It's My Birthday - and YOU can Score Some Gifts!

I'm a little late in posting this due to some personal matters requiring my attention. Read on to see some of what's going on – and how you can score some gifts!

It's the official first day of Summer, and even better, it's my birthday today! The year I was born, June 20 actually fell the day before Father's Day, so my arrival was a gift for my dad, who  became a dad for the first time that year, (No, I am absolutely NOT going to give a clue as to when that occurred! LOL!).  Another factoid – my younger sister was born the day before Dad's birthday, so we were both "presents."

Being that I was born right as Summer began, it also makes sense that is my favorite season. There are a few reasons for that – as a kid, a big one was the fact that my birthday always coincided with the last few days of school. Think about it, what are the two most important days in any kid's life? Birthday and the last day of school! There were some years that the last day actually fell on my birthday – does it get any better than that? Lol

A while ago, I realized another factor played into my love of Summer. It's something I've paid more attention to over the last few years, (though of course there are always exceptions) and it's that people's favorite season tends to be the one they were born in. Sort of makes sense to me. I always say I'm going to look more deeply into a possible link, because I think I can use that theory in some way, shape or form in some upcoming book (well, at least on the ever-growing list of the ideas, anyway).  But it could play heavily into many of my books, especially the paranormal, though even the historical settings of my books could use the idea as an added layer to the world and characters.

Of course, the excitement over my birthday is a lot different now. I don't mind. It's still awesome to be the recipient of good wishes and such. But the fact is, it's not as big a deal as it used to be. The world and all the obligations keep turning, and work and responsibilities still need attention. Now, however, what I really find interesting about my birthday is all the different people who share it, or the events that took place on that day.

Errol Flynn 1909 - Actor
Olympia Dukakis 1931 - Actress
Danny Aiello (Daniel Louis "Danny" Aiello, Jr.) 1933 - Actor
Brian Wilson 1942 – Musician, Beach Boys
Bob Vila 1946 - Television host ("This Old House")
Tina Sinatra 1948 - Producer, actress, second daughter of Frank Sinatra
Lionel Richie 1949 - Singer, musician
John Goodman 1952 - Actor
Michael Anthony 1954 – Musician, Van Halen
John Taylor 1960 – Musician, Duran Duran
Nicole Kidman 1967 - Actress

That's some fine company to be in! And check out a few notable events from this day:

1782 - The US Congress approved the Great Seal of the United States.
1791 - King Louis XVI of France was captured while attempting to flee the country

1793 - Eli Whitney applied for a cotton gin patent. He received the patent on March 14.

1837 - Queen Victoria ascended the British throne.
1863 – West Virginia became the 35th state to join the US.
1910 - Fanny Brice debuted in the New York production of the "Ziegfeld Follies".
1947 - Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was murdered in Beverly Hills, on order of mob associates angered over the costs of his project, the Flamingo resort in Las Vegas.
1948 - "Toast of the Town" debuted on CBS, hosted by Ed Sullivan.

There's a lot more, but those were just some fun facts I stumbled across, while researching for various books.

And, as much as I do love Summer, there are pitfalls – the sorts of things that never occurred to me as kid. Would not have been in the universe of my imagination back then! lol The biggest problem - productivity falls way down. While there's Summer camp, it includes all sorts of extra activities – or at least driving to those activities. Family vacation is way more than its week or so away – never mind the pre-planning. Vacation is bookended by laundry and shopping and packing and unpacking. The next thing you know, it's time to bring DD back to college and prep the Little Guy for middle school. It goes fast – way too fast, if you ask me.

So what I plan with this post is to give some of you a chance to slow down the craziness of Summer – curl up with a good book, on me! That's right, for my birthday, I'm giving away presents – two people who comment will be randomly selected to win a $20 Amazon gift card, a copy of any of my titles, and some fun goodies to go along with it.

So tell me, what's your favorite part of Summer?

Changing of the Seasons

Not really a complete change though – technically the cooler fall weather and the leaves turning won't really start for a few more weeks around here. But summer vacation is ending, school is starting in a few days, so to me that signals the change. And I'm hoping it will bring a little more order to our little corner of the world.

It's been a busy and eventful summer. On the home front, I can now honestly say I can't wait for my daughter to get her driver's license. The chauffeuring gets old fast, and somehow she had somewhere to go nearly every night. Much easier when her friends come over here, but that brings its own set of dilemmas. At least now, I can say no to Tuesday night guests and not be made to feel like I'm the evil stepmother in Snow White!

I turned a lot of my focus toward revising my next vampire story, The Night Club. It's just about finished - I'm still doing some final revisions and adding a couple new scenes and just trying to get everything clean and logical. Which got me thinking ahead to my next vampire book. I actually began sketching it out. Just jotting down some ideas of what I think should happen, no real writing. Yet. You may remember Josh and Sophie from The Taste of Magic – well, they have their own tale to tell. So I started my spreadsheet for their story.

In the midst of that, I also began the sequel to Warrior's Vengeance. Rowan Langley is the hero in Warrior's Wrath, and if you read WV, you know him as Marissa's brother. He learns a few things about himself that turn him very angry and bitter. This doesn't bode well for the heroine, Aeron, a Welsh woman who steals from him. I'm having lots of fun getting this first draft down, and hopefully will complete it quickly. At the rate I'm going, there's actually a good chance of that.

I'm also doing some minor work on the sequel to Prince of the Universe. I had lost my fire for that story a couple months ago, but it's back. Christina and Reygar's story is a bit more difficult to pinpoint. I'm focusing on world building at this point, and making my usual lists - these are of various cultural customs and societal norms. With each one that becomes clear, the trouble between the Aldarran and "Earth Woman" gets stronger. This book will be set entirely on the planet of Aldarra – and civilization on that planet is very different from Earth's.

Lots of irons in the fire, which is kind of crazy, considering the insanity and chaos of the rest of my life. But my mind just works that way – I suppose because I'm a Gemini and there are way more than two of me in here! :D Each part of me wants to be focused on something, so to appease them all, I spend a little time on each planned book, at least so when I finish the two I'm neck deep in, I'll have at least two more to get to work on. The madness keeps me focused – I get 2 to 2 ½ hours a night to write, so I've been trying to use it wisely. With school starting, I may even gain another hour – no more kids staying up late because they don't have to get up in the morning! It's really hard to concentrate on medieval England when Mario's in the background trying to save the Princess!