Horse Tales - American Classic Pedigrees

Themes

2/27/2025

In writing---or attempting to write---fiction, sooner or later the author must wrestle with the themes to be presented. These are the unifying ideas or questions that underlie a story. They may be consciously chosen beforehand; they may develop organically as the writer proceeds, flowing out from the writer's experiences, thinking, and personal wrestlings; or they may follow a middle course in their development.

Themes also emerge in nonfictional writing, particularly history and biography, in which the themes the author chooses to pursue will powerfully influence both which facts and events are more heavily weighted and the author's interpretation of those facts in portions of the narrative in which it is appropriate to present the author's educated guess as to why or how something happened or someone acted as they did. (Whew! That's a mouthful.) The same facts that lead one author to craft a narrative showcasing the theme of perseverance against the odds might lead another author to explore the question of "what is social justice?", resulting in two quite distinct accounts of the same event or person.

Authors, by the way, are under no obligation to answer the questions presented in their themes and are often better when they do not, allowing the reader's mind to grapple with the question and continue exploration of possible answers even after the journey of the book's protagonist has reached a conclusion. A question that leads to a pat answer is more a moral than a theme, and while morals have their place (a la Aesop's Fables), they seldom make for the kind of books that provoke deep thought or become old friends, kept for re-reading and re-exploring.

Because my early concepts of the tale of the Firebird revolve around a tension between two worlds and two modes of existence that the main characters are caught between, the primary theme that seems to be emerging is this: What does it mean to be human? That is a question with so many ramifications and sub-themes that I think I'm in little danger of becoming trite, at least. It's also a question that to some extent makes me glad that I'm not trained as a philosopher, as I'd rather not fall off the other side of the horse into being ponderous or abstruse and so risk losing the story.

More themes may start developing as I proceed, for a book seldom has only a primary theme and nothing else; secondary themes will almost always come out to play as well. But at least I have some idea of which way the river of my thoughts is running.

Pacing

2/13/2025

As I continue playing with the Firebird concept, defining the overall pace of the story becomes important. Pacing---the speed at which a story unfolds and progresses---is at once dependent on the type of story being told and yet an element that helps define the story. It is an important factor in setting moods, developing characters, and determining the complexity of the tale. Pacing can be one way in which a book satisfies reader expectations; it can also signal surprises or twists as the pace speeds up or slows down.

While many people think of pacing as primarily important to fiction writing, nonfiction works that recount a narrative of some sort also rely on pacing to convey information and to set tone. For example, I am currently reading a biography of Queen Elizabeth II that is seeking to convey both the personality of the late Queen and the complexity of her role as she navigated the historical and political events of seven decades as a constitutional monarch with great influence but no direct power. By its nature, the intimacy of this written portrait demands a relatively slow, thoughtful overall pace. By way of contrast, T. R., a biography of Teddy Roosevelt written in the mid-20th century, moved at a faster pace reflecting the energy and activity of its subject and his power to influence events directly; while it touched on his personal development as a man and how the development of his character affected his decisions, it was more driven by his direct interaction with the events of his time.

Pacing can shift within a book, often in concert with the development of the primary character. For instance, in my upcoming biography of Holy Bull, the pace is relatively moderate while discussing his early life and the emergence of his distinctive personality, then picks up as he moves into his racing career, slowing once more as he transitions to the life of a stallion. Pacing can also ebb and flow to allow sections with more intensive setting and character development to alternate with passages depicting action and the consequences of crucial decisions; this allows the reader to "take a breath" and not be either overwhelmed by one hard-driving piece of action after another or bored by an overdose of introspection or unneeded detail.

I haven't made all the decisions yet as to how the Firebird story will set up, but as a fantasy centering around the viewpoint of one particular character, a moderate pace with a pattern alternating external and internal activity seems likely to be most workable. I'll probably have to do some outlining and shuffling to see what progression works best.

A Word About Websites

1/9/2025

I've spent a good chunk of my free time during the last week updating this website based on the 2024 sire lists---as many as I could get hold of for countries that conduct black-type racing under International Catalogue standards. This brings me to the topic of website development and maintenance, which most authors will have to consider sooner or later.

Now, American Classic Pedigrees is a much larger project than most authors will ever need to undertake. For me, the business of writing about Thoroughbreds and the maintenance of an organized compilation of information about the breed are closely intertwined. For others, simpler may be much better. Nevertheless, given the importance of online presence and platforms in modern book marketing, websites are necessities, not luxuries or "nice-to-haves," and should be carefully designed to accomplish a writer's purposes in providing visibility for his or her work.

