All about La Belette Rouge

Bienvenue à la blog, La Belette Rouge.
La Belette Rouge is the humorous and not entirely sad autobiographical story of me, a somewhat over-educated, 40-something, happily married, childless not by choice, Francophile red weasel with a passion for writing, her husband the He-weasel, and her dog Lily who all live in Valencia and would rather be almost anywhere else than here.

I write about living in and hating L.A. I grew up in L.A. and I never-ever-ever wanted to come back here but here I am. Since I am here I am trying to figure out why I am here, what it is I really hate so much about coming home and how to get to a home that is not in L.A. As a way to cope with my L.A. loathing I am in therapy with Igor, a Beverly Hills psychoanalyst who is funny and wise and looks a whole lot like Omar Sharif.

I started La Belette Rouge, which means the Red Weasel, in 2007 to write about all things French and how to live a French life no matter where you are. La Belette Rouge is on Blogs.com list of the Top Ten Blogs for Francophiles. When life happened( infertility, failed infertility, childlessness, moving away from Chicago and moving back to L.A.) I started writing more about my life and less about the life I wish I had.

The goal of my blog is to make you laugh and if at all possible for you to do a spit take. I am sorry if I occasionally make you cry, I don't mean to do it. It just happens sometimes. I also love to make lovely blogger friends and I am ridiculously happy when you leave lovely comments or just say bonjour via comment or email. And, then there is the goal of being discovered because of my blog and getting an agent and a book deal.

I have published short stories, essays, worked as an entertainment editor and had a column in a small newspaper. I have a B.A. in Liberal Studies and a M.A. in Counseling Psychology. My graduate thesis explored the psychology of clothing, a topic I have lectured on. I have worked in the fields of art, fashion, and for the last seven years I have worked in mental health. When not blogging I am working on a book about my reluctant homecoming to L.A., my relationship with my mother, my failure to get pregnant and my Beverly Hills psychoanalyst, Igor, who tries to make sense of all of the above.

In attempt at magical thinking I have begun a blog series called 365 things that don't suck about L.A. My plan is simple, if I find things to like about this place maybe I'll get to leave it. If you know something about L.A. that you like please let me know. The sooner I like this place the sooner I can leave it.

In the vein of 'you teach what you need to learn' I have a series of blog posts about writing. My post "How to be a writer and sleep like a French woman" is the winner of the 2008 Avant Garde Bloggies Award for the best "How-to"post.I have a series of blog posts called “Writing in Valencia” which is about creating a literary life no matter where you are.

Please email me if you would like me to review your book/products, are interested in link shares, or if you have questions, comments or pictures of weasels you would like to share with me.