PEGGY FIELDING'S NEWSLETTER
Vol. 5 Number 1 January 2005

SAME OLD STORY

Late again. Pretend it is still January. It certainly looks the same. Cold and dreary mostly, except on the days when it is sunny and 60 degrees

LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIPS WITH MY COMPUTER

Well, CURATE isn't finished yet so you may still send in a guess as to my finish date and choose one of my books as your prize. Please include your name and book wanted, as well as your U.S. Postal Service address with your guess. That will save me the task of emailing to ask you those things.

My computer has been doing strange things so I've only just now arrived at a finished Chapter 15. See topic heading for my feeling about my electronic machine just now. If I go after the thing with a hatchet I surely won't be finished with MAKE BELIEVE CURATE right away... o you understand my problem.

ARCHIVES

I hope you are reading this from the archives rather than on your monitor. Dan Case makes my letter look so good. If you're not in the archives, go now. If you do go there you can see a colored picture of my friends, The Hens." They are, from left to right, Jackie King, the little squab you know, Paula Alfred, Sharon Ervin and Nan Burchfield.

"Hen's" who are writing a book together. 

We're collaborating on a chik~lit romance. Sharon lives in McAlester but she drives up once in awhile to meet with the rest of us in Tulsa. I hope to have real news about this book by next month's newsletter. My novella in the book is called GIVING UP PANTY HOSE (which is a fictionalized memoir that is pretty close to what happend to me at the end of my marriage.)

TSUNAMI

I was surprised when one of my writing friends asked to use my fear-ridden story about my run-in with a minor tsunami on a Saturday in Manila. He said he wanted to put it in his novel as is. That really gave me pause. I answered that I didn't want him to use my experience written in my words, but that ideas can't be copyrighted so he could use his own words to paraphrase the story of my experience. (See last month's newsletter to read the story.)Doesn't his request seem somewhat strange to you?

I like and trust the writer so I know he'll use his own words but I don't understand why my experience pertains to his novel. What think you?

You writers all realize that our U.S. copyright laws automatically protect your work the instant it leaves your computer or typewriter, don't you? You can apply for a formal copyright, of course, but I prefer to let publishers do that. They have to fill out the forms and pay out the dollars, but that's fine. I love to let other people pay out the dollars and do the work.

SPEAKING OF DELEGATING WORK

Carolyn Leonard

Carolyn Leonard of Oklahoma City made me laugh this week. She asked me to speak to the Oklahoma City Writers and offered me a sleeping room with private bath because she knows my reputation for being cranky if awakened too early in the morning, so she thought I could ride down on Friday and speak on Saturday. She also offered to find someone to drive me to Oklahoma City the afternoon before I speak since she knew I didn't drive.

I answered that I drive all the time and that I thought I could drive my little pickup down the Turner Turnpike to enter Oklahoma City. She was surprised, said she thought I was one of those little old "Southern Ladies" who didn't get into an automobile without a chauffeur. (As in "Driving Miss Daisy.)

I had to admit that I loved having friends "take care of me," but that was only because I 'm lazy. Carol McLoud, a former Tulsan, offered to drive from Oklahoma City, pick me up, and next day after the meeting drive me back to Tulsa. Jackie King has also offered. That's three offers of carrying me to the big city and bringing me back in June.

Truth to tell, folks, when I took my head out of the dye pot, people began treating me differently. I love it! Old crocks deserve a little waiting-on, don't they?

BOOKS

I'm judging for Romance Writers of America's (RWA) Rita award so I've been feeling rather pious as I read, read, read, and let other work go. After all. I'm doing my duty. I tell myself. I"m judging. That's work, isn't it?

One pleasant surprise was a Silhouette Bombshell which the cover advertised as a "fast-paced world where strong, sexy, savvy women save the day." I had just known I wouldn't like their books so I never had read one of that line before, but I was wrong. I loved A PERFECT COVER by Maureen Tan. Read it if you get the chance.

And yes. My Regencies fed my intellect and my addiction but really, Tan's heroine, Lacie Reed, made me want to be her, a tough Vietnamese/American US government operative. Good book!

ANOTHER VOICE FROM MY PAST

I heard from a friend whom I knew in Cuba. That was years ago. Apparently, in a fit of curiosity she had put my name on her computer and searched for me. Her name is Barbara Moore. She taught kindergarten while I taught First Grade for the US Navy in Guantanamo. Her husband was a US Navy Officer. A Commander. Now retired I understand.

NAKED PEGGY

The painting I wrote about (a nude portrait of me, painted by a Filipino artist,) kinda came back to haunt me this week. The man who asked for it said he'd hang it in his workshop. This is the building where he works on racecars. Usually, his wife never enters the place but this week she asked him about the painting, so she must have visited his workshop in his absence. He told me she asked about it and he told her that the painting was his "inspiration." I know his wife so I was afraid to ask if he had told her who the woman in the painting might be. Hope she doesn't shred it or burn it next time he goes to work. Ray Fielding and Suzy spent a lot of money for the portrait (and they gave it to me for Mothers Day one year.)

Read GIVING UP PANTY HOSE if you want to see how strange the Fielding family really was. (Of course, we'll have to find a publisher before you can do that.)

YOU KNOW WHAT USUALLY GOES HERE

Nothing to report. I'll try to have a good story to tell you in February. My new timer, a gift from Jackie, is the loveliest thing in my life this month. It makes me get up and move around every 30 minutes when I'm reading or writing. Pretty sexy, huh?

Love to all.

Peggy