My Life and Numbers

Hi, I’m Judith Ashley, author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series, soul nourishing romantic women’s fiction with light paranormal elements. My stories show you what life could be like if you had a place like The Circle where you are unconditionally accepted, supported and loved. And where, with this support, you make choices to overcome the darkest nights and choose love and light.

I’m writing this post on my son’s 60^th birthday. At the time, it was not my favorite day. Sixty years ago I’d been in labor about 30 hours and I still had 3+ more to go. When you read this, my son will be 60 years and 2 days old. We will have celebrated with his favorite meal from the nearby Chinese restaurant and he’ll have spent time with his daughters and grandchildren on Zoom. Oh, and he’ll have a store of his favorite snack - shelled pistachios!

My comments on Ann Chaney’s Wednesday post are about numbers that consistently show up in my life: 2, 4, 8 and I’ll add to that 19 (both my dad and I were born on that day).

Actually I’ve lived long enough and have had a varied enough career that I can think of something special that is attached to just about any number.

Here are a few:

Children - 1

Grands and Great Grans - 2 of each

Siblings – 2 although only 1 is still alive

Best Birthday Ever! – my 80^th – my 3 circle sisters treated me to a long weekend at the Oregon Coast

Number of years I’ve lived in my house – 47

Number of moves before I bought my house – too many to keep track

Number of years I’ve been officially involved in the work of Dr. William Glasser – 45

Number of home studies I’ve written for adoption families - 300+ home over almost 30 years

I’m also a published author.

Published:

8 fictions novels (The Sacred Women’s Circle series and Visions of Happiness)

1 non-fiction (Staying Sane in a Crazy World)

Website:

This, my 3^rd one, is my favorite.

What I realize in writing this is that there are many areas of my life where I’ve not kept track of how often or how many. I know I’ve made virtual friends around the world through writing and Romancing The Genres.

I’ve written numerous blog posts. My rough guess is I’m well over 200. Not sure I've reached 300 yet.

I also know that most of the above would not have been possible without my very best friend, Michele. 

None of the Glasser work would have been possible without my friend, Marty. 

None of my writing adventures would have been possible without the support of Maggie Lynch, Paty Jager and the other authors at Windtree Press.

And as for being here celebrating Romancing The Genres’ 12^th Blog-O-Versary? Well, without Co-BQ (Blog Queen) Sarah McDermed, there wouldn’t even be an RTG.

Do share our celebration by signing up for our Mega-Giveaway drawing. The link is at the top of the page. You’ll be added to the mailing lists of the Genre-istas who have contributed to the Giveaway. Do give them a chance before you unsubscribe.

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.

Learn more about Judith's The Sacred Women’s Circle series at JudithAshleyRomance.com

Check out Judith’s Windtree Press author page.

You can also find Judith on FB! 

© 2023 Judith Ashley

The World Turns #equinox #astronomy #planets

Hi, I'm Pippa Jay, author of scifi and supernatural stories to engage your emotions. And this month's topic is Celebrating Equinox-Changing Seasons

My older son was born on the 22nd of September, not only sharing his birthday with Bilbo and Frodo Baggins of The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings fame, but also often with the autumn equinox (for definite this year). My younger son was born close to the spring equinox. Midsummer has always been something I marked each year, and at one stage I regularly organised an online event during the summer solstice for an author group. The winter solstice is close to Christmas, and while I don't like that one so much at least I know once past it the days are getting longer again (even if it doesn't get much warmer for a while *shivers*).

As a scientist, I know an equinox is...

"...the moment in which the plane of Earth's equator passes through the center of the Sun, which occurs twice each year..."
Wikipedia

It's when night and day are of approximately equal lengths, and the name itself comes from aequus ( Latin for 'equal') and nox (meaning night). Equinoxes and solstices are directly connected to the seasons of the year - here in the UK, the March equinox marks the start of spring (autumn for our antipodal friends), and September the autumn one. For some cultures, the spring equinox marks the start of the new year instead, and various events are linked to them, such as Harvest Festivals. I love the spring equinox best as it means we're coming out of winter (whether or not the British weather completely agrees), so goodbye to the deep cold, and short, grey days (phew). But as I get older, I seem to see or feel the change in the seasons more than I used to.

