Since Book II, Sacred Hills, will be released later this month I wanted to share the prologue and first chapter of Book I. I hope you find it interesting and want to read more. Ask your local library to purchase a copy, or donate your copy so many can enjoy the story.
Go HERE to read.
Titles for a trilogy or series can be tough. For my trilogy every book is titled Where the Horses Run, but with Book I, II, & III noted, and each having their own subtitle–Mass Extinction, Sacred Hills and Ciphers. Since I started it that way, I’ve kept it and only refer to it as the Horses trilogy (H1, H2 & H3), though it’s definitely about more than the vanishing horses. And it’s certainly about more than Elle, the main character, though she’s set up as the books’ writer basing it on her journal notes. It’s been years in the making and a very complex work to keep track of. Hope I never do it again.
To make it more complicated it has a prequel with a totally different name, because it can be a read-alone book. There were parts of the book with past-history back story that had to go somewhere, right? I do have a sequel planned with a different title and, like the prequel, only to be listed as the sequel. I’ll try to make it a read-alone also though it will have some the same characters. Anyone reading H3 will wonder what the world is like after….so one last story, a thriller with Tommy as MC.
Then there’s the spin-offs. Could I make it any more complicated for myself? The first is with all the Native American parts of the Horses trilogy put into a separate book from their points of view–tricky work. I was told it was the best part of the Horses stories and should have its own book, so I’m polishing it now as I also do my semi-final edit on Book II — quite a challenge.
The other spin-off is a children’s series, each subtitled The Secrets of Meshyah’s World, but with different titles to each. After the same title on three with similar covers, I liked doing it this way better. I only have the first out, so far–Tree & Sky. But the real Horses series spin-off — of how everything gets set up in Meshyah’s World — is yet another book. It’s actually the book Meshyah’s story comes from and leads to. You see there will be a journal sent back in time from Meshyah’s World (set in a very different future) to the world of the Horses series and found by secondary Horses series characters who will then be major characters in the new book. Did you get that? Hope so. It’s really been fun to write. And since this involves current Native Americans and the reservation, I have another children’s story that occurs in the same time period and is affected by the things that happen in the world as they are told in Where the Horses Run.
When I have a character, or characters, whom I like I want to develop them further. Writing them in new stories helped with the character(s) development as I wrote them in the Horses series. When the write-up sounds good enough, they become new book ideas…spin-offs.
They have all been fun to start, set up, make bookcovers for, and get copyrights on, but if you don’t think having a city’s worth of characters over a span of hundreds of years in your head is easy to keep track of, think again.
You know, I actually only have two books, and two children’s books planned (plus one already done with no distribution plans to date) that are not connected to this first trilogy. Amazing how one idea leads to another. It makes being a writer lots of fun and very interesting, even when it’s hard work and a bit (Did I really say ‘a bit’?) mind boggling.
articles
the sixth extinction? (Photo credit: B.S. Wise)
http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/7350/Call-of-Life–Facing-the-Mass-Extinction
My novel, Where the Horses Run, is the first of a trilogy. It’s subtitle is Mass Extinction. It begins with the sudden, mass extinction of the entire equine species. It will later, in Book II, Sacred Hills, continue to report other extinctions and disappearances of species. It’s not much removed from real life in what our world is now facing.
If you haven’t been living in a cave in a remote area somewhere you know we really are experiencing a mass extinction of several species. Many fear man will be among those to go extinct. I don’t think so. Those with the power to change the course we are on may wait until the almost impossible last moment, when the iceberg is straight ahead, or even after its been hit, but it will be changed. It may be by choice or it may be forced upon us, but it has to happen. And, unfortunately, many may go down with the ship, but mankind will survive, I’m sure of that. It may be survival for a while, but it will get back to a new kind of normal eventually. We have too much going for us.
Today’s Mass Extinction (Photo credit: khteWisconsin)
The connection I’ve posted is a documentary which will explain the real status of our situation, the psychological impact and some encouragement. Please watch it. The helplessness you feel deep inside, that sense of impending doom unconsciously touching some part of you where you really know but don’t want to face it, will be eased. Once knowledge comes, then understanding, you may better equip yourself for the great change which will have to take place. Free yourself with this so you can face the future squarely, with apprehension maybe, but less fear. And if you know anything, you know it is inevitable. Prepare yourself so you can help those around you. Become a voice among many. It is, after all, the squeaky wheel which will get the most attention.
I would appreciate hearing what you think of this documentary after you’ve watched it. Be ready to wake up to what you already know.
Geologic time and mass extinction events. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
P.S. If you read that volcanoes, not an asteroid, killed the dinosaurs, realize it took both for the double whammy to block out the sun and kill all plant life so they actually starved to death. That could be called failure to thrive, but I’m not sure.
Documentary Synopsis: If current trends continue, scientists warn that within a few decades at least HALF of all plant and animal species on Earth will disappear forever. “Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction” is the first feature documentary to investigate the growing threat to Earth’s life support systems from this unprecedented loss of biodiversity. Through interviews with leading scientists, psychologists, historians, and others, the film explores the causes, the scope, and the potential effects of the mass extinction, but also looks beyond the immediate causes of the crisis to consider how our cultural and economic systems, along with deep-seated psychological and behavioral patterns, have allowed and continue to reinforce the situation, and even determine our response to it. “Call of Life” tells the story of a crisis not only in nature, but also in human nature, a crisis more threatening than anything human beings have ever faced before.
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I was finally able to upload my video trailer for Where the Horses Run: Mass Extinction, Book I. Goto jvdbooks.tumblr.com. Let me know if it runs smoothly and how you like it.
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