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| December 6. 2009 |
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| Sunrise on left over tree from Peggy's tree farming |
| December 17, 2009 |
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| Peggy binding her newest: "Hunting the Haunted" |
December 18, 2009
Merry Christmas everyone.
"Hunting the Haunted" subtitled "Booger Tales - One", became
Peggy's driving ambition last month. I got to milk the cows alone several evenings while she completed the book. Recently
we have been busy editing, printing, and binding the book. It is a collection of ghost stories and pictures, including some adventure
tales of collecting the stories. Yesterday she stocked some at Black Bear Books in Boone, NC and Avery Post Newspaper
office in Newland, NC.
Now she is back writing on the dream lover novel
Happy New Year
| 10-21-2009 |
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| Frosty morning on the lower pond. Ridge in background is part of Julian Price Park along the Parkway |
| 11-05-2009 |
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| Morning moon over the yard pond. Sun is shining on the bench on Grandfather Mountain in background. |
November 12, 2009
November’s here and
the leaves are gone except for some of the beech and oak trees. We are still milking two cows and feeding way too many animals.
Booger stories seem to be
capturing Peggy’s imagination. She is doing a lot of research and visiting intriguing places. Her current scheme is to write about her exploits around the local area — relating haunting tales
and other curious phenomena. Let her know of any local ghost stories you would
like to share.
The Appalachian Heritage Writers Symposium has selected Peggy to present a fiction workshop and be the keynote speaker at their writer’s conference next summer.
She felt honored at the selection and hopes she can put on an effective workshop and an entertaining presentation. Let her
know, if you have any suggestions for the workshop or the speech.
Tipper at the Blind Pig and
the Acorn blog e-mailed:
“I just stumbled
onto your website this morning. I read the excerpt from one of your books and was mesmerized-I just can't wait to
see what happens next.
I write about Appalachian
Culture and Heritage at www.blindpigandtheacorn.com. I am a native to western NC-I live in Brasstown near the John
C Campbell Folk School.
I feature Appalachian
writers of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry on my site. I would love to interview you about your books-and point folks in
the direction of your site.”
We've been visiting
her blog as she is a contributor to The Read on WNC, which provides a regional site for literary interactions and happenings.
| October 9, 2009 |
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| Geese enjoying evening weather break |
| October 9, 2009 |
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| A gaggle of geese planning this years trip |
October 12, 2009
I snapped thes prictures from near the road looking back into the
farm last Friday evening on the way with Peggy to enjoy some barbeque.
Peggy enjoyed reuniting with all her kin at the Poe reunion. The food
was good too. She and her cousins are planning a get together to share and record the family ghosts stories. A Blew Ridge
Ghost Tales book is already under way. Dream Lover is progressing and Peggy has also been painting pictures.
Contact Peggy (828-963-5331) if you would like for her to visit
your book club or other function as she has no current events scheduled.
Click to email Peggy
| Miss Charlotte at The Orchard at Altapass |
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| September 20, 2009 |
September 26, 2009
Peggy enjoyed the book signing at The Orchard at Altapass last Sunday.
This week (in addition to milking twice a day, canning more beans and corn, taking care of her great grand-daughter,
and grading for a garage) she has been writing on her next novel, "Dream Lover". Today (Saturday) she is off to the cattle
market to sell five of her bull calves.
| Lane, Senehi & Stern with Club members 9-12-2009 |
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| Hell & Highwater Bookclub at Carolina Mts. Litfest |
September 16, 2009
Peggy enjoyed attending the 2009 Carolina Mountains Literary Festival
in Burnsville. After the Bookclub Buzz session with the Hell & High Water Bookclub, she asked where she could
get one of their T-shirts, One gal just peeled hers off and gave it to Peggy. Wow, what genorisity! Much appreciation is due
the folks, like the Town Center, Main Street Books and DK Puttyroot, at Burnsville for hosting the festival. Special
thanks to all the organizers, volunteers, and Malaprops Bookstore who made this a great event for both the
participants and the presenters.
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| Elva Buchanan on her 90th birthday with Peggy at the Orchard at Altapass (July 26, 2009). |
August 30, 2009
After reading Wild Thing, Elva told Peggy, "You've got to hurry up and finish the sequel. I have to
know what happens to Raven."
