there is much to scan

You know the type. The Saddle Club. Pony Pals. If you're really in the know, you know the Animorphs author had a horse girl series called The Silver Creek Riders, which, in my opinion, was the best. Books about a group of girls (usually in batches in three) who meet at a stable and conflict over horses, and maybe boys, but probably not, and ride a lot. Usually there's a mean rich girl for one girl to be rivals with. Usually there's a Big Show. And when the author really wants to raise the stakes, a horse dies.

Well, recently I unearthed the character sketches and concept art for what I'm sure would have been an, um, impressive horse girl series. May I invite you to Shadow Lane Stables?

It's the 90s and Baby Rayless is doing it right. We got the central horse girl image, with the horse girls, on their horses, smiling at horse girl stuff. (Notice how back than I was way more confident drawing horses than actual human beings.) We have both the series title and the brilliantly original title for the first book (The New Stable). And we have a bold border frame and two horse logos for immediately recognizable series branding. This is going to look so good on some fifth-grader's shelf.

But I didn't stop at cover art, oh no. Check out my very technical maps of Shadow Lane Stables' layout.

Included: dressage ring, outside ring, inside ring, a stable with stalls for all the horses, an immobile mounting block, and, in the front of the stable, something I called the "Equus". Equus is the Latin word for "horse", and, as best as I can tell, it's supposed to be a door wide enough for horses to pass through. No stable on planet earth has anything called an Equus, and Shadow Lane Stables is going to have a real problem with theater nerds trying to break in.

But a horse girl series is nothing without some horse girls, no?

I cast my horse girls in fifth grade, primo horse girl age, and drew them all with a propensity to lean hard on their right feet. On the left is Marcia West, who "thinks she knows everything about horses". She struggled with riding in the past and so has resumed the sport at the beginner level, re-learning everything from the ground up. She has a bridle slung over her shoulder to show she's ready to grab her horse and ride. Marcia's identified as a "Pessimist" and "Dramatic".

On the right is Nicole Hiroko, who's logical, smart, and artistic. Her notes say she "doesn't know all that much about horses but ends up buying one". Isn't it strange how that happens? She's an "Omptomist", and, yeah, when the universe just drops a horse in your lap, I guess you have a right to be omptomistic.

On the left is Carmen Cassara who is an orphan and athletic, extroverted, and "scheeming", but in a fun way, not an antisocial way. She's afraid of horses, but her aunt runs the stable, so not only does she have to ride, she has to wear a branded shirt, I guess. She's a mix of happy and more downbeat traits, or, as I put it, "Opto-Pesto".

Those are our three main horse girls, Marcia, Nicole, and Carmen. I'm sure they would have gone on lots of great horsey adventures, and maybe solved a mystery in one of the books.

On the right is the mean rich girl antagonist (you know she's rich because she's wearing hunting pinks even though she's not hunting), Margo Michelle Michaels. She's twelve, a sixth grader, so evil. Her crimes are listed as "thinking she knows everything" (so, not so different from Marcia?) and owning two horses. I bet she doesn't love either of them. She's no true horse girl! She's not even identified as an Omptomist or a Pessimist!

Special love to tertiary character Marcy Davis, who's denigrated as yet another "know it all" and who has the most crap-eating little face.

But of course for Baby Rayless the real allure of this exercise wasn't designing a stable with an Equus door or even character-building the horse girls. It was drawing the horses at the stable and characterizing them. I will spare you the entire herd, but here's some of the art and notes.

Pictured: Riddle Me This (Riddle). Despite his personality being "docile but a bit hard to handle", he's listed as suitable for Beginner level (we need three levels of Beginners because along with knowing Latin, we are thorough bitches at Shadow Lane). You give absolutely newbies the pony who's hard to handle? Yeah, riddle me that.

Peaches & Cream (Peaches). She's "amazingly obidient", but dislikes jumping. Peaches has her limits.

