Blogosphere Lovefest Day: Lara Ehrlich

Today, YA writers all over the blogosphere are joining together in a love blogfest. Each of us were assigned a bloggy Valentine. Head over to Kate Hart's blog to find the full list of who's matched with whom.

My bloggy Valentine is:

I've never met Lara, online or otherwise. Luckily, she has a great blog that allowed me to glean some information about her. So, those of you who know Lara, here's a refresher on why she's wonderful! Those who are meeting her for the first time, enjoy getting to know a little about one of our lovely fellow YAers!

Things I learned (and love!) about Lara:

Her last name is German, and I'm sure regularly butchered, but since she is extremely talented (check out the query for her novel THE HERO), and snagged uber-agent Michelle Andelman, I think we'll all know her name very soon (and know exactly how to spell it). Just think, Lara — once upon a time, people had trouble with Maggie Stiefvater's name, too.
Lara loves (or, her 14-year-old self loved) Leonardo DiCaprio. Lara, meet Pam and Quita. Pam and Quita, meet Lara.
She lives in a lovely, picturesque (possibly haunted?) farmhouse in Massachusetts.
Lara filled over 30 journals between the ages of 12 and 16, and she shares bits of her journals in her regular feature, Friday Angst — and her 14-and-15-year-old writing skills are as insightful and engaging as anything I've read by grown writers!
She has the most beautiful Twitter background I've ever seen.
Lara has an adorable kitty named Pickle who likes to invade her lap while she's typing (reminds me of one of my kitties...).

Check Lara out online:
Website/Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Flickr

Thank you to Kate Hart, Kristin Halbrook (formerly Miller), Tahereh Mafi, and Sarah Enni for organizing this awesome blogfest!

Happy Valentine's Day! Bear and I celebrated this weekend, but we're planning to make a very nice dinner tonight and then curl up to watch our favorite show, CASTLE. This is our 10th Valentine's Day together, and I'm so blessed to have him (as well as my family!) in my life.

Who are you grateful for this Valentine's Day?