Peg Kehret Blog

I am thoroughly enjoying the holidays. I spent Christmas with Anne & Kevin, Brett & Eric. And Otter, their dog.  Brett’s been staying with me for a couple of days with many games of Bananagrams, some after-Christmas-sale shopping, and my first ever meal at a Sonic Drive-in.  Today Anne, Brett, and I are going to The Nutcracker in Seattle.  New Year’s Eve will find me in Richland with Bob, Pam, Chelsea, and Mark. And their dogs, Freddie and Fergus.  So far nobody in the family has followed in my writing footsteps, but they are all animal lovers.

 No writing over the holidays. Well, that isn’t really true. Even when I’m not adding words to the current book-in-progress, my mind continues to write as I listen to conversations, size up potential characters and situations, and evaluate opinions.

1. Listening to a violin solo of “O Holy Night,” seeing my friend, Mark, in a tux, and hearing Halie play “In the Deep Midwinter” on her grand piano - all at a party for AMICA, my player-piano group.

2. Camel cookies with Jenny and Jerry. Who could resist a two-hump camel sugar cookie with frosting? Not me!

3.  News that Stolen Children is nominated for the 2011 Mark Twain Award.

4.  A white elephant gift exchange where I ended up with a stuffed penguin that plays the saxophone.

5. Updates from old friends. I use e-mail for most correspondence, but I still love to receive Christmas cards and newsletters.

6.  A quiet evening with both Lucy and Molly on my lap, watching the deer outside.

A fellow writer reminded me today that we need to check Wikipedia now and then, to see if what’s being reported about us is true. I’ve done this occasionally in the past, and usually found errors. Today was no exception. The current bio on me states that my first book, I’m Not Who You Think I Am, was published in 1979.  Wrong.  That’s the right year, but not the correct title. My first book was Vows of Love and Marriage. I’m Not Who You Think I Am was my 32nd book, published in 1999.

For years, Amazon has incorrectly listed a co-author for some of my books. At first I tried to correct these errors but nothing ever happened. Now I ignore the mistakes. Unfortunately, Amazon is frequently used as a source of information about authors, so I often see these mistakes reported elsewhere as facts. Sometimes the “co-author” who’s named was actually the book’s editor. A publisher’s former publicist is listed as co-author of one title; another lists the man who painted the cover art. One book lists as my co-author someone I’ve never heard of.

Not all of my books are included in Amazon’s list of my titles, but they do give me credit for being the author of Humans, a book I did not write and have never read.

I’m not trying to pick on Amazon here. Possibly the wrong information was given to them by the publishers.  I use them as an example only because they are well known, widely used, and most readers assume their information is accurate.

My dad used to tell me, “Just because you read it in the newspaper, doesn’t mean it’s true.” He was right, and same goes for anything you read on line.

I decorated my Christmas tree today, and put out my Santa collection and other special decorations. As she has every year for sixteen years, Molly “helped.” All cats are curious and want to snoop in boxes, but Molly has always been way more interested in the decorating process than any other pet I’ve ever had. The minute a decoration is put on top of my nickelodeon, she is up there to check it out. She sniffs every branch of the tree that she can reach, and then re-sniffs them after the lights and ornaments are put on. She examines the inside of each container that the decorations were stored in. I barely get a box of ornaments unpacked before Molly is inside the box, smelling of the edges.

Molly’s old now, and frail, and has a chronic kidney problem. She sleeps most of the time and has her meals delivered via “kitty room service” because she eats more that way than if she has to get up and seek out her bowl. But today was different. Today was Christmas decoration day, and it certainly gave old Molly a boost of energy. Maybe instead of advising prescription cat food, the vets should suggest that their clients put up a Christmas tree!

I received another request today to donate books to a school library that lacks the money to buy them. This one was in Kansas, but I get several such pleas each month from across the country. While I’m certainly sympathetic, I can not honor these requests. I get my books at a discount, but I still have to buy them. When I add in the cost of mailing envelopes and postage, it is not a prudent way to help. I donate many books to local schools, libraries, Toys for Tots, charity auctions, and Page Ahead, but I can’t supply books to everyone who asks. I don’t even wish I could - I wish our school libraries were funded properly so the librarians and teachers didn’t have to ask.

Western Washington, where I live, is saying goodbye today to the four Lakewood police officers who were murdered. Wherever you live, the next time you see an officer in uniform please thank him or her for serving your community.

Several months ago I deactivated my Facebook account because I was deluged by email notifications. Most of my “friend” requests were from readers, and I was happy to add them as friends but not happy to be informed every time they posted a comment on Facebook. I finally decided the whole business took too much time, so I dropped out.

Recently my granddaughter offered to set up a Peg Kehret Fan Page. Anyone can sign up to be a fan and then have access to whatever comments and photos I post, but without the interactive aspect of being a Facebook friend. This seemed like a good compromise, so Brett opened the Fan Page.

When I logged on to Facebook to take a look, that automatically reactivated my old account. Now I had two Facebook pages. This time I decided there had to be a way to enjoy the benefits of Facebook without getting buried in emails. I turned to Google (I love Google!) and quickly learned how to change the settings on my Facebook account so that I no longer got an email notice every time one of my friends posted a comment. Of course, I should have done this to begin with, but it never occurred to me that it was possible. Now that I’ve eliminated email notices and blocked the activities I don’t want to participate in, I’m finding I enjoy the Facebook community, particularly touching base with old friends. Late one night I had an on-line chat via Facebook with my daughter-in-law’s mother. I also heard from a former neighbor who suggested I check her Facebook page to see photos of her four-year-old with his beloved “Puppy” - a stuffed dog that I had sent when he was born.

I’m keeping the Fan Page and hope more readers will sign up there. My web site gets updated only a few times a year because I don’t do it myself, but I can manage the Facebook Fan Page, so the information there is always current. Sometimes I feel like a very old dog trying to learn new tricks. The good part is that I do try, and often succeed. Now I need to quit fooling around with Facebook and get started on my next book.

There’s been a change in my schedule. I will not be at the Barnes & Noble in Tukwilla WA on Dec. 5.  The store has asked me to postpone my visit. I hope to reach everyone who had planned to come so that they don’t make an unnecessary trip.

I WILL be at Lindon Book Store in Enumclaw WA on Sat., Dec. 12, at 1:00. This will be a fun event with several authors in attendance. We’re all bringing our favorite holiday cookies to share, and Longbottom Coffee will have free samples.  For every copy of Runaway Twin sold that day, I’ll be donating a paperback book to Page Ahead. http://pageahead.org/