Welcome to My Birthday Party!

Today is my fifty seventh birthday. In real life, I'm off for the weekend with my DH, enjoying a bit of relaxation by the sea, a modest little getaway. However, what I'd really like to do is throw a huge party for all my friends and celebrate in style.

What's my idea of the perfect party? Well, it should involve costumes—I love getting dressed up!—and dancing. Delicious food and drink are a must, of course, and I usually like to have a theme, ideally something a bit spicy. When I was younger, I organized a number of memorable bashes including a Jet Set Party (to celebrate our leaving for a job in Asia), a Hotel California Party (which lasted all night, starting with pink champagne on ice and ending at dawn with Tequila Sunrises), and of course the Coed Stag Party my husband and I threw the night before our wedding, with naughty party favors and belly dancing.

There's one party I never had the chance to organize, though. In the next town over from where we used to live, there is a historic movie theater called the Academy of Music. It was originally built as a live theater back in the Victorian era and has been beautifully preserved. With its burgundy velvet curtains, carved and gilded balconies and crystal chandeliers, it evokes a earlier time of grace and elegance. The Edward Hopper painting above captures the feeling very well.

I've always fantasized about renting the place for a party—a cinema costume ball. I'd invite my friends from all over the world (in my fantasy world, I have plenty of money to pay for their transportation). Each guest would be required to come dressed either as a favorite actor/actress or as a movie character. We'd serve champagne chilled in silver ice buckets and smoked salmon canapés. I'd put a band on the stage, playing my favorite classic rock. I'd dance with every guy at the party—it's my birthday, after all!

The guests' costumes would be magnificent. There'd be Errol Flynn and Sherlock Holmes, Scarlett O'Hara and Dorothy of Oz, King Kong and Faye Wray, Jack Sparrow and Yoda. As for me, I'd come dressed as classic screen siren Mae West. I think I could pull it off. I've got the right build for it—far more curvy than is fashionable these days. I even have a sparkling pink lamé gown with a plunging neckline that used to be my mother's. All I'd need is a platinum wig and the attitude.

I wanted to do this for my fiftieth birthday, but that was in the middle of the last recession and it just wasn't feasible. (Probably wouldn't have been anyway...!) So—being an author who spins fantasies—I've decided to go ahead and do it this year...at least in the cybersphere. And you're all invited!

I'm giving away a “door prize”, a print copy of my first novel Raw Silk. All you have to do is comment and tell me about your costume. If you came to my masque du cinema, who would you be, and why?

I'll randomly pick one commenter as my winner. But I hope that you all have a fabulous time!