Peg Kehret Blog

Last Saturday I autographed books for two hours at a street fair. The book store had set up a table for me outside the store so I could chat with passersby. It was fun to see kids notice my books, come to the table and start discussing them, and then realize that I was the author.

Usually when I do a book signing, anyone who is there has come especially to meet me. The street fair added an element of surprise, and I enjoyed that.

I am leaving in a couple of hours with my granddaughter, Brett. We’ll drive to Richland, Washington, today and will spend the night with my son and his family. I saw Bob, Pam, and Mark at the baseball tournament earlier this month but I have not seen Chelsea, my other granddaughter, for several months.

Tomorrow Brett and I will go to Walla Walla, where she will be a freshman at Whitman College this fall. She’ll show me the campus, the dorm where she’ll live, and the town itself. We have a Bed & Breakfast reservation for tomorrow night, and will drive back home (a five hour drive) on Thursday. My pet sitter, Karrie, will stay in my house while I’m gone, to care for the critters.

Then on Friday, I will attend a very special wedding. Erin is the daughter of dear friends and has been my own “honorary daughter” for many years. I have known Peter for several years, as well. What a happy event that will be!

I feel lucky to have so much to look forward to this week, and I intend to enjoy every minute of these happy times.

I spent two days last week in Longview, WA, watching the Babe Ruth League baseball tournament. My grandson, Mark, played in it. His team lost but Mark played well and it was fun to be there and to spend time with my son and daughter-in-law. Mark’s team had one more game after I got home. Because it was broadcast on a Longview radio station, I was able to log on to the station’s web site and listen to the game on my computer. I marvel at the technology.

On my way out of town, I mailed the manuscript of HOW I WONDER to my agent. There is always a period of time after I finish a book when I keep thinking about it. This is especially true when I’ve grown to love the main character, which is what happened with this book. Sunny Skyland is a girl after my own heart, who became very real to me, and I wanted to keep her with me awhile longer.

Some writers finish one book and immediately start on the next project, but I need to take a few days to get one world out of my head before I can enter a new one, even when I know, as I do this time, what that next world is going to be.

I have a firepit in my back yard. It’s a round metal container, with cutouts of wildlife on the sides, that sits on a bed of river rock. Large chunks of a cedar log serve as seats around the perimeter. On Sat. night my friends, Jenny and Jerry, came for our annual weinie roast. Yes, vegetarian hot dogs roast fine over an open fire. We had baked beans, cole slaw and fresh fruit - plus my favorite part, schmores. I love to make schmores, even though I usually burn my marshmallows. Two deer came to see what we were doing, but decided not to stay.

Friday was a special day that I had looked forward to for many weeks. I attended a concert at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, featuring the Seattle Symphony and performers from Cirque du Soliel. I went with my daughter, Anne, her husband, Kevin, and their two teenagers, Brett and Eric. Brett and I had seen two Cirque shows in Orlando several years ago, so we knew we were in for a treat. We had dinner first at a good Italian restaurant, then coffee and a goodie from Starbucks after we had driven into the city and parked.

The concert was fabulous. It was conducted by Carolyn Kuan, the assistant conductor of the Seattle Symphony, who is a joy to watch. I was familiar with most of the music, which always makes listening more pleasurable, and the Cirque performers were outstanding. Their routines (juggler, strong men, aerial artist and more) were choreographed to match the music.

Fine food, great music, outstanding entertainment, and beloved companions - all in all, a memorable evening.

Although I got home late Friday night, I was up and out early Saturday morning to help my friend, Jenny, at her annual yard sale. Jenny had brought her van to my house a few days earlier to transport some bulky items that I hoped to sell. My VW Bug is great for me to drive but not much for hauling a lawn mower, a gas-powered weed whacker and a shop vacuum, all of which my husband used but are too heavy for me.

I smiled as I drove to Jenny’s house, thinking I’d gone from attending the symphony at Benaroya Hall to hawking my used goods at a yard sale. But the truth is, that day was a lot of fun, too. It gave me a chance to chat with Jenny and Jerry, plus a couple of friends who came by to shop at the sale. I sold all of my bulky items. One friend told us where she had just purchased good fresh blueberries, so I stopped there on my way home. Last night I baked blueberry muffins and froze the rest of the berries.

My third good day, today, is a writing day. There was not one item written on my schedule for today. I had eagerly anticipated Friday’s concert and yesterday’s yard sale, and I am equally enthusiastic about the chance to stay home today and write. 

Brett proof-read my current manuscript, How I Wonder,  and returned it to me with two dozen comments and suggestions, all of them helpful. She would be a good editor. I’m 2/3 of the way through my third revision of the book so today I will finish that and make the changes Brett suggested.

Three completely different days, all of them wonderful. Tomorrow is looking good, too.

I am taking care of Charley, one of my rescued cats who got adopted, while his person is out of town. Charley looks and acts a lot like Pete.

 I’ve brushed him every day and put the wads of fur into a plastic bag in a little waste basket. One morning when I went into the cat room, there was fur everywhere. Charley had fished all of his own fur out of the sack and played with it!

 Those of you who read this blog regularly may remember how excited I was when I found a complete snake skin. I had put it on top of a wall cupboard for safe keeping and forgot it was there. Well, last night Charley found it.  This morning, my snake skin was on the floor, minus the head.  I looked everywhere, and finally said, “Charley! Did you eat the snake’s head?”  Charley rolled around on the floor and swished his tail.

We had severe thunder and lightning storms here yesterday. Lucy shook for hours, but Charley did not seem bothered at all. 

I finished revising HOW I WONDER and have given it to my granddaughter, Brett, to proof read for me. She is a good critic and will let me know if any places need work or if I’ve made any typos.  It is going to be published by Dutton Children’s Books.

Tomorrow is the 4th of July. Writer friends, Roland and Marie Smith, from Oregon will be here for lunch, along with a librarian friend and her husband from Missouri, Joan and Doug Arth. I am looking forward to lots of book talk. When I started writing, I assumed it would be a solitary occupation and, for the most part, it is - but it has also allowed me to make friends all over the country.  I met the Arths when I won the Mark Twain Award the first time. They are cat people and we became instant friends. I met Roland and Marie in Florida when I won the Florida Young Reader Award and Roland won in the YA category.

Last Monday I attended a retirement party for Chauni Haslet, who owned All for Kids Books & Music in Seattle for many years. That night was also filled with author talk. Jack Prelutsky had written special words to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne,” and we all serenaded Chauni and her husband, Bill. It was a grand evening.