What is a centaur?

I knew I didn't like the idea of redundancy organs, or even skeletal structures for starters. In my research which covered everything from equine, human anatomies, even marine life and insect or invertebrate biology, forums, blogs etc, it only bolstered my original idea.That was step one, next was what do they eat? How do they digest? Well, given that they have human intelligence, the ol' brain uses up most of the energy they eat, therefore their food needed to be high content and quality, and so too did their digestive tract need to accommodate it.Since obviously they could not evolve naturally, they had to somehow be created. I am a horse trainer by trade, so I had a step up on how horses operate. It drives me nuts to see every whinnying, galloping or rearing horse on TV!And, I am a farrier (horse shoer/trimmer) which lends itself perfectly to HOW does a centaur care for it's hooves? Did I want the human back able to bend well that they could reach at least their front hooves? Or so rigid and deformed that they literally need to cooperate as a group to stay healthy? Basic decisions like this I went through.​These were just some of the things I considered, down to their culture, their beliefs, the environment they lived in, their creators, and the idea of various ''species'' of centaur.​How would they react seeing a human or a horse? What is their technology level? How does their society reflect on our understanding of time and history? These are all things gradually addressed in the series itself, book by book. And, while the main centaur race are not true centaur (there is one species that is only centaur human/horse hybrid)​Language. I looked high and low for a language, and point in time to draw from. The language is real, the words are real, the translation (as best as can be to remain true and accurate) are real. Years worth of research went into this series, and years of effort to write, edit and finish it. Years of passion, fascination and what's funny is at the start the enter concept was kicked off by a different series (still in progress) and at the time I didn't even like or care about centaurs! Boy did my perception change on that!​Next up, good versus evil, civilized man versus wild beast theme, which was represented in antiquity by the centaur itself. It is still used to this day, although in a perverted form! I hate that so many books, seem to focus on the vulgar attraction between some female and a horde of centaur males, it's utterly ridiculous. One thing I was not about to back down on was crafting an entirely realistic and deep society. Sure you'll have the odd young hot headed male, but most people in any society by the nature of being social, should cooperate, to avoid tension, not just run around looking for something to... well you get the idea. I wanted these centaurs to not be human so much as plausible, full of depth, meaning, and history, nuance etc. ​Finally, culture itself, I drew from indigenous cultures as a whole, not any particular one, I drew from their equine anatomy as an inspiration for how their culture and beliefs would be shaped as well as the environment they lived in (which should vary depending on where they are!) And I will say this, I grew up in Alaska, I spent time with the native peoples up there. Though I am not one of them, I have some sense, some insight into the simple reality that the two cultures do not see the same thing in the same way. That I strove viciously to portray this with the centaurs, in my books. That these were not just carbon copy western people stuck in horse form,. Nope! I wanted there to be distinct differences in thought, feeling, perception and behavior. Hope you guys like Trust! Leave a review here and tell me your thoughts! Remember, once a week until launch day (August 31) I'm giving one free copy out to those who sign up to the newsletter. FREE! Signup at Tabithasbooks.com Thanks!