*has taken the first challenge*

When I asked for requests yesterday, little did I know that I would be completely stumped by my first one.

I had no idea what these requests might turn out to be, but somehow I didn't expect my first one to be about a 'Little Black Dress'. Now that I've slept on the idea a little bit, it makes more sense. I should probably explain....

When I posted an excerpt from my NaNo novel the other day, among the lovely, lovely feedback that I had was the suggestion that I should try to snag Little Black Dress, who deal exclusively with chick lit, as a publisher. A little over a week ago, chick lit was something I read a lot of, but had never contemplated writing myself. My budding novel (which has been sat on my (deceased) laptop for over three years now was definitely in the fantasy genre. However, for some bizarre reason, when I took up the NaNo challenge I went completely crazy and decided to try a whole new genre.

It's working, too. Not only have I written more in the last week on my NaNo than I have in over three years on my original 'original', the ideas just keep coming. In fact, I went to sleep last night busily plotting the next part of my NaNo, and woke up with a series half formed in my head (provisionally titled 'Modern Fairy Tales'). Go figure.

My main character in my NaNo, Eleanor, is not your typical Disney Princess. She's short and skinny, has Jessica Rabbit's boobs, Frank 'n' Furter's hair, and a sailor's vocabulary. She's also facing the tricky dilemma of deciding what to wear at the ball (well, OK, it's not a ball, merely a retirement party for her old boss, but lets not be picky here). I don't care what anyone says, most women have at least one OMG What Am I Going To Wear moment in their lives. I'm still deciding whether she gets to wear a Little Black Dress and look fabulous, or whether she will run to form and turn up at the ball (retirement party) beautifully turned out only to end up half naked within a few minutes.

As to little black dresses in general, I don't have any. Well, actually I DO have one, but unfortunately it is unwearable because it's a least three sizes too small for my now overly-proportioned frame. I don't really 'do' dresses any more, I'm more of a trousers and glitzy top kind of girl. Partly because I'd feel like mutton dressed as lamb if I wore the kind of LBD's that I like, but mostly because the amount of flabby flesh that would be on display if I DID wear a LBD would probably make people vomit.

And on that happy little note, that concludes today's blog. Thanks to Natasha for the suggestion! Who's next?


**For some reason there isn't a task bar at the top of the post editor, so no pictures OR formatting today. Anyone else had this problem? *is not amused* UPDATE: Apparently it's browser related, as the task bar has magically reappeared now that I am on a different computer....