Explanation. We have a horse on stall rest following colic surgery. This has taken over the blog. [Begin]
Week 6 post surgery
Week 4 of stall rest
I draw your attention to The Idea of Order: How does your horse enjoy the weekend?
Milton chose Friday evening of New Year’s weekend. [When Weekends Go Wrong]
Book Club Blog Hop
Announcing a new Adventure! Project! Digital group experience!
Book: Life with Horses Is Never Orderly, by Morgane Schmidt (Trafalgar Square 2021)
From the webcomic The Idea of Order
TSB book page
TSB author bio
Cover image from publisher website
Post Date: Saturday 15 April 2023
Procedure
Thought it might be fun to join a book club. Couldn’t find one that sent me. Start one? Okay. Since I don’t want to get involved in organizing & running a zoom meeting, we will do this by keyboard instead.
Steps:
1) Buy, borrow, obtain book on your own.
2) Read. Gather your thoughts.
3) Post on specified day. LMK & I will include a blog roll on my post.
Not a blogger?
Steps 1 & 2, as above. Then,
3b) Comment on the book post when it comes out.
or
3c) Send text to me to be included in the post. May be edited for space. This will require sufficient time for us to agree on how the text will appear. See approval policy below.
Content
Your blog. You do you.
Personally, the book review has never appealed to me as a form, either to write or to read. I don’t see the point. However, notifying you of books you might like? Absolutely.
“Imagine we are in a bookstore. I wander up to you, hand you one of these books, say ‘Have you read this one?’, then wander off. Whereupon you look at the cover, turn it over, look at the back cover, read the blurb, flip through the book, and decide for yourself if you are interested. It’s like that. Enjoy.” [Have You Read This? Graphic Novel Edition]
So, for post content, I would be more interest hearing stories that only you could tell. That reminds me of the time when … This is so true because … Did I tell you the one about …
Guest Text for Non-Bloggers
Text approval philosophy. I will not post something with your name on it that you have not approved. Hence the need for time to go back and forth. If we can’t reach, we bail. Not original to me. I read this as the policy of non-fiction author whose name now escapes me.
“You will have total control over the text. I won’t make any changes without discussion. OTOH, I reserve the right to nix the whole idea if – for whatever bizarre reason – we can’t come to an agreement. As do you.” [Guest Post Invitation & Rules]
Scheduling
Two months from now should give us all time to find & read the book. On the regular schedule, I do word-related things on Saturdays. This will be the first Saturday after stall rest (🤞). The fact that it is a lighthearted book to perk us up near US tax day is a happy coincidence.
How often will I do this? No idea. Not monthly, That’s too often. Quarterly? When an interesting book floats by? One and done? We shall see.
Speaking of scheduling. I see no reason to pan a book. Skip it and move on. In the future, I guess I will have to get & read the book before announcing the blog hop. I have not done so in this instance. I know the comic and I trust Trafalgar Square as a publisher.
Their order page warns that Media Mail shipping might be a while. YMMV
Why?
Back in the day, I had a book column in the USCTA News. I loved finding books and telling folks about the books. I did it for years, but pre-Internet, so I only found one link. Still recommend all of those books, USEA: Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction
I picked Life with Horses Is Never Orderly as the first book because I like the comic, and could use some light-hearted just now.
Affiliations
None. I have worked with Trafalgar Square Books (at horseandriderbooks.com) in the past. They were kind enough to send review copies my way back when it was my job. Trafalgar is a small publisher but big within horse books.
This time around, I bought the book like any other customer. Not that buying books is ever a hardship for me. Milton’s rehab has involved a fair amount of retail therapy as distraction. I have a horse on stall rest. I deserve this book. And that book. And that one over there. But I digress.
Also, I interviewed the Managing Director, Martha Cook, 11 years ago (?!?) as the first of the Behind the Scenes series. [Clips: USDF Connection, scroll alllll the way to the bottom]
Posts
The Cheshire Horse: A Fun-Filled Interview with Cartoonist and Author Morgane Schmidt, March 23, 2022
On the blog, recurring references to the Daylight Savings comic, Horse Nation: The Idea of Order: Hello Darkness, my Old ‘Friend’…, [2019], [2020], & [2022]. General recommendation [Service to Reader: Horse Comics 2013].
Onwards!
Katherine
Virtual Brush Box 
I will definitely be seriously considering this.
🙂