In the library I discovered the card catalog (part of a different era). I was fascinated by the layers of history made available simply by the passage of time and recent cuts in education funding. The remainder of my typing term was spent among cavalry manuals and yellowing books filled with lithograph images. The idea for this story grew out of those quiet hours serving "detention."

I gained several valuable skills that semester ... though, not typing. I learned that by reading something interesting and then looking up other related stuff to read, and then reading that, I was doing "research." And I learned that I enjoyed it.

My sister was interested in horses, and had actually obtained one with the help of my horse-loving mom and a wonderful horsewoman named Sally Lasater. We had land but no horse-sense or otherwise, so we faced a long learning curve that I now realize vanishes into the mists of Olympus. So during my detention I looked to see if the card catalogs had anything to say about this giant pet we had acquired, this oddly-timid tank of a creature that ate grass and pooped fertilizer and destroyed lawns by the mere act of walking upon them.

So I looked horses up in the card catalog to see if there was anything written down about them. There was an entire amazing world.