Emerging Music Host

Okay, so yes, I'm back. I'm hosting the Emerging Music site on BellaOnline.com again and I'm really glad to be there. I took a six month breather, but I missed it desperately. Music is that other part of my being that makes my tick tock. Music, the business end of it, was my career early on, as many of you know. Being a manager for one artist's production company, and then being personal manager for several other artist and groups was everything in any given day from sheer exhilaration to the brink of madness -- but boy did it make life memorable!

I think that's what I dig so much about hosting the emerging music site -- it's an opportunity to help give some new, deserving, gifted, talented, profound artist or artists some worldwide exposure. Sometimes that's all any of us needs to be able to take straight off.

So, check out Emerging Music! My first two offerings upon returning are of Trey Songz (I also posted it here on the blog) and The Swear, an alternative rock group. Our scope is broad, our reach is long, and we love making dreams come true!

Trey Songz - Baby This One is Hottttttttttttt!

If you aren't familiar may I suggest you will probably want to run, not walk, to your nearest source for acquiring the debut CD "I Gotta Make It" by Trey Songz when it is released on July 26, 2005. Believe me, this young artist is going to be Huge!

Trey Songz

I listened to the cut "Gotta Go" and found it eerily reminiscent of hits from the past from some of the legendary voices like Teddy, Marvin, Jimmy Ruffin, and Luther. This is not a voice that will get lost in the crowd. There is a taste of 'old school' and 'grown folks music', but it is uniquely orginal and absolutely Trey Songz'. So, do yourself a favor and check this emerging artist out! He is headed straight through the roof!

Oh, yes, if you'd like to take a listen check Trey Songz out for yourself!

Peggy Eldridge-Love


©Peggy Eldridge-Love - All Rights Reserved

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By the way... have you ordered your 2006 African American Almanac Desk Top Calendar yet??? Better hurry! When they are gone they are gone!

Click Here!






Subscribe to Peggy's new Yahoo Group!

You Beckon Updates

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What do you think? A hardcover edition of You Beckon is in the near future which will include a few extra poems and other tidbits. Above is the proposed cover for the new hardback edition. A black and white of this photo has always been inside the book and coincides with one of the poems.

I think there was some confusion with the original cover (which I love)

and it caused some people to assume it was a children's book. Thinking so, there were probably a lot of potential readers who didn't even bother to pick it up to see what was inside. Covers are critical! I think the new proposed cover will dispell that assumption -- I hope.

I'm anxious to have the hardback edition available before September because that is when major publishers who offer calendars, like the major greeting card companies, release their new speciality calendars. Although I'm not at liberty to say who just yet, several poems from You Beckon are slated to be included in one for 2006. My byline will be included, along with the title of the book. I want to be sure it's available in both choices (paperback and hardcover) should anyone enjoy my poetry enough on the calendar to go looking for the book!

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Mahogany Sisters Book Club - Kansas City

I have to say that I had one of the most wonderful times of my life on Saturday, May 21, 2005. I was the selected author for the month for the Mahogany Sisters Book Club in Kansas City, and was invited to join them at their monthly meeting where that months' book would be critiqued. I knew the caliber of reader who made up the club, so I went a little nervously, hard hat in tow, so that I could weather the critiques should they be hard hitting.

From the moment the first club member shook my hand, until the last moment we each hugged goodbye, it was the most validating experience I've had in my entire writing life. They eternally etched a place on my heart. I will never forget them. You ladies are all beyond awesome!

Tag! You're it!

Ten Things I Love!

1. God is the first thing that popped in my head, heart and mind - so God!
2. To Write
3. Being Fair
4. Laughter
5. Hubby, Sister and Brother
6. Learning
7. Old Houses
8. Carmel by the Sea
9. Cash Flow
10. My Friends!

I was tagged by Princess Dominique and I now have to pass this on to four people: So. . .
Carla Curtis
Monica Jackson
Cherlyn Michaels
Dee Stewart

You're it!

The Nudgies® Calendar

Have your ordered your 2005 Nudgies® Calendar yet? If not, now is the time to get this year's collector's first edition. 2006 is also available, so you might want to pick up both!

Click here for 2005
Nudgies® Calendar!





Click here for 2006

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Just in case you're not familiar with Nudgies® here's it's story!



Nudgies® Greeting Cards

Creator Peggy Eldridge Love


THE IDEA



In the mid-70’s a friend who was an artist brought a canvas and a small tin of oil paints to my apartment and elicited a promise from me that I would not leave that day until I had painted a picture. This was to be quite a feat because I prided myself on being a writer, but did not fancy having any particular visual art talents.


