Okay, so I don’t know how to put multiple pics on one post. So here’s another pic of me and Mattie! I am wearing my Balenciaga sweatshirt and Luella Bartley for Target jeans. Mattie is wearing Janie and Jack, Carters and Converse! This is taken in our living room. That is our Capellini couch and behind me is our fireplace. I like how my Balenciaga and Mattie’s sweater kind of match the couch and our ash-blonde wood floors. Tee hee.

xoxo
Mel

I thought I’d post a few pics of my baby too! Since I was posting a lot of pics of my new books. Here is the true love of my life! I am wearing my Anthony Nak earrings (my baby gift!) , my Hermes watch, my Fortunoff wedding band , my signature "MEL" ring and a $30 dress from H&M and I think leggings from Express. Behind me are all the gifts for my nephew’s first birthday party. Mattie is wearing a Janie and Jack outfit. This is in my mom’s house. I don’t know why there is an underline on this post. I can’t get it to stop. Oh well!

xoxo
Mel

Here is the cover of the second book in THE ASHLEYS series, JEALOUS?
So hot!!!!!
In JEALOUS? there’s a lot of boy drama!!! I heart boy drama!!!

Here is the cover for my new series THE ASHLEYS!!!!!!
S&S did a shoot for it and we picked some pretty girls didn’t we?? This series is about the most popular seventh-graders in school, who are all named ASHLEY. Except for the new girl. Whose name is Lauren. Lauren wants to destroy the Ashleys. Find out if she does this December!!!

Here is the paperback cover of ANGELS ON SUNSET BOULEVARD!!! Doesn’t it look so hot??? Doesn’t Johnny Silver look so hot??? Yummmmm! And Taj looks soooo pretty!!!

Have you read this book yet??? If not, you need to!! LOL!

OMG. I am in love!!!

So on Friday I TOTALLY wanted to go to one of the Midnight Magic Harry Potter parties. I loooooove Harry Potter. And yet I have never been to a midnight magic party because it just seemed waaaay too geeky to do so. Also, I was worried about standing in line with a bunch of eight-year-olds dressed in wizard gear. The part of me that used to work for Conde Nast just couldn’t do it. I am okay with being incredibly geeky in private. Every day I drink my OJ in a Slytherin glass from the set my sister gave me for Christmas one year. I jot down notes for my books in a journal with the Hogwarts shield on it. And I’m still jonesing for one of those burgundy-and-yellow Gryffindor scarves they have in the first movie. But express my inner geek in public? What am I, thirteen again?

But last Friday, before our trip to the beach, I thought FRACK IT. I am showing my love. I am fracking GOING to a Harry Potter party. Because it is THE LAST ONE ever. There is a Barnes and Noble not too far from my house and I told my husband that when the baby woke up at eleven, we were all going. Yeah, right. We were in bed by nine-thirty! On a Friday night! How SAD is that? I was simply exhausted. The baby didn’t wake up at eleven, she woke up at one AM and I fed her and then we all went back to sleep. No midnight magic party for me. The next day before we drove to the beach I made Mike go and get me a copy. (No I don’t pre-order either. I just buy them the day they come out.)

The book is awesome, of course. J.K. Rowling does not disappoint. I’m still sad it’s over.  It’s weird to know that millions of people love these books, because when I read the dedication, ("to you if you have followed Harry up to the end") I seriously choked up. I mean, I believe these books are for ME alone. I’m sure millions of people feel that way too, but they are wrong. The books are for me! 🙂 

Anyway, speaking of costume parties, I googled myself and saw a YA librarian talking about a couple of authors getting dressed up as manga characters to promote their latest books at a conference and getting slammed for it. (They were really cute in little skirts and knee-high socks and some humorless people think grown women should not dress that way in public even if they are promoting books.) And there was also a link to some author who was dressed in some atrocious swan hat to promote her book at another conference. Anyway, the YA librarian thought the idea of costumes at conferences was excellent, and nominated Stephenie Meyer to don the swan hat, and if Stephenie demurrs, then I was to take her place. LOL!

My parents used to have this tradition with their friends from college, in which they would have a big Christmas party and everyone would come in costume. It was really funny to celebrate Christmas as if it were Halloween. (We don’t really have Halloween in Manila.) So I’m very familiar with costume parties. And Halloween is Mike’s favorite holiday, so we always dress up. I’ve mentioned before, however, that I always dress up as a fashion icon on Halloween–Babe Paley, Jackie O., Madonna (twice). But that’s as costume-y as I’ll ever go.

