My Rockstar: Louise Rozett AND an amazing giveaway!!!

So, here is one of my favorite authors, Louise Rozett, who you are already familiar with.  She is the author of an amazing series called Confessions.  So far, two books have been released (Confessions of an Angry Girl and Confessions of an Almost-Girlfriend) and both the books are great.  I really can't wait to hear more of Rose Zarelli in the next installment.

You want to know why Louise is my rockstar?  First is pretty obvious, she is an author, well, an amazing author.  You have to see how she ends her every chapter in the Confessions series.  I am a big fan of those endings.  And then there is the portrayal of high school drama in a way that you want it to.   Well, you will believe me when you read her books..

And she is here, in "Books Are Magic", giving us a great guest post and still greater giveaway.  Enjoy!!!

In My Habitat

- Guest Post by Louise Rozett

Hello! I guess it’s a cliché to write about how much you love your desk and chair, and your dog (or cat, or fish, or turtle, etc.), but there’s a reason why these are the first things writers think about when they think about where they write. If you don’t have the right desk and chair, writing can literally be painful! And writing is SUPER solitary, so it’s nice to have some company and inspiration, which I think is what pets often are for writers.

Anywhooo, now that I’ve told you what a cliché I am...I’m very excited to be telling you about my NEW favorite place to write! 2013 has been a difficult but exciting year for me, and I’ve spent most of it in Los Angeles, staying with friends and subletting lots of different places, but now...finally...I have my own place again. My dog Lester and I live in a very cute, teeny-tiny house (I call it the Hobbit House) that has...wait for it...an office. I have never had my own office before and it is FANTASTIC! Here you can see my “desk,” which is actually an old farmhouse table (or so I was told by the woman who sold it to me), and a vintage 1950s chair. I will confess to you that these are pretty much the only pieces of furniture I have right now, but I love them, and I feel that they make me VERY creative! (Or they distract me, because I spend a lot of time thinking about how much I like them. Not sure which it is.)

(Okay, wait, I do have more furniture than the desk and the chair. The white cabinet is the first piece of furniture I bought, and I got it at a yard sale—what a find! Then underneath that is an awesome piece of “trampware,” which was explained to me as furniture made during the Depression from any kind of scraps people could find. This tiny bookcase was decorated with pieces of a picket fence.)

One of the greatest things about Los Angeles is the canyons—there are all sorts of amazing canyons with fantastic hikes. Because LA is a city where a lot of people have jobs with unusual schedules, there are always people hiking, any time of the day. My favorite time to hike is around 7 pm, because the sunsets are stunning. Usually, I listen to podcasts when I hike—my current obsession is Mark Maron’s WTF podcast (which is mostly about comedy but also about acting and music and writing and being creative in general). Also, I recently started listening to RadioLab, which I love (when I can follow it—those guys go DEEP into physics and astronomy and chemistry sometimes), and of course there’s the brilliant old standby, This American Life. But sometimes, if I really need to think something through, or if I want to feel a little more connected to the world and the natural beauty of the canyon, I’ll go without headphones. (Yes, I feel a little naked without them, which I find disturbing. It shouldn’t be weird to not have things plugging up your ears.) Anyway, if you look at this picture of a bookshelf that is currently serving as a shoe rack because most of my books are still in storage back east, you’ll see my hiking boots at the bottom right! (You will also see that Lester has taken chunks out of my two pairs of clogs. Nice, Lester—thanks.)

And then, of course, there’s my greatest, most favorite distraction—Lester. Lester seems to understand when I need to hole up and write and not be disturbed. And sometimes he respects that, and sometimes, well, he doesn’t feel like respecting that, and he decides to shred one of his toys so I’ll come running into the room. (Other times he just needs to go outside and take care of business. Can’t blame him for that.) Lester is a treat to be around, and he’s also deliciously squeezable. I can waste hours of the day lying on the floor, squishing him—his cute face, his giant paws, his stretch-limo belly—while he’s trying to sleep. I’m sure it’s annoying. Actually, maybe when he gets annoyed with me, he’s telling me to get off my butt and get back to my desk.

And eventually, I do. I go back to my 1950s chair, and I sit at my farmhouse desk with the view of the morning glories out the window, and I try to write, and I feel really lucky that there’s something in the world that I love to do.

GIVEAWAY

Louise is giving away one copy of her latest release "Confessions of an Almost-Girlfriend" to one lucky winner from U.S.

Enter the giveaway through Rafflecopter.  Giveaway ends September 7th, 2013!

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