Milestone birthdays never bothered me before. Turning 40? No big deal. Fifty? I was celebrating the publication of my first book, The Gifts of Change. And at 60, Traveling Left of Center and Other Stories, my first fiction collection, was released.
And then it happened. I was turning 66, with the big 7-0 looming ahead, and although my second collection and fifth book would be out in May, I didn’t feel very celebratory. Instead, I felt old. There was a nagging sense that I should have achieved more by this 
time in my life. And it didn’t help that the world was in the throes of Covid, reinforcing the feeling that life could end sooner than one expected.
Since turning back the clock was not an option, I turned instead to writing—specifically, two novel drafts I had started back in 2010. I had done them more as an experiment, with no intention of ever publishing them. After all, I was a confirmed short story writer, not a novelist. Writing short fiction was where I felt most confident, secure, comfortable.
But getting too comfortable can easily lead to being in a rut. I 
suspected that’s what had happened to me and perhaps why my approaching birthdays were not a cause for joy. I needed to break out, to challenge myself. So, I decided I would finish both novels and indie-publish them. After all, what was the worst that could happen? No sales? Bad reviews? At least I still had my reputation (albeit minor) as a short story writer to fall back on.
Since both novels, while standalones, featured women fifty and older, I decided to bring them out under the Midlife Moxie series brand. And then I started revising them to meet my self-imposed deadline: the first out in 2023 and the second in 2024. I didn’t have time to obsess about my age. I had work to do!
As I put my characters through one setback after another, I couldn’t help thinking about my own life: experiences, both joyous and heartbreaking, that made me the woman I was, and the woman I could still be.
By the time I turned 69, Reinventing Rita was published, and at 
70—that dreaded milestone birthday!—Finding Fran was also out. And instead of despairing about my age, I was busy doing book signings.
Writing my Midlife Moxie novels (a third, Moving Maggie, is now out and a fourth will be released in 2026), and talking to women about their midlife experiences has changed how I view being in my seventies. These women were exploring new opportunities and resurrecting old dreams as they moved forward into their fifties, sixties, seventies and beyond. And when challenges and obstacles came their way, they pulled up their big girl panties and faced them head on.
While many of my readers thanked me for writing novels for and about women their age, they had no idea that writing those books 
had helped me find my own moxie. No longer do I believe that I’m too old to try something different. Instead, I now feel like a new chapter is just starting, and it’s up to me to keep the story going.
