Everything Should be Golden

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I'm popping out a quick blog post mostly because I haven't done one in a month, and also because it's my birthday. Someone said to me the other day, "Welcome to the Golden Years." Oh my. Did you hear that, Pony Boy? I'm finally golden. I feel like I should have awakened this morning with some King Midas skills, but, alas, nothing I've touched so far has turned golden. (I've got some revising to do in a minute, so maybe it'll be a figurative talent.)

I'm 50 today. I'm not shy about that. I'm not one of those people who's all, "It's not polite to ask a lady's age." Nope. I'm fine with it.

I'm mostly fine with it.

Okay, I'm a little wobbly about it deep inside.

I'm a person who only wears makeup if I have to, so I'm not trying to hide my wrinkles. Yet, in a moment of vanity weakness the other day, I was convinced by a savvy saleswoman to buy some skin products to reduce those wrinkles. I am a woman sighs at images of the thin and wrinkle free person I was twenty-five years ago, but I'm also a woman who's pretty okay with looking the way I do now. I'm embracing it, and I'm grateful to have many friends my age or older who are excellent role models of how to be awesome in the second half of life.

My blog is mostly about revision. Yes, revision with regard to writing, but why not about everything. Sometimes we need to take a good look at our lives and see what could use a fix. Adjust this. Move that. Scratch that thing that doesn't work and replace it with something else. This is where I am in my spirit. I'm proud of my accomplishments, but I'm also ready to do more things, new things. I'm feeling like I need to be braver and challenge myself harder than I have before. Why not? I'm seriously considering writing a novel for adults next year to try a new path. I want to do more directing, because directing Steel Magnolias last summer was one the best experiences I've ever had. I want to take a real vacation next year, and I'm going to figure out a way to make it happen.
 
I'm hoping to find more readers for my books - somehow. 

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What I won't do is allow the number to rule me. To think that somehow my best days are behind me. I refuse to allow the concept of aging to bring me down. Tonight I'm spending my birthday singing and dancing in a musical of A Christmas Carol. I thought that would upset me when I got cast - doing a show on my birthday (again). Now, however, I'm really glad it's happening. It verifies everything for me, the idea that I can still do something cool and fun, something I've done and has given me great joy my whole life, and that moments like these aren't coming to an end. There are many more ahead.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave a comment. It would be super awesome if you'd take  moment to travel around my website. I've got lots of info and excerpts for all of my books. They'd make a great gift for someone on your gift list. It would also be an awfully nice birthday gift for me to see them being purchased. All the best to you, and have a lovely holiday season.

​(BTW, If you are looking for something Christmassy, I do have two fun Christmas stories based on characters from my Juniper Sawfeather Trilogy and my book No One Needed to Know in the anthology Winter Wonder. The ebook is free!)

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