The story comes first for me. I have to care what happens next, and then next again. But the story alone is not enough. The writing doesn't have to be exquisitely crafted, though how wonderful it is when this is the case. However it must be reasonably competent with decent grammar, well-drawn characters, and a quality I'll call flow. If I am gritting my teach in frustration because the bad writing is interfering with my enjoyment, or rolling my eyes because the author is an idiot, I'm unlikely to finish the book. Having said this, the majority of the books I read are not great literature. I read a lot of genre fiction, SF&F being my favorite, as well as some mysteries, historical novels, popular fiction and even some young adult and children's literature. (In an earlier part of my life I worked for a couple of years as a school librarian and I still love the best of those books.) Somehow I find most of the books on the bestseller lists to be unbearable, so I rarely consult it. Rosefolly

Well, hello there! It's edeevee. News of my death has been greatly exaggerated - but not the death of my eyebrows. When last I posted, I had some scary medical stuff going on. It got a lot scarier. In September of last year I was diagnosed with Primary Peritoneal Cancer, Stage lllc. I had surgery and several months of chemo. I'm a lot better now, but my eyebrows, sadly, are not. All of my hair fell out (everywhere, and I do mean everywhere). Most of it is growing back. I have almost two inches worth on the top of my head! But my eyebrows ... sigh. Less than twenty hairs between the two of them :( I'd be okay with waiting for them to grow. Vanity almost completely goes out the window when you're just trying to stay alive. But in thirteen days MY DAUGHTER GETS MARRIED! We have a make up artist coming to do my sweet bride and her maids. She's going to do my face and the future m-i-l too. But will she come prepared to make eyebrows? Or should I try to prepare ahead of time? It's too late for tattooing or microblading; it takes too long to heal. I kind of like the wig idea but my skin is still a little sensitive - not sure how I might react to the adhesive. I don't have enough hairs to dye. That leaves stamping, painting or drawing. Has anyone here actually done any of these things? What would you recommend?

I just discovered this a few weeks ago in an older GW thread. I would love to have it done when I have extra money; it's like $750 or so and only lasts a few years. I don't know if my brows are actually thinner now or just seem that way because full brows are trendy? I think the close up pics look great-at least online. I asked my daughter's teen friends (one in the beauty industry) about it and no one has heard of it yet so still a new thing where Iive in south Jersey.

I'm kind of obsessed with eyebrows...I won't leave my house without them! I would say the past year or so they've gotten unruly and sparse and the hairs I do have are wiry and they stick up and curl and they're longer....UGH. So eyebrow maintenance was forced upon me :( I do dye them, but still have to fill in. I prefer L'Oreal pencil (water resistant) because I live in a hot and humid area and I need them to stay put. I could never get mascara types to look good. So I pencil them in heavier than I need and then use the mascara brush on the other end to brush through to get the lightness I want. I find that if I use a heavy hand on the brush, it actually makes it look more hair-like. Phoggie, look up microblading. It's more natural.