When I was 45 ...

Yes, it's my Birthday Blog Post, in which, every year, I look back with a critical eye on my life and check whether I need a kick in the ass or should just give in and collect my coffin.

When I was 45, for the first time ...

• I was invited to drinkies at the House of Lords
• I was propositioned in the street (very politely, in fact), on the way to an exhibition - the Naked Muse - where I bought a picture
• I went to Camden Market, probably the coolest place in Britain.
• I had three new books published (all in the space of a few months. Publishers - What are they like?): Heart of Flame, Red Grow the Roses, and Named and Shamed

• I saw geek-god Alan Moore live! And Jonathan Coulton! My nerd apotheosis...
• I wore a cheap-n-slutty glow-in-the dark minidress to a blacklight party
• I reported someone on Facebook for abusive language
• I visited Florence, Barcelona and Ravenna.
• I saw Mumford and Sons in concert!!!

• I crawled around an Etruscan necropolis. Two, actually!
• I went by motorhome all the way from from Italy to England, and right through the Alps in a tunnel.
• I ate samphire (salty).
• I swam in a freshwater lake (in Italy).

• I got my PADI open water scubadiving certification.
• I saw Mathilda, and Stomp, and Jesus Christ Superstar, all live.
• I appeared in a national newspaper - the Express.
• My name was mentioned in The Bookseller, on BBC Online, and ... by the Canadian Broadcasting Company!
• I backed something on Kickstarter. It still hasn't turned up.
• I co-edited the fiction for Geek Love, which is just the coolest anthology ever, and the highest-backed fiction project on Kickstarter. I found I rather like editing other people's work, mostly because I am mean.

• I was headhunted and contracted to write the first volume of The Book of the Watchers for Cleis.
• I went to Eroticon 2012, which was great but exhausting. Still not sure I can cope with 2 days in 2013!
• I had 10 short stories published. I'm definitely not going to manage that many next year!
• I went to a burlesque show.
• I slept in a yurt (I say slept ...), and watched the stars through the roof hole while possibly not entirely free of the influence of mind-altering substances. My hippy weekend.

• I went to the London Book Fair and hung out with the editors of Samhain and Ellora's Cave (No, not at the same time. Hell would freeze over first, I suspect).
• I got my kit off and posed butt-naked for photographs that'll appear in public. In Geek Love, in case you were wondering.

Other firsts ... Heh. Not telling!
So: 45 was the year of sex, drugs and ... folk music.
And geeks.

I'm definitely not dead yet :-)