As A Life With Horses gets around, I appreciate more and more the phone calls and emails from people who have read the book. Many times I know the caller/reviewer well, but sometimes I do not and sometimes I have not talked with the person for many years. Then it is an unexpected bonus to my day. These calls come mostly from southern Saskatchewan, where I grew up. Since I left the area in 1971, I lost touch with all but a few. It works both ways - I have "found" past friends and they have re-connected with me.
"I know it is you," said one reader who knows me well. "Not like some memoirs I read where I know the person but cannot recognize him or her in the book!"
"You have lived in the present," said another.
"I laughed and I cried," several readers told me.
But the most common comment is, "I am there with you in every chapter." If that is true, then I have fulfilled one of my goals - to take my readers on my journey with me.
I am travelling a little too - vicariously, I admit - with book sales. The one to Germany may have got lost in the volcano ash, but I have gained a "friend" on Facebook; one book landed in Alaska; my reiner friend bought two to take back to Austria; I have almost tracked down a school friend living in New York (her brother is sending her the book) and Thelma, the lady below holding A Life With Horses, lives in Wales! She sent not only this photo, but several of her yard and gardens. A Life With Horses has touched another country and given something back. How cool is that?
