This is Cinnamon (L) and Fawn (R).They aren't related.
Fawn is 20 years old. Cinnamon is 4.
Fawn is my baby, my girl. My trusty mount for trail rides, moving cows, anything. When I need a horse I can trust, I turn to her.
Cinnamon was meant to take the burden off Fawn. When I bought her, my dad was cowboss on a large cattle ranch. I helped him out a lot, and I rode Fawn every day, except the summer she got hurt, and then I rode Dad's sorrel gelding, Gary. But that was before I had Cin.
Two summers ago I got Cinnamon going, with my dad's help. She was started well, going good. I rode her on a three day packtrip, rode her all over the mountains on trail rides. She wasn't finished because I didn't finish her reining and we never loped.
Then this last summer I got sick and didn't ride at all. Neither mare. Not Fawn and not Cin. Not even once.
But this fall, I began to recover and I wanted to ride. Bad. So, reasonably, I would grab Cin, right? Pick up where I left off?
Nope.
Trusty old Fawn was the mount of choice.
I didn't even Catch Cinnamon.
How does all this relate to writing?
Because I have manuscripts kind of like my mares. Old and trusty, and new and fairly untried.
I'm in a quandary with them. Work with the old one (Mississippi Blues), or turn my energy to the new (Branded)?
I'm talking specifically about contests. I have a limited amount of money this year for contests, so I need to decide which ms to devote my energy to. The old one, or the new, untried one?
I put Ms. Blues in two contests last year, and it finaled both times.
But I have a new ms I'm dying to try out. But it doesn't have a finished rein. Or a lope. It's not finished. But it's new, shiny and has a whole bunch of potential, I think.
It's kind of like trying to decide which of my lovely mares to ride this upcoming year...Fawn, who I enjoy so much, or Cin, who might buck me off.
