The Singing Horses

L Rice Marilyn

Description

The uproarious saga of the singing horses begins when they leave the paddock in Alabama and travel to Memphis for votes because they all want to win The Best Equine Author of the Year contest. Although they’re competing to win, they work together in the entertainment industry as the famous singing horses’ troupe. They are widely known for their escapades throughout the United States and Europe, causing mayhem wherever they go. Each horse has a number and a special talent, such as #00, the dancing queen, #23, a ballerina and filly friend of #7 who is related to the racing legend, Red Rum. They ride on the Orient Express to Venice, where they face the paparazzi who chase them, so they go into hiding. The paparazzi put up a €10,000 reward for information on them. A McDoodles employee takes a photo of #7 eating chips and sends it to the paparazzi, forcing them to gallop away again. They flee to Moscow, on to Athens and then to the donkey sanctuary in Cyprus, all the while performing and neighing for votes.
During the long wait for the announcement of the final ten authors, they travel to New Orleans, where they enjoy numerous cocktails and much merriment. Ultimately, the announcement of the winner is a big surprise to everyone but the judges! The remaining contestants refuse to leave their lovely paddock and stage a neigh-in. Bulldozers and diggers arrive to destroy the paddock, but the paparazzi stand in protest with the equine.
The Singing Horses is a delightful story full of hilarious adventures to delight readers of all ages.

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
• Date de parution: 10 décembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528972628
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

