PEGGY FIELDING'S NEWSLETTER
Vol. 6 Number 3 April 2006

YEP. DAN'S FAULT

I missed the March letter and it is partly Dan's fault. By that, I mean he mostly gives me leave to do as I please, even though he is my webmaster. I freely admit that this lazy little pig sometimes needs a shove to make her rise up from the comfortable slough and get busy at whatever it is that little pigs do.

But it's not entirely Dan's fault. The HENS, Paula Alfred (aka Paula Jean Watkins), Jackie King, and Sharon Ervin have kept me on a treadmill to promote our book, CHIK~LIT FOR FOXY HENS. The book is doing well. It is now number 8 on our AWOC Publisher's best seller list. Yay!

Just recently we've spoken in McAlester, Oklahoma and at Oklahoma City University in Oklahoma City. The anthology has been very well received. We had been invited to speak at the Blue Cottage in Jenks, Oklahoma for a La Sertoma International meeting but that engagement was canceled. That made me a little crazy because I had just sent a puff piece to the Jenks Journal Neighbor News and had handwritten a pile of invitations. Hope that I’ve gotten that all straightened out. The editor at the Journal seems to be a nice guy, don't want to irritate him.

So, if you've planned to have lunch with us in Jenks on Saturday, April 29, forget about it. We won't be there.

YES, YES, THE ARCHIVES.

Tap into the newsletter page on www.peggyfielding.com so you can see the pictures and drawings. This also keeps Caroline Leonard happy. She is sending Dan a picture of us in Oklahoma City so he can run it here. Jean Stover is president of the Oklahoma City Writers but Caroline is still quite active in the club. Wayne Wyrick (one of the most brilliant men I know), is an astrophysicist but he condescended to take a ton of pictures of the HENS while we spoke.

It occurred to me as I noted him snapping our pictures that he is a great looking guy... smart... single. He even has the word "wizard" as part of his email address. I should have been trying a little matchmaking there years ago. (For myself perhaps, if he were about thirty years older.) I think I will still try to find him a Tulsa girl who is suitable.

TULSA NIGHT WRITERS PANEL

I was moderator for a panel of TNW authors this past week also. What a credit they all were to our club. The eight people sat at a long table and one end of the table was fairly close to the library wall. I thought that would be a dark, obscure, corner, but there was no time to rearrange seating before the meeting started. We start on time!

After Chuck Sasser, TNW President, who says he sees all of us more clearly now since he had his cataracts removed, had visitors stand and had members brag. (I bragged about Radine Trees Nehring's new mystery.) He then allowed about one minute of announcements, then panel people moved to the table in the front.

Wow! Was I wrong about the shrouded corner! The end closest to the wall was occupied by author Gloria Shirley, who is also the TNW newsletter editor. We all pray for her long life so none of us will ever have to do the monthly newsletter.

Her shoulder length. wavy, red-gold hair and her glowing, smiling, dimpled face, immediately made that shadowed corner into the brightest spot in the room. I'm happy to say that Gloria is introducing the HENS to the Oklahoma Mystery Writers when we speak for them on Saturday, May 20th with "Put A Little Romance Into Your Mystery."

Gloria's husband told me after the meeting that he doesn't read books, not even Gloria's. Isn't that a shame? I expect most relatives don't bother to read our books. I remember Billie Letts' cousin telling me that he and his father didn't have her books and didn't plan to read any of them, either. Billie Letts! Now if I were her cousin I would always carry one of her books with me just for the bragging rights.

SPEAKING OF COUSINS

My lovely cousin, Julia Mae Bice Hoover, has paid for my membership in First Families of the Twin Territories, complete with certificate and lapel pin, via our great grandfather JW Fulkerson, who came to the territories. Julia Mae and her husband, Hal, do read my books...and the books of all my friends, as well.

CONFESSING FOR MONEY reader called Lady Le sent me an email correcting an address that appears on page 24 in the second edition of CONFESSING FOR MONEY.

She was right. In the book I gave 33 Seventh Ave. as the address for Dorchester Media. That should have been 333 Seventh Ave. Sorry. Editor Dan will need to make the correction in the book.

OUR HELPER

Romney Nesbitt has been hanging with the HENS, doing a great job introducing us and taking money from admirers of our book before we sign. She is a Godsend to us. I guess you could say God really did send her to us. She's a preacher in a Presbyterian Church. Sometimes I wonder how she can stand to be around me. Maybe because previously she was a Baptist and she knew and loved Miss Hazel.

BEST BOOK

One of the best books I've read this month was from a Texan, a Lone Star NightWriter, who lives in Denton. The book is ALWAYS AND FOREVER by Gretchen Craig. She set the historical in the 1830's Louisiana. Jackie King agrees with me on this. The book was well thought out and well written. Try it. You might like it.

SEE FEBRUARY'S BOOK DISCUSSION

My pal Debby Camp, author of more than 50 published romance novels, thinks I was way too hard on the writer who did WYOMING WILDFIRE. (Author forgot that heroine had bound her breasts.)

She also said it was easy to make booboos when balancing a whole world of characters and happenings on a manuscript page. I guess she's right. I wouldn't dare to argue with Deborah Elaine, my sweet, famous chick.

LOVE LIFE

Only Craig Ferguson, host of the late, late show, I guess.

However, I did have one shock in McAlester. I was talking about Joe Casey, my lovely handyman who appears in my novella, "Giving Up Pantyhose." I looked around the room, but there were only a few men, and one of them was Sharon's great looking husband. I didn't think she'd want me openly admiring her better half so I searched a bit more.

In the aisle in front of me sat a huge, young, bald guy (I love bald guys) who had come in late so I picked on him, shouting out things like, "Gorgeous Creature," and "Huge and lovely," etc. I even made him stand and turn around so we could all see his buns, which he did with a smile. Pretty good sport, he was. If Sharon hadn't been sitting there I would have stepped into the aisle and embraced him to show how Joe would have fit Lori as described in the pantyhose story, but I didn't want to disturb my fellow HEN so I let the large and lovely guy sit down and I went on with my talk.

After our, "It's Never Too Late For A Dream," presentation, Jackie nudged me and said, "That was Sharon's son, you know."

"No!" I said and looked him over once again.

That was not the son I had met previously. So thus I learned that Sharon and her sexpot husband had several kids. Man, I was surely impressed with that one. Why can we not wipe away thirty years whenever we need to do so, even temporarily? I love being old but we oldies have to miss a lot of goodies. Mmmmm um mmm mm. mmm.

He said before he sat down, "And my name is Joe!" Whoa Nellie.

Next month on time. I promise.

Love Peggy