ahappymountainwoman
ahappymountainwoman
| Forum role | Member since | Last activity | Topics created | Replies created |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Member | Nov 22, 2018 (7 years) |
- | 1 | 0 |
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Bio
From early childhood, Peggy vowed she would write stories like the ones in her picture books. Years passed. She graduated from picture books to the world of Nancy Drew, to Agatha Christie, to Heather Graham. She graduated from pencil and paper to ballpoint pen and typewriter to a word processor and then to a computer with all its magic possibilities. Nothing helped. She had no problem with researching and writing formal papers, but fiction continued to elude her.
In the meantime, a typing and editing service in Chapel Hill, NC, kept her busy for over 30 years editing candidates’ advanced honors degrees, Master’s theses, and doctoral dissertations. She also edited faculty research in many disciplines. She edited short fiction for various authors, and books written by a multi-published Southern Appalachian author, Lee Smith. Apparently by osmosis, she learned to write fiction. Once the words started, they never stopped.
In 2004, the Chapel Hill Press published Challenges on the Home Front, World War II, a book of reminisces of women's non-military contributions to the war effort. She conceived the idea, edited, served as production manager, and was a contributor, including her mother’s story. In addition to writing the Introduction and back cover, she researched and wrote the difficulties women faced in the defense industry from the mid-thirties through the war years. At the request of the recipients, Challenges is in the Women's History Archives of the Library of Congress and the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historic Park Archives in Richmond, California. Challenges was available in the gift shops at the Rosie the Riveter Park, at President Truman’s Library in Independence, Missouri, and at President Eisenhower’s Library in Abilene, Kansas.
Peggy wrote the Introduction and back cover for Lest the Colors Fade (Righter Books 2008), which contains her memoirs, both serious and humorous, and her essay on volunteerism.
A Beautiful Life and Other Stories (Righter Books 2010) contains her humorous memoirs, short fiction, and her researched update on the women’s movement continuing from World War II. She also wrote the Introduction and the back cover.
Gardening and travel provided grist for the mill of her creativity. Her earliest publications (and continuing) were humorous essays in nationally distributed magazines on those subjects, among others. She received an honorable mention in a Writer’s Digest contest, placing at #68 of almost 18,000 entries for creative nonfiction articles.
She placed highly in RWA Golden Heart, Royal Ascot, and Maggie contests in both historical and contemporary novels. In the RWA contemporary contests, she received high marks for her characterization and writing style. These also received high marks in her contemporary submissions in Byline magazine. A cozy mystery, Trouble in Mind, was a finalist in St, Martin’s Press 2016 Malice Domestic Contest.
While living in Chapel Hill, she attended many local writing workshops sponsored by her writers’ group, and taught in several.
Peggy and her husband moved into their Black Mountain, NC, retirement home in 2004. That year, she researched and wrote the 30-year history of a local library. For more than three years, she served as a contributor, editor, and production manager of a local 15-page monthly newsletter. She served as adviser to Scribbler, a local memoir publication.
Through the years, she has attended writers' workshops, both one-day regionals with professional instructors, and The Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference in Ridgecrest, NC. 2018 was her 13th year there. She also attends the fall Novelist Retreat in Ridgecrest.
Since her husband retired, they’ve traveled on the seven continents and 38 countries. Their most recent travel was in New England and the Canadian Maritimes.
Peggy continues her freelance work editing for Righter Publications and for clients in fiction and nonfiction, Christian and general market.
Over the past 25 years, Peggy has published regularly in the following magazines. (Clips are available on all.)
Rock and Gem, Aquarium, Good Old Days, Reminisce, True Story, Splickety (print), Woman’s World, Highland Farms Weekly Newsletter, and Righter Monthly Review, and RPG Digest, an ezine.
Also among her publishing credits are:
A Beautiful Life and Other Stories (Righter Books, 2010)
Lest the Colors Fade (Righter Books, 2008)
Challenges on the Home Front World War II (Chapel Hill Press, 2004)
Current: Monthly column, Natters of a Nomad, in RPG Digest, an ezine.
Upcoming:
“The Right Words at the Right Time,” Broken Moments, Divine Moments Series, Publication date pending
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