[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”5px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”16px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.rhondaparrish.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/EquusReview1.jpg” alt=”Fae – Review excerpt from Samantha Strong” title_text=”Equus Review 1″ align=”center” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
As we continue the series of blog posts which began here, in order to say goodbye to the Magical Menageries series as they begin to make their way toward being out of print continues with this one about Equus.\u00a0<\/em>Unlike\u00a0Fae<\/em> it hasn’t been a decade since\u00a0Equus<\/em> came out, it’s “only” been 8 years. Ish. But still…<\/p>\n If you haven’t got your copy of it already now is\u00a0absolutely<\/em> the time because soon it will be impossible. Here are some handy links for that:<\/p>\n Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n Kobo<\/a><\/p>\n B&N<\/a><\/p>\n OR buy it direct from my publisher — World Weaver Press<\/a>. They have the ebooks discounted and are offering free shipping on the paperbacks they have in stock.<\/strong><\/p>\n And then here are some excerpts and ‘Ten Year Updates’ from some of the contributors of Equus<\/em>.\u00a0<\/em>Give it a read, it’s fun to see what people have been up to since their stories were included in this anthology.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.rhondaparrish.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/DianaHurlburt.jpg” alt=”Diana Hurlburt – Eel and Bloom” title_text=”Diana Hurlburt” align=”center” admin_label=”Diana Hurlburt – Graphic” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text admin_label=”Excerpt from %22The Tell-Tale Heart of Existence%22:” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Excerpt” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n …the wind picked up, chiding my eavesdropping. It whistled through the Australian pines, the tongue of it hard against the windowpanes and carrying a scent\u2014not rain or exhaust from the highway a quarter mile west but something heavy and rotten, some dead flesh I didn\u2019t feel like dealing with. It was summer, not butchering season, and I wanted spring water in my nostrils, hay and horse sweat, not death.<\/p>\n The door bumped open and hit me in the chest, and I stepped aside as three men came out. Whatever the dead animal was, wherever the carrion lay, it was less important than the business the horses\u2019 riders had been here about. No one came to see my mother this close to sunset because they wanted to.<\/p>\n Each of the men looked at me as they passed, which suited me not at all.<\/p>\n I watched them trot down the road toward Tampa, the horses\u2019 hooves stamping crescents into the dirt. The gray had a nice long gait. God usually gave horses with a blue eye something extra to make up for it.<\/p>\n \u201cYou smell that?\u201d Ma cooed when I came into the sitting room. Death-scent was all through the house now, bad enough that I wanted to close the windows, though the heat probably would have been worse. She rocked in the chair my grandfather had left before running north, her feet firm on the hooked rug. \u201cThat\u2019s swamp money in the air, girl.\u201d<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t know what she meant, and there was no sense in wondering, because she was about to tell me anyway.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”What has changed for you since Equus came out?” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_testimonial admin_label=”Testimonial \/ Answer” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n It feels like a very long time indeed since the Magical Menageries series launched and built up. They’re such enjoyable books, and it feels bittersweet to know they’re going out of print–but I’m happy to have been involved with\u00a0Equus.\u00a0<\/i>Actually, I’ve always felt indebted to this anthology in particular, as it was the first story I wrote featuring a certain carnivorous Florida horse… which has ended up being a fruitful corner of my fiction career! Since “Eel and Bloom” appeared in\u00a0Equus<\/i>, two more short stories about limerunners have emerged (one in my collection\u00a0Something in the Water<\/a><\/i>\u00a0and one in issue 39 of\u00a0Luna Station Quarterly<\/a>), and Queen of Swords Press published\u00a0a novella<\/a>\u00a0about them in 2023. I’ve continued\u00a0writing fiction<\/a>, and have also worked my interest in creatures and haunted landscapes into a Lit Editor position with the horror website\u00a0DIS\/MEMBER<\/a>.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_testimonial][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/www.rhondaparrish.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/StephanieACain.jpg” alt=”Stephanie A Cain — To Ride a Steel Horse” title_text=”Stephanie A Cain” align=”center” admin_label=”Stephanie A. Cain – Image” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text admin_label=”Excerpt from %22To Ride a Steel Horse%22″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Excerpt ” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like watching my horse die all over again,\u201d Demy lamented. She was sprawled halfway across the bar, partly because the world was starting to do a slow roll and partly because she was just too sad to keep sitting up. \u201cDid I ever tell you about that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe once or twice,\u201d Bear said, setting another glass of water in front of her. This was, Demy calculated, her third glass of water. She probably should have gone a little slower with the bourbon shots.<\/p>\n \u201cFoxy. She was just the color of a fox, that bright russet color.\u201d Demy rubbed her face. \u201cShe was such a good horse.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSmart, too,\u201d Bear agreed.<\/p>\n Demy felt her face heat up. She\u2019d told him this already tonight. She just couldn\u2019t get over how much it hurt to think about the bike.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are some things even magic can\u2019t fix,\u201d she said. \u201cMagic can\u2019t make a horse live forever.\u201d She pinched the bridge of her nose, fighting the stinging in her eyes. \u201cCan\u2019t make a person live forever, either.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNothing lives forever, Demy,\u201d Bear said, his voice gentle. The jukebox had quit playing twenty minutes ago, and since the roadhouse was empty except for the two of them, a zombie waitress, a kittenified waiter, and a self-absorbed couple in the corner, no one had started it up again. \u201cWe\u2019re not meant for it.\u201d<\/p>\n She sighed and shook her head. She knew he was right, but she was tired of losing people she loved. The bike\u2019s breakdown felt like another loss.<\/p>\n \u201cI could make the bike live forever,\u201d she muttered.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”What has changed for you since Equus came out?” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_testimonial admin_label=”Answer – ” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n I\u2019ve published SHROUDLING, the next-to-last book in my epic fantasy Storms in Amethir series. I\u2019m hard at work writing the last book, which should release sometime in 2025. Also in 2025, I hope to publish the next book in my Indianapolis-based urban fantasy series Circle City Magic. At some point in the future, I plan to revisit Demy and her magical steed Aenbharr. During NaNoWriMo several years ago I started writing a novel about them, and someday I will finish that and share that with the world.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_testimonial][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n As I say, it simultaneously feels like a long time and an incredibly short one since these books came out, but I really enjoyed this look at what some of the contributors have been doing in that time — I hope you did too!<\/p>\n Let me save you the trouble of scrolling all the way back up for links to pick up your own copy of Equus<\/em>\u00a0if you haven’t already. Here they are:<\/p>\nBuy it now<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Excerpt from “Eel and Bloom” by Diana Hurlburt:<\/h4>\n
What has changed for you since Equus<\/em> came out?<\/h4>\n
Excerpt from “To Ride a Steel Horse” by Stephanie A. Cain:<\/h4>\n
What has changed for you since Equus came out?<\/h4>\n
Buy it now<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n