2024: The Best Father’s Day Ever

Posted on June 16, 2024 by peggylchambers

It’s Father’s Day! Time to celebrate fathers near and far. My family celebrated by going to a steakhouse last night and it was wonderful. We waited on a table for an hour and had that time to enjoy each other’s company. The steaks were good, but the camaraderie was better. My grandson and his fiancé were there talking weddings while we all stuffed our faces with food.

Today, it is just me and my husband to do whatever he wants to do on his special day.

My father and father-in-law are both gone and the family is not as big as it used to be. We don’t have any great-grandchildren. But we are family.

I wanted to buy my husband a new grill for a father’s day gift, but he is happy with the old. Maybe the bottom will fall out of it and he’ll eventually have to have a new one. But he said no. I have no ideas for a gift so it will be the gift of time instead of something that fits into a box. The gift of presence, not presents. We have enough stuff.

I hope you have a great father’s day. I hope your father, or the person who acted as your father, feels celebrated. Fatherhood isn’t an easy task sometime, but it’s rewarding. I can say that with confidence being a parent. Parenthood though sometimes thrust upon you, is the best thing you will ever do, but that is Another Story for another Time.

What are you reading/writing/creating this week?

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2024: Book Signings and Old Friends

Posted on June 9, 2024 by peggylchambers

Yesterday was another milestone. I had a book signing with a fellow classmate from Enid High School. I won’t tell you the year we graduated. I don’t want you fainting. But we’re both still active and not in the obituaries yet.

Mary McIntyre Coley Mary Coley – Mystery Novels, Female Sleuths and I graduated together never knowing we both wanted to be authors. We went our separate ways, married, had children, worked and finally retired. Then we ran back into each other by way of our writing. She called me by name at the Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc. (OWFI) conference and I thought, that woman looks so familiar. Then I read her name tag. She included her maiden name on the tag, I had not. But she still recognized me so many years later. I was impressed. Since then we talk now and then and help each other promote our books.

Mary and I both studied under Mrs. Dorothy Cozart at Enid High in her Great Books and Creative Writing classes. We both grew up reading Nancy Drew (you aren’t too young to know who that is, right?)

She has a new book out set in our hometown of Enid, Crumbling Bones, and she was promoting it with a book signing at Putnam Six Books. She asked me to join her. And we had a good time, sold a few books, and saw a few old friends. (the friendships were old, not the friends)

I just sent a new manuscript to the publisher and hope to see it on the shelves soon. I’m sure Mary will support me in my efforts. Writing is hard work and authors need all the support they can get.

Pick up a copy of Mary’s new book Crumbling Bones on her website or Amazon.com. It is Another Story for another Time.

What are you reading/writing/creating this week?

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2024: Sandhill Island – Again!

Posted on June 3, 2024 by peggylchambers

If you follow this blog, you might have realized I didn’t post anything yesterday. I normally post on Sunday morning and it’s Monday evening. I’ve been on vacation. But I wanted you to know I’ve been working diligently to write the final Sandhill Island novel. Yes, it will be the last time I visit the island—in my mind. I’ve sent the manuscript to my editor and hope that within the year it will be in print. In the meantime, you can get caught up with all the characters on Sandhill Island if you are so inclined.

Sandhill Island is an imaginary island off the coast of Corpus Christi that is connected to the mainland by a ferry that runs four times a day. But it has become my second home over the years. There are three stories published so far, two novels and a novella, and the third novel is almost finalized. I’m spending time with all the characters one more time and wrapping up their stories. And it is exciting! After all, there are smugglers.

Smugglers of Sandhill Island involves a couple of new characters and most of the old characters make an appearance or two. Dani and her brother Cody have lived on and near the island all their lives. Dani has worked hard to make a living for herself on the ocean she loves, Cody lives on the edge and has become involved with some guys who only see Dani’s boat as a great way to smuggle drugs. Dani will have none of that, until they kidnap her brother.

