2026: Easter Renewal

Posted on April 5, 2026 by peggylchambers

It’s Easter! And the beginning of spring once again. I know because Oklahoma had at least six tornadoes in the Oklahoma City area the other night, I saw a bunny in my backyard this week, and the first of the irises are blooming. I attempted to take my cane outside and rake the leaves out of a small flowerbed and my herb garden. I didn’t do too well, but no one was hurt in the making of a spring garden. I have Cala Lilies and Easter Lilies up (they never bloom at Easter), and the Grape Hyacinths and Forsythia have already bloomed. We really need some rain. I guess I’ll have to water the artificial way with a hose.

But spring is a time of renewal—of nature and hopefully the human spirit. I am still rehabbing. The cane is for balance. I can walk; it’s just tough and I look like a toddler. I attend classes at the YMCA and work on getting my strength back because according to the therapist, muscle strength will bring back coordination and balance. I need that. But like I said, spring is a time of renewal. At least that is the plan.

As I sit here writing this, my Rumba is vacuuming for me while the washing machine washes my clothes. My grandmother is rolling over in her grave. That superwoman had eight kids, and fed them all, and their kids, and a few neighbors from her garden and the chickens in her yard. There was also the occasional catfish, hog, and venison from her freezer. I actually remember using the outhouse at her place before she had running water. She was one of the last to get that modern convenience in the early 1950s. But she never used a cane, nor did she have spinal surgery. She might have been smarter than me. Certainly stronger.

But renewal of the spirit, mind, and body is something humanity needs—constantly. Not just in the spring. So let it begin with the flowers, warm weather, the scent of newly mowed grass, and a glass of iced tea.

Happy Easter!

What are you reading, writing, supporting, or creating this week?

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2026: Wooden Children Display for CASA

Posted on March 29, 2026 by peggylchambers

April is National Child Abuse Month in Garfield County, Oklahoma. Years ago, my husband was a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), and we still support them. Our community has come together to make wooden children representing abused or neglected children in our county. Each hand painted child is available for $35 and you can display it on the courthouse lawn for all to see. Each child is dressed and marked with a tag for their supporter. It raises awareness about the number of abused and neglected children in the district. There are nearly 240 in Garfield County alone and that does not count the ones who were not reported. You can follow their work on Facebook at (1) Facebook.

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and The CARE Campus’ Fourth Judicial District CASA Program is reaching out to the community to raise awareness about child abuse and neglect in our county. Throughout the month of April, we will feature a display of wooden children on the courthouse lawn to spark conversation and highlight this important cause.

The Fourth Judicial District CASA Program is a nonprofit organization funded by grants, donations, and fundraising efforts. We serve Woodward, Kingfisher, Major, Blaine, Grant, and Garfield Counties. Our dedicated volunteers advocate for children in foster care by being a voice for them in court. Volunteers visit children in the system each month, meeting with parents, foster parents, case workers, teachers, counselors, doctors, psychologists, and other key individuals to make informed decisions in the child’s best interest.

My husband and I adopted a wooden child this week. We dressed her and gave her a stuffed toy for comfort and next Friday we will display her on the courthouse lawn. I am once again proud to be a part of a great community effort to keep the children of our district safe.

What are you reading, writing, supporting, or creating this week?

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2026: Spring is in the Air!

Posted on March 22, 2026 by peggylchambers

It’s spring in Oklahoma! The first day was Friday and it was in the nineties. It might snow yet. Love those April snows, thick and don’t last too long. And we may break one hundred degrees. You never know. But my grape hyacinths and forsythia are blooming! The irises are standing up looking like they are thinking about spring blooms, and I have trouble bending over to tend them after back surgery last fall. I am thinking I might sit down and clean them out and then struggle to get back up. No matter how old I get, I still want to garden. Or maybe I should write about it and not get my hands dirty. We’ll see.

But the perennials never die. At least I hope they don’t. There are leaves on the Clematis and the Phlox are greening up. I’ve been thinking about what to put in the pots on the front porch—maybe an herb this year.

Have you ever grown a perennial fern in a shady side garden? I love ferns. I’m thinking about trying some this year. How hard can they be if they come up by themselves in every forest in the world?

My grandmother grew a massive garden in northeast Arkansas during the Great Depression. It fed a family of ten. It was on one side of the house with the fruit orchard on the other side. The chickens ran lose during the day and the milk cow was out back. She was less than 5 feet tall and had eight babies. She was tough. I doubt I am anywhere near as tough as she was, but I hope some of her green thumb was passed down to me. She’d shake her head at how lazy I am but maybe I can grow a few things.

So, tell me, do you garden? If so, what do you like to grow and are you successful?

