PEGGY FIELDING'S NEWSLETTER
Vol. 5 Number 4 May 2005

WHERE DID APRIL GO? OR MAY FOR THAT MATTER?

Sorry, I missed April altogether and almost bypassed May. Lots of good reasons, none that you want to hear, probably.

Stop reading this now and go to my web site www.peggyfielding.com, subscribe to my newsletter, then, click on newsletters and go to the May 2005 issue so you can see all the good things Dan does for the letter with pictures and drawings and stuff. You'll have to thank Carolyn Leonard for this reminder. She e-mails me about it every month.

MISSED MY CHANCE

Should I tell you I missed a sexual opportunity while at OWFI, through sheer ignorance? Subliminally, I saw the guy's pilot light flick on earlier but lack of practice over the last few years, kept me chaste...as an old lady should be. The whole apparatus down there may be completely crystallized by now, anyway. No use getting back into the game at my age. Actually it was Jackie King's and Janine Nelson's fault that I missed the opportunity. He wanted to go to my room with me but I said that Jackie and Janine were probably asleep already and I wouldn't like to awaken them.

At that news, he cooled right down, of course.

What astounds me if that a younger man (Nowadays everyone is younger than I am) would want to check out a gray-haired, fat, older woman. Jackie says it was caused by my smart-alect remarks in the groups where I was holding forth and the man magically appeared, silently, but paying close attention. Ten years ago he could have had his way...and my way also.

MY CHICKS ON PARADE

One of the fun things I did was attend a signing at Steve's. Radine Nehring (black hat) sold a lot of books that day. She is a hell of a marketer or her mysteries. I'm sure her publishers are thrilled by her efforts.

The three other women are my chicks, also. Jackie King (red hair) is not only my chick, but also my running mate. Janice Goetzinger (black shirt) and Sherilynn Gerdel (red and blue shirts) are new to my coop but they are bright and ambitious. They will surely succeed in the writing business.

Radine's husband, John, took the picture. I love John. He and Radine have almost given up on me because of what they consider outrageous speech and behavior. They still have a trace of hope that I will become a more conservative, decently behaved, presentable old "lady."

YET ANOTHER CHICK

Mary Geasland of Tahlequah, reminds me of her writing adventures every once in awhile. She went to Hawaii recently with her daughters (grandaughters?). She can write off a ton of the cost of the trip if she writes articles, books, or short stories set in the islands. That is called "market research," folks. The IRS would look askance should Geasland use the girl's expenses as write offs unless they were working for her in some way, perhaps as secretaries, researchers, photographers, etc.

NEVER MIND MY MARCH EASTER STORY

No one has asked about my other adventures in my first teaching job in Baring, Missouri. I was nineteen years old, teaching a class of 45 kiddies. I've often felt guilty about those little darlings. I really made the effort but I wonder if any of them learned even one thing. Anyway, I must put all that behind me. Who knows anything at nineteen, for Heaven's sake? I learned long ago that carrying guilt is counter productive.

ANOTHER HOLIDAY PAST

My cousin Julia Mae and her husband Hal, are going to the Oilton Alumni meeting and they are coming by my house, also.

Julia Mae was like a big sister to my brother Jack and me. We were so thrilled when she came to live with us.

She was bright, beautiful and fun to be with. She cut a pretty wide swathe through the crop of high school males. Very popular!

Not only was she tall, beautiful and easy to talk to, she was very well dressed. Eventually she handed down all of her pretty clothes to me but somehow they didn't do as much for me as they had done for my cousin.

Ms Hazel adored Julia Mae as much or more than we did. Whenever she would come in from one of her dates, mama would come into our room and roll up Julia Mae's hair. I always lay awake to hear all the stories about the doings of the Oilton High school crowd. Those were pretty glamorous people in a little girl's eyes.

But my cousin didn't go out every night. Perhaps Ms Hazel confined her to weekend outings, because she was center of another activity which Jack and I loved. I often felt pity for Julia because she didn't care for reading and writing. I realize now that she may be dyslexic, but we didn't know about such a thing in those days. Her teachers often assigned books to read. When books came home Jack and I cheered. We knew fun was in store.

After supper was cleared away we all moved to the living room, mama on the couch, Jack and me on one side of her and Julia Mae on the other. If daddy was home he sat in the easy chair. Now, remember we had no radio, no TV, no money to go to the movies. This was our second highest form of entertainment...hearing mama read a good book aloud. Boy, Jack and I agreed, those high school teachers really knew how to pick good stories.

Sometimes she had to give an oral report on the book and she had no problem with that. Sometimes she was required to write the report. That's where I came in. Julia Mae writes a beautiful hand so she was able to copy whatever I came up with and made her way toward graduation.

I have admit, sometimes I was envious of my cousin's beauty and her social life. I tried to make myself feel better by reminding myself that I could read or write anything, that I was just kinda "cute," but that I was plenty smart.

I'd already heard the old saying that beauty fades but brains last forever.

Well, guess what! Julia Mae is still beautiful. When she was sixty she decided to become a model...and was hired on the spot in Ohio where she now lives. This is what she looked like posing at sixty.

There is no use lying. Julia Mae and Hal still look good. She is especially fit...striding around Utica Square like a valkrie, and, of course, I was hobbling behind. The old saying has no basis in fact, folks. My cousin’s face and body have hardly aged at all. She still has other people write for her. When she travels she asks the hotel clerk to write her postcards to her friends. And she is reading quite a bit these days. I gave her six books from Charles Sasser, Dale Whisman, M.E. Cooper and my own BARBARA, and she happily took them back to Ohio.

So here's how it is as of now, "Beauty lasts and brains like mine turn to mush." You just can't depend on those old sayings can you?

BOB AVEY

I didn't send Bob Avey's new mystery TWISTED PERCEPTION with Hal and Julia Mae because I don't own one. He tells me to order it via the computer. He forgets he is talking to a dinosaur in the electronic world.

MY COLLEGE PAL

Virginia Anderson Torres and I had lunch recently. Her husband Ben died unexpectedly last week and she is decimated.

Maybe I can be of some comfort. I think laughter is a healer so I'll tell this story.

When we were in graduate school we were close enough to "share dates." No, I don't mean double dates. We had two young men whom we liked, John and Julian. If either asked us out and either of us couldn't go, we passed the man on to the other. Both men were from New York City so we two Okies were more or less exploring a new culture with those boys.

One night I went out with John. We were conversing over a pizza and he said something an Okie boy wouldn't have said in a million years, "You know, Peggy, I like going out with you when I just want to have fun. When I want to impress someone I prefer Virginia. Her social skills are so much better than yours."

We continued onto another subject, with stunned little me surreptiously checking my lips and chin. Was I dribbling pizza? Eating pizza without covering oneself with cheese is a social skill, you know.

OKLAHOMA CITY BOUND

I do have to get myself in order. I'm going down to talk to the Oklahoma City Writers, the largest writing club in the state. I'll try not to drool or use too many vulgarities. I'm just used to being the hoipolloi in Tulsa Night Writers but I must try to demonstrate my social skills when moving among the elite, darlings.

My subject is "Making Nonfiction Read Like Fiction." Pray for me.

AND NOW ABOUT MY SEX LIFE

Today I got the new Jake Logan, SLOCUM AND THE DEADWOOD DEAL, #314, from Dusty Richards. I'll read it tonight so that means this will be a warm evening on Fourth street. I thought Dusty had given up on me but he came through just when I needed him.

BYE FOR NOW.

See you in June. Love Peggy