At first my main character was named Mel (Melanie). I liked that it fit her. Until she had a conversation with an original character, Meg, from the first book. Meg is in all the books and a mainstay on the island. So, Mel became Dani (Danielle). It was difficult for me to let go of Mel, but it had to happen. She agreed and I renamed her. I will get used to it. But Dani is a force to be reconned with and she will make certain the world knows she was here. I think you will like her.

I hope you have read the first three Sandhill Island stories, but if not, I think you will still like this one. I do, and I can’t wait to show it to you! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

What are you reading/writing this week?

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2024: Memorial Day

Posted on May 26, 2024 by peggylchambers

It’s Memorial Day weekend—the unofficial beginning of summer—and a day of remembrance. Originally the day was set aside to remember veterans and their sacrifices during war. It has become more of a time to remember people who have passed on. Both are commendable.

My mother-in-law used to decorate graves all across the region and said if she didn’t who would? I seldom decorate graves anymore. I remember the people who have left us and that seems enough.

But Memorial Day for the military involves my father, James Leo Osburn. He was born in northeast Arkansas and grew up on a farm during the Great Depression. He went into the military and became an aircraft mechanic. He was ultimately sent to Guadalcanal to work on battle-scared aircraft on Henderson Field after the island was taken over from the Japanese. He spent several years there and then came home to marry the girl he left behind.

They had three children and he used his skills to support a family gathering FAA certifications along the way. At home, he always had a project and an organized garage. I once told my grade-school class there was an airplane in our garage. They didn’t believe me so I brought them home with me. A small two-seater fiberglass body aircraft sat diagonally in the detached two-car garage; the wings slid along the side walls. It had been wrecked and he bought it and put it back together. It eventually flew again with him as the pilot, and then he sold it and moved on to the next project.

He spent his career in aviation, working up to management and spent some time at NASA working for a contractor doing the same thing during the Skylab project. It was the highlight of his career, but Houston was not for Mom, so they moved home.

He and Mom raised three daughters and often one of them helped in the garage when he needed someone to hand him tools or “push this when I tell you.”

It’s Memorial Day weekend and on top of cooking a burger on the grill, I’ll remember the man closest to me who went to war and came home with an education. He raised a family and worked hard using the skills he learned from the military.

Thank you, Dad, I love you. But that is Another Story another Time.

What are you reading/writing/creating this week?

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2024: Craft Shows and Novels

Posted on May 19, 2024 by peggylchambers

Yesterday I had a book signing downtown at a craft show. Sometimes books sell at craft shows, and sometimes people are looking for other things. I was set up at a table with my sister who makes the most adorable stuffed dragons, wolves, and yarn puff balls with googlie eyes.. The Marketplace at the Stride Center in Enid has a craft show about 4 or 5 times a year and it was a hoppin’ place! Creative people as far as the eye could see.

When I got there I found we had a nice table up front. Directly across from us sat a fiber artist who had made the most beautiful crocheted stuffed animals from chenille thread. But they were different from my sister’s and we both had plenty of customers. Inside the main room were baked goods, jelly, lemonade, jewelry, more stuffed animals, and tons of other things. In another part of the huge building a dance competition was ongoing and lots of kids in costume came through between their competitions. Two little girls loved the dragons and especially the one my sister was still working on. They came back several times to see if it was finished. They bought 2 by the end of the day.

Novels were an anomaly. But I sold several. Readers are everywhere and it didn’t hurt that I was the only novelist in the place. I saw several old friends.

They have a Christmas craft show that I should attend. I paid for my table rent and made a little money. But more importantly, I spent the day with my sister and old friends. Today, I straighten out the mess I drug home with me. But that is Another Story another Time.

What are you reading/writing/creating this week?

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2024: Happy Mother’s Day!

Posted on May 12, 2024 by peggylchambers

It’s Mother’s Day! A day to celebrate mothers across the world and all that they have accomplished.

My grandmother had 8 children during the Great Depression in Arkansas and grew a huge vegetable garden along with chickens, orchards, and a milk cow. Everything a family could need. She worked hard and no one went hungry.

My mother only had 3 but she kept a house so clean you could eat off the floor and cooked most every meal, made most every dress, and no one went hungry.