What are you reading, writing, growing, or creating this week?

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2026: Conference and Festival Season

Posted on March 15, 2026 by peggylchambers

It’s that time of year again. No, not tornado season, though that is always on our minds. It’s contest and conference season if you are a writer.

I inventoried my books the other day and decided I needed to order a few for upcoming events. I have an author fest in April and two book signing events in May. Then I turned to my favorite printer and talked to her about some swag. She does wonderful work and I’m still waiting for her estimate. I thought maybe a give-away with the purchase of the latest book.

The April event is at the Public Library of Enid and Garfield County’s annual Enid Author Fest. I always enjoy this event with the meet and greet of the public. I THINK I signed up to read, and I need to be ready for that! It is April 19, 2026, at the downtown library in Enid, 120 West Maine Street, Enid, OK 73701 from noon to 4:00. I hope to see you there.

The second event is the Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc. (OWFI) always held the first weekend in May at the Embassy Suites in Oklahoma City. It is a weekend full of fun, and learning. I get to see old friends and sit with fingers crossed that maybe I won something in one of the writing categories I entered. Many of us work all year to enter this contest. Some are good enough that they throw something on paper at the last minute, but I slave over it and then jump for joy when I win. I’m old and don’t do a lot of jumping. The conference will be April 30 – May 2, 2026, at the Embassy Suites Oklahoma City Will Rogers Airport, 1815 South Meridian, Oklahoma City, OK 73108 and there is still time to join us if you like. Go to the website www.OWFI.org to enter.

The third event is the 30th anniversary of the Twister Museum and movie in Wakita, OK 101 West Main, Wakita, OK 73771 from 10 to 5 on May 16, 2026. The original movie Twister was filmed there, and they have a museum with artifacts from the movie and there will be actors from the original movie, storm chasers, food trucks, and fun that day. There will be a few writers with books set up to sell and lots of fun for the day.

Come out and join the festivities on any or all of these days to see what is going on in this great state of ours now that it is warming up. Come join the fun!

What are you reading, writing, or creating this week?

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2025 – Vanessa Lillie – Tornado Alley SinC Speaker

Posted on March 8, 2026 by peggylchambers

This year’s annual 2026 Writers Conference Tornado Alley – Sisters In Crime will be a ​One-Day Writers Conference on Saturday, March 21, 2026, 9am to 4pm CST at St. Thomas More University Parish, 100 Stinson, Norman OK 73072, $40.00 for members, $50.00 for  nonmembers, and $40 for Zoom attendees. It is always a good time! ​Vanessa Lillie will be the featured speaker. Vanessa, who grew up in Oklahoma, is an enrolled member of the Cherokee tribe and a member of Sisters in Crime. She is the USA Today bestselling author of Blood Sisters, the first in a new series centered on the stories of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. It was awarded best mystery of the year from The Washington Post, Amazon editors, and Reader’s Digest. The sequel, The Bone Thief, was recently released.

​​​Constance Squires, special guest speaker, whose latest novel, Low April Sun, is based on the Oklahoma City bombing, was  nominated for the National Book Award (2025). A winner of the Oklahoma Book award in 2012, Constance teaches a variety of courses in creative writing, with special emphasis on novel and short story at the University of Central Oklahoma.

​​​Merle Davenport, criminologist, is president of the Tulsa NightWriters, where writers help writers. He writes in a variety of genres. He and his wife collaborate on historical romance novels, turning their love story into stories for others. His new book, based on 25 years of experience teaching inside prisons as well as extensive research, is titled Echoes of the Criminal Mind.  It is written for authors to give them a better idea of how to create authentic, three-dimensional villains.

There will be a reception and book signing the night before on March 20 at Green Feather Book Company, 300 West Gray Street, Ste 108, Norman, OK 73069 from 7-9. Come by and meet the bestselling author and then attend the conference the next morning. It will be a weekend to remember!

Visit Facebook for extra information.

What are you reading, writing, or creating this week?

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2025: Smugglers of Sandhill Island

Posted on March 1, 2026 by peggylchambers

Smugglers of Sandhill Island is the final in the Sandhill Island series. If you haven’t read them, they are available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Smugglers-Sandhill-Island-Peggy-Chambers/dp/1509261788/ref=sr_1_1?crid=12FZU9RGL3USE&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.4iKLd_gxus4Ioyipwl6ANo3lmxO_iYFZEiJ4wNYYkpPGjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.5lt6uvZjgQvI-S1ZpD-orpVdc2plFfI9ngjg71l6DYw&dib_tag=se&keywords=smugglers+of+sandhill+island+peggy+chambers&qid=1772372332&sprefix=smugglers+of+sandhill+island+peggy+chambers%2Caps%2C165&sr=8-1 or bookstores everywhere and online. I love the characters who live on this little island on the Gulf coast, and I’ve come to feel they are my friends.

