‘Blue Bloods’ Journey to the Best-Seller’s List · February 28.
Melissa recently went to visit the to Ramona Convent Secondary School in Alhambra. In this article, Mel explains her journey to the New York Times Best-Seller’s list…and how Twilight helped lift up Blue Bloods and the whole vampire genre.
The journey from struggling writer to a spot on the New York Times’ best-seller list wasn’t an easy trek for author Melissa De La Cruz.
Shortly after submitting to her publisher her young adult novel, “Blue Bloods,” a series about vampires, De La Cruz was surprised to find another author had beaten her to it.
“I turned in my book and I went to the book store. And there was another vampire book out, and it was called `Twilight,”‘ she said.
No matter, De La Cruz told a group of more than 400 girls Wednesday during a visit to Ramona Convent Secondary School in Alhambra, the popular “Twilight” series has actually helped her own book sales.
“It lifted the whole genre,” she said.
Each year, the school hosts a different author to speak at the all-girls campus. But it took Esther Leung, 17, a senior at Ramona and a big fan of the “Blue Blood” series, nearly two years to nail down a date when the De La Cruz could visit the school.
“It’s not just about vampires,” Leung said. “The books also have history and lots of drama.”
De La Cruz said she normally doesn’t visit schools “unless it’s part of my book tour.”
“But this place is so close to my heart, because I went to a convent school,” she added.
She attended Convent of the Sacred Heart School in San Francisco. The first installation in her “Blue Bloods” series is set against a private school backdrop.
“In `Blue Bloods,’ it’s a lot about my school experience. I was always fascinated by small private schools and their rituals,” she said.
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