Happy Fourth of July!

It is a gorgeous day in San Francisco, and while it's never clear whether the weather will hold, I've got my fingers crossed that there will be no fog to mar the fireworks tonight. I'm dragging myself down to the wharf in a few hours to go out on a boat with my visiting uncle, aunt, and cousin; barring any major weather-related problems, we should have a great view of the fireworks over the San Francisco Bay. I'm a confirmed Anglophile whose romance novels celebrate all things British, but on the Fourth I always take a moment to celebrate that we pulled one over on our mother country and won our independence. We may not have the fabulous traditions, the ancient castles, or the delicious accents, but I like to think that our dreams and our remarkably fluid society make up for our relative youth and brassiness. There are few countries in the world where a girl (shudder) from a rural farming community (double shudder) could escape a life of drudgery to attend an elite university and make a good living for herself. My path was eased by fantastic parents, but there were no real obstacles other than the limits of my own ambition, and for that I'm very grateful.

So, despite these "troubled economic times" and the various stresses and problems of the past few years, I still consider myself remarkably fortunate to have been born in America. I consider myself even more remarkably fortunate that my family and friends are so supportive of my dream of becoming a romance novelist, despite the challenges that I face along the way. And there's no better time to celebrate all of this than Independence Day.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! What are you doing to celebrate?