Tribute to the Birthday Girl!

By Melissa Amster

Tomorrow is Melissa P's birthday, so I thought we should celebrate her!

I have enjoyed getting to know a bunch of you over the past few months, but I hope you will also take some time to connect with Melissa P too. She's been a wonderful friend both when we were growing up and in the present and I know you would also enjoy getting to know her better.

Anyway, I wrote this post for my personal blog (in late August). I have been doing a post called "Friendship Friday" for the past 6 months (even though I slacked off a bit recently) and this was my post about Melissa P. I made a few updates to clarify some things I left out originally.:

M.P. and I go way back. I can't remember how old I was when she and her family first moved two doors down from us on our cul-de-sac in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. She and her sister were close in age to my sister and me (her sister is a year older than me and my sister is a year younger than her). We naturally would all get together to hang out, along with some other same-aged kids on our block. When I was 12, I remember working on a talent show for the block party with M.P. and her sister. We also went to each others' birthday parties every year. We also had the same style house and our address numbers were one digit apart. We both had dogs, as well.

After I graduated high school and my family and I moved off our street, we didn't see each other, nor did we stay in touch. She and her family eventually moved out of state. A few years ago, I found M.P. and her sister on Facebook. When M.P. and I finally reconnected on there, we discovered a mutual love for chick lit novels. I think it started with talking about a Marian Keyes book. From that point, I invited her to join a small group discussion I had with two other friends about chick lit books. She was the most involved and enthusiastic though. I was always excited to tell her what new books I had bought. This in turn inspired me to start Chick Lit Central on Facebook. Shortly after that, I was able to arrange an interview with Jane Green and I invited her to help me with the questions. After that, I thought we'd form a partnership for the Chick Lit Central blog. We've paired up on a bunch of interviews and now she is starting to fly solo on some of them.

We have a lot of fun e-mailing about the interviews and books we've been reading, as well as other things going on in our lives. We keep finding other interests we have in common too. We're even trading books from time to time. She's definitely been helpful with all these interviews. I don't even know if I could do all the work alone anymore. She asks great questions to the authors and I know she has been doing more research than I have. She's also there when I need to vent and she reassures me that I'm not going crazy. :)

We live three time zones away from each other, but I hope we can find a way to meet up soon. She seems to have quite a fun and idyllic life in AZ, based on all the updates and pictures I see on Facebook. I'm sure we'd end up partying a lot if I went out her way. Otherwise, we'd spend all our time lounging outside and reading. I know she's been interested in checking out DC, so I hope she can make it out here too. Until then, I plan to work with her on this blog for a long time and I know we'll always have chick lit.

Melissa, Hope you enjoy your virtual birthday cake!