What’s in a birthday?

I have never really thought about birthdays that much – that sounds daft, but you’re born when you’re born, and that has always been the end of it.

I’ve never been the sort of person to think about my horoscope, my constellation, or even my birth year as affecting something about me.

But the more I write, I need to not only create new names (the bane of my life!) but also create new birthdays, and I’m starting to experiment with using constellations as an interesting way of building conflict.

You don’t seem to be able to sneeze on the internet now without seeing that Virgos don’t get on with Geminis, or Capricorns should never marry an Aries (?!), and as someone who has not read up on these things, I’ve always just kind of breezed past them.

But what a fascinating way to create conflict in my books!

The older I get, and the more books I write, I’m always on the lookout for new ways to challenge myself creatively, and I think this might be a new tool in my toolbox.

Let me know what you think!