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?

Throw your hands up 'cause we never gave in!

Hopefully everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Even if you didn't have a significant other to spend it with, I hope you spent some time with your loved ones and told them you care. Valentine's Day is about romance, but it is also about showing those you care about that you love and appreciate them.

I hope you also did something special for yourself on Valentine's Day (and every day) because you gotta love yourself first, right? If you didn't treat yourself, it's not too late - go home and take a bubble bath tonight or buy your favorite meal for lunch or whatever makes you happy, because we all work hard and we all deserve it!

For Valentine's Day, Bear surprised me with a French baguette from my favorite bakery and this:

An Edible Arrangement! No chocolate for me (well, maybe a little... on the apples). Give me bread and fruit any day!

And now for a little inspiration. I love Taylor Swift (going to her Charlotte concert on May 1st!). I know she's a polarizing figure - most people like her or really don't like her - but either way, check out the lyrics below. They are truly inspiring, especially when you are *this close* to giving up.



CHANGE by Taylor Swift

And it's a sad picture, the final blow hits you

Somebody else gets what you wanted again
You know it's all the same, another time and place
Repeating history and you're getting sick of it

But I believe in whatever you do
And I'll do anything to see it through
Because these things will change, can you feel it now?
These walls that they put up to hold us back will fall down
It's a revolution, the time will come for us to finally win

We'll sing hallelujah!
We'll sing hallelujah!

So we've been outnumbered, raided and now cornered
It's hard to fight when the fight ain't fair
We're getting stronger now from things they never found
They might be bigger but we're faster and never scared

You can walk away and say we don't need this
But there's something in your eyes says we can beat this

'Cause these things will change, can you feel it now?
These walls that they put up to hold us back will fall down
It's a revolution, the time will come for us to finally win

We'll sing hallelujah!
We'll sing hallelujah!

Tonight we stand, get off our knees
Fight for what we worked for all these years
And the battle was long, it's the fight of our lives
But we'll stand up champions tonight
It was the night things changed, can you see it now?

These walls that they put up to hold us back fell down
It's a revolution, throw your hands up, 'cause we never gave in

We'll sing hallelujah!
We sang hallelujah!
Hallelujah!

You can see why this song was featured in NBC's coverage of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

And finally, I have SEVEN boxes of Girl Scout cookies in my kitchen, so I know it's going to be a great week! Hope yours is off to a happy, productive start!