Sandhill Island is a small tourist island off the coast of Corpus Christi, and the characters are varied. They live their lives fishing, operating a business, teaching school, growing a garden, or singing in a local restaurant.

The book, Smugglers of Sandhill Island, is about the relationship between siblings; one hard working, the other not. And liked most siblings, they will fight each other tooth and nail, and they would fight to the death for each other.

Dani Brown grew up poor and hard working. Her brother, Cody, only grew up poor. Always wanting the easy way out, Cody ran drugs and lived his life on handouts. When they were young, Dani and Cody were inseparable, now Dani only sees him if he’s desperate. The drugs he samples and sells have started to rot his brain.

This time, Cody owes some big money to some bad people, and the only person he knows to help him is his sister. When the cartel realizes she owns a boat that could run even more drugs for them, she is torn between saving her brother and living her life. The final Sandhill Island story pits sister against brother in a life-or-death struggle.

Dani and Cody know that water can protect you or kill you, depending upon its current attitude. But they make their living off the water and don’t plan to die in its arms.

Smugglers of Sandhill Island is the final in the series. Check out the series or check out one of the books, they are stand-alone stories that can be read separately or together. I think you will like them and leave me a review. Authors love reviews.

What are you reading, writing, or creating this week?

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2026: Enid Writers Club Short Story Scholarship

Posted on February 22, 2026 by peggylchambers

ENID WRITERS CLUB
SHORT STORY SCHOLARSHIP
OPEN DATE: MONDAY, JANUARY 12th, 2026
CLOSE DATE: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28th, 2026
AWARD: $1,000 SCHOLARSHIP
Eligibility: High School Seniors attending a Garfield, Grant, or Major County OK high school
and who will be attending college/university/technical school in the 2025 school year.
Scholarship Details: Interested students will submit a maximum 2,000-word short story within
the deadline period. All genres are welcome. This year’s short story should be about an
unexpected hero. The scholarship will be sent to the school of the student’s choice and applied
to their account.
Submission Guidelines:

  • GENRE is author’s choice; TOPIC is on an unexpected hero. Submission must be PG13.
  • PAPER SIZE will be 8.5” x 11”.
  • MARGINS must be 1 inch (3cm) on all sides.
  • FONT SIZE must be 12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced.
  • COVER PAGE must include name, story title, word count, address, email address, phone
    number, and college/university/technical school to be attended.
  • PAGE NUMBERING and story title must appear in the upper right-hand corner of each page
    other than the cover sheet. Do not include your name or other identifying marks in the
    submission except on the cover page.
  • WORD COUNT must not exceed 2,000 words.
  • SUBMISSIONS
    1) USPS, postmarked no later than FEBRUARY 28th, 2026, and mailed to:
    Enid Writers Club
    ℅ St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church
    518 W. Randolph Ave.
    Enid, OK 73701
    OR
    2) Emailed to enidwriters@gmail.com in a .pdf format.
  • PLAGIARISM IS UNACCEPTABLE and will immediately disqualify the entry. You may
    quote other sources, but these sources must be appropriately referenced in an endnote (not part
    of the word count), and all quotes should make up no more than 10% of the total word count.
    Use of AI must be less than 15%. Your entry will be checked for AI and will be disqualified if
    it exceeds 15%.
    Entries will be judged on creativity, technique, expression, and originality.
    The winner will be recognized on May 7th, 2026, at the Enid Writers Club annual banquet.
    By submitting your work, you are giving Enid Writers Club the non-exclusive right to publish
    your work in any format, including print, electronic, and online media. However, all individual
    contributors to Enid Writers Club retain the right to submit their work for non-exclusive
    publication elsewhere, and you have our permission to do so.
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2026: Yesterday Was Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 15, 2026 by peggylchambers

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day, and to show what old couples do on that day, my husband and I bought each other the exact same box of candy! Ha! No, that wasn’t a plan. I guess we just have the same tastes after many, many years.  Then he bought dinner and we had it at home without the crazy crowds. Much better idea and I didn’t have to cook.

I did a little research to find out where the idea of Valentine’s Day came from and found that St. Valentine’s Day was originally a Catholic feast day to honor a third-century priest named Valentine who was executed on February 14. I don’t know if executions are a thing to celebrate, but the holiday has changed dramatically.  But then the Shakespear play Romeo and Juliet has been celebrated for many years. It is about some teenaged kids who had an affair, their families disapproved, and someone died. If the family had left them alone, they would have broken up in a week, anyway. I’m a romantic.

