Peg's Blog for Authors and Others

Marti got me...and then Margaret got me for the same meme.  Hmmm....do I get double credit?   I am... happier than I have ever been before in my life. I think... good friends are more valuable than any amount of money or property. Ever try to get a hug from a hundred dollar bill? I want... to fly...

  A fountain pen and a steno pad…how quaint! But with no power for more than four hours, that's all I had to work with. First I used the laptop on battery power, but without Internet there was no way to reach the rest of the world. After about 45 minutes of making notes and cleaning up files, I s...

  When I first moved to the Kings Contrivance village of Columbia, there was a grocery store in the village center that was convenient but old and fairly depressing. It was replaced in short order by a Safeway that was better, but not much. I always found their store arrangement puzzling; aisles ...

For the second time in three years, Columbia, MD placed in the top 10 on the CNN/Money list of Best Places to Live. Now 41 years old, this planned community came in as the 8th Best Place to Live for 2008, after placing 4th in 2006. Though the CNN/Money list links Columbia to Ellicott City, people...

About two years ago, Margaret Rome started raving about this place for real estate people called Active Rain. She was online night and day, hopping from blog to blog, leaving comments, and adding blogs of her own. I heard about Broker Bryant and some clever guys named Matt and Jonathan. So I join...

Fall has finally arrived. In Maryland that means brisk days, cool nights, and breezy cascades of gold, terracotta, and scarlet as the trees shed their leaves.Except this year. Like too much of the country, we had been unseasonably warm and very dry. Usually we have some nice colors in the trees e...

A recent drive through western Maryland was a lovely respite from the megalopolis of Baltimore/Washington. Here, buildings nudge each other for space, and anything that is more than 25 years old seems at risk of razing. Buildings rarely become charming derelicts - their land is too valuable as th...

What's the fastest way to get rid of a customer? Without doing a thing? You got it. The answer is say nothing, do nothing. Be unresponsive. Let your paying customer know that you really don't care what their experience was. It's true no matter what business you are in, from selling real estate t...

She got me...Margaret Rome commented on Maureen McCabe's post and memed me, so here goes. 1.  Where do I live? The Land of Pleasant Living, America in Miniature, and (officially) The Old Line State.  That's my home for the past  mumbledy-leven years - Maryland.  The city of Columbia, where I've l...

Back in September I wrote an article about philanthropy. It was triggered by the generous givings of Richard Branson and Warren Buffett. And now, with the seasons of giving bearing down on us, my mailbox overflows with desperate pleas from charitable organizations. "Please help the... [insert cat...