Melissa de la Cruz, WHEN STARS ALIGN
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[0:45]Melissa De La Cruz is the author of When Stars Align, a novel.
[0:49]Melissa is the number one New York Times, number one, publishers weekly, and number
[0:53]one, indie band best-selling author of Isle of the Lost and Return to the Isle of the Lost,
[1:00]as well as many critically acclaimed and award-winning novels for readers of all ages.
[1:04]Her books have topped the USA today, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times best-seller
[1:10]lists, and have been published in more than 20 countries.
[1:13]A former fashion and beauty editor, Melissa has written for The New York Times Marie
[1:17]Claire, Harper's Bizarre, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Alure, The San Francisco Chronicle,
[1:22]and more.
[1:23]She has also appeared as an expert on fashion trends and fame for CNNE and Fox News.
[1:29]Melissa grew up in Manila and moved to San Francisco with her family, where she graduated
[1:33]high school, saluted to Torian, from the convent of the Sacred Heart.
[1:36]At Columbia University, she majored in art history and English.
[1:39]Today, she lives in Los Angeles and Palm Springs with her husband and daughter.
[1:43]Welcome, Melissa.
[1:44]Thank you so much for coming on totally buck to zibi to talk about When Stars Align, a novel
[1:50]congrats.
[1:51]Thank you.
[1:52]Thanks for having me.
[1:53]Yay.
[1:54]Do you still get excited?
[1:55]You've had what?
[1:56]70 books.
[1:57]Does this even matter when you have a new book come out?
[2:01]You know, it's funny because I did an event at your bookstore, and I did say that during
[2:08]the panel that I sometimes, my biggest nightmares that I've forgotten that I have a book
[2:13]do or out, it's kind of like, because once I've finished with the book, I completely
[2:21]forget about it.
[2:22]And then I have to promote it a year later.
[2:24]I'm like, already on to the next five projects.
[2:26]So it's always exciting, you know, always for sure.
[2:30]I think, you know, you do tend to take it for granted a little bit.
[2:33]And then when I see myself kind of starting to do that, I pull away and say, hold on,
[2:38]remember when you wanted this life, like you, this is the dream.
[2:41]You have to always remember even when you're frustrated with work or whatever is happening.
[2:46]Like, you know, at some point, this was the dream that I wanted to live.
[2:49]So I'll be good.
[2:51]And now I love whenever I'm totally stressed out, my husband's not like, I have to do
[2:56]this.
[2:57]You have to say, I get to do this.
[2:59]I get to do this today.
[3:00]Not I have to do this today, which I don't know.
[3:02]It helps.
[3:03]I know.
[3:04]It does.
[3:05]And it is so silly to complain about something that, you know, you dream and worked hard
[3:10]for.
[3:11]But still, we do.
[3:12]We're writers.
[3:13]Yeah.
[3:14]I mean, you know, you complain.
[3:15]You have to complain about anything.
[3:16]Life is life.
[3:17]No matter what it brings.
[3:18]But of course, we know you appreciated it all.
[3:22]So when stars align, this is a Mindy's book studio publication.
[3:26]So explain what this means.
[3:29]So Mindy Kayling has a lovely, inverted Amazon.
[3:33]And when we submitted the book to Carmen Johnson, who said Amazon, she said, you know what,
[3:38]I think Mindy would really like this.
[3:40]And I think we can publish that under her imprint.
[3:42]And I said, Oh, cool.
[3:44]You know, and it turned out she was right.
[3:46]Mindy is just a fan of white 2K era.
[3:50]You know, no surprise there.
[3:54]So yeah, you know, it was really, really fun.
[3:57]And when these been promoting it, and she sent me the cover with a personal note from her,
[4:02]so that was really pretty.
[4:04]That is so sweet.
[4:05]Carmen Johnson is also my editor at Amazon.
[4:07]Oh, that's so funny.
[4:09]Yeah.
[4:10]I love her.
[4:11]And working together now for like, I don't know, a couple of years, four years, something.
[4:15]Yeah.
[4:17]Okay.
