As promised, here’s the second half of the first chapter of the next Free Rein book, Contagious!

That was all it took for the three girls to race out the front door, put their boots on and grab their head collars. They’d been keen to organise the flyer so that it was ready for when Kara agreed to their idea – if she did! The flyer had only happened so quickly because they’d been forced inside by a spring storm.
Now that it had cleared, the girls were eager to get some riding in. Luckily the paddocks they rode in were covered in grass and didn’t get really muddy unless there was a lot of rain, consistently.
Within twenty minutes the girls had brought their ponies in, brushed them down and picked out their feet and then tacked them up. With bridles on and girth tightness checked, they each mounted and headed out to the arena paddock.
This was where they had their riding club. A 60 by 20 metre arena was set out in one area, its perimeter marked by old railway sleepers. The letters of the arena were found around the edge.
Each of the girls warmed up at a walk, trot and canter before practicing their dressage tests individually. They wanted to make sure they knew them by heart before their riding lesson with Kara.
Jacqui had initially struggled to remember where she should do everything, but Geordie and Hannah had taught her a funny little saying about the letters in the arena: A Fat Black Mother Cat Had Eight Kittens. Now she knew where the letters A, F, B, M, C, H, E and K were found in the arena. She also knew that X was in the middle. This was where she needed to halt and salute the judges before going through her test.
Once the girls had each gone through their tests, they took the time to cool their ponies down in a game of follow the leader at a walk. As they walked, they talked about things that were going on at school.
They had a project due in the following day. In typical fashion, Jacqui had finished hers the week before, Hannah had just recently finished hers and Geordie was going to need to put in a long night tonight to get it done on time.
The girls met together after school every Wednesday and worked hard to keep on top of their schoolwork. This was the main thing that helped Geordie convince her parents she was ready for the responsibility of a pony. Although she did work on Wednesdays, she needed a lot of encouragement to be as conscientious on other school nights.
The girls finished brushing down their horses and put them out into the freeway paddock as the evening light was disappearing. Shortly after, Geordie’s parents arrived to pick up Geordie and Hannah. Jacqui headed inside quickly after, knowing that dinner would soon be ready.
She took in an appreciative breath as she closed the front door behind her. Hungry instantly she washed her hands in the bathroom before heading back to the kitchen.
“Smells great, mum! What are we having?”
Kate grinned from where she was dishing up food onto plates set out on the kitchen bench.
“Chicken stirfry! Most of the vegetables are from our garden. I love that we don’t have to do as much food shopping these days. I can’t wait until we can bless more people with our other veggie garden, too.”
Jacqui nodded and sat down at the kitchen table. The Kings’ had their own vegetable garden that they used to cut costs. As they saw the need of many families in their local area, Kate put forward the idea to her pastor of growing fresh food that could be gifted to struggling families. Being early spring, she was starting to harvest their first crops.
A young boy named Jared had started to help Kate with the planting and weeding. His family was one that benefited from the food and he felt better making a contribution to the work that went into growing it. Under her pastor’s urging, Kate had encouraged the boy’s help and was rewarded with seeing him at church on Sundays, too.
Jacqui forgot about all of this as the food was placed on the table before her. She was relieved when Ross came down the hallway and her father Tony came in the door in time to say grace and enjoy the meal together. Jacqui was ready to eat!

Keep a look out for updates regarding the release of this book and remember you can purchase the previous 5 books on Amazon!

Hi everyone! I thought I’d give you a sneak peak at the next book in the series, due for release this year! It’s to be titled Contagious.

