thinking time - and a bit of vanity

Current work: Rome book revisions
Listening to: Def Leppard
Reading: next on TBR

I needed to think a bit about my revisions this weekend. Why? My ed wants me to make my hero a bit less emotionally available. And that needs careful consideration so he doesn’t turn into the kind of man I’d want to push into a puddle.

And that’s my excuse for skiving off on Saturday morning and going shopping with my daughter. I have to admit, I love girly shopping with my daughter. This week, it involved a trip to Boots, because I noticed last week (when wearing make-up to my library talk) that my foundation doesn’t suit me any more. (I think it looked caked on. And this was the expensive stuff, sigh.) Time for a change. I wanted something that didn’t feel as if I was wearing make-up. I also needed advice about colours and styles of foundation because – frankly – I’m clueless. Most of the time I don’t wear make-up, and I look an utter scruff (well, hey, I live in my head, and I don’t need to know what I look like). But sometimes I need to look like a professional author rather than a scruffy mum-of-two. Hence I had to be a little bit, um, vain.

Jane on the Max Factor counter at Boots in Chapelfield was just brilliant. She talked me through the different sorts of foundation, and better still tried them all on me and told me which one looked most natural. Then she gave me a makeover. Best of all, she talked me through exactly what she was doing, why and how, so I understand how to get the same effect at home. So, I have new eye-shadow (ha, yes, the usual neutral shades – I wasn’t going that far); new foundation (which doesn’t feel as if I’m wearing it); new mascara (OMG, I actually have eyelashes! – no, don’t laugh. I really do have short, pathetic eyelashes, and luckily daughter inherited her father’s lovely long eyelashes rather than mine); and new lippy (it’s, um, sparkly. But grown-up sparkly, not teenage). With a bit of practice between now and the end of the month, I should look reasonably smart at the M&B author lunch. (I am SO counting the days to that. It’s one of the big highlights of my year. I get to see some of my fave people in person and talk writing. And drink champagne. Ha.

After that, it was time for breakfast (yeah, OK, so I’m decadent – cake and coffee, but we walked it off). While we were in M&S, I was talked into having a look at the nail polish section in case there were new shades. Oh, dear. I’m not actually sure who’s the worst out of the pair of us, but we ended up with three more bottles between us. It’s the cheapest nail varnish ever, but the coverage is brilliant and it doesn’t chip easily, which means I can type and play guitar almost with impunity. And how can you resist nail varnish called Kingfisher? (Yup, it’s green. I’ve worn weird nail varnish ever since I was a student. I wore blue nail varnish, the first time I met DH. Even though he claims innocence, I know he got rid of the fingerless lace gloves I used to wear, the very first week after we moved in together, but he hasn’t been able to do a thing about the nail varnish. Especially now I have back-up in lovely daughter.)

The book? Yeah. I worked it out (and changed the end completely). I just needed time for it to percolate through my subconscious. Makeover, breakfast out and shopping for fripperies worked a treat.

Hopefully today I’ll get the P&Q to finish it…