Kimberly is a friend of mine from Central Ohio Fiction Writers, my local RWA chapter. Her author story is one many of us would envy. She wrote her first book back in 2017, pitched it to Deb Gilbert from Soulmate when Deb spoke at a chapter event in early 2018, and received a request for a full manuscript, which was accepted.

Her series, Horses Heal Hearts, are set in various aspects of the horse world. The first, Dressage Dreaming, features a member of the British Olympic dressage team who gets a second chance when a black stallion named Tempest enters his life. The second features a former British special forces officer who works to spoil an attempt to fix the Triple Crown Race. I’ll let her tell you about the third one herself.

Question 1:  I love the cover of your newest book! Tell us a little bit about it.

My newest book is the third book in my Horses Heal Hearts series, Lionel’s Leap of Faith.  Lionel Hayes was first introduced to readers in Dressage Dreaming.  Lionel’s Leap of Faith is a novella and an M/M second chance at love story with one open door love scene and   takes place in the world of international show jumping.

Lionel makes his living rehabilitating abused and neglected horses. In the process, he discovers a very special horse that loves to jump and is good enough to compete internationally. Lionel needs the right rider, though.  Enter handsome and talented Monty Campbell, the perfect rider, and the first man to stir Lionel’s heart since he lost his long-time lover over a year ago. Unfortunately, what Lionel doesn’t know is that Monty is being blackmailed by the Irish mob to frame Lionel for doping.

Question 2: As I recall, you were looking into creating your first audiobook. Tell us about that experience.

I have been working with ACX to publish Dressage Dreaming as an audio book. I hired Mr. Christopher James to narrate and voice the various characters for me, and the book just became available as an Audible title last week. ACX is an established producer of audiobooks and is a subsidiary of Amazon, who owns Audible. They make the process very easy, and I’ve felt extremely comfortable working with them to get this book produced.  They do take a portion of the sales proceeds from the audiobooks in compensation, but it’s well worth it for me, because I am not at all experienced in the world of audio books.

Question 3: Your books revolved around horses and the world of horse-racing and of dressage. How did you come to know enough about those worlds to be able to write so compellingly in that setting?

I have owned at least one horse for the past 30 plus years, and have been riding dressage for that entire time.  I have my US Dressage Federation Bronze medal, and used that experience, and my connections with trainers who have competed internationally, to inform my writing about dressage.  In addition, I know many people who also own and ride horses in several different disciplines.  My experience in areas besides dressage is more limited, but the talented men and women I’ve met along the way who own horses and participate in the other disciplines I write about have been extremely generous in answering my questions and helping me to make my portrayals of their individual disciplines as authentic as possible.  I am extremely grateful to all of them for their support.

Ever since she can remember, Kimberly Beckett has loved horses. She wore out 4 rocking horses before she was 5 years old, and as she got older, she read every horse story in print, from Black Beauty to My Friend Flicka. It wasn’t until she got her first job as an attorney for the federal government, however, that could afford to buy her first horse, and she hasn’t been without at least one ever since. She has been riding dressage for several years and has earned her United States Dressage Federation Bronze Medal. When she wasn’t reading about horses, she was reading romance novels, and her favorites always involve an alpha male Hero riding a magnificent horse. Kimberly has now found a way to combine her love of horses with her love of romance by writing her own version of equine-facilitated happily ever afters. She truly believes that Horses Heal Hearts. She lives in southwest Ohio.

To find out more about Kimberly’s Horses Heal Hearts series, and to keep up with her next release, please visit her website, www.kimberlybeckett.com and sign up for her periodic email updates.