“FROM THE BANKS OF LITTLE BEAR CREEK” now available!

Howdy Friends!

“FROM THE BANKS OF LITTLE BEAR CREEK” is now available!

Paperback on Amazon here ~ .... And Kindle here ~

Continuing the saga begun in “Tom Named by Horse” ... “Three years after the death of Tall Dog, Tom Named By Horse and Soft Cloud have turned the little soddy, the lands granted them by Red Cloud, and the lean-to barn into a thriving horse ranch, fulfilling Tom’s dream. The Plains Indians Wars, or Red Cloud’s war, is mostly behind them, and the lands have had their transformation as Red Cloud’s vision had warned years earlier. Trailing horses from the ranch to Denver city has become an annual event for Tom, Buck and the rest, and this is the story of that trail. In the spirit of a good old John Wayne movie, vengeance, cattle and horse thieves, a dirty sheriff and corrupt mayor, and a wedding make this year’s drive a ride you’ll want to tag along on.”

I hope you’ll have a read. I promise you’ll love the adventure! 

~ Gitty Up, Dutch Henry. 




Find all my books here www.itsforthehorses.com .

"Snowy Day Read"

Howdy Friends,

Snowed in? Gonna get snowed in? Forgive me for making an unapologetic push for my book. But what could be better than a good read, a quest that whisks you away, thrusts you into an adventure, or sweet love, or read about understanding horses, while nestled inside watching the windblown snow. All my books are available on Amazon Kindle here, www.itsforthehorses.com ... You can start reading right now! “We’ll Have the Summer,” a love story that I promise will grip your heart. “Tom Named by Horse,” an adventure that you’ll long remember. “It’s for the Horses; An advocate’s musings about their needs, spirit, gifts and care,” even if you don’t have horses I promise you’ll love the thoughts provoked, if you do enjoy horses in your life it may awaken new ideas and attitudes for you and your horse. Enjoy the snow, stay safe, and I hope you’ll have a read—or three.

Gitty Up, Dutch.

“Tom Named By Horse and Me—behind the scenes in a writer’s mind—Pt 2”

Howdy Friends,
 

I always knew one day I’d have to write Tom Named By Horse. Or a story like it. Friends who knew me most of my life often insisted I tell the story of those horrid years I’ve come to call “my room years.” Those years locked in that room, the only window painted black, where horrible things happened. Coffee Clutch and Facebook friends know that’s where Winnie The Pooh held my hand in my darkest moments.

I did in fact start a book at the urgings of a woman who lived in the neighborhood during my room years. She’d contacted me about ten years ago, told me the neighbors knew, but like she, were afraid to get involved. With much fear, pain and tears I followed her advice and started a manuscript. I called it, “They knew.” But even as a grandfather when it came time to relive the details as one would be forced to while writing a manuscript, I could not. Even now writing this I’m eight years old again, in that room with a bucket for a toilet, almost no light and scared beyond expression. No, I could never write about those thousand days in that way.

Then in my mind I met Tom Named By Horse. Just as my mind would leave my body during adventures with Winnie The Pooh, and while enduring beatings, I could write about those years in a general sense, by telling Tom’s story.

The years in Tom’s story when he lived in town with a family before the hider bought him, to me represent the years my mother lived. She died when I was about 8. Then my stepmother came along and she didn’t want to, “Look at a freak.”As a little boy some of my deformities were more visible. So the room years started. And the bad things that happened there. The padlock on the door!

When Tom endured the hider’s beatings with whiskey slobber dripping in his face, those are my beatings. To this day I cannot tolerate the smell of beer or alcohol. Or drinking people. Not at all. The reference to Tom’s beatings he suffered whenever he tried to run away, are the very beatings and scars, I endured if ever I told anyone ANYTHING. Yes I went to school, but never, ever, not a single time could I tell anyone anything. But they knew, I found out years later they knew ... I suppose Tom killing the hider to escape represents more than I want to know.

The confusion Tom experiences in the days just after escaping the hider is the confusion I experienced when they eventually dropped me off on the farm when I was 11, where I worked for board and keep until graduating high school. No love there, only work, but no beatings either. It was not a modern farm, we had no running water in the house, one of my jobs was caring water. Still not really in the “world” I remember my school years as more confusion, teasing, name calling. I was backward and smelled of the barn. No one ever sat with me at lunch or any other time, if they could help it.

Some of that confusion exists still with me today. There are things you learn at certain ages and if those times are missed, some things are very difficult to master and often remain elusive. I’d missed a lot in the formative years. This is the same struggle Tom faced all through the years of the Plains Indian Wars, and beyond, a perfect way to represent my confusion.

