Dan Case, who was my collaborator on my ebook, The Complete Guide to Writing & Selling Magazine Articles, is also the magician who spun out my web site peggyfielding.com.

I know a lot about the writing business but Dan knows everything about computers and the internet. You may want to contact him to do a web site for you. He is not only knowledgeable but also artistic. He and Phil Truman drew all the little chicken writer cartoons in our book. I know he would work for a reasonable price. If you want to contact him about building a web site for you just email him at editor@writingfordollars.com

I'm so ignorant about the internet, ebooks and electronics in general, I could never have done the article writing ebook without Dan's help and guidance. Luckily Dan can also write as well as draw and do the fabulous "e" thing, so he's a handy man to know. He also publishes a free newsletter you can subscribe to, called Writing For DOLLARS! where you can learn about the markets and what they're currently paying. Dan also buys articles about writing and he pays real money for your very good short articles about the business.

Dan didn't have anything to do with my enovel SALLY which will be coming out in July from Hardshell Word Factory but I got a ton of help from my friend Gloria Harcher who has a novel out this month from Hardshell also. You can contact Gloria about her new book PRIM COURTESAN at members.nbci.com/GloHarcher. Be sure to put the capital letters in. Gloria is one good old girl as we sometimes say in Oklahoma.

Another good old girl who helped more than a little is Jackie Bielowicz (AKA Jackie Kramer) who is also an author with Hard Shell. You can get her books Broken Pledge and Coming to Terms from Hard Shell.

SALLY is an historical novel based on all the facts which are available about Sally Hemmings. She was a slave, a half sister to Thomas Jefferson's white and respectable wife and she later became Jefferson's paramour at a very young age. He was 35 and she was 14. I really had fun writing the book and hope you'll have fun reading it as well.

My mother, Ms. Hazel, just hated the fact that I put one of our beloved forefathers, Thomas Jefferson, into bed, cavorting with a person who wasn't his legal wife. I told her, "Ms. Hazel, I didn't put him in bed with Sally. He did all that himself. I just wrote about it." My word! You've got to face facts. They had 8 children together, after all. All those kids had to come from somewhere. Of course I didn't say that to Ms. Hazel. That would be "smarting off" as we sometimes say in Oklahoma.

My explanation didn't make her especially happy either, but then Mom is a good Baptist (sometimes called Hardshell in Oklahoma. Hmm. I wonder why my publisher seemed so family-like to me? Could it be? Nah.) and she is the kind of upright patriot who believes that George Washington would never have wooden teeth in his mouth, nor a lie, either.

Perhaps Hard Shell Word Factory is bringing out the book in July because we are all feeling rather patriotic that month, aren't we? If you'd like to read about what really happened to Sally and Tom, along with what I imagined to have happened, just click onto the Hard Shell Word Factory web site http://www.hardshell.com and order the book. If you're interested in selling your book to Hard Shell you can see their submission Guidelines at http://www.hardshell.com/guide.html

Those of you who know me know my little mother who used to be a whippersnapper, as we say in Oklahoma. Last May she was gardening, quilting laprobes for the veterans in the hospital in Claremore, and cooking and keeping house for herself. Pneumonia did her in.

Now she is living with me and I've turned into a caretaker 24/7. Luckily, she is still sharp in many ways. Last night while I was dressing her for bed she rolled over and said in her best schoolteacher voice, "Don't ever get pneumonia." I had to laugh. Mom is 96 and still a crackerjack as we also say in Oklahoma.

Dan is way off in Texas and Gloria and Jackie have the effrontery to have lives of their own so my new electronic helper is Karen S. Wiesner. I have her here in my office in the form of a bound book, ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING, THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO NON-SUBSIDY E-PUBLISHING. You can get it as a "real" book or as an ebook from www.avidpress.com or call 1-888-AVIDBKS. The printed bound book form is still the easiest form for me but I'm leaping forward into the electronic world a bit more quickly every day. Thanks to Dan and Gloria and Jackie and Karen. Let's all meet on the Internet, new friends and old. We'll have a bowl of ham hocks and pinto beans, Oklahoma's state dish, kiddos.

We'll talk more about writing next month.