Although I gave both that day and my promise my very best, as the sun was going down what was before me on canvas was clumsy and amateurish. In frustration I painted over it until there was nothing but a dull gray oily hue. I took the brush, dipped it in black and painted a stick figure, its arms thrust out in the frustration I thought I felt. I had done this with the intent of showing my friend that the day had been a miserable waste. Instead, suddenly before me was “someone” that I felt an instant affinity towards; a slender stick figure who seemed to embody the exact emotions I was feeling, emotions of exhilaration, not frustration! That’s the day I met the first of the characters I would later name Nudgies®.


THE GREETING CARD LINE

Within a few months of my first meeting Nudgies® I had an opportunity to leave my hometown of Kansas City and relocate to Los Angeles. The stick figure painting was among the things I packed carefully to take with me. I frequently found myself glancing at it in my new home, feeling its energy and strength, and a sense of comfort emanating from it when I was homesick and lonely. I began to sketch the image on notes around my office and including it in letters and cards. Something came up at the office where I was employed and a unique greeting was needed for a loyal and trusted employee. One of our bosses asked if I’d mind sketching my stick figures along with one of my poems for that occasion. I gladly agreed to do it. Over the next year I was sketching and writing constantly for co-workers and soon their friends and their families. As the 70’s faded into the brand new 80’s I decided it was time to formalize my little endeavor and I began to copyright my characters and greetings, I created a logo and went to press with my first line of ten Nudgies® Greeting Cards.


To my delight, my first run of cards, somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 each, sold very quickly. I actually made the first sale to a unique bookshop in Kansas City while in town visiting my family. Back in Los Angeles friends and associates were waiting on the cards, and when I took them around to my favorite little retail spots a number of the owners were receptive as well. Many of those initial sales were to corner convenience stores or neighborhood eateries, but the cards were moving and they were asking for more! It would take another five years before Nudgies® had an opportunity to really test the waters. For a brief period in the mid-80's Nudgies® Greeting Cards received the full attention of both my husband and me and we were able to market it throughout our region of Kansas and Missouri and a beginning penetration into a few other states with the success of 100,000's of cards sold, but other business demands made it necessary to step away from that quest at that time.

And so, today, after years of sitting on the back burner Nudgies® Greeting Cards is ready again to show its stuff and share its gentle nudges of love and understanding with the world. I hope you'll take advantage of this very first opportunity to participate in the launching of Nudgies® E-cards! I assure you with Nudgies® you're sure to get your message across!

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LICENSING INFORMATION:

For licensing information please send email to Licensing Manager at Nudgies.

Nudgies® Greeting Cards is a registered trademark. All Nudgies® Greeting Cards are copyrighted. All Rights Reserved.

Busted!

PixelPusher

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I had to share this with you! I wrote it for our free flowing poetry day in one of my most favorite groups. Hope you enjoy it!

BUSTED

I thought he was gone
but he came through
the back,
caught me red-handed
fixing myself
a snack.
How could you,
he screeched
and flew into a rage.
For a moment I bleached
then I rattled that cage
I'd been forced into
on premise I'd been a
size three
when he met, fell in love with
and married me.
Who really knows
the last time
I had a square meal
with him looking
over my shoulder
making each bite
a big deal?
I've been hungry,
and lonely,
trying hard to be
his little doll
who could still wear
a size three,
but I lifted my
sandwich and saluted
him well
and told him
far as this size twelve
is concerned
you can go
straight to hell.

©2005 Peggy Eldridge-Love - All Rights Reserved

Psst:If you enjoy my poetry you can read other of my works in my book You Beckon.

Homesick

Photo Ditital Holloywood

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This is my favorite hide-away. For a while, at least twice a year, I was able to steal away here and spend a week or two, but life has been so unforgivingly hectic and stressful it has been a couple of years and I am, today, just agonizing with desire to be there once again.

The last time we were there we had this phenomenal suite oceanside with a full patio on the fouth floor. The view was so exquisite and the hotel's pampering so extraordinary that we did not leave the suite other than to stroll on the beach and an occasional walk up a few blocks to one of the great restaurants on Ocean Boulevard near the Pier. Well, I did make a couple of shopping trips for some Donald J. Pliner shoes and Jane Yoo purses. But, I think I offended a friends or two who live in the City because I wouldn't come off of the beach that time. One knows me well enough to just come on out and hang with me there, another has long since forgiven me, but the third -- I guess I should have been more flexible.

But all in all I am California dreaming. I'm kinda dangerous when I get homesick like this. I've lived in California and left it more than once, but in my heart of hearts, soul of soul I am definitely a California girl. I'm a duck out of water anywhere else -- especially landlocked here dead in the center of the United States. Heck,I need my pond!

