I Wanted To Know More About Her As A Person

Have you read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert?  Most people I know loved Italy.  I agree certainly, but my favorite part was India.  When Elizabeth (note ‘Elizabeth.’  more on that in a second.) was trying to meditate in the prayer garden, but she was hot, her thoughts wouldn’t stop, and the mosquitoes were stinging her, I was right there with her.  I can feel it as I sit here in my air-conditioned house in the woods of Virginia.  When she was able to transcend her itchy, buzzing, sweaty distractions and enter into a peaceful mental place, I was in awe.  

I loved that book.  I wanted to know more about Elizabeth Gilbert as a person.  It turns out that she is very good friends with my husband’s cousin, but I didn’t know that at the time.  I stumbled upon an article on her written by someone who knew her.  He called her ‘Liz,’ and he taunted us, pitiful, unconnected strangers that we are, that he could do that because he was her friend, whereas we are not.

Well, I want to let you in on a secret.  My name is, in fact, M. M. Finck which is why I write under it.  But, I go by ‘Peggy.’  This is my very first blog post.  I cannot imagine who will end up here to read it (probably family and friends who already call me Peggy :).  But whoever you are – you are my torch bearers!   

Wherever my career goes, you will have been with me from the beginning!  YOU may call me Peggy whether we have met yet or not.

So, let me tell you, torch-bearers, a little about myself.  I write fiction, predominantly women’s fiction, with romantic elements and dark underpinnings.  I like characters with strong voices and deeply-felt emotions.  Meaningful themes and character growth are important to me and a plot will not draw me in without opportunities for them.  I love distinct, unique backdrops.  For me, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is nearly the perfect commercial-literary cross novel, bit heavier on commercial.  I adore what I call "book club light" reads (literary but not overly dark plots), but the tension that I hope I've created in my current work is along the lines of Water for Elephants in hopefully an equally interesting setting (an inner city playhouse).  In whatever I write, I aspire to give my readers the same page-turning need that Sara Gruen gave me.

I have never experienced anything, save from true love, that takes me to the nary depths of despair and also to gravity-defying heights of jubilation the way writing does.  When my husband brought home my first book, spiral bound and printed at Kinko’s with nothing but a clear vinyl cover, I had honestly never seen anything so beautiful in my life.  Well, fifth most beautiful.  :)  My children take top honors.  

I can write because I read.  I joined goodreads.com today and am thrilled with the recommendations it has already made for me.  Check it out.  It is a very easy, friendly site.  I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t like it.  Friend/follow me, if you’d like (M. M. Finck).

Thank you for landing here today.  I hope that you come back often.  I will try post something regularly.  Hopefully, not this long.  :)  I hope you are well.

-Peggy