Jan Scarbrough's Blog, page 21

World’s Championship Horse Show is a big deal

Last Sunday my daughter and I took her two small boys to the Kentucky State Fair. We saw the dairy cows and the rabbits. We rode the Ferris wheel and ate corn dogs. On Saturday my daughter and I are going back by ourselves to watch the final stake night of the World’s Championship Horse Show, a very big deal that most fairgoers don’t understand.

The World’s Championship Horse Show, held at the Kentucky State Fairgrounds in Louisville, Kentucky, is the world’s richest and most prestigious American Saddlebred show that also includes the Hackney pony and Standardbred horse. It coincides with the dates of the Kentucky State Fair every year, and show events are held at the same time of  other fair activities. Attendees and exhibitors contribute over $16.8 million annually in economic impact to the city.

And it is a “world-wide” event as its title claims. I met the family of a thirteen-year-old girl from South Africa who had brought her to Kentucky to compete. While watching the live video feed on my iPad, I noticed a rider from Germany win a fourth place ribbon. I’m sure there are other examples of the world-wide nature of the event. I know that if you win at “Louisville” as horse people call the show, you’ve arrived in the Saddlebred world. It’s like winning the Kentucky Derby for a Thoroughbred owner.

The World’s Championship has been held every year since it was founded in 1902, except for in 1904, when no fair was held, and in 1945, when the fair was cancelled because of World War II. The schedule always ends on a Saturday night with the five gaited world’s grand championship. In 1988, Michele MacFarlane became the first woman and first amateur to win the five gaited world’s grand championship on Sky Watch.

I used the five gaited world’s grand championship as a backdrop for my book KENTUCKY FLAME. In it, I have the hero and heroine compete against each other in a final workout to decide the winner.

Last year, I was in Freedom Hall to watch as the owner of “my barn” where I take riding lessons win the big prize on a horse named Bravo Blue. I’ll end with a quote from The Saddle Horse Report that describes the moment of the win.

When it was all over but the shouting, Rob Byers had no clue how the cards would fall, only that he and Bravo Blue had done all they could do to put themselves in position to win it. One of the grooms back at Premier Stables had a University of Kentucky shirt that was reapportioned for tonight’s class. It said, “I Believe in BLUE.” While UK reigns atop NCAA Men’s Basketball, Bravo Blue reigns supreme in the Saddlebred world. He strode proudly down to the winner’s circle with the great Rob Byers up for this his second Five-Gaited World’s Grand Championship. They were joined there by Rob’s wife Sarah, along with assistants Katy Hannah and Heather Digiannantonio. Perhaps most important among these was the man waving the towel over his head in celebration, Bravo Blue’s caretaker, Keith Overall, recipient of the Koller Farms Caretakers Trophy. He has been an integral part of the Premier family for nearly 20 years, taking care of some of the very best and brightest the Saddlebred world has ever seen.

 

Betting On Love: A Romance of the Bluegrass

Sarah Colby believes in fairy tales and wants to find her Prince Charming. Encouraged by her girlfriends and a matchmaking aunt, Sarah sets out to catch eligible bachelor Lane Williams, a guy with an aversion to settling down.

A Bluegrass restaurateur and chef, Lane can’t be bothered with romance. He’s spent his youth taking care of and providing for his younger siblings. Clearly, the sexy, young woman, who wants only marriage and commitment, is trouble for Lane and his new freedom.

As the two work together to pull off a Kentucky Derby party for charity, Lane finds himself susceptible to Sarah’s charms…and much, much more.

Formerly titled A Man of Her Own. Revised and re-edited. First time on Kindle.

Until you go to Kentucky and with your own eyes behold the Derby, you ain’t never been nowheres and you ain’t never seen nothin’. – Irvin S. Cobb

Learn more about the setting of Betting on Love

Kentucky Derby Festival

Thunder Over Louisville

Keeneland

Louisville

American Saddlebred horses

Reviews

“A quick and pleasant romantic read.” Delores, Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance Rated 3 Cups

Excerpt

BETTING ON LOVE

CHAPTER ONE

Downtown Louisville, Kentucky

Sarah Colby raised one eyebrow and gave a glassy stare to her former college roommates Kate and Tracy. She was so tired of it. They were at it again. Arguing. And, as always, about men.

Men are disgusting toads,” Kate announced in a shrill voice, swiveling her barstool back and forth. “You are naïve to believe in fairy tales. Kissing a man won’t turn a toad into a Prince Charming.”

