I've just ordered a new movie called HARLEY'S HILL. I haven't seen it yet but it looks terrific plus it got a great review on You Tube. I can't wait.

Harley, a thoroughbred with royal bloodlines, is being groomed to replace his father's success at Willowbrook Farms. Harley's rapid success leads him to new physical challenges.

An accident at a competition spooks him and fearing a fate like his father, he runs away. Days later, Harley is found by a rancher and his daughter.

Unable to find the owner, they nurture him back to health. Discovering Harley's amazing ability for jumping, the girl includes Harley as her partner in her horse club competitions. Harley's talent is noticed immediately and is claimed by his true owner.

Reluctantly the girl gives him up and he returns to Willowbrook Farms. Harley just wants to return to the ranch in the green hills but will he ever get back there.

If you would like to watch the film trailer, I've posted it on the website for you to enjoy.

Good news and bad news from Karen Wood. Still no definite answer from the publisher on whether there will be more Diamond Spirit books or not, but there will more rural fiction. Let's hope the new books are really horsy too!

"Hi guys,

Heaps of people have been emailing and asking if I will be writing any more books - well I can now officially say YES!!!

I had a meeting with the great and powerful at Allen and Unwin last week (which is always nice because they usually take me out for a delicious lunch).

Anyways, we had a bit of a chat about what would be good to write next and we decided to do another couple of rural / farmy fiction books, about the same size as DS, but not DS.

We haven't finished with Diamond Spirit yet, but we just need to wait and see how books 4 and 5 go first and in about 6 months we will get a good idea of how successful they've been. I still have my heart set on writing Grace's story - I have it all plotted out (she really needs to find her own special horse, don't you think?) But all in good time.

I have a ripper of a good idea for my next book and I just sent the story outline to my editor Sarah, so I'm waiting to hear if she likes it (fingers crossed). I also sent her a story about a farm dog - which is something a bit different for me. I have lots of other half cooked ideas - too many really. So anyways, in about another year - cos that how long it all takes - there will be at least another 2 books!

KAREN WOOD xx."

Book One - Diamond Spirit
Book Two - Moonstone Promise
Book Three - Opal Dreaming
Book Four- The Golden Stranger
Book Five - Brumby Mountain

Also making a long-awaited return to DVD is MISTY. The movie was made in 1961 and was based on the very famous book by Marguerite Henry, MISTY OF THE CHINCOTEAGUE

MOVIE TRIVIA
The movie is partially based on a true story. Misty, a 12-hand palomino tobiano and sabino pinto, was born on July 20, 1946 at the Beebe family farm on Chincoteague Island, Virginia. Although Misty was sired and born domestically, her parents -- known as Pied Piper and Phantom -- were wild ponies from nearby Assateague Island. Author Marguerite Henry visited the Beebe farm, and wanted to take Misty back to her home in Illinois, to serve as the model for her next book. Clarence "Grandpa" Beebe agreed to this only after Ms. Henry promised to put his grandchildren, Paul and Maureen, in the book as the main characters.

"Misty of Chincoteague" was published in 1947, and was named as a Newberry Honor book. The book became so popular with children that Misty herself was named an honorary member of the American Library Association.

Misty lived with Marguerite Henry in Illinois until 1957, when she was sent back to Virginia. She lived on the Beebe farm for the rest of her life, and had three foals: Phantom Wings, Wisp O' Mist, and Stormy -- who also became the subjects of books by Marguerite Henry. Misty died in 1972. Her taxidermized body (and that of her foal, Stormy, who died in 1993) are on display at a museum at the Beebe ranch.

Billy Beebe, a grandson of the real Clarence Beebe, appears in the movie as Tommy, the boy whose father initially buys Phantom and Misty. Denny Beebe, another Beebe grandson, appears as Denny Cole, rider of the horse called Patches in the festival horse race. (The real Clarence Beebe died in 1957, shortly after his grandson, Paul Beebe, was killed in a car crash at age 21. Maureen Beebe Hirsh still lives on Chincoteague Island.)

With the exception of the Beebe family characters, most of the people in the film are played by real-life residents of the town of Chincoteague, Virginia. The premiere of the film was held at the Island Theater (now the Roxy Theater) in Chincoteague. As part of the celebration, the real Misty placed her hoof prints in cement, and author Marguerite Henry signed her name next to the hoof prints, on the sidewalk outside the theater.

Children on the island were allowed to miss school for the filming of one particular scene in which there is a carnival. The children were told they could play and eat as many hot dogs as they would like, then given a dollar at the end of the day. Many of these adult children still live on the island and will volunteer to talk about their experience.

MISTY DVD AND FILM TRAILER

Here is a new movie CULLING HENS that is currently being filmed. It's already won a heap of awards for the screenplay and more will probably follow when it's released. It's a bit too weird for me ... give me a cute pony story any day!

SYNOPSIS
The uneducated and credulous wife of a plowman works beside her husband in the fields. Whether by mental impairment or mere simplemindedness, she has the sensibilities of a naïve child, anxiously desiring her husband’s approval and a child of her own. Now of age to help their impoverished farm, her newly acquired chore is to cull the hens, the process of disposing of chickens that are unproductive and infertile. Despite her obedience and overeager sensuality, her husband repeatedly rebukes her advances, instead choosing to spend more and more nights in the stables to care for their horses, particularly a sickly mare. These nightly absences along with his unwillingness to give her a child foster a growing suspicion of the attention he pays to the mare. Her mind wanders from her daily chores, finding herself increasingly sympathetic to the infertile hens. One night, she decides to follow her husband to the stables, his voice and the sounds of intercourse emanating from inside the barn walls. Spying on him through a small crack in the wood, she mistakes his torrid affair with another woman for one with the sickly mare. She soon learns the horse is pregnant, turning her feelings of revulsion and dismay into jealously and hatred. She plots to confront the horse, determined to terminate the child that should have been hers

 www.cullinghens.com/