Peg Kehret Blog

Today’s mail brought a nice addition to my “awards wall.”

Every year when the local sweet corn is ripe I have Pig Day, when I eat nothing but corn on the cob. For many years, Carl and I had a garden and grew our own corn. Pig Day was always a much-anticipated event. Corn is best when the pot of water is put on to boil before you go outdoors to pick the corn. Then the ears get shucked and dropped immediately into the boiling water. We called it ten-minute-corn: ten minutes from stalk to mouth.

I’m no longer able to tend a garden, and even if I were, the deer would have their own Pig Day before the corn was ready to be picked. (Last night they ate all my phlox - big white blossoms that were hidden behind large rhododendruns next to my front porch.)

Today was Pig Day. I bought the corn at my local farmer’s market. According to their sign, it was grown in Yakima and picked yesterday. Not exactly ten-minute corn but less than 24 hours, and the best I can do. My usual diet rules do not apply on Pig Day, so I ate the corn dripping with melted butter and sprinkled with salt.

Researchers tells us that pigs are extremely intelligent animals - smarter, even, than dogs. Their fondness for corn is proof enough for me.

Oink, oink.

I always read the ads for back-to-school supplies. To me, these supplies are not backpacks, shoes or jackets. They are pencils, notebooks, pens, and other writing related items. This year I saw an ad that I couldn’t resist. For only ten cents I could purchase four spiral notebooks. I chose the colors carefully, knowing I needed four different colors because I would use the notebooks for four projects.

For another ten cents, I got a pack of those little erasers that go on pencils because the erasers that come on the pencils turn into rocks as soon as I make one mistake on the daily crossword puzzle.

To thank the store for having such great specials, I also bought two reams of computer paper and a new printer cartridge. I’m sure the cost of the cartridge negated any savings I’d made on the notebooks and erasers, but I went home happy, eager to write in a brand new spiral notebook.

I do 99% of my writing on a computer. Correspondence is via e-mail. So why do I covet spiral notebooks? Perhaps it’s nostalgia for the days when I took my kids shopping for school supplies. More likely, it’s because I love the feel, smell and look of real paper. It’s the same reason I prefer bound books over e-books. A blank notebook is an invitation to leisurely record my thoughts and ideas. Much of my notebook writing is done in bed at night, then transcribed to the computer in the morning.

I have happy news to report. First, the negotiations are over, and Animals Welcome will be published. I don’t have a date yet but I am aglow with excitement.

More happy news: My good friend, Roland Smith, has won the Young Hoosier Book Award in the middle grade category for The Cryptid Hunters. The Young Hoosier was the first state award I ever won (1993, for Nightmare Mountain) and I’ve had a special fondness for the librarians, teachers and students of Indiana ever since. Congratulations to Roland!

Even more happy news: Tomorrow I celebrate the publication of Ghost Dog Secrets in two ways. First, I’m having a drawing on my Facebook author page, to give away two signed copies. Second, I’m having brunch at Mad Dog’s Cafe with Kevin and Eric (son-in-law and grandson) before they come to help me with some muscle-man chores.

I hope each of you has happy news today!

My author copies of Ghost Dog Secrets arrived today. It is always a thrill to finally hold the finished book in my hands. Now I have the fun of giving copies to my family and to anyone who helped me with research. The official release date is Sept. 2.

On Sunday I was the speaker at a state-wide gathering of polio survivors. There were about 90 in attendance and I had a chance to chat with many of them before and after my talk. It is unusual to be with a group who all understand exactly what polio is, as well as the effects of post-polio syndrome (PPS). I felt a sense of community - the kind you get at a large family reunion. We came from different backgrounds but we shared an experience that was central in our lives.

Despite the abundance of new weakness, swallowing difficulties, fatigue, and other PPS symptoms, these folks were upbeat. Polio had not defeated them the first time around, and it isn’t going to beat them now, either.

I am feeling nostalgic for the days when an editor had the authority to say yes or no to a manuscript, on the spot. I once had coffee with an editor in San Antonio, when we were attending a conference. I had worked with her before, and I handed her a sheet of paper on which I’d written four one-paragraph ideas for new books. I hoped she might be interested in having me write one of them. She read what I’d given her, said she’d like to publish all of them, and told me if my agent would contact her, they could work out the details of a four-book contract. Two weeks later, it was signed.