Websites do not have to be expensive. If you use a do-it-yourself host that provides pre-made elements and layouts to customize to your needs (as I do), a few hundred dollars a year will cover the basics; the rest depends on how much time you want to pour in and whether you want to hire any of the host's design services to polish things up further. If you want a professionally designed and fully customized site and lack the skills to do the work yourself, you may lay out several thousand for the work, depending on what bells and whistles you want to include, in addition to paying annual fees for hosting and for registration of your domain name.

At a minimum, an author website should meet some basic standards:

1) Is the domain name one that is reasonably easy to remember?

2) Is the site's basic layout attractive? While this is somewhat subjective, designs usually work best when they are uncluttered, focused on a single main theme, and using an easy-to-read font that is fairly high in contrast to the background.

3) Is the site easy to navigate? Do buttons and drop-down menus clearly indicate how content is organized? Are links clearly indicated and functional?

4) Are your most recent works up front? Is it easy to find information about earlier works on the site?

5) Do you have easily accessed space for sharing information with your readers about upcoming projects, appearances, and promotions?

6) Does each book have ordering information clearly shown? If you're not doing direct sales through your site, you do want people to know how to obtain your titles.

7) Does the website translate reasonably well to smartphones? Like it or not, that's a major means of access these days.

8) Does the website help your readers to make a personal connection to you? Whether or not you want them to be able to communicate with you directly is a personal choice, but does the website display something of who you are and what you are about? How about social media information?

I know a lot of this is going to seem pretty old-school to those who are digital natives, but for those of you working on a first book, there's no time like the present to start thinking about how you will present yourself online. And if you already have a website, this is as good a time as any to review it and see if it needs any tweaking to remain up-to-date and focused on your needs in communicating with your audience.

Happy writing!

A Passion for Writing

12/26/2024

As I look back over 2024, my writing and the activities connected to it have gone through at least as many ups and downs and unexpected turns as this blog. I can't say I've been terribly consistent, but if you, the reader, have enjoyed sharing some of my journey with me or have gotten some benefit from a book review or a bit of writing advice, then my work has been worthwhile.

I close out the year with a wish that, whatever your writing goals may be, you will pursue them with passion, for good writing comes first and foremost from the heart. What you love, share. It's as simple as that.

Happy writing in 2025!

World Building

12/19/2024

Whether writing a fictional story or a nonfictional writing dealing with history or biography, world building is a necessary part of the work. It is not enough to create or present compelling characters. To know them, and to know why they act (or acted) as they do (did), one must understand the context in which they exist(ed)---a context that includes, but is not limited to, the geography, biota, and climate of the setting; culture; social structures; and prevailing philosophies and intellectual trends. These background factors define the probable limitations of a character's worldview, the questions that character may seek to ask or answer, and the range of experiences that the character may have had.

From an author's point of view, constraints on world building exist on a continuum. When writing fantasy, for example, the author has a great deal more creative work to do but also has much more freedom to put together a world according to his or her vision, so long as it is internally self-consistent. The more you slide over toward historical fiction and history, the more you are constrained by what has actually been, and world building for your narrative is more a matter of research and emphasis than of creation.

Some will doubtless disagree with me, but my opinion is that, if you want to write "history as it should have been," you should confine yourself to fiction. This is for two reasons. First, some otherwise fine writing has been utterly spoiled by 20th- or 21st-century Western attitudes, thinking patterns, and cultural elements being inserted into a historical context in which these elements did not exist or at most existed only in embryonic form. (It is true that some historical personages have made some remarkable leaps ahead of their times, some of which anticipated modern conditions, but these leaps did not occur out of vacuums; part of the work of the serious historian is to show from the available evidence how a person's background, experiences, and previous ideas made it possible for that person to make the jump from the prevailing paradigms of his or her time to a new one.) The second reason is that fiction often allows a much freer exploration of ideas in a form that is not so easily forgotten or dismissed.

Assuming you are writing nonfiction, spending research time on the many elements constituting the background in which your narrative will be set may not seem like much fun, and it certainly adds considerably to the hours you'll spend perusing archives, reference works, and websites. (Writing fiction will not get you out of this entirely, by the way; many top writers of fantasy and science fiction spend a great deal of time researching real-life information that will help them construct believable fictional worlds and cultures.) Nonetheless, there is no subject for doing your homework if you want to capture the flavor of the world in which your subjects were immersed.

