My review of The Pillow Book of Lotus Lowenstein will be posted later tonight, but right now, we have a wonderful visit from the author herself who is taking part in a whirlwind tour for new book. She'd like to tell you what makes Lotus so very special:
Take it away Libby!!
Lotus is très confident!
Around the time I started writing The Pillow Book of Lotus Lowenstein, I had been reading a lot of books about young women which followed a certain familiar pattern. All the protagonists of these novels were very attractive and accomplished women, but totally lacking in self esteem. They were always putting themselves down and talking about how ugly and fat they were, although objectively they were quite thin and attractive. In the end of these novels, after a serious of ridiculous misunderstandings, the main character always ended up falling into the arms of the guy who she oddly never realized was in love with her throughout the book, although it was quite obvious to the reader. And while this type of book can be well written and entertaining, there was something about them that bothered me. I guess I started wondering why women in novels (and in life) are always diminishing themselves. I looked back at my own two novels about young women and realized that my characters also suffered from a lack of confidence. So I purposefully wanted to create a character who had a healthy self-esteem not based on any objective outward criteria. She also happens to be a teenager. Lotus is not particularly thin, or popular, but she is really pleased with herself. She wears whatever kooky vintage clothes she wants, immerses herself in Franglais and Jean Paul Sartre (JP), without giving a centime what all the popular girls think of her. She’s kind of like this alter ego that I aspire to, someone who is truly themselves sans apology.Here's the French Word du Jour for Dec. 3, which you can append to the bottom.
Also, Libby has a fabulous contest going on, which you can read more about below.
Today’s French Word du Jour is Vachement (which means "very").
If you collect all the French words du jour on the Blog Tourapalooza, you can enter a contest to win fabulous prizes (a $25 Sephora gift card and a personally autographed Pillow Book!). Once you’ve visited all the blog tour stops and collected all the words, email the complete list of words to lotuslowenstein@gmail.com with the subject line “French Word du Jour Contest.” All e-mail entries must be received by midnight (EST) on December 21, 2009. The winner will be selected at random on December 22, 2009. Be sure to include your name, e-mail address, and daytime phone number with your entry (If you're under age 13, give your parent's contact info). The complete My-Life-Is-Merde-but-Have-a-Bonnes-Fêtes-Anyway Blog Tourapalooza schedule can be found at lotuslowenstein.com. Our next tour stop is Greenbean Teen Queen on December 4. See you on the road, mes amis!
Thank you so much Libby for the guest post and stay tuned tonight when I post my review of this amazingly great read.
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