And it's something I've included in my stories. One thing that would be constant to any alien planets we might one day travel to (providing they have a significant tilt to their axis - of course, there are always going to be exceptions) are equinoxes and solstices. Where the length of days and nights, and even of seasons will differ from world to world, equinox and solstice may be the only relatable date and possibly the only events shared between different planets. When I was struggling to write a Christmas scifi romance, I went back to basics. Once upon a time we celebrated the winter solstice before Christianity came along. So in my winter planet SFR, my characters celebrate the equinoxes and solstices instead, and just happen to arrive on an ice planet as the winter solstice arrives. Only it's not much to celebrate this time around...

At least while I'm not so fond of the autumn equinox as it leads into winter, I have the birth of my oldest son to celebrate. It takes some of the edge off it. :P

Transitions and Birthdays



Judith Ashley

With nothing coming to mind, I asked my granddaughter what ideas she had for my September post. She suggested I write about living with a teenager. I went to bed with that thought in mind and woke with another idea that includes living with a teenager.

Marking the Seasons/Transitions is the suggested topic for this month. When I woke, what was on my mind was Birthdays. And, this summer was full of special birthdays.

June: My youngest granddaughter’s birth month. Her 16th! It seemed to me that every day of the month we did something related to her birthday. Preparations included a mani/pedi, hair trimmed, and a massage. On her special day she had a professional photo shoot and included several of her friends; pizza party and sleepover. The next morning was breakfast out. Then Sunday was a combination birthday and Father’s Day BBQ with 30 people spending time with her including people she hadn’t seen in 10 years! Before the month was over, we had dinner at The Olive Garden, one of her favorite restaurants.

My aunt and cousin

July: My maternal aunt’s 103^rd birthday celebration was enough of an incentive to get me on a plane to Long Beach, CA. I spent 3 days with family – most of one day with my aunt. We reminisced about the past and talked of the present. Her philosophy is to take one day at a time. She and another friend of mine who reached 100 years of age have a similar life philosophy…they don’t stress out about things over which they have no control and they are good at discerning what’s what.

Best Friend

August: My aunt’s daughter i.e. my cousin and two best friends celebrate birthdays this month. I was able to pre-celebrate my cousin’s day with dinner out and then a ‘happy birthday’ call on The Day. I was called in to work unexpected on one of my friend’s birthday so spaced that off. She got a long, apologetic email from me several days later. Good friend that she is and because she celebrates The Month of her birthday I was absolved of any wrong doing. Two days ago I called my other friend to wish her a Happy Birthday. As we were talking I was reminded that my previous calls with her during August were to inform her of the death of one of our colleagues. We’ve reached that stage/age in life where that is a common occurrence.

In looking at my summer, I started it with a celebration of youth and the joys and tribulations of living through the teen years and ended it with a celebration of a long (40+ year) friendship and the thought that we don’t have another 40 years ahead.

You can visit me at www.JudithAshley.blogspot.com for more about my Long Beach, California trip and family connections. And, you’ve a standing invitation to check out my website at www.JudithAshleyRomance.com

September our guests are all Western Romance Authors. If you live in North America and leave a comment with your email address, you may win Linda Lael Miller’s Big Sky Country. Don’t tell anyone but I bought a second copy and only noticed it when I pulled the book from my TBR pile – thought that other cover looked familiar! LOL

© Judith Ashley 2012

Twelve Pairs of Gloves

Twelve Pairs of Gloves

As I was perusing information on Leap Year, I came across some really interesting tidbits of information about this extra calendar day.

Leap Day is in February because February used to be the last month of the year.

According to an old 5th century Irish legend, St. Bridget petitioned St. Patrick to allow women to propose to men every four years. Thus balancing the traditional roles of men and women much like Leap Day balances the traditional calendar year.

In America we have Sadie Hawkins day dances where the girl asks the guy to be her date, and it is generally celebrated in Leap Year.

In Scotland it is considered bad luck to be born on Leap Day. 1288 Scotland passed a law that allowed women to propose to men during Leap Year. Any man who declined had to pay a fine, which could be anything from a kiss to a new silk dress.

In Denmark the old Leap Year tradition goes, if the woman proposes and the gent declines he owes her twelve pairs of gloves. One pair for each month to hide the fact she is not wearing an engagement ring.

Greece considers it unlucky to marry in a Leap Year, and especially on Leap Day.

The Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies is an organization for persons born on Leap Day.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, there is a family who produced three consecutive generations born on February 29 and there are different records of children in the same families all born on February 29th..

As a writer, I can see many, many story ideas embedded in these fun facts. I personally don’t know anyone born on February 29th. I have a friend whose husband and their first daughter were both born on Valentine's Day.

Do you know anyone with a birthday on February 29th? Or a family whose birthdays fall on the same day?