Obligatory Birthday Post

Source: Pink Cake Box

The thing about being a night owl (I go to sleep around 5am) is that you always see midnight go by. Which can mean awkwardly welcoming in your birthday. This year, for my 25th birthday, I did absolutely nothing but the usual: reading, exercising, TV, and of course, writing! My mother baked me a cake that looks nowhere near as cool as the one in the pic (but it was orange!) but was delicious all the same. Especially with a scoop of Dairy Queen soft serve. Oh, God, my blood sugar. So worth it.

It's kinda weird to think that my life is probably more than a quarter of the way over now. And yet 25 doesn't seem to be a milestone birthday...although I can rent a car now! (Darn, if only I had a license.) Of course, as an adult I have to sit here and think about what a waste of space I am at 25 in my wandering, confused generation of recent grads in a nosediving economy. Hey! No job! Hey! No relationship! But before I feel compelled to go get drunk on my birthday to say that at least something happened like puking in the bath tub I reminded myself of all the life dreams I've accomplished so far, even if at the time they didn't feel like much. Short off you know, the apocalypse, or getting kicked out of my house, or what have you, things can only go up from here and I look forward to what the next 25 years of my life brings!

I don't really have a choice, I mean.

Romance Trading Cards: Now Here's Some Irony For My Life

Now imagine they all have boobs, and we're done here!

I never thought I'd see the day when I'm looking at trading card pixels on my screen again. During the late 90s, when Magic and Pokemon were all the rage, I was right there being told by my mother that no, I couldn't have them, because they summon REAL DEMONS. Or something. My mother likes to re-spout things she heard back in the 50s. Anyway, later on around 2002 or so, I started an online website in which members would get pixelized trading cards and could swap them with each other. It was a big hit for many years, until I "retired" from the scene because dear god, it was a nightmare.

But that's another post!

Recently I've come upon these things known as "Romance Trading Cards." I found them via the Kindle Boards discussion about them and couldn't help but think...what? These are a thing? And people go crazy for them? Whaaaa? I mean, whatever floats your boat, but personally I can't stand having little card sized paper things around. Takes me back a little too far to the late 90s.

But if this is something "going on" right now, I'm wondering...should I jump on it? Get some Ren'Ai Rensai ~trading cards~ (man, every time I type that, the 14yo inside me wants to die of embarrassment) and give them away for funzies? (Would any of my readers even want those?) I have plans for bookmarks to come out around Christmas, but should I get some of these, too?*

How about all of you other romance writers out there? Do YOU do trading cards of your characters? How has it been? Do your readers gobble them up? Are you like me and don't understand the appeal but HEY MAN WHATEVER WORKS?

Please share with me your experiences on romance oriented trading cards! Or any other small productions like this that you do for your novel. :)

*I do kinda wanna point out an observation - all the ones I've seen so far are for heterosexual romances, although I know M/M will never die. But if there's one thing I've learned writing lesbian fiction, it's that lesbian fiction fans tend to be a lot quieter, and thus I'm not sure this would be a good venture for me to pursue right now.