The Logic of Fairy Tales

12/12/2024

As I play with the Firebird concept, I find myself grappling with the rules of the world of fairy tales, which provide structure but also limitations that cannot be transgressed without losing the elusive flavor that distinguishes a fairy tale---a story bordering on the mythic---from ordinary literature. Some of the rules are relatively easy to discern. The hero or heroine usually begins with some substantial disadvantage. The ultimate task to be accomplished is difficult or obscure and may already have defeated any number of more obvious champions. Fantastical elements, usually in the form of magical creatures, enchanted objects, and spells to be completed or undone, are central to the story. The protagonist must face trials on the way to the ultimate goal and usually conquers by wits or noble character rather than force of arms.

Other rules that distinguish the fairy tale from other stories are more difficult to discern; many come under the heading of "I know them when I see them." J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy smells of fairy tale through and through, as does his novella Smith of Wootton Major; the same author's Farmer Giles of Ham does not, even though it contains such common fairy-tale elements as a magical sword, a giant, and a dragon.

The fairy tale as a basis for more modern fantasies has a long and honorable history, ranging from Andre Norton's Year of the Unicorn (loosely based on "Beauty and the Beast") to Mercedes Lackey's Five Hundred Kingdoms series and Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver (a tale derived from "Rumpelstiltskin"). I'd like to add to that, but the challenge will be spinning a fresh story within the traditions and tropes that define the world of fairy tales. Creating something both old and new is certainly going to stretch my writing ability; I'm hoping it will be in a good direction.

Waiting on the Next Project

11/14/2024

As this week's post title intimates, I'm still in a holding pattern and waiting for some feedback from my acquisitions editor as to what would be the best topic for my next book, given my own interests and the needs of the publishing house. While I'm waiting, this seems like a good time to address what to do when you're between projects.

For some people, getting a book completed and published is a one-and-done, and I can understand that. No matter how much of a labor of love it is, the whole project can be exhausting. Nevertheless, unless you've closed the door on writing further books, you don't want to get out of the habits of writing and of exploring new ideas. You do need space for rest and relaxation, but you don't want to slide over into the mental equivalent of twiddling your thumbs while waiting for something external to happen or for some fresh blaze of inspiration to strike.

Fortunately, you have a lot of options regarding writing, and some may even lead to new areas worth further exploration. If you don't want to commit to getting started on another book, consider blogging, journaling, writing articles, or developing content for a website. If you're a nonfiction writer, this might be a great time to try your hand at writing fiction or poetry---not necessarily for publication, but for the exercise of continuing to develop your writing skills while trying to stretch yourself a bit. (Poetry, by the way---at least good poetry---is a magnificent exercise in learning to pack the most meaning into as few words as possible, as well as developing your inner ear for the flow and cadence of your writing.) If fiction is your thing, perhaps researching and writing out a bit of history or tackling a different genre than your preferred type will keep the creative juices going and perhaps even throw fresh fuel on the fire. Breaks in your writing schedule are also good times for workshops or classes aimed at honing your skills. In addition, if advance readers or editors have pointed out problem areas with your writing---perhaps your grammar is a little weak or your imagery is too abstract---then a pause between major projects is an ideal time to work on your weaknesses.

The times in between major writing projects are also excellent times for catching up on your reading and for getting involved socially with other writers. If there's a literary group or writers' association in your area, consider joining in! If a local cafe hosts a monthly poetry slam, why not go? There are also opportunities in mentoring kids and young want-to-be writers, not least the fact that having to explain something to someone else on their level reveals how solid your own grasp is on the matter in question in a hurry. The important thing isn't precisely what you do when you've got what used to be your writing time on your hands; the important thing is that you don't let yourself stagnate.

Happy writing!

An Introduction to Introductions

5/30/2024

As I get down to the business of developing a manuscript on the career of Holy Bull, this seems as good a place as any to discuss the topic of writing an introduction for a work. It is no exaggeration to say that the intro may be the most important part of your prospective book. Why? Because in those few pages, you'll be answering the most important question of all posed by your reader: "Should I keep reading this?"

You, of course, want an answer of "Yes"--even better, "Yes!" Assuming you have done your homework, you have already selected a topic which you feel readers will want to explore. Your task in the introduction is to provide enough context and content for readers to sell themselves on your work.

A good introduction provides the reader with two crucial pieces of information. It presents a topic in which the reader will presumably be interested, and it presents the overarching theme of how that topic will be explored. This theme will determine what implicit or explicit questions the book will answer, which viewpoints and ideas will be emphasized, and much of how the book will be structured as it develops the theme to a reasonable or satisfying conclusion. A book written with the aim of portraying a successful racehorse as an animal that overcame numerous obstacles to become a popular champion and a book written to portray the success and popularity of that same racehorse as emblematic of an ongoing class struggle in the time period and society in which the horse was running have the same subject, but their differing themes will result in two very different books.

