I have it!

I sprinted down to the thrift store five minutes before it opened, and, to my horror, saw that they had opened a few minutes early and a lady was already examining the dress. Of course, the shop is on the other side of the road, and it's one of the busiest roads in the city, so I had to wait for the little green man to start blinking before I could run across and burst dramatically into the store.

The lady who was looking at MY dress had turned away to look at something else, so I grabbed the nearest shop assistant and asked them to take it off the mannequin so I could try it on. I told them the whole incoherent story of how I had been dreaming about the dress all weekend, and they were very nice and did not back away and press the panic button as they would be entitled to do. I tried it on. It fit perfectly. I looked at the price tag. Twenty dollars! Really? Shop assistant confirmed it.

Twenty dollars!

I am thrilled.

If this is any indication of how the rest of September is going to be, well ... I can't wait.

Brief encounter

I am in love! Well, of course, I am already in love. With my husband. But now I am also in love with an inanimate object. And no it's not the coffee machine - that relationship is purely physical.

No, I am in love with a dress. I saw it in the window of my local charity shop as we drove by. A red polka dot dress with a full skirt and tulle petticoat. It is possibly the most beautiful dress I have ever seen.

And, of course, the charity shop is closed on Saturday afternoons, and on Sundays. Which means that I'm going to camp out and wait for them to open on Monday morning, then sprint in (elbowing elderly customers out of the way - Granny's going down!) and hope that the price tag doesn't have delusions of grandeur.

My heart is racing, my mouth is dry and I can barely wait till Red Polka Dot Dress and I see each other again. It must be love.

Writing a query letter

I'm home today working on the revisions, with that familiar gremlin sitting on my shoulder saying "This is bollocks, you're a terrible writer." I've grown almost fond of him. Almost. Although this may just be due to Stockholm Syndrome (a psychological condition in which captives sympathise with their kidnappers).

I have some fairly major changes to make, which I'm tackling this morning. I've given myself till Friday to finish this batch of revisions. This afternoon, however, is given over to starting work on that dreaded thing, the Query Letter. The golden ticket that will open the magical doors to that most mystical and elusive of creatures - a literary agent.

Query letters are hard. They have to be concise, compelling and punchy. They have to make the agent want to read your book. They are painful to write.

Nathan Bransford, a literary agent based in San Francisco, has posted a basic Mads-Libs-type formula for query letters on his always excellent website. It goes like this:

"Dear [Agent name],

I chose to submit to you because of your wonderful taste in [genre], and because you [personalized tidbit about agent].

[protagonist name] is a [description of protagonist] living in [setting]. But when [complicating incident], [protagonist name] must [protagonist's quest] and [verb] [villain] in order to [protagonist's goal].

[title] is a [word count] work of [genre]. I am the author of [author's credits (optional)], and this is my first novel.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best wishes,
[your name]"

So, for example:


Dear Grumpy McShortandfat,

I chose to submit to you because of your wonderful taste in cat crime, and because you have a cat. I think. Or used to.

Furball is a hard-bitten, hard-biting inner city cat cop living in the back alleys of Chicago. But when a well-known mouse crime syndicate kidnaps his burlesque-dancer girlfriend, Furball must go back to his own long-supressed criminal roots and track down the mouse mafia's Big Cheese in order to save his lady and, ultimately, his city.

'Mousetrap' is a 80,000-word work of cat crime fiction. I am the author of several very well-crafted letters to the editor, and this is my first novel.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best wishes,

Catlover O'Restrainingorder.

I will leave you with some pictures of my cat wrapped up in a blanket.

Oh, and don't forget to enter the giveaway if you haven't already! The post is below, or there's a button on the sidebar that will take you directly back to the giveaway page.

Yellow makes me happy

It has been a tough couple of days. Not due to anything external, because everything is good, really, but just in my own head. My obsessive-compulsive tendencies have got worse since LOML left. I was working really hard to overcome them, so it's depressing to slide back into old habits. I have a ritual of checking appliances and doors before bed and before I leave the house that I can repeat up to ten times. It's getting to the point where it's actually having an impact on the way I live - making me late for appointments or making me stay up way too late.

Anyway, on the good side of things, I found a pair of yellow high heels today. As my sister and I walked into the shoe shop, I told her, "I've been looking for yellow heels for ages, but I don't think I'm going to find any." And five minutes later, in the Last Pairs section, we find a pair of yellow heels that were exactly what I had pictured, and on sale. The universe obviously heard me!

