Jeri Smith-Ready

Blogtoberfest Day 17 - Trish Milburn aka Tricia Mills

The winner of Linda Joy Singleton's Dead Girl in Love is...Jamie! Congrats!

Today's guest at the Halloween and Homecoming Blogtoberfest (ha, you thought I was going to say "Blogtoberguest" again, didn't you? I'm such a rebel.) is Trish Milburn, who writes YA fiction as Tricia Mills.

In addition to writing two different series, this year Tricia also launched the fabulous Healthy Writer blog, which offers great tips for authors or anyone else who spends a lot of time on his or her butt. I was particularly intrigued by the post on Energy Zappers, and particularly the part about multitasking. For instance, right now I'm trying to write this blog post, check e-mail, and "watch" a baseball game on GameCast, and I can attest that I feel zapped. (But I'd feel great if the Dodgers had pulled off that comeback. Just sayin'.)

Trish/Tricia had her YA debut this past April with Heartbreak River:

Alexandra Landon once loved running the Grayton River through the Colorado canyons near her home and couldn’t imagine doing anything else with her life but continuing the family’s river rafting business. But that was before her father died in a rafting accident and she developed a full-fledged fear of drowning. It’s been nearly a year since her father’s death, and the arrival of another summer means Alex has to face the river, the question of whether she can ever recapture her love of rafting, and the return of co-worker and former boyfriend Sean Kenley. One way or the other, this summer is going to change Alex’s life forever.


The Past and Present Collide
By Trish Milburn

Earlier this month, I attended my first high school reunion -- the 20th. No matter how many times I see that number, it doesn't seem possible that it's been 20 years since I marched into my high school gym to the tune of "Pomp and Circumstance." A lot has happened since then. I got a college degree, I worked for many years full time in the journalism field, I got married, I moved to a different state, I traveled to or through 41 states, and I've managed to get three of my books published so far. Despite all the accomplishments, part of my less confident younger self emerged in the days leading up to the reunion. I was looking forward to it, to seeing friends I hadn't seen in awhile, but I wondered how people would react to each other. Would they pick up where they left off? Would they naturally gravitate toward who they'd been friends with in high school? Would the people who were at odds then still be that way?

I needn't have worried. Yes, we naturally gravitated toward the people we'd been closest to in high school, but that makes sense. While I spent time with most people there and really enjoyed the fact that the whole clique thing seemed to have faded, I hung out most with my closest friends from back then. In fact, I'm still in contact with them 20 years after we took our diplomas and left our small hometown.

The reunion was actually three days of activities. On Friday night, we were supposed to tailgate at the high school homecoming football game. But since the game was canceled because the other team had to forfeit, we ended up having a cookout and eating in our old high school cafeteria. I don't think I'd been in that room since the night I graduated. Some people were easily recognizable as they walked in; others not so much. I kept having to ask my friend Kim who people were. We took a tour of the school. Some things looked the same; even one of the teachers is still there. But there was a new annex, which included a very nice computer lab with big Mac computers. Way better than the Commodore 64 computers we had back in the day. :) There was also a new arena where the basketball games are played, though we did walk through the old gym. Still smelled the same as it did 20 years ago. LOL! And it was funny to see the kids of classmates playing with each other just like their parents did years ago.

The next night was the official dinner at the country club. At one point, we all introduced ourselves, told what we did for a living, if we were married, how many kids, etc. It was interesting to hear what people ended up doing -- teachers, chemical plant workers, lots of nurses, a prison guard, a state trooper, and a variety of other occupations. Only three of us didn't have any kids. The rest had anywhere from one to four. We sat around until midnight, catching up and recounting stories from those days of big hair, ‘80s music playing on the iPod speakers.

Sunday morning, one of our classmates who is now a minister preached a service, but I headed home instead of driving back into town for it since I was staying in the next county. I heard it was a nice service though.

Even though the reunion is behind me now, I still can't believe it's been 20 years. I hope the next 20 years don't fly by quite so quickly.

So, have you ever been to a high school reunion? What was it like? Were people the same? Different?


To enter to win a signed copy of Heartbreak River, leave a comment below. And remember, each comment automatically enters you in the drawing for the grand prize package: all 25 books!

For complete rules, read the introductory post.

Deadline for entry: Thursday, October 29, 11:59pm Eastern. NOTE: THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. The winner is ddurance!

Linda Gerber and Death by Denim
Alexandra Diaz and an ARC of Of All the Stupid Things
Melissa Walker and Lovestruck Summer
Sydney Salter and My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters
Christine Marciniak and When Mike Kissed Emma

Thanks to Trish for going to her high school reunion, so I didn't have to!

Labels: Blogtoberfest, Contests, guests

• posted by Jeri @ 8:00 AM
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