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I have a dream...that one day, all women's clothing will be equally accessible and equally fabulous.

In my dream, fat women will no longer have to be super-resourceful outfit hunters.

They will no longer have to put together an outfit with a dress from bandlu.com, a shrug from Lane Bryant, a belt from Rainbow, a pair of shoes from Torrid, and tights from Target.

Although, to be honest, I don't think that cobbling together of gear is too tragic.

In my dream, I own a nationwide green business that caters to fat women too old for Torrid and too young for Lane Bryant.  This store will be called something like Fuschia Frenzy. 

Each store will have a small cadre of seamstresses, who will adjust and hem skirts so they hit the right length, jackets so they hug the right curves, dresses so they dip just enough, and blouses so the buttons don't create ugly gaps.

In my store, the lighting will be soft and the music will be hype.  There will be no pictures of models: the customer is the gorgeous model.

In my store, there will be a different room for everything.  A room-full of shrugs.  Pink shrugs, leopard shrugs, zebra shrugs, polka-dotted shrugs, black shrugs with ruffles and without. 

Picture a room-full of inexpensive but fabulous Eastern and Southwestern-inspired accessories: huge earrings, rings, necklaces, hair accessories, hot socks, tights, glitter, hats, tiaras, and wands.

There will be a room-full of dresses. Short and long, tight and loose, solid and print, denim and poly, cotton and silk.  The dresses will be fifties style, twenties style, and timeless. 

Congratulations to Yen Cheong, Assistant Director of Viking Penguin Publicity, for her nomination for a Book Blogger Appreciation Week Award, in the category "Best Publishing/ Industry Blog."  Yen maintains her blog, "The Book Publicity Blog," independently from her job at PGI. Its purpose is to "provide tips, primarily, but also information about publishing / marketing trends that will help book publicists - and hopefully others in media and publishing - do our jobs with greater ease and efficiency." 

Over the past few weeks, a set of panelists reviewed the nominated blogs and submit scores based on the following criteria:  Quality of Writing, Originality and Diversity of Content, Audience Engagement, and Visual Aesthetic and Functionality.  During the week of September 7th, voting will be open to the public. To read more and vote, click here.

Book Blogger Appreciation was started in 2008 in an effort to recognize the hard work and contribution of book bloggers to the promotion and preservation of a literate culture actively engaged in discussing books, authors, and a lifestyle of reading. The Appreciation week, which occurs each September, spotlights and celebrates the work of active book bloggers through guest posts, awards, giveaways, and community activities.  

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As many of our readers know, Suzanne Braun Levin, author of Fifty is the New Fifty, blogged for us back in April 2009.

We just received two of her videos from her author tour on June 1, 2009 at Barnes & Noble, Lincoln Center Triangle in New York, New York!

Watch them here!

Read more about the book:

Ten lessons to maximize creativity and happiness in the second half of life

In this inspiring new book, Suzanne Braun Levine follows her groundbreaking Inventing the Rest of Our Lives with fresh insights, research, and practical advice on the challenges and unexpected rewards for women in their fifties and beyond. Rich with anecdotes from the front lines of self-reinvention, this book captures the voices of women who are confronting change, renegotiating their relationships, and discovering who they are now that they are finally grown up. Among the lessons are: "No" is not a four-letter Word, on the energizing power of standing up for what you mean and what you want; Do unto yourself as you have been doing unto others, a new way of getting yourself to the top of the to-do list; and Your marriage can make it, reassurance that changing your outlook doesn't have to mean walking away from your marriage. Shaped by Levine's empathetic and lively voice, this book is about wisdom, survival, joy, and camaraderie. It reads like a conversation among women who know what they are talking about and want to share what they have discovered.

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So several people have asked me how—in amidst my daily routines of taking long walks and watching horror movies and playing in swamps and my cats being adorable—I actually go about writing a book. Since saying "I put words on paper until a novel falls out" seems a little bit twee, and I like writing things down, I am now writing out How I Write Books, or, What Seanan Does In Her Rapidly Decreasing Spare Time. This glosses a lot of the more complicated steps, since a truly accurate portrayal of how I write books would involve a lot of "stop writing, go find a zombie movie" and "get another can of Diet Dr Pepper," and no one actually needs to read that. Those particular steps are sort of a given.

So several people have asked me, in amidst the more general posts on writing and formatting things and watching too much television and my cat being adorable, exactly how it is that I go about writing a book. Since saying.

Soooo...

Step one: have an idea.
This...actually is and isn't as simple as it sounds, thus explaining why the question "where do you get your ideas?" makes me start to giggle hysterically and twitch. I tend to come up with books due to extremely random connections of stimulus and events. One of my books was the result of being over-tired and watching car headlights through mostly-closed eyes while "Have You Seen Me Lately?" (a Counting Crows song) played on the CD player. Rosemary and Rue practically requires a flow-chart of external stimulus to explain, and the sequel is even worse. I once wrote a romantic comedy because of a combination of jetlag and coincidence. And so on. This is the step that I have absolutely no control over, since sitting down and deciding to have an idea almost never works for me. My muse may be abusive, but she's not cheap.

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Writing has its emotional ups and downs. Some days, I feel hilarious and brilliant, but sometimes, I have "you call yourself a writer?" moments.

When I began Barely Bewitched, I got to around fifteen thousand words and something started to needle me. As the word count rose, so did my discomfort. Finally I had to stop writing to read through what I'd written, which is around the time my worst fears were realized.

"Oh, no," I exclaimed. "I knew it. I told my critique partners that I'm not funny! And what's going on with this pacing?"

I cleared my throat and addressed the characters in the book. "Why are you all just standing around talking? I need to see some action. Preferably some funny action."

They responded, "We're not lifeless. We're just written that way."

"What the hell?! This is mutiny. You guys are supposed to show me the way. Now what am I going to do?"

I contemplated things for a moment and realized that often in a crisis situation, drastic measures have to be taken.

"Is Barnes and Noble open? They have dark roast coffee." I slid my gaze to the clock. "Yes, I only need to break four speed limits to get there in time. Quick, find socks."

Then the Voice of Reason (VOR) asked, "Will a shot of espresso make you witty?"

I yanked on my shoes and said, "Anything's possible."