So Peggy has finished the rest of the story for Elva
which is novel number 13, Running Wild, a sequel to Wild
Thing. She has been printing and binding them up and is ready to start taking orders.
Peggy has also canned 500 jars from her garden and is still going strong.
Our oldest daughter and her husband have moved back to Foscoe and have established
the Blue Ridge Local Color shop at the Martin House in Blowing Rock. They sell local crafted items and paintings.
Of course they also stock Peggy's books.
Dream Lover may be Peggy's next book. It is really too soon to tell, maybe one
of the other seven she is working on will becomme more assertive. We'll just have to wait and see.
She is looking forward to meeting readers at Carolina Mountians Literary Festival
in Burnsville on Friday and Saturday, September 12 & 13th.
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| Peggy milking her cow, Jolene |
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| February 15, 2009 |
April 6, 2009
During the winter, Peggy finished another novel, An Honorable
Man (Surviving Daniel). Currently she is working on Running Wild, a sequel to Wild Thing. She has also gone crazy with her
farming and now has two Jersey cows to milk twice a day. Now that spring is starting she has been busy starting plants in
the greenhouse and prepping the garden and pastures for planting.
Peggy will be the guest speaker at this year's Young Authors Celebration
on Sunday, May 3, 2009 at 2:00 PM in the Sam Center Auditorium at Mayland Community College! Dr. Gloria Houston founded
this event in 1992 and it has been continued every year since. The 2009 event will mark its seventeenth year.
The celebration is open to students of all ages within the tri-county area served by Mayland. For more information
contact:
Connie H. McKinney, CPP
Coordinator, Community Services Programs
Mayland Community College
PO
Box 547, 200 Mayland Drive
Spruce Pine, NC 28777
(828) 765-7351 or 1-800-462-9526 Ext. 219
Fax: (828) 765-0728
cmckinney@mayland.edu
Peggy has been invited to present a couple of sessions at the
Carolina Mountains Literary Festival on Friday and Saturday, September 11 and 12, 2009 in Burnsville, NC 28714. This year’s
theme is “Mountain Mosaic”. The festival celebrates literature and literacy for lovers of books and reading everywhere.
Most events are free and include a variety of readings, writing workshops, plays, seminars and other types of sessions devoted
to writers, writing, and the writing life. For more information: visit their website at http://cmlitfest.org/
Happy reading,
DKS
| Peggy's porch |
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| Photo by Karen Hall, June 2008 |
October 19, 2008
After harvesting
a large garden and canning over a 1000 jars, Peggy now gets to write longer each day. Tuesday and Thursday she takes care
of her great granddaughter while granddaughter, Ashley, attends college classes at ETSU. The other two great grandsons are often here while their parents
work.
Since (sort of)
finishing Thunder Hole last month (final editing will be a work in progress for a while). Peggy is currently working on seven
new novels: Running Wild, Surviving Daniel, I'm Frankie, The Mountain Hermit (Wilburn Waters), Ghost Stories, Killer, and
Mountain Pearl. She just asked me how to spell "chintzy". We'll just have to
guess which one she is working on today. The characters from each novel seem to jump in and determine priority. Maybe one
cast of characters will be aggressive enough for her to finish another novel this year.
Marketing hasn't
been a priority as Peggy prefers to expend her time writing. We are working to perfect the process of making hard bound books.
Hopefully, when she is ready for marketing, she can start with library sales. It's evident that they have the highest concentration
of readers. If you want to help, call and ask for some of her "Free Novel excerpt" pamphlets to leave at your local library.
They seem to stimulate reader interest in her work.
Last weekend Peggy
enjoyed meeting readers at the Heritage Festival in Spruce Pine, NC. Hopefully, she intrigued some new readers to try her
books as she sold over 3 dozen. A couple of teachers have asked her to give presentations for their classes in the next few
weeks.
Peggy is still an
avid reader. She buys a lot of books. Last week she reread "Gone with the Wind" for about the seventh time. She rereads quite
a few books to better understand the authors' writing techniques. She also scanned a mass market romance (said it wasn't much).
Now she is reading Nora Roberts (said it was well edited, maybe too polished).
Enjoy your reading,
DKS
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Have a good day
 
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