A little novel excerpt
March 6, 2012 § Leave a comment
My book proof for Riding the Neighbors’ Horses is sitting on a shelf in my (temporary) bedroom. I’m sorry to say that in paging through it I found mistakes noticeable enough that I can’t overlook them, so we’re a few steps back in the editing/reviewing process. I’m hoping the book will be available in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile, it is the funniest feeling to have a physical copy of this novel in my hands. I finished the first draft almost seven years ago. Followed up with lots of off-and-on revisions. Ignored it completely. Decided to do something about it. The book looks shiny and professional and it has my name on the front. Wheee!
For now, here is a small excerpt. Our narrator and protagonist, Susan Abbot, is about to get her first riding lesson from her neighbor, and new friend, Nan Whiting.
Horse’s hooves clopped against wood as Nan led a tall bay from its stall. “This is Bet,” she said. “The first time I rode her I was two, or probably even younger. Hold this a second.” Nan dropped a line of rope in my hand and darted around the corner before I could protest. I toyed with the end of the rope, following its white weave up to the halter of the horse. Bet stood near enough that I could feel the heat from her body and smell her scent—a blend of hay and wood, earth and sweat. She studied me with eyes so dark I couldn’t tell where the pupil ended and the iris began, and I wondered what I might read in those eyes if only I knew how.
Let the dogs out
February 28, 2012 § 1 Comment
The nice thing about rural areas? Hardly-traveled dirt roads. Ditches and fields. Places for dogs to be off the darn leash without all sorts of regulations.
Miss T. loves it out here. Even if the other two are best buds and she is the old girl who stays closer (and listens when you call).
Let ’em play.
Home, family, and traveling
February 28, 2012 § 1 Comment
Do you want to hear some good news? I am getting interviews!
Yesterday my mom and I drove to Cedar Rapids to pick up a truck – a red Chevy Silverado! – for my dad. We had our usual fervent discussions about life, faith, art, careers, personality types, travel, and the future. In the midst of this my phone rang and Interview #3 has been scheduled for the week. None of these jobs may pan out, but then, one of them might! I smiled for five minutes. Finally, the resume is doing what it was designed to do.
Iowa is brown, flat, hilly, barn-speckled. We drove through many tired-looking small towns. They fascinate me with their combination of rustic-ness and run-down-ness. Sometimes I like them in their familiarity. Other times I want to give them a good New-England-style overhaul. I like small towns, but I’m more of a quaint village kind of girl. Things can be small AND pretty.
(European countryside. Yes.)
One day when I settle down in my semi-remote (or maybe not remote?) wherever, it’s going to be lots of fun to consider how I can help make my nearby town (or neighborhood) veer towards quaintness. If they let me. Once they learn to like me. I’ll give it the good ol’ stubborn Dutch girl try.
So, anyway, I will be rambling around for the rest of the week. I aim to take a few photographs to show you some of these places. The fun thing about getting into photography is how you take on this mission to find things that are beautiful and interesting wherever you go. In unexpected places. From otherwise unconsidered vantage points. It gives one a new sense of purpose.
Around here, in the log-house-that’s-for-sale, we have been taking walks with the dogs, planning future books, planning future Etsy shops, baking, cooking, sweating in the sauna, trying out new hairstyles, and writing down to-do lists both ordinary and ambitious. I have ordered a proof of my novel, which will soon be available in paperback! Today is one of those days when opportunity seems within reach. Despite the gray skies and the ice that fell all night long. Despite getting home in the wee small hours of the morning and waking up later than industrious girls ought to do. Despite this tangle of hair on my head and the laundry waiting to be folded.
I have a Pinterest board full of dreams, and seed catalogs in the cupboard.
What is happening in your world?
A snowy view
February 23, 2012 § 2 Comments
Some dogs get to sleep inside when a blizzard swirls outside. My shoes often serve as a security blanket. This causes me to wander around the house trying to find them when I must go somewhere.
We watch the snow from big windows.
While the dog dozes, I sort through illustrations my sister has done for my book. Finishing touches are so exciting!
And drink coffee all morning, while snow collects in corners.
In all things
February 13, 2012 § Leave a comment
Photo Credit:US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous. – Aristotle, Parts of Animals
Robert Frost’s great-grandson’s cattle
February 13, 2012 § Leave a comment
Two roads diverge in the U.S. beef industry. Americans are buying more alternatively raised meat — organic, natural, grass-fed and the like – but most large-scale cattle producers in the Midwest are not cashing in on the trend.
Prescott Frost, however, owns a 6,000-acre operation in the sand hills of northern Nebraska, and he’s betting on alternatively raised beef. Frost is a former stock broker from Connecticut who sold his family’s farmland in Illinois two years ago to come to Nebraska and raise certified organic grass-fed beef. He has about 600 cattle.
The link for the rest of the article is below. I caution you to ignore the comment about change needing to come from “educated people from the city.” I disagree. While I understand what he’s getting at, this is the kind of overgeneralization that smacks of inaccuracy and quite honestly, offends. Still, the rest of the piece is worth a read. Robert Frost wasn’t all that joyful a farmer, but farming appears to have stayed in the genes.
Taking the grass-fed road less traveled | Harvest Public Media.
Herding dog
February 13, 2012 § Leave a comment
Meet Muñeca.
Muñeca is my friend Mae Rose’s canine companion at the ranch when she goes out to see to the sheep. The 8-month-old border collie could scarcely hold herself back as we approached the herd – though, good girl, she stayed with us on the four-wheeler until bid otherwise. This is the look she gets on her face: sheer determination. To her, sheep must be herded, and by golly, she is the one who should do it.
Want to see her at work?
Kinds of Honey 