Author: Peg Kehret

Here’s my valentine collection. Some were hand made by my kids and grandkids. Two were made by my husband’s mother when she was 16! All have special meaning to me, and I love displaying them each year.

Usually Lucy, my dog, is bored while I read and answer all of my mail. Today, however, she is barking with joy because a young reader sent her two dog biscuits along with his letter.  Thank you to Drew Velasco of South Adams Elementary School in Berne, Indiana, for making my dog very happy!

Yesterday I heard Itzhak Perlman play with the Seattle Symphony. It was a thrill beyond measure. Besides being the finest violinist of our time, he is a role model for all of us polio survivors who struggle with the physical disabilities that this disease causes. For that matter, he is a shining example for anyone with a handicap of any kind.

Many times, I’ve heard the expression that a performer electrified the audience. Yesterday, Mr. Perlman truly accomplished that.  He also provided me with inspiration not to let physical problems prevent me from utilizing my talents to the best of my ability.

 Bravo, Mr. Perlman! And thank you. 

Here is what I am wondering today:

1. Why does Molly, my cat, go under my bed to throw up?

2. How did the two actors in Sleuth, which I saw yesterday at the Village Theatre, EVER memorize all those lines?

3. When forwarding my mail to me, why does Simon & Schuster send it to my address, “in care of Larry Strickland?”  Who? I Googled the name and found, among others, a Southern artist, a comedian, and a deceased NFL player, non of whom reside with me.

4. Why is it that if I answer eight letters, when I mail them I find nine more in my box?

5.  There have been two long editorials in the York PA newspaper regarding the challenge to Stolen Children. The most recent one refers to me as “an old woman.” I wonder if I should point out that, while that may be true now, I was only 72 when I wrote the book.

I was contacted by a newspaper reporter in Pennsylvania who told me Stolen Children was being challenged by a parent who thought it was too violent for elementary age students.  I did an email interview with the reporter, and answered a few follow-up questions the next day.

One question was, “Has this book ever been challenged before?” I couldn’t remember for sure, so I looked in my files and learned that it had been challenged once before – in the same school! Last March, the school librarian defended Stolen Children at the School Board meeting when a parent filed a challenge. The Board voted to keep the book in the school library.

The reporter was as astonished as I am that this is happening again in the same school. I don’t know if it’s the same parent, but if it isn’t, it’s almost certainly her friend or relative.

I don’t get many complaints about my books and they are rarely formally challenged, so it upsets me when it happens. This time it will be interesting to see what transpires. I wonder how often a book is challenged more than once in the same school.

In my next book, Animals Welcome, I state that I welcome all animals who visit my property. However, I am currently wishing that the visiting moles would leave – or at least move into the woods instead of burrowing in the small section that I mow.

I make New Year’s resolutions every year. I’ve done it for as long as I can remember, and every year they are exactly the same as the year before: 1. Write a new book 2. Plan special occasions with family and friends 3. Lose ten pounds. I always keep two out of the three; I write a new book and I create fun with family and friends.

This year, I decided to forget about the ten pounds. I’m not obese, so it isn’t a medical issue. I left the new book and the special times off my list, too, because they are not goals so much as a statement of what I always do.

I’ve made only one resolution this year. At every meal, half of what is on my plate must be vegetables or fruit. Since I’ve been a vegetarian for decades, you might think this would not be much of a change but it is making a surprising difference. Instead of zapping a plate of leftover pasta for my lunch, I had a smaller portion with steamed green beans on the side. Last night when I fixed a snack of cheese and crackers, I added a sliced apple. I’m eating more salads and fresh oranges.

Eric started school today in Laramie, Wyoming. Before he left, I treated his family to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. (See resolutions about special occasions.) The entire dinner was paid for by the advance I received that day for a Japanese edition of Night of Fear.  Back in 1993, I kept my New Year’s resolution and wrote a book. Seventeen years later, the Japanese edition paid for a family celebration. How fun is that?

One young girl posted on Facebook that she and her brother had sorted through the gifts under their Christmas tree and there were “only thirteen presents each.”  “Only” does not seem an appropriate adjective for thirteen gifts! I admit that I usually give several gifts to each of my family members, but they have the grace to seem both surprised and grateful for the many packages under our tree.

As a child, I always received a book for Christmas, and for my birthday. Raggedy Ann in Cookie Land and the other Raggedy Ann and Andy books were treasures, as were the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace. I read them over and over, and I kept them. They now reside on a special shelf, alongside books that are autographed by author friends. Not many gifts are still cherished more than sixty years after they were unwrapped.

When one friend told me there are some Peg Kehret books under her family’s tree this year, it made me hope that some day, years from now, her children will look back and remember the pleasure they got from reading.

A reader asked if I had fun writing Nightmare Mountain. When I thought about it, I realized that I wrote that book twenty-two years ago! It was the third of my books for kids. Yes, I had fun writing it but it’s even more fun to know that, all these years later, kids are still reading it.

If you are writing a mystery, an icicle makes the perfect weapon. Get rid of the evidence by melting it.

I’m happy to report that my own icicles are melting without hurting anyone first.

I had a lovely Thanksgiving with Anne, Kevin, Brett, and Eric. As a vegetarian, I don’t eat turkey, but I enjoy all of the other traditional foods: mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie. Most of all, I love being with my family.