Romancing the Genres: Polly's Heart

“I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.” Anne Lamott

Hi,

It’s Mary Lee (writing as M. Lee Prescott) reader of all kinds of books and writer of dozens – mysteries, romances, of course, historical fiction and nonfiction related to literacy. It’s taken me many years and countless hours at the keyboard and legal pad to be able to say, “writer of dozens.” It’s a proud and wonderful feeling!

The quote above by a favorite writing teacher, Anne Lamott speaks of the very human quality of grace, but it also reminds me of my “state” when completing a book in which I am absorbed. It could be a romance, mystery, or a contemporary novel like Masood’s wonderful The Bad Muslim Discount, which I am currently reading. If I am engaged in a good book, I emerge in a different place, myself, but also somewhere else. That’s what I seek when I read and when I write. A grace that carries me and my characters along and leaves us sometimes breathless, but never in the exact same spot as where we began.

Over the last twelve years, I have discovered, in writing each Morgan’s Run book, that grace does not appear to be unique to humans. I’m sure if you’ve ever loved a dog, cat, horse, or other pet, you understand. Here I’m referring to a kind of “equine grace.” When I began writing about the Morgans and their close knit community, I knew that horses would figure prominently both as characters and as animals beloved by series characters. I have been on horseback half a dozen times in my life, some rides fun, others scary so I knew very little about these magnificent creatures. As I began writing Emma’s Dream (book 1), I was blessed with the birth of my first grandchild, Abby. By chance Abby and I began visiting a local farm, home to many rescued animals, including horses. Slowly, we got to know each horse by name and temperament -- the owner’s gentle white mare, Misty, a huge, but gentle draft horse, Tabasco, Sunny the pony, and many others. We also came to love them – even the ones with signs on their stalls warning us not to get too close – and all the animals at Stony Creek.

Now I find myself in a different place, a place of grace and presence with these amazing creatures, less scared, more peaceful. As I wrote about Ben Morgan and his spirited quarter horse, Rowdy, Harley and his wild Appaloosa, Pepper and Maggie with her very own, enormous draft horse, Tabasco, I discovered that trust, love, grace, and connection with other living creatures, be they two-legged or four-legged, never leave us in the same place.

Many of the love stories in the Morgan’s Run series take place around and with horses. Training them, riding them, rescuing them from cruelness and neglect and nurturing them back to health. I have learned so much about the efforts to rescue the magnificent wild horses of the west, and the many breeds of horses that we have in the United States. What does this have to do with romance and grace you ask? Each breed has qualities and characteristics that support its human owner. For example, Dusty, a rescued horse featured in Tom’s Ride, has a steady, calm temperament that nurtures fragile, wounded Grace McGraw. Deathly afraid of horses, Grace, to her surprise, bonds with the dun stallion and they are both healed in the process.

The human—horse connection is a critical element in many of my love stories. When he leaps onto Pepper’s back, Harley Langdon, the quintessential cowboy, and wrangler, becomes one with his horse. It’s difficult to imagine the two apart; they have traveled so many miles together. Whip Kitteridge already owns a horse, Calico, a strong, sturdy American Paint, but his work with Ghost, a wild, aggressive white stallion, heals long ago wounds for man and horse and they become inseparable. The morning Tabasco lumbers out of the trailer at Morgan’s Run stables it’s love at first sight for Maggie Williams. The enormous draft horse, acquired as part of the ranch’s mustang rescue program, is slated to be gentled and adopted by a border agent, but no one will go near him except Maggie.

Then there’s gorgeous Ben Morgan who’s comes home to nurse an ailing heart and winds up falling in love with Maggie, and his spirited quarter horse Rowdy. While the white hot romance between Ben and Maggie is the center of Emma’s Dream, his bond with the young horse saves his life more than once out of the trail.

What does all this horse talk have to do with romance? In this series, beloved by so many readers, it is very often the horses that take characters to places where love happens—on the trail, in a secluded valley, or maybe in a darkened barn, the scent of sweet hay surrounding them. Do horses embody a kind of equine grace that transports and changes those they love? I’m thinking a resounding yes. What do you think?