[4:18]Can you please explain what the book is about?
[4:21]Sure.
[4:22]It when stars align is a little bit of a daisy Jones in the six retelling of three characters
[4:30]who were kind of loosely inspired by the lives of Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, and Britney
[4:36]Spears.
[4:37]And it was inspired by a photograph of the three of them from the 2000s.
[4:41]And I thought how amazing that they were friends in their 20s.
[4:45]And you know, now knowing all we know about what they actually went through and how
[4:49]the media treated them and, you know, that Paris Hilton's persona was just that a persona.
[4:55]You know, it was just so fascinating to kind of look back on that and who they were now.
[5:00]And I kind of wanted to write something about that era for kids who weren't alive when
[5:05]it happened, like my daughter, who's 18.
[5:08]And it was actually also inspired by her saying Paris Hilton is a queen.
[5:12]And I thought, oh my God, really, you know, that was not how Paris Hilton was seen, you
[5:17]know, by our generation at all.
[5:19]So I thought, oh, I'll delve into this and see what, you know, why the kids are so into
[5:23]this.
[5:24]Why are they, they're so into these kids, these starlets now.
[5:27]So interesting.
[5:28]Wait.
[5:29]What do you mean?
[5:30]She thinks Paris Hilton is a queen.
[5:31]Like she's like the coolest ever.
[5:33]Oh, yeah.
[5:34]Like Paris Hilton is great, you know, like an idol, you know, like somebody to look
[5:39]up to.
[5:40]And I said, really, you know, that's really fascinating, you know, and I wondered what would
[5:45]it come from, you know, the TikToks, like kind of the Paris looks, you know, with the
[5:51]pink and the little puppy and the glitter, you know, is it that or is it the fact that
[5:55]now that she's 40s, you testified against all the views that, you know, what is it?
[5:59]And my daughter was just like, no, the whole thing.
[6:02]It's all great.
[6:04]Like, okay, so the photo inspired you and then you told the story in three alternating
[6:13]viewpoints and sort of go back and forth in time a little bit, but you're talking about
[6:18]all of their backgrounds, their struggles, these three girls from addiction to having, you
[6:25]know, the love interest issues, struggles with their families, not feeling seen sort of
[6:32]of a search for identity.
[6:34]What do you feel like these three mostly have in common in some of the bigger themes you
[6:38]were going for?
[6:39]Yeah, I think, you know, it's about friendship, you know, and feeling kind of isolated
[6:44]in the spotlight, but maybe, you know, kind of finding, you know, some kind of connection
[6:50]with each other that, you know, it was kind of their life raft through this kind of Hollywood,
[6:55]you know, chaos, you know, the chaos of fame and, you know, all the temptations of that
[6:59]and not having, you know, people who were, you know, who had their best interest at heart,
[7:04]you know, which is what you see a lot in Hollywood and it's, you know, why, you know, I always
[7:10]get worried for child stars and, you know, it really is like such a weird experience for
[7:16]a child to be suddenly the boss, like the most prized person on the set, you know, where adults
[7:21]are catering to their every whim and, you know, seeing that happen to people, you know,
[7:26]you're always a little bit worried about them and one of the things that, you know,
[7:29]I was always glad of when we did descendants was the parents were always there, you
[7:33]know, it was very protective, you know, so I thought, okay, that's good, you know, but
[7:37]then I imagine that what if the parent wasn't there, you know, what if there was nobody
[7:41]helping, you know, or, you know, and these girls were just so vulnerable.
[7:45]So, you know, I wanted to show, you know, we all want fame, we're America, you know,
[7:51]like that whole currency is so valuable, you know, but what if, you know, there's
[7:56]a dark side to it.
[7:57]I mean, there's always a dark side, but I wanted to show what would happen if they actually
[8:01]were friends and there for each other and maybe that could be something that could guide
[8:04]them, you know, in life.
[8:06]So do you know the author Annabelle Moynihan who writes in like smart romances her book
[8:12]coming out that I just didn't read her about is about another child star of that time
[8:17]who's grown up a little bit and is trying to find another cast member essentially to
[8:22]help her out later.
