Luna, the weanling Caroline and Connor are assigned to work with in Caroline’s Purpose, is also based off of one of my personal horses. Goldee was my assigned horse in the University of Arizona Equine Sciences program. Goldee is a Thoroughbred, and can be as sweet and sassy as Luna in the book. In Chapter 2, Luna is introduced as ”the dark bay thoroughbred filly with the crescent moon shaped marking on her head.” You can see here in Goldee’s pictures that she looks exactly like Luna in the book.
To learn more about Luna, and her place in Caroline’s story, order the ebook edition of Caroline’s Purpose now on Amazon, Kobo, or Apple Books for $.99. This sale ends soon, so make sure to get yours today!
Hoof beats pounded outside the barn. Everyone crowded into the doorway, straining to see the loose horse.
Caroline followed, thinking this would be her moment to get to the stallion barn unseen. But when the flash of red streaked by the door, panic filled her stomach.
She pushed her way past everyone to the front of the crowd, confirming for herself that Edison was the loose horse. Connor, his dad, and a few stable hands were already at work, trying to catch him.
He was beautiful. He moved with beauty and grace; his tail arched over his back as he avoided the men with ease.
Edison paused for a moment, letting Connor get closer. He had a halter in his hand, and Caroline watched as he approached him like she had that first day, extending his arm out, letting Edison smell him. But Edison wasn’t ready.
He spun away from Connor, leaping in the air and kicking out, missing Connor by inches, sending him to the ground. Caroline ran from the barn, heading for Connor, but Edison saw her first.
He whinnied, galloping straight for her. Caroline froze, fearing that he was going too fast to stop, thinking he would run her over for sure. She lifted her hands out to her side, hoping that would help. “Whoa,” she breathed.
Edison skidded to a stop in front of her. Caroline kept her eyes down, and her voice low, as she stepped to the side, approaching his shoulder. “Easy, bud. Just relax. No one is going to hurt you.”
Caroline stretched out her arm and rubbed him with her knuckles, as she had before. Edison twitched and arched his neck, but he didn’t run. “Thatta boy. Just stay with me here, okay?”
Connor walked up behind her. “Caroline, here, you better put it on him. I don’t think he’ll let me.”
Caroline reached behind with her free hand, opening her palm for the halter. When she felt the leather in her hand, she closed her fingers around it. She pulled it around in front of her. Edison snorted.
“Hey now, it’s okay. It’s just me. We’re gonna put this on you and get you back to your stall.” Edison looked at her sideways as she guided the halter onto his head, buckling it by his ear. She took a step back and started to walk him towards his barn.
Edison tossed his head in protest to the pressure on the lead rope. Caroline looked up at his eyes and saw a familiar expression. Anger and panic filled his face and he jerked, pulling at the rope in her hand, trying to regain his freedom. He reared, pawing at the air. The sudden movement knocked her off her feet.
“Edison, whoa!” Caroline gripped at the rope as she struggled to get up. She managed to stand as Edison landed, and put her hand on his neck to calm him down, to keep him from going up again.
“Caroline, are you okay?” Connor put his hand on her shoulder.
Her throat was closing, and no audible words came out of her mouth. Dark circles closed in around her, impairing her sight. She tried to blink them away, but a picture from her past flooded her vision.
The horse’s emotions were the same, but he was grey instead of red. He was lying on his side, thrashing and screaming as he tried to get up. Caroline was on the ground next to him, struggling to get up herself, but she couldn’t. His weight on her legs was too great, and her left foot was caught in the stirrup underneath him. She tried to soothe him, but their pain had been too extreme…
What happened to the grey horse? Will Caroline ne able to help Edison? Order an ebook edition of Caroline’s Purpose for $.99 on Amazon, Kobo, or Apple Books to find out.
