PAULA'S NOTE: I'm starting a new tradition! "FRIDAY FUN GUEST BLOGGER OF THE WEEK!" (Or: FFGBOTW!) Every Friday, I will feature a guest blogger.

To kick off our inaugural FFGBOTW tradition, I am proud to introduce guest blogger C. Leigh Purtill. She is a talented writer whose latest novel, "ALL ABOUT VEE" (Razorbill, 2008) was released on April 10th... same day as my birthday! So naturally, I insisted Leigh be our debut FFGBOTW!

To find out more about Leigh, check out her website at http://www.leighpurtill.com/

Without further ado, here is C. LEIGH PURTILL!!!!

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FRIDAY FUN GUEST BLOGGER OF THE WEEK: C. LEIGH PURTILL

Hi! C. Leigh Purtill here, coming to you live from beautiful downtown West Hollywood where the sun shines practically and obnoxiously every day which makes it majorly hard to get any work done at all, unless you hunker down in your Batcave like Paula's doing. Even though I keep my back to the window, the sun STILL finds its way into my workspace, lighting everything up in its sun-like way and enticing me to go outside and play.

"Go away! I have WORK to do!" I yell at the sun as soon as it peeks its glowing head up over the horizon. "I can't come out and run around or get a tan or walk to Starbucks! I have to stay HERE and stay pale and drink my own coffee."

When you live in Southern California, you have this conversation almost every day. It gets tiresome and frankly, that sun is ridiculously persuasive, especially when you grew up in the northeast part of the country like I did - and hey, Paula did too! We had snow every winter, not a sprinkling of rain. We had ice on the trees, not pretty flowers, and we actually used the 4-wheel drive in our Jeeps. Yes, it's true! Where I'm from, SUVs are used to haul stuff and to get to work when a blizzard is blowing.

Unfortunately, I don't have any excuse not to work here. What, it's like, 60 degrees? Oh, brrrr....I need a cup of hot tea. I have gotten awfully weak now that I live in SoCal. Stay strong, Paula. Don't succumb to that sun!

So what IS my work, you ask:? Like Paula, I'm a writer and I have two novels out - ALL ABOUT VEE, which is out this very week in stores that are probably extremely close to you, and LOVE, MEG, which came out last July but is available in paperback this very week too. The new book, which I am HUGELY excited about (and when you read it, you'll understand that excruciatingly bad pun) is about an actress named Veronica May who moves from her tiny border town in Arizona to the big city of Los Angeles to become a movie star. It's filled with love and heartache, friends both fiercely loyal and painfully toxic, and a Golden Retriever named Max. I think it's pretty funny and kind of sweet but I'd love to know what others think so when you read it, drop me a line, okay?

Before I go back to work, I have to answer one final question that Paula asked: which member of Duran Duran is your favorite?

Without a doubt, no hesitation at all, it's John Taylor. So cute, right?

But wait. I used to be in love with Simon LeBon who was super sexy in those videos so why the change, why did I crush on John instead? When I was in high school, I dated a guy named John Taylor! No, he wasn't British and he didn't have sandy brown hair or a silky mullet and he played basketball, not bass, but oh my god, I dated John Taylor!

Now you know.

Thanks for giving me the blog for the day, Paula (paula, paula, paula...that's the echo of the Batcave)! Come back to the real world soon, okay?

:) leigh