Here’s an excerpt from my debut novel, Horse Country – A World of Horses.

Glancing out of the school window across the green oval the bored sixteen-year-old sighed, admitting to herself that it would be a lot more exhilarating racing her palomino gelding around the emerald surface, rather than sitting in a stuffy room while their teacher marked the roll.
Calling her name he gained her attention, marking her off before addressing the class.
“Morning everyone. Over the next fifteen minutes or so, I want you to have a think about what you’re going to do after year twelve.
“Because you’re in year eleven, I know most of you have already picked subjects that coincide with what you plan on studying in University. But, today I’d like you to have a think about what you want as a job after your studies and list five different possibilities for me. This year you’re going to do two bouts of work experience, so we will try and line these up with your preferences,” a balding fifty something pedagogue informed the general consensus of bored teens before him.
She smiled to herself, mentally correcting the teacher as she stared at the blank piece of paper in front of her. She didn’t want a job – she wanted a career.
And she wouldn’t spend fifteen minutes deciding on one either, she’d spent just short of fifteen years deciding on horses. Flicking through the University/TAFE guide before her she stopped on the letter E, her eyes scanning the page until she came across the word she was looking for.
Finding a list of seven or so careers, she mentally crossed out those that didn’t appeal to her, writing down the few that did before her attention returned to the green surface outside the classroom.

Replaying in her mind the conversation with her “Careers Teacher”, she smiled ruefully, more than aware of how she should have handled the conversation.
“Horses aren’t a career, dear. Every girl goes through a stage where she wants a pony; you’ll grow out of it. Aside from that, it’s too dangerous working with these unpredictable animals.”
It’ll be even more dangerous me working with them if I’m not initially trained to do so.
“Girls that want ponies do quickly grow out of it, generally by the time they’ve discovered the male population. I own a horse, have had this infatuation for the past ten or so years and don’t believe I’ll be growing out of it anytime soon. Though, if I am going to do so, surely I’d tire of the animals more quickly if I was put to work with them?”
Aware that this response from her could have turned the conversation either way, she was curious to know if it would have worked to her advantage.
Thankful she had a mother whom was insistent on her following her heart, there’d been no need for her to have a follow up conversation with the older male however, and it was all thanks to her mother’s “little conversation” with the man. She’d managed to convince the teacher to agree to let her daughter work with horses, at least for the first lot of work experience and that’s all that mattered to the teen.
Grinning, she scanned the list of horse properties in the phone book before her, highlighting those that were close enough for her to consider working at and therefore send a letter to.

Like what you’ve read? You can purchase Horse Country – A World of Horses at Amazon.

Hi everyone!  If you’re not on my email list (pssst… you can subscribe on this page, look for the subscription box on the top right of this page), it may be news to you that the fourth book in the Thoroughbred Breeders series is now available for pre-order on Amazon!

You can click to pre-order it right now!  The book will be delivered to your Kindle on the 17th of this month, US time.  Alternatively, click on the image below 🙂

Another big thanks to wonderful friend and photographer Cait O’Pray for her photo for this cover! And especially thanks to those who took part in helping me choose a cover photo over at Facebook! 🙂  You can head along there and check out the four photo possibilities that were posed for voting.  Some of them I like so much, I think they’ll be making an appearance for future covers!

It’s a great thing when complimenting businesses work together. They are able to promote for each other and keep customers happy. Some may debate that equine authors are actually competition for each other, but I beg to differ.

As an avid horse book reader, I am always up for a new horse story! I love to read my favourite book or series, but I also love to discover new equine authors. I will ready any horse book, given the chance.

With that in mind, I thought I would share with you about some other equine authors. In this way, you can check them out too – if you haven’t already! I am also ending each post with a link and a paragraph to an equine author with the mindset of, equine authors united. There are many of us out there and we want to help cross promote. Let’s look at some other authors of horse books for adults right now!