So no swan hat for me, sadly. And I don’t think I’ll wear the short prep-school outfit also suggested. I like to dress in  the theme of my books for appearances–black Marc Jacobs dresses for when I’m promoting Blue Bloods, and colorful Pucci prints for Au Pairs parties. But with major hair and jewelry and four-inch heels of course. I was an incredibly geeky thirteen year old and still scarred from that experience. Now I want to look like one of the cool kids.

And cool kids don’t wear costumes.

You know that thing they tell you? "So you had a horrible time in high school. It’s over. Move on." Well, I have not moved on, and that’ s why I write for teens! When I was in college, there was a LOTR club and I was really really tempted to join it, but I never did. Because, you know, cool kids don’t join fantasy clubs! Especially not in COLLEGE.

Then later it turned out one of the CUTEST and COOLEST boys in college was one of the only guys in the LOTR Fan Club. And if I had joined, maybe he would have gone out with me instead of that skank he was dating. Ha!

So there you go. Geeky is the new cool. (8.3 Million Harry Potter fans can’t be wrong!)

Maybe I will don that swan hat afterall…

Yeah, right!

xoxo
Mel

I took yesterday off. After turning in the first draft of THE ASHLEYS 2: JEALOUS?, my brain needed a break. I’ve got Angels on Sunset Boulevard 2: THE STRIP on deck as well as BLUE BLOODS 3: REVELATIONS, which I plan on writing at the same time, which is how I wrote AOS 1 and BB2 (MASQUERADE)–that worked for me last time so I hope it works again.

Ever since I became a mom, one of the things I miss most is READING. When I’m writing my books, I try to absorb everything I can from the culture–I listen to tons of new music, watch lots of TV shows, read everything I can get my hands on. But with the baby, all that time–that extra, wool-gathering, looks-like-procrastinating time, is just GONE. I have a stack of magazines waist-high that I have not read since she was born. And oooh, how I MISS reading magazines. I love magazines. I love the escapist, perfect-glamorous-life world they offer.

I think that’s why I’m both a fashion and a fantasy addict. Because fashion is as much a fantasy as sword-and-sorcery or vampires.  I’ve always loved designers who were cutting edge, over-the-top and insane. On my desk right now is a tulle "corsage" from AsFour. Those of you who follow fashion know that one of them left the group in a huff and now they are called ThreeAsFour. (Which in my mind, is just brilliant!) Anyway, this tulle corsage is about a foot tall and wide. It is also a ferocious shade of fuschia. (That’s a tongue twister!)

I j’adore this tulle corsage. I wore it to a fabulous benefit in Central Park a few years ago, with a loud, psychedelic vintage ballgown that I bought at a Cleveland thriftstore for $2. Cleveland has the BEST thriftstores–I found a vintage cowgirl dress there for $10 that I later saw hanging in a Soho store that was selling for $350. Anyway, the tulle corsage was $300 or something, and I only wore it that once, on my hip, at the benefit. And now it just rests on my desk and once in a while my nephews come over and bat it across the room because they think it’s a particularly hilarious toy.

So many of my clothes from my fashion-editor years are similarly hysterical. My mom once asked me if I was trying out for the "What was she thinking" section of the tabloids when she saw what I was wearing to an awards show. (Let’s just say it made me look like a Jedi who’d lost her mind.) And yes, I think so many of the celebs featured in the "What was she thinking" section look BETTER than the boring clone-drones in the "best dressed" section.

Good taste is boh-ring and pernicious and I’d rather look ridiculous with my poufy tulle corsage than look "good" wearing some dress everyone else is wearing…

But the sad thing is that now that I live in L.A., there is no reason to wear kooky clothes. Oh yeah, some of the LA fashionistas do it, like the fabulous Lisa Eisner (no relation to Michael), whom I interviewed for Bazaar once and when I lamented that fast-forward fashion has no place in the land of sunshine, she told me she’d have dinner parties in the hot summer and throw her vintage furs over her Gucci floor-length gowns. Now, I would love to do the same, but there’s something about the heat that just makes you want to throw on flipflops and leave it at that. (Which I do. Right now I’m wearing an AC/DC t-shirt and Proenza shorts and Haviana flipflops).

