BALANCING MY LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Posted on August 17, 2014 by peggylchambers

DSCN0899    Say goodbye to my little friend.  I bought a new car!  I just went from a 2009 Toyota Corolla to a 2014 Chevy Equinox with all the bells and whistles.  It is like going from a skateboard to a fighter jet.  It’is too high-tech for me and I have a ton to learn: nav systems, syncing my phone, etc. They call it the Infotainment system.  I imagine some marketing person at Chevrolet got raise for that play on words.  I’m being drug kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

They say you can’t teach old dogs new tricks.  I say give the old dog a little more time.  She still has some life left in her.  She may learn more slowly than she used to, but she still learns.

I wanted the navigation system because as soon as I get out of my hometown I’m lost.  I need help and can’t be looking at a map at the same time as I drive.  So, I told the salesman I really needed the built-in GPS.  Now I have to learn to use it.  The plan is to map out the route to Wal-Mart from now on so I practice.  Actually, I can find Wal-Mart, but I need to learn to use this monster and remind it who is boss or it will run over me.

After making the deal this week with Ashley Allen and Northcutt Chevrolet in Enid, I told my friend at work what I had done.  “I want your old car!” she exclaimed.  Well, I already had struck a deal.  But I called and talked to the salesman and he agreed to just take a check instead of a trade in.  Sara was happy.  She got a new car too, and I think she really needed it.  I’m delivering it to her today after a little clean up.  She probably doesn’t want my dog’s hair in her new car. When I came back in from moving the cars to clean, my husband asked how the backup camera on the Equinox was.  I forgot to look at it!

So wish me luck.  I’m off to study how to fly my new jet fighter.  I have the books stacked beside me.  I probably need a checklist strapped to my leg and dressed in a flight suit. Love that new car smell!    DSCN0901

 

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BALANCING SUNFLOWERS AND THE END OF SUMMER

Posted on August 10, 2014 by peggylchambers

sunflower    I’ve been on a hunt for sunflowers lately.  All sizes, all shapes, the important thing was that they were yellow.  I want sunflowers in my yard and I’ve found a few wild ones off the side of the road, but by the time I was preparing my shovel, they were gone.  Victims of the mighty roadside crews keeping things cleaned up after all the rain we’ve had this year.

A neighbor in the addition has huge ones growing in her curb-side garden and was kind enough to give me one as I walked the dog one evening.  She said they came up from seed scattered from last year’s crop and she kept them for the birds.  She also said to come back later and she would give me some seeds once they’re dry.  She was such a dear and I plan to take her up on that offer later in the season.

In my book Secrets of Sandhill Island, Meg grows sunflowers in her vegetable garden and Alex says they remind him of her hair in the sunshine.  She is in her element on the beach in the sun, he tells her as he warms heart and brings her out of her self-induced shell.  Sunflowers can do that – well that and a good man.

A great summer should have a balance of sunflowers and good beach-reads.  Secrets of Sandhill Island – due out soon – fills the bill with both.  Summer is quickly coming to a close and the sunflowers will be gone soon.  I hope to find some to plant for next year. Summers are never long enough.

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BALANCING A MIDDLE READER BOOK

Posted on August 3, 2014 by peggylchambers

Glome's Valley Cover  In my book Glome’s Valley, Ethan is trying to make the best of a boring summer while his father solves an ancient riddle that has plagued archeologists for years. Ethan and his dad go to Heavener, Oklahoma to read the ancient rune stone, and he was sure he would be bored on this trip.  But, he quickly makes new friends.  So what if one of them is a ghost!

            Just when Ethan was sure he couldn’t get back home by himself, they topped a hill and his nose was assaulted with the most wonderful scent.  There on the other side of the hill were trees in bloom with flowers of every color in the rainbow.  The sun bounced off the valley that almost glowed. 

            Lilacs bloomed on both sides of a pathway that led into the valley.  Dogwoods rained down their petals like it was snowing, but more instantly grew back in their place.  The promise of spring and bounty was all around with apple and peach trees in bloom.  Butterflies floated on a layer of fragrant air in the leafy shadows.  Birds chirped and rabbits munched on tender violet leaves.  Ethan thought it was the most beautiful place on earth. 

            Glome stopped and squatted down. Ethan mimicked him even though he didn’t know why, but maybe he needed to do the same.  Glome picked up a handful of dirt and ran it through his fingers.  He sniffed the air.  “It’s safe,” he proclaimed.  “The trolls aren’t here,” and he motioned everyone forward.

            Glome and the fairies crept slowly into the fragrant woods with their swords drawn. With no sword of his own, Ethan picked up a stick knowing it was not much of a weapon against a troll.