[8:23]Anyway, I feel like the two of you could be in conversation about this era.
[8:26]It would be a very fun.
[8:28]I like this.
[8:29]I love that type of thing.
[8:32]Yeah.
[8:34]Were there any interpersonal struggles that you found yourself relating to in crafting some
[8:40]of the backstories?
[8:41]Yeah, you know, there was one, there's a part where Jermaine kind of loses everything
[8:45]and she's kind of stripped of everything, you know, that she always took for granted
[8:50]and I was just saying to another interview, I said, where did that come from?
[8:54]And I thought about it and I said, oh my God, it came from being an immigrant to this
[8:58]country, you know, at 13, you know, and really like the whole life that we had in Philippines
[9:03]where my dad was a banker, we grew up in a house full of servants, you know, and basically
[9:08]my dad decided he didn't want to be a party to the Marcus corruption, you know, so if he
[9:13]he was a banker, he would help to embezzle funds and hide the money basically in my dad
[9:18]said I don't want to do that so we're getting out, you know, but yeah, it was really,
[9:23]you know, a moment where it was like, oh my God, everything we knew, everything I knew
[9:27]and took for granted was just stripped away and that's really when you realize who you
[9:31]are, you know, when you don't have anything at all and you just have yourself to rely
[9:35]on.
[9:36]And in a way, it's kind of the best thing to happen to people, it was, you know, you could
[9:41]either like rise from it or drown from it, I guess, but I think when that happened
[9:45]to me, I was like, well, I'm still me, I'm a smart person and my family is still together
[9:49]and no matter what happens, like we have each other and, you know, we have ourselves
[9:54]in our wits and here we go, you know, wow.
[9:58]So will you explain how you...
[10:00]You became how this whole career unfolded.
[10:04]When did you know you love to write, how did it all start?
[10:07]I've always loved to read and write.
[10:10]I was like, even as a young kid, when I was eight years old,
[10:14]basically, when I learned how to read books,
[10:16]I thought, oh my God, this is such a fun thing to do.
[10:19]And I loved reading more than anything,
[10:21]more than playing with my friends,
[10:22]beyond the playground.
[10:23]I spent, you know, lunch is alone at the library.
[10:26]I was that weird kid, you know,
[10:27]who was just always reading rather than socializing.
[10:31]And so my whole kind of development was in books.
[10:35]You know, my friends were in books.
[10:36]My life was in books.
[10:37]And I don't know, I was just a shy, introverted kid.
[10:40]And then when I was ready to kind of decide, you know,
[10:45]hey, maybe I want to do this for a living,
[10:47]I really had no idea how that would happen, you know,
[10:50]but there are books.
[10:51]Again, there are books that, you know, have instructions.
[10:55]And I bought a book called The Writers Market,
[10:58]which I think is now online.
[10:59]It's like a website now,
[11:00]but it listed, you know, all the agencies in America
[11:04]and what writers they represented
[11:07]and what kind of fiction or nonfiction they were looking for.
[11:09]And so I basically just followed the instructions
[11:12]in this book, sent the first five chapters of my novel
[11:15]to about 20 agents and five of them asked to represent me.
[11:19]And then eventually, five years later,
[11:21]on my third agent, we sold my first novel,
[11:24]which was actually my third.
[11:25]So it was, it took a while,
[11:28]but also happened so quickly, you know,
[11:31]because when she sent out that novel,
[11:34]we got an offer in two weeks.
[11:36]So I always say, oh, it took, you know,
[11:37]five years and two weeks.
[11:39]And what was the first book that came out?
[11:42]I was called Cats Me Out,
[11:44]and it was a came out in 2001, right?
[11:48]After rigid Jones, I believe,
[11:50]rigid Jones had just published
[11:52]and right before Shopaholic.
[11:55]So it was that era of kind of chick lit
[11:57]and a cute white, you know, and pink candy cover,
[12:01]but it was more kind of a ab-fab,
[12:03]I would say, than sex in the city, very absurd.
