Riding That Is Bittersweet

Here are more pictures of me riding. I'm on Sooner, a beautiful Quarter Horse mare, and my fav horse at the barn. The sad thing is that these pictures show my last ride on her. Today she will be moving to a new home. She needed one, so I'm happy that she's going to be going to a great place...she will be helping young riders learn how to ride and teaching them about horsemanship. But the farm is 4 hours away, which means Sooner is too far away to visit.

When you work around animals, they come and go. Sooner came and I am grateful I got to know her, but now she's going. It's made me sad, sure, but I will always have memories of her.

I'll miss my baby girl.

Hello!

Yes, I am still here! I wasn't kidding when I said that I wasn't going to be able to be posting on here much. School has been crazy.

Just so you know, I am still writing. Working on several projects right now and really loving one, so it's great! :)

Khaladin is still getting rejected by agents. But I'm not discouraged. I just printed off info for about ten more and there's lots more agents to look up. :)

But, yeah, this post was basically just to catch you up with what I am up to and assure you that I am not dead. *wink*

I'll post again soon! :)

A Trip Down Memory Lane, Part 2

Today, you are in for a treat. Well, in my opinion, at least. :p

Today I am going to let you read the first chapter of The Search for Grey Sky just how it was when I completed it when I was twelve years old. Complete and unchanged. I hope you enjoy it. :)


Chapter 1
An Uninvited Guest

Eleven-year-old Christina Wells ran out the back door banging the screen door behind her. She was headed to the paddock where her best friend was waiting for her. When she reached the paddock fence, she whistled. A beautiful dapple gray Quarter Horse with a black mane and tail trotted to her. It was Grey Sky, Christina's mare. Christina swung herself over the fence and threw her arms around Grey Sky's neck.

I love you, Sky," Christina said.

(Christina called her Sky for short.) Sky breathed into Christina's dark blonde hair telling her she loved her too.

"We're going on a trail ride," Christina said. As she put a halter and lead rope on her, Christina and Sky looked at each other straight in the eye. Sky's eyes were filled with love, understanding, and an unbreakable spirit.

After she attached the lead rope, Christina led Sky to the gate. When she opened the gate Sky started to trot forward.

"Whoa Sky," Christina said. "I know you're excited."

Sky stopped but anyone could see how eager she was. Christina was closing the gate when she heard a lot of noise coming from the barn. Horses were kicking in their stalls and there were tons of frightened neighs and whinnies. She looked towards the barn. She saw a boy ride his bike out of the barn. She knew who that was. It was David Croft. The dark skinned boy was Christina's age and had just moved in the neighborhood 3 weeks ago from Kentucky.

Anger rose in her like boiling water. Even though Sky only had on a halter and lead rope, Christina sprang onto her back. They headed towards the barn at a fast canter. David had stopped to catch his breath. When he saw Christina, he tried to ride away, but Christina rose Sky in front of the bike and halted. Christina meant to talk calmly, but everything came out in shouts and yells.

"Why did you ride your bike into the barn?!" shouted Christina. "Don't you know we have pregnant mares in there?!"

"Sorry," David said. "I was just..."

"Don't you know this is private property?" interrupted Christina, yelling.

She pointed to a "No Trespassing" sign that was nailed on the barn. There were others surrounding the property.

"Sorry," David said.

"Well, I accept your apology," Christina said, "but it doesn't help matters now. I have to calm down all of those horses before I can do anything else. You've ruined my pleasant morning and I don't appreciate it. Now I ask you to get off my property. Good day."

David wheeled his bike around Grey Sky, through the gate, and rode away. Christina glared at him, then looked towards the barn. All the horses were still frightened. Now she would have to calm them down before she could even think about going on a trail ride.

I Have Made a Decision

OK, school has taken a lot of time away from writing. I have a class where I have a test every week. Study, study, study.

But that doesn't mean there's not a story in the works.

I've had a lot of stories lately that I've been trying to develop and the minute I think they are going to work, they come crashing down. Not permanently, but you know what I mean. :)

Anyway, there is a story that I am going to be working on though. I don't have time to develop a story, but this one doesn't need it. It's already got a beginning, middle, and end and it's already complete! The drawback?

I wrote it when I was twelve years old.

The story is called The Search for Grey Sky. I wrote this before I got into fantasy. It's a story about a girl and her horse, named Grey Sky, of course. I had a lot of fun writing it and it is a good story, so I'm going to revamp it and make it sound better and more mature, because it's def not ready for submission right now!

Speaking of submissions, I am still querying the crap out of Khaladin. No takers yet, all rejections. But there's a lot of agents out there so I think there's still a pretty good chance. And if not, I love Khaladin so much that I will shelve it for a couple years and when the agencies have had more than enough time to forget about me (this is assuming I stay unpublished) I will submit him again. You guys know me...I never give up! :)