Guest Post: Carlie from The Princess of Las Pulgas
I have a very special guest blogger today. She is the star of the young adult novel, The Princess of Las Pulgas by C. Lee McKenzie. Please help me in welcoming Carlie. Hi, Carlie.
I'm really excited about being here on your super blog, Kelly. Frankly, I'm kind of glad that author of mine is busy. That keeps her out of my hair. I mean she's nice and everything, but she can be a bit bossy.
She keeps putting words into my mouth and deciding what I should or shouldn't wear. It can be annoying. I mean, even my mom doesn't do that anymore, not since I was five.
And then once she starts fiddling with the manuscript she just doesn't seem to know when to stop. We've had few "disagreements."
I guess I should tell you about Lee's book, The Princess of Las Pulgas. I mean, if I don't she'll go off in huff.
Everybody asks her about the title. They want to know what las pulgas means.
*Shudder*
The fleas. Isn't that disgusting? I don't understand how anyone would call a town that. I wanted it to be more romantic sounding, like, Las Posadas or Las Bonitas. But, noooo. She stuck with fleas!
She started me out in Channing, a great beach town. We lived right on the ocean and . . . .
*Blots eyes.*
Sorry. It's just that my family had to leave Channing. That's Lee for you. She has Mom try to keep us where we belong, but then she changes all of that, and sells our house. I had to change schools in the middle of my junior year, and go to this terrible place, Las Pulgas High. Then there's Keith my younger brother.
That's something else Lee's done. Keith was always, well a little brother and annoying, but she really made him act so weird after our dad died. She's made it a hard few months for him . . . for all of us. Mom, especially. Quicken's the only one Lee's kept the same. Quicken's my cat.
I call her my "Fur Person." She's a sweetie. I don't know what I'd do without her these days. Oh, and it really got me steamed when Lee almost took her away. Actually, her editor made her change that part. I love her editor.
Here in Las Pulgas it's so different. And it's ugly. I mean I saw the outside of the school and there's a chain link fence, graffiti on the outside walls and I'm not sure I'll be safe there. The kids are so different. They look different and talk different than my Channing friends. I asked Lee if she could just make the place more Channing-like, but she ignored me. Nothing unusual in that.
One thing Lee did do that I have to give her credit for is she helped me get over losing my dad. She also helped me find out how important is to help your family as much as you can. I'm not as good at that as I want to be, but I keep trying. You know, I try to talk to my brother like he's human. :-) And I try to help Mom out by doing what she wants me to. It's just so hard when everything's not the way it should be. Does that make sense?
Well, got to go and see if I can find my author. I think she's in a writing slump. She said something about going to hunt down her muse. Sometimes she's very pretentious.
Bye and thanks for letting me get some of this off my chest.
Thanks again, Carlie! If you'd like to learn more about Carlie and her book, check out her Facebook page here.
