What happened to...?

One reader of A Life With Horses told me she would like to have the answers to a few questions after she read the book. That surprised me at first, but then I thought about it. Kudos to you, discerning reader, for immersing yourself so much in the stories that you wanted to know more. Although we never discussed what questions she needed answers to (I told her I wanted to sometime!), I have guessed at some. Here are a couple:

1. What happened to Dark Mo, (Chapter 13) the little Arabian gelding I competed on at my first reining show? I showed Mo the following year, then he went home to Bob and Janet, his owners, who eventually sold him. The new owner did a bit of everything with him, but never reined him. When he was 14 or 15, someone contacted me and asked me to critique him. They wanted to buy him but needed to know if he could still rein. I had not seen him for many years and didn't know what I would find, but when I stepped up on him, he immediately responded. We put sliding plates on him and, after a fifteen minute refresher course, he slid! They bought him and went on to rein him for a few years. I lost track of him after that, but I strongly suspect they had him until he died...

2. Where is Wildwood Kokanee (on the cover, Chapters 23, 25, 26) now? The lady I sold Kokanee to rode her for a couple of years and sold her to a beginner reiner. This woman loved Kokanee with a passion and I'm sure she would have had a permanent home with her, but on December 22, 2006 (the same day I moved to the Chilcotin), Kokanee broke a leg in a freak accident at the barn she boarded at and had to be euthanized. It broke Vikki's heart. Last summer, when she bought the book, she emailed me to say she could not read about Kokanee yet. "It's still too soon."

If you have a question, please post and I will answer.

It's A Small World . . . After All

I just returned from a trail ride south of Tatla Lake, BC. On the way home, I stopped at a little general store there. I had been there once before and loved the store, the owners and the quiet peace and contentment I felt when I walked around the aisles. I knew they carried many non-fiction books and I had already phoned ahead before I left home to ask if they were interested in carrying A Life With Horses. With a copy under my arm, I climbed the wood steps, noting the overflowing flowerboxes and remembering how I had admired them on my last stop the year before.

"Nothing has changed," I thought. "I like that."

Inside, I exchanged greetings with the owner. "Do you remember me?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. " I do remember you. I didn't remember your outfit when you drove in, but I remember you." (Dodge truck with four-horse Sooner trailer with living quarters!! Who doesn't remember that!)

"Good," I thought. "She's a 'people person'." I showed her my book and asked her if she and her husband would look at it and tell me if they would like me to leave a few for their store. Then I started browsing the aisles. I already knew I wanted some pottery crafted by a local artisan, but there was much more...

The lady's husband, Dave, was now back in the store and asked me if I would like a cup of coffee. I gladly accepted the steaming brew and continued to shop. After I made my selections, I came back to the table conveniently set up in the middle of the store for those who stopped for coffee and conversation. Dave had just put my book down on the table.

"When were you in the Coteau Hills?" he asked.

My hearing is not what it used to be, but I think it was more about my surprise at his question than not hearing. I asked to repeat what he had said.

"I was born there," I said.

"Where?"

"Beechy. You know where that is?"

Turns out Dave not only knew where Beechy is, he had been there and had many connections through family. I can't remember if he actually lived there, but he knew many, many people that I knew. We kept throwing out names back and forth and filling in a few blanks.

"I think we need an evening sitting down and reminiscing," I said, but he had a store to run.

I couldn't get over it - A Life With Horses connects the Chilcotin (BC) with Beechy, Saskatchewan!

It's a small world after all!

(...and West Chilcotin Trading Ltd in Tatla Lake, BC now carries A Life With Horses!)

Connecting with A Life With Horses

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?

Punctuation Matters

I learned a lot writing my book, A Life With Horses. I learned how to express myself on paper; I learned a few things about myself (another blog story by itself); I learned about formating; and I learned more about the English language.

Although I have a good grounding in grammar, I questioned many things. I checked my book of grammar usage many times and searched the internet for solutions. The book is written in an informal, conversational tone (like I am across the table from the reader telling the story) and I found myself using ellipses and dashes - a lot! (Just used a dash, didn't I?) I questioned the correctness of my usage of both forms of puncuation. I even asked a teacher what she thought.

