I have a friend who wrote a book a number of years ago called It's A long Way to Los Gatos.  It's of his adventures of traveling by horseback from Lima Peru to Los Gatos California.  The horses he used were Peruvian Pasos, one of the smoothest and most beautiful riding horses God created.  If you like horses you will greatly enjoy his book. He is now in the process of writing a novel, and I wish him much luck with it. Once and a while he will send me a video from My Tube of various horse performances that have been downloaded there. While at My Tube I surfed around and found a number of great horse videos.  My two favorite are of a performance done by a beautiful Andalusian stallion and another of a dancing black stallion.

In my novel Onyx Owl, in the process of publication, my lead character Teresa owns a grey Andalusian.  No matter how tough things get for her she manages to find a way to keep her horse.  After watching the video with the Andalusian stallion one can understand the love Teresa had for her horse. The video is on my main page at Myspace and is worth watching.

I am aiming my next few novels toward the Young Adult market.  I'm in the editing process with my latest effort "Spirit Wind."  I love to read and lately have been reading a number of Young Adult books in between Stephen King's Dark Tower Series and my other favorite adult books.  I find Young Adult books to be quite entertaining.  My favorite author is L.A. Meyer and his Jacky Faber series.  These novels are historical adventures that are hard to put down once you start reading.

I have a great respect for the people who run schools to educate our Native American children.  The two schools I am most familiar with is one in SD for the Lakota children and the other is in MT for the Cheyenne and Crow.  These schools realize how important an education is.  In my novel "Spirit Wind," I try to weave that thought into my plot yet tell an entertaining story.  It is about a half-blood white/Cheyenne girl who has to decide which culture she wants to follow.  Using research from a number of books, including "Burry my heart at Wounded Knee," "Spirit Wind" encompasses the plight of the Cheyenne and Sioux during the time of Custer's Last Stand.   If the book gets published, I will be able to donate more toward the education of these children.

Since I enjoy writing historical novels, and I live in Florida, one of my favorite places to visit is Saint Augustine.  It is the oldest city in the USA and has existed for 439 years.  The Spanish captain Pedro Menendez landed there September 18^th 1565.  Today a 204 foot stands approximately where he planted a cross to claim La Florida for Spain and the church. 

In my novel Onyx Owl (which has been picked up by AIB publishers) I wove this landing into a historical venture that starts in Spain.  My major characters flee the Spanish Inquisition but their pursuers are not far behind. 

Saint Augustine is so rich in history that it takes a number of visits to cover the various sites.  Several years ago I went to a reenactment of when Sir Francis Drake made an attack on the city. This time I went on a ghost tour at night.  In over 400 years the city has acquired a number of interesting ghosts and ghost stories.

My big reason for going was to take a ride on the schooner Freedom.  It is a replica of the blockade-runners that once cruised out waters in the 19^th century.  But the ships tours were booked for the weekend.  I got a pleasant surprise when I learned that a WWII PT boat was in port for several days and on its way from Key West to some port in New England.  It is the last working PT boat remaining, and while in Saint Augustine it was giving two hour tours.

I learned a lot about how they used the boat in the war, and the story of PT109.  (The un-Hollywood version).  When we came upon the schooner the captain yelled pirates called general quarters, yelled fire in the hole and we heard a loud bang.  It was all in fun and a rare experience.  When I return to Saint Augustine I will make reservations to sail the schooner and uncover more historical information about the oldest city in the US.

Here  in central Florida we're not getting as much rain as normal and have lots of brush fires.  The alligators are getting cheeky and showing up in many places they shouldn't be. 

The other day a nine footer was found meandering through a car detail shop.  The nws people took some video of it.  The big guy would lumber a few steps, stop, lay down, look around than move on a few more feet and repeat the routine.  The workers and others who gathered (at a safe distance) were taking pictures with their cameras and cell phones.  The alligator ignored them and kept doing his thing until the alligator police showed up.  They roped him around the mouth and boy did he get mad.  He hissed and bucked all over the place.  They finally hog tied him and hauled him off in a pick up truck.

Several days later the cops were after some idiot in a high speed chase.  He drove his car into a ditch, got out and started running.  The cops ran after him and were astounded when the man did a 180 and ran back into their arms.  Seems as if there was swampy land ahead infested with alligators.  He chose the cops over them.

  Fluffys Breakfast

We went to visit my son Erik and his family in Virginia Beach.  His wife Anne was getting ready to leave for a tour of duty in Baghdad and we wanted to see her off.  She is with the Virginia National Guard and a mechanic on a Black Hawk helicopter.  My son is in the Navy but about to retire and on permanent shore duty.  They have four kids.  Also in the house hold are several lizards, a huge Newfoundland dog and one young and growing boa constrictor the kids named Fluffy.  While we were there Fluffy had a white rat in his aquarium by the name of Breakfast.  It was to be his next meal when he got hungry. Each day Fluffy lay coiled in his wooden shelter and came out for awhile to slither around.  During his outings the rat would hide in a corner and remain very still.  Fluffy wasnt ready for breakfast and ignored him.   We noticed Fluffy was starting to shed and would not be eating for awhile.  So the two co-existed day by day.   I noticed that Breakfast was losing his fear of the snake as several more days went by.  One evening Fluffy came out of his den, slid to the area under the heat lamp and coiled up for a warming rest.  Breakfast eyed the snake and crept up the ramp to where the Fluffy lay.  With sudden purpose the rat charged, bit the snake, jumped back, and charged again.  When I warned Anne that Fluffys Breakfast was attacking him she quickly got a small cage for the rat and made attempts to catch it.  She was afraid of getting bit and tried to catch it with a pair of tongs.  The rat being quick and cunning escaped capture time after time.  She finally removed the snake and after half an hour managed to wear it down enough to get it into the cage.

Anne is in Baghdad now and it has been a number of weeks since Fluffy and Breakfast were separated.   To this day the snake has not eaten.  When he does I dont want to know about it.  I kind of admire that little rat and hate to learn of his fate.