Lookbook: where a bajillion fashion obsessed teens and twenty-somethings post outfit pics from their personal blogs.  This site is like fashion crack.  I have wasted hours of my life scrolling through photos of girls in six inch platform clogs and boys in white linen suits and saddle shoes.

The Sartorialist: where i found this glorious photo:

Photo taken from The Sartorialist.

Who is this wickedly stylish man and why don’t more dudes dress like him??

Liebemarlene Vintage: where blogger Rhiannon Leifheit keeps a daily diary of all her pretty, perfect outfits. How i long to roll out of bed each morning and slip into adorable vintage separates and wooden heels!  Look! She’s a doll:

Photos taken from Liebemarlene Vintage

And too, was she named for the Fleetwood Mac song Rhiannon?  Who doesn’t want to be named after a sexy 70s pop song?

& lastly, the Swedish Hasbeens website: where i’ve spent months lusting after primary colored clogs.  An obsession i can’t quite justify.  Or shake.  I own one precious pair.  These are them:

Photo taken from the Swedish Hasbeens website.

I watch them nightly.  Everyday the leather gets the teensiest bit darker.  I have to resist the weekly urge to purchase another pair.  I spend my writing breaks perusing the Hasbeens site, thinking in circles: Can i afford more? No. When/where will i wear these? Never/nowhere (because, hello, I work from home.  I barely get use out of the pair i have now.  Also, 4 inch platforms?  Not the most practical everyday shoe for a girl of my stature.).

Next week on the blog:  a post about fish tail braids and renaissance hairdos??  Possibly!  Thrilling, right?  Just you wait.

This scene is fresh in my mind (thanks to Netflix streaming!) and it’s got me wondering about pretty, pretty movie moments that happen between quirky characters in bars.  Also, it’s got me thinking about how easily I am manipulated by music.  I mean, JUST LISTEN TO THIS SONG:

Sneaky, right?  You feel things now, don’t you??

P.S. The images in this video are very beautiful.  But also?  They freak me out.  If they freak you out too — look away.

Women In Love (1969). This bizarro Ken Russell movie based on Women In Love, the D.H. Lawrence novel I’ve never read.  This thing is a supreme and incredible creation!  It has coal mining, interpretive dance, creepy narcissists, a nude (but entirely platonic) male wrestling scene, mod styles masquerading as 20s fashions, and a German ski lodge!  Weird-wise, it rivals only Secret Ceremony (1968), my other favorite 60s drama — in which a young Mia Farrow meets an older Elizabeth Taylor, and takes her home, convinced she’s her long dead mother.  Here, watch:

So good!  They don’t make ‘em like they used to.

Oh, and!  Today I’m giving away free stuff!  Chloe & Ant , congrats!  You’re getting signed paperback copies of Nothing Like You!

Exclamation point.

A song for you:

Cul De Sac

My upstairs neighbor has been playing Veedon Fleece by Van Morrison on repeat, nightly, for the last six months. Sad, twangy, heartbreak music!  Which i adore.  And too, i adore Van Morrison, but it’s taken me a good, solid hour of deep investigative work to finally figure out which album she’s been playing.  iTunes didn’t have it. Google wouldn’t recognize any of the lyric possibilities i entered into its search engine.  And then there’s allmusic.com — where i spent forty-five minutes of my weekend listening to thirty second clips from every single song VM put out between ‘67 & ‘79.  But!  Finally! I’ve found what i’ve been looking for.   And it’s awesome.  It makes me feel moony and inspired so THANK YOU, upstairs neighbor!  You play your music loud and late, but hey, you’ve got great taste.

If you’re still interested in winning a free copy of Nothing Like You, you have until tomorrow at midnight.  Just leave a comment somewhere on this blog and you’re officially entered to win.

So! What to expect from me blogging? Posts about writing, the process, the thrills and spills of publication? Long, thoughtful essays on essay-ish topics?? Photos of food, stray cats, blades of grass??

No. No. And possibly!

Look to this blog for a wee window into my non-writing life! Discover just how shallow i really am! Books aside, what do i love? Clothes! I will bore you with endless photos of clog platforms and vintage 90s florals. And television! Perhaps, in future posts, i’ll talk about my psycho obsession with Kara “Starbuck” Thrace from Battlestar Galactica, or how Effy Stonem from the British TV series Skins inspires me to line my eyes with kohl, wear black, not talk, behave insanely, and stay out all night.

So much to look forward to, reader (okay, who, truly, is reading this blog? My dad? An ex-best friend??! Some boy i adored many years ago, who, crippled by anxiety and shyness, couldn’t bring himself to love me back?? Hello, ol’ friend! Enjoy! I’ll probably embarrass myself on a weekly basis).

So! In honor of me blogging & the paperback release of my book and all that, i’m giving away two signed copies of Nothing Like You! If you want one, leave a comment with your email addy below, & next Tuesday, the 10th, I will pick two winners at random.

Leaving you with the promo clip from Skins series 4, because i mentioned it earlier and because this show makes me want to scream and tear out my hair, it’s so good. The track is ‘I Knew’ by Lightening Dust. Wunderbar.