Tuesday, August 21, 2007

BLACKBERRIES & SHINING STALLIONS

Dear Readers,
In my part of Nevada, summer's not giving up without a fight.
I went out early and picked blackberries with my dog (her job was snuffling under the blackberry bushes to make quail fret) and it was lovely.
Lovely, but not easy. Our blackberries aren't like the ones I pick up in the air-conditioned market. Fiercely thorny high desert berries, they're refugees from a neighbor's disciplined yard. They've run wild over picket fences, under barbed wire, and through sagebrush to produce defiantly hard little purple knots that smell like August.
Every single year, they tempt into their spiky labyrinth, to go after the highest, glossiest berries the deer haven't eaten, even though I know I'll emerge with scratched-bloody legs and stinging slashes on the untanned undersides of my arms.
But, as I wince after my prey, I hear horses nosing their buckets, Canada geese flying overhead -- not honking, just gliding so low I hear wind in their feathers as they migrate -- and the tiny plink of berries falling into an optimistically deep bowl, reminding me of "Blueberries for Sal".
It's a wonderful day to be a writer who just turned in a book yesterday and has a book coming out today, so I can spend a guilt-free morning enjoying the "fruits of my labor." :)
Your bookstore probably has the SHINING STALLION on its shelves, now. Look for a wild horse charging right at you through a waterfall. See the rainbow in the water? Love it!
In this second WILD HORSE ISLAND book, Darby is still learning her way around horses and Hawaii. Hoku is still a wild Nevada mustang and even I didn't know how she'd react to that black stallion with one sapphire blue eye until they faced off!
If you're a SEVEN TEARS INTO THE SEA fan, I bet you'll like how legends come alive in SHINING STALLION. I couldn't help but write WILD HORSE ISLAND this way.
In the rain forests and on the volcanic slopes of Hawaii, it feels totally possible. To paraphrase John Green http://www.sparksflyup.com/ myths and legends aren't lies; they're traditional stories that tell you a lot about the minds and hearts of people and what they hold sacred.

Carpe diem, y'all!
Terri

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Posted by Terri Farley @ 8:35 AM

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