One of the fun parts about writing is being able to combine fiction with real life. In Caroline’s Purpose, Caroline and Connor work with an abused Thoroughbred stallion named Edison. In real life, Edison is one of my horses. He is not an abused Thoroughbred stallion, but is a very well loved Saddlebred gelding. I chose to base the stallion off of Edison because of how important the real-life Edison is to me. He helped me overcome a lot of fear and showed me what it means to trust again.
To learn more about the fictional Edison and his journey with Caroline and Connor, you can buy the ebook version of Caroline’s Purpose for $.99 this month on Amazon, Kobo, or Amazon Books for this month only.
Here is an excerpt from Chapter 9 of Caroline’s Purpose. This was easily one of my favorite chapters to write.
The vibrations of voices and footsteps added to the chaos of the student union. The wind of the day before had brought rain from a tropical storm in Mexico, forcing the students who liked to eat lunch in the open air to come inside. The tables were jam packed, and Connor couldn’t find a place to sit. He clutched the brown paper Burger King sack in his fist as yet another person collided with him.
He sighed and shook it off, lifting his eyes above the jostling heads as he searched for somewhere he could eat. He turned around the corner into the last section of seating and saw an empty seat at a high-top table for two. The girl sitting there was hovering over a textbook, a pen curled in her hand. Her foot and her head bounced up and down in rhythm with the music from her headphones. As she threw her blonde hair over her shoulder, Connor recognized her. He worked his way through the crowd to the edge of the table.
“Caroline? Can I sit here?” Connor grasped the top of the chair with his free hand. Caroline kept her eyes down on the book in front of her, not hearing him over the noise in the union or her headphones. Connor went ahead and scooted the empty chair out, tossing his lunch sack on the table and slinging his backpack off of his shoulder, and over the side of the chair.
Caroline dropped her pen as she jumped, startled by the motion in front of her. She reached up to pull her headphones out.
Connor paused. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to surprise you. I asked if I could sit here, but you didn’t hear me.” Connor pointed to her headphones. “There’s nowhere else to sit. You aren’t waiting on anyone, are you?”
“Oh, no, I’m not. Go ahead. Sorry I didn’t hear you. I was a little wrapped up in Chemistry.” Caroline closed the textbook, leaving her pen in it to mark her page.
“Chemistry or the private concert you had going on in your head?” Connor teased as he sat down. “To me, it looked like you were having more of a dance party than a study session.”
Caroline’s cheeks turned from their normal light pink to a deeper shade of red. She folded her hands in her lap as she sat back in her chair. “Maybe you should eat your lunch before it gets too cold.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Connor grinned as he pulled his burger, fries, and a few napkins out of the bag. He closed his eyes and bowed his head.
Lord, thank you for the rain, I know it’s caused the union to be extra crowded and obnoxious today, but we need the rain here in the desert. It’s also allowed me this chance to sit with Caroline, so please show me how to be a friend to her. And thank you for this food that I am about to eat. In Your name I pray, Amen.
Connor lifted his eyes as he unwrapped his burger. Caroline was staring at him, her expression one of curiosity and sadness.
“You’re a Christian?”
“Yes, I am. What about you?” Connor picked up his food and took a bite.
“Used to be.” Caroline shrugged her shoulders as she tilted her head and smiled with half of her mouth.
Connor thought about her statement as he chewed, trying to figure out how to respond. respond as he swallowed. He swallowed. “Used to be,” he repeated. “Do you want to explain that?”
Will Caroline explain to Connor why she doesn’t believe anymore? Order the ebook edition of Caroline’s Purpose to find out. Remember, it’s only $.99 for the month of May!
The ebook edition of Caroline’s Purpose is in the top 100 on Amazon tonight. Remember, you can get your own ebook edition for just $.99 this month on Amazon, Kobo, or Apple Books.
Caroline nodded her head. “Here goes nothing.” She led Luna toward the first cone.
Connor fell into step with her. “Remember what I said, don’t think about the wind. Lead her like you just did and it’ll be over before you know it.”
Caroline didn’t answer as she focused on the cone getting closer with each step. Just one foot in front of the other. That’s all we have to do.
