Authors on Authors April 2008

The Rainy Day Room is happy to introduce "Authors on Authors", a new review page to afford the Independent Authors of good books additional exposure. We'll try to put up interesting overviews of their work that goes a little beyond the normal reiteration of content or plot. I don't see authors as in competition with each other. The readers can read the books faster than we can write them if they only know they are 'out there', so be sure to share the link to this page with the readers on your 'lists'. We welcome submissions from anyone with a favorite book they'd like to introduce to others because of the impact it had on them as a reader or an author. There will be no 'ranking' number assigned, as the intention is to share, not to judge.

Amazon.com

Hoof Prints:

More Stories From Proud Spirit

By: Melanie Sue Bowles

Synopsis:

Readers were introduced to the graceful heart of Melanie Sue Bowles in her first book, The Horses of Proud Spirit. In Hoof Prints we learn more about the horses she cares for in her horse sanctuary, which has relocated from southwest Florida to the hills of west Arkansas. In the new location, the Proud Spirit horses run free on 320 acres of rolling hills, living the life every horse deserves.

About the Author:

Jim and Melanie Bowles, the founders of Proud Spirit Horse Sanctuary, are deeply committed to the horses in their care. “The new facility in Arkansas is the culmination of years of hard work, and all the dreams and visions that we had for this sanctuary finally coming together,” says Melanie. One of those visions was to provide as natural an environment for the horses as possible. “Domestication has created so many problems…founder, colic, vices…problems that you never see in the wild. It was essential to Jim and to me that we place just as much emphasis on the horses’ emotional well-being as we do their physical needs.” The horses at Proud Spirit are never stalled. They function as a herd with no cross fencing, safe in the companionship of other horses…something they so desperately need. They have room to move about, and to graze and roam… which they need to thrive.

Review

Guatama Buddha said . . .

"You cannot travel the path until you have become the path itself."

Fifteen years or so have passed since a special horse named Cody ambled into the life of Melanie Sue Bowles. Cody was the inspiration for her to take the first few fumbling steps of a new journey; to forge a new path known at the time only to the deep inner recesses of her being and the will to give something back to the world for the life given her. Melanie has since BECOME that path . . . the path on which a hundred plus abandoned, abused, or otherwise doomed horses have been given a second chance at a life every living creature deserves; merely the chance to truly be what they are.

HOOF PRINTS is a continuation of the compelling stories that rended our hearts, mixed tears of pain with tears of joy, in her first book, THE HORSES OF PROUD SPIRIT. Mel relates the stories of these majestic animals and her interaction with them with such passion, warmth, occasional humor, and honesty that any person whose ever loved an animal simply cannot get enough. The gauntlet of feelings are literally wrung out of you during the reading.

Melanie brings the often ugly world of animal abuse, abandonment, and in some cases just plain ignorance, out of the shadows into the light where it can be examined and dealt with in a way that serves all species, wild or domestic. If you buy only two books this year, Melanie's two books revealing the 'proud spirit' of a horse would be your best investment, and your best reward. I guarantee you'll never think of a horse in the same way again. Or any animal for that matter, and you'll be a better person for it.

Susan Haley

Author of Rainy Day People