Birthday Bash Guest: Author Christine Ashworth + A Giveaway

Hi friends! Yes! We’re in to June! Summer is almost here up North, and … O_O winter is approaching in the South. [Way north, way south.] As you see we have another first time guest to ALBTALBS, Christine Ashworth!!!  She, like Nicole, was kind enough to volunteer to host a giveaway for all of you! (Thank you Christine!) She’s even got the question and everything, so I’ll leave her to it! <3

Birthday Thoughts – Past, Present, and Future

Happy Birthday, Lime!

When I was young, birthdays were magical from the minute I woke up to the minute I fell asleep at night. There was the excitement of cake (always from a bakery), and presents, and friends who came over for parties. I was given my favorite breakfast and my favorite dinner, and all in all life was all about me. My mother made sure of it.

And then I grew up, and suddenly my birthday became, by and large, just another day.

Not that my husband and sons don’t make an effort to celebrate me; they do. For a while, my birthday month (February) would be the month my husband and I would take a trip. Three of the four times we’ve been to Europe and Britain, we went on or around my birthday. Cruises, too.

But the last few years, life kept getting in the way. My career. His career. Deadlines, family, work and health issues all combined to make my birthday fairly low key. Until this year.

I had signed up for a conference last summer that was supposed to take place over my birthday weekend in Atlanta. My husband was dismayed, as this was the first birthday in many, many years we would spend apart, but I was looking forward to seeing my friends and having that conference vibe.

Then the conference got canceled, about a month beforehand, because not enough people signed up. I was devastated. I hadn’t realized how desperately I had looked forward to being with my writer and reader people. I canceled my hotel reservation, but decided to keep the plane ticket.

I had friends in Atlanta. When I was offered a place to stay for the week, I jumped at it. I decided to be extremely selfish and take the time away for myself.

Friends, it was awesome. I had the luxury of giggling with girlfriends, seeing people I hadn’t seen in a year, meeting new people, shopping at new places, and experiencing the coziness of someone else’s home, of feeling part of the family the minute I was gathered into their embrace at the airport.

I wasn’t expected to be a wife or a mom while I was in Atlanta. I was just a friend, a confidant, a family member who got to engage with someone else’s kids. I explored, I wrote, I grew energized by my time away. When I got home, it was with relief and gratitude that my own family were all still there. I was able to see them with new eyes and a new attitude.

I probably won’t go away over my birthday without my husband again. While it was right this time, the stars most likely won’t align just in the same way as they did this year. But that’s okay, because I have been reminded recently that birthdays are just one day in the year, and what matters is having my loved one treat me as special on regular days, and on those bad hair days, deadline crazy days, everything breaks days, boring normal days. When the person you love ends up showing you, through their daily actions, that you make their world bright…well. That beats birthday cake any day.

Thanks for reading this far…and your reward is a giveaway! That’s right. Just comment here, and one lucky reader will be chosen (via Random.org) to win all three Caine Brothers novels, plus the novella prequel, in ebook form….Demon Soul, Demon Hunt, Demon Rage, and the prequel Demon Blood will be all yours!

So tell me…what’s your favorite birthday memory?

Cheers my lovelies,

Christine

Thank you again Christine! So dear friends and readers – I want to know as well. What was your favorite birthday memory? [And as an aside, I feel compelled to note I’m the one who put in all the book covers. Christine only included one. But you know, PICTURES! And BOOKS! 😀

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