Because of its importance to the book's purpose and overall development, failure to develop a clear concept in your own mind of what your theme is will almost certainly doom your book before it is ever written. It has often been said that if you can't explain an idea in a way that an intelligent ten-year-old can grasp, you probably don't understand it yourself as well as you think you do. If you can present your theme to a naive listener---one who knows little or nothing about the topic you want to explore---and have that person respond with a genuine "That sounds interesting!", then you are probably on the right track. A confused look means you'd probably better go back to the drawing board and figure out both exactly what it is you want to say and how to say it.

That being said, another pitfall to avoid is trying to do too much during the introduction. Your intro is the place to present your topic and main theme in a focused, readable manner that invites the reader to want to learn more. It is not the place for a complete outline of the work, an information dump, or a discussion of why you chose to write it as you did. A good rule of thumb to follow: any kind of supporting information that can be placed in a later chapter or part of the book probably should be. You don't want to give so much information in the intro that the reader has no reason to read the rest of the book!

In conclusion, think of a book introduction as parallel to beginning an interview with a potential employer. You want that reader to hire you (buy your book) as a source of information or entertainment. Keep your intro focused on what it is you have to offer that you believe will meet the reader's wants or needs in a fresh, interesting way, and you'll be on your way to drawing them further in to the story you want to tell.

Sources

3/28/2024

When you are writing a nonfiction book, doing research is indispensable, and research requires sources. So, where do you find the information that you need?

The gold standard is first-person information, and this generally means conducting interviews if your subject is still within living memory. This in turn means tracking down people connected to your subject and reasonably likely to have relevant information. The best way to do this? Make use of the friend/acquaintance networks you already have. Let your friends/followers in normal life and on social media know who you're trying to contact and why. Chances are, a friend or acquaintance who shares your interests will be able to help you link up. Also, don't overlook personal websites. Not everyone has one, but if one is available, you may be able to make direct contact. If the person you want to interview is an owner or breeder, you may also be able to get access through their farm's website.

For active trainers and jockeys, if you can find out where they are currently plying their trade, you can write to them directly, addressing your letter "care of" the track. (Tracks' mailing addresses are usually provided on their websites.) Be sure your letter is courteous and to the point about the reason you would like to make contact, and provide multiple means of contact for the person's convenience (email, text, phone). Not everyone will respond to such a request, but a surprising number will.

Still stumped? If you have information regarding a possible third-party contact---perhaps a publisher or a professional/social organization that your hoped-for interviewee belongs to---you can try contacting the third party via letter or email. Don't expect the third party to give out the person's contact information; instead, ask politely if they can pass on your request. As always, be sure that your own contact information is clearly stated.

Personal letters, journals, and original photographs are also valuable first-person sources, especially when your subject is too far back in time for an interview to be possible. If you are able to contact family members or close friends of the person whose input you're interested in, they may be able to allow you access to such mementos, as well as possibly providing interesting secondary-source material. Other possible repositories for this type of material include museums, libraries, historical societies, and genealogical societies.

Newspapers and periodicals are the most popular secondary-source material, and fortunately, many web-based articles and a number of large Internet archives are available today, making it possible to do a lot of research from the comfort of your home. (My own favorite for digging beyond what Google or Bing will come up with is Newspapers.com, which is rapidly approaching the 1-billion mark on the total number of newspaper pages it has in its digital archives.) Some of these databases are free-access, but the largest ones require subscription fees. Still, compared to the hours and money you'd spend trying to track down the sheer volume of information they have available, they're for the most part quite reasonably priced. If a particular newspaper seems especially likely to have information on your subject and isn't in one of these broad-spectrum archives, you may want to contact the newspaper directly if it's still in existence and see if it has digital archives that can be accessed for a subscription fee.

Books, which represent information that has already been compiled from multiple sources and organized with a particular slant or target audience in mind, are a bit trickier as resources, but they can provide interesting information and their bibliographies may provide clues to further sources that you can use. Even if you live in Tinytown, USA, books may be more available than you might think. Interlibrary loan (check at your library's information desk) can help you access quite a few volumes that are out of your immediate reach, but be warned: if the book you want is old or rare, you may get only limited access (like being required to do your reading and note-taking in the library rather than being allowed to check the book out), or it may not be available at all because no library in the network will allow its copy to leave its own premises.

