Coming Soon: New Equestrian Fiction "Show Barn Blues"

by Natalie Keller Reinert

At last, a reason to blog! I posted over at nataliekreinert.com for the first time since spring, and now I'm going to share it over here with all you fine Equestrian Ink readers, because good news! A new book!

It's been a long, hot summer, readers -- or has it? I've been working so much this summer, it went flying by like one of those particularly deranged dragonflies that goes right past your nose and scares you to death and you shriek and wave your hands in your face and everyone turns around and stares at you and you say "did you SEE that thing?" but nobody did...

Oh wait, that was me the other night at work.

I'm telling you, that thing was HUGE.

Anyway, it's been busy. Working at Walt Disney World by day (well, really, by night) and working at my computer by night (usually by day). It's a wonderful balance, when it works -- working at Disney lets me get out from behind a screen and chatter with people from all around the world, and working at my computer lets my voice (and my brain) recover from eight hours of all that chattering.

It's great, but summertime can be challenging at one of the world's most popular vacation destinations... long hours, late nights, and a newly rediscovered penchant for sleeping until 11 AM can all take their toll on one's writing goals.

However, I set myself a goal of finishing Show Barn Blues by the end of August, and I'm happy to announce that I've achieved that goal! Fully edited and ready to go, all we need now is the final cover design and internal formatting, and we will have ourselves a new novel!

One of my favorite characters is Ivor, a sassy gray stallion.
Photo: Serge Melki/flickr

I'm excited to bring you this story, which has some characters and horses I just love, including Grace Carter (her name might be different in previous blog posts, this has been a long process), who is a been-there-done-that barn owner; her sassy gray stallion, Ivor; a former dinner show/hunter princess named Kennedy; and a cast of grooms, working students, and boarders who keep life interesting.

One challenge that I'm having with Show Barn Blues -- how to categorize it on Amazon. You might notice that on Amazon, the books in a series will show up on the same page. Look at Turning For Home's page and you'll see the other novels in the Alex and Alexander series right on the page, listed numerically. Nice, right?

Well, Show Barn Blues is technically part of the Eventing Series, which begins with Ambition. The Eventing Series was plotted out as a trilogy, and the next novel, Pride, will follow Ambition. So that's logically Book 2.

However, we're going to meet the characters from Show Barn Blues in Pride. They're important to the story. They just don't fit into the trilogy. They're like a bonus novel. Does that make Show Barn Blues "a novel of the Eventing Series," perhaps?

It's a shame that Amazon doesn't allow "1.5" as a volume number, because I would just use that -- but I've already tried that particular scheme before and it doesn't work.

Other than that conundrum, the writing life is good. I have all the tools I need for my final draft of Pride. Barring work insanity, I should have the next Jules novel to you by the end of the year. I'm rereading Ambition to make sure I have her snotty voice in my head, although Jules is softening... a little. She's still prickly, but life with Pete is starting to sand down those rough edges... a little. 

Maybe it shouldn't take me two years to bring out the sequel to a book as popular as Ambition, but it really does take me that long to write a book. I found notes the other day for Turning For Home, and they were dated 2013. I released TFH in 2015, so there you have it -- that's just the way I write!

So get ready for Show Barn Blues. I'll have it out for you soon!

Outlines: A Writer's Training Calendar

by Natalie Keller Reinert

Setting up a training calendar is easy, right? You pick a horse show date and you move backwards, working out a nice hypothesis of where you'll be in training each week running up to the show. Nothing to it, because predicting how quickly and how competently your horse will pick up your training (to say nothing of staying sound and keeping on his shoes) is just easy-peasy. Right?

Of course we know that's nonsense. Horses look at calendars and laugh. They observe our ambitious plans and then they go out and look for a nice, innocent stick that they can use to injure themselves in astonishing and previously unbelievable ways.

Getting to a horse show takes planning. Writing a book is much the same!
Photo: flickr/dj-dwayne

In the game of planning for horse shows, the beginning is easy to see, and the end is fun to predict. It's the middle part that's hard.

