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Likely Question: From ghost to horses is quite a switch, how come?
JG: I’ve always had a strong interest in horses; my parents grew up in days when they were an essential part of everyday life and were very fond of all they had known. My mother was especially tender toward horses and aware of their misfortunes. She read Black Beauty to me many times, always stressing that the author shared our name, Sewell, and that we might be somehow related. She said the book had done immeasurable good for horses. But apart from that, I’ve just always been attracted to to the species. I can’t imagine anything more beautiful.
Have you had a lot of horses?
JG: Just two and that after I reached middle-aged and lacked the agility and courage to learn to ride well, I had a grey Arabian mare and a bay quarter horse gelding and enjoyed both of them greatly, but mainly as pets. They both had sad ends: the mare had to be killed at the age of 22 because her hooves were hopelessly diseased and the gelding, though he was in someone else’s hands by then, had to be killed because he developed a brain tumor. By then I had learned all the down aspects of horse keeping, that it’s very expensive and a lot of hard work that you’d better get conditioned to in early life or you probably can’t hack it.
How long did it take you to write this book?
JG: About eighteen months. I began Missouri Horses in March of 2002 and it was printed in November of 2003.
What is your work schedule like?
JG: Pretty much 9 to 5. I have several pets to take care of and usually can get that done by 9 and work until supper time. The dog who stays in my office does not observe daylight saving time, so gets troublesome about 4 in the afternoon, wanting us to stop work and go eat. I sometimes work at night to, if I have interviews to do or other phone calls that can be made then.
You don’t have any trouble keeping such a schedule?
JG: No, I think because of my newspaper background. I was accustomed to writing on schedule, for several hours at a time, to just sitting down and doing it, not expecting any inspiration or other help. It’s pretty much the same, fiction or nonfiction. Of course many work days are destroyed by necessary trips out to do errands or keep appointments. To my great regret, I’m not able to do work in scraps of time. I usually use the remnants of days for household task.
What do you do for recreation?
JG: Not much. The dogs and I used to take a lot of walks, but my oldest now has some arthritis which makes her decline walks most days. Every since I learned to read, however, my main pleasure in life has been books, and I don’t need much else. I don’t enjoy shopping for it’s own sake, or eating out or travel...I do like horse shows and old house tours and museums and art exhibits. I suppose I’d say conversation is my favorite recreation, with people who share some of my interest or from whom I can learn something.
Who are some of your favorite writers?
JG: Right now some of my favorites P. D. James, Deborah Crombie and lighter, cozy mystery series with animals involved, mainly those by Rita Mae Brown, Lillian Jackson Braun and Susan Conant. I enjoy returning again and again to some settings and groups of people. I’ve liked Dick Francis...more seriously Iris Murboch, and Saul Bellow and of course biographies - most often writers and woman of historical importance or achievement. In poetry, I love Jane Kenyon, Mary Oliver, Henry Taylor, Richard Wilbur, May Swenson or, going farther back, Gerard Manley Hopkins, William Blake....so many more. What I don’t read is any novel advertised as “coming of age” or “a slice of life” or “three generations of strong women”. Exotic locations and political, military or business world intrigues, horror and “action” repell me. I seldom read historical novels anymore. These exclusions, I think, are typical of people who have read a great deal and are burned out on all but the simple and straight forward, or maybe people who don’t feel human relationships are of much importance in view of the physical suffering in the world that is inadequately attended to.
What do you like most about writing? Least?
JG: I could almost say research and research. The initial part - finding out - is very exciting to me, considerably ahead of seeing the finished project in print. The worst is checking out research, going back to be sure that dates and details are right and resolving questions raised by anyone who reads proof for me.
What will your next project be?
JG: Probably a sequel to my two ghost books. I have almost enough material on hand to start. That’s three chapters of little known Missouri exclusives and a great many personal stories people have given me. The ghost books don’t take so long to do because little verifying is possible beyond repeating what people say they have experienced and are willing to have their names attached to.
Are you thinking farther ahead then that?
JG: Yes, I’d like to do a book called Holiday Horses and More. It would be a collection of Christmas fiction I’ve done for horse magazines in the past, most with the supernatural twist. The And More would be factual, research I hope to complete on someone who has obsessed me for several years. She was from New England, a woman named Belle Beach, for whom a champion was named by a slave-born Missourian named Tom Bass. The human Belle Beach was called, in her day, the most perfect equestrienne in the world and Tom Bass, born 25 years or more before her, was an internationally respected horse trainer and exhibitor. In 1927 when she was about 50, Belle Beach killed herself because of poverty and health problems. I hope to find out what happened to her career and her mysterious husband, a Scot born in Africa who apparently came to the US. in 1904 to participate in the Boer War Extravaganza at the Worlds Fair. She divorced him in 1912. And I hope to find out the connection between her and Bass. In Kansas City, when she was 27 and he was in his 50’s, Belle Beach beat him in a show with a beautiful black champion mare named Lady Bonnie. Was that there first meeting? Did Bass rename his best mare just out of respect and admiration for the young horsewoman? Or did she perhaps do something significant for him? Many more questions exists about her life and about Tom Bass and their two black mares. They lived in interesting times. For instance, a man who had judged them often in horse shows was among Titanic’s victims, as were a number of other prominent horseman they probably knew. I have fascinating research ahead of me and can hardly wait to get at it full time.
You earlier mentioned the good that Black Beauty did. Did you hope your book will do that too?
JG: Of course. Some readers will say it should be more objective, but my research revealed appalling abuse and neglect of horses through history, and sickening attitudes towards them even today. I passed along as much of that as I could, hoping to raise consciousness about what horses suffer at our hands and to remind everyone that equines are noble creatures who deserve much better then most of them get. That’s not to say the book is overly grim and preachy. It has been gratifying to see how many people today very openly express gratitude and love for their horses and how many regard them of gifts from God, carrying obligations for appreciative use. I stressed that all, too, to reinforce the best impulses of people who are already compassionate and careful.
So this book is a labor of love?
JG: We could say that, but I hope it makes some profit so I can do another.
And there will be a Volume II on Missouri Horses?
JG: If present conditions hold. Time and the cost of publication prevented getting everything into the first book that should have been there. I have almost enough material to do another, and enough leads for new research. Some of the contents of a second horse book are listed at the back of this one.
So we may plan on meeting like again in a couple of years?
JG: I hope!
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