What Not To Wear When You're Over 50

Maybe Jane Fonda can get away with wearing ripped-up jeans, an off-the-shoulder blouse and a funky fedora, at 72. Can she? You be the judge. Here's my vote: NO! There are certain clothes that are too young for anyone over 30, let alone 72, and shredded jeans are on the list. She's gorgeous, no question, and in great shape. But the jeans just look stupid.
And even if you think she looks great the fact is most women of a certain age shouldn't wear that kind of stuff. So what to wear when you're over 50?
If you look good in it and you're comfortable, wear it. Great advice, right? The only problem with that is some older women think they look good in things like leggings and short skirts. Obviously they don't own a full-length mirror, which I completely understand - the older I get the less I want to look in a mirror. 

But you need to look, ladies. And here's a little free advice: be sure to look at yourself from behind. If you're over 50, chances are good your ass isn't where you remember it and if you're wearing something clingy the whole world will know it.

Even if you're thin, things happen to your body after 50; parts droop, rolls appear, skin sags, spots show up...believe me it's endless and ugly. And thank god for clothes. The right clothes hide a multitude of sins and make us look fit and youthful and appealing, no matter what's underneath. So what are the right clothes?
Well, I'm no arbiter of fashion but here's my short list of what not to wear if you're over 50:
1. Leggings, even with a butt-covering top
2. Mini-skirts
4. Short shorts
4. Low-cut blouses (who wants to look at wrinkled cleavage?)
5. Anything that exposes your belly (I mean, really...what are you thinking?) 

So what's left, you might ask. Shirtwaist and pearls, anyone?  

Naming Your Baby

I'm inspired by a post from The Romaniacs (don't you love that name? It's a group of romance writers - perfect, right?) about book and character titles, and I'm reminded of the evolution of my title, What More Could You Wish For. Naming your book and your characters is like naming your babies. How do you ever know if it's the right name?
My book's first title was Classmates.com, because it was a story about a woman who reconnects with her high school sweetheart on that website. And, in fact, I actually had reconnected with a high school boyfriend that way. Ah, the inspiration for the story. Just so you know, though, nothing that happens in the book happened in real life. Well...not very much of it.
Anyway, after I finished it (I'm using the term 'finished' loosely since it went through many more drafts) and was trying to find an agent I had the bright idea of contacting Classmates.com to see if they would be interested in co-publishing and promoting it on their website. Brilliant, right? Well, they didn't think so. And they asked me to cease and desist using their name for my title or they would sic their lawyers on me. Well, okay, they didn't put it that way but that was the gist.
So then I changed it to What More Could You Want  which is what Sophie asks Libby when Libby says she's not sure she wants to marry Michael (who was originally Kevin in the first draft).
And then somewhere along the way I changed it to Mr. Right-Enough, which I thought was a memorable and titillating title, although some people thought it sounded like a self-help book. I never thought it described the story but I thought it would draw attention so I self-published it under that title.
Then, when I got the book deal from St. Martin's Press (yay!!!) my editor wanted to change the title. I'm not sure if it was because she didn't like it or if she wanted to differentiate it from the self-published version but I was okay with that. I told her that one of my working titles was What More Could You Want and she liked it. So that's what it became.
But...somewhere along the way it turned into What More Could You Wish For. Why? I don't know. Who changed it? I don't know that either. Was I happy about that? I can't say that I was.
I campaigned for changing it back to What More Could You Want. I lost.
Fortunately the title has grown on me. I would have liked to be in the meeting where it was decided, just to know what the thinking was. In the end, though, I have to defer to the publisher's expertise. They want to sell this book as much as I do and if this title is what will do it, well, alrighty then.

Sophie Tucker, the Magic Cat

My cat's a magician. She made her bed disappear.

Random Observations from Lynn Crawford

Chivalry isn't dead, says my friend Lynn. That's nice to know, isn't it? Check out Lynn's blog post and be sure to look around while you're there - the tagline to her blog is Random thoughts on life through the eyes of a cynical observer.
She's very clever, though not nearly as cynical as I am.
Also, her posts are People Magazine-length, which I love!

Here's one to get you started:

After leaving a breathtaking and mostly perfect Aida at the Lyric, we jumped on the #20 bus to Michigan Avenue. The crowd at the bus stop was bigger than usual. The bus, which is usually empty, was packed. The crowd on the curb waiting for the bus were geezers with Aida programs. The packed masses on the bus were 20 somethings from all races, ethnic groups and fashion groups. Some were coming from the Hawks game, some probably from work or other activities.