Guest Book Saga

Free Photo from E-Cobo.com

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I finally pulled the plug on my "open" guest book on my official website. Like many authors, I had a guest book so that readers and other visitors could leave their comments. About a year ago I started to get the strangest comments and the commentors were from numerous places world wide. Almost always they included a link back to a site that was questionable at best, sometimes porno, sometimes selling pills and widgets, but never mentioning anything whatsoever about having read any of my works.

Several other authors have complained about the same thing and one by one have mentioned the removal of their guest books or finally, reluctantly, making them private only. I was a hold out? Don't know why, but until today I would just go in once or twice a week and clean out the garbage, make an administrative note of those who were repeat offenders so that they couldn't post again, and go on with life. But today, today one showed up who was armed with at least a hundred urls and he kept posting and posting and posting. I went in, cleaned up, noted his urls and ... yep, ten minutes later I get a barrage of emails about new entries and yep they were from him and he was armed with about two hundred more!

That's when I knew it was time for the sun to set on my old "open" guest book. With a swift click of the delete button I sent the entire guest book into oblivion. It is no more. So, if you were one of those kind enough over the years to post a note and want to post again there's still the private guest book. But for those who are members of "guest book desecrations international" ... adios!
Guest Book Notice

Fruitfulness

Comteche.com

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I'm ripe for it!

Red Song

Comteche.com

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I turn at the sound, startled.
Was I meant to hear that?
Your lift in A-Flat, your thrust
in E, the down flap of each wing
teasing the wind,
a dance in minor chords
trailing the sky with
brilliant red song.

If that was for me,
I am flattered
you chose to grant me
a momentary listen
to the concerto
of your wings.

©2005 Peggy Eldridge-Love-All Rights Reserved

Centrifugal Force

Courtesy of OGPhoto.com

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I am a butterfly
who does not
yet understand
centrifugal force.
©Peggy Eldridge-Love-All Rights Reserved



This poem is a very early one. It spoke then of my thirst for personal flight, my ability to fly, but my total lack of understanding of the process itself. Time hasn't altered that. My dearest friend, Joycelyn, reminded me not long ago of my passion once upon a time for butterflies. I collected them in every shape, form, or image I could. Someone enamor of me when I was in my twenties, an artist, sought to declare his love by showering me with dozens of butterfly paintings, sculptures and even jewelry he designed just for me. When and where I stopped feeling that all consuming affinity to the butterfly I don't know, but somewhere along the way I set them aside. In later years I began collecting turtles -- quite a contrast, huh?

But, being reminded, I took a little internal inventory and realized that when the butterfly in me was free flowing so too was my joy. I'm going back now to reclaim them, to embrace their beauty, their legacy, their strength. And in so doing I once more realized that, yes, I AM A BUTTERFLY who does not yet understand centrifugal force, but I don't have to in order to be able to let my soul fly free!

Fifth Gear

Fifth Gear


I have never been
able to wallow for long.
It just is not in me
to stay down and not
get up
and get on
with the life that is
at hand.

Something inside me
will not be denied its own.
When I get weary
it takes over
gets up
and gets on
to where this life of mine
must go.

I never learned
how to drive a stick,
I have been an automatic girl,
but the other me
knows how and when

to shift
into fifth.

©2005 Peggy Eldridge-Love - All Rights Reserved

Who Really Loves You Baby?

Sachet L'Air du Temps

The scent of her lingers in folds,
creases and closed boxes,
often sweet surprises stumbled upon
on the worst of days

when angry men and crude
women rip, snatch,
and seek to pry loose

my smallest joy.

The aroma, easing forth at first,
a mere suggestion, strengthens
as if steeped in

freshly warmed care. A sweet sachet
impervious to boundaries seen,
relentless in its mission,
and, when it is gone I find

I am completely whole again.

©2000 Peggy Eldridge-Love
From You Beckon

So Soy!

Cheflive.com

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Okay, okay, I'll admit it! It's not fair. You're dieting or at the office, lunch or dinner are still hours off and I keep putting food in your face? I'm sorry!

Crystal Clear!

Took a break from writing for a while yesterday and today and tried my hand at making a style of earrings I haven't tackled before. These are a little crude, but I think I'm going to enjoy making and selling these. The bottom pair were interesting because I broke down a vintage pair of old Vogue earrings that had a handfull of very interesting rhinestones -- I used it along with some Austrian crystals and ribbed cut glass that I love to work with. I like mixing the old with the new, especially when I find some profound vintage piece of jewelry that, say there's only one earring of, or some of the stones are missing and it is no longer wearable or valuable by itself. Anyway, I got the hang of it, so here I come!I haven't done an art show for a while, maybe I'll do a few this summer.

What the heck, here are a few other pieces I've made: