First Friday: The Crew celebrates Anniversaries!

Happy September GLIAS friends! All year long each of us celebrates many milestones, and they are so meaningful. Some celebrations are for all of us to share: Independence Day, holidays, remembrances of good things and bad. Some celebrations are personal: birthdays, anniversaries, good health goals. Today the crew wants to know what you celebrate every year--what makes your life special, memorable, or poignant?

LIZBETH SELVIG
Today, September 7th is my wedding anniversary and this year marks the 44th year of being married to the most amazing guy, Jan Selvig--a liberated, good man; a role model; a smart human being; and my best friend. What's special about "us" is that we met when I was 15 and he was 19--a very scandalous age difference as far as friends, family, and friends' families were concerned! I married Jan one month after I turned 19 and although I know few people thought we'd make it, we beat the odds! Since that September day in 1974 we've watched two amazing children grow, have had so many travel adventures,
spent too much money, eaten (probably too much) good food :-P and are now enjoying the most beautiful grandkids on the planet!! I rave on because without all this I would not be the person I am. I certainly would not be the writer I am--since Jan is a part of every hero I write. He definitely makes every September a month to celebrate--I hope for at least 44 more years!!

I'm throwing us back to my very first series: Love From Kennison Falls. If you go check it out--these are stories of my heart and you can truly see the influence all my anniversaries have had on my idea of a hero!!

LOVE FROM KENNISON FALLS

ANGI MORGAN:

Oh gosh. I have to be honest that most of my anniversaries fall on a date my husband is out of town. But we do celebrate our wedding anniversary. Normally with a special trip (but sometimes those trips are in September instead of June). This year was number 29 for us. We actually ended our 17-day-4200-mile-trip on our anniversary.

My latest book, RANGER GUARDIAN, is about a couple. The anniversary theey're looking forward to is their daughter's fourth birthday.

AVRIL TREMAYNE:
I’m not so good at celebrating anniversaries. One memorable year on my wedding anniversary, my husband and I were out at a café having our morning cappuccino, when he checked his diary and saw a booking for one of Sydney’s best restaurants that night. We both wondered why, and it wasn’t for quite some time that we realized the significance of the date! It’s still not a certainty that either or both of us will remember that date, although we do try hard. I’m like that with all special dates. For example, many authors will reminisce about the day/night they got “the call” telling them their first book had been accepted by a publisher. Not me – although I dearly wish I did remember it because it was a momentous occasion! But I have better luck remembering the day my first book was published – July 1 2014, Here Comes the Bridesmaid. That story remains the book of my heart, not only because it was my first, but because the story poured out of me quite effortlessly; it was as though the many things I’d read and lessons I’d learned about writing came together in one burst and delivered the manuscript by magic.

Click on the cover if you'd like to read the beginning...


AMANDA MCINTYRE
 Milestones…there are a great many in my life. The good, the bad, and the ugly…but each one has crafted me into the person I am today. This year marked our 40^th wedding anniversary. High school sweethearts, we have navigated our journey with

High school prom. Mark & me in center.

a little swagger and a lot of grace. The result are four amazing children and as of seventeen months ago on April 1st, our precious grandson 😉

His birth was another biggie milestone for me. I adored my grandmother and I think from a very early age I wanted to be a grandma, possibly before I wanted to even be a mom. (logistical time warp, I realize) I remember a couple of years after my oldest son married, I was visiting Otis at the Bottom of the Teacup. (one of New Orleans oldest and most famous tea rooms.) He told me then, that in a couple of years he saw a “rambunctious little boy” in my life. He couldn’t have pegged our grandson any better!

Other milestones…my first print published book. I had just picked up my twin sons from kindergarten and handed them the book as we were driving home. From the back seat one of them (admittedly I can’t remember now which) says out loud, “Mommy, your story is on page 68!” My family has always been my greatest support in my writing journey. I couldn’t do it without them.

That first agent. The “call” from a big publisher. The first time I met Heather Graham. My first romance conference. The first time a reader recognized me and said she loved my books (THAT is still a humbling/terrifyingly wonderful experience!!) My daughter’s face the first time she experienced Disney. Watching your kids’ reach their milestones….so many and so many more to come! It’s a grand adventure to be sure!

One of the reasons I began writing was/and is my belief that love will always find a way. Even in my darkest hour (and there have been a few) putting one foot in front of the other, having faith and believing in the power of love has gotten me through. It’s a common thread you will see in all of my writing. My latest work in progress is not exception. In the next installment (long overdue) of my Last Hope Ranch series love offers a broken past a second chance. WORTH THE WAIT releases this fall. Click here to read an excerpt…

JACQUI NELSON 

The only thing I can think of that I celebrate every year are…birthdays!

It’s a bit daunting when the years fly by—and add another candle on the cake, but my family always seems to have fun with birthdays. I searched my photos for pictures and (although we usually take a lot of them on birthdays), I had trouble finding any for my birthday...until I came across this one from my 42nd birthday (a few * cough * years ago; okay more than a few). We ran out of candles and had to improvise. The 411 represented 42. 

This photo with presents, balloons, and a handmade card from my nephew (showing me working on my writing computer) was from the same year. You can't see the writing on the white birthday card envelop (on the table underneath a stick of black licorice tied in a red ribbon), but it was from my mom and says “celebrate, you’re almost halfway there.”

My mom's humor always made life lively and different and memorable. Maybe I’m a bit like her (or at least I hope I am) because rather than a traditional cake, I like pies or cheesecakes for my birthday. Thus the pumpkin pie in the first photo.

Please tell us about YOUR special anniversary
--whatever it is! And all of us here wish you another whole year of amazing and heartfelt celebrations!