Best Advancing of Another Year Ever

Normally birthdays are just another day. In my family, we didn’t focus on birthdays too much. Sure they were celebrated, but not with the same kind of fanfare that I saw sometimes in other families. Even the big ones like 16, 21, 25, 30, 40, and gasp 50, seemed to come and go with relatively little notice. Big holidays in our family were Thanksgiving and Christmas because it was all about family and food. Hey, I’m Italian so it’s always all about the food.

Yesterday I turned 56 and for some reason getting a year older has never really bothered me. My wife had a wonderful day planned for me and because it was jam packed, I got up at 5:15am to work out. As I was furiously responding to all my birthday wishes while the sweat dripped all over my iPad and left salty remnants, I had to look at my Amazon rank. I have serious OCD. Asset Management was 27 in Lesbian Fiction and Lesbian Romance which seem to often be one in the same as far as the ranking goes. I nearly fainted off the bike. For those of you who’ve written multiple best sellers, or others who had a best seller right from the start, I’m sure this is old hat. However, for this green writer who often wonders whether I’m any good, it was thrilling. I also received another gift after receiving a message that another 5 star review was posted. I now have seven reviews and they are all 5 stars. Thrilling for me.

The second big thrill was all the birthday wishes I received on my timeline. Some of them had wonderful personal messages about how much they liked my book. Again, this was so exhilarating to hear and I really appreciated the feedback.

My wife and I traveled into Seattle so I could get my hair cut and then ventured on to the Anacortes Arts Festival. Since we tend to go crazy buying all kinds of shit that we don’t need, we agreed on a one hundred dollar limit for each of us. My wife always negotiates for additional amounts for household items that don’t count in the individual one hundred (so the over hundred dollars of handmade soap did not count).

After traveling up and down the very extensive isles, I could tell that my wife coveted this Buddha face that you place in a garden. She has one already, but wanted another for a new space next to the tree she planted for my mother. Unfortunately, it was over the one hundred dollar limit. I told her that I didn’t see anything I absolutely could not live without, so I gifted her my budgeted limit. She got her Buddha face and I got her beautiful smile. I’d say I got the better deal.

With our booty safely tucked away in the car, we headed to the Port stage to watch my nephew play in his band called MachOne. They were so much fun. I am so proud of my very handsome and talented nephew. See for yourself. I took a video, but wasn’t able to include in this blog (look for the video on Facebook). Isn’t he adorable?

We left the fair and headed to our favorite Sushi restaurant. I love this place so much that I featured it in my first book, Love Forever, Live Forever. Sometimes I make up things in my book, but more often than not I put real places in my novels. If you are ever in the Seattle area, travel a few miles up North to Sushi Zen in Mill Creek. I swear you will not be disappointed. The food was great and she would not let us pay because it was my birthday. I tried to argue with her, but she would not take our money. Such a wonderful gift, because I swear my wife and I can pound down more Sushi that anyone I know.

The owner of Sushi Zen made a special trip to our home in the country to cater our wedding and everyone raved about the food-declaring it was the best food they’d ever had. Our house is ten miles from the only grocery store in a town of 2,000, so the description of living in the boonies is an understatement. I’m sure that it was a huge hassle to cater our wedding, but she agreed and has also agreed to another catering for a board meeting we are hosting at our house next weekend.

Kimiko is a beautiful human being, so I also had to feature her in my book, Asset Management. I used her name for a minor character that may make an appearance in the sequel.

I ended my day answering all the wonderful birthday posts and all I can say is WOW, I’ve never had to thank so many people.

Before I bore you to death with this blog, I’ll just leave you with my heartfelt thanks and of course the required information on how to get my books in case you haven’t already!

Check out the Affinity site because there are incredible books there. http://affinityebooks.com/ There are several free short stories that you can download. I have two. The True Story of Valentines Day and The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Elves in Love. Both are kind of campy, but hey they’re free!

In case anyone is interested…here is a link to the first chapter of my new book, Asset Management: First Chapter of Asset Management,. My first novel, Love Forever, Live Forever, is available in both e-book and print format. Links below will get you to all the places you can purchase the book. Keep scrolling down for the links to Asset Management. Thanks for supporting a new writer!!

Amazon Affinity E-Book Press Smashwords Barnes and Noble Bella Books