1. Natalie Keller Reinert – Natalie writes a lot of horse novels for young adult or adult readers. As a fellow thoroughbred enthusiast, I particularly enjoy reading her books that focus on the racing and thoroughbred breeding world. I find her pieces to be informative as well as entertaining. Some titles include Ambition, The Head and Not the Heart and Claiming Christmas.
2. Carly Kade – Carly released her debut novel In the Reins in 2015. I was rapt to be contacted about receiving a copy to review on Equus Education. Carly is eager for authors to unite and help promote each other. In the Reins looks at horse ownership and learning how to train, with a focus on western riding.
3. Amy Elizabeth – Amy has written a trilogy that I am a huge fan of. The first book in the series is Cut and Run. I think I downloaded this for free on Amazon and I loved it. And so, I was rapt when Amy let me know of future free days on Amazon for the follow on books. The books in this series follow an unlikely pair as they work to make a working ranch into a profitable business.
4. Alyssa Knee – Alyssa recently released her first horse book, a non fictional piece on her story of owning and caring for a lordotic horse. Spike details how she came to first own her warmblood gelding, his conformational issue and the journey they’ve taken so far to inform others about the issue of lordosis and how to best manage it. It was a truly enlightening read for me.
5. Jane Myers – generally I would say Jane’s books are for adults, but they are technically for any horse owner or carer. Her books are non fiction and focus on sustainable horse keeping. I have read many of her works, such as Managing Horses on Small Properties, Horse Ownership Responsible, Sustainable, Ethical and her recent Horse Riders Mechanics books.

These are just some of the many authors whose works I enjoy reading. Why not check out their sites and see what else they have on offer to horse enthusiasts?

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Equine Authors United – Bev Petterson writes realistic horse novels for adults.  Why not check out her books?

Below is a short excerpt from the standalone novel, B and B by Christine Meunier.

Ben was almost tempted to ask Jake if he was ready to be a father figure if Brooke returned his interest. Almost. Thankfully they were so busy that morning that there wasn’t much time for conversation outside of what needed to be done.
One of the part-timers had called in sick and they had a lame horse to deal with. As Murphy’s Law would have it, it was one they were planning to use for the 10am ride. While Jake prepared another horse, Ben cleaned out Kindon’s feet and ran his hands down his legs.
There was swelling and heat in the near side cannon and fetlock. Ben checked for a digital pulse, wondering if an abscess was festering or something worse. He noted that the pastern wasn’t swollen however and the horse’s hoof didn’t appear to be hot.
Ben couldn’t see any sign of broken skin on the horse, but wondered if the gelding had knocked it just the same. He hosed down the leg with cold water before drying it off and wrapping it.
The gelding was then led into a holding yard where he would be able to be watched whilst also having his movement restricted. Ben gave him some bute orally, knowing it would help with the discomfort and the swelling.
“You’ll live, old man. But I don’t want you racing around because you feel better with that anti-inflammatory in your system,” he informed the gelding before giving him a pat on the neck and checking to see how Jake was going.
Half an hour later six clients were sitting on their assigned horses and heading down the laneway with Jake leading. Ben was relieved to find that this group was more experienced than the last and that they could do a lot of trotting and cantering.
The riders seemed more interested in their mounts and taking in their surrounds than general conversation. Ben found himself grinning as he enjoyed the warm spring day and the feeling of a sound horse cantering easily below him.
Before he knew it they were returning, dealing with the horses and then stopping for lunch before getting the next lot of horses ready. Ben checked on the old gelding Kindon after lunch. He was relieved to see the swelling had gone down and that the horse was walking a bit better.
“Some more bute tonight and we’ll see how you look in the morning,” he said to the horse, scratching him behind his ears.
Kindon curled his top lip back, enjoying the scratch. Ben laughed.
“If only people were as easy to read as horses,” he mused to himself.

Like what you’ve read? You can purchase B and B at Amazon.

My debut release Horse Country – A World of Horses was a standalone novel. I put a lot of effort into promoting it around the time of its release and in the months that followed. It sold well locally and online, but not as well as I thought that much effort would result in.

In time I toyed with the idea of creating and writing a series. I love to write. But I was also working on the logic that a series over time builds a following. I shouldn’t have to work as hard to sell the third book as I did the first two.

Since my first novel’s release in 2014, I have now written and published eleven horse related novels and two non-fiction horse books. Two of my fiction books have been standalone novels, whilst the rest are split over two different series – one for children and one for adults.

When I first released my children’s books, the Free Rein series, the first two books were made available at the same time. I wanted people to be able to get a feel for the series, rather than read only the first book and then have a long wait before another was available. I believe this paid off – people tended to buy both books in the series.

From here, the other books have sold and when I made A Dollar Goes a Long Way available for pre-order, there were a few bites. I didn’t do this with the latest release, Contagious however and am still unsure whether it is better to make it possible for people to order copies before the book is released, or just release it as soon as it is able to be published.

The Thoroughbred Breeders series for adults is very new with the first books released in late 2016 and the third in January 2017. So at this stage, I believe it will be a little while before I can see if my series theory is true. However, the third book received sales before I worked to actively promote it outside of my networks.

For those who love to write about horses, it seems to me that building a following of readers with series rather than standalone novels is the better way to go. This of course doesn’t stop you from having more than one series on the go as I discovered with NZ Pony Author, Kate Lattey!