Monthly Archives: July 2018

On… three things

I went to LA last week and sold another show to a studio!  The deal is being worked out right now, so I can’t go into too many details. But I can’t wait to get started. I also sold a show to a cable network recently – something set in the 80s – and just got the all-clear to move from outline to script stage.

The outline process is INTENSE and sometimes slow. But oh, so useful. I love outlining. (I wrote my first novel on a whim, with no outline, no plot, no plan, in fact nothing in my mind aside from a general desire to make my reader laugh and feel happy and understood. Sometimes I look back and think, my God woman, you were lucky to get an agent and a book deal off that thing.) I think of outlines as the blueprint for the house I’m designing and building: I have to make sure the people paying for the house are happy with the blueprint, right? So they can’t say at the end “uh, since when was there a fucking gazebo on the roof deck?”

No one wants a fucking gazebo on the roof deck.

With these two projects, and two others in the pipeline, I’m a busy little cougar these days. But I keep thinking: “man, I want to write a funny / beauty / fashion / something post for the blog.” And then I don’t because… by the time I’ve finished writing and thinking about worlds and plots and characters all day, and dealt with two very small redheaded boys, I’m wrung out like an old dishcloth. It’s all I can do to watch Younger, read about the most recent evils and idiocies of the administration, say hello to Instagram, and pass out.

So, forgive that it’s short, but here’s a round-up of things I fucking LOVE right now:

app005prod& Other Stories: Maquis de Nuit

I popped in on Saturday, swiped this across my face, immediately decided that I looked like I was in St Tropez in the 1920s, only without having to deal with the tediousness of Hemingway being such a little bitch to everyone. The salesgirl told me that they only put them out that morning for the first time, and “There are only like three left! They are walking out of here!” It looks dark blue-red in that photo, but it’s more of a dark burnt brick-red. Delicious.

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Etude House Moistfull Collagen Cream

I have pretty good skin. I have bad hair – very, very bad hair. But good skin. And if people ask me what I do, I am totally honest: I don’t get facials or laser treatments or anything like that (BORING and seriously who has the time?), I cleanse with cheapie-cheap Cetaphil, I wear SPF 50 or higher every day, I don’t drink wine (vodka yes, Campari yes, even beer yes – but wine, almost never, unless I’m eating a GREAT steak somewhere like Raoul’s and the steak personally asks me to drink a glass of red as its last request, you know what steaks are like). And I moisturize more than anyone else on the fucking planet. I have gone on about my love of moisturizers before, and recommended quite a few, but then I read about this as a viable alternative to the infamous-always-sold-out-expensive-AF-$130 Tatcha moisturizer, and figured, why not, it’s only $17. I’m now on my second pot. (For me to repurchase something, rather than think, eh, I’ll try something new, means it’s really good.) I throw this moisturizer on in the morning as a mask when I wake up, then remove with a warm wet face cloth an hour later when it’s time for CE Ferulic Acid (yes, I’m a convert, I wish I wasn’t, it’s so goddamn expensive, but a little goes a long way) and SPF. During the day, if I’m not going out, I just throw on a glob or two early afternoon for fun. At night, I apply it over my SKII. It’s sort of gel-like, it doesn’t have any smell, and it just makes your skin all plump and happy. Trust moi.

.41fcFbloaULMaybelline Lasting Drama Waterproof Eye Pencil in Silken Turquoise

The secret to wearing wild eye pencil colors is to throw them on like you don’t give a shit*. The messier the better. Line your waterline, smush it under your bottom lashes, scribble over your eyelid. Use your pinkie to smear it around. You can’t fuck it up, because fucked up is THE POINT. The LAST thing that you want to look like is one of those sweet, sad teens on the internet taking selfies with ‘baked’ foundation and eyes made up to look like peacock feathers, or whatthefuckever. The aim should be to look real, and like you’re having fun. This pencil, plus mascara, plus bronzer (this one, always, forever, amen) is my favorite summer look right now. It’s sort of Brooke Shields in 83, and we all need more of that.

*This is probably the secret to everything in life: don’t give a shit what anyone thinks of you, just work as hard as you can and be kind and happy. And wear turqoise eyeliner