I live in central Minnesota and have all my life. I have taught 8th grade English plus 6th and 8th grade health in the same room in the same district for 27 years. Some say I have “staying power”. I am fiercely dedicated to the things in life that make my heart happy – books books books, my family, my animals, and my writing. My husband and I ride a Harley and our horses when we’re not working on some part of our new hobby farm. I have way too many hobbies, but they bring me joy and, I think, help keep me young.
Visit my webpage: https://sites.google.com/view/bwlyaauthorjuliechristen/home
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Coming in November 2024
Echoes of the Nokota®
How has one man’s life mission to make an unjust thing right – save North Dakota’s native horses – changed history?
Growing up in small-town North Dakota, Frank Kuntz led a typical, country life with lots of brothers and sisters, hard-working parents, and farm animals of every kind. He learned the value of a dollar, what it meant to show your worth, and how to care for the things and people that are important to you. After serving his country in Vietnam, he returned with ghosts of wrong-doings and injustices haunting him, but he continued to work hard, start a family, and have a farm of his own just a mile down the road from where he grew up.
On a parallel timeline to Frank’s life, the free-roaming descendants of Sitting Bull’s war ponies were inadvertently fenced inside the Theodore Roosevelt National Park at its inception. Thus began their struggle to find a place in a world where they were no longer wanted. And even though they faced extinction at the hands of humans over and over, they were designed by nature to survive. But how long can a wild horse herd stand against the prejudice of humans? Somewhere, deep inside their memories of ancestors, they knew their people still longed for them to return home and rejoin their families. Instinct told them their help would have to come from man – one whose soul understood their soul. So they waited. They survived. And they listened.
Never in his dreams did Frank Kuntz think that he would become the one they were waiting for.
Once in a while, choices are made that change the fate of others. The prairie winds shift, the stars align, history is saved, and legends are made.
Riddled with pain, anger, and sorrow … this is a tough story.
Sculpted by the hardest of times … the best of them too … this is a family story.
Founded on promises and passion … this is a love story.
But most of all, despite the sacrifice, loss, and injustice … this is a success story.
This is Frank’s story.
Click to purchase Spark Slingers
/’spärk/: The vital force that nourishes and propels life; the inner element within all living things that initiates drive, desire, and longing; that which makes one want.
Deret Day’s got spark. Lots of it. He always knows exactly what to do. It’s been his gift for as long as he can remember, and it makes him stand out in his dreary little town of Median. But it’s not until he is mysteriously led to find an even more mysterious book about clouds, that his “just fine” life is headed for so much more.
Recruited into an atmospherically diverse team of other Sparkslingers, Deret’s natural spark-slinging abilities lead him into a turbulent world in the clouds where Dusk Dragons, Storm Ponies, and countless other magical creatures abound. There, he discovers what really goes on in the sky to make weather happen.
Charged with the responsibility of maintaining balance on Earth against a spark-stealing, black fog called sludge, the Sparkslingers team must intervene to restore balance and save Median. They’ll just have to survive the most epic storm in a generation to do it.
What do you do when you want to contribute to something so much bigger than yourself? How do you discover something you know is inside you, but it sits deep and unreachable? How do you get this special part of you to the surface so you can offer it to others?
You strike out on your own with your faithful dog and beloved horses and drive across the stretches of North Dakota to find the true meaning of family in a place that’s been waiting for you – a humble horse farm where Nokota® horses fly across the prairie. And then, you let the horses show you.
Come ride the Nokota® wave with this story of self-discovery, inner magic, and heritage as seventeen-year-old Paisley Noon discovers her eclectic extended family living in a forgotten little town in North Dakota. On these open plains pound the hoofbeats of a rare and magnificent horse breed. The Nokota®. Narrowly escaping extinction twice, these descendants of Sitting Bull’s war ponies relentlessly call for their families – their people. When the Lakota neighbor sweeps into Paisley’s life like the prairie winds through the manes of his small herd of preservation-bred Nokota® horses, Paisley soon discovers her purpose lies with them. The enchanting voices these horses carry have whispered to her for some time. She hears their call. She just needs to know what they’re saying.
See the Video of Nokota Voices
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PSrElz9-j4fKcgxXhKsoN6CB5U9MkbJB/view?usp=drivesdk