Hello people that are reading my blog. I just thought I’d let you know that my new e-mail address is here. So, if you could start e-mailing me there that would be great!! I will not delete my kidoftheking e-mail until I get no e-mails there. Thanks!!
I wrote a piano song. I thought you guys might like to hear it, so I recorded it. I’m trying to think of a name, but I having a hard time doing that. Any suggestions?
I wrote a piano song. I thought you guys might like to hear it, so I recorded it. I’m trying to think of a name, but I having a hard time doing that. Any suggestions?
NOTICE: THERE WILL BE FREQUENT CHANGES TO THIS CHAPTER AS I EDIT IT AND CHANGE IT AROUND. PLEASE CHECK BACK OFTEN FOR UPDATES.
“”Oh no, not again”
16 year old Josh watched in dismay as his 4 year old black stallion, Trotter, jumped the corral fence and headed for his mothers garden. This was the 4th time in the last month that Trotter had escaped. The second time he broke out he discovered the Sugar Cain Josh’s mother is experimenting with in her 1 acre garden.
“KAYLA!” Josh shouted towards the barn.
“What do ya need Josh?” she asked as she peeked her head around the red wooden doors.
“Trotter escaped again.”
“Your kidding” she said, her blazing red ponytail bouncing as she strode over to him. “I thought Dad added another plank to make the fence higher.”
“He did, but obviously it’s going to take more then that to stop Trotter.” Josh said running his fingers through his dirty-blond hair, a habit he got from his father.
“Well, standing here isn’t fixing anything, and unless my eyes are deceiving me, Trotter is currently enjoying himself while munching on Mom’s experiments ” she said pointing to where the mischievous horse stood in their mother’s garden, enjoying the sweet, crunchy taste of Sugar Cain.
“Should we get Hope and lure him back to the pen?” Josh asked his twin.
“Do you know of any other way to catch him besides using my filly?” she asked sarcastically.
“I guess not, considering that that elusive horse is impossible to catch any other way.” Josh said, his voice fading as he jogged towards the pasture fence.
“I’ll get Hope, while you hold the gate open, if that’s okay with you.” she said after she had caught up with him.
“Of course.” Josh said slowing down to a brisk walk. “Shouldn’t we get her bridle and saddle first?”
“Why? I can ride her bare back easily.” she said, seemingly surprised that he would ask such a question.
“Don’t look at me like I’m crazy Kay.” he said laughing. “You seen to forget how my horse behaves when ridden.”
“Your right.” she said giggling. “Your horse is a wild bronco while mine is a gentle mare.”
As they approached the pasture fence, the 3 year old painted filly cantered towards them nickering.
“Hey Hope” Kay said stroking her horse on the nose. “You ready to go Trotter catching?”
Hope answered with a low nicker. Kay climbed over the fence and jumped onto Hope’s back. Grabbing on to the mare’s chestnut mane, she guided her beautiful horse towards Josh as he opened the pasture gate. Kay rode out of the pasture and stopped to let Josh close the gate after her.
“Climb on” she said looking down at him.
Josh grunted as he climbed onto the filly’s back, immediately feeling the horse’s excitement.
“She’s excited.” Josh told his sister.
“Duh, it’s not every day she gets to lure a stallion out of a garden.” Kay said with a smile.
“Only her beauty could accomplish it.” Josh said.
Kay smiled in gratitude at her brothers remark.
******
Trotter looked up from his munching to see a painted filly crossing the dirt road ahead of him. To his delight, he realized it was Hope, but to his dismay he saw that on her back were Josh and Kay. After a brief pause, he gave a loud nicker a trotted over towards the three, deciding that Hope was more important then Sugar Cain, even with the 2 riders upon her back.
As he came to a halt next to the painted filly, he touched her on the nose with his snout. He was so happy to see Hope that he barely noticed Josh climb onto his back.
******
Josh warily climbed onto to the back of the gigantic horse. He had done this many times, but 98 percent of the time, he had been bucked off. He was surprised when Trotter didn’t look up from his gaze on Hope when he put all of his weight on the stallion, Josh didn’t even get the “don’t even think about it” glare that he usually got from the tenacious black horse.
“And you said he was wild.” Kay said giggling with amusement.
