HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO .....

Yesterday would have been my mother's birthday - she would have been 103 years old, had she still been with us. And it got me thinking because I have recently read three novels - one by a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, one stunningly good thriller by a writer new to that genre, and one feel-good 'summer' read - and none of them had a character having a birthday in them, even though the time spans for all but the last one were quite lengthy and surely to goodness, during the course of well over a year more than one would have had a birthday. We all have birthdays - we can't ignore them even if we would prefer not to know the numbers racking up. Birthdays can bring a subtle dynamic to life. Take, then, the experience of the son of a friend of mine. He had a birthday coming up (his thirtieth) and he also had a girlfriend with whom he had fallen out of love. But he is a good guy and he felt he couldn't dump her just yet because his mother had organized a big family lunch for him and the no-longer-loved girlfriend had been invited. So he decided to do the deed after the party. But what happened? - well, the girl, ignorant of the plan in his mind, bought tickets to Paris and booked them into a 5* hotel for a long weekend as his birthday present.He went along. So, one not-really-wanted birthday treat, one proposal (hers) and an unplanned pregnancy later, they married, then divorced. That birthday had a lot to answer for!

In fiction, I am fast coming to realize that birthdays can create a nice bit of friction. Say, for example, the hero of the piece forgets the heroine's birthday, or he buys her something he really should have worked out that she hates, or he gets her lingerie in the size worn by his former wife/girlfriend/significant other. Wouldn't that send the story off down another track? My idea of hell on earth would be a surprise party - I'm not much of a party person anyway but to have one sprung on me when I'm not wearing the right dress, or had my hair done, or my nails, or I'm in lace-up walking shoes as I walk through the door to this evening of torture, would make me want to kill whoever had organized it. It can go the other way, of course. Our hero might be a wonderful guy but strapped for ready cash so he sells his beloved car/motorbike/golf clubs/kayak/whatever to buy his heroine a present. Wouldn't that make you warm to him? Cake and candles all round!

Thinking about this post I remembered I had in fact had my heroine, Emma, celebrating a birthday in Emma: There's No Turning Back when she is given pearl earrings by her beloved Seth. The book illustrator picked up on that and drew them into the cover design. I've recently written - and submitted to a magazine - a short story called 'Birthday Girl' but I think that is the sum total of my nod to birthdays in my fiction.

I leave you with some quotes. The first is from Janet Evanovich: 'Romance novels are birthday cake and life is often peanut butter and jelly. I think everyone should have lots of delicious romance novels lying around for those times when the peanut butter of life gets stuck to the roof of your mouth.' And this from John Glenn: 'There is still no cure for the common birthday.'