T he Singing Horses
Marilyn L Rice
Austin Macauley Publishers
2020-12-10
The Singing Horses The Singing Horses Introduction Characters Part One Leaving ‘The Paddock’ Part Two Memphis, Tennessee Part Three Crossing ‘The Pond’ Part Four Equine Lodge and London Part Five Bonjour Paris Part Six Arrivederci Roma Part Seven Viva España Part Eight Hiding in Austria Part Nine Munich and Concert in Moscow Part Ten Acropolis and Cyprus Part Eleven Cairo to Kenya Part Twelve Slow Boat to China Part Thirteen From China to Awesome Australia Part Fourteen Canada Part Fifteen Chicago to Oklahoma Part Sixteen Oklahoma and Another Concert! Part Seventeen Get Your Kicks on Route 66 Part Eighteen The Last Lap – Welcome Home Part Nineteen The Second Round Part Twenty The Waiting Game Part Twenty-One New Orleans Ride Part Twenty-Two #7 in the Infirmary Part Twenty-Three The Winner and Our Neigh-In Part Twenty-Four Destruction Part Twenty-Five #7 Neighs from Beverly Hills Part Twenty-Six #7 Neighs from Beverly Hills (2)
Marilyn L Rice was born in 1951. She received a grammar school education and was later awarded a B.Ed. from Keele University. She began a writing career after retiring from teaching. The Singing Horses is her ninth work. She is divorced and lives in West Bromwich. She has a deep belief in karma, feels that happiness is a state of mind and sees each day as a new adventure.
For the singing horses who took the world by storm.
Copyright © Marilyn L Rice (2020)
The right of Marilyn L Rice to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528950251 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528972628 (ePub-e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgements
In 2013 Hierophant Publishing Company asked for submissions for The Next Best Author contest. I entered and the company opened a page on Facebook where all the authors could chat together. I posted a question: Why do I feel like a horse in the paddock waiting for the race to start? Many replied and we started thinking of ourselves as horses in this contest which lasted four months and required voting from the public, though we were never sure of the importance of the votes. The night before the posting began, I posted that I was moving to the starting post and taking Stall 5. Who would like to join me? Just leave your name and pick a number. That was the start of daily bulletins throughout the contest. We travelled the world and had loads of adventures. At the end of the contest, it was suggested that the bulletins could be made into a novel.
Twenty-plus of the original equine band chose to be a part of this adventure. They selected a breed of horse and kept their stall numbers. It is these authors whom I wish to acknowledge:
#00 Cindy Lapeña aka ‘dancing queen’
#1.618 Morgan Thomas, the eldest filly
#3 Kathy Ramsperger, ‘spokesfilly’
#3.14 Paul Johnson
#4 Rhonda Nelson
#7 Stanislav Balakchiev, an orphan foal
#8 Conlee Mae Ricketts
#11 Paul Bowersox
#12 Lillian Nader aka ‘paper mare’
#13 Neil Thrussell
#18 Gary Crawford
#23 Lindsey Grisebach, the youngest filly and ballerina
#32 Scott Hilton
#44 Fiona Grant
#51 Marie D Jones ‘educated filly’
#55 Efrain Salt aka ‘posh filly’
#58 Vicki Raucci Gonzalez
#64 Roger Mannon, publicity manager
#83/#42 Lisa Spinner aka ‘SatNav’
#666 Cindy Sprigg
#Phi George Wardeh
My equine band, it was an honour and privilege to ride with you. This is our story. I wish you all every success in your future hoofing and publishing as singing horses.
— #5 Marilyn L Rice aka ‘bossy old grey mare’
Introduction
I entered a competition for authors on Facebook. The Publishing Company opened a page for all the contestants to chat with each other. After I had submitted my manuscript, I posted a question on this page: Why do I feel like a horse in the paddock waiting for the race to start? Other contestants added appropriate comments and over forty of us took numbers and stalls when the competition started. It began with us all being crazy horses crossing the Mississippi and visiting a zoo before embarking on a worldwide adventure and meeting many other animals on our journey. The adventure took the format of bulletins during the contest.
The Singing Horses is the story of those authors who waited patiently through three rounds and four months for the final winner to be announced. Part of the decision was based on votes; this was the paramount thought as they sang their way around the world.
Characters
#00 Cindy Lapeña, aka ‘The Dancing Queen’. Artistic. Appalachian filly, shiny, black coat with white mane and tail. Friends with #23, a ballerina and fellow Appalachian filly. They were both early entrants into the paddock and became firm friends from the outset. She even stayed with #23 through the horsepox, and then rode with her to join the horses in Nashville. Both energetic, attractive and fun-loving. #00 began her horse life as a family horse in the Philippines. Then she came to Canada and began a new life as a riding school horse. She loved it at the riding school; it enabled her freedom for dance and for her artistic skills but, more importantly, time to hoof her stories.
#1.618 Anonymous. A chestnut American Quarter Horse. Reminds #7 of his mama. She is the eldest of the fillies and will be a mare on her next neighday. There are plans to mate her with a stallion at her home stable in Florida where she is a riding horse and privileged to have horse time on her hooves for hoofing her stories. She thinks #7 is trouble. He should be left behind. She is beastly to him, but he wins her round in the end.
#3 Kathy Ramsperger. An American palomino, white-cream coat, mane and tail like #23’s, so long that she can sweep it along the ground. Graceful and elegant. Home stable is in Maryland. She is a family horse and used for riding and horse shows; attractive and won awards. Becomes the ‘spokesfilly’. Has a sweet, soft tone. Full of spirit and fun and sees life and the contest as an adventure. Really excited at the prospects of travelling across the Pond.
#3.14 Paul Johnson. Black stallion racehorse, stables in Yorkshire, England. He loves hoofing stories and would often be seen sitting between races hoofing away. Immediately makes friends with the American #6, another black stallion and racehorse. One of the ‘three amigos’. Like #6, he has a soft spot for #7.
#4 Rhonda Nelson . A Shire horse. Beautiful, black body with all four legs white from cannons to feathered hooves; white strip from ears to nose down centre of visage and long, black tail and black mane. Friends with #666 Gypsy Vanner. Both are from the draft horse family used for pulling ploughs, drays, carriages etc. She works as a harnessed horse in the Amish community in Pennsylvania. She’s an old friend of #11 and new one for #666. Those three spend much time neighing together. #4 had hoofed her manuscript during the early horse evenings after her hard days pulling the Amish buggy. There was no electricity at her stable; in the horse winter months, she had really struggled to hoof before horse daylight died.
#5 Marilyn L Rice. The bossy, old, grey mare. Irish draft horse. Spent her filly years toiling on farms in Ireland before going to a retirement farm at Ocean County, NJ. America and hoofing stories. She had a lot of fun and liaisons in her filly horse years and also travelled. In a relationship with #6.
#6 Anonymous. Black, sexy hunk of a stallion, a racehorse from stables in NJ, America. The love of #5’s life. Protective and fatherly towards #7. One of the ‘three amigos’.
#7 Stanislav Balakchiev. Brown foal, black tail, mane, ears hooves and eyes. White on nose and white star on forehead. Eight hands high and little legs. He is an orphan from the London Equine Orphanage. His parents were a black stallion and dark brown mare, both racehorses. Has foal love for #23, his filly friend. He tries hard to be both loved and a good little foal, but he wants adventure and always seems to be getting into trouble or mischief. He knows that manners are extremely important and is always pleased with himself when he remembers them. His claim to fame is that he is the great, great nephew of Red Rum. He likes chips. Described as incorrigible and adorable…a hard act to ignore.
#8 Conlee Mae Ricketts. An American riding horse from stables in Ohio. Dark-brown coat, black mane and tail, white lower legs and mark from her forehead to her nose. Very attractive filly. When not involved in riding lessons, she can be seen in her stall hoofing away. She is a very imaginative filly and frequently comes to a halt in a lesson when inspiration for a new story pops into her head. She will rush back at top speed almost unseating her rider in her anxiety to hoof before she forgets her story.
#11 Paul Bowersox. A Rose Grey Percheron, a sturdy working animal. Seventeen hands. Spent many horse hours as a young colt toiling the land before he was promoted to a carriage horse for the Amish community in Pennsylvania. The Amish community gave him special leave fo