Just as Soft Cloud accepts Tom and gently and firmly guides, shepherds and loves him, so has my Ravishin’ Robbie done for me. Whatever could be made right, she truly has, and I’m sure much of it was a challenge for her. In a few weeks we’ll celebrate 39 years together and she’s been my rock every day, every moment.

Tom Named By Horse is an historical fiction and I absolutely loved researching and writing it. Some of it though is indeed a telling of, “They Knew.” If you’ve not yet read Tom Named By Horse I invite you to ride the adventure with him, Soft Cloud, Buck, Red Cloud and the others. If you have read it, have another go, you just might discover a few things you missed the first go ‘round.

You can purchase Tom Named By Horse here on Amazon or email me dutchhenry@hughes.net to buy an autographed copy.

Gitty Up, Dutch Henry

"Romances or Lustomances"

Howdy Friends!
 

Having coffee with Kessy and the gang this morning I was thinking of a conversation I had over the weekend about novels written today and years gone by. We were having breakfast at a lovely bed and breakfast where friends were staying for the big weekend here in Appomattox and I’d been invited to join them. I was asked about We’ll Have The Summer, “Is it a romance?”

A true romance, We'll Have The Summer - available HERE on Amazon

To me, yes, We’ll Have The Summer is a romance, a true romance—not a lustomance as I call most that are seen today. By today’s standards my novel does not qualify as a romance, as there are no graphic scenes of frisky action. I remember while in the search for an agent the requirements for romance included “graphic” scenes of “love” (or other terms) for manuscripts to be even considered. Gosh ...

 

So why did I write We’ll Have The Summer? I’d first written Tom Named By Horse, —(which now has just been released and is available everywhere, and easily HERE on Amazon,) and had set about querying agents. That was 8 years ago and of course I had no idea how much I didn’t know. Tom Named By Horse is an historical fiction, and a love story too, so I queried dozens of agents who represented both. I’d been doing my homework on websites and blogs that are devoted to helping writers and had a pretty good handle on writing query letters, my manuscript writing ability though was a far different story as I would soon learn.

Tom Named By Horse, written 8 years ago, polished today, now available on Amazon HERE

As is the case when “shot gunning” queering agents I received no replies from most, even though we’d moved into the age of email queries already. I received a large array of standard replies, “Thank you, but your work does not fit our needs right now. Good luck with your writing endeavor.” So standard and plentiful were those replies I can still remember the root phraseology!

A few wrote back with tidbits of advice, which I took to heart, even though shocked to learn I had not written a world changing novel. One of those rejections did however change me and my writing forever. It came from Tony Hillerman, then an agent at Curtis Brown Literary Agency. At the time I hadn’t even known he was an author! His querying request asked for submissions to include the first 5 chapters. I remember that as one reason I’d selected him. His reply was very brief, “Loved your story, the topic and how you tell a story. My advice to you is to read books published recently to learn today’s writing styles and techniques. Your manuscript reads a bit like Louis L’Amoure and Zane Grey." Which makes sense since I’d read all their books! He went on to suggest a few successful authors of today (never suggested himself), one of them being Nora Roberts, who of course I’d not read but Ravishin’ Robbie had and had some of her books.

I promptly set about reading 5 of her books. Loved very much the first, the second and began to fall into the rhythm of her voice, her style and methods of her writing by completion of the third. Of course I have no way of knowing if she influenced my “voice” or style, but my sentence structure and a few other important things I know she taught me much about.

She also taught me the formula for what is considered today’s romance writing, for which I’ll admit I hold no fondness. I’ll add I did further research to understand that formula, and it is a fact, to be considered a romance today by the publishing world a manuscript must have spicy scenes, well written and graphic. I still see this at the writer’s group I attend when romance writers read their pieces for critique, I sometimes have a tough time sitting through the scenes ... Romance or lustomance, I wonder. For me it feels not much like romance.

Nora Roberts stories are beautifully written, great stories that carry a reader away, but after reading 5 of hers and a number of other modern authors, I felt cheated in that they felt too fast, too shallow (for me) and all about meeting so the bedroom, beach, barn or anywhere that works, romp can be graphically described. A means to an end, not a romance leading to an enduring love. They almost all left me wanting.

This caused within me a strong desire to write a story of an uncommon, enduring love. 

Sitting on the porch, watching hummingbirds at the feeder, We’ll Have The Summer came to me. I realized to tell their story I needed to start at the end, not the meeting. How else could a lifelong romance be told, understood, felt? I wrote the first draft in 60 days.

