On writing, on reading and The Mayborn

By Peggy | July 17, 2012 |

People often ask artists who has influenced their work — musicians, painters, sculptors, filmmakers, writers. It’s a tough question to escape. I’ve asked it, but not too often, because I’ve found that many good artists don’t seem keen on bringing that kind of consciousness to their work.

I write intuitively, too. I try to edit consciously. And editing often seems to be slightly under the influence of whomever I’m reading at the time.

(Except Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende, and Joan Didion. They are always there.)

This year, Paige has left behind collections from University of Iowa students. Home of Iowa Writers Workshop, there comes from Iowa always something fresh, and often ever-so-slightly unworkable in those pages. I enjoy them. And my friend, RunnerSusan, has loaned me a dozen of her favorite works of fiction that have taken me down unexpected paths.

I took a break from reading the authors scheduled for this weekend’s Mayborn conference to pour over essays for a writer’s workshop. My essay, Carrion (see the pages on the left), has been accepted to the workshop, so I am reading the work of others who will be sequestered with me and our workshop leader. More new voices and ideas.

Like a book club, only on steroids, it’s the eighth Mayborn writer’s conference this weekend. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I threw the manuscript for “See Sam Run” into the workshop to see what would happen. There won’t be anything on that scale for me this weekend, but it will be for someone, and there is all that other talk of writing and reading and writing that is so inspiring to us all. I can’t wait to see what this weekend will bring.

Posted in hope, language, social life

Where running meets writing

By Peggy | June 12, 2012 |

It used to be that I ran with RunnerSusan. 
It was easy. We were neighbors. Not in the Yankee way, (which we both are, by the way), living next door or across the street from each other, but in the Texas way, where we could be like the two trains in a story problem with 4th grade math. If two runners leave the house at the same time, and one heads west on Frenchtown Road and the other heads east, where and what time will they meet?
And then we’d keep running for an hour.
She moved to a new place, with a peach tree and a patio. It would take more than an hour to meet, so now I  race alone.
It’s ok.
One day soon, we’ll figure out how to start the way we started last summer, trail running. Trail running is the best, anyways. If we get going good enough, we might race together this fall, through trails in the woods in East Texas, or up around Lake Ray Roberts.
I’d love to run the Palo Duro Canyon race in October, but a professional conference sneaked onto the calendar that weekend.
Maybe next year.
By the way, fellow Mayborn School of Journalism pals Valerie Gordon Garcia and Sarah Perry joined team-in-training.
We care about blood cancers in the Wolfe house.
A good friend is living with it.
And so is my dad.
Happy Father’s Day, Dad!

Posted in getting back on the horse, problem-solving, social life

Horse bling

By Peggy | May 29, 2012 |

Sam isn’t a belt-buckle-wearing kind of guy. When he’d come home from Chisholm Challenge with another trophy buckle, usually from being the best in English equitation, we’d look at it lovingly for a minute. The organizers of Chisholm Challenge order the trophy buckles each year from the silversmith in Placerville, Calif. That was always fun to see, too. I knew the shop since I worked for the El Dorado Arts Council for three years, back when Sam was an infant and toddler.

But then, we’d just put the buckle back in the velveteen box and shove it in the dining room cabinet. (Lots of room in there. We don’t have many fancy dishes.) After a few years, I felt bad. He worked hard for those buckles and he didn’t get one every year for every event. (Unlike Special Olympics medals and ribbons, but I digress.)

I figured it was time for a display. I asked Dad, and the next time we were talking on Skype, he showed me what he’d built. I brought it home two weeks ago and showed it to Sam.

He’s not really a belt-buckle-arranging kind of guy, either. I pulled them out of the box, marveled at the craftsmanship and then arranged them.

I hope he’s a belt-buckle-noticing kind of guy.

Posted in getting back on the horse, love, social life

Random Thoughts from the Grassland Half

By Peggy | March 25, 2012 |

There are people who can run 37 more miles than you and still get to the finish line before you do. The last mile is longer than the first four. Stay far ahead of the guy whose t-shirt says “Pappa Joe.” The LBJ Grasslands are not flat — as in, climb every mountain; ford every stream. Don’t run up a hill unless you can see the top. Trail runners will tell you “good job” even when you’re walking. Compressors are just as loud on the prairie as they are next to your house. The Grasslands are also flammable. Don’t get between a mamma cow and her calf. Try not to think about all the wild hog tracks you are following. You learned the best survival lessons in kindergarten: carry jelly beans and eat the peanut butter crackers at the aid station.

Posted in social life

Waiting for the cable guy

By Peggy | March 15, 2012 |

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of calling Tom “Smitty” Smith for a story I was working on. He’s with the Texas office of Public Citizen and I always learn something when I talk to him.

He wasn’t in the office. He was at home, waiting for the cable guy. It had been a long wait, and we laughed about how it’s always that way. I shared the little known fact that the actor (Daniel Whitney) created his Larry The Cable Guy by calling into radio shows.
Sam is a huge fan of Larry the Cable Guy, though not from his stand-up or his movies, but as Mater in Cars and Cars 2. During his sophomore year, he wanted to do his final paper for a film history class on Larry the Cable Guy. His humanities professor was reluctant, I could tell. He said his subject had to have made at least three movies. Lucky for Sam, Witless Protection was coming out. I showed him the IMDB web site, and he found some older movies, one of which was at the library, so he was in business.
Sam really went after that paper. He researched the actor’s biography and the nature of comedy. His critical thinking grew in the course of researching and writing that paper.
I’d learned long ago that when Sam is motivated about a topic, he will learn as well or better than any other student doing the same work in a more traditional way.
His analysis of the actor and his work almost had me respecting the guy for his talents. And then I remembered all the fart jokes.
Posted in language, social life

Random thoughts from the Cowtown Half

By Peggy | February 26, 2012 |

Don’t try to mix honey and chia seeds in the truck, but if you do, bring a wet rag. Running with thousands of people in the stockyards makes you feel at one with the cattle. Some men wear chaps and they are not cowboys. At the 8-mile mark, you can hear people unload their psychological burdens whether you want to or not. No matter how many hills you train it is impossible to prepare for the Main Street bridge incline, although, in a pinch, singing loud and off-key can help. After crossing the finish line, even though you are milling among thousands, you can still run into the man who is remodeling your bathroom. The wedge-shaped finisher’s medal does not appear to be something you should wear on the way home, in case your airbag goes off.

Posted in social life