That thought carried their steps to the second cone. Just as Caroline began to ask Luna to trot, the wind howled, lifting Luna’s mane straight off her neck. The filly’s head went straight up in the air as she screeched to a halt. Caroline turned, finding Luna’s gaze locked onto something behind her. The whites of her eyes showed around the black, expressing fear. Caroline looked to see what she was staring at.
The dumpster across the parking lot had blown open. Pieces of trash were racing through the air. A plastic shopping bag was rattling its way straight for Luna.
Caroline froze as the bag dove down and crinkled against Luna’s hind legs. The filly spun around. Caroline gave the rope a quick tug, but it was too late. Luna reared, standing up on her hind legs, pawing the air inches above Caroline’s head with her front hooves…
What happens next? Does Caroline regain control of Luna? To find out, order the ebook edition of Caroline’s Purpose for just $.99 on Amazon, Kobo, or Apple Books
“Connor watched as Caroline ran her fingers through Edison’s forelock. He could see her mouth moving but couldn’t hear anything she was saying. He leaned into the stall door, in awe as the stallion was already as calm as he had been with her the other day. She did have a gift. A gift that she had given up on because of fear. A gift he wanted to help her rediscover.
‘God, help me here. Give me the right words to talk to her.’ he thought to himself.
“Caroline, can I…?” Connor stopped, and cleared his throat.
Caroline looked over her shoulder at him. “Can you ask me something?” She grinned as she teased him.
“Well… yeah. Sorry. Old habits are hard to break.”
She laughed. “No worries. Do you want to come in here? Maybe hand me his grain bucket, see if he’ll eat?”
Connor nodded as he came into the stall. He grabbed the bucket and stepped over to Caroline and Edison. The stallion perked his ears, looking at the bucket with interest.
Caroline took it from Connor and cradled it in her arms. “Hungry, big guy? You can eat.”
Edison put his head down and began chewing on his dinner. Caroline looked up at Connor, her eyes the happiest he had ever seen. “So, what did you want to ask me?”
Connor reached over and patted Edison on the neck. “Remember when we had lunch in the union? You told me you used to believe in God, but you didn’t want to explain it then. Do you think you could now?”
Caroline looked away from him, her eyes falling to Edison’s ears. Connor watched her blink as she bit her lip. He took a step closer to her.
“I’m sorry. You don’t have to.” Connor put his hand on her arm.
She looked up at him again as she felt his touch. “No, it’s okay. It’s pretty simple.”
“Simple?”
“Yeah.” Caroline shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve had to deal with too much pain and loss to keep believing He cares about me or my future.”
“I can understand that. Completely.” Connor swallowed.
“You can?” Caroline wrinkled her forehead as she looked at him.
“Yeah, I can.” He had asked God to give him the right words to say to her so many times over the last few months. And now, he knew what he had to do. He had to tell Caroline about Emily.”
What happened to Emily? Get the ebook edition of Caroline’s Purpose for just $.99 all month on Amazon, Kobo, or Apple Books.
She took a deep breath, she closed her eyes, to hesitate, straining to see, to focus on the script.
Her eyes shined with tears, identical gazes staring at him. She was an outsider, between you and me.
A crisscross of light, from a white crescent moon, opened up his heart, to the hurt she felt inside her chest.
Lanterns caused stones to glisten, from the rain, from wanting to believe, From the longing to find a way back, from wonder turning into a sense of hope,
The first time a smile had ever reached her eyes, Their elbows brushing every few steps, cold drops of rain, the sense of relief, the top of the last hill.
Explanation! I’m teaching my students how to write Found Poetry. You flip through a book or a magazine, or anything with words really, and you make a list of phrases and words that stand out to you. Then, you arrange these phrases and words to write a poem. To give them an example, I used my book, Caroline’s Purpose. Let me know what you think!
If you want to know more about the story behind these words, order your copy of Caroline’s Purpose today!
One Word at a Time 