Finally, there are those sources that will require some legwork on your part but are invaluable. Tops among them for Thoroughbred lovers is the Keeneland Library in Lexington, which is an absolute treasure trove. While they're working on getting more of their holdings digitized and are very helpful in responding to long-distance requests, to get the best from them will require an actual site visit. It's well worth it. Among the treasures here are complete or nearly complete collections of the Daily Racing Form (both daily issues and chart books), the Blood-Horse, the Thoroughbred Record (later Thoroughbred Times), and the American Racing Manual series. Keeneland also has large picture collections by many noted equine photographers and copies of a large percentage of the books that have been published related to the Thoroughbred industry. The National Sporting Library and Museum in Middleburg, Virginia, is another one I've seen mentioned often as an extremely helpful resource, though I've never been able to visit it. Other possible sources? Consider state or regional breeding associations, museums related to the time period your subject lived in, historical societies, genealogical societies, and morgue files at a newspaper or periodical that hasn't gone digital. You may have to make arrangements in advance to be allowed access to some of these, but the results can be well worth it.

Happy hunting!

Reviews

3/14/2024

If you write for publication, sooner or later, you will experience two things: being the subject of a review, and being asked to write a review. Proper responses to both are part of the business.

Unless you have just received a five-star panegyric that proclaims your work to be the best ever of its kind, receiving a review is seldom an unmixed pleasure---and sometimes there is very little pleasure involved. Your response should depend at least in part on what type of review it is. If it is an editorial review or a pre-publishing review specifically requested by your publishing house, pay attention. These reviews are there to deliver constructive criticism with the intent of helping you produce a better product. Even if they sting, you need to give these kinds of reviews careful consideration.

Fan reviews---and I am using the term "fan" loosely---are something else. Obviously, you do want to please your readers, and getting a lot of four- and five-star reviews is a solid indication that you are succeeding in doing so. The question is what to do with those painful one- or two-star reviews, particularly when the reviewer has taken the occasion to spew venom that would put a king cobra's to shame.

Some authors never read their reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, or whatever--they just note the aggregate rating and move on. This is a perfectly legitimate way to handle things. Only you know just how thick your skin is; if you suspect that reading a negative review would do your mental state and your writing more harm than good, even if there might be a nugget of something worthwhile to be mined, then don't bother reading individual comments.

If you do decide to read on, put things in perspective. You may get lucky and find a "panning" review that actually contains valuable insights, but most will not be that thoughtful or thought-provoking. Many will have more to do with the commenter's own positions and biases than with your writing, especially if you are covering a controversial figure or subject. (I have seen one-star reviews of some of Marguerite Henry's beloved horse books for children that were based on the commenter's position that "horse racing is cruel and should be banned," with nary a word about the quality of the story or the writing.) And no matter how wonderfully you write or how acclaimed your reputation, some people just won't like your work and will be happy to tell the world about it. A quick survey on Amazon revealed that 3 percent of readers gave one-star reviews to Tolstoy's classic Anna Karenina, 1 percent gave one-star reviews to the complete plays of Shakespeare, and 2 percent gave one-star reviews to Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth---a novel that won the Pulitzer Prize and contributed to Buck's becoming the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. If writers of this quality and stature haven't been able to gain 100 percent approval, chances are you won't either.

Now for the other side of the coin; you've decided to do a review. Perhaps you've been asked to review a manuscript by the publishing house you've been working with, or you've decided to leave a posted review or blog post on a book you've read.

Before dashing off your opinion and hitting the "send" key, it's worth taking a minute to think things through, especially if you're doing a paid review. This is serious business, because your opinion is being solicited because of your presumed expertise as a writer. Which leads to an obvious point: if you don't feel reasonably comfortable with the subject matter at hand---either because of the topic or because of the author's take on it---it's better and more honorable to decline the opportunity to do the review than to turn in a review based mostly on how you feel about the issue. Neither a polemic nor an attempt to push the author to agree with your position constitute constructive criticism. This admittedly is a delicate area, because sometimes it is both necessary and helpful to take a devil's advocate position if you believe that a point is being oversold or under-supported, but if you feel that you honestly cannot respect what the author is saying, you'd best leave the review to someone else. On the other side, if you cannot bring yourself to say something critical even when it is well warranted---for instance, pointing out a significant structural or factual flaw---then your review will not provide much help in improving the work.

Posting a review that has not been expressly solicited on a website or blog is a bit less weighty; you're likely to be one reader among many, with no more emphasis attached to your opinion than to anyone else's. Still, you should owe it to your own conscience if nothing else to be both as kind and as honest as you are able to be. Even if you can't honestly give a work a positive review, it may mean more to the author than you know if you can find something positive that you can say honestly. And if you find that you can be neither kind nor honest, consider whether you should post a review at all. There are enough trolls on the Internet without becoming one of their number.