(Not to be picky, but it would be nice if the universe had made them just a smidgen wider across the toes. But hey, I'm not going to complain. Much.)

Edited to add: the compulsive door-checking and so on is a hang-over from life in Zimbabwe, where we lived in houses that resembled prisons, and were constantly at risk. Logically, I know that it is much safer here. Unfortunately, though, my emotions refuse to listen to logic! Silly things.

Some things never change

You know, I've been thinking lately about how personal style evolves over the years. I thought my style had changed a lot ... but then I looked at these old photos of my sister and me when we were little.

I would love to have this dress and those shoes again! And the grey tights. Actually, I like this whole outfit. Apart from the Christmas stocking, perhaps.

This is me and my sister at her third birthday. Obviously the day wasn't going so well. I like my pink dress, but check out my sister's awesome sailor outfit! From the blue socks to the bow at the collar, she's rocking it. I have feeling this would be a real hit on wardrobe_remix. Good going, sis.

Check out this striped shirt with the denim skirt and patterned suspenders. I would wear this again in a heartbeat.

I think this rainbow skirt would be great for summer ...

Look at these stylish ladies. I would totally wear all of these dresses.

(Of course, all these outfits were chosen by my Mum - good job, Mum! You trained us well.)

Here comes the sun (I wish)

I know you're probably heartily sick of hearing me complain about the dreadful weather and saying how I want to go on holiday, but ... the weather is really dreadful and I want to go on holiday! It's particularly grim today - cold winds, lashing rain, sky grey-blue like a bruise. Every night this week, before I fall asleep, I have been mentally packing a suitcase for a holiday somewhere warm. I may be getting slightly obsessive.

I do love packing, though - it satisfies both my love of clothes and my love of organising. There's something about choosing a distilled, concentrated version of yourself that is just so much fun - you can leave all the dross behind and present your most essential self to the world. Perhaps I'm overthinking it.

Anyway, these two posts on packing have satisfied my cravings for this morning: Wendy from Hand It Over shows us what she's taking to Mexico, and the_kitten from Picked Pics gives us packing tips inspired by her upcoming trip to Viet Nam.

On the beach

It was ridiculously warm and sunny today - someone is answering my prayers! We spent the day at the beach to make the most of it. I love living in this city - we are right on the coast, and it is only an hour's drive to snow-covered mountains. The best of both worlds.








My husband took these pictures, which is why they're so good! The top I'm wearing is one I made years ago. It languished in a suitcase for a long time, and I only recently rediscovered it.

Make it work

"The secret to keeping your style story hop, hop, hopping along is to be forever expanding your cultural horizons. Since style is ineluctably related to the culture in which you live, the more you see, read, sniff, hear, or eat, the richer your engagement with the world around you becomes." - Tim Gunn

I completely agree with this statement, and it sums up my feelings about style perfectly. Also, Tim taught me a new word - 'ineluctably', a synonym of 'inevitably.' Thanks, Tim!

I found this quote through the lovely Flair to Remember.

White as a sheet (of paper)

This T-shirt is fabulous.

From The Quiet Life, found through the ever-lovely Design for Mankind. If I had this shirt I think I would write a poem on the front in fabric marker ...

In other news, I had a strange dream last night that I just remembered. I entered a contest which gave you twelve hours to compose a song which you had to perform at the end of that time, on stage in front of hundreds of people. I can't believe I signed up for that, even in a dream. How terrifying.

Holly Hobbie

I had a Holly Hobbie bedspread similar to this when I was small - a pink one. My sister had a blue one.

In fact, Holly Hobbie had a pretty cool look. I like her boots and stockings, and the dresses aren't bad either.

Domestic stuff

The house is sparkling! It is so satisfying. Here is the now-clean fridge:

And I did discover the source of the strange smell - kidney beans. Who knew? Now my clean-freakish self can relax and work in the house tomorrow.

I am also looking forward to getting started on some sewing with my new-to-me machine, although I haven't used a sewing machine in years. The last thing I made was this:

I'd like to try a really simple dress, so I'll have to hunt out a pattern ... anyone have any ideas?

Just when you thought it was safe ...

I want this shirt.