The Barbaro Story, Revisited

So a little update on my thinking with regard to the status of my still unsold Barbaro manuscript is probably in order. No it hasn't sold--unless I am the last to hear the news--but in some ways, this all may be OK.

It is two years since I signed that contract with the Jacksons to write the story of their remarkable horse, but it was always understood, that I wasn't going to write this book on spec. In other words, no sale, no book. So I wrote a very detailed 100 plus page proposal in which I outlined the entire book, chapter by chapter (and which, by the way, not a single editor at a single publishing house in New York has said that they dislike), and no takers. These decisions, as I am told, are made by committees made up of sales and marketing gurus as well as editors. The bottom line is that sales and marketing is hesitant to take a chance on an unknown with an known story. Now if Gretchen or Roy were to write their version of the book, that would be a different story....

What has happened in the interim is that the story has continued to develop and is now, I believe a very different one from the original drama. This is now not a tale of survival but of legacy and I think it is time to write that.

So after a lot of thought, I have decided to do that but not as originally planned. I have one class left to get my Masters of Liberal Arts degree and one thesis to write--two semesters of work-- and that is what I am going to do. I have managed to enlist the key "horse person" academic at Penn to serve as my advisor for an independent study first semester in which I plan to outline this book and organize the research that is taking over my office, probably narrowing down the various topics that point in many directions.

And then I am going to write something that definitely will begin where Barbaro ended and explore what he inspired on many different levels. It will have to tell his story of course but it seems to me the real story begins after he dies. How a horse inspired change.

So here's where you come in. I am the kind of person who likes to have a working title and all the ones I have come up with fall a bit flat. See what you come up with and let me know. Any and all suggestions are welcome, now and going forward. After all, you're part of this journey that needs to gain validity by finally putting pen to paper....