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
