Christina Lynch - Pony Confidential
Joining me for this episode is multi-genre author Christina Lynch. Christina and I have a fun chat about her latest novel, Pony Confidential. The humorous novel sets the stage for an equine mystery. Featuring a snarky and endearing pony, who solves the mystery of the only human he has ever loved of a crime she didn’t commit. Also, we chat about Christina’s work teaching writing and how she herself has written about so many topics and genres. Have a listen to this fun and insightful chat with author Christina Lynch. Enjoy!
Listen to Episode #224 Now:
BIO:
Christina Lynch is at the beck and call of two dogs, three horses, and a hilarious pony who carts her up and down mountains while demanding (and receiving) many carrots. Besides Pony Confidential, she is also the author of two historical novels set in Italy and the coauthor of two comic thrillers set in Prague and Vienna. She teaches at College of the Sequoias and lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
Transcript:
This is Pet Life Radio.
Let's talk pets.
Welcome to Animal Rights on Pet Life Radio.
This is your host, Tim Link, and I'm so glad you're joining us today.
Super duper excited about this show, because we do a lot of mystery writing, you know?
We have a lot of mystery writers on here and authors, and we talk about dogs and cats and little things, but not often do we talk about a horse that is a super slew.
And this time we've got it.
We're going to be talking to Christina Lynch about her latest book, Pony Confidential.
One small pony, one big mystery.
So I'm super excited about that.
I want to talk to Christina about the book, horses of courses, and then obviously talk about writing in general.
So everybody hang tight.
We'll come back right after this commercial break.
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Welcome back to Animal Rights on Pet Life Radio.
Joining me now is author of the latest book, Pony Confidential, One Small Pony, One Big Mystery.
We're talking about author, Christina Lynch.
Christina, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much.
I'm really happy to be here.
Oh, we're super excited to have you on.
And I was speaking a little bit off line and giving a little teaser that, you know, we get all these wonderful mystery novels about all these wonderful creatures solving all these different crimes.
And I think maybe there was a horse every once in a while that comes as a secondary character and those type of things, but not leading the way.
So I'm super excited about it.
So tell us a little bit about the book, Pony Confidential.
And without giving it all away, some little teasers get everybody excited.
Sure, I'm very happy to.
Yeah, as far as I know, this is the first ever book for adults written from the point of view of a pony.
Yes, I love it.
It's pretty funny.
I mean, it's an animal that figures quite large in our consciousness as children.
And it's at the top of the Christmas wish list often.
But this is the story of a pony who has been passed from person to person to person.
As happens with so many ponies.
And he's pretty angry about that.
When we meet him, he is actually out for revenge.
Looking for the one little girl that he really connected with, but who then sold him 25 years earlier.
And the other point of view of the book is that of Penny, who is that little girl now all grown up.
And right there on page one, Penny is arrested on her doorstep for a murder that happened 25 years earlier.
Love the twists and turns.
And to tell you, as a side note, you know, it is, I never believe in things, I don't believe in coincidences.
I believe everything is meant to be, and there's a reason for everything.
And before I even told my wife today that, because she's a huge horse lover, and I was talking to her, before I told her I was going to be interviewing you about the, your book, Pony Confidential, we start talking about horses and people who had horses and how they're always changing hands.
They're not like your dogs or your cats, you know?
And sometimes it's because of changes in life.
Sometimes it's because the little girl gets a pony and the pony grows up and the little girl grows up and they go away.
Sometimes it's, you can't find the right stable to put them in, you know, or the right location, all these wonderful things.
And then, of course, I had to break it to her that I'm going to be talking to you.
And then there's a murdering ball.
And I love the fact that, you know, we talk, as we said about, you know, ponies and horses in general as the lead character in a mystery.
And you sort of teased on it, you know, growing up, not me growing up, because I'm much too young.
But, you know, I've seen on YouTube about this thing called Mr.
Ed.
I don't know anything about it.
But, you know, it's a talking horse.
And you're right, we don't see many books from that perspective, though so many people love ponies and horses.
Yeah, it's interesting to me that we haven't, because as you're saying, you know, we don't think about, like, our dogs and cat.
Like, you wouldn't sell your dog, right?
Right.
And when dogs are lost or separated from their owners, like, it's tragic.
And they're microchipped and all of that.
And horses are, you know, sold on.
But ponies, I mean, we entrust our children to ponies, and then the kids' legs get too long, and the pony is sold, and it goes off to another place.
But if you think about, like, what does that feel like from the pony's point of view?
So the pony finds this perfect child, and it has this idyllic time, and then has to start all over.
