Leg on, hands soft, eyes up: That’s how we’re jumping into this new publishing adventure. Many years of participating in and writing about foxhunting have led to the creation of the Paradise Gap series. Starting with The Prophet of Paradise, these tales take you into a little-known world of mounted sport, where life vibrates to the tension between risk and reward, and sometimes hangs precariously between life and death.

To make these stories and other writings available, I’ve launched Blue Cardinal Press.

Two passions directed my life from an early age – horses and words. Riding and writing. I blame the horse thing on Leonard Slye. (More about him later.) The writing part likely came from parental influence. My father prided himself on an extensive vocabulary and correct grammar. My mother, albeit with limited formal education, was an avid reader.

I wrote my first book when I was about seven. It was a tale of adventurers landing on an uncharted island where they encountered dinosaurs and other dangers. I was both author and illustrator. I was, therefore, at the forefront (if a bit prematurely) of the graphic novel craze. I also designed the cover, punched holes in two pieces of cardboard, ran string through the holes, and bound the pages together.

My skills as an artist and bookbinder were scant and soon dismissed. But the writing drive remained.

There were few options for a boy of seven to secure a publisher in the 1950s. So I had no choice but to do everything myself. And now, it seems, I have come full circle. The seeds of Blue Cardinal Press were sown on the floor of our family living room, when Ike was in the White House and cowboys ruled Saturday morning TV.

Which brings me back to Leonard Slye.

Born in Ohio, Leonard and his brother drifted out to California during the Dust Bowl days of the Great Depression. They found modest success as musical entertainers, singing and strumming their guitars. A Hollywood producer caught their act, approached Leonard, and told him that with his good looks and pleasant voice he had the potential be a star of the silver screen. But, the producer told him, the name “Leonard Slye” had to go.

Leonard recalled that as a boy back in Ohio he’d always liked the alliterative sound of his dentist’s name. And with that, the world forgot Leonard Slye and came instead to know Roy Rogers.

Those Saturday morning TV shows are the only cause I can point to for the warped pattern in my DNA that compels me to climb on the back on a half-ton animal with a walnut-sized brain, go careening around the countryside at breakneck speed, and consider that to be the height of sport. It’s what I did as a kid, and, though now a grandpa, it’s still a central focus of my life.

A well-known dictum of the writing craft is “Write what you know.” The Prophet of Paradise is the result of many years spent participating in and writing about foxhunting. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I’ve learned a few things from many hours afield. Most of all, I’ve learned that no matter how “civilized” we humans think we are, we can never deny out primal instincts, those basic drives and stimuli that have allowed the species to survive and thrive. Nothing captures the essence of that ancient spirit as completely as does riding a horse among a pack of baying hounds in pursuit of challenging game.

I hope The Prophet of Paradise and the other writings available here provide a glimpse into this rarified world. If you’ve never foxhunted, perhaps you’ll come to understand the sport’s appeal. If you’re a practitioner of the chase yourself, I hope you’ll be inspired to smile, nod knowingly, and say “Amen!”