Making Wishes

[EDIT: Thanks for all the wonderful guesses. This was a lot of fun for me and hopefully some fun for you! Sorry it has taken me so long to post the winners but yesterday was extremely busy in New York. So, officially, I am 33 years old. The first three people to guess officially guess that age were Hannah, Cylver, and Midnight Princess. Email me your name and shipping address to Jocelynn DOT drake AT gmail DOT com to claim your prize.]


My monthly blog posting has managed to sneak up on me amid revisions to the sixth book in the Dark Days series and preparations for my trip to the New York Comic Con. I find myself struggling for a topic so I'm going to divulge a dark secret. Something that I have generally guarded closely from all but my closest of friends and family.

Today is my birthday. Yep, I unwittingly chose the seventh of every month to write my blog post for Supernatural Underground simply because it seemed rare for me to be traveling at that time. For some reason, all conferences and out-of-town appointments tended to fall in the middle or the end of the month. It honestly didn't occur to me that I had chosen the date of my birth to be one of my blog entries.

So, today I'm going to talk about birthday wishes. These are something that I take very seriously. Every year for as long as I can remember, my mother has baked me a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. My family gathers around and sings "Happy Birthday" as badly as possible. And trust me, they are getting really good at being really bad. And then I make a wish before blowing out the growing numbers of candles.

I look back and I remember that there were some years that I simply wished to be happy, but then those were some dark years. However, most the time, it was the same wish over and over again -- I wished to be published. Writing has been my heart and soul for so much of my life that I wished on candles, shooting stars, and pennies in a fountain that my words would one day be read by others. That's not to say that I didn't also work my butt off to also make it happen, but I like to think that all that hard wishing also helped to add a special magical aspect to it all.

Now that I've accomplished that mean feat, I have to come up with a new wish. I think I've got one, but I obviously can't share it or it may never happen. However, I will share with you an impossible wish that I have. I wish I could sit down and have a long dinner with my main characters Mira and Danaus. (Perferrably when they are both in a good mood and not fighting with each other.) Both creatures are not only something other than human, but also centuries old. I would love to hear from their mouths their thoughts on the world, humanity, and the struggles they've been through, including the people they have loved and lost. I want to hear about their dreams and fears. And for reason, something in me yearns to actually hear their laughter and see them in person as they gaze across the table at each other as they share a private joke. In them are deep layers of love and loss and desperation and hope. I only wish I could see it in person, because I think it would truly be a beautiful thing.

It may be my birthday, but I am happy to to give away the gifts. The first person to guess my correct age as of October 7, 2010 will receive a signed copy of Pray for Dawn and Wait for Dusk. To be fair, I have included a picture of myself that was taken within the last year with minimal photoshopping involved. Leave an guess of my age and a name for the entry. I will announce the winner in this blog entry as soon as I see the right age pop up. I AM TRUSTING YOU TO MAKE AN ACTUAL GUESS AND NOT TRY RESEARCHING ON THE INTERNET (AKA CHEATING). Good luck!