Geoff called me, said he was not buying my book, but he saw something in my writing, and wanted to talk to me about my career. But he did get it in the hands of Geoff Kloske, who was then a young editor at Little Brown (he discovered David Sedaris and Dave Eggers and is now the editor-in-chief of Riverhead). Three agents responded favorably, and I went with the agent who’d sold Auntie Mame some twenty years before! He was very supportive, but we were unable to sell the novel. I finished my first novel at 22, and I sent it out to about twenty agencies I found through the Writer’s Market, following their query guidelines. I’d always wanted to write books, so it never really occurred to me to try to get a job in magazines or publishing. I was good at programming computers, but the longer I stayed in the corporate environment, the more depressed I knew I was going to be. I felt like I had to “write” my way out of the corporate world, and I felt a huge sense of desperation. I would write it at work and on the weekends. But when I graduated from Columbia, I took a job as a computer consultant because it would allow me to live decently in New York, and I wrote my first novel while working at Bankers Trust. I’ve always wanted to be a writer, ever since I can remember.

Melissa de la Cruz is not a Blue Blood, but she knows people who are…” Visit Melissa at MySpace, and read her journal.Ĭould you tell us about your path to publication? Any sprints or stumbles along the way? She has spent time as a journalist covering the club scene in New York City and now lives in Los Angeles with her husband. She writes regularly for Marie Claire, Gotham, Hamptons, and Lifetime magazines and has contributed to The New York Times, Glamour, Allure, and McSweeney’s. From Hyperion: “ Melissa de la Cruz is the author of the bestselling The Au Pairs novels for teens and the coauthor of the adult title How to Become Famous in Two Weeks or Less (Ballantine, 2003).

Melissa de la cruz blue bloods series