Celebrating Birthdays

I’m  writing this away from home. I’m visiting a special friend and staying in her lovely cottage by the sea in the English Lake District. My friend is fellow Presents author, Michelle Reid, and the reason why I’m here is because we are celebrating our birthdays together.

When I first met Michelle, 15 years or so ago, we ‘clicked’ at once. It seemed like it was only a couple of minutes before we were chatting as if we were already old friends and she’s been an important part of my life ever since. The fact that we both write for the same Harlequin line (the best line, we would both say!} has something to do with it, but we are also very close in many other ways. One of these is the fact that we look very similar, and can almost be taken for sisters, another is that our birthdays are just 3 days apart. Which means that we are both stubborn Taureans with our birthdays in the first week of May.

Writing and family commitments meant that we couldn’t get together on the actual days last week,  but our birthday ‘treat’ to ourselves has been to promise ourselves this weekend together to celebrate. It’s a great feeling getting together with someone I like and admire so much. I loved Michelle’s Presents books long before I ever met  her – I remember that one of the first things we talked about was her book Passionate Scandal, and my own Shattered Mirror. So last night we spent the evening just talking and talking. About books, writing, heroes, heroines, life in general – and more books and more writing! Luckily our real-life heroes, our husbands, also get on really well together and they didn’t mind  that we were so absorbed.

And it’s a wonderful way to celebrate  our birthdays. One of the best gifts we can give and share . This is a milestone birthday for me but there’s really no thing that I specially want. But there are great experiences I want to enjoy. Last weekend I spent with my family, husband, son, son’s partner, this weekend I’m with a special friend and it’s fabulous. The sun is even shining which, believe me, after the rain and cold of the past week, is something else to celebrate.

And as anyone who knows me knows, when I’m celebrating, I love to share. So I have some copies of my backlist titles to give away to anyone who posts a comment on this post today. (I’ll get Sid the Cat on the job of picking the winners of course.) Tell me, if you were celebrating your birthday – or perhaps if you actually are – who would you love to share your special day with? Real or fictional? We’ll take family as read  – we’d all love to celebrate with them – but who else would you like to share your special day?

Tagged as: Kate Walker, Kate's Corner, Michelle Reid