by Melinda Snodgrass | Feb 7, 2023 | Blog
Today we were working on canter to walk transitions, and Leslie said you ask for the transition by lengthening your leg, sinking down into the horse, shortening his stride, but making the hind legs jump through more quickly, and you give the aid to walk when the horse’s withers and shoulders are coming up to you. I applied this technique and we had some perfect downwards. And then I realized that this was when I needed to be asking for the lead change when we were doing tempi changes....
by Melinda Snodgrass | Feb 7, 2023 | Blog
I keep thinking if I write all this down my muscles will just magically start doing what I want, and isolate the way I need them to. It is starting to work, so hooray. One of the problem is that I was a ballet dancer for a long, long time. Toe shoes, the whole nine yards. But year ago I had to make a choice — riding or dance, and the equestrian sports and ballet are not compatible. I had to make a choice. Horses won… because of course they did because horses are magic and as the...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Feb 7, 2023 | Blog
For years when I rode my low back would end up just killing me. I thought it was the price you pay to ride, but Leslie realized I was hyper-extending and arching my back. So, I tried to fix that, but I was going at it all wrong. I was trying to slouch/hunch and that ended up freezing my hip so I couldn’t swing through with the horse’s motion. And when the hip is frozen I ended up gripping with my thighs and my knees, and all that tension made my tempi changes (flying lead change)...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Feb 7, 2023 | Blog
I needed to put down some thoughts about dressage again so you get to suffer for my OCD about this crazy sport. Vento is wiggly, I mean really wiggly. He’s like a freaking gummy worm of a horse. Which makes dressage a challenge because straightness is an essential part of our sport. Now this isn’t to say, he isn’t good at it — he is a Grand Prix horse and has done very well on a very tough circuit against big warmbloods (he’s a Lusitano), but he and I have to work for it. One of the ways my...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 16, 2023 | Blog
I’m so sorry, but I seem to have punted my brain, and I had the wrong date for the publication date of The Thucydides Trap, the fifth and final book of the Imperials series. It will be released tomorrow, January 17th, not the 15th as I had originally posted. I’m so sorry, but you can read the first chapter if you go to Prince of Cats Literary Productions on either Facebook or Twitter. Anyway, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. It’s all happening tomorrow.
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 15, 2023 | About Writing, The Craft of Writing
I’ve always been a writer who outlines. I got a lot better at it once I worked in Hollywood and learned how to “break a story”. For an in-depth look at how that works check out my blog post called How I Plot. Point being, I’m a bit of a dinosaur, I like to outline the way I was taught in LaLa Land using either a white board and different colored pens or a cork board 4×6 cards and different colored pens. However, many of the programs I use have added plotting...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 8, 2023 | Blog
I seem to be unable to cook with any degree of skill. So rather than actually eat anything sensible I listened to opera. In particular my favorite soprano in all the world, Kathleen Battle. So now all of you get to listen to opera too if you are so...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 6, 2023 | Blog
Okay, I have definitive news, the fifth and final book in the Imperials series will be published on January 15, 2023. It’s been a long journey with an unfortunate hiccup in the middle when my first publisher decided to cancel the series after the third book. I was committed to these characters and this universe I had created, and thanks to the terrific people at Prince of Cats Literary Productions I was able to complete the series. I also want to thank the unbelievably talented Elizabeth...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 26, 2022 | Blog
I keep seeing Tweets about how voting doesn’t matter. Voting doesn’t cut it. What’s the point? Look, the system is rigged, no doubt about that, allowing for minority rule, but it can be overcome with sheer numbers & there are more of us than there are of them. And I never see a suggestion about what to do in lieu of voting. So, what’s the alternative? Guns? Blood in the streets? Stars forbid we end up there, and there is still a chance to avoid that outcome —...
by Melinda Snodgrass | May 30, 2022 | Blog
So for months I have been inundated by these emails through my website with random people offering to up the traffic to my site. (yeah, I know I’ve been terrible about updating this site, all the other social media is eating me alive) Anyway, they all have this little “What’s Up?” tag so I have taken to just deleting them as spam. And then today I actually looked at one of them and it turned out to be an actual question. So if anyone has sent me an email and I...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Apr 18, 2022 | Blog
Hi, Folks, We really, really wanted to have this book come out in the spring, but life has a way of intruding. While I finished and delivered the book we’ve had struggles with Covid and other issues that have left the publisher upon occasion a bit short staffed. Which has meant a delay in the editing process. So while it is painful for all of us the decision was made not to rush this essential step in producing a book we can all be proud of, and you will all enjoy reading, so the...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Mar 4, 2022 | Blog
I was answering a question from my friend Juhan over on Facebook, and realized it was worth putting up here too. He asked how these events in Ukraine affect me as a writer. And here was my answer. It has made me ever more aware of the cost of war. Yes, on the soldiers who fight, but especially on the innocents — civilians in particular, especially the children, and yes, these families beloved pets. If you are fleeing for your life what do you do about your pets? Abandon them? Try to take...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 17, 2022 | Blog
As one ages this becomes a depressingly more common activity. Writing up your memories of a friend and colleague who has passed away. It is my sad task to have to do it again. It took me a long time to process this one. I think the suddenness of the loss of John Jos Miller knocked me back for days. And John’s passing sent me right back to thinking about how we lost Victor Milan just a few years ago because I first met John and Gail when Vic invited them to join our role playing group. John...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Dec 25, 2021 | Blog
Forgive me for the long absence. Life has been challenging and I tend to spend more time on Facebook and Twitter than minding this blog. But I wanted to post today. I hope all of you are safe, warm and secure surrounded by people who love and care for you. I know this has been another hard year, but things are better. Thanks to brilliant scientists we have vaccines and medicines that hold so much promise even beyond Covid. I know climate change is a true threat, but now more and more people,...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 22, 2021 | TV & Movies
So a week or so ago I posed on Twitter that I could not understand why Sylvie’s hair had changed so drastically when we see her in flashbacks as a little girl in Asgard to the grown up Sylvie we see in the show. People made the argument that she was on the run from the TVA so that’s why she changed her looks, and while that’s logical it ultimately didn’t satisfy me. Seriously the TVA can move through time, and while the headquarters is pretty retro they seem to be technologically pretty damn...