[12:07]And then when did you start writing more
[12:10]for younger generations, like you do at all?
[12:13]So when did you, when did you veer into that and why?
[12:16]Yeah, you know, I was actually after publishing
[12:18]my first adult novel that my editor said,
[12:21]you know, I actually think that your voice would lend itself
[12:23]to the YA world, you know, based on this book,
[12:27]there's a book called Sisterhood is Traveling Pants
[12:30]that's out, gossip girl just came out.
[12:32]And she said, do you wanna try your hand at it?
[12:34]And I said, sure, you know, I read those books,
[12:37]I have those are fun.
[12:38]And I started writing my first YA book, The O pairs
[12:41]on a plane, on book tour.
[12:43]And I just remember giggling and thinking,
[12:46]oh, I'm really good at this.
[12:47]This is actually what I should write.
[12:49]And I really felt like, you know,
[12:51]my editor had seen my writing
[12:53]and kind of matched me with a genre
[12:55]where I could thrive.
[12:56]So I'm always grateful for that.
[12:59]So what percent of your books are for which ages?
[13:03]I would say the majority are in the YA market.
[13:07]You know, I think I wrote my first novel, Cats Me Out
[13:09]and then it took about 15 years
[13:11]before I wrote it a second adult novel, you know.
[13:14]So in the meantime, I published a lot of YA.
[13:17]And then I would, so I would say maybe 80% YA,
[13:21]10% middle grade, 10% adult.
[13:23]So I have maybe 15% middle grade.
[13:26]I do have a bunch of middle grade series,
[13:29]which I've enjoyed,
[13:30]because I guess the sentence is middle grade, so.
[13:33]And how did it feel when descendants just blew up?
[13:37]It was fun, you know.
[13:38]It wasn't my first rodeo.
[13:39]Blue Bloods had been a big,
[13:41]I always call it the third biggest selling vampire YA sealer.
[13:45]You know, that's why I like, not that, a little, you know.
[13:50]So, you know, Disney had asked me to work with them
[13:54]based on a successive blue blood.
[13:56]So it was really an honor and a really thrilling
[13:59]to be able to work in the Disney universe.
[14:01]And I, you know, I always thought it would do well.
[14:03]You know, it was interesting
[14:05]because they'd done several books tied to their properties,
[14:08]but descendants was the one that really blew up.
[14:10]And, you know, I think some people were surprised,
[14:13]but I certainly wasn't.
[14:14]I said, oh my God, I love Disney, are you kidding?
[14:17]I remember reassuring my agent on a plane again.
[14:22]I said, I think it's all going to be okay, Richard.
[14:24]Oh my gosh.
[14:26]So how do you maintain this cadence?
[14:29]How many books are you publishing a year?
[14:31]Like what is your schedule?
[14:32]And what is your schedule going forward?
[14:35]Yeah, you know, ever since I started in YA, you know,
[14:39]I would say for about 20 years now,
[14:41]I've published about five books to five to seven books a year
[14:45]because, you know, the middle grade books do come out
[14:47]every six months and YA is on a really fast schedule.
[14:50]Like I had to do a one blue blood.
[14:52]So it would be one blue bloods every year, like, you know,
[14:55]two of the middle grade and then this other series.
[14:58]So I just kind of got into, you know,
[15:00]that treadmill of always kind of being on deadline,
[15:04]which I remember when my daughter was little, you know,
[15:06]they would send me on tour with the nanny and get book us,
[15:10]you know, either sweets or two hotel rooms.
[15:12]You know, I always am glad that I work
[15:14]in a very female friendly industry, you know, publishing.
[15:17]It was a lot of moms.
[15:19]I was pregnant and I was on deadline, you know,
[15:23]and they said, okay, you could take a couple weeks off.
[15:26]You know, but we do need the book,
[15:28]but you know, enjoy the baby.
[15:30]But free.
[15:33]Yeah, I outline a lot.
[15:34]So that's what I do.
[15:36]I outline and I always know what the ending is, you know,
[15:39]and then the first draft, you know,
[15:41]I think I wrote one of the Ashley's books in two weeks.
