This #dressgate situation has turned my world upside down.

If you haven’t heard of it, last Thursday, February 26, 2015, a photo of a dress rocked the Twitter world. The question clogging people’s feeds was: is the dress black and blue, or is the dress gold and white? (See the dress at right.)

Obviously, it’s black and blue. So say I. So say my children. My husband, on the other hand, sees gold and white. I thought he was joking. He wasn’t.

Not only does this throw my getting-dressed-in-the-morning efforts into a turmoil—who the hell knows what other people think I’m wearing? I could be god-awful clashing and think I look swell—but it throws new light onto why some books make it and some books don’t and how what I think was amazing doesn’t turn you on at all.

Right now I’m halfway through reading a book that is currently all the rage. And while it’s enjoyable, it’s not wow. So why the hype? Others, I’m presuming, are seeing it as gold and white. To me it’s black and blue.

It’s a good thing to keep in mind with my own writing, too. Once I’m down the road of my MFA, or once I get published and my book does or does not get noticed, I have to remember any comments are shades of perception. And, as the dress illustrates, perceptions can vary wildly—with neither end of the spectrum necessarily wrong. (Although come on, people—the dress is black and blue.)

What colour’s the dress to you?

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