Thursday, March 27, 2008

Low-Key Celebration

I celebrated a birthday this week. It wasn’t a milestone, and I initially celebrated alone since my husband was helping my younger son move, and my older son lives even farther away from L.A. Only a few of my friends knew it was my birthday, and I didn’t go out of my way to ask anyone to sympathize with me.

But as it turns out, it’ll be a longer celebration than usual. One of my longest-time friends was in town this week with her husband, and my husband and I joined them at dinner last night--plus, they brought some champagne along as a tasty gift.

Later this week, my younger son will also join us for a celebration dinner.

My festivities tend to be elongated anyway, since my family has three birthdays right in a row. My older son was my birthday present a while back, born 2 days before my birthday. My brother’s birthday is the day between ours. My sister-in-law’s is several days later.

I’ve used my time this week to work on my upcoming Silhouette Nocturne book about a Valkyrie. I also awaited comments on my seventh Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery manuscript from some critiquing friends before I polish it and send it on--most likely to be called NEVER SAY STY. Maybe my best birthday present came last week, when I was told that Kendra will be a murder magnet at least two more times, in the eighth and ninth books in her series.

In addition, I’m re-plotting another book, a legal thriller, that I’m hoping someday to actually have time to write. I enjoyed my part-time law job, as usual, on weekday mornings. And my two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Lexie and her new friend Mystie, are getting along well.

Even though this was a low-key way to celebrate, I have to say I had a pretty good birthday!


--Linda

6 comments:

Terri Thayer said...

Happy Birthday, Linda. Sounds like a lot of birthday wishes have already come true. Here's to many, many more.

Kathryn Lilley said...

Happy Birthday! Hope you have a wonderful year!

Allison said...

Happy Belated Birthday! I hope all of your celebrations are fun, and that you get all you wish for.
(Mine was yesterday, and was very low-key as well)

Annette said...

Happy Birthday and Congratulations Linda. Two more Kendra books is good news.

Linda O. Johnston said...

Thanks for the birthday wishes and other nice thoughts. And a belated Happy Birthday to you, too, Allison!
--Linda

Linda O. Johnston said...

Thanks, Nicole! And thanks to all of you. I'm not sure my prior comment was clear enough that I appreciate everyone's good wishes.
This is apparently a popular week for birthdays. I met two more people today whose birthdays were also this week: a visitor to L.A. from Vancouver, Canada, and a friend of another member of Mystery Writers of America, SoCal Chapter, who went to an L.A. Mexican restaurant, El Cholo, for a get-together Thursday evening.
--Linda