Writing a book can be an awful lot like setting up that oh-so-charming training calendar. I like to outline, because I know my book's beginning, and I know my book's intended ending, but the middle part always bogs me down. You know, all that stuff that makes up the story? Moves the plot along? Gets the horse from green-broke to jumping courses? Yeah. That can be challenging.

Every book I've written since Other People's Horses has had an outline, and every subsequent time I write an outline, I find myself a little more dependent on it. That's because my desire to wander from the set course never, ever wanes. Like a horse bound and determined to lose his shoe before the schooling show on Saturday, I am absolutely hell-bent on diverting from my intended story with wandering trail rides, unplanned-for barn drama, and completely unpredictable bucking incidents.

And while this sort of convoluted wandering story process seems to work for some writers (George R.R. Martin of Game of Thrones fame comes to mind), I really don't want to write 500 page door-stops that are meant to be set during one fateful summer in Saratoga, or wherever. That's why I have to force myself back to the outline. Because every wandering trail ride has to expose a new question in the plot, every unplanned-for barn drama has to be resolved, and every unpredictable bucking incident has to involve sorting out what set off the horse, and how to fix the horse's problem.

That's a lot of extra writing for me, and a lot of meandering "what happened to the plot?" for you, the readers.

So funny story, haha, you guys are going to love this, I wrote a masterful outline for Pride, which is the sequel to Ambition.

Sidebar: Originally Ambition was supposed to be a stand-alone novel, but I've gotten so many requests for a series that I had to cave to pressure. Readers have power! When you like something, say something! 

Anyway, I wrote this wonderful outline for a book which can stand up as the second novel in a trilogy about Jules, Pete, Lacey, Becky, and of course Dynamo and Mickey, plus a host of new riders and horses. It was here to make my life easier, this outline. To keep me on track and stop me from taking three years and half-a-dozen drafts to write, the way that Ambition did.

And I got midway through Pride, to about 45,000 words, which when you consider Ambition is about 111,000 words, you can see is that all-troublesome Middle Part that confounds both trainers and writers when we are making our plots and plans... and I started to wander. I quickly realized I was inventing some barn drama which was good, but which would need to be resolved or things were going to get way off track. I decided it was time to consult my written outline, since at this point I'd just been writing off memory of what I'd planned.

This was when I realized that I had lost the outline.

Oh jeez. 

Well, I stumbled about for a little bit, figuring I could find my way through without the outline, but the thing just started keeping me awake at night. What if I had lost my way? How was I going to fix this? What was the best use of my time? I'm on a tight deadline to get Pride finished and my work schedule outside of house is about to ramp up considerably. If I let this plot wander too much, I was going to be months behind.

Something had to be done.

I knew the ending still (that horse show date that I had selected months before, right?) and although my middle part had changed a little bit, that's just what horses do. It was time to be agile. I sat down, opened my writing program, and started creating chapters.

In Scrivener, which is the program I use, each folder becomes a chapter. And there's a little box where you can type out a synopsis. I'd never used it before, but there's a first time for everything. I typed a synopsis for each chapter I had yet to write, creating a little guide-map to every single folder, so that no matter when I opened up the manuscript to write, there would be no excuse -- the next step in the story was right there, ready to be fleshed out.

I created fourteen chapters in all, assuming that each one would balance out at about 2,000 words, and then on the edit/rewrite I would elaborate on them until they had more substance. Then, I started work on the first one.

That chapter stretched out to 5,000 words.

Outlines. The more detailed they are, it would seem, the easier my job gets.

It reminds me again of that training calendar -- on a good day, I can look at the calendar, assess where my horse is vs where I thought my horse could be, and then reassess. Once that's done, I can see what I want to do for the day, then get out there and make it happen... much more successfully than if I'd just mounted up without a plan, wandered out to the arena, and started trotting around waiting to see what would happen next.

That's good news for me as a writer. It's good news for everyone waiting for the sequel to Ambition, too. Hold on kids, Jules and Company are coming back for more!