“Lighten up, Kate,” Tracy chided. “You’ll discourage Sarah. She’s finally ready to look for her prince.”

The noise in the Fourth Street Live nightclub practically drowned out all thought, let alone conversation. The place was packed. With the Kentucky Derby almost three weeks away, people associated with the race were starting to arrive in town.

Sarah lifted her wine glass and sipped the smooth liquid. Tracy was right. Kate’s pessimistic remark wasn’t the kind of encouragement she needed, especially tonight when she’d decided to put her plan into action.

Sarah had always believed in fairy tales. And she wanted her own Prince Charming. What was wrong with that?

As a little girl she’d lie awake at night imagining him. He would walk toward her in her dreams with a warm smile on his lips and a tender look in his eyes. Tall. Dark. He’d put his arms around her and kiss her. Slow and easy. The image always faded with the kiss. But Sarah knew, just by that kiss that he was the man she’d marry.

The strange fantasy had stayed with her as she grew up. Maybe it was normal to want to feel cherished. After her mother died when she was only nine, she’d felt lost and alone as if a piece of her life was missing. Her father never made up for that loss, and neither did her business-like aunt who shuffled her away to boarding school.

Maybe a Prince Charming would feel that gap.

Restless, stifling a sigh and shifting on the bar stool, Sarah sized up her barhopping companions—Tracy, single but looking, and Kate, divorced but not looking. They were her best friends in the whole world and sorority sisters at the University of Kentucky.

Sarah ran her fingertip along the edge of her wine glass. She was ready. Hearing Tracy voice her desires made the knowledge settle deeper into her heart just as the wine settled into her head. At twenty-four, it was time to get serious. If she was ever going to find a man of her own, she needed to do something about it.

Kate might think her immature and naïve, but her mom had met her dad at a bar. So what if it had been New Year’s Eve and guys were kissing girls at midnight? Her mom had always told her she’d known she’d marry her father from that very first kiss as Auld Lang Syne was playing and balloons were falling from the ceiling.

“I doubt anything I say will scare Sarah off.” Kate said with a moan. “Women do stupid things where men are concerned. Look at me.”

Tracy turned her head toward Kate and rolled her eyes. “We’re not here for one of your pity-parties. We’re trying to help Sarah find her one-true love.”

“Excuse me.” Kate’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

“Cut out the bickering, both of you.” Sarah ordered, tugging on the skimpy, black dress that hiked up her legs. “We’re here celebrating the anniversary of Kate’s divorce, and I’ve made up my mind, I’m here to learn how to kiss frogs.”

“Toads,” Kate amended under her breath.

Tracy wagged a finger at Kate. “You didn’t think David was a toad when you married him.”

“Well, the jerk fooled me. He morphed from Prince Charming into a toad as soon as the wedding ring was on my finger.” Kate slurped down the rest of her pina colada and glared at them.

Sarah’s chest tightened. Her romantic heart knew there was a guy somewhere just for her. She didn’t want to believe all men were like Kate’s ex. She turned to Tracy for validation. “Tell me again how kissing a lot of guys will help me find the man of my dreams.”

Tracy leaned forward on her barstool. “It’s very simple, Sarah. To make sure you’ve found the right man, you need a point of reference. Because you’ve been so focused on school, you’ve not dated and therefore have no baseline. I guarantee your judgment about men is faulty.”

“There are no guarantees,” Kate grumbled into her empty glass.

“We know that.” Tracy waved Kate’s complaint away. “We’re being proactive.”

“And how many toads have you kissed?” Kate challenged with a glare.

Tracy frowned, her normal optimistic smile fading, and shook her head slightly. “Too many, I’m afraid.”

“And you haven’t found Mr. Right yet,” Kate pointed out.

“You don’t have to remind me.”

Sarah ignored Kate and focused on Tracy. “So, how do I start?”

Tracy swiveled around and surveyed the whole nightclub. “Check out that guy over there hitting on the blonde.”

Sarah studied the man in the low-rider jeans and the biceps-baring tank top. She didn’t think that guy was her type. “Looks rough to me.”

Kate wrinkled her nose in agreement. “By the looks of that guy, I guarantee he’ll be glad to let you practice on him.”

“Or there’s that hunk sitting beside you,” Tracy said, ignoring Kate’s comments.