[15:44]So I am a fast writer.
[15:45]I can write, I can write them quite quickly.
[15:49]I'm getting a little slower in my old age,
[15:51]which is kind of, you know, a little shocking.
[15:55]I'm not as quite as fast as I used to be.
[15:58]So how long, for example, did when stars align, take you to write?
[16:02]When stars align was probably three months, you know,
[16:05]like the first draft I'd like to, you know,
[16:08]I don't like to write it in two weeks, you know.
[16:10]I think three months for a first draft feels better.
[16:13]And then, and then we go through revisions.
[16:16]It wasn't too long.
[16:18]It wasn't a, you know, I mean, it was really easy.
[16:20]Carmen and I did a couple of revisions back and forth,
[16:23]but you know, because it was outlined
[16:25]and because I shared the outline with her,
[16:27]she knew, you know, what to expect.
[16:29]And that kind of knew where the book was going.
[16:30]I had a few parts of the mystery.
[16:32]I hadn't figured out yet, but, you know,
[16:34]that kind of came in the writing.
[16:36]I mean, everything has to be spontaneous too,
[16:38]even if you have an outline, right?
[16:40]You can't just write from the outline.
[16:41]It also has to feel organic and real.
[16:44]So I always say I can tell when a writer, let's say,
[16:49]outlined it and just did the outline.
[16:50]You still actually have to revise and change things
[16:54]and, you know, kind of move things around, you know.
[16:56]I think I have like, I kind of know how story works.
[16:59]I can see when it goes off the rails.
[17:02]So like, course correctly.
[17:04]But other than that, every book is always, you know,
[17:06]terrible to work on.
[17:09]It's always just this really, you know,
[17:12]kind of awful project and why are we embarked on this?
[17:15]Oh, it's so hard.
[17:17]So what is the secret formula then?
[17:20]Like, when you're structuring or outlining,
[17:23]like, when you can tell if somebody's just writing
[17:26]from an outline, what is missing or what should people
[17:30]make sure to include?
[17:32]I think when, you know, when it's predictable,
[17:35]that means that says to me that, you know,
[17:38]and I mean, I can always tell things, I understand story.
[17:42]So I'm like the worst person to watch a thriller with,
[17:44]you know, cause I'm like, oh yeah, he did it.
[17:46]You know, and like I was stopped doing that, you know.
[17:48]But, you know, when, I think when it's too predictable,
[17:52]that means that the author kind of reached
[17:54]for the easiest solution and, you know,
[17:57]I always like do that first and then think,
[18:00]well, what's the thing that they won't think about
[18:02]and what's the thing I can twist around?
[18:04]And then you always have to say,
[18:05]well, okay, we're not gonna do the first thing.
[18:06]We're not gonna do the second thing
[18:07]cause they're gonna think about that too.
[18:08]So you actually have to go to like the fifth thing
[18:10]or the tenth thing.
[18:12]But then sometimes things get too convoluted too,
[18:14]where you're like, you know, forcing these plot twists too hard.
[18:18]I don't know.
[18:19]I think, you know, in a way it is just magic
[18:21]and when it works, it works and you can feel it, you know.
[18:24]And sometimes the magic doesn't happen
[18:26]until the very, very end, like on which is a V-stand.
[18:29]I remember I'd written the whole book
[18:31]and I was like, it's still just not working right for me.
[18:33]I don't know why.
[18:35]And we were at a bar in the Hamptons
[18:36]and I was writing the plot on a napkin,
[18:38]explaining it to my husband.
[18:39]And I said, wait a minute, if I do this
[18:41]and switch this, actually I think that works.
[18:43]And I remember I was like, tada, you know, light bulb moment
[18:47]when I realized what was wrong with my book
[18:49]and, you know, that's really helpful
[18:51]when that happens before the deadline.
[18:52]Yeah.
[18:53]I'm writing a novel for Carmen now
[18:56]and I don't know how it's gonna end.
[18:59]And my kids keep being like,
[19:00]but where's it going?
[19:02]I'm like, I don't know.
