A Bit Drafty

In HOME TO HAWK RIDGE, Steve Rider is a teamster. He's a logger and uses a team of horses to harvest trees. This is big business in some parts of the country. It's a low impact alternative to clear cutting. We used a team when we just wanted a few big trees removed from our property, but didn't want someone to come in and chew up the forest with a big machine.

In my story, Steve's favorite mare is a Percheron. Beautiful Beth, a shining black beauty. Percherons are a draft breed, like the familiar Clydesdales and Belgians. They are also called plow horses, but that phrase conjures up an unfair clumsy image. Does the horse in the photo look clumsy to you? But they certainly are work horses. I'm amazed by their strength and willingness to cooperate with insignificant fleas like us.

Steve handles his team with the ease of an eight-year-old girl handling her bicycle. He's done it all his life. He knows horses and he knows trees. In my story, he's about to get to know a bit of magic.

They are making by book into a movie!

Not really. But that was fun to type....
So, as writers we like to indulge in that fantasy. We sit around and ponder who would play our characters. I saw this model in a newspaper ad -- don't even remember what store -- it was Kevin Shepherd, right down to the dark curls and sculpted cheekbones. I cut it out and taped it to my computer. Now there is this character on the TV show Old Christine. He plays Christine's brother. His name is Hamish Linklater. He reminds me of Kevin. Maybe not quite as cute as Kevin.

Adrian Culpepper...holy smokes. Who would play her? A petite blonde. A cute blonde. Is Dakota Fanning old enough? Kate Hudson? Oh, oh -- Hayden Panettiere!

Oh this is so exciting. Any movie execs out there reading this? (yeah, right...) Let's put these two lovely people togehter in my movie, Green Grass. Starring Hayden Panettiere and Hamish Linklater. You provide the set, the camera thingy, some donuts. I'll bring the script. Meet me in Maine.

Done.
Gem

See that bottle of lotion? Top shelf, right? It's massage lotion from Garden of Eden! I'm giving away a bottle of that! I picked the custom fragrance of...you guessed it. Fresh Grass! No kidding. It smells like a dream and surely something Adrian would brew up! Also, I willthrow in a nifty desk calendar and a pdf copy of Green Grass for one lucky winner. All you have to do is leave a comment here, on my blog during the next week, August 2nd-8th. I will pool the emails and select one winner.