Author's Notes for "One Bright Summer"
Sep. 27th, 2009 09:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starwatcher_fic.
In February 2003, Elizabeth posted to the SentinelAngst list -- How about a story with a teenage Jimmy Ellison riding in a steeplechase race with Naomi involved with the owner of the stable where Jimmy's horse is kept -- a young Blair could be hanging around the horses and meets . . . well you can see where this might go. The idea caught my fancy immediately, and the muse even tossed me a hook -- "Fortunately, the moon was almost full. Unfortunately, the broken layer of clouds dimmed the light at crucial moments." At the time, however, I didn't feel I had the skill to do justice to the story. So I saved it carefully in my plot-bunny folder, where it waited patiently until I needed to start a new story one August. The application of a little math tells me this took six months to write, though only 30 actual days of writing effort (I kept track). This story now replaced "Moving Forward" as my longest at that time, with another 1,585 words -- but it took nine fewer months to write. Yay!
It was a wild ride. Like several of my recent (at that time) stories, this one grew considerably longer than I expected. And the wolf expanded from the walk-on part I envisioned for her, to a minor recurring character. The muse seems to delight in toying with me, but I can't complain; I'm pretty darn satisfied with the way this turned out. <g>
For those who are wondering, I based Blair's interactions with Rosie on the John Lyons' method of training, and every bit of it is realistic. My own horse will stand, or move in any direction with just the use of body language and the 'kiss' cue; I'll tell you about it someday. My horse won't reach for the bit as Rosie did, but John Lyons observed his very young daughters persuading their horse to do this, after he had told them that they couldn't ride until they could get the horse ready and mount it themselves; the girls used the climb-on-fence and leap-over-space technique that Blair used.
My heartfelt thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cindyrama, castalie, and jessriley for their input and assistance in bringing this story to light, and especially to caarianna who gave me the push I needed to bring the story from their sad parting to the new beginning.
.
In February 2003, Elizabeth posted to the SentinelAngst list -- How about a story with a teenage Jimmy Ellison riding in a steeplechase race with Naomi involved with the owner of the stable where Jimmy's horse is kept -- a young Blair could be hanging around the horses and meets . . . well you can see where this might go. The idea caught my fancy immediately, and the muse even tossed me a hook -- "Fortunately, the moon was almost full. Unfortunately, the broken layer of clouds dimmed the light at crucial moments." At the time, however, I didn't feel I had the skill to do justice to the story. So I saved it carefully in my plot-bunny folder, where it waited patiently until I needed to start a new story one August. The application of a little math tells me this took six months to write, though only 30 actual days of writing effort (I kept track). This story now replaced "Moving Forward" as my longest at that time, with another 1,585 words -- but it took nine fewer months to write. Yay!
It was a wild ride. Like several of my recent (at that time) stories, this one grew considerably longer than I expected. And the wolf expanded from the walk-on part I envisioned for her, to a minor recurring character. The muse seems to delight in toying with me, but I can't complain; I'm pretty darn satisfied with the way this turned out. <g>
For those who are wondering, I based Blair's interactions with Rosie on the John Lyons' method of training, and every bit of it is realistic. My own horse will stand, or move in any direction with just the use of body language and the 'kiss' cue; I'll tell you about it someday. My horse won't reach for the bit as Rosie did, but John Lyons observed his very young daughters persuading their horse to do this, after he had told them that they couldn't ride until they could get the horse ready and mount it themselves; the girls used the climb-on-fence and leap-over-space technique that Blair used.
My heartfelt thanks to
cindyrama, castalie, and jessriley for their input and assistance in bringing this story to light, and especially to caarianna who gave me the push I needed to bring the story from their sad parting to the new beginning..