By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer

“How much of you goes into your books?”

As a novelist, I’ve often been asked that question, and it’s tricky to answer. I may scatter pieces of myself among characters, but I’ve never embodied one completely. I can’t say of any book’s cast, “Oh, that character is me.”

Sometimes, though, a character may do something I long to do or respond in a way I’d like to respond. They’re always wittier and braver than I.

My most recent release, Covering Grace, doesn’t have much of me in it, but there is a character I actually met a couple of years ago. I fancied him up a little for the book and gave him skills that I’m sure others like him wish they had.

He’s a handsome fellow—strong, faithful, true. My friend, Cindy Richardson, introduced him to me on a trail ride.

“Harley the Wonder Horse,” she said. A bona fide member of the Rocky Mountain breed. “Everybody loves him.”

I sure did after a day of riding up around Brush Hollow in the hills not far from my home.

For me, it’s a very short trip via horseback to the fictional world of characters in my Western novels. At the time, I was working on Covering Grace, and I knew the gaited, chocolate-colored gelding was just what the story needed.

The main character, Grace Hutton, had been hanging around in my head for three years—ever since I wrote about her twin brothers, Cale and Hugh in books 4 and 5. They brag on their little sister who can out-ride any of the cast in the Selig-Polyscope flickers being filmed in and around Cañon City, Colorado, in the early 1900s.

How could they not brag, with her never-say-die approach to life, and stick-like-flypaper perseverance. When they were all growing up, she was never far behind the boys, proving she was just as good as they were.

Trouble is, she was better, and her skills earned her a place in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. That’s where she meets Harley, and when she comes home in Book 6, he comes with her.

Now understand, real-life Harley is not a fancy trick-riding horse, but I have a real-life friend, Linda Scholtz, who owns a string of them. I’ve watched her do some mighty fine stunts, so fine that she teaches wanna-be trick riders how to be real trick riders.

A few other things from my life play into the book, like the setting. Is there anywhere more beautiful than the Rocky Mountains as a storm blows in quicker than your breath? Or aspens shivering in the slightest breeze, pouring gold down mountain gullies and ravines in autumn?

And what of huddling before a crackling fire in the woodstove as fall runs in ahead of winter, warning of colder weather on the way?

I’m always surprised by what shows up in my books, as if I’m watching a movie in my head while I write, observing characters do and say things that lead them to do and say other things. And so it goes.

Join me for a ride in the final book of The Cañon City Chronicles series, Covering Grace. Come meet Harley the Wonder Horse, and imagine that you are one of the characters, doing and saying things you’d love to do and say.

And don’t be surprised if Harley turns out to be more than you expected.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9

~

*Photo credit: Cindy Richardson

“Covering Grace is a must-read for those who love an adventurous story filled with faith, courage, and romance. Five stars for this inspiring, action-filled journey that highlights the beauty of God’s grace.” -Amazon reviewer

Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.

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