So that's kind of the emotional basis for the story, but treated obviously in a very humorous way.
Yeah.
Well, it's very true.
I mean, it is very true, because they have emotions.
They go through everything that we go through and that any other animal goes through.
And just stepping into their consciousness will say, you know, can you imagine, you got this perfect set up, everything's going good.
You're eating carrots like crazy.
And then the next day, you know, you're at a different place with a different person and different girl.
It's got to be such a strange world.
And now 25 years later, there's a sort of a reunion slash murderer happening.
Yes, exactly.
And I want to stress that the pony, it's not like Mr.
Ed, the pony cannot talk directly to humans.
What the pony is convinced that he can do is plant an idea in your head and then make you act on it, which if you have dogs, they do that to us a lot.
They'll stare at you and, you know, force you to go to the treat jar.
So the pony has spent his life kind of learning how to read humans and manipulate them to do what he wants, which has mostly been about food.
But now he's out on the road, loose in the world, trying to find Penny who, at the same time, it's a bit of a reversal, because usually it's the pony who's locked up and the humans who are loose in the world.
And in this case, in this novel, the pony is loose in the world and it's the human who's locked up.
Wow, that sounds like Utopia in some cases, but I won't go there, I won't go there.
So the brainchild behind the book, is this an epiphany you woke up to one day?
Of course, I know you have horses and I love horses, but is this something you thought, well, nobody's written a book about that, maybe I need to do that, or maybe somebody told you, hey, well, you need to write that book.
And you go, oh no, okay, I will.
Anyway.
It is a little bit of that, that I thought, you know, we have some books kind of set in the horse world about horses, but just that there, I own a half pony, so I'm a regular height adult.
So I can't ride, you know, my childhood dream pony.
Although I'll get to him, he does exist.
But the pony that I have is almost horse size, but she is a large pony, technically.
She's 14 hands and she's half Welsh pony and half Arabian.
And she was my pandemic pal.
So I was teaching from home and she was the person.
I mean, the dogs, yes, but she was my workout buddy, my shrink, my personal trainer, and really my entertainment.
So I was spending a lot of time with her and I knew I wanted to start a new book project.
And I was also teaching the Odyssey.
And yes, I am referring to the ancient Greek home.
And somehow, and I know it sounds insane, but these two ideas merged in the head of the pony who's looking, because ponies live for a long time, right?
So the idea of an old pony who's trying to find his owner, Odysseus, the aging warrior, trying to get back home to Penelope.
Okay.
So that's why the person that the pony is looking for is named Penny after Penelope in The Odyssey.
And a lot of the same emotions drive both of the works of literature.
Nice.
Well, I will say it has been many moons since I've read The Odyssey.
I think it was forced upon me.
Understandable.
Yeah.
One of these educators of college that forces you to read these things.
I know you wouldn't have anything to do with that.
No, it's true.
But when I assigned it, I think students kind of went, and then we all got way into it.
You might want to revisit it, particularly in an audio version, because of course it was meant to be recited.
And it's a fascinating story.
It reads like an action movie.
So it did inspire a book about a pony.
I love that.
And I love your teaching style.
You know, I forgot to mention, you obviously teach at the College of the Sequoias.
And I love that aspect, because I can imagine being one of your students sitting there and you say, okay, we're going to read Odyssey.
And I'm like, what is that?
Let me Google it.
Figure out what is Odyssey.
Isn't that a Honda hybrid, My Parents Drive or something?
I don't know what's going on.
It's a mini man.
And then you sell them on the idea that it's actually an action movie.
You know, it's an action.
It's like a real old man.
I love it.
And there's plenty of action in the book.
You know, it's heartfelt.
It does wrap around, you know, it brings you, it has a beginning, a rapture back around again to the characters and everything going on.
And I won't give away the plotline as a whole or the ending for sure.
But how do you see this?
We talked about the differentiations of a horse leading the way in this.
How do you see it as far as comparing it to other mysteries out there?
Will your fans say, wow, I love that because we have a different type of character in here, but it's still got a great hidden mystery behind it?
Yeah, I think it is a little bit unusual in the mystery genre, and it didn't begin life, the project, as a mystery.
I started it kind of just as a journey story, and it became a mystery later.
And Penny's story is really, it's an unusual whodunit because it begins with our protagonist being arrested for murder, and then you slowly learn what that murder was.
So in some ways, you know, it's a little bit of a reversal or a twist of the traditional mystery.
So yeah, so she's arrested, and then she's trying to figure out what happened.
How did she end up being arrested for this murder?
And meanwhile, the pony in trying to find her stumbles upon what happened.
And then you, you know, the two stories have to come together.