I have the beginnings of a novel on my computer that is a modern day take on the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche. I set the story in modern day and showed how it might have happened today. I gave them modern names with modern problems. I hope to finish it someday. It is a mild comedy with an American mother and a woman who travels to Greece to work in a museum and falls in a love with a guy she meets in a bar – and never sees except at night. Hmmm.

I don’t know how you celebrated the holiday of Valentine’s Day or Galentine’s Day, etc. but I hope you had a good time and didn’t eat too much chocolate.  But whatever you do, make sure you read, write, or create something this week.

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2026: Enid Author Fest

Posted on February 8, 2026 by peggylchambers

We’ve made it to February! You know how I feel about winter and spring is just a little more than a month away. The temperatures are beginning to feel like spring. My husband and I took a walk yesterday around the neighborhood and I’d like to do that again this afternoon.

            Spring in Oklahoma brings tornado season, but also writer season! The workshops and contests begin, and the Public Library of Enid and Garfield County has their annual Enid Author Fest.

            This year on Saturday, April 18, 2026, the public library will present the Enid Author Fest where Oklahoma authors gather in the downstairs part of the library and have a meet and greet and group book signing.

            On that Saturday afternoon, local authors from all over the state gather in one spot. There will be readings from their latest work, fun, and prizes. You can meet them, buy their books, have them signed to you, and go home with your next great read.

            If you are an Oklahoma author and would like to be involved in this, here’s the link to apply. You can sign up for free with just the donation of a signed book at Enid Public Library – Enid Public Library Opens Author Registration for 2026 Author Fest. For more information, contact the library by phone at 580-234-6313, by email at enidauthorfest@gmail.com, or by text at 580-670-2205.

                What are you reading, writing, creating, or viewing this week?

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2026: Author, Susan Harris Howell

Posted on February 1, 2026 by peggylchambers

My guest blogger today is Susan Harris Howell. She is the author of The Spirit of Vanderlaan and writes cozy mysteries. Please welcome her.

Susan, please give us a summary of The Spirit of Vanderlaan in thirty words or less: Professor Samantha Hayes and her lively ensemble of students unravel the mysterious coincidence that brought them together, as ghosts of Samantha’s past and a vindictive colleague challenge their every move.

We both write for The Wild Rose Press who publishes some of our work. Do you publish with other publishers and who? My first book, Buried Talents, is non-fiction and was published by InterVarsity Press. Buried Talents explores the many subtle ways we inadvertently discourage women from entering male-dominated occupations. And, of course, it provides a wealth of practical suggestions for changing this trajectory for the girls and women in our lives.

What are you working on now? I’m currently writing the sequel to my first novel. In The Hayes Spirit, Samantha and her entourage of students will tackle another mystery with help from Samantha’s grandfather (who just happens to be deceased).

Favorite quote (from any source): Since the theme of truth runs through each of my novels, my favorite quote is from Augustine of Hippo: “The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.” But on the lighter side – and if I may quote myself: “Give me a stale donut over a good salad any day!” Words to live by.

If stranded on an island, what one book would you keep with you? I’d probably keep my own novel with me so I could plot out all the spin-off sequels I’d like to write.

Tell us three fascinating things about you:

  1. I created a test when I was in sixth grade to pair up children on the playground with their perfect best friend. I wish I’d have had the foresight to become the creator of eHarmony.
  2. As a teenager I seriously owned approximately one thousand pictures of Donny Osmond.
  3. My favorite movie of all time is The Sound of Music. I’ve seen it a kazillion times and would love to visit Austria.

What advice do you have for other writers/artists? To keep reading and writing. Read, especially, in the genre you want to write in and read books on the craft of writing. And then of course put all that you learn into practice by writing and honing your skill.

Where can readers find you online?

My website is the best place to find me and my work: www.susanharrishowell.com  

And I hope everyone will follow me on my socials:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/susan_h_howell/

Email List & Monthly Blog:    https://susanharrishowell.substack.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/susanhowellwriter

Here are several buy links for The Spirit of Vanderlaan:  

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Vanderlaan-Samantha-Hayes-Book-ebook/dp/B0DHV65RM4?ref_=ast_author_dp

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-spirit-of-vanderlaan-susan-howell/1146282868?ean=9781509258888

World of Books: https://www.worldofbooks.com/products/spirit-of-vanderlaan-book-susan-harris-howell-9781509258888

It was great having you here, Susan, and I know we all wish you continued success. Pick up a copy of Susan’s books and as always, leave a review. Let’s get the creatives together this year!

What are you reading, writing, or creating this week?

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