Nine
years ago, Sarah Raplee and I published the first blog post here at Romancing
The Genres (actually it was Sarah who clicked the button). And here we
are starting our 10th year!
Before
I share how I Celebrate, here are our some of the highlights from our first nine
years.
Almost 500,000 page views
Most of
our readers
are in the United States but we have
a solid following in Canada, Germany,
France, Australia, Russian, Ukraine, China, as well as smaller followings
in India, Japan, South Korea, Israel,
Kuwait, etc.
When
Sarah and I brain-stormed creating a group blog we knew we wanted it to be diverse in
varied ways so we’ve had male and female bloggers, authors of color, and
authors from around the U.S. as well as around the world. Our Genre-istas run
the gamut and write in a variety of genres. Romance in its varied sub-genres is
represented both in our bloggers but also in our guests.
Last
month we featured former Genre-istas and got caught up on what they are doing
now. Next month, we’ll feature Children’s Book Authors. Be sure to check out
our Action/Adventure/Thriller authors in July.
We had
our first
Blog-Versation August 2019 and it was
so much fun we’re doing it again. Each Saturday one of
the Genre-istas will spearhead the Blog-Versations inviting our regular readers
and anyone else to stop by and join the conversation. Each weekend will feature
a different focus: 05/02 – Indie Bookstores; 05/09 – Holidays; 05/16 – Heritage;
05/23 – TBD; 05/30 – Friendships. Every Wednesday we’ll feature the
Genre-ista and topic in our Headline. Follow us each day and be privy to what each
of us do to Celebrate the big and small events in life. Be sure to leave
comments to help us add to our options.
And here’s how I Celebrate my
birthday:
 |
| About the right number of candles? |
Before
the actual date of my 50th birthday, I decided to
celebrate this milestone by doing something more than cake (actually I prefer
pie) and ice cream and going out to dinner. Soo…
I chose
to celebrate
for 50 days. How that worked is each day I decided on one thing I’d
do (or maybe not do) that was my gift to me. Sometimes I bought myself
something. Other times I might spend the day in p.j.’s or go out to eat or get
take out (I’m not a fan of cooking).
That is
a birthday I do remember.
I’ve
followed that personal tradition ever since even though I’ve made some modifications.
The biggest one was changing how I counted my days. My birthday is in November
so initially I kept my celebrating within the calendar year counting back from
December 31st. As I approached mid-October, that decision didn’t
feel right so after agonizing (yes, my friends will tell you it wasn’t an easy
decision for me), I now start on November 1st and move forward, into
the next year.
If I live to be 102, which is
my goal, I’ll be celebrating into February!
What do you do that’s special
on your birthday? You
just might have a way of celebrating the anniversary of your coming into this
world that I can add to my list.
You can
find all of my books at your favorite e-book vendor. Be sure to ask your local
library if you’d prefer to read my books through that resource.
© 2020 Judith Ashley
12 comments:
I remember when the blog was first brainstormed. We were all at a local writer's conference. It was an exciting launch! I've enjoyed reading it throughout the years. Happy Blog Birthday! (P.S. How I celebrate my birthday is by remembering myself in some way. It could be a journal, a visit to the art museum, or even Christmas shopping because my birthday is after Thanksgiving. Always, I top off my own special me celebration with a delicious slice of gourmet cake).
JUdith - wonderful post! For my 50th birthday I had a similar idea, only I celebrated 50 hours for 50 years. For 50 hours my husband and family had to do whatever I asked!! and I kept tabs. If they spent 2 hours cleaning the garage, I tagged it. The best part of the experience was that we did everything together! Happy birthday to you and Happy anniversary to Romancing the Genres.Here's to another 10, 20, 30 ....fabulous years. I'm so honored to be a blogger for you!
Vonnie, I'm a firm believer in taking charge of our own happiness. Waiting, wishing hoping friends and family will do what we want to celebrate our birthdays doesn't always work. A simple example: I'm a pie lover and my family loves cake so until I spoke up, I got a birthday cake. When I made my preference known, from then on I got a pie ... usually chocolate cream with whipped cream topping but sometimes an ice cream pie from Basking & Robbins.
Peggy, love the idea of 50 hours doing whatever you asked! That would be a bit hard for me now as I live alone and I'm old enough I'd get over 72 hours of labor. What I do get, usually starting with my youngest granddaughter are phone calls of Happy Birthday Songs. Even with the calls that lack in tonal quality the love comes through loud and clear.
We are delighted to have you as a Genre-ista. And, my notes tell me you will be hosting tomorrow's Blog-Versation focused on Indie Bookstores. I'm looking forward to sharing my favorite indie store with you and everyone else who stops by.
Happy birthday, RTG! And thanks to Judith and Sarah for keeping it going all these years!
I don't do anything very original on my birthday, but it always involves loved ones and Mexican food.
Lynn, many of my birthday meals involve Mexican because it's one of my favorites and we've some excellent Mexican restaurants nearby.
And, Thank You for hanging with us since 2013!
Great post, Judith! I haven't developed a birthday tradition, other than the old fashioned oone of cakee and ixe cream - althoough nowadays the cake is gluten-free and the ice cream is lactose-free.
Sarah, I've found over the years I'd rather do without than substitute some of the altered foods. I'm sure my stance would be different if I was starving but at this point, if I can't have "the real thing" then I'd rather go without. And as I'm lactose sensitive my dairy intake is severely limited. Bottom line what's important is that we do celebrate ourselves however works best for us.
Happy 10th. I am honored to be a part of this wonderful, diverse blog. Loved the way you celebrated your 50th birthday, Judith. It's given me some great ideas. The older I get the more self indulgent I've become, but I do make a point of trying to do one mice thing a day for someone and at times complete strangers.
Marcia, looking back on my life, I wish I'd started before my 50th. Now with less than a quarter of a century before my 100th, I'm grateful I started when I did.
Is your practice of one nice thing for a stranger or someone you know on your birthday only? I find I do that more often between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's such a hard time for so many people. One of my favorite things is to pay for the groceries of the person ahead of me.
We are thankful you've stuck with us, Marcia. You've some great ideas that both Sarah and I have tried out. Next up will be a Genre-ista Happy Hour!
Celebrating is so much better when shared with others.
Happy Birthday RTG! It's a rare blog that is still going strong 9 years later. Huge congrats!!!
I like your idea of celebrating how many days for the years of life. Although for me to celebrate for more than a few days would be way too exhausting. However, 9 days for Genre-istas is well worth it.
Enjoy!
Maggie, the way I do it, it's not exhausting because one of my gifts is to not do anything. I like the idea of RTG celebrating for 9 days. That might work into more of a 9 Happy Hours so we can include everyone from Australia to the UK.
Post a Comment