It’s more complicated, and much slower, now. I wrote a memoir, Animals Welcome, about the many critters I’ve interacted with in my eleven years here on my small wildlife sanctuary. I loved writing this book and finished the manuscript in a burst of enthusiasm. I hoped for one particular editor who loves animals as much as I do and who has worked on many of my previous books. My agent sent it to her on May 4th, and I am still waiting. It took weeks before the editor had time to read the manuscript. Then she had to discuss it with the publisher, who needed to consult the marketing staff. A history of my other nonfiction sales had to be compiled. Finally, an offer was made, but many of the terms that had been standard in previous contracts with this publisher were now different, so a back-and-forth negotiation with my agent ensued. I know in the end the contract will be signed, the animal-loving editor and I will work well together, and the book will, eventually, get published. But it’s hard to be patient.

Of course, I am half-way through writing something else by now. Writers write; they don’t sit around waiting to hear the fate of their latest effort.

In case you’re curious, that earlier four-book contract was for The Secret Journey, My Brother Made Me Do It, The Hideout, and Saving Lilly.

I bought a trail camera. It’s motion-activated and I set it to take two-minute videos whenever something moves in front of it. I’ve had it on my front porch for two days, aimed at Mr. Stray’s food station. That porch is a lot busier at night than I had realized!

Mr. Stray comes to eat, and so does Woody, the feral cat who lived temporarily in my foster cat room. Dillon, a cat who lives next door, shows up for snacks, and cat food is greedily gobbled by a pair of blue jays.  Not just the dry cat food, either. Those blue jays eat tuna! There are so many comings and goings at that cat food station that the memory card in the camera fills up in less than twenty-four hours. I enjoy watching the animals, and I plan to mount the camera in other places around my property to see if I can film some of the wildlife.

I’m doing lots of reading this summer. Much of it is research for a nonfiction book that I’m working on, but some is fiction. Currently I’m reading the 44 Scotland Street series by Alexander McCall Smith. Reading those novels is much like watching the films captured by my trail camera. I get small, intimate glimpses into the lives of his characters.

My granddaughter, Brett, visited the national library of Egypt last week. When she went in the youth department, she looked to see if they had any of my books, and found a copy of Nightmare Mountain. 

A distant cousin let me know she buys my books in Paris, where she lives.

A chapter from Five Pages a Day: A Writer’s Journey is being included in Houghton Mifflin’s new reading textbook for Grade 5, in both the Spanish edition and the English edition that’s used in the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth. It’s the chapter about my Dog Newspaper.

The only countries besides my own that I’ve visited are Canada and Mexico, so it is exciting to think that my books are being read on other continents.

This letter brought tears to my eyes.  Mail like this keeps me writing.  Thank you, Jillian. 

 Mrs. Kehret,
I am writing you to let you know what a huge fan I am of
your work.  As well as let you know what an impact your
writing has on your readers.  Let me start from the
beginning.

I attended Madison Elementary in Muscatine, Iowa.  When I was in elementary school you were the visiting author once, possibly twice!  My mother is the library aide to Beth Elshoff so I got my picture taken with you and my books signed!  (I still have Sisters Long Ago which you signed for me.) 

After leaving elementary school and reading a majority
of your books I went on with my education. Five years ago I became a classroom teacher, and 3 years ago I took over teaching a 4th grade class back at Madison
Elementary.  The first read aloud I have read to my class the last 2 years is Small Steps.  Once I read this book to them they are hooked!  I let them pick which book they wantme to read next and they are ALWAYS your books.  Last year not only did I read Small Steps, but also Cages, Escaping the Giant Wave, Nightmare Mountain, Saving Lily, and Stolen Children.  They loved each and every one of these books and would beg me to continue reading all the time. 

Your books are wonderful and I wanted to let you know they are still enjoyed by the young and old.  I begged Beth to let me read her copy of Runaway Twin before the kids could get to it.  (I read it over night so they got it the next day.)
Thank you for many wonderful hours of reading.

Sincerely,
Jillian Poppe
4th Grade Teacher