Peg Kehret Blog

I’m always an avid reader, but when I’m in between writing projects, as I am now, I read even more than usual. I always enjoy these book binges and try to include new (to me) authors and unfamiliar topics.

I had a strong emotional reaction to one of the books I read this week, Vaccine-Preventable Disease: The Forgotten Story. Published by the Center for Vaccine Awareness & Research at Texas Children’s Hospital, the book is seventeen true accounts of people who became ill with a vaccine-preventable disease. Most are children, and the stories are heart breaking. Teachers who use Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio with older students might find useful additional information in this slim volume. www.vaccine.texaschildrens.org.

Last night I had dinner with Anne’s family because Brett leaves today for her sophomore year at Whitman College. Brett and I had a lively book discussion.  On her recommendation, I had read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. She laughed when I complained of having a hard time keeping all the characters straight. I read it in English and she read it in Spanish.

I just finished Fateful Harvest by Duff Wilson, an expose’ of how toxic waste was labeled as fertilizer and dumped on farmland. It is set in Quincy, WA, my son-in-law’s home town, so I asked Kevin about it. He had read the series of newspaper articles that the book is based on, and knew many of the people mentioned, but he had not known about the book. This book made me angry!

One book made me sad, and another made me angry. I’m always glad when my own books cause an emotional reaction in readers.

Writing is the original deferred compensation plan, where you do the work now but get paid in the future. Some times, it’s a long way in the future.

In 1975, the Dramatic Publishing Co. published a one act play of mine called “Cemeteries Are a Grave Matter.” I signed a standard royalty contract where I receive ten percent of the price of the playbooks sold and fifty percent of the production royalties. I knew I would not get rich from a one act play, but I did not anticipate how far into the future I would continue to be paid for my work.

Yesterday I received a check from the Dramatic Publishing Co. for $67.  It’s hardly an earth-shaking sum, but it is amazing to know that the play I’m being paid for was written thirty-five years ago! In all that time, there has never been a year when I didn’t receive royalties for “Cemeteries Are a Grave Matter.” Some years the checks are bigger than others, but I always get something.

Occasionally a young reader will ask, “How much money do you make on each book?”  An honest answer would be, “Ask me again in forty years, and I might know.”

One of the hardest things I do as a professional writer is try to advise and educate people, both adults and kids, who hope to have their writing published. There are so many pitfalls that it takes far more time than I have to explain them all.  Now there is a web site that will do this for me: Writer Beware, www.sfwa.org/beware/ is run by the Science Fiction Writers of America. I learned about it when the Mystery Writers of America alerted their membership that MWA is now contributing to the cost of running the site.

This web site has loads of helpful information for beginning writers including warnings about fake contests, vanity anthologies, fee-charging literary agents, and case studies of notable literary scams. Anyone new to the business of submitting material for publication would benefit from checking out Writer Beware.

Today I baked zucchini cookies, one of my favorites. I love cookies! Besides zucchini, I love snickerdoodles, chocolate chip (milk chocolate, with nuts), peanut butter, rolled sugar cookies, oatmeal (no raisins) and - well, you get the picture. There is something comforting about baking cookies, perhaps because I have happy memories of baking cookies with my children and grandchildren. Anne always wanted to eat the raw cookie dough. Once when she was away at college, I mailed her a small ball of raw cookie dough and she claims it was the most successful dorm package of her college career.

I didn’t see any meteors because it’s been raining for two days. We needed the rain. As I gazed out my office window at the downpour, I realized that part of the drip…drip…drip that I heard was inside the house. Water was leaking through a bathroom skylight and dripping on to the toilet seat. At least it didn’t do any damage there, and my repairman will be out to take care of the problem. If he’s lucky there will still be some cookies left when he arrives.

While I wait for editorial suggestions on my new book (still untitled) I’ve been working this week on an adult novel that I started a few years back. Maybe this time I will finish it. I’ve also done more reading than usual, including some authors who are new to me. My idea of a perfect evening is to settle in my recliner with Lucy on my lap, a hot cup of coffee beside me, and a good book. It doesn’t hurt to have a few cookies within reach, too.

Pasado’s Safe Haven has posted some amazing photos of a recent dog rescue. To see them, go to www.pasadosafehaven.org and then click the Update for “The Little Miracles.” I have never seen such toenails!

Pasado’s founder is a dear friend of mine who has answered questions and provided information for me during the writing of numerous books, including Don’t Tell Anyone, Trapped, The Hideout, Tell It Like It Is, Saving Lilly, and, most recently, Runaway Twin.  A portion of my royalties supports Pasado’s Spay Station and rescue work.

The meteor showers will be at their peak on Aug. 12. I love to lie outdoors, watching for “shooting stars.” I did it as a child, I’ve done it many times with my grandchildren, and I still get excited every time I spot a meteor streaking across the sky.  I used this experience in Runaway Twin - one more piece of my own life that’s been transplanted to my fiction.

There are no street lights or neighbor porch lights out here in the woods, which makes for excellent star gazing. If the sky is clear on Aug. 12, Lucy and I will snuggle under a blanket outside for a few hours, gazing upward.

If you opened my refrigerator right now, you’d probably wonder why I have a bowl containing watermelon rinds and an apple core. It’s because the weather’s been so dry this month that the deer have little grass or other greenery to graze on. When it starts to get dark, I will toss the watermelon rinds and apple core, along with any carrot tops or other leftover greenery, under my bird feeder. The deer come every night to eat the spilled bird seed and they will find these extra treats. When my windows are open, I hear them crunching the watermelon, apparently with great gusto.

We’ve had record high heat in the Puget Sound region all week.  On Wednesday, I went to the hottest (103 degrees) Mariners baseball game in the history of the franchise! I went with my friend (I call him an honorary son) Mark Smithberg and, in spite of the hot weather, we had a wonderful time and saw a really good game. Mariners 3, Blue Jays 2.

I put ice cubes in Mr. Stray’s water bowl but he was scared of them and would not drink until they melted. He’s a smart cat, though. After I water the rhododendruns by my front porch, he stretches out in the cool, wet dirt for his nap.

I was invited for dinner with friends one night and looked forward to their air conditioned home. (Mine isn’t.) Five minutes before I arrived, their power went out and it was still out when I left four hours later. We had fun anyway.

Not much news in the writing world. I’m still trying to come up with the right title for my latest book. Most of the publishing staff are on vacation now so the wheels in New York turn slowly.

Tomorrow I’m going to a 90th birthday party for a writer friend. On Monday I’m doing a taped interview for the King County Libraries.  It’s over 90 again today but is supposed to cool down next week, when I’m expecting house guests. Good timing!

 Meanwhile, I’m doing lots of reading in front of the fan - a perfect activity for summer.