Feb 13, 2021
My Five Top Deterrents to Writing on Medium
And why I am beginning again
Number five. Snow. At 8000 feet in the curve of the continental divide, I am watching it snow once again, flakes floating downward at first, then blowing sideways as the drifts mount. We have nine inches of hard, icy base, and as much as two feet of powder on top of that. Plow, shovel, walk-behind snowblower powder. A few days of above freezing temps under sapphire skies. Repeat. Is it any wonder I keep putting on the snowshoes? Just ask the dogs.
Number four. Grandkids. “Grandma, is chapter five of Zippy done yet?” Last year I started a personalized little picture book for our four-year-old grandson, using picture shopped family photos. I can’t say no.
Number three. Reading. Whodunits, history, veterinary journals, and the wordsmiths on Medium like my son, Age of Empathy writers, Dr. Jackie Greenwood, to mention a few. Favorite authors from our small-town library: Paulette Jiles, Barbara Nickless, Clayton Lindemuth. King to Kingsolver, Doig to Franklin. In a cold blizzard, there’s nothing like a hot book.
Number Two. Horses. Four of them. Feed, clean, train, repeat. Four times a day. Warm, fuzzy, tea-scented breath, nickered sounds of welcome. A constant in my life.
Number One. Two stories that want to be told.
In 2008, I published Napa Valley Vets, the Balance of Lives. It was a work of love, dedicated to the animals in our practice of 24 years, and the people who loved them. There are more people and animals to honor from our ten years of equine practice in these Rocky Mountains. Some of these stories have been told in EQUUS magazine but there are so many more.
More recently, I published a novel, Colorado Blood, the story of a rookie veterinarian learning the art and science of practice in the small town of Pagosa Springs. The book has a small cluster of fans and still provides dimes each month from around the world, finally paying its way. There is a sequel that seems to be writing itself, stealing time certainly from horse training, reading, creating kid stories, and most definitely from house cleaning.
I had not found a place to publish chapters from Colorado Tears, the Sequel, in Medium.
Until now.
I look forward to hopefully publishing chapters in A Bit of Madness, a new publication originated by Arthur G. Hernandez. A new chance for feedback, reconstruction, and encouragement.
