peggypayne

Hurry to the new location, and sign up again (or for the first time) to follow or subscribe. It's still the Boldness Blog. And I'm still an "Anxious Writer Attempting An Adventurous Life." The address is www.peggypayne.com/blog . I'm eagerly awaiting your arrival. Add to del.icio.us  -  Stumble It!  -  Subscribe to this feed  -  Digg it Read Full Story

Don't live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable. -- Wendy Wasserstein quoted at She Writes (I also think one can stay in and do something remarkable.) Add to del.icio.us  -  Stumble It!  -  Subscribe to this feed  -  Digg it Read Full Story

These trees are across the street from my office. Fall color can be an irresistible reminder to dare to live with one's innate flair. Add to del.icio.us  -  Stumble It!  -  Subscribe to this feed  -  Digg it Read Full Story

Last week I committed myself here on this very blog to finish by last night a project that has been sitting on my desk at home for four years. This job was to go through the thousands of slides and negatives and B&W; prints from the years when I was doing a great deal of travel writing. And to sort, cull, and properly store the ones I want to keep. Done!!!! And only because I staked myself out here publicly. If I hadn't made a public commitment, I'd have put it off once again. Once I got going... Read Full Story

Thursday morning, I started working on a little project that has been sitting unfinished on my desk at home for FOUR YEARS!!!! The wee task is culling and properly storing the photos I took in the many years when I was doing a lot of travel writing. They have been sitting in little yellow boxes and ancient plastic slide sheets in a blue steamer trunk. The trunk was full. Thousands of pictures of places I've been: Jerusalem, Krakov, Quito, Kerala, Chapel Hill... In the late fall of 2006, I... Read Full Story

I had no idea that house-sitting was an industry. In August, when I enjoyed a three-week bonus life as a "a New York writer," I was staying in a studio of a daughter of a friend of a friend. It was an informal arrangement. And I was thrilled to get the chance to do it. House-sitting is good way to work in an extra life in a different state or country. Or even in the same town. This week, when a friend mentioned that his college student daughter was certified as a sitter and also had nanny... Read Full Story

In the last couple of months, I haven't been at all in the mood to write. And I've taken some time away from it. However this week and last week, I did it anyway, which is more typically my strategy. But I did it quickly, without looking back, without being very impressed, without much giving a damn. Then in my regular feedback group today, I read the last week's worth. (I hadn't so much as looked it over since tapping out the rough draft.) They liked it. They thought it worked... Read Full Story

Thanks to all who were so helpful in my brother Harry's campaign for judge. He didn't win this one. And this is the first race out of his nine political campaigns that he ever lost. It seemed to me, after he won his first at age 27 against a long-established incumbent and two other fearsome and well-funded opponents, that he would always win. Well, that's almost never true. This new outcome is disappointing to me. And he's being a champ about it. The candidate who appears to have won -- and... Read Full Story

When it's your brother who's running for office, you'll do all sorts of bold and marginally undignified things. Like standing beside a highway in a startling coat for four hours, waving and grinning at every single car that passes. That's how strongly I feel about Harry Payne being elected to be a NC Appeals Court judge . Out on the roadside Saturday, lifelong family friend and architect Paul Boney kept me company and did the lion's share of holding the banner up against the gusts of wind... Read Full Story

Last week was a mini-bonus life in a house full of writers with good food and good views: the writing workshop at Doe Branch Ink in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains: To give full credit, the shot above of the group from the third floor landing was taken by novelist/site manager Nick Roberts. The ones below are part of my record of the week, and my parting exploration of the neighborhood: the wide French Broad River, the 800 person nearby county seat of Marshall and its quirkily rich... Read Full Story