Sometimes you find yourself in the right place at the right time. This happened at Breyerfest 2019. I can’t remember where I was coming from nor my final destination, but I found myself near the indoor warm up arena. I saw a few waiting Civil War Union dressed horses and riders.
I turned around and saw servicemen leading a black horse.
A chestnut mare with military attire appeared and I stayed as they maneuvered the two horses for a photo op.
During the photo op a few people mentioned going to the Sergeant Reckless statue for pictures and I found myself joining the small entourage. Robin Hutton, the author of Sergeant Reckless, was a part of the group. Silly me forgot to bring my copy of the book to Breyerfest!
It was slow moving because people wanted to take photos with the mare. She was adorable, so why wouldn’t you? It gave me a chance to take pictures of her tack.
You can never have too many reference photos.
Eventually we made it to our destination. The Kentucky Horse Park unveiled their statue of Sergeant Reckless in 2018. The Kentucky Horse Park isn’t the only place to have a sculpture of the mare. Susan Bensema Young of Timaru Star II saw another statue in Virginia.
Not Sergeant Reckless posed next to the statue.
A Sgt. Reckless blanket was brought out and more photos ensued.
I’m happy I was in the right place at the right time to take these photos!
Last week, I attended ABA’s 2020 Winter Institute. It’s an annual conference for booksellers and publishers to interact and meet. ABA is the American Booksellers Association.
This was the conference’s 15th year and the biggest turn out yet. Over 700 booksellers, 140 authors, and 160 publishers convened in Baltimore for 4 days of panels, sessions, and book signings.
The three of us left at 4:30 am. I needed to be there so I could go on a tour and my co-worker needed to be there so she could attend an Anti-Trust Symposium in Washington, DC.
SO THE TOUR.
I toured Penguin-RandomHouse’s warehouse. It was amazing. One of the managers is a plastic pony collector so we fangirled over books and Breyers. The two most important things. We were asked to not take pictures of the actual warehouse. But I’ve never seen so many books before.
The first night we went to two parties. The first was a welcome one. The second party was romance themed and hosted by Harper. It was nice to attend a party that surrounded romances in multiple genres. I met all of the present authors and had books signed.
Throughout the whole conference there were various signing parties.
The galley room opened after breakfast on Wednesday. OMG. THERE WERE SO MANY BOOKS. The galley room was full of finished and unfinished copies of books that the publishers wanted industry professionals to see. And see them we did.
Lunch over the course of the conference meant meeting with various publishing houses and being pitched their upcoming releases.
The sessions and panels ranged from podcasting to historical figures. One such panel was about Black booksellers in the 1960s. The FBI wrote thousands of pages about them because they encouraged reading, their community’s engagement, and Civil Rights. Oh the horror. Their stories were powerful.
I watched an incredible panel with Jason Reynolds and Ibram Kendi about their collaboration called Stamped. It’s the young adult version of Kendi’s nonfiction book called Stamped From The Beginning.Stamped is one of my most anticipated reads of the year.
I was invited to a small dinner hosted by Disney publishing managers and some of their authors. One dessert was a cake made from the cover of Brandy Colbert’s The Voting Booth which is coming out later this year.
I came home with some amazing books. One afternoon I meandered around in the galley room and ran into an article writer for ABA’s website. I was quoted in their Winter Institute article about my feelings about the conference.
We woke up on Saturday to rain. It continued until we reached Pennsylvania. The four days of being surrounded by so many awesome people was over. However in no way did we come home empty handed. The minivan was filled with books–the majority of them being ARCs. ARCs are advance reader copies that publishers distribute to booksellers, reviewers, and influencers to create buzz for upcoming books. So I have a lot of reading to do!
In the mean time, here’s a look back to the 2019 Breyerfest. On the day of the Breyerfest Open show, I left the show to wander the park. The Kentucky Horse Park hosts a diverse array of equine breeds so I decided to watch some of the breed Show.
First up was the Akhal-Teke, which is one of my favorite breeds. This is Magnatli, a 2003 gelding.
So pretty!
Next is the Gypsy Vanner.
They always have such a distinctive look to them.
After watching some of the show, I moved towards the barns.
The owners and grooms of these high caliber horses are always so generous with allowing attendees access to them. This was one of the sweet police horses.
I love meeting the real life counterparts of models. Here’s Dominate XXIX.
I was trying to come up with a clever title for this post, since it’s going to be my last one. Your last ever blog post?!
Nope.
Since we’re going into a new decade, I figured it was time for a change.
I finished making a new website and blog–new name, new year.
Nothing is going to change. I’ll still be blogging about the plastic pony world. But there will also be a larger splash of book talk and real horse blab. I will still have a Facebook, Instagram, but will be adding YouTube to the list.
It has been fun having Five Paws Studio. I’m so glad my friend Madison kept nagging me to make a blog when we were 15/16 years old.
Our Feather Fund donations from a few years ago
It’s seen me through high school,
college,
and a mirage of other things.
So here it is. Hopefully you’ll follow me over there!
Kristian Beverly 