Man does not live by bread alone but this woman does when she’s writing. Were it not for Mrs. Ryan Schilling and her soda bread, Mrs. Robert Satterfield and her banana bread, Mrs. William Stevenson III and her corn bread, I’d perish. Emily, Sue, and Lynn, respectively, are also members of Oak Ridge Hunt Club. Sue leads first flight and is bold as brass. Emily is training as a whipper-in and helps me in the kennels, and Lynn is our hunt secretary, a task I wouldn’t wish on a dog and she performs it with aplomb.
I note here the passing of my glorious, huge, old Plott hound, Punch. He was eighteen, had all his faculties, but age caught up with him May 1, 2007. Born to hunt bear, he did so without my contrivance. When he finally realized we hunt foxes around here, he declined smaller game and took up hunting thunderstorms. This had to be seen to be believed. He was a dear friend and I will miss him. Even my cats miss him, which is a testimony to his personality.
On another note, four hunt books equal one year. I have not clearly stated this before but thought perhaps I should. Each book represents a season: spring, summer, fall, winter. If I didn’t do this, Sister would be one hundred before you know it. Yes, she has to grow older, as do I, but let’s not rush it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
RITA MAE BROWN is the bestselling author of (among others) Rubyfruit Jungle, Six of One, Southern Discomfort, Outfoxed, and a memoir, Rita Will. She also collaborates with her tiger cat, Sneaky Pie, on the New York Times bestselling Mrs. Murphy mystery series. An Emmy-nominated screenwriter and poet, she lives in Afton, Virginia. She is master and huntsman of the Oak Ridge Foxhunt Club and is one of the directors of Virginia Hunt Week. She founded the first all-women’s polo club, Blue Ridge Polo, in 1988. She was also Visiting Faculty at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. Visit her website at www.ritamaebrown.com.
Books by Rita Mae Brown with “Sister” Jane Arnold in the Outfoxed series
Outfoxed
Hotspur
Full Cry
The Hunt Ball
The Hounds and the Fury
Books by Rita Mae Brown with Sneaky Pie Brown
Wish You Were Here
Rest in Pieces
Murder at Montecello
Pay Dirt
Murder, She Meowed
Murder on the Prowl
Cat on the Scent
Sneaky Pie’s Cookbook for Mystery Lovers
Pawing Through the Past
Claws and Effects
Catch as Cat Can
The Tail of the Tip-Off
Whisker of Evil
Cat’s Eyewitness
Sour Puss
Puss n’ Cahoots
Books by Rita Mae Brown
The Hand That Cradles the Rock
Songs to a Handsome Woman
The Plain Brown Rapper
Rubyfruit Jungle
In Her Day
Six of One
Southern Discomfort
Sudden Death
High Hearts
Started from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writer’s Manual
Bingo
Venus Envy
Dolley: A Novel of Dolley Madison in Love and War
Riding Shotgun
Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser
Loose Lips
Alma Mater
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The Tell-tale Horse Page 24