Yay! Hooray! Freak Girl is but a memory now… I returned to the salon yesterday to get my highlights subdued, and now I feel much, much better about things. It was a different colorist, and she made me MUCH more comfortable. She showed me little swatches of hair color, told me which one was mine and asked me to pick what I wanted. Simple, right? Sounds like something the other colorist should have done… Now I basically have my own color back, but brighter and shinier. I’m happy.

But there’s a catch. She did tell me that the toner will wear off and that the ‘Freak Girl’ coloring will come back. Maybe the same, maybe more subdued, but it will come back just the same. So I guess I’ll have to go in again to get more toner applied.

This whole highlighting process just seems like one big hassle. I’d planned to just buy a do-it-yourself kit from Target and go it alone, but my husband thought it would be better to stick with the professionals. Well the ‘professionals’ cost me 10-15X as much! And probably four times as long. There’s definitely something to be said for doing it yourself!

Still…one less thing to worry over.

I’ve been wondering about e-book readers for a long time. You hear about the e-book revolution (on a small scale), but I’ve never even actually held a reader before. I’ve bought a couple of ebooks when I was converting my own book into e-book format–just to make sure I got everything right. And I read a few pages just sitting at the computer, but when I read I like to get really comfortable. Usually I’m lying down or cuddled into a comfy chair. My ergonomic office chair doesn’t really set the mood. So…I’ve been considering asking for an ebook reader for Christmas. That will entail a trip to Fry’s (or the like) to examine and test out a whole slew of them, but I think in the long run, I could really get used to having one.

Don’t get me wrong–I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to have tangible (paperback!) books in my hands and on my shelves, but there are great arguments to reading e-books as well. One of which is all these books from small presses that either don’t make it into print or look slightly odd when they do. I admit it! I need a great cover. I’m one of those ‘judge a book by its cover’ people. And I’m rarely wrong–I know what I like. But…WITH NOTABLE EXCEPTIONS…I don’t like many small press covers. They just look weird to me. But with an ebook reader, the covers are sort of superfluous, which works out perfectly.

One e-book I’d love to read, and I probably could read it on the computer simply because it’s only 14 pages, is Amanda Brice’s She’s Got Legs. It’s gotten great reviews, and Amanda has a very funny outlook on life. I love discovering new authors, and particularly love finding them right at the beginning of great careers. I think Ms. Brice is one of these, so check her out before goes big! (And the cover passes muster too).

I was reminded recently (actually by the title of Catherine Avril Morris’ blog) that many people consider romance novels trashy–or at least some of them. I have been told, by more than one person, that they liked my book (a Regency historical romance), but that they don’t like trashy romance.

What does that mean exactly? (And I confess I’m too stunned, stumped, stymied to ask them. And really, I don’t want to get into an argument with someone about it, particularly someone who liked my book).

Does it mean that they don’t like the sex scenes? My own book was a little sexy.
Besides, why not just read sweet romances? Not ALL romances have sex in them. But plenty of other genres–even literature–have sex in them.

Does it mean the characters are not well-developed, the plot line is vague, the ending was terrible? How is this any different from any other book that was not well-conceived, well-developed, or well-written? Why single out romances?

Does it mean they’re short novels, published in a throw-away form? So trade with friends, turn them in to the used bookstores, donate them to libraries or assisted living facilities.

Does it mean that the storylines are light, fun, and simple. Easy to read and understand. I personally call those books gems.

I just don’t get it. I guess I’ll have to work up the gumption to ask the next person who says that to me. And it’ll take some doing. Unless they’re already criticizing my book…