Sarah turned and eyed the man hunched over his drink beside her. He seemed oblivious to the clamor around him, but she liked his clean-cut, Romeo good looks.

She sipped her wine. What were her options? If Aunt Amelia had her way, she wouldn’t be going back to graduate school this summer. Her former guardian and food critic wanted Sarah to do research for a regional cookbook she was writing. Not much chance of meeting Prince Charming if Sarah was stuck in a dusty library or behind a laptop working for her aunt. It was now or never.\

Besides she’d come dressed for the occasion, prepared to take that critical leap from fantasy world to reality. It was scary. She’d always been shy. Maybe that was the real reason it had taken her so long to look for Mr. Right. Or put off having sex like most college girls.

But now she was anxious to start.

Sarah drew a deep breath and released it. Then eyeing the loud guy who’d just been dumped by the blonde, she said to her friends, “Okay, ladies, time I kiss a toad.”

 

It’s that time again – high school reunion

In October my husband and I will travel to my hometown of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for my XX high school reunion. No, I’m not revealing the number. Safe to say, it is a discouragingly high number. Today I’m able to connect with some of these “friends” from high school on Facebook, which is how I learned about the reunion. Because of social media, we’re not as isolated as we once were.

This reunion will be a little hard, not only because of the big number and because several of my classmates have died, but because my parents are no longer alive. Their house, the house I grew up in, has been sold. Things just aren’t the way they used to be.

Several years ago, I wrote about an earlier high school reunion in the old Sisterwriters blog. Here it is.

The Real Reunion Game

I’ve started spring cleaning. While going through a bunch of papers, I found this essay I wrote in 1988.

I survived my twentieth high school reunion the Saturday before Labor Day. I say “survived,” because I was sure I wanted to go.

You see, I’m not the same person I was back in high school. Back then, my classmates were all important to me. Their approval, or lack of it, dramatically shaped my young ego and personality. Now I like myself better; I’m more confident. In other words, my self-esteem is stronger.

Yet on the way to the reunion, ghosts of the way we used to be danced across my mind.

“Where are you now? What do you do? How many children do you have?” These were the questions we asked each other.

The gray-haired man who did his ninth grade career project on being a band director is a band director today. The first black man appointed to the Naval Academy from Tennessee now works for IBM. The class brain is still doing brainy things in Boston. Some of the creeps aren’t so creepy. The head cheerleader isn’t so beautiful. We are all a little fatter, a little more gray.

“From what I remember about Jan, I knew you’d be a writer,” one classmate told me. Funny. I hardly talked to him in high school. Another friend who’d gone to my church didn’t recognize me. One woman said, “You still have that pretty smile I remember.”

“I wouldn’t go back to the way it was,” I said to a friend. She agreed, but said with a laugh, “Just for tonight.”

The great thing about reunions is that they help us re-program our perceptions. Other people do not see us as we see ourselves. And it is our perception of ourselves that cloud our behavior, just as mine was clouded in high school. We become who we think we are.

You know, I had more fun at the reunion than I expected. The food was good and the music from our favorite high school rock band, re-formed for the reunion, was loud and pulsating. As my husband and I danced in a corner of the crowded floor, I realized the ghosts were gone.

 

Notes from group therapy: Having it all, Autonomy and Maturity

Kentucky Rain

Back in the day, I went to group therapy every week for eighteen months. It changed the way I looked at life, and I’ve credited it for “saving my life” in many respects. Being the perfectionist only child that I am, I took notes about the things I was learning, and later I typed them up.

I thought I’d share the notes with you in hopes that you too may discover something new.

Having it “all”

Everything is a trap. Making a choice means you don’t get it all.
We don’t appreciate or celebrate what we gain. There is both gain and loss in every situation. Nothing is “either” “or”—it’s both!

Autonomy

The more you are autonomous, the closer you get to other people.
We fear losing our identity.
We are born alone; we die alone. If we are lucky we find another “alone” person to share our “aloneness” with.

Maturity

Maturity is the ability to be “odd man out” in a triangle—to be comfortable with yourself.
If you are mature, you can distinguish between how you think and how you feel.
Adulthood = the ability to live with your own aloneness.

 

Notes from group therapy: birth order and creating your life

Back in the day, I went to group therapy every week for eighteen months. It changed the way I looked at life, and I’ve credited it for “saving my life” in many respects. Being the perfectionist only child that I am, I took notes about the things I was learning, and later I typed them up.