So yeah, and he's the only one who's out in the world.
I love it.
I love it.
And I do love the fact that he plants, plants seeds, because I do know, you know, from having horses in my life and being around horses often.
They do.
They know when to plant those seeds.
They'll laugh at you when you think, you know, you've got them figured out.
They don't, you know.
Yeah.
And their world is, the world is ordered around food.
So even as the pony is looking for clues in the mystery, it's all done by, you know, the type of hay and the type of grain.
And where can I get this?
It's all, like his world is constructed as most of our pets.
You know, I don't know about your dogs, but, you know, mine, the day is structured around food.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's structured around them, period, let alone the food regimen.
I've even got a feral cat that is outside my house.
He's got two heated beds, covered area, best food, best supper, you know, he's got everything.
But yet he's officially feral.
Yeah.
And if that food's not out there by 530, he's sitting there, we got a little hay bale out front, and he's like, hello.
So you're right.
Food centers around everything, and definitely with horses for sure.
So I love that.
I love that.
Well, everybody hang tight.
We'll come back right after this commercial break.
We'll continue our conversation with author Christina Lynch in her new book, Pony Confidential.
So everybody hang tight, you're listening to Animal Rights on Pet Life Radio.
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PetLifeRadio.com Welcome back to Animal Rights on PetLife Radio.
Continuing our conversation with author Christina Lynch in her latest book, Pony Confidential, One Small Pony, One Big Mystery.
Now, Christina, when everybody picks up a copy of the book, they're going to love it.
It's got a great mystery.
It's got a great hook.
As we said, it's got some interesting characters in there for sure.
It's got some humor and some tidbits in there as well.
So you did a wonderful job wrapping it all together.
But you, as an author, and you put together the book, it's all done and dusted, and everybody's buying it in the masses.
What do you hope they gain from it?
Was there a goal or an idea where you get a fan letter back that says, this is what I got from it?
You'd say, I did my job.
I think what I've been hearing that has been just so gratifying to me is the idea that it's really making people laugh and think about their relationships with all the animals in their lives, right?
So I've already had some notes from people saying, oh, I rode a pony as a kid, or we had horses on the farm when I was growing up, or my grandfather had a pony that lived in the pasture who was a million years old and that kind of thing.
But even people who are not horsey people are saying, oh my gosh, because there's a lot of animal characters in the book.
There's a very important goat and a crucial, crucial dog character as well as other supporting dog characters.
But it is about animal emotions.
And I think that's what a lot of people are connecting with.
And that is just making me so happy.
I have to tell you, this weekend, I was driving down the highway with a friend and our two horses in that my pony and her horse in the trailer in the back, and my two dogs in the back seat.
And I thought, I'm actually sort of living the life of this book.
We're on the road, you know?
Pony Road.
So yeah, I'm really just thrilled that people are really laughing and enjoying it, but also feeling the full range of emotions, because the novel has heartbreak in it, and it explores grief and longing and all the forms of love.
It's about the love between a mother and her daughter, as well.
So yeah, it's really been wonderful to have people connect so deeply with something that, honestly, like I wrote during the pandemic to entertain myself.
I love it.
I love it.
I think my wife's disappointed every holiday when the pony doesn't show up underneath the tree.
It's like, oh, jewelry, oh, no.
Christmas is coming.
But it's a lifetime commitment.
I can never see myself.
I will say the one and only horse that owned me, though I've worked with them and been around them for years, is when I was a young kid, I had a brother-in-law who was impulsive in buying things.
He would, I got my first car from him because he bought it and got bored of it, gave it to me, got my first racetrack, gave it to me and my first horse.
But it was a two-year-old barrel racer, thoroughbred, black, excuse me, a black stallion barrel racer.
And I was all of about seven years old.
So let's say, let's say we found a better-
I was trying to get rid of you.
I think so.
And then my dad looked at the first bill for all the hay and everything.
He's like, I think, I think a better home somewhere down the road.
So in any case.
Well, let's talk about writing in general then, because obviously we talked about the odyssey and your teaching of that.
You've written for the Harvard Lampoon.
That's where the humor obviously had a great background of that.
You've also written historical novels and historical nonfiction type things.
And now you're coming out with a murder mystery slash humor, touching love, all animal story.
Tell us about that writing, how they all compare, how one can help the other.
And then what about the diversity?
Because so many, most of my stuff that I've written is a little bit of humor, but it's day to day life with animals.
It's a lot of nonfiction or a lot of real life type things.
I can't say that I'm a master novelist, and I definitely can't tell you the history of Italy.
I could tell you because I've been there, but I couldn't write about it.
