Jeans

But once in a while, that whole cosmic karma thing works in my favor, and I end up with great jeans that do their job (make me look 10 pounds lighter, natch). The ones from last spring are starting to lose their integrity (and one pocket), so it’s time once again to throw myself into the arena and hopefully come out victorious.

See, my problem is that for the past several years, jeans makers (specifically the affordable kind – everyone under $75) have aimed toward the slender, slinky, willowy market. I don’t even know how to locate that market. But there is a trend (over the past couple years) to segment into the “curvy” demographic. The women shaped more like (oh, let’s just say it) women. Women with hips. And thighs. Like me.

So today I went looking, and ended up with two (2) pairs of jeans from different stores. Success! We’ll see how deep a success when I wear them in public (or in front of anyone other than my 5-year-old son, who would tell me I look good in anything, including swimwear *ick* and really ill-advised maternity-style tops, a topic for another day).

Hey, let’s apply this to writing, shall we?

There are a lot of readers out there. They do not all fit easily into one category, even if it seems like the mainstream YA market is fairly structured to hold what I consider to be too much sex, language, drug glorification, self-inflicted agony and whatnot. Let’s call this the “skinny jean” syndrome. To some, the Skinny Jean is simply a mistake. Nobody should ever wear it, now that Audrey Hepburn is dead. That’s a fair opinion, and one you’re entitled to. But if you’re into skinny jeans, well, there they are. All around. Easy to find, and easy to afford.

But some of us don’t do skinny jeans, for our own reasons (hips, thighs, good taste, whatever). Is there a market segment for us? What if we want to read about something other than hot, cold vampires? What if fantasy isn’t our love? What if we expect a book winning awards to be tastefully written, and not full of language that makes us cringe? What if subtle sexual tension is just sexier to us than straightforward, detailed encounters? Can we find such things?

We’re willing to pay more for quality pocket placement, too. The things that make the great jeans (or good books) really stand out. The difference is, I would rather have one spectacular pair of $100 jeans than 5 iffy pairs of $40 jeans. But I won’t be satisfied with one great book. I need a steady diet of them. At least two a week, I’m thinking. So bring them on. Send them my way. Give me clean, fun, real, interesting, deep, new, fresh, witty, and fabulous. (All at once might be too much to ask for, but I can try!)