Everytime I turn in a book it feels so anti-climactic. There’s so much hurry-hurry-hurry to get it done and then once it’s out the door and emailed to my editor, all I want to do is collapse. I just turn into a zombie. We’re going to the beach this weekend (breaking out the YSL caftan I bought for St. Tropez–I have YET to get to St. Tropez, since the baby came and we couldn’t travel–hopefully we will be able to get our butts out there next year) and then Palm Springs the week after that and Santa Barbara the week after that. Lots of traveling and tanning in my future…

Happy weekend everyone!

xoxo

Mel

First off, I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone who came to all the readings, signings and parties of the last several months. The latest event – at the Sherman Oaks library was a total blast! It was so fun to meet everyone and hang out and talk about books.

Now..for the disaster!!!

I just discovered that I have been ROBBED!!!

I came home from my New York trip a month ago, and of course, all the shoes I brought were all in a pile in the bottom of my closet, still in their shoe-bags. I could have our housekeeper put them away, but last time she re-arranged my entire closet and put ALL my fall clothes in the front and my summer clothes in back and since then, I told her to just dust around it for now. After all, a girl has to be the mistress of her domain, and I have my own organization system going on in there.

So everyday for the past month I have looked at that pile of shoe-bags and thought, "Ooh, I should really put those away" and everyday I find a new excuse not to. (Massive deadlines on THE ASHLEYS have kept me from doing much of anything–let alone putting away shoes.)

And it always made me feel better to see the nice Chloe shoe-bag housing the cute black buckle-ballerina flats I’d bought from Ron Herman three months ago (full price at $525–gack, but I HAD to have them.) Then the other day I decided it was time to wear them again.

And what did I find????

Only a silver pair of London Sole flats!!!  I DISTINCTLY remembered stuffing BOTH my Chloe ballerinas AND my cheapo $125 London Soles in the roomy Chloe shoe-bag. BUT THERE WAS ONLY ONE PAIR OF SHOES IN THE BAG!!!

I looked EVERYWHERE. Under the bed. In the baby’s room. In my parents’ house in Pasadena. The trunk of my car. EVERYWHERE.

And I had to face it.

Someone–I’m not saying who–but I’m LOOKING AT YOU Transit Authority—TOOK MY CHLOE FLATS!!

Readers of this column know I hardly ever bust out for full retail price, so this was a VERY sore loss for me. Especially when I saw the same flats (in white) for $185 at the Barneys sale.

I have been in a total STATE about the loss of these shoes. Serves me right to pay upwards of five hundred on a pair of shoes.

Oh well. When my sister was moving into to college at Yale her first year, my mom and my sister came to visit me in New York at my apartment in the city near Columbia, and we left the rental car parked on the street. Inside the trunk were all of my sister’s nice, brand-new stuff for college. Her requisite Laura Ashley comforter and sheet set among them. We were very proud of this bedroom ensemble, mostly because I had gone to college with sheets from like, JC Penney or something, and my roommates all had Laura Ashley and I had huge bouts of self-pity whenever I saw their cute floral duvets. Not that they even noticed–but you know, when you’ve been poor, somehow you always notice the nice things other people have that you don’t.

The next day, we discovered the car had been broken into, and the thief had taken EVERYTHING, Including the three-hundred-dollar comforter and sheet set. We were so INCREDIBLY sad. You don’t even understand. It was hard enough for my parents to pay for TWO Ivy League tuitions (even with our financial aid it was still a stretch) and the comforter had been a huge TREAT. And now it was gone.

My mom exhaled. Then she said. "Oh well, at least our bad luck only goes to material things."

Which meant–you’re going to have bad luck in life, but at least it was just THINGS that were stolen.

Then we went back to Bloomingdale’s and bought the same exact comforter. My mom believes in feng shui–once something is broken or stolen, IMMEDIATELY go out and replace it so you can stop feeling bad.

Since then, I’ve practiced my mom’s words. When my husband lost his expensive Calvin Klein spectacles in a cab, we just went out and bought the same exact pair the next day.