But you can write about all these wonderful things.
So how does that come about?
And then how does one help the other when you're writing?
That's a great question, and I teach writing here at the college.
So I talk to my students about that a lot.
And I think it's when you are young and you fall in love with storytelling, right?
So in any form, some people do it around the dinner table, some people do it around a campfire, some people write them down.
And I've always been a storyteller.
There was a brief moment when I thought, maybe I'll be a veterinarian and then high school chemistry, like I'll be a writer instead.
But I think each stage of the career and each project does, you're right, they're dominoes, right?
Like one leads into the next.
And I was a journalist in Italy for seven and a half years.
And then I moved to Los Angeles and I worked in television for about a dozen years.
And those two careers are really good training to be a novelist.
So news, you know, writing, writing news, business of fashion news, but still news and lots of feature stories.
But writing on a deadline, writing to a set word count and keeping, you know, making it all interesting and informative.
And then the TV work really taught me how to take a story apart and put it together again in a different way.
So writing is revision.
Nobody wants to hear this.
Every time I say it in the classroom, the students go, ah.
Heather's worst nightmare and her best friend at the same time.
Yeah, you have to be willing, I think, especially if you're writing mysteries, you have to be willing to take it apart and try it, try putting it together in a different way.
So I think, you know, the projects that I've written do seem really different, but they're all sort of different aspects of my past and my interests.
There's the historical fiction novels.
There's the two Magnus Flight novels that I co-wrote, which are comic thrillers set in Europe.
The two works of historical fiction set in Italy that are a little funny, but they're not as funny as Pony Confidential.
And now the mystery.
So it's as if this book takes all of the skills.
I had to draw on a lot to write a mystery from a pony's point of view.
I love that.
And you're absolutely right.
I found that over the years that there are different aspects of writing, whether you're writing an article or whether a newspaper is different than a magazine, a digital magazine is different than the old-timey magazines that you hold in your hand.
And when you build upon that, whether you're writing screenplays or where you're writing for a television show, these type of things, they all are different and have different aspects that you have to sort of abide by as a writer and have some flexibility in.
But to end of the day, it's still writing.
It's still writing.
You're still trying to connect, right?
So whatever the vessel is that you're writing, you are trying to connect with the reader or the viewer, the listener at the other end.
So in some ways, it is all the same.
Yeah.
When you're teaching, I'm curious to find out about making that connection.
We've heard and read about so many things like that first paragraph, the intro, if you don't connect, then you're toast, you're not going anywhere.
Others are like, okay, you got to build it up and catch them a little bit later, and then have a hook to wrap it all back around.
What's your thoughts and opinions as far as how you write and also as how you teach?
For me, the most important thing is to get yourself on the page.
I think what really holds student writers up and also adult writers, is the fear that somehow that they're not good enough, their own words, their own ideas.
Like I have to sound like Agatha Christie.
I have to sound like James Patterson.
I have to sound like whatever type of writing they're doing.
And instead of just being yourself, being vulnerable, it's hard, it's scary to really be yourself on the page.
I am not a pony, but they're parts of me.
There's an emotional truth of the pony that I share.
I don't share his opinions about things, but I can channel him to write that character.
So I think that would be my big piece of advice, whether you're writing a cover letter for a job, an essay for a college class, a love letter, forget what you think you should say.
Say what you want to say.
And it's amazing, it's such simple advice, but it will help you connect with a reader every time.
Nice, love it, great, great advice.
Everybody hold on to that tidbit, that's a great nugget, so thank you Christina for that.
Well, Christina, where can people find out more about Pony Confidential and activities, where you're going to be, and how they can pick up a copy of the book?
So I do, I have a Facebook page, I have an Instagram account with lots of funny videos of life at my house with all the animals.
So yeah, kind of in all the places, you can find me Facebook at Christina Lynch Author, you can find me on Instagram at C.
Lynch Writer.
You can go to the Penguin Random House website.
It's the book is, it's in all the places.
So if you can't find it at your local bookstore, you can find it online.
Absolutely.
And go to those independent bookstores.
We're big fans of those as well.
So that's great.
Where do I pick up a copy of the book?
It's Pony Confidential, One Small Pony, One Big Mystery by Christina Lynch.
Fantastic job, Christina.
So much fun.
And we'll look forward to seeing what you get up your sleeve next.
Great.
Thank you so much.
I'm very happy to have met you and been on the show.
My pleasure.
Well, coming into the show today, I want to thank everyone for listening to Animal Rights on Pet Life Radio.
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And who knows, you may be the next guest on Animal Rights on Pet Life Radio.
Have a great day.
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