It's Friday, and it hasn't been the best of days so far. I've seen better, and I am hoping for better still. When it rains it pours, and I really don't like it because it's affecting my desire to sit and write out these chapters. It's not really raining, but all the downpour seems to be coming from life and the lives surrounding those I love. I am not going to let it stop me though. What I have decided to do is to step back and plan the book before I write it. Ha! Can't stop me! Nope! I'll even use these little setbacks as stories in the book - so there!
I sat down just now and wrote out what I think or want to happen in the first eight chapters of the book. Each chapter ranges from 2000-3000 words, so that could be upwards of 20,000 words planned out already. The book will be around 83,000-86,000 words, so I'm already getting the thing mapped out and ready to be picked at and pulled apart. I think writing out what I think should happen will lend a great deal of strength to what I actually write; sort of like a springboard if you will.
This book is a dramatic book. It's a regular novel. You pick it up, you read it. It's not meant to be anything more than entertainment, except it will give a bit of personal insight and opinion of what I experienced when I owned and boarded horses. The main character will be basically based on me, but I have personally never had the money or withal to actually buy a 100+ acre horse ranch, and my books aren't (at this time) selling well enough to do the whole self-employed thing. It may happen, but I'm not there yet.
The first chapters deal with the character herself, Julianna Leigh Armstrong, who goes by Jule, and she's about 55 years old. She is a mother, a grandmother, a Blue-Star Mom; she's a Christian, she's a survivor, and she's been through a lot. I may add a few things about her marriage, but I may skim over it. It was too many years ago to matter. She's dogmatic, dedicated, determined, and devoted. She's enthusiastic and energetic, but she's also cautious. She doesn't believe everything anyone says, in fact, it's quite the opposite. Because of her years as an insurance fraud investigator, she tends to dig into matters where others would leave it to the experts. Jule notifies the experts and provides them with evidence.
The next few chapters deal with the barn she buys, the ranch, the acreage, the two houses on the premises, and even the livestock left by the original owners. Some of the boarders feel they should have a claim to some things, and there's a bit of drama over that as well as the way Jule and her daughter decide to run their new ranch. Hangers-on will be asked to leave, and when it becomes apparent that Jule needs to express herself in ways that cannot be argued with; she finally gets her point across.
I think the book will be a good one. It's going to at least attempt to shake the mentality of some of the younger set today with their privileged life expectations and their devil-may-care attitudes. Jule was raised in a solid home with parents and grandparents who wouldn't tolerate children being mouthy. She has raised her own children to be respectful even if no one else around her demonstrates those traits. The book will deal with the haves and have-nots, and how some people treat others. It will deal with and examine the way many horse people treat other horse and non-horse people, as well as the way they treat livestock.
All in all, "Bay Sorrel Ranch" will be a good project for me to write, whether or not it ends up being a good book for others to read. I hope it is; I know I usually like what I write, and really, if I think about it, I'm the only audience I really concern myself with when it comes to actually writing. I love that others want to read my books, but I have to like them before I publish them. It has my name on it!!
Photo Credit: Me. (This is Levi. He's a Bay Quarter/Morgan)
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