Horse Manure

I had a belly full of sobering news today. Another version of me would be bouncing off the wall, wringing my hands and rocking, but it appears that version has vacated the premises. Thank God! This me is rolling up her sleeves and grabbing the shovel and slinging dirt over her head and shoulders because she knows, as the story goes, there has to be a pony under all this crap!

Wow, what's that?

I think I hear him neighing!

The Antique Mall

Today is my day to work at the antique mall where I maintain a booth. This month I've had an interesting assortment of things move like a fairly largeMason Root Beer sign, a hand beaded blouse from the late-30's to early -40's, a "family scale", vintage hat box, vintage flower pins, cookies jar, a few Fire King items, and such. My main interest is in American pottery from the 20's through the 70's, but I also love bakelite, retro glassware, lamps and furniture, vintage jewelry, and, much, much more. I've only had this booth for about four months, but at least it is paying for its own rent -- one of these days I hope to begin making a profit! That is the objective ultimately.

I went to my Sunday school class this morning and I'm thrilled that I did. Everything was pointing towards me not going, especially my "excuse factory" which goes into overdrive whenever it's time to do something related to the Lord. But today I ignored it!

I'm in an odd place as far as writing is concerned, but I'm keeping my mind locked into it. Doing something towards completing my projects everyday. It is not easy to stay focused lately due to other pressures and demands, but then who is it easy for? Ease, or lack thereof, is not an excuse.

Be blessed today!

Alternative Direction

I saw the bubbles bursting
and realized they were on the surface
of my consciousness.
I was coming up too fast, cerebral
explosions sending fragments
of approaching reality slamming
against my safe haven of inaction,
showers of red truth causing
internal hemorrhaging from malignant
procrastination, threatening
to leave nothing but a water logged
shell floating on the top.
I thought I was comfortable
scavaging the bottom,
staying out of the way of
the carnivorous,
requiring only minimal
doses of the oxygen of presence
until my tank sprang a leak
and it was life not fear
rushing into my lungs,
and propulsion not drag
governing my direction.
Choice recognized the bubbles too,
choosing to line up in concert
with them on the outside chance
I'd be who reached the surface
once and for all.

©2004 Peggy Eldridge-Love - All Rights Reserved

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving. May this day be filled with absolute joy.
Peggy

Nice Way to Start the Day

I just read a review of my book You Beckon that The Imani Book Club did on their website for November. http://www.imanivoices.com/ It was very uplifting, to say the least. It goes without saying that the book clubs that give our works broader voice are the real people to be celebrated. I, for one, am eternally grateful to the Imani's and Rawsistaz's http://www.rawsistaz.com, Read In Color's http://www.readincolor.com/ and Mahogany's http://p076.ezboard.com/bmahoganybookclub and all the other wonderful Book Clubs who have been so supportative of me!

Thanks!

Peggy

Article Merry-Go-Round

A few of the freelance articles I wrote recently seem to be really making the rounds! I wrote one on Self-Forgiveness www.heypep.com/article10793.html that I've run into several places, and a couple of others about publishing your own book of poetry and opening a home office that also seem to be somewhat popular.

It's really quite intriguing to get a Google Alert and see that some paper in California, or Arizona, or even somewhere in Germany or Romania are running an article you actually forgot you wrote. I'll tell you this! I've become far more careful about what I put out there because it will definitely follow you -- maybe even -- for the rest of your life!

The same applies to Press Releases! They live forever! Believe me!

If you're looking for a couple of great books to get into this holiday weekend I can suggest a few of my favorites. My Invisible Husband by Shelia Goss, Counting Raindrops Through A Stained Glass Window by Cherlyn Michaels, The Hamptons by Linda Dominique Grosvenor and Grip The Rope by Carla J. Curtis!

Oh, did I mention my own book of poetry??? You Beckon by Peggy Eldridge-Love! (Amazon has it on sale right now!)

Peace, I'm outta here!

The Knoll Frames - November 22,1963

This is the 41st anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. I had hoped to have my suspense thriller, which has that event as its central theme, on the street by this one, but it will be the early part of next year before its available. A synopsis and excerpt chapter are available for consumption at http://www.peggyeldridgelove.com/page8.html

The Knoll Frames has been my "Rocky." I wrote the screenplay for it several years ago and it won the CinemaTalk Screenwriters competition (plus made the semi-finals in the Chesterfield and Monterey) and enjoyed a staged reading at the Writers Place and a few years later I adapted it for the stage and it received a staged reading at the Unicorn Theatre in Kansas City.

The screenplay is posted on InkTip for the seriously curious.

So, if you're so inclined, take a peek.

Balance

I know myself and without discipline I'll wind up spending my life posting and reading posts, so I need to strike a balance right from the start. I will definitely try to post here on a daily basis, but I will not dally. That's a promise I make to my characters, my readers, my fans (yeah right) and my family.

The last day or so it has been difficult to get into the flow of it as far as putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), but I've been very productive in the areas of research and structuring and developing. It is interesting what my waking and drifitng off to sleep thoughts have been! I am learning so much just by listening to my inner man who is listening to all these characters and their proponents even when I'm in never, never land.

The sermon from the pulpit this morning was about being consistent and persistent. Very affirming lessons. So with that I will ease out of here so that I can make sure I am persistently doing what I must to complete what I have put my hands to.

Be blessed!

Joy and Pain!

Whoa!

I am in the middle of a new novel that I really like. I anticipate having the first draft of it complete real soon. The working title is woefully uninspiring, so I won't even mention it, but the premise and the thrust are deep! I keep revisiting the character chart of my female protagonist though because she is very evasive right now, not at all forthcoming, and I'm having to earn her trust for her to really, really open up and let me see what's going on! She seemed almost transparent at first, but the more I discovered about the male protagonist the more uncertain her transparency became. In fact, her transparency was an illusion! They've got me walking the floor!

I'm also moving forward with the first book in my mystery series, (The Cari Pompey Mysteries), How Deep Is Your Love, and anticipate that book being available near the end of the year. Plus, all things being equal, The Knoll Frames, will finally see the light of day in early 2005.

Coming up for air in 2004 has been beyond difficult. It has been a year filled with all manner of challenges, some that at times looked impossible to surmount. In June I experienced an unbelivable stroke of good luck that looked almost too good to be true. One of the big five greeting card companies had taken an interest in my greeting card line, Nudgies http://www.nudgies.com/page4.html, and moved at lightening speed to enter into contract negotiations with me. One of their acquisitions managers advised me that they were going to bypass the proposal stage and he forwarded me a contract with instructions that I just look over it and we'd work out whatever needed to be resolved before it went to both our legal teams for finalization. I was floating on air! Then, a few days later my contact called me and said without prelude or any explanation, that he'd been advised that "the company no longer wanted to pursue my line." And, ladies and gentlemen, that was it! To this day I do not know why. A letter that I received shortly thereafter included this heart-wrenching message: "Even though a lot of us in the company love your work and find it very unique, we have decided that we cannot pursue your work any longer. My apologies for this error. Some of us as XXXX jumped the gun on this project. Unfortunately, our company cannot use your work in our lines." This seemed extremely late in the game for them to make that discovery! They had been reviewing my work for months and it had gone through layers and layers of people internally before they approached me about acquisition. I'm still trying to figure that one.

But, that was that, and life went on, and I'm a thousand times a better person as a result of it. One thing I learned beyond a doubt is that the cliche 'if it sounds too good to be true it probably is' is true.