Vacuuming in the Nude: And Other Ways to Get Attention

by Peggy Rowe, Mike Rowe (Foreword by)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

An encouraging memoir about the struggles and triumphs of writing, Vacuuming in the Nude is for anyone who feels like it’s too late to write. Rowe shares her own experience of rejection in the publishing world through this hilarious and astute memoir. These delightful stories, encompassing all of Rowe’s triumphs and failures, will encourage any and every reader to start (or continue) writing.

Peggy Rowe is at it again—this time giving a hilarious inside look at her writing career.

Peggy Rowe has been writing all of her adult life. In fact, she doesn’t know how not to write—even through those years of constant rejection from publishing houses. But between her tenacity and the encouragement of her family, Peggy’s breakthrough finally came—at the age of eighty!

Vacuuming in the Nude is most likely her funniest prose to date as she shares her journey of attending myriad writers’ conferences and honing her ability to see humor in everyday situations.

From the family’s beloved dog Shim, who thrived on piles of fresh, warm manure from the horse pasture—to vacationing on the sweltering beach with mosquitos the size of dune buggies—to the challenges of aging, Peggy Rowe delivers a hilarious array of stories that reflect her addiction to making people laugh. Even in her cancer support group, she manages to use her humor to affect others for the good.

If Peggy isn’t putting her publisher on hold to finish a game of Mahjongg, she’s at her kitchen table window-on-the-world taking notes for the next story for fans old and new to enjoy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781637630990
Publisher:	Forefront Books
Publication date:	08/16/2022
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	26,219
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Peggy Rowe lives in Baltimore, Maryland, with John, her husband of sixty-one years. Both educators, they raised three sons. Peggy has been writing for most of her adult life and has two New York Times bestsellers to her credit—both of which were published after the age of eighty. Now eight-four, she is living the good life in a retirement community where material abounds. Peggy continues to write every day of her life—preferably without wearing jewelry or a bra.

Mike Rowe is best known as the executive producer and host of the hit shows Dirty Jobs, Somebody’s Gotta Do It, and Returning the Favor, for which he won an Emmy. He also hosts the podcast The Way I Heard It, a collection of short stories for the “curious mind with a short attention span.” As CEO of the mikeroweWORKS Foundation, Mike has led the effort to close America’s widening skills gap and facilitated the granting of millions of dollars in work ethic scholarships.

Table of Contents

Foreword 9

Chapter 1 Getting It Write 19

Chapter 2 Playing the Game 35

Chapter 3 Here I Come! 57

Chapter 4 Slush Pile 101 65

Chapter 5 And Write, I Did! 75

Chapter 6 At Last! 89

Chapter 7 A New Frontier 105

Chapter 8 In My Head 119

Chapter 9 Making a Difference 129

Chapter 10 The Shorter and the Plainer, the Better 139

Chapter 11 A Critic Indeed 149

Chapter 12 Family Ties 163

Chapter 13 Madam Secretary 173

Chapter 14 The Boot in the Drawer 183

Chapter 15 You've Got to Be Kidding! 197

Chapter 16 A Memoir, She Wrote 223

Acknowledgements 235