Baloney: A mustang, who presumably someone tore from the vast ranges of Montana and named Baloney. He's only suitable for the most advanced Beginner riders, heading up into Intermediate riders. "Stubborn. If you show him who's boss, though, you'll have fun." Maybe Baloney would have had a better attitude if he'd been named Sam.

On the other hand, I think that's him on the cover image, so he was afforded some dignity.

Kitten (Kitty), mostly included here because her art is cute and she has a cat friend, Elvis. She likes the cat so much, they basically just named her cat. Shadow Lane is creative enough to name a door Equus, but names a horse Kitty.

Raindrop. Raindrop is our Wild and Fierce Horse That No One Should Go Near Because They Might Get Hurt. If you know your horse girl tropes, you know what that means. I don't remember if one of the girls would have bonded with him and taught him the joys of toting elementary school children around a small ring on his back, or which of the girls it would have been, but I can tell you it wouldn't have been know it all Marcy Davis. I wanted to include him though because I did a good job on his art. Well done, Baby Rayless. Now learn to draw a human face.

Along with the map and the character art and the horses, I made sundry other housekeeping notes, which horses were suitable for what riding level (Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced, with subgroups), which horses were used for rider evaluations, what special tack requirements there were for individual horses. And, hilariously, which horses should maybe die over the course of the series.

It is time to raise the stakes.

Twelve horses, Baby Rayless?!! You were going to whack twelve horses? My child, Shadow Lane Stables is going to be shut down pending an investigation by the ASPCA.

To be fair, these weren't all definite. The lefthand column reads Deaths (Possible), whereas the righthand one says, troublingly, Possibilities. So very likely most of these horses -- Chester, Strawberry, Jo, Baloney (along with being named Baloney, he was in the running to die tragically), Blue, Bubble, Hoshi, Jasmine, Winter, Esmerelda, Turqoise, and Bittersweet -- would have survived. And gone on to get tie-in Breyer models, I'm sure.

There is a check though by Hoshi's name, so oh no, get yourself a box of tissues. Given Hoshi's Japanese name, I suspect she would have been Nicole's horse (I don't have art of her to confirm this). I'm guessing that if her horse dies, Nicole might too become an Opto-Pesto.

I do have art for Bubble though.

Temperment: Competitive. Hard to win when you're dead, Bubble.

A WILDERNESS OF STARS

But the silver shape was not quite what he'd expected. As he flew down into the trees, he didn't see the tall elegant form of a sorcerer strolling smugly through the woodland. He saw the low elegant form of a silver lion strolling smugly through the woodland. A lion with black gazelle horns, most naturally, as well as a jeweled and pink-enameled barrel hanging under his throat. Bartel looped around into his path and transformed, glaring down into the lion's eyes, which were momentarily startled. Then the lion sat down on his haunches and, if anything, looked even smugger. “Well?” he asked.

Roger here was a departure from my usual villains -- he's mostly here to be funny. I mean, he gets in the way of what the hero Bartel needs to accomplish, push him far enough and he'll become a threat to your well-being, and he's certainly extremely powerful. But, like, dark? Complex? Menacing? That's not Roger. His primary motivators are self-interest, comfort, and looking good.

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TO THE RAVENS

A stranger – an outcast – a secret plot... Could you fool them without making the whole city want to kill you?

Rejected by her clan, Akantha has few options. In the Roman lunar colonies, where people are winged and there are rumors of barbarians beyond the city walls, she knows to keep her head down and not hope for a great destiny – or anything beyond what the gods, the Romans, or her city allow a mere woman.

But then, a stranger enters her life, Alexandros the Peregrine, a mysterious golden prophet. He claims he can make the city his – and hers – with just their wits. He speaks as if the Romans can't hurt them. And as for the gods? He's about to make a god of his very own.

With humor, romance, and biting emotion, Akantha's story unfolds. Alexandros will change her life forever. Is he a savior who will bring her freedom, or is he a force far too dangerous for her to fall in love with?