2017 Something New: Return to Glome’s Valley

Posted on August 6, 2017 by peggylchambers

    Something new indeed!  I want to show you the cover for the second in the Glome’s Valley series – Return to Glome’s Valley. The cover was created by the uber talented, Diana Haslett.  The release date is still to be set but it will be available this fall.  I’m so excited about this new YA book and I hope that fans of the first will find the second as much fun.  If you’re not a fan, what better time to get in on the action than with the newest installment set in southeast Oklahoma at the Heavener Runestone.

The Vinland Map, supposedly drawn by Vikings who discovered America long before Columbus, was met with as much controversy as the Heavener Runestone.  Historians were on opposite sides of a fence – some said the map was authentic, others thought it was a fake.  But maybe some mysteries shouldn’t be solved.

In the first book, Glome’s Valley, set fourteen years earlier, Ethan met Glome, the Viking ghost, and the fairies at the cottage where his father was studying the Heavener Runestone.  Now Ethan was back and news traveled fast in the forest.  Currently working on his PhD in Archeology, Ethan soon found the forest much as he left it when he was young. Only he had changed.

While making s’mores with Glome and the energetic fairies, Ethan learned that the Vinland Map lay hidden in a nearby cave. Every self-respecting archeologist had read about the map in college. And he wanted it.

Warned by Trondelag, the dragon, not to go up against Loki and the draugrs for a piece of paper to make him famous, Ethan decided to go anyway. And then there was Mac – his doppelganger from when he was young. Would he be able to protect her? With his magic sword and friends to back him up, how could he lose?

Once again Ethan revisits the runestone only to face challenges and find adventure, danger, surprises, and an epic battle.

Due out this fall, I can’t wait to introduce you once again to the magic of the forests of southern Oklahoma.

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2017 Something New: Gardens That Repel Mosquitos

Posted on July 30, 2017 by peggylchambers

    Herbal insect repellant is all over the internet this time of year.  I’ve downloaded a few recipes myself.  And when the reports hit the news that it would be one of the worst years for mosquitos in a long time, I was concerned.  I water in the evening just before dark, their favorite time of day. And I hate insect repellent all over my legs and arms. 

But I haven’t had mosquitos like in years past.  So far, I’ve had one bite from sitting on the patio reading a book until it was too dark to see. Then I realized why as I read an article about plants that repel the nasty little creatures.  It is the plants I have growing around the house!

If you’ve read my blogs in the past I talk about my Basil crop that there is no way to use.  I dried it last year and gave it away in tiny jars as Christmas presents.  The herb garden in the back serves several uses mostly for cooking. 

But in the front, I am overrun with Marigolds!  They reseed like the Basil in the back and I am unable to thin them as I should.  They’ve taken over the front flower bed and provide a lush of color to the front of the house.  These little hardy flowers take the Oklahoma sun and last into the fall. The children next door love to water and pick them. 

I also have Lemon Balm growing in the back yard next to some Mint.  It is in the same family, smells like lemon and can be used in tea or on chicken.  It makes a good ground cover where little grows and comes back each year.

The article I read mentioned Lemon Balm, Marigolds, and Basil as deterrents to mosquitos and other insects.  I guess they don’t like the way they smell.  Too bad, I think they smell lovely and they were free.  They come back each year. 

Let me know if you need a start of any of these plants.  Nature provides them to me each year and I am happy to share. 

 

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2017 Something New: Sunflowers and Hurricanes

Posted on July 23, 2017 by peggylchambers

    Meg’s solace in life is her home – and garden, and son.  The rest of the world can go away and leave her alone. The straight rows of vegetables are in direct contrast to the meandering stones leading to sunflowers and sea oats.  She functions fine by herself, making dinner from the food she grows while smelling her roses.  What else could she need? Well, her son thinks she needs a large city and a house that isn’t falling apart.

Meg and her son, Jon, were alone in the world for years after his grandfather died.  His father died before he was born. And that was fine. He and his mother were close.  But after he grew up, she went back to the island she loved when she was young.  Now he can’t protect her.

But when the secrets of Sandhill Island began to unravel, Meg opens herself up to Alex – the first man in a long time – just as hurricane season boils in the Gulf of Mexico.

Secrets of Sandhill Island, the first in the Sandhill Island series, is set on a tiny strand of land running next to Corpus Christi.  The only way on or off the island is by ferry; and that can be quaint.  Unless you need help.

Available in electronic format or paperback, Secrets of Sandhill Island is a great summer read.  Check it out and leave me a review. http://tinyurl.com/yasxweet

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2017 Something New: Stones of Sandhill Island!

Posted on July 16, 2017 by peggylchambers

    Billie Stone will get her life back if it kills her.

When the car on the wrong side of the road ran into the minivan with Billie and her family late one hot, south Texas night, her life was changed forever.  But with therapy, yoga, and meditation her doctor said she would be whole again.  Then her mother became terminally ill.

