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PEGGY FIELDING'S
NEWSLETTER OFF TO THE ARCHIVES You don't want to miss any little doodads so look at this letter with the geegaws thrown in, at peggyfielding.com so you won't miss the fun stuff. REJECTION Writers have to learn to live with the awful "no" that editors and agents sometimes send. I received two of the lousy things recently... the first from Silhouette for my romance EMBRACE ON SAN VIERGE. The signed form rejection was sent by Maria Therese Hussey's underling. Hussey had asked to see query and synopsis and first three chapters. You must understand that there are gradations in rejections. A printed form is the lowest rung on the ladder. A printed form signed by a real person is a step up above that. The personal letter that mentions your book is the next step up and so on. Well, Peggy, how does one know that the signature isn't just printed on the page when the form letter was printed? Do what I did. I licked my finger and touched the signature. Yep. The ink smeared. It was a real signature, albeit from the drudge in Hussey's office. The other rejection was from the juvenile agent I approached about my YA novel CADET SUMMER. It too was signed by the agent herself though it was a form apology. Oh, well, I haven't yet heard from Ima Jinn on my MAKE-BELIEVE CURATE. If they ask to see that baby, my scream will be heard as far away as Madill, Oklahoma and Coffeeville, Kansas, not to mention, Springdale, Arkansas or even out in Beaver County, Oklahoma. (That was Jackie King's home in her youth.) GOOD BOOKS
Carol is well established in academic and literary circles in Tulsa and she is a good writer. I remember her when she started in the business. She took a class from me and sat as far away from me as she could...and still be in the classroom. I could see talent in the girl, even then, so I hooked her up with another student who wanted to write about her son's autism. Carol ran with the project and their book on autism became a best seller. Her recent book, EVERLASTING is a literary novel, a gem. Get it if you haven't read it. ON READING I believe it was Stephan King who said he was very suspicious of people who want to be writers but aren't voracious readers. I can't read King's novels...too scary, but I agree utterly with almost everything he says about writing. UFO FOLKS, PAY ATTENTION
HENS I couldn't resist these hens which I found in the Tulsa World.
I had to admit to all the people at the gathering that I knew very little about mystery writing, but Jackie King, the red hen, talked about writing the "Cozy" mystery. I noticed people taking notes all across the room as she spoke.
Can you believe that I have another friend who is a preacher herself? She knew and loved Miss Hazel when they were in WMU together at First Baptist, Tulsa. Rev. Romney Nesbitt has just recently bowed out of her job at First Presbyterian in Cleveland, Oklahoma. She is another Goodie-Two-Shoes who likes me in spite of no cooking, no praying and no churchgoing. How am I so lucky? She was good enough to sign herself in as my personal clergyperson when I went to the hospital with the stroke. Because of that I didn't have to have a bunch of strangers praying over me. I asked Rev. Rom if my masturbation a day or two before Jackie swept me into an ambulance had been the cause of my stroke and Rom assured me that my private amusement had not been what stroked me out.
AGAIN, REWARD, REWARD, REWARD I'll still send a copy of my books to readers who review any of my books and get the review published. Just send me a copy of the review and let me know which of my other books you'd like to have and what your mailing address is. Those who choose SALLY must tell me if they'd like a copy of the prologue and epilogue which was torn from the book by my editor. I think it is better with the prologue and epilogue. SEX?
And the sergeant from "The Unit" hasn't called, so my answer to the question above is still no and none. BIG NEWS Our AWOC publisher, Dan Case, has agreed to appear at the OMW meeting in September. Yay! More about that next month. CONFESSING FOR MONEY
I also belong to Tulsa's chapter of the RWA, Romance Writers of America. Our local chapter is called Romance Writers Ink. Recently I wrote a piece for the RWI newsletter I called my essay, "Put Your Dreams On Hold While You Practice Your Craft And Make Money Doing It" which tells them how to write and sell confessions. It was great to learn that my article had been picked up by the newsletter editors at three of the RWA chapters across the country. (Reprinting means editors think your article is helpful to Romance Writers.) No money changed hands but the reprints thrilled me, anyway. Maybe I can get an abbreviated version of the article into Writing for DOLLARS! and make some money off the thing. NEXT MONTH See you in February. Love Peggy | ||
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Vol.
8 Number 1 January 2008
Carol
Johnson, of Mounds, OK, loaned me BRIDGE OF SIGHS by Richard Russo
and I couldn't lift my eyes from that book.
The 17th
Annual International UFO Congress is being held in Laughlin, Nevada, Feb 23
to Mar 1. Wish I could take BARBARA up there to sell to those folks.
My bio of Barbara is still selling well according to the 
We
three were fairly successful in our talk for the Oklahoma Mystery Writers at
the Kendall-Whittier Library recently. We're members of the OMW so we were pleased
to see the largest crowd since we've been meeting at Kendall. We talked about
"Killing People On Paper."
Incidentally,
my pal Jackie, Miss Goodie-Two-Shoes herself, is in the midst of writing a book
called DEVOTED TO COOKING, collaborating with her daughter, Jennifer, who is
a well-known caterer in Tulsa. Nearly all the women in Oklahoma cook and pray
and go to church so she should do well with that book. I will buy one but she
must not expect me to suddenly start cooking, praying or going to church...
unless she is getting married there, of course.
Well, I have received
two copies of Dusty's new Western Mystery and it is a really good book, but
not really sexy in the way Logan usually is. I'm going to interview Dusty about
his newest, MONTANA REVENGE for the Oklahoma Mystery Writers at the
Kendall -Whittier in July if he is available for that. He is such a good guy.
I look forward to seeing him and Pat in Tulsa again.
I'm thrilled to tell
you that Ive thoroughly edited my book, |
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