Un-Square Peg

Peg (detail from cover art by Tom Kidd)

Last week, prompted by a question from my friend, Jane Noel, I decided to deep dive into the background of the main characters of my new Over Where series.  Arbitrarily, I decided to start with the oldest, Meg, and move down the line.  This week, I’ll be talking about Peg.

Like most of my characters, Peg just ambled down my fingers onto the page, picked up her knitting needles, and took up her place in the story.  She claims to be in her sixties, and maybe she is.  One of the things I find really interesting about Peg is that of the three human mentors, she’s by far the most chatty, but she’s also more likely to talk about other people than about herself.

Peg’s been married and divorced three times but, unlike most women of her generation, she never changed her surname.  Christened Margaret Gallegos, she has always gone by “Peg.”  She is of average build, with brown hair going grey that she accents with lighter streaks.  Her eyes are hazel green.  Her heritage is mixed Hispanic and Irish.

Peg ran away from home in her early teens, beelining for Haight Ashbury where she became involved in the music scene.  She still loves music but, after a time as a singer, she focused in on raising kids: her own, step kids, friends of her kids, and now grandkids.

One of the cool things about Peg is that although she is cagey about whether she even finished high school, she’s so engaged with life that she has had a wide education and has become a very able jack of all trades.  Time and time again, Peg’s decision to engage with the interests of her kids, and now grandkids, has given her the opportunity to learn a wide variety of skills.  Like the other two mentors, Peg is an avid reader.  (Remember, they met in a book club.)

If Meg is my salute to those early professional women who opened doors for so many to come, Peg is my salute to those wonderful women who poured energy into raising the best possible next generation they could.  Some of these have advanced degrees of their own, but put pursuing a career on the side to concentrate raising children.  Along the way, they have often developed a richness of experience that I tried to show in Peg.

Finally, I’m perfectly aware that as of this date a woman in her sixties could not have been part of the Haight Ashbury scene, nor have known the people Peg claims to have known.  However, at the time Peg walked into the story, it was possible.  I didn’t see any need to let the vagaries of my writing life change her background so drastically.

I’m too young to have been part of the sub-culture that shaped Peg, but I was certainly aware of it as I was growing up, so it’s part of my personal tool kit.  Moreover, I have friends who were part of that scene, and I’ve listened to their tales with great interest.  Finally, I have a fondness for biographies, including those of rock and pop stars.

So there’s Peg…  Unless someone asks a question that prompts a long reply, next week I’ll tell you about our final mentor, archeologist Teg.