2024: The Mystery of the Multiplying Blue Wine Bottles

Posted on August 4, 2024 by peggylchambers

I have a mystery this week in my own front flower garden. The mystery of the multiplying cobalt blue wine bottles.

I planted some boxwood bushes a few years ago separated by river rock and pots of flowers. I thought it would be easy to keep weeded and take care of itself. I was wrong. Weeds still come up in between the rocks and around the bushes no matter what I do and in this weather it needs nightly watering. But it’s pretty!

Cobalt blue is my favorite color. My house has gray-blue trim and I love a Riesling wine. And they bottle it in blue bottles. I had read that you could fill a bottle with water and stick it in the soil for self-watering. If it doesn’t just all run out at once, or clog the bottle neck with mud, it is a sound idea. It seldom works as it should. But they’re a beautiful cobalt blue!

People often ask, “Did you drink all that yourself? All at once?” No, I collected them and asked a few friends to do the same for me. I stuck them in the pots and dirt so the blue would shine in the sun. It works as a decoration and conversation piece.

I water each night in this 100-plus-degree heat and last night I noticed the bottles were multiplying! I know nothing about the mating habits of blue wine bottles, but they are replicating! There are several more bottles in my flower bed tonight than last night.

I asked the contractor who is doing some work for us. He had mentioned them. But he said he knew nothing about the mystery of the multiplying cobalt blue bottles.

Recently a neighbor I didn’t know came by with her granddaughter selling candy bars for a school project. Of course I bought them, they were chocolate and had something to do with books for a library. I was hooked. We talked about the wine bottles as we stood on the porch. I need to ask her if she was so kind as to add to my collection. But that is Another Story for another Time.

What are you reading/writing/creating this week?

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2024: 100,000 Miles!

Posted on July 28, 2024 by peggylchambers

I officially have an old car. Sigh. My 2014 pearl finish Equinox is about to run over 100,000 miles. It lacks 24 miles and I watch it like a hawk. I want to see the transition. I can’t believe it will be 10 years old in August and it still looks new, well almost. There was that blind driver who left a deep gouge in the driver’s side front panel and drove away. I found it that way when I got back to the parking lot.

Monday the Equinox goes into the body shop to buff out the wet concrete that the concrete cutting machine slung on it as I crossed the overpass in town. I filed a claim for enough to buff it out. Car washings didn’t get it clean.

I’ve put 3 batteries and 2 sets of tires on this car and there was the one time that it blew a chip in the traction control area, which blew another, and then another . . . That cost me almost $1700. But aside from that the car has been great. I even bought the CD to update the GPS. Yes, it has a CD player.

I may have been born with new car fever. My dad was always buying and selling cars and restoring old ones. I was often in the garage with him to help with minor things. He used to pay me to wash, wax, and clean the inside of his vehicles and taught me to shine up the white sidewall tires before I could drive them. I tried to get Dad to read Stephen King’s Christine. He wasn’t much of a reader. He was a mechanic.

I love a shiny new car and that new car smell. My local dealership obviously knows this and I get emails and texts weekly showing me what they have that they’d love to sell me. I love new cars. I hate car payments.

So, for now, the Equinox and I are good friends. When it starts to break monthly costing me more than monthly payments, I will trade it in. But for now, it is clean, full of gas, and in the garage waiting to roll over the last 24 miles. But that is Another Story for another Time.

What are you reading/writing/creating this week?

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2024: Lucky Number 13!

Posted on July 21, 2024 by peggylchambers

I am once again honored to tell you that I just signed a contract with The Wild Rose Press for (drum roll please) book number seven with them! This is the final Sandhill Island novel. The first two novels were Secrets of Sandhill Island Secrets of Sandhill Island: A beachside mysterious romantic thriller – Kindle edition by Chambers, Peggy. Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. and Stones of Sandhill Island Amazon.com: Stones of Sandhill Island: A beachside mysterious romantic thriller eBook : Chambers, Peggy: Books. The novella, Strawberry Sundae Delights Strawberry Sundae Delights: A Sandhill Island Romantic Mystery (One Scoop or Two) – Kindle edition by Chambers, Peggy. Romance Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. was also set on the fictional island off the coast of Corpus Christi. And the final one, Smugglers of Sandhill Island is finished. It is heading for edits and cover creation and should be on the shelves in about a year.

This book is my thirteenth book—lucky thirteen—and I’m so excited to show it to you. Even though I’ll be sad to see Sandhill Island in the rearview mirror, there’s more ahead. I’ll probably die with a to-be-read and a to-be-written pile. I don’t know how I would ever stop. Stories are in my blood, and I have a great support system with my family and my publishers, so how can I not keep going?

Please be patient with the process. The Wild Rose Press has many writers to care for and I’m in line with this latest story in the Sandhill Island saga. They were kind enough to agree to publish it and I am thrilled.

I’ll let you know when I have a release date and I’ll keep you informed along the way. I know there will be a cover reveal and I can’t wait to see what they come up with for the cover of the latest book (I have a few ideas). But that is Another Story for another Time.

What are you reading/writing/creating this week?

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2024: I Hope You Beat the Heat

Posted on July 14, 2024 by peggylchambers

It’s hot outside! Not a news break, I know, but beating the heat in Oklahoma seems to be a fulltime job these days. I don’t handle the heat the way I used to.

When I was young with young children, we had an old house with window air conditioners and ceiling fans. We played in the sprinkler and ate popsicles. The kids played baseball and tennis and we cooled off at the neighborhood pool where I lifeguarded and taught swimming to the whole town. I was outside as much as I was inside. My husband worked as an aircraft mechanic on the flightline inevitably in the daytime during the summer and at night during the winter. We were young and the weather didn’t affect us as much as it does now.

Lately as I water my flowerbeds before dark in the evening, I try to keep the poor plants alive in the blistering heat. I made sure I bought heat-resistant plants that take little water, but this year has been one for the books.

I am thankful for central air conditioning and plenty of water. I hydrate constantly and work inside as much as possible. My husband has a riding lawnmower and still I worry about him as he mows. We aren’t as young as we once were.

I made a donation to the local thrift store yesterday and as I drove down the alley I was in line behind several trucks doing the same thing. My air conditioner was humming and I listened to music while I waited. There were three young people out in the heat unloading the donations from the trucks and me. I hope they had a way to cool off and could get inside after my car went through. It is too hot for that kind of work. But they persevered with smiles.

The heat in Oklahoma is always bad. We’ve had storms to go with it this year but we are a resilient bunch and we always manage to survive. I hope you are staying as cool as possible and are taking care of your neighbors in this heat. But that is Another Story for another Time.

What are you reading/writing/creating this week?

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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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