[19:02]If I knew that I wouldn't be having any fun writing it.
[19:05]Yeah, honestly.
[19:05]Yeah, I don't know.
[19:06]But maybe that's not the way to do it.
[19:09]I think, you know, at one point
[19:11]when you understand what the story is
[19:13]and then you actually have to go back and rewrite it
[19:15]and make sure that that story that you discovered
[19:17]is fitting that, you know.
[19:19]So I always like to have time for that epiphany
[19:23]where you've figured out the story
[19:24]and now we're just gonna polish it, you know.
[19:26]Exactly, rewriting it.
[19:28]Any books you particularly love to read yourself?
[19:30]So I read a lot of fantasy and romance.
[19:34]I read a lot of bestsellers.
[19:35]I like to read what people are reading.
[19:38]You know, I like to know what the culture is interested in.
[19:41]I have a big adult romancing coming out in September
[19:44]called Rings of Fate.
[19:45]And even before I had started that book,
[19:48]I just read a lot of romance.
[19:50]I was really kind of like immersed in the genre
[19:53]and really enjoyed it.
[19:54]And I was like, you know, I would just tell my husband
[19:55]and I was like, I guess I get why people love these books.
[19:58]They're just so pleasurable.
[20:00]Well, to read, you know, they're just so fun.
[20:03]So I really, I hope I did that genre justice
[20:06]because I really, really enjoyed those books.
[20:09]And so I wanted that book to have that feeling of, you know,
[20:12]just something, just so entertaining
[20:14]and just so fun to read and watch two people fall in love, you know.
[20:19]So are you gonna write again later today?
[20:22]Like, do you write every single day?
[20:23]I don't, so today's Tuesday, which is my Zoom Day.
[20:27]So I try to pack a lot of my meetings and interviews on Tuesdays
[20:32]because that's the one day where I don't write.
[20:34]But other than that, I do try to write every day in the morning
[20:38]and I try not to have, you know, any meetings or any distractions
[20:43]because I find like the early part of the day
[20:46]before lunch is always the most creative.
[20:48]And then after that, you know, you really kind of
[20:51]can't get back into it anymore.
[20:53]Although I used to when I was younger, you know,
[20:55]when I was younger, you know, I would always put it back in.
[20:59]And also when I'm on deadline, I can always just go back in.
[21:02]But when I'm not on deadline, I'd like to just draft in the mornings.
[21:06]I love that Tuesday's Zoom Day.
[21:08]All right, I like it.
[21:09]I wish I could keep on my Zoom's doin' day.
[21:12]Any advice for aspiring authors?
[21:13]I guess I would say what is it that they're interested in?
[21:17]Are they interested in being published or are they interested in the craft?
[21:20]I guess both, you know, I would say don't be fearful about sending your work out,
[21:24]you know, definitely that is a huge part of it is that fear of what people will say.
[21:29]I think it's better to find out what people say and if they don't like it,
[21:33]go back and change it, you know, keep knocking on the door until it opens.
[21:37]You know, I, you know, I just never really took a no for an answer.
[21:41]You know, I didn't get into MFA programs, which was really funny.
[21:45]You know, I was rejected from every fiction MFA.
[21:48]And somebody said, well, what did you think?
[21:51]I thought, oh, I just thought they were wrong.
[21:52]I thought they were wrong.
[21:54]You showed them.
[21:56]Well, well, very exciting.
[22:00]Thank you so much for coming on, Melissa.
[22:02]Lovely to chat with you in this way having many times and everything.
[22:06]So thank you for coming on.
[22:08]Oh, thank you for having me, it's a really nice to see you again.
[22:11]Nice to see you again, too.
[22:12]Okay, take care.
[22:13]Bye.
[22:14]Thank you for listening to totally booked with Zibi.
[22:17]Formerly, moms don't have time to read books.
[22:20]If you loved the show, tell a friend.
[22:22]Leave a review, follow me on Instagram at Zibi Owens,
[22:26]and spread the word.
[22:27]Thanks so much.
[22:28]Oh, and bye the books.