Peg Herring's Page

Here's one I used to use with my students to get past the I-can't-write-poetry defense.

A noun (in this case your current protagonist)
4 adjectives describing the noun
A phrase
A noun related to the original noun

Here's mine:
Simon,
Callow, curious, virtuous, brave,
Loyal as the day is long,
Sleuth.

Sixty words to describe your office right this minute. Here's mine:

The chilly room was crammed with books, papers, and the paraphrenalia of two computers, one for standing, one for sitting. Stuck along the wainscot trim were congratulatory cards and letters, and atop a small, music-laden bookshelf lay two naked dolls. A glass of water, going tepid, had a sheet of paper across its top to keep the flies out.

My aunt, the last surviving member of her generation, is 95. When I asked her about family history so I could write it down and preserve it, her response was, "Who cares? That's the past."

I got a review yesterday from a woman who loved HER HIGHNESS, but she prefaced her praise with the comment that she almost didn't read it (she won an ARC) because historicals are boring.

Obviously, I'm of a different sort. I love history, not so much the sweep of politics and armies and civilization, but the… Continue

Don't ask me where these things come from, but I started wondering this morning why we keep the soy sauce behind the dish soap and the teriyaki sauce in a different area, next to the cinnamon. No logic there, merely an unconscious decision at some point in the past that became habit and now is required. I can imagine either my husband or I bellowing to the other, "Where have you put the soy sauce?" if it were to end up somewhere else.

That's how my files are, too. Everything is stored in some s… Continue

My mother, an elementary teacher, once had a student hand in homework that stymied her for a few moments. All the true-false, multiple choice, and short answer responses were correct, but all the essay questions were answered with the phrase "Answers will vary." She finally figured out that during recess, while she was on hall duty, the kid had swiped her teacher's edition from the desk, copied what was written there onto his paper, and then put the book back.

What I've been thinking of as I ed… Continue