Author: Peg Kehret

I am celebrating the sale of Japanese rights to Night of Fear. This is the first of my books to be published in Japanese. After reading the contract terms, I figured out that my royalty on each copy sold will be 78 yen. Of course, all royalties on the foreign editions of my books come to me in U.S. dollars, but I’m having a good time imagining those 78 yen.

Foreign sales are one of the best perks of being an author, because a book gets published but I don’t have to write it first. I have never been to Japan, and it is exciting for me to know that Japanese students, teachers, and librarians will be able to read my book in their own language.

It also pleases me to see a new life for this particular title, which was originally published in 1994. I have a special fondness for Night of Fear because the character of Grandma Ruth has Alzheimer’s disease. My father had Alzheimer’s, so I used personal experience and feelings as I wrote.

I had an inquiry from someone who was searching for the poem, “Lilacs in Summer,” which one of the characters in Runaway Twin plagiarizes. She couldn’t find the poem on the internet, and asked where she could get a copy. She can’t find “Lilacs in Summer” because it doesn’t exist. I made it up. I even Googled the title before I used it, to be sure there wasn’t a real poem with that title.

Another reader requested the street address of Aunt Ethel, from The Ghost’s Grave. She was planning a field trip to view all of the places mentioned in the story. I explained that Aunt Ethel and her house are fictional, as is the rest of the book.

While many readers feel as if a fictional story is true, those who read my nonfiction often question the facts. I have many letters from kids who read Small Steps asking if I really had polio. Those who read Five Pages a Day want to know if I really won a car.

Apparently my fiction is so realistic that it seems true, while my real life is too unusual to be believed. As a writer, I obviously can’t be trusted.

Kids sometimes ask me (usually to their teacher’s or parent’s chagrin) how much money I make. I respond by explaining how royalties work. They assume that if I wrote the book, I get all the money from the book’s sales so they are often outraged to learn that when they purchase a paperback book for $6.99, my share – a standard six percent royalty – is forty-two cents. I then explain that my agent gets fifteen percent of everything I earn, in this case, six cents. So that puts my share at thirty-six cents per book. I’m considered a business by the State of Washington so I pay a Business and Occupation Tax and, of course, I pay federal income tax, as well.

Why would anyone in their right mind work for such a pittance? Because I don’t sell only one book per year. And because my books continue to sell year after year so that I receive income from them long after I’ve finished writing them.

Yesterday I received a royalty check for $122 from The Dramatic Publishing Co. for a one-act play titled “Cemeteries Are a Grave Matter.” It had been produced by three high schools in three different states. $122 does not make me a wealthy woman. On the other hand, there has never been a time in my life when I was not delighted to have $122 that I didn’t have the day before. The amazing thing about this check is not its size, it’s that I published that play in 1975, which means I have been collecting royalties on it for thirty-five years!

I vividly remember how thrilled I was to open that long-ago letter and learn that “Cemeteries Are a Grave Matter” had been accepted. Now I am thrilled to know that the words I wrote thirty-five years ago still seem relevant to high school audiences.  That is why I write – not to get rich, but to entertain as I offer my view of the world.

Today was Pampered Pets Day. I leave tomorrow morning to spend a couple of days with my son’s family, and to attend a memorial service. Like any conscientious mom, I always feel a tad guilty when I leave my “kids,” even though I have a wonderful pet sitter who stays at my house.  To make up for going tomorrow, I took Lucy for a long walk on the Foothills Trail. It was a warm, sunny day, and she got to sniff several other dogs. The trail is her favorite destination; she actually shakes with anticipation when I pull into the trail’s parking area.

When we got home, I took Molly out. She wandered around, ate grass, sniffed the dirt and stared at the trees. Favorite cat activities. While I was supervising her, I saw a pileated woodpecker. They are magnificent birds, and I don’t see one very often. We also startled a flock of mourning doves.

Because my legs always ache after a walk, I laid down for half an hour and was quickly joined by Lucy and Molly, who love to snuggle.

Pampered Pets Day – a long walk in the sun, time to daydream and watch the birds, and a nap. Maybe it was really Pampered Peg Day.

Today I baked Valentine brownies for my grandkids. My idea was to frost the brownies and then, before the frosting hardened, press a Valentine candy heart  (the kind with love-related sayings on them) into the top of each piece. I chopped the walnuts, cracked the eggs, measured and stirred. While the brownies baked, I sorted through the bag of Valentine hearts and chose the sayings I liked best (U Rock; Puppy Love; Call Me) so they’d be ready for quick placement. I also started melting the butter and chocolate for the frosting.

I tested the brownies with a toothpick (twice, since they weren’t quite done the first time) and then, when they were baked to perfection, I removed them from the oven – and dropped the pan on the floor! It landed face down and bounced, leaving hot brownie crumbles strewn across the kitchen floor. I stared in disbelief at the mess. The 9 X 13 glass pan had simply slipped out of my hands before I could set it on the cooling rack.

Lucy rushed to the kitchen to see what had happened so I had to clean things up quickly before she ate any chocolate. I used a large spatula to scoop the crumbles into a garbage bag.  About a third of the brownies had remained stuck in the pan. Those will eventually be a dessert served in bowls with ice cream.

I washed the floor. I looked at the melted chocolate and butter in the frosting pan. I re-read the sayings on the candy hearts. And then I did what every writer does when a first draft is a disaster: I started over. I chopped more nuts, cracked more eggs, and sprayed the bottom of my other 9 X 13 pan. I baked another batch of brownies and this time I was extra cautious when I moved the pan from the oven to the cooling rack. They’re frosted now, and the colorful candy hearts with their Valentine sayings look festive and fun. I can hardly wait to give them to the kids.

Earlier this week I posted a notice on my Facebook Fan Page that I would send a signed bookplate to any of my Facebook fans who requested one. I expected to hear mostly from kids, but it turns out I have a lot of adult fans who wanted an autographed bookplate.

One of my favorite requests came from a couple in Colorado who told me that they have always had “storytime” where they take turns reading aloud in bed before they go to sleep. When their kids were growing up, this was a family storytime. Now, when their adult offspring come home to visit, they still want to be included in storytime. Currently this couple is reading The Stranger Next Door, and having a good time doing Pete the Cat’s parts out loud.

A friend’s healthy one-year-old dog died yesterday after eating sugar-free gum that contained xylitol. The vet said this is a common ingredient in sugar-free products (it’s also in some toothpaste) and that it is extremely toxic to dogs. Please be cautious about what you leave where a curious, or greedy, dog can find it.

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.