Preface

It began over a few glasses of wine.

I was spending a lively evening with close friends when the topic of conversation turned to my horse racing blog, Post Parade. The blog originally began as an exercise to stretch my creative writing muscles all the while learning something about the sport. Eventually, the blog evolved into a series of essays with their own unique style and humor - sort of like horse racing fluff. I was beginning to feel a little stifled and asked my friends for their thoughts.

And that's when my best friend, Michon, blurted out in a somewhat tipsy voice, "You should write a book!"

I looked at her as if she had grown another head. "A book?" I gasped. Apparently, this discussion called for another glass of wine.

The conversation spiraled into book possibilities and plot lines and words of encouragement. After consuming another glass or two, it didn't sound like such a bad idea. But it wasn't an endeavor that I was willing to do by myself.

"Michon," I prompted, "why don't we write a book together?" It was a great idea, at least in my mind. "We'd both be contributors to a story. We could post it on a blog site, enabling us to add our own spin. A free-flowing tandem story; see where it goes. And 'collaboration discussions' could be also posted as entries. It'd be like a story of writing a story, or something to that effect."

Clearly, Michon knew that I had consumed too much wine.

"And what are we going to write about?" she asked.

"I'd like to write a book that features horse racing, and remain a little true to my humor genre," I answered.

Michon responded, "I don't know anything about horse racing. I really like horror."

"That's okay. We can write horror. I've had plenty of days at that racetrack that were an absolute horror."

So now two friends are about to embark on an odyssey that involves humor, horror, and horse racing. And probably plenty of wine along the way.