Summer Vacations: Disneyland to Del Mar

by Natalie Keller Reinert

Real life? What's that? Summer vacations have me way too busy, running off my feet, to stop and think about real life. I'm just flitting between airports, train stations, hotel rooms, and my desk, catching up on all the work I've missed while on vacation. The bonus of this is that my apartment is nearly always clean, because I'm hardly ever anywhere in it but my office.

Now, most horsepeople do not get to go on vacations, so let me explain how they work. In short, a vacation is when you go somewhere without your horses and immediately seek out other people's horses to look at/pet/mentally compose careful conformation critiques of/take pictures of.

In the early part of our summer, we went to California, where we found horses in all the right places: in theme parks and at racetracks. You know, where anyone can find them. I am a working horse's biggest fan, especially when they are in places where non-horsepeople can get up close and personal and be taken with a horse's startling mixture of strength and gentleness (something that we tend to take for granted after years working alongside them).

Here are some of my summer vacation OPH (Other People's Horses) snaps:

This gorgeous roan Clydesdale at Disneyland had just finished a big slobbery drink from a bucket and was getting ready to head back to Sleeping Beauty Castle.

A lovely Belgian walking the horse-drawn trolley around the Hub and towards Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland.

A close-up of the Clydesdale to prove the rumor... Disneyland horses are barefoot! How amazing is that!

Del Mar Racing on the turf. This track makes great use of its infield, allowing for some amazing views like this.

And of course for the perfect selfie. New author photo?

A schoolie in the gorgeous paddock at Del Mar.

I am obsessed with Del Mar's palm trees. What a racetrack. A palace for racehorses.

PALM TREES.

This gorgeous reproduction of a cavalry recruitment poster is hidden away on the walkway between Frontierland and Fantasyland in Disneyland.

That was Summer Vacation Part 1. Summer Vacation Part 2 starts in a little less than two weeks when Cory and I hop a train for Saratoga. We missed Saratoga last year and I can't wait to get back to the Spa!

So before I sign off and get back to the mountains of work that taking vacations saddles one with, don't forget... you have a few more days to enter to win a signed paperback of Ambition. I'm so happy that Ambition has been hanging on tight to that top three position in horse books at Amazon (right now it's number one!) and that it has been resonating with horsepeople -- because that's who I wrote it for, after all! Please go over to Goodreads and enter to win -- there are four copies up for grabs!

And now... I have to get back to writing!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Ambition

by Natalie Keller Reinert

Giveaway ends August 11, 2014.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Images From the Belmont Stakes

by Natalie Keller Reinert

Well, we had to go to the Belmont Stakes this year. It really wasn't negotiable, was it?

What we actually thought of Belmont Park on one of its most crowded days in recent history was another story (and the focus of a blog post here) but hey, we gave it a shot. And no matter how crazy Belmont Park was, I still managed to capture a few images of a what remains a very photogenic place to watch horses run very fast.

Fashion Plate before the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes, for three-year-old fillies. 

Sweet Whiskey before the Grade 1 Acorn Stakes. She'd come in second behind Sweet Reason.

Calvin at the paddock, with those ivy-covered Belmont walls in the background.

The Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance had a large set-up, which included green screen photographs with California Chrome, plus these I SUPPORT OTTBS bracelets for free. 

A gorgeous TAA Thoroughbred Incentive Program ribbon decorates a drab steel support in the grandstand.

Quotes from Todd Pletcher and Mark Taylor at the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance booth.

The other racecourse. We saw this sign walking to the Queens Village train station, after it was evident we weren't going to catch a train anytime soon at the Belmont Park station.

 And so ended our Belmont adventure. It was a little too full of boozing college students to really be enjoyable, putting the Belmont on par with those combination drinking holidays/horse races Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes.

In other news, Ambition, my eventing novel, has been out since May 20th, and the reviews have been stellar. Jane Badger, best known for her pony book site JaneBadgerBooks.co.uk, reviewed Ambition here, saying "In Jules Natalie Keller Reinert has created a barbed-wire heroine."