So even though I couldn’t replace the Chloe flats, I did the next best thing. I went to Barneys and I bought a pair of fabulous yellow Lanvin flats ($315 from $525) and Balenciaga white patent gladiator sandals ($355 from $895) and a gorgeous gold metallic Lanvin shoulder bag ($699 from $1785). And an APC trenchcoat ($159 from $650).

And I do feel better.

Sort of.

I still kind of wish I had those Chloe flats!!!

In other news, THE ASHLEYS is in the can (copy-edited and everything! And they’re sending me on tour, lalala), and I’m almost done with the first draft on the second book in the series, JEALOUS?

You know you are.

LOL.

Happy shopping everyone!

xoxo
Mel

This Saturday, July 7, I am going to be at the Sherman Oaks (CA) Library (14245 Moorpark St.) from 2:30-3:30pm talking about my work!!  Please come by and say hello.

xoxo

Mel

Phewwww.

That is the sound of me turning in both the final draft of The Ashleys and finishing the first draft of the outline for The Ashleys 2: JEALOUS? (You know you are!)

This summer has been crazy, (and yes it is crazy hot here in LA, LOL) I was on tour, I was traveling, there were parties, and all that fun, but also along the way, I was trying to get my book done. It was incredibly stressful because on top of that we found out our baby has congenital torticollis, which is a medical term that means she’s slightly tilted. It has been a really hard hard hard hard hard several months, with work pressure, mother guilt, and making sure that everything goes smoothly and that I make all the right choices and have your priorities in order.

But sometimes, you can’t do everything. Sometimes, you drop the ball. 

Or you completely lose your sense of humor.

That’s what happened to me. It was too much. Too much book writing, book promotion, baby guilt and special baby care (we have to exercise her five times a day, stretching her neck, otherwise she will grow up tilted), travel fatigue, that I just cracked. I just lost it. I could not see the humor in anything. I snapped at my husband. I snapped at my best friend. (Jennie–I’m still so sorry.) I started just HATING the world.

So I had to stop blogging. Because, one thing you might have noticed is in the blog, I always see the humor in things, and I didn’t think listening to me rant and complain was going to be very entertaining. How can anyone complain when they have books on deadline, not one but two signings at BEA (at the coveted Author’s Area no less!), four book parties, a nice house, a handsome husband, and lots of new clothes? But somehow, it was just too much. And yes, as I write this I realize I might be the biggest complainer in the world. But seriously. Working moms??? How do you ladies do it??? Even with the full-time nanny it is impossible to get ANYTHING done.

On top of it all, Mike had a HUGE deadline for his work too. So both of us have spent the last three months just snapping at each other as we try to get everything done and still have time to make sure the baby’s head is on straight. I mean, I just took it FOR GRANTED that your baby’s head will be on straight. But apparently that is NOT THE CASE. Sigh…

But the good news is I turned in my book, I’ve got the outline for book two done, and…. the MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL..

HER HEAD IS ON STRAIGHT!!!

YES!!!

She is no longer tilted!

YEAH!!!

Of course, we still have to do lots of exercises and stuff to make sure her good habits continue. Who ever thought just holding your head up straight would be a huge accomplishment??

Anyway, I’m back in the land of the living. And I’m slowly hoping to get my sense of humor back…for the sake of my marriage. Has anyone seen Knocked Up? It was very therapeutic for me. The couple who loathe each other in the movie? That’s me and Mike. I was happy to see they still end up together. And you know, we might be the Bickersons, but we are happy. Loving and loathing are almost the same thing you know. When you’ve been together for ten years like we have, it’s a challenge, every day, to make sure you are kind to each other. It’s a STRUGGLE. And yes, my husband would sooner cheat on me by going to a fantasy game (in his case, most likely a fantasy role-playing game like D&D than fantasy sports league – Mike hates sports) than ever really cheat. And he HAS gone to movies ALONE. Damn him. I think artsy men just need their space.

Anyway, the baby is okay. The books are turned in. I still have a ton of books to write, but I’m really excited about writing them. I can exhale a little bit now…

The good news is I just got the super-hot covers for THE ASHLEYS and book two in the Ashleys series: THE ASHLEYS: JEALOUS?, the paperback ANGELS ON SUNSET BOULEVARD, and they are all soooo fabulous!! I will post them once my webmistress is back from London.

Have a happy Independence Day everyone!
xoxo
Mel