Chapter One
Geordie Smith glanced over her friend’s shoulder, smiling at what she saw taking form on the paper.
“I love it, Hannah! Even if we don’t use this for the riding club flyer, do you think I could have a copy of it?” she asked of the young brunette.
Hannah Johnstone grinned.
“Sure. I may have to start charging for my drawings though; perhaps I can make money from selling horse pictures when I finish school!”
Geordie laughed.
“Only if you find some people to buy them that have more money than me! I can’t offer you anything for a copy of your picture… but I can tell people all about your drawing skills… maybe I could be your agent!” she said enthusiastically.
“Do you even know what an art agent does?” Hannah questioned, putting the finishing touches to a black Friesian doing an extended trot.
Geordie shrugged. Jacqui King laughed, looking up from where she was reading a horse article in a magazine.
“If it has anything to do with being enthusiastic about your drawings, Hannah, then I think Geordie will do fine! Geordie, did you work out the wording you wanted to put on the flyer?”
The three girls were in Jacqui’s room, putting together a flyer for their upcoming dressage day. One Saturday a month they had a riding club on the property where Jacqui lived. Their instructor Kara had set them each a dressage test to learn in October; it was to be performed in December.
Now early November, the girls were keen to ask Kara if they could turn the performance day into an event that they could invite their parents along to watch. They’d already run the idea by Jacqui’s mum Kate, who had said she thought it was a great idea.
Kate and Tony King – Jacqui’s parents – owned a property called Genesis. Before purchasing it they were leasing it and setting it up as an agistment property. Now they had regular clients that paid to keep their horses at Genesis and they had developed a riding club that had two instructors and more than half a dozen riders.
The Kings’ had decided to run their riding club on a Saturday instead of the typical Sunday assigned to Pony Club meetings. This way they didn’t miss out on church and a few of the girls that rode at a local Pony Club were also able to come along to the Genesis riding club.
“I think so, what do you think of this?” Geordie asked in response to Jacqui’s question as she held out a sheet of paper to her.
Jacqui put down her magazine and grabbed the piece of paper. It stated the date and time of the event and started with ‘You’re invited to attend a day of dressage to witness first hand some extraordinary riding and gorgeous horses.’ Jacqui grinned at the wording.
“It sounds so classy! How did you come up with that?”
Geordie shrugged and responded, “Dunno.”
Jacqui laughed.
“With an answer like that, neither do I!” she teased.
Geordie returned her grin.
“Well if you’re happy with the wording, then I’m all done! And it looks like Hannah has finished her picture, so we just need to scan it in and then you can do your magic on the computer, Jacqui!”
Jacqui nodded.
“I’ll work on it tonight. I’ll ask mum if I can use her scanner to get your drawing onto the computer; is it ok if I keep it overnight, Hannah?”
“Sure! I’ll get my sketchbook back from you at school tomorrow, if you like.”
Jacqui agreed that she would bring the book to her friend then. As she glanced out the window she grinned.
“The rain’s stopped!”
That was all it took for the three girls to race out the front door, put their boots on and grab their head collars. They’d been keen to organise the flyer so that it was ready for when Kara agreed to their idea – if she did! The flyer had only happened so quickly because they’d been forced inside by a spring storm.

I’ll post the rest of the first chapter later in the week!

Christine

Hi everyone!  My latest post about publishing in a rush can be found over at Horse Crossings.  Here’s a sneak peak:

In the age of electronic publishing, it can be too tempting to rush the publishing process. I have read many kindle copies of books that were poorly edited with shocking grammar and spelling issues. This is distracting and will greatly affect a rating I provide to a book.

Does it bother you?

You can continue reading here!

Hi everyone! I have written a post at Horse Crossings regarding seeking reviews for released novels.  Perhaps you’d like to take a look?  Here’s a sneak peak:

It’s exciting to release a new novel – all of your invested time, hard work and research has come together!

It can be disappointing to release your book and find that nothing is then happening; people may be reading, but you aren’t seeing any feedback in the form of reviews. Seeking reviews for your novel can be a great way to increase anticipation of a story, to give you feedback and to gain new readers… read on

I have a new post over at Horse Crossings you may like to read, Setting Themes or Morals for Your Horse Story.  Here’s a little preview:

For the Free Rein series which is aimed at 8 – 12 year olds, I like to have a theme or moral of the story running throughout each novel.  Alongside this, my focus is to provide educational facts about horses in each story and cover a different area of horse care…