It is a thing in my family, no one ever goes hungry! I’ve cooked my share of meals too. I was a young mother of 2 and now a grandmother of 5—all grown and on their own. All accomplished and no one goes hungry! (That’s a thing with mothers you know, constant worry about not doing their job)

My family took me out to a nice Italian restaurant last night to celebrate the mothers in the group. I loved seeing all of them as usual.

Mothers are the salt of the earth (so are fathers, but that is another blog). They worry, plan, and try to make sure the whole family is happy, healthy, and sometimes wise.

I was a mother too young, and then they were gone too soon. But I loved what I did and still do. I’d do it again. But that is Another Story another Time. Happy Mother’s Day!

What are you reading/writing this week?

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2024: Col. Eileen Collins – NASA Space Shuttle Commander

Posted on May 5, 2024 by peggylchambers

I spent 15 years as the admin for the simulator section at Vance AFB and made some life-long friends there. I still have breakfast with the employees who are now retired but had long and exciting careers. I kept the office running for them. And along the way, they taught US Air Force pilots to fly. Some became famous.

Col. Eileen Collins is a real American Hero as well as a local one. Born in New York, my hometown of Enid, OK also claims her since she graduated from flight training at Vance AFB.

Her Air Force pilot education took place at Vance and she remained as an instructor pilot for three years. She applied and was accepted into test pilot training and eventually to NASA as an astronaut. Along the road she earned advance degrees in mathematics and economics. Somehow she found time to become a wife and mother of two.

As an American astronaut, she flew the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1995 to the Soviet Space Station, Mir, and orbited around it. It was the first time a female pilot flew a Space Shuttle mission.

In 1997 she piloted the Space Shuttle Atlantis and this time docked with Mir.

In 1999 she became the first female commander of the Space Shuttle Columbia.

In 2005 in NASA’s the return to flight after the Columbia disaster, she was commander of the Discovery bringing home the Expedition 6 Crew from the International Space Station.

She paved the way for women in the field and has encouraged others to follow in her footsteps.

She retired from the Air Force in 2005 with the rank of Colonel and from NASA in 2006. Her awards include Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, and many others including The Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy.

Her autobiography, Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars: The Story of the First American Woman to Command a Space Mission, https://www.amazon.com/Through-Glass-Ceiling-Stars-American/dp/1950994058/ref=sr_1_1?crid=HAWME2KMJPNZ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.R4RuhWRU1lt99BbmYiU58QyzApDYWP4BcKiYi3wI4uZA822SWcx0xN2pdxYTN_JViyXIy19LtJL2l906uyn75WXqe5Assda87ByBmd2QJqgyDim8QySfyXTI0qIFrDZ8A10eDmWg3MRo8byXmi2n_3-KoVW-O_tqwr-zVFS5Ow3DOxSqs5CXnVB6L3BIyFxiCF1SJCrwJb0E6F3QW6-XaqfOYgnjPSZC-lZLaUtJzUE.p1hBq9Y-L4Rjr3dY3oQqjjxQcIsRMJa7d-LTmXnKQiE&dib_tag=se&keywords=through+the+glass+ceiling+to+the+stars&qid=1714510034&sprefix=through+the+glass+st%2Caps%2C209&sr=8-1 chronicles her accomplishments privately and professionally.

She has been invited to be the keynote speaker at the graduating class at Vance in May. Since she will be in Enid that week, she generously agreed to sign copies of her book at Putnam Six bookstore on May 15, 2024, from 5-7.

I am looking forward to meeting her and getting a copy of her book. But that is Another Story another Time.

What are you reading/writing this week?

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2024: The Saga of the Daylily

Posted on April 28, 2024 by peggylchambers

It’s gardening season, the eternal struggle between garden and gardener. And the older I get the more of a struggle it becomes.

I wonder if God looks down his nose at me when I pull some of his creations out and throw them in the trash. Afterall, a daylily is a flower. I just don’t want it there. For those of you who have dealt with daylilies, you know they are invasive. If I had a large lot, I’d let them take over a spot, but not in the middle of my dwarf pampas grass in my front flower bed.

