Today, I’m featuring a fellow author on my blog. Peggy Chambers and I graduated from Enid High School together a looong time ago. We rekindled our friendship three years back at the annual conference of the Oklahoma Writers Federation Inc., in Oklahoma City, and discovered we had more in common than we remembered.

This weekend we’ll be appearing together in Enid. On Saturday morning, we’ll be teaching a class at 10:30 a.m. at the Enid Public Library on ‘hint’ fiction (25 words or less!). That afternoon, from 3-5 p.m., we’ll be at the Enid Hastings for a joint book signing. If you’re in the area, come see us!

Here’s my interview with Peggy:

MMC: Your latest book is titled Glome’s Valley.  Where did you get the idea for this book?

PC: A few years ago I traveled to Heavener, OK near Poteau to see the Heavener Runestone.  Some believe the huge sandstone monolith the park is named for is carved with ancient Viking letters.  It MIGHT say Glome’s Valley claiming the valley for someone named Glome  hundreds of years before Columbus discovered America. In my mind a fairytale was born with Oklahoma ties.  I loved the area and I loved the idea.  So I took a modern boy with a cell phone in his pocket and introduced him to Viking ghosts, magic swords, smelly trolls, and a beautiful princess. I took the published work to the Heavener Runestone Viking and Celtic festival this past fall for a book signing and sale and it is now in their gift shop.

MMC:  What are the names and publishers for the books you have written?

PC: Lee Press, an imprint of Oghma Creative Media, published Glome’s Valley, and The Wild Rose Press published Secrets of Sandhill Island.  My pulp fiction, The Apocalypse Sucks, is published by Airship 27.

MMC: What is your favorite piece you’ve ever written?

PC:  I love the book Secrets of Sandhill Island because I love the water.  I think I may have gills hidden somewhere and have always been drawn to the water.  I would live in a beach house and die happy if I had my way.

MMC:  What is challenging your hero in Secrets of Sandhill Island?

PC:  Meg is very family oriented as am I.  She is out to find out what happened in her past and see if the rumor is true that her father had her fiancé killed twenty years ago.

MMC: Tell me about your writing style.

PC:  It has been called sweet.  I hope it is not too sweet because I want it to be exciting too.  I recently wrote a horror short story with sex and violence as a writing exercise to step out of my comfort zone.  I don’t know how scary it really is, but I am a big Stephen King fan and have read my share of horror, just not written it.

MC: What has happened in your life since Enid High?

PC:  I married my high school sweetheart at a young age and had my first child when I was barely twenty years old.  After both children were in school, I went back to school myself and then to work full time.  I earned a paralegal certificate from OU and worked in the legal field for several years.  I also was employed in the simulator section of pilot training at Vance AFB for 15 years before returning to the legal sector at Continental Resources. My husband and I retired last spring and we have five grandchildren who have outgrown us.  We are still getting used to this retirement thing but I find I have a lot more time for my writing.

MMC: What do you like to do when you aren’t writing?

PC: I love to travel and plan to spend a lot more time doing that soon.

MMC: What’s next on your agenda?

PC: I am working on my Keystone Lake series.  The books are set around the Keystone Lake and Tulsa area but with different characters all having different lives, while still in the same geographical area.  The first book Blooming Justice is finished and I am at work on the second.

My books are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and books stores everywhere.  They are available in paperback and e-published for the Kindle and Nook.

For more information about Peggy, visit these internet sites: http://peggylchambers.com/, https://www.facebook.com/peggy.chambers, https://www.facebook.com/BraWars/ (author page)