I’m looking forward to reading your creations!

Write a story about the first time someone goes riding.

I won’t say any more because I don’t want to direct you too much. I think it’ll be fun to hear of all the different ideas that you have!

Do you have any ideas of what she can do to find another horse or pony to ride?

The sixth step in writing your book is the REWRITE! To say rewrite is a little bit optimistic though - more accurately, it would be rewrites. In the rewrites, you read over your book and change the things that you notice are wrong.

What to check for?

You check the spelling and grammar. One tip, don’t trust the spell checker. Horse and hoarse sound the same and are both spelled correctly, but it would sound pretty funny to say ”My hoarse didn’t eat his oats this morning.”  

You check that things are said in the most effective way. For example, one thing you can do is change common words to be more vibrant. Instead of saying, “The horse ran through the forest,” you can say “The brilliant chestnut careened between the dark trunks.” It gives much more atmosphere to your book.

Check your dialogue by speaking it aloud to make sure your characters are speaking naturally.

Check for inconsistencies. Is the chair blue in one scene, and then yellow in another?

And when you are reading through your book, stop whenever something just seems WRONG. It is very important to figure out what’s wrong with these sections and fix them.

And then when you’re reread and rewritten your book. You do it again. And again, and again, until you know you can’t write it any better.

Here is what I do whenever I write a book.

1. After I finish the first draft, I rewrite the entire book at least two or three more times on the computer.

2. I print up a copy and rewrite it one or two more times.

3. I send it to an editor to edit it for me. My editor is Ev and she is fabulous! Within a few days, she gets back to me with notes on everything that she noticed that were both right and wrong with the book. She gives me suggestions for the things that need changed.

4. I rewrite the book on the computer again, and then, if I feel it needs it, I either rewrite the entire thing again or I just rewrite spots of it.

5. I print up the book again and read it aloud to myself. When you read a book out loud, you will notice even more things wrong with it.

6. I send it to the Norwegian publisher, Eli, and she usually gets back to me within a couple of weeks with a list of things that she wants me to change.

7. I make those changes and rewrite the book at least once more, and possibly (like with Mystic Tide) have to start over at #1 again!

8. I eventually get an email from Bobbie, the PONY editor from the USA, and she has more edits for me. She usually does them though, and I look over her changes. However, I still do one more complete rewrite of the book as I check the changes.

9. And then, finally, it gets made into a book, and you guys get to read it.

Whew, what a lot of work!!! It makes me tired just thinking of it!

Here is a photo of Keshia and Wiley. It’s obvious that he likes her, isn’t it?

Tell a very short story (less than 500 words) about a girl who goes to visit a new friend for the first time and they go into her friend’s barn. The barn is so messy that…

What does it look like? What happens? Is there a horse lost in there? Tell me your story!!!

1. The Icelandic Horse tolts.

2. The first ancestor of the horse is thought to be the Eohippus.

3. Ah, this one you have to read Mystic Tide to know the answer!

4. Cavaletti are small fences used to train horses.

5. Four inches equals one hand in measuring horses.

6. A vice is a bad habit that stabled horses start usually because they’re bored.

7. Name three colour breeds - this is the one that almost EVERYONE got wrong. There are really only four colour breeds. Pinto, Palomino, Buckskin, and White (in the USA). All the others, like Paint, Appaloosa, Cleveland Bay, etc. aren’t colour breeds because every horse with that colour can’t be registered in that registry. For example, not every bay horse can be registered as a Cleveland Bay. The horse has to have the Cleveland Bay breeding as well. Do you see what I mean?  

8. You have to read Freedom or A Horse Called Freedom to know the answer to this one!

9. Black Beauty’s best friend was named Ginger.

10. And your favourite horse movie? Only you know the answer to that one!

The new questions should be coming soon. I’ll post a link when they’re ready for you to answer.  

And again, the rules are: you can enter each Trivia Contests twice, but only one entry counts. If you enter a second time, the second answers count, even if you got them all right the first time and didn’t the second time! So if you think you have them right the first time, don’t enter the second time!