In keeping with last week’s blog on Birth Order, I thought I’d share the notes from Group on Birth Order.

These are tendencies of each order:

First born focus: the right way or no way
Middle born focus: all way or no way
Last born focus: my way or no way
Only born focus is a confusion among all three. (I knew there was something wrong with me!)

Creating your life

We orchestrate our lives either consciously or unconsciously.
I don’t have to give control of my life over to another.
Major things in life happen by chance. Learn to create your own happenstance.
Choose to become imperfect, not a victim.
If you get what you want from a situation, celebrate that gain.

 

Birth Order is a good source for characterization

Did you know that your early family relationships influence your current lifestyles? In writing, we always look for a character’s motivation, a core decision that sparks her reason for doing what she does. Birth order may play a big part in a person’s motivation and is worth taking a look at when creating a literary character.

When cleaning out an old file cabinet recently, I came across a newsletter called “Practical Ideas for Counselors” from 1981. The following statements are copied from the newsletter. The article claims they are based on theory proposed by Dr. Alfred Adler.

Human beings are “social” and from birth their basic desire is to find a place in the group to “belong.”
The family is the first group of human beings a child learns to deal with.
Therefore, in order to achieve “belonging” a child learns to interact with other family members in a way that will result in feelings of recognition or significance.
These interactions make the most significant contribution to a child’s personality and they can be either positive or negative.
The way a child feels about the interaction is more important than the interaction itself.
The way a child acts, feels, and thinks forms a “life-style.”
“Life-styles” are based on a child’s human interactions and are formed by age 7.
This means that when children enter school their way of dealing with human beings has been established according to the way they perceive their experiences within their family group.

The following is a summary of characteristics based upon birth order.

Oldest children tend to be:

Ambitious
Achievers
“Trailblazers” for the other children in the family
Conservative thinkers
Conforming, especially to their parents’ standards
Authoritative
Happy in power roles

Only children tend to be:

Loners
Reluctant to share
Better in establishing relationships with people either older or younger than themselves
Extremely responsible or very helpless
Stubborn when they do not get what they want

Middle children of a family of three tend to be:

Sensitive
Very aware of being left out
Verbal about what they believe to be unfair
More sociable than the oldest child
Overshadowed by the two other siblings or they become the strongest of the three in the competitive struggle

Second children of a family of more than three tend to be:

More risk taking and more flexible than the oldest child
Different in personality from the oldest child
More adaptable to change

Youngest children tend to be:

Babied and spoiled
Not taken seriously
Manipulators
The most powerful children in the family

Middle children of a large family tend to be:

More cooperative than competitive
Easy to get along with

So, when you begin to create your next character, think about her back story. Where does she fit in the family structure? Can you use any of the “characteristics” as the basis for her personality?

 

Christmas in July Sale!

It’s Christmas in Legend, Tennessee.

And July in real life. I don’t know about you, but it is a HOT July with the heat index over 100. That’s why the four books in the original Legendary Christmas are on sale for 99 cents!

I described Legend, Tennessee, in last week’s blog. These four Christmas books are sequels to the four stories in the Finding Home collection.

A husband lost, a sister seeking forgiveness, a fallen star, and an accidental encounter affects lives in Legend, Tennessee over the Christmas Holiday. Snowstorms, power outages, broken hearts and lost dreams seem insurmountable odds, but the seeking heart doesn’t give up easily when it’s searching for home. And there’s no place like Legend….

Will Christina receive the gift she’s longed for? The Christmas Gift by Janet Eaves
Will Rebecca’s first trip to Legend be a delightful Christmas surprise for a friend, or her newest relationship disaster? Christmas Collision by Magdalena Scott
Will Chelly make it home in enough time to apologize to her sister before the holidays? Home for the Holidays by Maddie James
Will movie star Dawn Smith decide Legend is where her heart is and where she belongs? Santa’s Kiss by Jan Scarbrough 

Just for fun, here’s a cool drink for a hot July day.

Santa’s Kiss from Chefs Christmas

Ingredients

½ fresh Lime
3 teaspoons brown sugar
Passionfruit
Banana
orange juice
pineapple juice
lemon soda
brown sugar

Directions

Muddle brown sugar and fresh lime.
Build cocktail in order of ingredients. Serve with cubed ice in highball glass.
Garnish with half a banana, kiwi, apple, pineapple leaves, raspberry
For an alcoholic version of this drink, add 60ml of Campari

 

Legend, Tennessee, exists in the minds of its authors and the hearts of its readers

Legend, Tennessee, is the creative invention of four authors—Jan Scarbrough, Magdalena Scott, Janet Eaves, and Maddie James.