At the Equine Insider, where there is also a lovely review, I gave a 5 Questions interview, talking about writing equestrian novels and training horses.

And at Horse Junkies United, the reviewer calls for a sequel (and she's not the first!). I never planned a sequel for Ambition, but this review makes me consider the possibility.

Ambition is available on Amazon, BN.com, Kobo, and iTunes, with a paperback available by mid-June.

And Alex and Alexander fans have something to look forward to: I'm well into Turning For Home, the next novel in the series, and we should see it available before autumn!

An "Ambition" ebook giveaway!

by Natalie Keller Reinert

Hurray! It's been a big week for me, as my newest novel Ambition, was finally released as an ebook. I wrote about Ambition here at Equestrian Ink last week, in "It All Comes Down To This."

Like my racing novels, Ambition is set in the rolling hills of Florida’s horse country, Ocala. But this time, I'm writing about the great sport of eventing.

Jules Thornton didn’t come to Ocala to make friends. She came to make a name for herself. Young, determined, and tough as nails, she’s been swapping stable-work for saddle-time since she was a little kid — and it hasn’t always been a fun ride. Forever the struggling rider in a sport for the wealthy, all Jules has on her side is talent and ambition. She’s certain all she needs to succeed are good horses, but will the eventing world agree?

Ambition is already getting great reviews: over at the popular website Horse Junkies United, a reviewer had this to say: "I couldn’t put it down! Her writing style is easy to read, and the pages flow effortlessly. Most of all though, I was thrilled with all of the horsey details that were not only abundant, but accurate! This is were you could tell that the author had experience in the sport that she was portraying, lending this to her storyline and characters, making them come realistically to life."

In celebration of Ambition's release, I'm going to give away three eBook copies here at Equestrian Ink. Just use the handy Rafflecopter doo-dad below and enter! I'll send the winners an eBook of Ambition in the format of their choice (PDF, .mobi for Kindle, or .ePub for Nook). The giveaway will be open through June 2nd at midnight.

Can't wait that long? You can always grab your own copy of Ambition at Amazon, BN.com, iTunes, or Kobo! And stay tuned for the paperback -- one thing I can assure you of, the paperback is gorgeous. 

Well, that's all from me. Good luck! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

It All Comes Down To This

by Natalie Keller Reinert

I've read my new book about six times in the past two weeks. 

It's not because I am obsessed with my new book (maybe I am a little bit) but because I'm an obsessive editor, in general. So I've been reading and rereading, tweaking and changing and fixing word by word, line by line, trying to get the best possible execution of this story I'm trying to tell. And when I'm done reading it, my husband reads it, and does the same, and then I have to add in all of his changes -- which means reading it one more time.

I have to admit, there are times when I am a little tired of my new book.

But reading it can be a fascinating experience for me, as well. Because throughout Ambition, just as throughout Other People's Horses, The Head and Not The Heart, Claiming Christmas, and Horse-Famous, I'm reading new accounts of old experiences I've had. 

Most of my racing stories draw upon my time as an exercise rider, both at the training centers and at the racetrack, along with years spent working at breeding farms in Ocala. I started doing this when I was nineteen or twenty, so I was somewhat an adult by then. (This is debatable).

Amarillo and I, Ocala 2000-ish

But before I got into the racing business, I was a kid riding event horses. (Almost -- I started riding hunters, but soon learned that if I wanted to gallop, the cross-country course was where it was at.) Over the years I became somewhat obsessed with dressage, not because I loved discipline or being confined to an arena, but because the very occasional perfection of connection with my horse that dressage training allowed was the most amazing feeling on earth. And when the arena got too confining, I always had the option of jumping some very large jumps. 

Sure, once in a while, I took a very hard fall.

And I dealt with some serious crazy. 

Crazy horses, crazy people. Out-and-out broncs, out-and-out crooks, and more than a few horses and people who were behaving like criminals but maybe didn't mean to.

(It's easier to fix the horses. I learned that very, very young! It just didn't always look the prettiest.)