When your son gets lost in the forest of southeastern Oklahoma and you are trying to decipher the ancient words on the Heavener rune stone, there’s an app for that.  Glome’s Valley is a pre-teen fantasy book e-published and available at Amazon.com for the Kindle, IPad, IPod, IPhone, Android Smart Phone or PC.   Check it out!

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BALANCING A ROYALTY CHECK

Posted on July 27, 2014 by peggylchambers

1009952_10151834907161920_2018758238_n    I GOT A ROYALTY CHECK!  I was so excited this week when the mail arrived with a small royalty check for The Apocalypse Sucks, I celebrated with a deposit in the bank! (I gotta get a life)  It’s not the money, but the fact that someone out there bought my book from Amazon.  I’ve sold some at book signings and workshops, but that was my first royalty check from Airship 27.

Just in case you haven’t read it (and if you have, please leave me a review on Amazon) it is a great little story about friendship – no, it is a dark comedy about life after a virus takes out most of humanity.  But, even though it is about survival, it is also about doing anything you can for those you love.  It is a story about the unconquerable human spirit and the will to live, even if you wake up looking like a bat after surviving a very high fever.  A comedy you say?  The two main characters, Sandra and Molly would die for each other, if they don’t kill each other first.  They were not friends before they were left to survive in a world gone mad, but life has changed.

The book started out as a short story about what women would do after an apocalypse – would they still go shopping when they needed a good bra and lip gloss?  What would you do?  Bras don’t last forever you know.  Then it grew into a whole new world of characters and their battle to live together.

I’ve talked before about the fabulous art work that my publisher, Airship 27, commissioned for the pulp fiction book.  Andy Fish and Zach Brunner did a wonderful job of bringing the story to life with their illustrations.  Andy painted the color cover and Zach created six inside black and white illustrations to go with each story.    roof1

Check out The Apocalypse Sucks and let me know what you think.  If you survived an illness when almost everyone you ever loved died, what would you do?  Would your sense of humor survive along with you and would you battle alien creatures for a good bra?

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The Balance of Lending Libraries and Reading

Posted on July 20, 2014 by peggylchambers

free books 1    It seems like everyone is offering free books these days.  I’ve noticed small libraries cropping up in what look like large mail boxes.  The first one of these that I saw was created by the uber- talented author Heather Davis of Bartlesville who also happens to be an English teacher.  You would think she gets enough kids during the school year, but she set one up for the summer to encourage them to continue to read.  Such commitment.

The one in the picture has been around for a long time. It is located outside my doctor’s office in Enid near the pharmacy housed in the same building.  I spent some time with a new Nora Roberts the other morning waiting to have blood drawn.  I thought about bringing it home with me to visit for a while, but had several on the bedside table waiting on me. As an author, I am always thrilled if people read – no matter what they read or where they get them; so this idea struck a chord in me. Many thanks to    free books 2 Betty Davis and her brilliant idea.  I don’t know Betty, but I wonder if she is related to Heather? I know of another on in the small town of Ames, OK in a quickshop.  People love books.

The earliest lending libraries were begun in Europe around 1586.  Ben Franklin brought the idea to America in 1731 and the Carnegie system of libraries was built between 1883 and 1929.  I’m dating myself when I mention that I remember the Bookmobile coming around my neighborhood during the summer.  My sisters and I were always ready for new books when it made its appearance between school years.

But, wherever you get your books – or your kids’ books – read, read, read!  The more you read, the more you will love it.  And you might just learn something!

But, don’t forget to share.

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Balancing Motherhood On My Toes

Posted on July 7, 2014 by peggylchambers

toes    Sitting in the massage chair today getting a pedicure with my daughter beside me, I received a complement.  “Are you two friends?” asked the woman scrubbing my feet.  I said yes with a smile.  Then I said and we are also mother and daughter.

“Oh you look so young!” she said with a gleam in her eye and dreams of a big tip.  But, I wasn’t taken in by anyone thinking I look as young as my daughter.  However, I loved the complement that we are friends, because we are.

Maybe it is because we grew up together.  When you become a mother a few days after your 20th birthday, you are still a child, no matter how mature you THINK you are.  But, we made it.  I learned to be a mother as she learned to be a little person.  We grew together.

We talked today about a potential bucket list, maybe Key West someday to visit Hemmingway’s home.  Something the husbands would not enjoy. She is my biggest fan and a good critique partner telling me when a story does and does not work.

We still adore getting together and having a pedicure, trying a new restaurant with interesting salads the boys would never touch and just enjoying each other’s company.  She is still my best friend.

