‘A Dream of White Horses’ – Part One of ‘Kirstie’s Tale’

‘A Dream of White Horses’

It’s a gorgeous phrase, isn’t it? I’d love to be able to claim credit, but I can’t. The words aren’t mine. The fact is, I’ve been meaning to share this little story for a while and not gotten around to it.

In Part One of ‘Kirstie’s Tale’, ‘A Dream of White Horses’, I present the clue to the title as a question from Ryan to Kirsty.

“So, if you and I hooked up, this would be strictly a casual thing. You’re not husband-hunting? Looking for a partner or long-term relationship?”

“Nope. Not me. I don’t want to be tied at the hip. I like a bit of fun a couple of times a week, and then my own life back.”

“So, no dreams of white horses then?”

“White horses?”

“Bearing princes in shining armour, come to carry you off for happily-ever-afters in some far away kingdom?”

I laugh. “Not me.”

But in fact, that is not where I got the title at all. It came from somewhere entirely different:

A few months ago, I was already intending to write a story to introduce a couple of new characters into the tale of Charlotte, James and Michael, but I wanted this new story to be a definite romance, rather than straight erotica. But I was having trouble thinking of a suitable title.

Anyhow, I was watching a TV program about, of all things, rock climbing. It’s not a subject that interests me as, while I enjoy walking fells and mountains, I like my feet firmly on the ground. The fact is, I was tired and I had, purely accidentally, channel-hopped onto the program.

The presenter was talking about a famous rock-climb on the extreme west coast of the UK at a place called Wen Zawn, Gogarth, North Stack. The climb is a precipitous drop over the sea, dropping onto rocks lashed by the water and breaking into the surf.

And a famous photograph has been taken of this climb, showing the surf crashing against the rock. It is titled ‘A Dream of White Horses’, and this became the name of the climb. There is even a book of the same name about it.

The name ‘A Dream of White Horses’ is a reference to the most famous photo, shown on the book cover above, in which the photographer caught the surf (the ‘White Horses’) crashing up the cliff face.

The climb itself is famous in rock-climbing circles and there’s quite a lot written about it, as well as some amazing photos of the precipitous climb, this one for example, which I found on a rock-climbing website.

But the fact is that, as I heard the words, I had the title of my next book. All I had to do next was to come up with a story to fit the title 🙂

And thus were Kirstie and Ryan born 🙂

September 28, 2017