Ambition is the first book I've written about eventing, and the experiences I have drawn upon to write it began back in my elementary school days. Being the working student, riding the cheap horse, and trying to go it alone -- I know all about that. I might not be as ambitious or driven as Jules (I haven't been on a horse in a year, and I know Jules would never, ever stand for that) but I definitely know where she's coming from. And that makes Ambition so powerful to me, to read again and again, and find, amongst the fiction, all my little true stories woven into the tale. 

Every time I write a new story, I feel like it gives my life meaning. Not this very moment, which needs no validation -- but all the time I have spent in the saddle, mucking stalls, scrubbing buckets, washing horses, raking shed-rows... It all means something. It all comes down to this: to this story that I can share with the world.

Ambition is coming to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iTunes at the end of the month. I can't wait to share this story with the all of you in the equestrian community!

A Full-Time Writer, Again!

by Natalie Keller Reinert

Good morning! I write this blog post from my sofa, instead of where I usually write them: sitting on the subway, typing into my iPhone.

This is a nice change!

I recently went back to the full-time writing life, after spending a year with the mounted unit of the New York City Parks Department. It was an absolutely incredible experience, and I'm so happy to have had it. I mean, how else can you get pictures like this?

Oh you know, just patrolling Columbus Circle, like you do!

But a lot of factors came together all at once, and it became apparent that I was going to have to leave the day job... and go back to my old job.

You know, that one where I sit at a desk all day and make things up. Not the worst fate in the world.

And it's excellent timing, as I have quite a few projects to come, including the third novel in my Alex & Alexander series: Turning For Home. 

I wrote here about how I never expected The Head and Not The Heart, my first novel, to turn into a series, but that it just sort of happened. That's exactly what happened with this new project. Right after I released Other People's Horses, the second book, I was heading into Manhattan for some reason and rejoicing in my freedom from writing, however brief. It gets exhausting, writing a novel, when you are also working full-time with horses and trying to be a functioning member of a family besides.

So I was sitting on the train, and I pulled out my phone, and it didn't have anything I wanted to read on it, and then suddenly I was typing furiously and I had the first chapter of Turning For Home written before I got off the train.

What's that about, right? I don't know. Books just happen to you, with enough practice, I suppose.

I won't say too much about Turning For Home right now because it is in its infancy and anything could happen. But I wanted to touch on racehorse retirement and retraining Thoroughbreds, the subject of my website Retired Racehorse. So that's in there.

Besides the latest Alex & Alexander, I have two more novels to release this year. Both are already written and are waiting for me to dust them off and do final edits already. And when I say "written" I mean "written and then re-written five or six times."

The first one you'll probably see is Ambition, which follows a ruthlessly ambitious young eventing rider who is out to make her name whatever the cost. She'll steamroller anyone in her way in order to get to the top. This is a girl who has been the working student all of her life, watching the rich kids go on trail rides while she stayed behind to clean stalls, and consequently has a chip on her shoulder the size of Montana. When an apparently wealthy rival trainer offers her help, she brushes him off with no uncertain words. But everyone needs help eventually, and she finds herself in so deep that all she can do is give up her prejudices and trust in her enemy.

The second one is The Daughter of Horses. This novel is a completely new direction for me: fantasy, and follows a fairy tale that I've already been slightly obsessed with: Beauty and the Beast. Loosely set in England in the early nineteenth century, The Daughter of Horses features magic, romance, a traveling circus, and angry villagers. Oh, and horses. So many horses!

So there you have it. My summer is going to consist largely of getting these books out to you. Turning For Home, Ambition, The Daughter of Horses. So here's my question to you: which one should I concentrate on first?

Oh and by the way, The Head and Not The Heart is currently 99 cents, if you haven't given it a try yet, and all of my books are currently available for free lending via Amazon Prime. If you have a Nook HD, you can download the Kindle app and read your Amazon purchases that way. You can also check out the beautiful paperbacks if you're an old-fashioned kind of reader! Thanks, and keep it horsey!