“He usually is.” Josh said bewildered. ” Your horse seems to have captured Trotter’s complete attention.”
“Well, we better take them back to the barn before it get’s dark. Dad and the rest of the family should be back soon with Chia, and I need to get dinner made.”
Josh remembered how his older sisters had decided to go with their parents over to the far pasture to pick up Kay and Josh’s pregnant mare, Chia. Chia had come to them as a under kept, buckskin filly that was extremely thin when she was 1 1/2. She was given to Kay and Josh for their 11th birthday with the job of making her healthy again. She unexpectedly became pregnant after one of the other buckskins, Titus, escaped from the pen and was later found grazing with Chia. It hadn’t taken long to realize that Chia was pregnant, due to her rapid growth in size. Chia was due to foal anytime.
“Okay” Josh said, returning from his thoughts. “Lets put them in their stalls for the night.”
“It’s a little early.” Kay said looking towards the sun that was setting slowly.
“I know, but I’m not going to have time to put Trotter in his stall later.”.
He saw her qizzical expression and explained, “After I put Trotter up I have to clean out the Birthing stall and prepare it for Chia. By the time I’m done with that it’ll be time for dinner. After dinner we’ll clean the kitchen. Then I will go out and check on Chia. After that I have to shower, and get ready for bed. By then it will be “peace” time and I have to lay in bed and read. Can’t get up after that!” Josh said. “Besides, going to his stall an hour early isn’t going to kill him.”
“Wow. I never thought about it like that.” Kay replied. “I guess it would be smart to put these 2 in their stalls now.”
Hope started off towards the barn with a small nudge from Kay. Trotter followed the younger filly eagerly while Kay and Josh continued their conversation.
“It’s lucky you have a smart older brother.” Josh said a few seconds later.
“Your only 47 seconds older then me.”
“That still makes me older.”
“But not by much, and you may have gotten a small portion of the brain, but I got most of the brain and the all of the looks.” Kay said teasing her brother.
“You know what, I think your right.”
“You know what I think?” Kay asked her brother as she turned her head to look at him.
“What do you think?” Josh said looking into his sisters sparkling green eyes.
“I think that you are the greatest 47-second-older-with-only-a-small-portion-of-a-brain brother in the entire world.” she said smiling.
“Wow, that’s a mouthful.” Josh said returing the smile. “I’d like to hear you say that tomorrow morning when I wake you up at 5 am to feed the horses and do the morning chores.”
“I’m sure you would.” Kay said as they entered the barn.
Josh watched from Trotter’s stall as Kay walked to the tack shed to grab Hope’s harness. Although she could have easily led the horse to the stall by calling her, it was their father’s rule that the horses have a harness on when in the stable. Josh started to lead Hope out of the stall when he heard a happy yet suprised screech come from the tack shed.
“Josh!!! Oh my goodness!! Josh, you have to come see this!!” Kay yelled excitedly from around the corner where the tack shed stood.
Josh slammed the stall door shut, locking both horses in the large stall. Josh rushed over to the tack shed to find his sister standing at the enterance holding a small black lump that seemed to be moving slightly.
“What is that?” Josh said pointing to the ball of fur that Kay held.
“Umm, do you remember the big black, shaggy haired dog, the one that seemed to be a stray that came around our house a few months ago? Remember how Zebra took a liking to him and Dad just said to ‘leave ‘em be and he’d leave’? Well, he, uh…” Kay said looking behind her.
Josh followed his sisters gaze to see his dad’s 3 year old, pure bred Australian Shepard laying on the pile of saddle blankets nursing 7 newborn puppies.
Here is another poem for school.
Love is Compassion when someone does wrong,
Love is Grace that last very long.
Love is a Shelter when someone is lost,
Love is a price paid, the ultimate cost.
Love is Peace in the midst of a fight,
Love is a Lamp, the brightest of lights.
Love is not Jealous, is does not easily die,
Love will surround you when you start to cry.
God is Love, in all of His ways,
So try to be like Him, each and every day.
I had to write a poem for school, I thought I would share it with you. Here it is.
Confused
I’m far away from home,
I’m lost and so confused.
I don’t know where to go,
or which path that I should choose.
I choose to take the left path,
I have nothing much to lose,
So I started down the left path
still feeling lost and so confused.
