Christine Meunier Author

Horse Books that are Educational and Entertaining

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Next Thoroughbred Breeders Bundle

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Hi everyone!  Keeping in line with my goal to publish a new book each month – yay! – the May book(s) is now available on Amazon. I’m excited! 🙂  This is a Thoroughbred Breeders bundle of books.  It features books 7 through to 9.

Next Thoroughbred Breeders Bundle now Live on Amazon

That is, Grace, Freshman and Settlement.  You can buy / view the bundle on Amazon.  This book is available for free for those who subscribe to Kindle Unlimited.

Next Thoroughbred Breeders Bundle on Amazon | ChristineMeunierAuthor.com
Next Thoroughbred Breeders Bundle on Amazon | ChristineMeunierAuthor.com

Curious to find out about the Thoroughbred Breeders books?  You can check out my books for adults here.

I am currently in the process of proofing Refuge and hope to release this in June. There’s a lot of reading and a book cover to design before then, though!

There is so much to do at the moment and whilst I love being busy, it has been a bit overwhelming of late! I have found less time to myself / to write than I would like and lots of unfocused time when I could write! This month is looking promising though, and I hope to keep running with that momentum.

I have at least managed to proof and format the above bundle for publishing and get the cover done in May. So I can’t complain! I have also found an image that I believe could work on the cover for The Chemistry of Horses, so this has been put aside for future use. Stay tuned! 🙂

The Chemistry of Horses

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I went to bed on the night of April 29, thinking that although I have plenty of stories in the works at the moment, I needed to have a burst of inspiration. This was necessary to belt out the 7,000+ words required to meet the 50,000 goal for Camp Nano.  Now I love writing books, but there’s really nothing like starting a new book.  And so I pondered a new romance for adults and what that story may look like… and an idea formed and I considered this as I retired for the evening.

Fast forward to April 30, the last day of Camp Nano. I had a couple of thousand words worth of writing. I had also come up with the title The Chemistry of Horses for this brand new book that I am working on.

So I didn’t hit 50,000 words for this year’s Camp Nano. But, I did finish two novellas and start a brand new book! So I am still deeming April a success for writing goals.

The Chemistry of Horses | ChristineMeunierAuthor.com
The Chemistry of Horses | ChristineMeunierAuthor.com

A New Book Each Month

Now for 2020, I have set myself a pretty hefty goal: to release a new book each month of the year.  Now this goal I wasn’t able to implement until February, but things are travelling pretty well so far:

Now I have two books to finish formatting and proofing for release in May and June. So things are still looking pretty promising for 2020. As always, stay tuned! Perhaps the Chemistry of Horses will take on a life of it’s own and also be able to be released in 2020 😉

Camp Nano in April a Success

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I’m not much of an athlete, but it seems at the moment if I was a racehorse, I would be one of those that closes well in a race.  I have been taking part in Camp Nano this April as I have for the past couple of years.  And whatever project I may be working on, the aim has been to pen around 50,000 words for the month.

To do this, you need to write on average 1667 words a day.  Now I’ve not written every day of April and I have not averaged 1667 words a day – closer to 1444.  However, I have:

  • written in excess of 40,000 words
  • finished one half written novella
  • two thirds finished a second novella that I started writing in February
Camp Nano in April a Success | ChristineMeunierAuthor.com
Camp Nano in April a Success | ChristineMeunierAuthor.com

So I am going to declare Camp Nano in April a success this year.  But back to the racehorse analogy.

Today is April 29 so there is just over 24 hours left to complete CampNano.  My word count is at 40,198.  From April 17 – 24 I penned over 2,000 words for each of these days to break down my 10,000 word count shortfall to just over 3,000 words.  On April 26 I penned just over 3700 words.

And this is why I’m going to say that I may just be a late closer.  Although I know how much I need to do on average to complete a task – life gets in the way.  But it’s also possible to have days that are so much more than average when it comes to their productivity.  So wish me luck!  The 50k goal is not out of reach yet 😉

Mandarin Trees and Writing

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It’s an interesting season of our lives at the moment. I have no doubt many people around the world can say this. We are experiencing a lovely autumn at the moment and I am so thankful that we have a big backyard that the children can run around in, get some fresh air and some sunshine.

Mandarin Trees and Writing | ChristineMeunierAuthor.com
Mandarin Trees and Writing | ChristineMeunierAuthor.com

We have planted different fruit and nut trees in the garden and our mandarin tree is looking at fruiting for the second time. Currently it is an incredible picture of health and growth that makes me consider my life and my writing. The tree appears to have various different stages on it at the moment:

  • it has new leaves
  • there are buds
  • some flowers are open
  • there are small and slightly larger little green mandarins that are growing daily

This is what I hope my life looks like. Fruit is growing and developing. This may be books that I have finished but am yet to publish and books that have already been published and are available for people to purchase, read and be influenced by.

And then there are the flowers that are waiting to be pollinated by bees – book ideas that need more time and effort put into them to develop a full story and of course, the buds are just as important. These are the ideas that will create a plot for a story.

Mandarin Trees and Writing

I love looking at the mandarin tree as it encompasses all of these stages at once. What an incredibly productive plant! And so I hope that my writing continues in this manner and even at a time when the world appears to have been put on pause and people are in confinement, that I will continue to grow and develop fruit in the form of my writing, daily habits and raising of my children.

I pray that my writing and my life continue to be able to be likened to this mandarin tree: consistently productive. What good fruit are you developing currently?

In exciting writing news, Free Rein books 7-9 are now combined in a bundle on Amazon for easy reading access!  You can read these on Kindle Unlimited for free 🙂

Time to read? Free horse books to download on Kindle!

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Tuesday of this week it was announced across the organisation where I work that everyone was required to work from home.  In amongst this unusual and devastating situation around the world, I am reminding myself to count my blessings.

I still have a job and can carry it out from home.  Working from home means I can spend more time with my family.  The eldest kids having only just started school and kindergarten means that they haven’t had their routine too upset.  They are more than happy to play together from home!  I am doubly blessed in that my husband cares for them on the days I work.

Time to read? Free horse books to download on Kindle!
Time to read? Free horse books to download on Kindle!

In the midst of this time where people are finding an imposed form of isolation, I thought: why not some extra books to read?  I know that if I wasn’t able to work, reading and writing would be on my list of tasks to keep me entertained and passing the time!

And so I have organised a few days of freebies on Kindle across my two different series and one standalone romance for adults.

So if you have a lot of time on your hands, why not consider catching up on some reading?  And if you know of any horse book fans, be sure to spread the word 🙂

A Pleasant Surprise

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Last year I realised that I was consistently making sales for paperback versions of my Free Rein books through Amazon. At that stage, only the first two paperback books were for sale although I had the next four available in paperbacks through Lulu, a print on demand company. I tend to release Kindle versions first, as an electronic version appears to be quicker to make available once I am happy with formatting – organising print copies and ensuring the covers work well is a longer process before releasing paperbacks for sale.

A Pleasant Surprise - ChristineMeunierAuthor.com

So I decided to get myself organised and distribute paperback versions of the books so that they were available on Amazon. Now the first seven books in the series (of which there are currently nine) are available for sale as paperback versions as well as Kindle.

In January I received a payment from Lulu (based on Lulu and Amazon sales) that was larger than anticipated – this was exciting! When I actually took the time to look at the numbers, I was amazed to find that just over 100 Free Rein books had been purchased over the month of December – whoo!

This feels like a wonderful achievement and I’m excited to think about the number of children that could be impacted through reading this series.  Awesome 🙂