Billie is a jazz singer with a voice like dripping honey.  When she returned to Sandhill Island to live and heal, she was immediately hired to sing on the weekends at La Chez.  She came home to the island that raised her and the people she loved.  But then the man who went to jail for the death of her family came back to see her.  He felt he’d paid his debt, and now she needed to help him become an upstanding member of society again.

The threats and harassment begin, and each time Billie thinks she sees a light at the end of a long dark tunnel, Joe Franks, the man who killed her family, is the freight train coming straight at her. Her friends try to protect her.  Her therapist gives her tools to use for healing, and the courts offer a protective order. But Billie knows she is the only one who can make things right again.

She finds a new love, accepts a pregnant stray dog to live with her; she should have everything in life she needs, but Franks is always pulling the rug out from under her.  If it weren’t for her music, she might never get out of bed again.

Stones of Sandhill Island is the second in the Sandhill Island Series.  It will be released soon and I just received the cover this week.  It is beautiful and sets the tone of the story.  Life on Sandhill Island is gentle and calming – except when it’s not.  Like the first story, Secrets of Sandhill Island, there is suspense, romance, and characters you will love and hate.

Stones of Sandhill Island to be released soon from The Wild Rose Press. I can’t wait to show it to you!

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2017 Something New: A Starry, Starry Night

Posted on July 9, 2017 by peggylchambers

    A great friend had a birthday this week – a kind, gentle soul who has been spreading her love on this earth for a long time – so we had to have a party to celebrate.  Last night twenty of our closest friends celebrated on her patio and gazebo under the moon and patio lights.  Even though it was hot, we had food and drink and sang happy birthday while the lights twinkled and the fans blew away as much heat as possible.  To borrow from the movie Throw Mamma from the Train, the night was sultry!

Writers are a special kind of people.  They love greatly, express themselves well, and enjoy life.  I thought of the literary greats who met at coffee houses (or bars) and discussed their latest creation.  And we did. We spoke of life and fiction, travels and old times.  The moon rose and the heat subsided.  We stayed later than we should and exhausted our hostess.  But I know she loved it even as the ice cream melted onto the table cloth.

This morning when I went back to gather my things and clean up, she was talking about when we could do it again and how we could make it better.  I doubt we could make it better; it was a starry, starry night.  But we can try.  Maybe spring or fall when it is not as hot, but what are you going to do when you’re a July baby?  Birthdays come when they do, you can’t adjust the weather.

I look forward the next time.  We can eat, drink and be merry. Mostly we can enjoy the company.  You don’t have to have a birthday to enjoy your friends.

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2017 Something New: Glome’s Valley and Return to Glome’s Valley

Posted on July 2, 2017 by peggylchambers

     The forests of Oklahoma are magical and is the setting for a Peter Pan-type Oklahoma fairytale, Glome’s Valley and the soon-to-be-released Return to Glome’s Valley.

When Ethan came to Heavener, Oklahoma he didn’t believe in ghosts, fairies, or smelly trolls.  He never had a sword fight and never helped rescue a princess.  But there was a first time for everything.

He was sure he would be bored on this trip and missed his friends back home, but he quickly made new ones.

While his father tried to solve the mysteries surrounding the Heavener Runestone, Ethan was solving his own mysteries and exploring the valleys in the area where his dad  worked.

The Festival of the Full Moon was right around the corner and Ethan and his new friends had to rescue Hilda from her flowery prison before the trolls came for her.

But Loki also worked his magic and Ethan’s father might have to summon Thor’s help with the app on his phone that converts ancient Futhark into English.

Check out Glome’s Valley on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, in paperback or e-published.  It is also available at the Heavener Runestone Park gift shop.

Return to Glome’s Valley will be released this summer. Keep an eye out for the cover reveal coming soon!

 

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Small Pleasures from the Garden

Posted on June 27, 2017 by peggylchambers

Ilove this Shannon! I may try to make some.

slmcpartland's avatarlifeongreenheronpond

In late May Dan and I had just returned from a road trip visiting siblings across Iowa and Wisconsin. These two states boast some of the most lush, organized and pristine countrysides I recollect ever seeing.  The farms and fields in both Wisconsin and Iowa are impeccable or so it appears to occupants of speeding vehicles. This vehicular observer watched the undulating green, the orderly rows of crops, farm implements, houses and barns with great amazement.  Kansas lands rarely boast as great an order or green due to our frequent winds, blast furnace summers and “dip down past zero” winters.  I think it is the extremes that spell the difference here.  However, since we have returned to Kansas and the June calendar says Summer, the strong winds have been sporadic and leisurely rain showers have caught us unawares; making the days more temperate- giving the illusion of a soft warm…

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2017 Something New: Garlic

Posted on June 24, 2017 by peggylchambers

             A few years ago, a nice lady gave me some garlic to plant.  I knew nothing about it, but I had a small budding herb garden and I found a place to put it.  It was early fall and she said to plant it now and I should be able to use it in the spring.

