Today I’m going to have cake and ice cream, do pretty much nothing (except possibly head to the mall) and indulge in a “me” day—because it’s my birthday! It’s probably a good thing those days only come once a year, because those “me” days are quite unproductive!
When I was young, I used to anticipate the presents on my birthday—what I’d get, who would give it to me, if it would be any of the ten thousand things on my list. Hey, I was a kid—my whole world revolved around what people were giving me. And with my birthday coming nearly seven months after Christmas, it was a long wait for another gift-giving round.
But as I’ve gotten older, my birthdays have become less about wanting gifts and more about spending time with the people I love. I’ll spend today with my kids and husband, spend another afternoon later in the week going out to lunch with friends, and concentrate on the people in my life who make every year an enjoyable experience. That’s a true “me” day for me, when I get to concentrate on those I love, rather than being distracted by work.
Okay, yes, and I do eat way too much dessert, because hey, it is my birthday, and I’m allowed that annual indulgence!
I remember on my 35th birthday, my husband surprised me with a party at a local hotel. He brought in a Mariachi band, had Mexican food catered for the occasion and bought me the biggest margarita I have ever seen in my life. It was a fabulous party, with friends coming in from all over to help celebrate.
Some of my best birthdays, though, have been the quiet ones. Where I’ve spent them with family and friends, visiting old memories, and eating my favorite foods. I don’t need the fanfare and candles that I had when I was young, just a little seafood and some great company.
Tell me, how do you like to celebrate your birthday? Do you have a favorite birthday memory? Or do you like to pass the day quietly, without the cake and song and candles?
Me, I’ll take the cake for sure, especially if it comes with the people I love sitting around the table, helping me devour it!
Comment on this blog and you could be the winner of my latest release, VEGAS PREGNANCY SURPRISE.
Shirley
What makes a sexy hero? Well, there’s those bedroom eyes and hot body, of course. But occasionally actions speak loudly too. And in KISS ME IF YOU CAN, in stores 7/27, the hero, Coop, is a gentleman to Lexie’s quirky Grandma. He’s indulgent when they find her drunk on Manischevitz Wine, when her attempts at texting interrupts them at inopportune moments, and all because Lexie adores her grandmother.
Grandmother’s necklace and sets out to meet Coop – and buy the ring as a surprise for her Grandma’s 80th birthday! Little do Coop and Lexie know, Grandma Charlotte has a secret past that Coop’s reporter instincts and the resurrection of the jewels threaten to reveal. What ensues us a light fun romp – but one that leads Lexie to some painful family truths and puts Coop, an aspiring mystery writer, in the position of choosing between the story of a lifetime and hurting the woman he loves.
A few years ago book videos were the big new thing and it seemed like every author was making them or having them made. The craze seems to have died down a bit, but book videos are still definitely on the scene. They can be as fancy as the ones made by Circle Seven Productions 
Storyboard with Stock photography/stock video – I generally do this step at the same time. I plan out the text for every “scene” and find an image that works best to tell the story. When I’m texting out the book video I distill the novel down to its very basic parts, pretty much just down to the main conflict(s). That’s not an easy thing to do (as any author who has ever written a synopsis or a book blurb will tell you).
Do you find yourself in a rut? Doing the same old things. Taking care of the necessities and rarely thinking about activities that will make your life more fulfilling? Maybe you’ve even decided to put it off for some future date. Many times those future dates never arrive. Time has a way of creeping up. I think this is especially true for introverts. 
I live in Texas and it gets really hot. This year, the rest of the country is getting a taste of what is typical for us every summer. I bet next year, when your summer returns to normal, you’ll be flocking to Texas, won’t you? Because who doesn’t love to live in a constant state of perspiration? 
But somewhere along the way, summer started to feel really hot. It started to feel heavy and sweaty and oh no, I didn’t put on sunscreen this morning. I do get out every day, but I don’t think it’s that much fun anymore because…(sigh)…it. Is. So. Hot. When did that happen? 
I had one of those scary pet owner moments lately. The Demon Lord of Kitty Badness had hurled himself out of my second floor window and gone on the lam, no doubt in search of fresh opportunities to indulge his dark side. I found him some time later cowering under the lilies and meowing sotto voce, his nose twice its normal size and his forehead looking like he’d lost an argument with an egg slicer. Rather than finding the dark side, I think it found him. Fortunately, I was there to save the day, and he was back to his naughty self in a couple of days.
If heroes are measured by the number of people who rely on them, mothers definitely rule the top one hundred. I remember mine keeping the family going in the face of some pretty overwhelming odds. Did your mother, sister, aunt or grandmother do something that made her a heroine in your eyes?
This June, Hollywood came to Chicago and I’m thrilled to report
The evening at The Ritz Carlton started with cocktails, moved on to dinner in the intimate ballroom - each course was named after a RDJ movie and all were beyond yummy!
The Q & A revealed some “hot news” tidbits. RDJ and his wife, Susan, have formed their own production company, Team Downey. Their first project will be the Steve McQueen script “Yucatan”, a heist film.
I am directionally challenged. I will freely tell you this. And even if I tried to hide the fact, everyone who knows me will tell you that I am. I believe it’s passed genetically from one generation to the next (fortunately for my daughter, she takes after my husband). I got it from my mother. Much to my embarrassment and regret, I now experience déjà vu moments that throw me back across the years where, playing the part of my mother is—me. My children have taken on the roles that my brothers and I had originally assumed, namely, on any so-called field trip (we grew up in New York City where every outing beyond going to the corner grocery store could be viewed as a field trip) whenever the time to pick a direction arose (and you would be surprised how often that occurred) we would watch which way my mother began to walk and instantly take the opposite direction (at which point, not wanting to undergo separation trauma, my mother would quickly turn around and follow us, all the while saying, “Dis time I am right, you will see!” She never was. And in case you’re wondering “Dis” is not a typo. My mother, the master of approximately seventeen languages, could not manage to utter the “th” sound to save her life). 
At my own blog, I’ve posted several times about the pleasures of seasonal reading. I love matching a book to the weather outside, and for most of the summer I am content to read slender books like Cathleen Schine’s The Love Letter and Raffaella Barker’s Summertime. But occasionally, when the mercury is just too high and the air is just too sticky, I want to escape from the season altogether, and that’s when I turn to epics. I think I first started reading them in the summer because it was natural to start a thick book at the beginning of the school holiday and demolish it in a few days. Because of that, immersing myself into another world for several hundred pages feels like a vacation. I seldom manage epics these days, but here are a few of my favorite reads from the past:
*Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. How many years has it been since you’ve read this book? I probably haven’t touched it in two decades, and yet Mitchell’s tale of Civil War Georgia is so lush, I still remember details like Rhett Butler’s waistcoat being embroidered with rosebuds.
People often ask me what a literary agent does. The author’s name is on the book, the publisher’s is on the spine...but the agent is one of those elusive, behind-the-scenes publishing professionals you don’t hear much about.
I considered giving her usual commission of 15% of the flowers but I didn’t want to ruin the bouquet.
