Equestrian pens coming-of-age book with horse as key character
Palm Beach Post - March, 2016 -
Mimi Tashjian is passionate about riding horses and writing. The part-time Wellington resident started riding when she was seven, and never stopped as she started her career and raised a family. Tashjian also began writing when she was a kid. Her two worlds collided in late January with the release of her first novel, “John Courage.” It is a coming-of-age tale based on a childhood friend. Tashjian is about to embark on a nationwide book tour to support her novel.
“The book is a biographical work of fiction about ten years of a young girl’s life, from the time she’s 16 to the time she’s about 27,” Tashjian said. “It’s about the loss of her mother and her relationships with a couple horses that have life-defining purpose and her relationship with a young man that comes and goes. It’s about how her horse, John Courage, sculpts her journey.”
The book appeals to equestrians, who understand and appreciate the bond between horses and humans. Tashjian’s book tour will follow the horse show circuit, promoting the novel directly to her fellow riders. Her agent had trouble selling the book to publishers, because it didn’t fit into an easily marketable category. Tashjian ended up publishing the book through a wholesale book catalogue and offering it for sale on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
“So far, the book has begun its trajectory in the equestrian community,” she said. “I’m confident that the horse community, no matter where they are in the world, will love this story and find themselves in the story somewhere. If you love horses and you grew up with horses, you will find yourself in it. If you don’t ride horses, you likely will still find yourself in it, because it’s a story of family, and loss, and love, and the dynamics of the relationships between family members.”
Tashjian is donating a portion of the book’s proceeds to the Equestrian Aid Foundation. She hopes the book will catch on and attract mainstream readers. It’s not easy to pour your heart into something for two years, then give it to the world and be subjected to people’s opinions.
“The day the book came out, I had about half a day where I was very aware of this feeling in my head like I was standing in the middle of Times Square completely naked,” Tashjian said. “Something I thought was lovely and well-written and beautiful, suddenly was subject to the criticism of everybody in the world.”
While she tours for the book and continues competing in the horse show circuits, Tashjian hopes to finish a few more projects, including a coffee table book about female riders. Like herself, most equestrians have as much going on outside the show ring as they do within it.
“I’m working on a photographic portrait essay of equestrian women,” she said. “I’m doing that with an equine photographer named Kathy Russell. She’s taking the photographs and I’m writing. It’s portraits of women who are highly competitive in the equestrian world, but who have very full other lives.”
Amy Bower Doucette writes about the equestrian communities for Neighborhood Post. Send mail to 2751 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach, FL 33405. Call 561-820-4763, fax 561-837-8320. neighborhood@pbpost.com