2024: Hidden Gems in Enid

Posted on July 7, 2024 by peggylchambers

My hometown, Enid, Oklahoma, has been on a campaign of public art in the last few years. This particular piece is on the City Offices. We have a Mainstreet Enid group that helps keep the downtown area looking good and citizens involved. They recently received a large grant that will be used for the area downtown. We have a new hotel right next to the convention center; and breweries, shops, and restaurants are within walking distance. We’re 90 miles northwest of OKC and just right for a day trip.

Then the city took on the idea of public art—all over the city. We have several very talented artists in town and various businesses have employed them to paint murals on the side of their buildings. It’s not just graffiti. Visit Enid put out a booklet and I’ve attached a link so you can see the current art. I’m sure there are more in the planning stages.

Public Art

Over the Independence Day holiday my husband and I had relatives from Texas visit and we took them on a tour. They loved what they saw. They live in a small tourist town with plenty of murals of their own. But when we gave them the booklet to look at, they marked what they wanted to see. We drove all over town and stopped in for a beer at a local bar with a mural on the wall of their patio. They were kind enough to let us see the mural and we sat at their bar for a while visiting afterwards. A neighborhood bar with local people and local art. It doesn’t get any better.

Come to northwest Oklahoma and visit Enid. We’re friendly and some of us are artistic. The rest of us enjoy their work. But that is Another Story for another Time.

What are you reading/writing/creating this week?

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2024: Of Washing Machines and Interviews

Posted on June 30, 2024 by peggylchambers

If you follow me on Facebook you know I got a new washing machine this week. I may have squealed loudly. I take pleasure in the small things, like clean clothes. We’ve been limping along a 10-year-old washing machine with hard reboots by way of unplugging it when it gets lost in its own settings. It finally said no more.

Last year about this time I shopped at the local appliance store and replaced my 20-year-old dishwasher and probably 40-year-old oven. We wring the last of the good out of our appliances before we send them to the appliance grave. But the time had come. I remembered the appliance store had a 4th of July sale last year, I might get lucky again. And I did! Instead of wading through the big box store and then waiting weeks for delivery, I bought the washer on Wednesday, and it was delivered on Thursday. Friday, I had clean clothes.

It’s the little things in life . . .

Then another good thing happened this week. Alicia Dean interviewed me on her blog.

Author Interview with Peggy Chambers ~ Stones of Sandhill Island #RomanticSuspense ~ #WRPbks #Blog | Author Alicia Dean

 If you don’t know Ally, she is an author, editor and cheerleader for authors everywhere. She is an editor with The Wild Rose Press and she has been my editor for a while. She makes me look good.

It’s been an eventful week but has turned out well. It could have gone another way, but that is Another Story for another Time.

What are you reading/writing/creating this week?

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2024: William Kent Kreuger

Posted on June 23, 2024 by peggylchambers

I’ve been cleaning out books. If I don’t we have to build on to the house. Or I thought about crafting cards, organizing the books by the Dewey Decimal System, and checking them out to the public. But our town has a library. So, there is a pile ready to go to the Hospice group who has book sales twice a year and I’ll donate them there. I might attend the sale in October and see what other treasures I can find.

But in the clean out, I have borrowed another book from a friend. Like most writers I’m an avid reader and lately I’ve been reading—or maybe consuming—This Tender Land Amazon.com : this tender land william kent krueger by William Kent Krueger William Kent Krueger – Wikipedia. Many of his books are mysteries with Cork O’Connor as the main character. They are set in the Minnesota area and involved camping, rivers, and living off the land as our ancestors did.

This Tender Land is a “Tom Sawyer” type of saga about two brothers and a couple of friends who escape an abusive orphanage in the 1930’s and float the rivers down from Minneapolis to St. Louis. They have many adventures along the way. I haven’t finished it yet, so I won’t spoil it for you, but it has won many awards.

Krueger lives in the Minneapolis area and writes about the people who live there weaving the Native American culture in to all his books. He was greatly influenced by Hemingway and like him his writing is clean and precise.

I don’t normally review books on my blog but this one stays with me. I find it on my mind as I go through my day. Pick up a copy and see what Krueger has to say. I find reading the greats influences my writing and I couldn’t find a better one to emulate than Krueger, but that is Another Story for another Time.

What are you reading/writing/creating this week?

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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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