Cynthia Harrison

What I know about 2025 is that I will turn 70 this year and it will be a significant year for me. Why? I am switching to historical romance. (My first Regency, a novella, was published in December 2024). I stuck to romance (as it turns out!) but now set centuries in the past. The 19th Century. Particularly the Regency with possibly some forays into Georgian England. In graduate school, I had a focus on Victorian literature, developed a crush on Victorian decor, and expressed it in my home. Pink brocade draperies in the living room. Fat cabbage roses on wallpaper, sofa, and chairs. Gilt on picture frames. I learned to make scones and had tea parties for my girlfriends with my silver tea set.

Looking back, I’m not sure how I had a job, went to school, raised children, spoiled a husband and still had time for friends. These days everything takes longer. I used to read a page a minute and now I linger. I’ll read a sentence two or three times to see if I can make it better…and these are from other authors! Once you become a novelist, you will never read for pleasure the same way again.

Several years ago, I promised myself that when I turned seventy, I would stop doing things I did not want to do. Surely, seventy is the age you can say no without guilt? Be your true self? Be a bit selfish? Well. Yes. I still have my friends, even in Florida, I just don’t see them so often. I still have my family, but they moved away before I did. Thus, no guilt. Lots more time to write. And research. I’ve been building my Regency research library. Have always loved learning and now I will dig deeper than ever before into Jane Austen and her era.

When do we start counting our decades? Perhaps it is different for everyone. I started early and bemoaned turning twenty! I would miss my teen years, I thought. I was wrong. I never missed being young and the older I get the more I feel that way. People would say “don’t you dread 40? 50? 60?” Um no. I have loved each decade more. I had children in my twenties, grandchildren in my 50s. In between I wrote books and so much more.

It was all wonderful. And now is the best time yet. I hope it is for you, too. Happy new year!