Guest post and Giveaway with author Melissa De La Cruz

You're Only Old Once
Halloween Memories
By Melissa de la Cruz

Happy Halloween from the Blue Bloods!

When I was in my twenties and living in New York City, my friend Roger had a loft in SoHo. This was WAY before lofts in SoHo were ridiculously expensive and SoHo was just another place to live and not a tourist and Euro haven. It was a real artist's loft, dirty, paint-splattered, you had to walk up steep, rickety stairs to get to it. There was a futon on the floor, half-finished paintings everywhere, and you did NOT want to go to the bathroom.

But because Rodge had this cool loft, every year he hosted a big Halloween party. Big meaning all his ex-college friends who were in the city along with their new friends, which wasn't that many people at all. I remember those parties very fondly. The first year, I was twenty-two and I went as Jackie Kennedy after the assassination. I wore a vintage pink suit, a pillbox hat, white gloves, pearls, and had my hair done in that Jackie bob. Then my friend Morgan splattered me with red paint and white paint. Yeah, I know, I have a sick sense of humor. It's why I write vampire books.

The next year I went as Babe Paley (no blood), the year after, Madonna during her Shantih-Shantih phase, which meant I wore a long black wig and a sari, and then the year I went with my boyfriend who became my husband, I went as Coco Chanel, in a black and white suit and ropes of pearls. (My friend Morgan was Karl Lagerfeld with a fan. The year I went as P-A Jackie, or Post-Assasination Jackie, he was Andy Warhol.)

The Halloween Parties blur a little in memory, but I'll always remember the one where Rodge shaved off the top of his head to simulate balding. He also grew a mustache. That year, neighbors called the police to tell us to tone down the music. When Rodge opened the door in his costume, with his chrome dome and 'stashe and the loungey robe, the police treated him as if he were a proper middle-aged grown-up and he pretended to be his uncle, who owned the loft, and apologized for all the noise "his nephew and his friends" were making. When the police left, we all burst out laughing.

It's still my favorite memory of Halloween. That's almost twenty years ago now, and the thought that one of us would EVER be mistaken for a proper grown-up seems as hilarious to me now as it was back then. I never want to be too old for Halloween. I knew my husband was the guy for me when during the first Halloween we spent together, he donned a sick-sense-of humor-costume that horrified and appalled all my friends. I, of course, thought it was hysterically funny and, yes, sick, but that was a good thing in my mind.

This year our daughter has informed us we will be going as Princess/Darth Vader family. The girl and I will be princesses and Daddy will be Darth Vader. But when she's old enough, we'll indoctrinate her in the sick/funny costumes that make Mom and Dad love this holiday.

Happy Halloween everyone!
xoxo
Mel

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We want to thank Melissa for sharing some Halloween memories with us. Thanks to Melissa and the awesome Jennifer Corcoran at Disney Publishing, we have 5 copies of Melissa's newest release, Misguided Angel, to giveaway. Here is more about the latest installment in the Blue Bloods series.

Misguided Angel (Blue Bloods, book 6)

After inheriting the dark Van Alen Legacy, Schuyler fled to Florence with her forbidden love, Jack. Now the two of them must embark on the mission Schuyler was destined to complete: to find and protect the five remaining gates that guard the earth from Lucifer, lord of the Silver Bloods.

Back in New York, Mimi has been elected Regent of a crumbling coven. Struggling with her heartache over the loss of Kingsley and with her overwhelming desire to destroy Jack, she must focus all of her energy on a perilous new threat. Vampires are being abducted and their captors are planning to burn them alive online…for all the world to see. Help arrives in the form of Deming Chen, a Venator from Shanghai, who must untangle the web of deceptions before the killers strike again.

As the young vampires struggle for the survival of the coven, they uncover a deadly secret, a truth first discovered by Schuyler’s mother during the Renaissance but kept buried for centuries. And as the Blue Blood enclave weakens yet further, fate leads Schuyler to a terrible choice that will ultimately map the destiny of her heart.

For more information and to find a full list of Melissa's releases, visit her website. This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada residents only. Giveaway ends on November 5th. Here is what you need to do to enter:


1. Fill out this form
2. In a comment on this post tell us about some of your favorite Halloween memories.


Good luck everyone!