Hang in there, people. Buy stuff! Help the economy!

xoxo
Mel

Hey guys!

Have you signed up for my newsletter yet? No? Well you should!

Because I am going to make it worth your while…

I will release the first chapter of Revelations exclusively to the Blue Bloods forum and newsletter subscribers!

Sure, I’ll post the first chapter here too, but I’ll do it a little before publication, while newsletter subscribers will get it much much sooner! I thought it would only be fair that those who really, really, really want to be able to find out a little bit of what’s going on with Schuyler in June!

And if you go to BookExpo you’ll get a sneakpeek of FOUR chapters!!! And the opportunity to meet me, your friendly neighborhood author. I’ll sign your book! You’ll take my picture! We will admire each other’s shoes! (Oh wait. That’s Fashion Week. Not BookExpo. LOL.)

And who knows? Newsletter peeps might get even more than one chapter. Because you know, I’m feeling generous.

xoxo
Mel