Legend, Tennessee: Nestled in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, the city of Legend boasts of small town pride and southern elegance. Porches are still for sitting and troubles for one family affect the entire community.  This is the place where women from different backgrounds find purpose, love—and their futures—in a town intent on preserving its past.

The books set in Legend is part of the Ladies of Legend series. The launch book for the series was a set of four novellas written by four storytellers, about four women ready to start again. Different backgrounds, one town, all searching for home, in one way or another.

CLAIMING THE LEGEND by Janet Eaves 
MIDNIGHT IN LEGEND, TN by Magdalena Scott 
BED, BREAKFAST, AND YOU by Maddie James 
THE REUNION GAME by Jan Scarbrough 

The novel, Finding Home, is a compilation of the four currently published eBook novellas listed above, and may vary slightly from the original versions. Finding Home is not an anthology or a collection of the four novellas, but a complete women’s fiction novel that incorporates the four stories. It is FREE on Amazon and other ebook outlets.

It all started when, in the summer of 2007, the four of us were online chatting to each other at the same time. We were discussing having trouble getting into our writing. To solve that problem, someone suggested we each take the name of our first pet and the name of a street where we had lived, create a character, and just start writing.

Then we talked about having all of our characters live in the same small town. What would we name the town? Janet Eaves was sitting at her home office desk looking at a very large wall map. She saw the Legend of the map in the bottom right hand corner and asked if we liked the name Legend, Tennessee. From that we decided our fictitious town would be set at the base of the mountains close to Gatlinburg.

Not caring for the name Sissy Pasadena, I pulled out an old manuscript that had made the rounds at Harlequin. It was about a high school class reunion in a small town. I made adjustments to fit the new setting and offered The Reunion Game as my first book for the Ladies of Legend series.

Since then, the Ladies of Legend series has grown with more novels and novellas by all four authors. The series even has its own website.

Stay tuned for next week’s big announcement—a Christmas in July promotion. We will join forces again to bring you a Christmas to remember… where love and friendship cover the town of Legend like a blanket of snow.

 

July 4th—It’s Up to Us

My ancestors Colonel George Waller, whose son settled in Tennessee, and Private Thomas Martin, whose wife settled in Kentucky after his death, fought for our independence in the Revolutionary War. My great-great grandfather Jonathon Scarbrough fought for the Union Army in the Civil War. My father and his two brothers served in World War II.

On this Independence Day, it’s up to us to remember our heritage and how our forefathers fought for freedom. It’s up to us to make sure our children and grandchildren keep the liberty that was given to us.

Remember, we have a summer holiday with hot dogs and fireworks because of this historic document and the men and women who stood for what they believed.

Declaration of Independence

[Adopted in Congress 4 July 1776]

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness….

Read the rest of the Declaration of Independence here on the Internet.

 

There’s No Crying on Horseback

When my granddaughter was five and started taking horseback riding lessons, she learned that “there is no crying on horseback.” If the horse goes a little too fast, you don’t scream and cry—you do what you need to do to slow the horse like pulling back on your reins or putting your seat firmly in the saddle. And when you fall off, unless you’re hurt, you brush yourself off and climb right back into the saddle.

This is an important lesson for all of us to learn. My dad had his own way of saying it. If I’d scrape my knee or fall from a bike, he wouldn’t give me any sympathy. “It makes you tough,” he’d tell me. I’d go away pouting, but I learned.

Life is tough. No matter how hard we try today to make life “fair” and create an atmosphere where our children can develop good self-esteem, life has a habit of knocking us off our feet. We have a choice when that happens. Do we pick ourselves up and go on, or do we pout, cry and give up?

It’s not too early to learn about the bumps and scrapes life can dish out. It’s not too early to develop the “pick yourself up” attitude. Have you learned it?

My granddaughter has—at least about horseback riding. Now six, she loves her riding lessons. I think she’s a natural! Anyway, a few weeks ago as she was riding around a corner of the arena, her horse shied away from the wall. My granddaughter continued going in a straight line and toppled right off the saddle.

She landed on her butt, rolled, scrambled to her feet, and rushed to capture her horse’s reins.

There’s no crying on horseback, you know.