It’s my birthday! And yes, I claim my age. I’m 32. Not 29-for-the-4rd-time. Just plain ol’ 32.

Okay, okay, so I was still 31 when this picture was taken… but it’s recent. That’ll just have to do.

The funny thing is, I still feel like one of the “super young” crowd…perhaps because I’m working in an industry where I belong to the new generation. Many of my writing friends are closer to my parents’ age than mine, and as an editor, I’ve yet to work with anyone younger than me, LOL. I occasionally wonder that these awesome people take me seriously, but they do, because they’re awesome. 😉

But as another year rolls by and I spend my days working on edits for my books and delving into a new one, I find myself thinking about my characters, and where they were/will be at the same age I’m now at.

My thoughts went first to Abigail, from A Stray Drop of Blood. At 32, she had given birth to six children. Had adopted one, had lost one. When Abigail was 32, her adopted son, Samuel, was already 23. Her firstborn, Benjamin, was 17.

My kids are 8 and 6. I can’t quite imagine, in my life, having kids that are already 23 and 17! Kids who are dealing with going out into the world and making their own life, rather than building things out of blocks and coloring pictures. Abigail, at my age, was ready to be a grandmother.

In some ways, I still feel more like those kids. 😉 A modern 32 is more like that 23 or 17, compared to the Biblical days. My family is still young, my life’s work still in its infancy. I’m more like Samuel, following his calling toward a life as a healer. Like Benjamin, still finding his footing in the world.

My heroine in A Soft Breath of Wind is only 18 through most of the book (and considered well past the age when a young woman should have been married). Brook, in The Lost Heiress, is 18-19 too. Solely because those are the ages they need to be for these stories, the ages when they come into their own. The heroine I’m working on now, Lady Augusta Kinnaird of the Highlands, is 20.

Maybe it’s spending my days in the heads of these young women that makes me still feel like a youngster, LOL. Who knows. But as I set out on another year full of stories and words and history, full of designs and marketing and homeschooling, I know I’m so blessed to be where I am. So blessed to get to do what I love. So blessed to be surrounded by family.

Yep, I’m still claiming my age–and claiming that 32 is going to better than any year that’s come before. And that requires some doing. 😉