The saga of my daylilies has been going on for many years. A friend moved and wanted to take some of her daylilies with her. They lined the side of the old house. So, I dug them up, took them to her, and brought a few to my yard. Mistake! Now they are everywhere. The ones along the back fence (which is being replaced as I write this) will probably survive the fencing crew. But the one that came up in the middle of my ornamental grass, had to go.

Enid is in the middle of a drought. I watered a couple of days ago with plans to dig out the ornamental grass/daylily mass. My plan was to dig it all up and sort it out. Throw out the invader and replace the intended plant. The ground was hard as a rock in the Oklahoma wind. Or maybe it was the old gardener on the other end of the shovel. But it was not as easy as I just stated.

In the end, I persevered. I got the clump out of the soil and sorted out the problem plant. I am sure there are still tubers in the soil that will raise their ugly (I mean lovely) heads sometime. My shovel and I will be ready. But that is Another Story another Time.

What are you reading/writing this week?

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2024: Author Events and High School Reunions

Posted on April 21, 2024 by peggylchambers

It was an eventful and busy weekend.

I participated in the annual Enid Author Fest with 40 of Oklahoma’s finest authors. We hobnobbed, read our work to the public, and sold a few books. It is always great to see the people I know and meet a few I didn’t. I managed to come home with a few to read as well.

I am a member of the Enid Writers Club and the Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc.(OWFI). Each year in May OWFI has a conference in Oklahoma City with agents, authors, publishers, publicists and anyone else who is interested in writing. There are writing sessions all weekend and all types of writing are discussed. It takes place over a long weekend and once again I get to visit with authors I know. I have learned so much about writing from these people that I owe them a lot.

It was also a weekend for my high school reunion. My husband and I went to high school together and graduated at the same time so we know a lot of the same people. But it was good to see them again. Enid High had a graduating class of 675 people the year we graduated, and there were about 80 of us at the reunion. But we still got to see each other. I found out one of the women I went to school with just moved in around the corner from me. We will renew that friendship in the near future.

Between the two events, I hugged and laughed a lot. I was so tired when I got home from the Author Fest, I could hardly put my books away but at least they are back where they belong.

OWFI is in a couple of weeks and my dog and pony show will be back on the road again. But that is Another Story another Time.

What are you reading/writing this week?

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2024: Of Flowerbeds and Winding Roads

Posted on April 14, 2024 by peggylchambers

Spring blossoms are beginning to pop up their pretty heads and it is planting time. My tired achy body doesn’t do as much of that as I used to. But it is time for a trip to the greenhouse.

I still have not cleaned out my flower beds. My husband has been sick and they forecast potential tornadoes for tomorrow. So, maybe I should wait. But I need to get my beds ready for the summer growing season.

I long for a spring vacation, I’ve spent too much time in the house over the winter but I’ve almost finished a novel. I have a couple of weekend trips planned but I’d love a long winding road with little to do and much to see.

I have a friend who is trekking the Camino de Santiago El Camino de Santiago Hiking Tour | MT Sobek – Mountain Travel Sobek in Spain and loving it though his dogs are barkin’! I wish I were young enough to do that. My husband and I went to Zimbabwe on a hunting trip when we were middle aged and it was a trip of a lifetime. I keep thinking about a train ride through the national parks. I have another friend who is leaving for a weeklong trip to Ireland this week with her family. Sigh. I guess I’ll write a blog and dream.

But, instead, I think I’ll get busy on those flower beds. Day lilies have overtaken my ornamental grass. I thought the lilies were long gone, but I guess not. They area so invasive! There are leaves in the south bed and grass in the herb garden. Time to get out the hoe and get to work.

My grandmother lived in the Ozarks and raised 8 kids on a farm with fruit trees, a milk cow, chickens, and a giant vegetable garden during the Great Depression. And I’m griping about weeding a little flower bed or two.

But it’s spring and it is to be enjoyed. I need to get busy.

Another Story another Time. What are you reading/writing this week?

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