New here

Why a blog? There are lots of them out there already. I'm not sure I expect anyone to read this, but I'll try to update once in a while. The internet/chat rooms/webboards/etc have been described as a cocktail party where total strangers meet and talk. Lurkers like me must be the wallflowers who stand around the edges and listen in. I've been a member of several boards over the years and read some boards and some blogs daily but rarely comment. On blogs, that means I had to remember the name I used the last time I commented to that blog, or come up with a new one. On boards, I post so rarely the regulars probably forget who I am between posts. Therin lies the awkwardness -- I feel like I know the regulars (or their internet personas anyway), but no one knows me.

Coming up with a name for a blog was as good an excuse as any for delaying starting. So, why 'writing rider'? I've been riding horses for over thirty years and writing (on and off) about that long, too. In the past couple of years, I've figured out that I use the same part of my brain for both writing and horses. When I'm most active in planning horse activities, my writing slows down. I'm working on training my brain to switch between tasks more efficiently. I've always read, my mom taught me to read when I was two years old. In grade school, I started writing stories, using up the spare time in class when I was done with my work. Unfortunately, they were inspired by Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew but without as much conflict. Horses and family took over my time and mental energy for many years after college (degree in animal science, took only one required writing class) until one fall, the month after loosing my horse to colic I woke up with a story in my head.

That first story, AfterQuest, came with main characters already named, the highlights of their adventure already outlined, but the ending in question. I wrote obsessively for three months to find out the ending. I made a couple of quick editing passes and started on another story while researching what to do with a finished novel-length work. That one only made it through one chapter when the characters from the first one invaded my thoughts. I hope they're both stand alone novels (the second is with beta readers now), Taarwysha is set seven years after AfterQuest and reunites the characters from the first. Another unrelated story, Flowers, is finished and waiting for a good pruning before I submit it anywhere. I'm in the middle of editing AfterQuest again, then I'll get back to work on AQ3 and might finally get back to that poor story left at chapter 1.