For me romance is about love, true deep love that endures happy, sad ... and forever. No need for graphic descriptions of spicy scenes, those are too tender, too precious to cheaply give away to meet any formula.

If you’ve not yet read We’ll Have The Summer, and love stories of true love, please treat yourself and feel Mary and Sam’s story. If you have read it, perhaps it’s time to visit them again. HERE on Amazon ... If you’re up for an adventure you’ll long remember, head out and ride with Tom Named By Horse. HERE on Amazon.

Gitty Up, Dutch Henry

P.S. Sadly Tony Hillerman passed away before I was ready to query agents for We’ll Have The Summer. But now I have read most of his books, and I will forever be grateful for the time he took to give me advice that changed so much for me.

Why Chief Red Cloud? – “Tom Named By Horse, behind the scenes in a writer’s mind-1”

Howdy Friends,

 

Why did I select Chief Red Cloud as a central figure for my Tom Named By Horse series? This is the first of a few Coffee Clutch posts where I’ll share a bit of my “behind the scenes in a writer’s mind,” about writing these three novels. First I’ve always been fascinated by the American Indians of the plains. Is it their connection with spirituality, horses, and nature? Perhaps. Do I credit them with more than is reality? Perhaps. However I have been, and remain so.

The vision for my Tom Named By Horse series came to me in a tsunami of rushing waves. His is not the only powerful spirit that guided my stylist on the keyboard, but from the first thoughts of the story, I felt he walked with me.

Chief Red Cloud was a visionary, a powerful and talented warrior, and also a very wise man. He gained his respect and honor during the Lakota and Crow wars, where he proved his tactical genius. He held that respect and honor until his death in 1903 at the Pine Ridge Agency. He visited with President Grant, who also respected this great leader’s wisdom, though failed to follow it.

The struggles Chief Red Cloud faced for me, I felt could, serve my story well, allowing me to weave in the parallels of his knowing peace would be best for his people, yet needing to stand for what he also understood was necessary. This is the same struggle Tom faced all through the years of the Plains Indian Wars, and beyond. Chief Red Cloud is the only Chief to ever have won surrender from the US Military, when after a year of bloody battles General Sherman was forced to surrender and abandon the forts along the Bozeman trail.

The Sioux believe all things must be done with respect. Battles, taking of buffalo and game, cutting trees for firewood and lodge poles, these must all be done with respect. Tom feels that as well, and struggles with the tasks asked of him by Red cloud, and finding his way in a strange new world.

Chief Red Cloud faced sweeping changes, he knew he could not control, for his people, their lands and beliefs. Tom confronts changes to his life, his beliefs and even his ignorance about life. Just as Tom is overwhelmed with learning the ways of the world away from the hider, so is Red Cloud often overwhelmed by managing the threat, changes and horrors brought to his people.

Red Cloud must find a way to preserve his people’s heritage, honor, and future, he knows fighting is often the only way, but he understand futility too. Tom understands killing, and is good at it, he struggles with understanding the need, but accepts it waiting for the lessons.

Chief Red Cloud also offers a unique perspective of weighing hostilities, cooperation, and managing his position as a respected leader. Not all of his people are so eager for a peaceful solution. This was a time in our country’s past laced with uncertainty, changes and upheaval, and Red Cloud was forced to deal with things never before imagined by him, his people or those forcing the changes. Tom never could imagine the changes he must face the day he killed the hider. Red Cloud, the country and Tom all change together.

I’ll leave you with the opening of “Tom Named By Horse.” These words are exactly as the first draft I ever wrote, as they came to me. Did Red Cloud speak to me? I don’t know, but never a word has been changed. — “The rolling grasslands spread before him as far as his eye could reach, as broad as the universe itself. Each rise gave way to the valley beyond it. Every valley was the beginning of the next hill. Rain, falling hard from the hands of Grandfather Mystery, soaked Grandmother Earth.

Chief Red Cloud sat on his favorite war pony all that dark day, and allowed the skies to beat him with raindrops pounding like rocks. He had told his uncle, Chief Smoke, of his terrifying vision. With sad eyes he looked into the rain. Today Red Cloud knew even Grandfather Mystery could not wash away the change about to sweep over their ancestral hunting grounds. His tears mixed with cold rain as he turned his faithful pony toward his village.”

 You can purchase Tom Named By Horse here on Amazon or email me dutchhenry@hughes.net to buy an autographed copy. 

Gitty Up, Dutch Henry