Read the rest of the article

Women's Fiction - Top Shelf or Bottom?

If someone asks what I write I tell them contemporary fiction. If you ask my publisher I'm pretty sure they classify it as women's fiction. Is there a difference and what does that mean? Does the term women's fiction mean it's less serious? Or does it simply mean that men are not the targeted audience?
I know my book What More Could You Wish For is not one a man would pick up off the shelf - the cover's all pastel-y and light, kind of fluffy, and certainly doesn't denote any car chases or intrigue or high body counts.
I've heard from a few men who read it in its self-published version which had a more 'serious' cover (but an even less man-attracting title, Mr. Right-Enough) and they've all said that although it's not the kind of book they'd ordinarily read they couldn't put it down. Nice reviews, all, but how do I get men to read my book if they're not related to me? Maybe I could provide them with a fake cover wrap with an AK-47 on it so they wouldn't be embarrassed to read it on the CTA.

Interesting article in the New York Times about women's fiction.

The Second Shelf
On the Rules of Literary Fiction for Men and Women 

By MEG WOLITZER
Published: March 30, 2012

If “The Marriage Plot,” by Jeffrey Eugenides, had been written by a woman yet still had the same title and wedding ring on its cover, would it have received a great deal of serious literary attention? Or would this novel (which I loved) have been relegated to “Women’s Fiction,” that close-quartered lower shelf where books emphasizing relationships and the interior lives of women are often relegated? Certainly “The Marriage Plot,” Eugenides’s first novel since his Pulitzer Prize-winning “Middlesex,” was poised to receive tremendous literary interest regardless of subject matter, but the presence of a female protagonist, the gracefulness, the sometimes nostalgic tone and the relationship-heavy nature of the book only highlight the fact that many first-rate books by women and about women’s lives never find a way to escape “Women’s Fiction” and make the leap onto the upper shelf where certain books, most of them written by men (and, yes, some women — more about them later), are prominently displayed and admired. 

Read the rest of the article.

Dear 30-somethings...

Dear 30-somethings (and 20-somethings and even 40-somethings), revel in it now because it's not going to last forever; the thick, lustrous hair, the firm butt, the dewy skin (free of age spots), the jaw line you can bounce a quarter off of, the flat stomach...ah, the list goes on. Appreciate it, even if you hate the way you look because you're never going to look better than you do right now. Oh, you might lose weight, you might build muscle, you might learn how to dress better, but the bottom line is when you're my age you're going to look at pictures from now and say, "Wow, I was cute. Why didn't I know that?"
So my question is, why didn't my mother tell me this? And if she had would it have helped or hurt? Once she told me she never felt old inside her head, but she never talked about the physicality of getting old. Maybe it didn't bother her. Can that possibly be? Did her generation simply accept it? I never heard her and my aunts commiserating about their sagging jowls and thinning hair, or feeling bad that men didn't pay attention to them any more. But I have to say, ALL my girlfriends talk about it. We obsess over it, fixate on it, get depressed about it, and we look waaaaaaaaaaay better than our moms did at our age. What's up with that? Did we think we were going to look young forever?
(Yes.)
What will GenX, GenY and the millennials expect? Do they think they're going to find the fountain of youth before they get here? Thing is, they probably will. Well, all I can say is, get on it - I'm not getting any younger here.

Cascabel at Lookingglass Theatre - Theatre Review

Cascabel is a fantastic show at Lookingglass, a theatre group that does amazing, creative, out of the ordinary work. This production gives new meaning to the term 'dinner theater.' This is not your grandma's dinner theater with an iceberg lettuce salad and mostacciolli or fried chicken. This is food from Rick Bayless. He's cooking (right) as you're seated at long communal tables set up in front of the stage. The food is part of the story, almost a character in the play, as Bayless plays the cook who tries to win the heart of the boarding house owner.
This show is Cirque du Soleil crossed with Top Chef and Dancing With the Stars. We knew Bayless could cook but who knew he could act? And dance. He's a very elegant man (and looks much younger in person than he does on TV) with some graceful moves on the dance floor. He doesn't do any of the amazing acrobatics and high-wire stuff, but he does a beautiful Salsa (below). 
The tickets are pricey but it's an event you don't want to miss if you're into theater and food. And what a great combo when it's done right.