And then I see some one,
she stops and say, “How are you?
What is wrong? What has happend
to make you look so blue?”
I tell her all my troubles,
saying why I am so blue.
“I’m traveling down this road because
I’m lost and so confused”.
She smiles and says in return,
“There’s no need to be so blue,
I will be your friend although your
lost and so confused.”
I gave her a small smile,
I knew that it was true,
she would be my friend although
I’m lost and so confused.
She takes me by the hand,
I’m no longer feeling blue.
I continue down the road
no longer lost or so confused.
By Kait Culbertson
Hi! I have a grand-father who is a writer. He has written 3 books, Smilidon,Before Ann After, and Into The Mist, and is working on another now. I decided to ask him a couple of questions about his job as a writer, I thought I would share them with you. If you have any questions you have to ask him, please let me know and I’ll ask him.
1. What usually inspires you to write a book?
Are you asking what inspires me to write, or what inspires me to write a particular book? I’ll go with the first. I write for the same reason a painter paints or a dancer dances . . . because I can and I feel good about myself when I do it well. I like the feeling of finishing a story and knowing that someone will get enjoyment out of reading it. I like the craft of putting words together that elicit an emotion for the reader, whether it be anger, laughter, sadness, reflection . . . whatever. What inspires me is the creativity of the art of writing. We, humans, need to be creative. Writing is my way of filling that need.
3. How long does it usually take you to write a book?
That is a hard one because every story is different. On average, if I stick to my schedule, about 9 months for a medium length novel. The one I’m working on now I’ve been into for well over a year, and I’m only halfway into it. I’ve had a lot of interruptions, and it is a complex plot requiring lots of research.
4. How many times did you have to scratch things out?
Scratching things out is called “editing”, and it is continuous. In the process of answering these questions to you I’ve already scratched (edited) a dozen or more times. If you don’t edit your work, you’re probably not writing well. When I finished Smilodon, my story about the sabertooth cat, I gave it to Nana(my grandmother) to read. She is my first reader and she has a crazy red pen to point out mistakes in grammar as well as her opinions on my plotting. I then start at the beginning and edit the entire story, continuously scratching things out and rewriting. When done I send it on to my second trusted reader (a friend) who does the same thing that Nana did. Then I edit again. I will go though three or four rounds of this before deciding it is ready for publishing. Scratching out is a very necessary part of the process.
5. Do you ever start a book, and then stop and start a new one with a totally different subject?
Yes. I was 50,000 words into Before Anne After when I stopped to work on Angels in the Mist. After I finished Angels in the Mist, I went back and continued on Before Anne After.
Have you ever asked other authors for suggestions?
When I lived in Helena, Montana I started a fiction writers’ critique group. This group was made up of aspiring novel writers who would read each other’s work and then get together twice a month to discuss. I’ve attended writers’ workshops and conferences to learn from successful writers about the craft of writing and publishing. Writers continuously learn from each other. Now I follow a dozen blogs on the art of writing and interact with those.
6. How do you develop a name for a book?
I think titling is different for every author. The novel I’m currently working on is called Annie. This is my working title. I don’t know yet what the final title will be, though if an idea pops up I will make a note. Before Anne After didn’t get its name until my first reader finished it. She gave me the title. In the publishing industry it isn’t unusual for the publisher to change the title to something they feel is more marketable, possibly to the displeasure of the author.
7. How many hours a day would you work on a book you were writing?
When I’m on schedule I’d be writing 1-2 hours a day, Monday through Friday, and 3-4 hours each Saturday and Sunday.
8. About how many copies of a certain book did/do you sell?
A few hundred is all, but the reasons are a subject all by itself.
9. Did you write your books on paper, or on the computer?
I used to write on blank, white copier paper in a three ring notebook. Every chapter or so I’d key it into my computer, print it out and then edit that (do my scratch outs). Then I got my first laptop and started doing it all on the computer. I can’t imagine writing an entire novel on paper now.
Thanks Papa!!!!
Hey. I just started my own picture Blog! Go to kaitsnapped.blogspot.com to see some awesome Snapps I’ve taken.
Yes, I mean to spell Snapps with 2 p’s.
Hey guys. I just thought I’d let you know that my dad now has his own blog! Click here to read it, he’s diein’ for comments.
