Heather Hamel's Blog, page 12

Call To Action – Save the Date

I’m activating my writing village and placing a Call to Action!

On June 11th, Under Sapphire Skies will be released! Which means I’m getting creative on June 10th!

June 10th Within Emerald Forests e-book will be FREE on Amazon for 24 hours. I’m asking everyone to please download it as well as tell everyone you know to also download the FREE e-book. Having a Kindle isn’t necessary – you can download it to your computer, tablet, or even phone!

I’m hoping to accomplish two things: promote the crypto series and if we all download it within that 24 hour period, I may be able to hit a random Amazon best seller list – improving my rankings and exposure!

Please help! If you want to receive an e-mail on the 10th with the link (instead of through the blog), please sign up on my website: http://www.heatherhamel.com.

I apologize in advance that this is NOT the last you’ll hear of this before June 10th!

 

Trial and Error

Trial and error as well as thinking ‘outside of the box’ is such a part of daily life – at least it is here. But what happens when there is nothing else to try? Call in help!

For the past few years now, Kobi and I get a monthly visit from our trainer Ashley. She keeps my riding honest and doesn’t allow me to fall into the trap of lazy riding or a lazy horse. She’s helped me with all of the horses we’ve had out here, including Sugar and Midnight, as well as listened to all of my Kobi stories when he acts up.

For about the last month now, Kobi is up to his old tricks – not going forward or when he does it takes so much leg and seat that I’m exhausted within minutes. Spurs and a crop don’t faze him in the least.  So the trial and error began…

He wasn’t like this when Sugar was gone, but he was on ulcer medication/preventative – maybe he has ulcers. I put him back on the meds.

He seems to do this every spring – maybe it’s his allergies. I put him on ‘dex’ with no change and since I didn’t want him on steroids too long, we switched to an antihistamine. He’s much sweeter, but won’t go forward.

I was about to just admit that Kobi was a jerk when Ashley came for a lesson yesterday. Watching him move under saddle, she called us over to check his saddle fit. We couldn’t get a single finger between his shoulders and the pad – not good. Again, outside of the box thinking, we folded a towel and placed it under that area. Much better. He would at least walk forward.

It’s good to know Kobi’s not THAT much of a stubborn mustang – but I’ll continue with trial and error of different towels until we know (without a doubt) if it’s working. And in the world of horses – that could take awhile!

Happy Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day from my family to yours….whether you have children with two legs or four – you’re still a mom!

Happy Mother’s Day from the Triple H Ranch!

Cryptozoology Book Title Contest

I just finished a book title contest at R. B. Hunt Elementary School for the title of the next book in the cryptozoology series. I couldn’t decide within the top 3 entries, so they all won an advance copy of Under Sapphire Skies for themselves and one for their teachers.

The three winning titles were:

Into Amber Meadows (Submitted by a 3rd grader)

Into Turquoise Streams (Submitted by a 4th grader)

Through Peridot Mazes (Submitted by a 5th grader)

I was amazed by the quality and quantity of the titles I received and some of them I even had to research myself (for example, one student turned in a title about an atoll – I had to google that one!)

Now the big decision – do I pick one from these amazing titles to write about or will there be three more stories in the series? Time will tell!

Paradise Found

To everyone out there – I hope you find your own piece of paradise today…I’ve found mine!

I was fortunate enough to ride both horses this morning and am now sitting on my back porch writing. I’m watching the hawks hunt and listening to the birds chirp. The perfect weather is sunny with blue skies and temperatures in the low 80’s with a nice breeze.

May you find your own slice of heaven!

Second RPLA Semi-Finalist

I’m pleased to announce that I have two Middle Grade novels currently Semi-Finalists for the Royal Palm Literary Award –

Within Emerald Forests in the published category

Book 1

Under Sapphire Skies in the unpublished category

Book 2

I’ll keep you posted!

Equine Yoga

I had such an amazing experience yesterday – Mandy Inabinett and Ashley Thompson from Equine Om came to the ranch to work with Kobi and me. We had no idea what to expect from Kobi. After all, he’s a formerly wild horse who has his own agenda, not necessarily what I choose for him to do that day!

He was awesome! He didn’t care about most things except when I would scoot back too close on his hindquarters, then he wasn’t happy. He didn’t act out, but had his own subtle, Kobi way, to let us know he wasn’t happy. Here are some pictures of what we did (Mandy is guiding me through the postures and Ashley is holding Kobi’s lead and keeping him content:

 

For fun, when we were done with Kobi we got Midnight (or Moonshine…we’re kicking around a new name)out just to see what he would do. He was amazing – he didn’t care one bit where I was or what I did…here are some pics of what we did together.

 

Now, what I can do isn’t that amazing (yet)��– but when I offered Mandy a chance to hop up on Midnight/Moonshine to try a few postures, she took me up on it…here’s what I aspire to do!

 

If anyone is interested in giving it a try (which I highly recommend) – click here for their schedule!

Royal Palm Literary Award Semi-Finalist

After a very exciting and successful trip to visit my parents for Spring Break as well as have a book sales and signing, I came home to a notification that Within Emerald Forests (the first book in the crypto series) is a semi-finalist in the Royal Palm Literary Award (RPLA), a contest held annually through the Florida Writer’s Association for the published Middle Grade category.

More information to follow!

Book 1

Inspired by Life

Les and I were fortunate to make it to a concert Sunday night of one of our favorite bands, Southern Culture on the Skids, when they played a small, local venue.

The first thing that surprised me was how they had aged – I mean, I never do…so how come the people around me always seem to get older? The second thing was how much fun they seemed to be having on stage.

I had to look them up (yes, during the concert) to see how old they were to be rocking like they were. Their ages seem to be closely guarded secrets, but I found out they have been playing and performing together for over 30 years! That made me think – here they are in their 50’s to 60’s, performing and enjoying themselves as if they were in their 20’s and 30’s. They played two of my all-time favorite songs, House of Bamboo and Banana Puddin, and rocked out for a solid 90 minutes.

So, again during the concert, I had an epiphany…why am I wasting��my life doing anything that makes me less than happy? Life really is too short!��For the next few weeks, I’m going to take another look at what I��REALLY want out of life. Don’t worry – I’ll share it with you!

In the meantime, another shameless plug – Within Emerald Forests is released today! Get it now – get it here!

Midnight’s Ride

With so many exciting things happening at the Triple H Ranch right now, it was tough to decide on which one to blog about.�� I chose what I’m most excited about today: Midnight first ride with us.

Midnight is the Paint gelding we took on about six weeks ago. He was significantly underweight (and still needs to gain a little), but is a very sweet boy who wants to please and has become best friends with Kobi.

I’ve been lunging him and trying to get him back into shape, but��the fastest way to help him do��that is by riding. While Midnight has had extensive training in many different areas, he probably hasn’t been ridden or schooled in the past two years. I asked my trainer, Ashley Dowdy, if she’d be willing to hop up and see what he can do.�� Here’s the video – nothing exciting or spectacular…which is exactly what I wanted!

He did amazingly well. He was calm, patient and appears to be able to neck rein (which is awesome for Les).