1. What drew you to YA fantasy? Have you always wanted to be a writer?
I’ve always wanted to be a writer, it’s the only thing I ever wanted to be. Once I discovered the pleasures of reading — and it was probably sometime when I was 10 or 11, reading Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, Sweet Valley High, Gordon Korman, that I decided that being a writer was my goal in life. I loved to read, I was always reading. I wasn’t a very social child. I was very shy and always had my nose in a book. When I graduated from college, I decided I would finally start to attempt this career –at first I wanted to be the new Amy Tan. I wanted to write searing, insightful novels about the modern Asian-American experience; my first (still unpublished and never sold) novel was called “Stuck up Trendy Asian Bitch.” A few years later, I finally sold a fashion-y chicklit novel, and then I fell into YA, and YA fantasy, when several helpful editors thought I would find my true voice there. My favorite books when I was a teen were Stephen King and Anne Rice’s novels, and so that’s what I was drawing on when I created “Blue Bloods”. It’s an honor to be in YA fantasy, there are so many great books in the genre right now!
2. What drew you writing a book about vampires?
I’d always loved vampires, I love Lestat, he’s one of my favorite characters in fiction, so it just seemed natural to try to write my own “take” on the vampire mythology. Also, I was raised Catholic in the Philippines, and religion is much more ingrained into our daily life than religion is here, so I grew up in a culture where during Lent, there was nothing on TV (NOTHING) and we would go to the cemetery for a week to honor our dead, and you would see men holding crosses and wearing crowns of thorns, whipping themselves, walking down the highway. So I grew up with all this fantastic imagery, and I’d always loved the story of Paradise Lost, and I also liked that Lucifer’s story – his fall – is not in the Bible, it’s more of a Catholic myth, a fairytale, and I liked that about it, because I could use it and not feel like I was blaspheming the religion I grew up with.
3. How would you describe Blue Bloods to someone who isn’t familiar with it?
It’s a redemption story, a family murder mystery, a tragic romance, a vampire story, angels and demons, and New York high life and fabulous adventures throughout the globe, with an alternate history of the world. It’s about a group of young elite New Yorkers who discover they are vampires, and that their elders are keeping secrets from them, dangerous secrets that threaten the existence of their race.
4. Can you give our readers a brief description of Schuyler Van Alen?
When the series begins, Schuyler is 15, shy, and a wallflower, she’s the first half-human, half-vampire ever, and in the course of the books she discovers a hidden strength and she is fated to be the savior of the vampires, but she does not know how she’s supposed to do that yet.
5. What can readers expect to see in your latest Blue Bloods release, Bloody Valentine?
It’s a fun book with three short stories, Oliver getting over heartbreak, how Schuyler’s parents met, and what happens when Sky and Jack try to get bonded.
6. Can you give us a sneak peek into the Witches of East End?
Witches of East End is a story of a family of women, formidable Joanna, who can raise the dead, bookish Ingrid, who has a charm or a spell to fix any domestic matter, and Freya, the goddess of Love, and yet for centuries they are not allowed to use their powers. They live in the fictional town of North Hampton and one by one they decide to break the restriction. Mayhem ensues, including a tragic romance at the core of it all. It’s based on Norse mythology, a topic I’ve been obsessed with since I was a child.
7. Which of your Blue Bloods characters will show up in Witches of East End ?
Oh, I don’t want to spoil it! Much more fun for the reader to discover for themselves. 
8. Can you give us a sneak peek into the Wolf Pact?
Bliss Llewellyn tracks down the hellhounds and finds a family of brothers on the run. It’s really fun and action-packed and has a huge love story in it, that’s my favorite right now. Bliss falls in love with a boy who has lost his love, and is broken. Can they heal each other? That’s all I’ll say for now. It’s hard to talk about my books while I am still writing them.
9. Where can readers find you on the internet? Do you have any scheduled appearances in 2011?
My website is melissa-delacruz.com, @melissadelacruz I am starting up a facebook fan page, that’s in the works.
10. What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever been given? If you can’t think of anything specific, then what advice would you give someone who’s trying to break into YA fantasy?
I think the best writing advice is to never give up–so many people told me never to stop trying–and to take your rejections well and don’t let them get you down. Keep knocking on that door until it opens. My advice to someone trying to break in to YA Fantasy is to truly think if the book you are writing is one that you are meant to write, that you LOVE. Right now YA fantasy is very popular, and it’s a crowded market. It will take a lot to catch a reader’s attention. I always advise not to chase the market. Be aware of the market, of course, but when you’re writing, you want to write something that you bring a lot of passion into–bring everything into that project, that’s what makes the difference I think.
Melissa de la Cruz is the author of many best-selling novels, including the Blue Bloods series; the Au Pairs series; the Ashleys series; and Angels on Sunset Boulevard. She is also a frequent contributor to Glamour, Marie Claire, Teen Vogue, and Cosmopolitan. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter, and is hard at work on the next book in the Blue Bloods saga. While Melissa is not a Blue Blood, she knows people who are…