Recently I was contacted to see if I’d be interested in reading and reviewing another horse book. I’m currently reading Beautiful Horseflesh, and have some questions below from the author, Karen Bennett. You can review her answers below. Note they were provided prior to May 15th, hence the comments below.
How much of your day/week is related to horses?
I spend no time at all with horses as I live in a small house in the suburbs of Baltimore. Now, what Baltimore has happening tomorrow (Sat May 15th) is THE PREAKNESS, held at PIMLICO race track!!! Tomorrow is the second race in the Triple Crown for three-year-olds. So, all TV news ends with an up-beat story and film footage of GORgeous, satiny, smooth muscled Thoroughbreds. Oh, so beautiful. Up until recently there were no tickets to be purchased by the un-affiliated, because of COVID. I certainly couldn’t afford a ticket even if Covid were not a player in this year’s races. I don’t even have the fancy hat to wear.
My closest racing connection is Ms. Georganne Hale, the vice-president of racing development for the Maryland Jockey Club. She is a generous woman who took time from her busy schedule about four years ago to allow me to come to the track on a wintery day to answer questions I had about lip tattoos and gate placement. What a doll. She was generous with her time. I listed her at the top of my “appreciations” on page 1 of my book, “Beautiful Horseflesh.”
What is it exactly that you do?
I am a seventy-seven-year old horse enthusiast. Heck, I don’t want a horse in a pasture or barn somewhere, I want a horse in the house so I could talk to it and pet it all day. Exactly what I do now that I’m retired is to drive to a health club M-F and swim a mile. Then I go home, do all the usual things a woman does; groceries, bake a lot, etc. then I sit down to write, edit, answer notices, make calls, fight with a bank over their erroneous charge of $72.00.
I’m a member of The Maryland Writers Association, I take writing classes on line (covid times), read/edit other authors’ work, have visits with other masked women, and work to make a home of the house I moved into 11 months ago. Oh, and I take a nap most afternoons.
In this field of work, is it possible to be full-time professional and earning a liveable income?
Not in writing. I survive on a social security and a teensie pension from working a few years at the VA Medical Center. But, I am better at being without money than most. I’ve had so much practice and was taught to not waste. I mow my own yard, cut my own hair, shovel my own snow, bake my own pastries, and am not one who shops unless I need something.
What are the general steps taken to be employed in such a role?
I worked for years as a family nurse practitioner, with most of my experience in Corrections: jail, prison, half-way houses. I’ve written a book about a fictionalized woman in prison for life. That book won first place in literary/commercial fiction in Maryland Writers Assn in 2006. I haven’t published that book, and the title is changed to “The Dictionary Defense.”
Favourite horse memory?
My seventh grade girlfriend, Jane Farrell was a true friend who invited ME to go horseback riding with her in New Jersey on a Saturday. Her dad would drive us to the stable, drop us off and pick us up later. My parents agreed. That was a rather cold day. I was in my usual winter coat, a knit hat, and a long scarf with fringed edges wrapped around my neck. I had dungarees, shoes and socks. I didn’t own boots. I think Jane was dressed the same.
We were mounted in western saddles and sent out into a large enclosed pasture. After moseying for a while we learned it was time to return to the barn. I was disappointed to leave an activity I was so loving. But, I was the kid who did what I was told, and reined the horse to the barn. Well, that horse didn’t need to be coaxed. He spun around and at break neck (mine) speed headed up the hill for home. I just hung on because I never had riding lessons, and this horse was speeding. I wanted to enjoy the race although I was scared because the horse seemed to be agitated and was in a big hurry and all I could do was to hang on.
We headed for a tree—I mean dead on. Just as we neared certain destruction the horse veered off to the side and swung its head around looking back and continued running, not looking where it was going until he slowed at the fence of the paddock. An employee helped me from the saddle. I was disappointed the ride was over so soon, and sorry the ride ended badly. As I stood waiting for Jane to join me, a kid who worked on the farm came running after me with my long neck scarf held high. He hollered, “Here! Here’s your scarf. It was wrapped around the horse’s tail!” And that is my favorite horse memory.
Future goals?
I have no horse goals. I love them in absentia. I hope to be an author who is well read. I have written several books, none related to another. I’ve been gathering material my whole life although I didn’t realize that until I started writing and felt I had insight enough to write a few funny stories, then serious stories, then five novels. I entered contests, won some, sent stories into magazines and had some published.
I self-published a book two years ago, “The Farewell Tour,” a mostly light read, about a woman who recognizes her four lucky numbers, her PIN, is an upcoming date. She decides to travel because she suspects the date may be her last day. The book is an entertaining read while traveling or simply chilling-out. My remaining books are about a kidnapped ballerina, the prison book, and a novella about being a church choir member during the time the Catholic church started outright closing churches and merging parish populations.
I started writing when I was unhappily married and in my mid-fifties. I’d come home from a daily 65-mile one-way commute, walk into my house, feed the pets and go into a small room where I had a laptop on a TV table, and I wrote every night. I liked other writers whom I met at writing clubs, conferences and at writing classes and writing groups. We are all scraping our energy together in hopes of being published—of being read.
Some look for financial reward, but most of us, realists, still write because we want to write, and love our compatriots. Just before Covid hit in 2020, I was house-sitting for 10 weeks in Juneau AK. I attended a writers group in one of Juneau’s libraries and found a community of friends right away, because no matter where we are, our goals are the same: to write. By the way, there are not many horses in Juneau. I asked and was answered, “not much hay.” That’s all.
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