"I don't think they ever should be used," she said. Well, that deflated me!

I went over my manuscript and tried to take them out. I did substitute other punctuation in several places before I decided it was impossible to say what I meant in the tone I wanted without using ellipses or dashes. Then I looked through my bookshelf. I would check out what other writers did . . . and found out James Michener uses both. If ellipses and dashes are good enough for James Michener, they would stay in my manuscipt.

Then there was the form of ellipses and dashes. There's an "en dash" and an "em dash". Ellipses - three dots, but how close together? And with what other punctuation? More decisions... In the end, I had to choose and use the same form throughout the manuscript. Is it correct? Not sure, but it is consistant . . . and just like the ellipses and dashes in the James Michener novel!

Writing Between Rides

Writing A Life With Horses certainly was a trip. At first I wasn't sure I would remember many events of my childhood but, as I wrote, a funny thing happened - the words opened up my mind. I not only remembered, I was there! All my senses came alive. I could smell the caragana blossoms my brother and I rode through; I could feel my horses's back round as she slid down the butte; I could taste the fresh clear water of a mountain creek. As the words poured out, one memory led to another, events I had long forgotten.

For several months, on my limited writing schedule, I wrote only as the stories came to mind. At that point, I had not even decided to write a book - I was only documenting memories. As the words turned into paragraphs and into possible chapters, a book plan slowly formulated. I would thread the horse stories through my life story. It made perfect sense because, although many things changed in my life, my love of horses did not.

In December of 2006, I moved to my present home in the Chilcotin region of British Columbia. Since I was able to take only three of my horses with me, I had a little more time in the winter, time to work on A Life With Horses. During the next three months, the book took shape. I knew how I would start the book and, eventually, how I would end it.

In the spring of 2007, with a new property to develop, the book was on the back burner again, but I made sure to touch base with it at least once a week. I also thought about it a lot when I was riding or doing other jobs around the property. Ideas would pop into my head and many times I wished I had a recorder or a piece of paper. Slowly, but steadily, A Life With Horses was taking shape, but a very long way from being finished! I was not in a hurry, though. I had no deadline.

The Birth of My Baby

In April 2010, A Life with Horses was released. Although essentially happy to see it, at last, in print, I am also at loose ends. For the past few years, when I had a few minutes away from my real business, Wildwood Reining Horses, I was creating it.

I should have started this blog when I started writing A Life With Horses, but 1) I'm not sure blogs existed then, 2) I didn't know about them and 3) I didn't really have time to write a book, let alone keep up with a blog. So I'm starting now and starting at the beginning.

For several years, friends encouraged me to write a book, to put my horse stories in print. My answer was always the same: "I don't have time." Then circumstances motivated me to start. My husband moved out.

Alone, I certainly didn't have more time for writing, but I needed to believe in myself, to believe I could do something on my own, even if no one knew about it - maybe especially if no one knew! I sat down at the computer for at least an hour every day after morning feeding to write.

At first I didn't have a plan - I just wrote anything that came into my head - but soon it became obvious that all my stories had a horse in it somewhere. I had no desire to write about my failed relationship or the heartbreak of it (there are plenty of books on that subject) so naturally I wrote about what I knew best - horses. Ideas multiplied as I typed. One story led to another - horses I had almost forgotten, horses I would never forget. That's what my book would be about - my life with horses.

I agonized a little over the title. I should use something catchy? My mind went blank. Or simple - My Life With Horses. In the end, I replaced "MY" with "A". I thought it said it better and had all the elements of the book in a short, simple phrase - life and horses. For anyone who knows me it kind of said it all.

I did not want to categorize the book as a memoir (too many of those!), but I had no choice. It is indeed a memoir, but only a memoir of the "horsey" part of my life. Of course I would have to include pertinent facts as the story unfolded, but only as structure for what was most important - my horses!

So for more than four years, I have been writing and re-writing chapters for A Life With Horses. Many times, I wanted to write all day but could not. Several times, my hour turned into two until I reluctantly left the computer to ride my horses (my real job)but I persevered. After a year of this kind of sporadic writing, I had an outline and a few chapters roughed out.

The book was far from finished...