            Believe it or not, it came up!

            By mid-summer it was it was dead – or so I thought.  Like I said, I knew nothing about garlic so I was completely surprised when it reappeared in the fall.  What was I supposed to do with this stuff?  She had it growing outside the house and it covered one side of a shed waist high.  I had a small plant or two and no ideas. 

            I dug up one plant to see what I had, looking for the traditional globe with cloves inside –  it looked like a green onion.  I put it back in the ground, apologized, and gave it water.

            This year they are back and began to curl and put out a seed pod.  This top was what I was given to plant.  I found out they are a head of tiny garlic grains that can be used whole and unpeeled in place of minced garlic. http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/gardening/advice/a18057/growing-garlic-460709/

            I still have not harvested the garlic and let it dry like I should.        

            In my tiny herb garden, I have Rosemary, Lavender, Dill, Chives, Garlic and enough basil to take care of the county.  It comes up from seed dropped the year before, even in the cracks of the concrete.  If I had some tomatoes, I could make a killer spaghetti sauce. 

            Anyone have any tomatoes in the Enid area?

 

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2017 Something New: Characters You Can’t Kill

Posted on June 11, 2017 by peggylchambers

    I saw the newest Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Men Tell No Tales yesterday.  I’ve always loved these movies brought to life from a ride at Disney Land.  The writers knew they had a goldmine before they even started.  And they took the idea and made it better.  They created unforgettable characters. 

Capt. Jack Sparrow is a loveable, disgusting, drunk who never runs out of luck.  He makes the stories – and Johnny Depp takes the character and makes it huge.  But before Johnny Depp, there was the writer who created this creature. 

I marveled at the creativity behind this character.  What made him so adorable and enduring? Why do we root for the underdog, the womanizer, pirate, and man-without-a-bath?  Could it be that we identify with him?  Or could it be that we tend to believe that underdogs put forth more effort than top-dogs, or use all available resources to their advantage? Underdogs are not expected to win and that is what makes them extraordinary.

Jack Sparrow certainly uses all available resources to his advantage.  Remember the chase round and round the water wheel, his meeting with the Kraken face to face, or the guillotine in the latest movie?

Creating a memorable character takes exaggeration.  Of all the things you know about the character you’ve created, what one or two things can you exaggerate to make it larger than life?  Because that is your goal. Jack Sparrow drinks more than most people’s liver could accommodate and still he can run from the bad guys when most of us would be sleeping it off.

What are your character’s goals in life?  Jack Sparrow had only one goal in life – to captain the Black Pearl – alive or dead.  He had no connections to anyone, no family, no responsibilities to anyone but himself.  He was free to do whatever he pleased and he pleased to be drunk and a pirate.

Creating an underdog is more fun than a hero – unless your underdog is the hero.  As an underdog, he can bumble his way through life making mistakes that would stop most mortal men.  Maybe you could make your hero clumsy, ugly, or wretched in some way  so that other characters don’t expect much from him.  But they will be surprised.

I’m on a quest to create a marvelous unforgettable character in my current WIP.  I still have not achieved that goal.  But much like an underdog, I will eventually get the job done, because I have resources. 

What’s your latest WIP?

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2017 Something New: Working Through the Writing Process

Posted on June 4, 2017 by peggylchambers

    #amwriting and with that, #amconfused.

I began a new novel lately that I based on three short stories I’d written earlier.  So cool, I thought!  Half of it is already done for me. This will be great. Hah! As all writers know, writing comes from the heart and is an expression of your artistic view of the world.  You can’t rush art.

And I had to start all over again on the fabulous idea I had.

First of all, it didn’t follow the rules of story structure with all the abstract characters.  The short stories were good but they didn’t meld into one big novel.  How could I get these characters to all go after one common goal – and then there was the new protagonist.

My story was all over the place.  I had to write and rewrite making sure my main character was in charge.  What if . . ., no that won’t work.  Okay, then if . . . I outlined.  I broke my story into three acts.  I wrote out the internal and external conflict of my protagonist and made sure I had one antagonist – not a whole platoon of them. She couldn’t fight the world and win.

Finally, I had to admit that the three short stories had to just be characterizations and back story.  I couldn’t use the short stories as the basis of this novel.  The basis was the new main character and her blending with the others.    

So, I took out the short stories – keeping them handy just in case – and began again.  This time I concentrated on the main character’s struggles and making sure her stakes were high enough to keep her going toward a main goal.  Then the short story characters could come in to help now and then. 

The answer to my problem was – you can’t take shortcuts.  You must begin at the beginning and, like eating an elephant, you do it one bite at a time.

I’m back on track now and beginning some work with my critique group.  They are the backbone of all my writing and if they had seen the mess I made in the beginning, they’d still be laughing. 

#amwriting and no longer confused.

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