My birthday is the day after Halloween. That timing made for some awesome birthday parties when I was little. Now that I’m a grown-up, I’m just not into celebrating with costume-themed sleepovers and the like. But that doesn’t mean my birthday doesn’t still have candy as its centerpiece.
Today is my birthday. I spent it teaching a half-day writing intensive focused on strategies for developing a youthful narrative sensibility in your YA and MG fiction. There were 36 writers in the class, and each one surprised me by bringing a chocolate treat. They filled a basket and a glass vase to overflowing. And then they served homemade chocolate cake. What fun! I reciprocated b
y making them work hard on individual writing exercises. Because that’s the kind of editor I am. The book comes first!
My boys’ eyes bugged out when they saw my sweet loot. I was gleeful: Mama’s birthday loot totally kicked their trick-or-treat candy butts. Take that!
To cap off the day, the boys joined me on an evening birthday walk. Being the day after Halloween, we played “Guess which brand of candy will be the next piece of litter.” After much excitement (Crunch Bar wrappers were by far the most common!), we vowed to take another walk tomorrow, heading in a new direction. Only next time, we’ll bring a trash bag.
