{Guest Post/Giveaway} With LULU IN LA LA LAND Author Elisabeth Wolf

LULU IN LA LA LAND comes out TOMORROW!

Happy Book Day (a day early!), Lulu!!!

To celebrate, author Elisabeth Wolf has stopped by with a great tour of the places Lulu loves to haunt whenever she's out and about in L.A.

Sourcebooks is also generously giving away one copy of LULU IN LA LA LAND to one lucky winner!

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Elisabeth Wolf is a bit Lulu. She lives in Los Angeles where she grows fruits, vegetables, and native flowers. Before that she worked in public policy and media both in California and Washington, D.C. She has two children, Philip (15) and Emmeline (13). 

Her inspiration for writing LULU was based on their growing up in Los Angeles and seeing how fast childhood can zoom by. She bakes her children's birthday cakes and eats spicy Mexican food. 

LULU IN LA LA LAND is her first book. The second book in the series, LULU IN HONOLULU will come out in Spring 2014. To slow life down, Elisabeth and her children spend time living in Cambria, California and Kennebunk, Maine.

Follow Elisabeth on Twitter!

LA City Guide: 
Featuring locations mentioned in the book
by  Elisabeth Wolf

As a girl growing up in Los Angeles, not too many zillions of years ago, I wished I had nine lives and one shiny, foreign-make car.  Los Angeles is so many different cities in one.  I was never sure what type of Angeleno to be.  In my book, LULU IN LA LA LAND, my main character, Lulu, knows exactly who she is.  Lulu embraces the Los Angeles that’s full of natural beauty, year-round growing seasons, and people doing imaginative, adventurous things.  

Here is a perfect LA Lulu Day: go down to the beach at Pacific Coast Highway and Channel Road early in the morning and walk the shoreline.  The air is cool and salty fresh and the gulls poke at anything that could be food.  Lulu would pick up any trash in her sandy path.  

Pacific Coast Highway Beach, ©Travel Channel

Next:  Santa Monica Farmers Market. It’s colorful and tasty, and buzzing with the chatter of farmers, chefs, mothers, hipsters, and comfortably dressed food lovers.  Lulu would keep her eyes peeled for Amelia Saltsman, author of the SANTA MONICA FARMERS' MARKET COOKBOOK.  She’s often there giving tips about what’s freshest.  

Amelia Saltsman with a group at the
Santa Monica Farmer's Market, ©Amelia Saltsman

Afterwards:  ZJ’s Board Shop for t-shirts.  Ask for Teddy!  Although ZJ’s is a “board store” (selling every kind of skate, surf, or snow board), they also sell cool clothes for anyone (even non-boarders like Lulu).  ZJ’s has been around for 25 years and it’s still an under-the-radar place.  

ZJ's Boarding House Storefront, ©ZJ's Boarding House

Driving East:  the Getty.  Lulu would tram up and find Beverly! She’s THE best docent for the Getty Central Garden.  Beverly would explain that the huge garden is full of different plants, flowers, and sculptures but was designed by an artist, not a landscaper.  The artist used plants instead of paints for color and texture to create this living work of art.  Beverly will even let you roll down the metal sides of the garden and touch the waterfall that empties into an azalea maze.

Getty Center Central Garden, ©Wikimedia Commons

Lunch stop: the Beverly Hills Hotel Soda Fountain located on the bottom floor of the big, pink, lushly landscaped hotel.  Everyone sitting on one of the 18 stools is treated kindly by Ruth or Eucario, longtime servers.  

Beverly Hills Hotel Fountain Coffee Room, ©Beverly Hills Hotel

Off to: Monogrammit.  Lulu loves to give gifts so she’d see Elisa, the owner.   This shop is off the Rodeo Drive part of Beverly Hills, which makes it way cooler.  Elisa creatively monograms anything, even the tongue on high-top Converse tennis shoes!  

Monogrammit, ©Tree

Now that it’s later afternoon, Lulu would want to go home and swim but not without two more stops: 

First, Joan’s on Third.  This is among LA’s best food stores for everything from the cloud cupcake to exotic sheep’s milk cheeses.  While there, Lulu might spot celebrities but even better, she’d see Joan, the dynamic owner who is also a grandmother.   

Joan's on Third, ©LA Weekly

Second, Chateau Marmutt.  Lulu would never go home without stopping at this doggie day care spa and making an appointment for her smelly, disheveled dog, Watson. Where else but in LA does a pet store boast about its “aromatherapy grooming”?

Chateau Marmutt's Resting Area, ©Chateau Marmutt

Thank you so much for such a great post, Elisabeth! Talking about the settings that inspired you really help visualize the atmosphere of your novel! 

O F F I C I A L   I N F O:

Title:  LULU IN LA LA LAND
Author: Elisabeth Wolf

Release Date: August 6, 2013

Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

SUMMARY:

Lights! Camera! ACTION! Lulu, a soon-to-be 11-year-old living in Los Angeles, prefers gardening to primping and homemade guacamole to five-star restaurants. You'd never know that Lulu is the daughter of Hollywood's A-List power couple. This year Lulu is determined to throw the kind of birthday party her glamorous parents might actually attend (which means Watson the pug is not invited). But it's so not Lulu. Should she morph into the Tween Queen of Tinseltown or stay true to her book-loving, mis-matched socks self? 

Fall in love with Lulu as she tells her story in an innovative script-novel hybrid. After all, everyone is LA is writing a screenplay!

****Giveaway*****

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