My Harlequin Moment: Peggy Webb

My favorite Harlequin moment came on April 7, 2005, when my mama rose up and started speaking to me from the grave. Before you think I've gone off my rocker, let me give you the back story.

Though my mother was so feisty and funny and indomitable nobody in our family had ever imagined she would get sick and die, the spring of 2004 she lost forty pounds, shrinking and fading while we wondered what in the world we would do without her.

Much to Mama's horror, I gave up writing in order to help my sister take care of her. She nagged and badgered me from hospital beds, recovery rooms, rehab centers and ultimately an assisted living home.

"You can't quit writing," Mama would say. "You love it too much."

"Don't worry about it, Mama. Besides, I've said all I can say in romance."

"Flitter. You have not. Call Tara Gavin."

Tara and I had known each other since the late eighties when I first came onboard at Harlequin and she was editing Silhouette Romance. Mama knew that Tara and I have always had a wonderful relationship that goes beyond editor and author. She also knew that I could never stop doing the thing I loved best - telling great stories.

Mama died that fall of 2004 and my muse left me. It didn't return until the spring of 2005. Suddenly, the stories came pouring back and I couldn't wait to get back to the computer.

But first, I picked up the phone and did what Mama had told me to do all along: I called Tara and pitched my idea - the story of two sisters taking care of their feisty, ailing mother. (Sound familiar?)

In one of those magical, miraculous moments, it turned out Tara had launched the NEXT line and was looking for just such a story. I sent a five-page synopsis and she called me on April 7, 2005 with the good news.

"I love this story and am going to call your agent with an offer. I especially love the Mama character."

"That's no character," I told her. "That's my mama, and today would have been her eighty-ninth birthday."

After Tara and I talked, I raced outside, picked daffodils and carried them to Mama's grave.

"Mama, you didn't have to die to get me to do what you wanted. I'd have called Tara eventually." Then I told her about my conversation. I could almost hear Mama laughing and saying I told you so.

But she wasn't finished yet. The story became Driving Me Crazy, NEXT, 2006. Mama became Victoria Lucas, and I didn't have to do much except show up at the keyboard. She dictated every word.

With Mama at the helm, there was no way Driving Me Crazy would be anything except funny and uplifting, even if the subject matter was weighty.I wrote the novel in six weeks while I was also commuting 120 miles round trip three days a week to Mississippi State University. During exams! In between grading 76 papers!

I've received more fan mail from that novel than any other. Readers tell me they love Mama and the girls, love the scenes in the motorized shopping cart at Wal Mart and in the funeral home where Jean insists Maggie get inside to try out caskets to see if they're comfortable enough for Mama, even though Mama is not dead. Mostly, though, fans ask who is Rainman?

Ask away. I might even tell you!

In twenty-three years and more than sixty novels, nearly half of them for Harlelquin, I've learned that readers love to laugh. Currently I'm writing a laugh-out-loud Southern Cousins mystery series. Elvis and the Dearly Departed, the book will be in stores September 30. Check out details on my website - www.peggywebb.com. My fans have made my writing journey fun. Thank you!

About The Author:

This native Mississippian launched her career more than twenty years ago with a book that hit number one on romance bestseller lists and earned her the Waldenbooks Bestselling New Author Award. Since then her novels have consistently appeared on bestseller lists and won national awards. Dubbed Queen of Comedy by her fans, Peggy is credited with writing the first true comedy/romance. "I've returned to my comedy roots with my NEXT novels," she says.

When she's not writing, she's either clipping roses in one of the gardens she designed and planted, on stage at her local community theater in roles such as M'Lynn in Steel Magnolias, singing in her church's choir, visiting children in far-flung places or laughing with friends.

Peggy shares her love of books with her students at Mississippi State University, as well as lecture audiences throughout the U.S. She shares her home with the perfect male — her dog.