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A BALANCED LITERARY GARDEN

Posted on July 1, 2014 by peggylchambers

book on shelf    I wandered into Hastings the other day for music.  The doctor said I needed to relax and get more sleep.  Music is a great tranquilizer for me so I headed to the CDs.  But along the way, I HAD to see if my book was still on the shelf.  It was – on the bottom shelf at the back of the store in the science fiction area.  Writing a book and selling a book are two different things and my beautiful book was hidden by all the others there on the bottom shelf.  Did it have a chance with all the other wonderful books out there? I had to keep trying to bring it to the forefront if it was to flourish.

This evening I walked out back where the weeds were crowding out the plants that I had worked so hard to develop.  The unusual amount of rain that Enid has received the last few months has turned my backyard into a jungle.  Plants were growing faster than they could be contained.  I got down on my knees with the shears and pulled the thick Bermuda grass away from the plant and trimmed it back so I could find the beautiful flowers I had worked so hard to grow.  Close to the ground I found thick roots just waiting to be freed.  Hardy flowers that only stood out if they were freed and brought to the forefront.

I can’t take the shears to the other books, nor would I want to.  The world is full of fabulous books and authors.  It is a virtual garden of literature just waiting to be read, or tended, by the reader/gardener.  While close to the ground I realized that sometimes the best view is down on your knees.

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The Balanced Life – Lazy Sunday Afternoons

Posted on June 22, 2014 by peggylchambers

writing nest    It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon.  The house has been cleaned (well, enough to get by), the laundry is humming, my daughter and grandson are coming, and life feels balanced.  Tomorrow I go back to work, as well as my husband, five weeks after his hip replacement surgery.  I expect him to be extremely tired when he comes home.  But, he says there’s no time like the present.  He needs to go back and I know he is getting bored at home.

My daughter wants to take the dog to the dog park when she gets here – even if it is hot outside.  I used to be a sun worshiper.  As I age, I think I like cloudy, cool days better, but the dog won’t care.

I have been reading and re-reading the first galley (a gift from my editor) for Secrets of Sandhill Island that will be coming out later this summer.  A great beach read with a twist.  It is a romance/suspense I think you’ll enjoy.

The slow circling of the ceiling fan moves the already refrigerated air around the room and I am content just to sit and write.

Sundays are meant for rest and recuperation. What are you doing this afternoon?

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The Balance of Fatherhood

Posted on June 15, 2014 by peggylchambers

dad    Fatherhood is a delicate balance of gentleness and strength.  The old saying “anyone can be a father but it takes someone special to be a daddy” could not be truer.  This wonderful picture of my dad when he was young has always been one of my favorites.  He actually went to a photographer which was very unusual for the hard working middle class aircraft mechanic.  Mom must have made him, and I’m so glad she did.  He was a handsome man, a gentle father and a good provider for his family of all women.  The poor man never had a chance.

I looked through pictures for one of my husband and the father of my children but couldn’t find any of them together.  He was always behind the camera since he was the better photographer and any pictures I found were of me and the kids.  So I used this picture of us on our wedding day.  We are leaving the church embarking on an adventure together.  So young and full of hope, the world had not yet beat us down and the only thing we owned was the car. He would be a new father in the next year and our tiny family of two was about to grow. He was ecstatic. He had no idea he would be a baseball coach, Boy Scout Leader and motorcycle mechanic in addition to his regular job.

donandpeg

Both men were wonderful fathers.  They put their families first and themselves second.  Maybe that was the reason they sometimes lost their tempers at childhood antics, but it didn’t take long for them to recover and realize what they had in life.  Not everyone was lucky enough to be a daddy.

Happy Father’s day to everyone reading this blog today and whether you are a father or have one, remember to enjoy what life has given you.  You are blessed.

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Balancing Surgery, Viruses and Writing

Posted on June 11, 2014 by peggylchambers

Athena    This looks like me this week.  My husband and I have been sharing a virus after his hip surgery a mere three weeks ago.  Rehab, viruses and work have taken their toll.  Even the dog is tired of this life and has gone into survival mode.   Yes, I know, I was late with the blog this week too.

But, I will survive!  How does that old song go?  And so will the husband with the new hip.  We’ll just have to slow down a little.

But, I did get some good writing done over the weekend.  I’m working on a new YA novel and trying to stick to the rules of romance writing this time.  I’m not good at following rules sometimes so I wrote it in bold letters at the bottom of my manuscript where I see it often – boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back.   I plan to follow them this time.  I can do this.

I can also rest and recuperate.  The caregiver has to take care of herself too.  I will get some extra rest.

So what do you do to relax when you’ve overdone it?  I write – I find it relaxing.

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