When friends ask me what I love best about living in Kentucky, the list is long. The people are warm and welcoming. The weather isn’t too bad, although this year it’s like living in Minnesota with all the snow and ice we’ve gotten. Still, Louisville is big enough to provide a cosmopolitan feel without the downside of larger cities like congestion and traffic. But what I love most about living here is having a thoroughbred racetrack right in my back yard. Not just any racetrack, mind you, but Churchill Downs, home to the Kentucky Derby, a horserace that’s run every first Saturday in May and is the beginning leg of the triple crown of thoroughbred horse racing. Despite a brutal winter, Louisville is already gearing up for another Kentucky Derby celebration lasting two weeks starting in mid-April.
Back when I was a newcomer to Louisville, Churchill Down’s beginning interested me, so I researched it never realizing how difficult the early 1870s were in US history. Citizens were still recovering from the War between the States as well as a recession. In my opinion, the country needed a reason to celebrate and Louisville gave it to them in the form of the Kentucky Derby. It’s been a big party from that first race when an estimated 10,000 people watched fifteen horses compete for the win that has only grown in size and popularity. 2012 was a record breaking year for the Derby when nineteen thoroughbreds raced for a crowd of over 165,000. It’s been touted as being the most exciting two minutes in sports and anyone who has watched those fast majestic animals race can surely understand why.
As a romance writer, I became more intrigued. I decided it would be a fun topic to write a story about. My main goal was to show that time through today’s eyes, so the reader can appreciate the vision a few men had for their city and that of the racetrack they built. Time Will Tell is a heartwarming romance that gives the reader a glimpse of what went on in the summer of 1874, when visionaries put their dreams into motion.
How about you? Is there a historical event you feel strongly about, something that you’d like to research and write about? If you don’t write, is there some time in history you’d like to relive through a book?
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BLURB:
Romance and adventure...and a trip to where an American tradition began…
Libby Edwards, a gifted horsewoman, unwittingly wishes herself back in time to Louisville, Kentucky just before Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby become a reality. During Libby’s journey in the past, she stumbles upon her destiny. Unfortunately, he’s in the wrong century. In 1874, there’s no electricity, no internet, no modern medicine, no antibiotics—no Starbucks! And even worse than that, women have no rights. Libby has no desire to stay.
Widower, Colin Thorpe, a renaissance man of his time, has big dreams. He is a horse breeder who names his thoroughbreds after Mythological Gods because he has a reverence for past cultures and an appreciation for the unexplainable.
Libby and Colin can’t resist falling in love with each other. After all, Colin accepts Libby for who she is and she understands Colin’s dreams better than his deceased wife ever did. Yet he grasps early on that Libby doesn’t belong in 1874. And because his wife never adapted to the move from Virginia to Kentucky, becoming bitter and unhappy in the process, he won’t take the chance of the same thing happening to Libby. Can these two lovers find a way to be together despite their challenges?
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BIO:
As a Sales Manager for a jewelry manufacturer in her previous profession, Sandy Loyd has worked and lived in some of the most fabulous places in the US, including Northern California and South Florida. Every place she’s visited or lived over the years has given her memories on which to draw from for the stories she create. She now calls the blue grass state of Kentucky home, where she writes romances full time. As much as she loves her current hometown, she misses the mountains and has to go back to her Utah roots to get her mountain and skiing fix at least once a year, otherwise her muse suffers.
Sandy is a recent empty nester who has published fifteen books in several genres – Contemporary Romance, Romantic Mystery &Suspense, Time-Travel and Historical. All of her heartwarming stories consist of fun characters, who, like single people everywhere, are seeking that someone special to share their lives with among thousands of eligible candidates. She always tries to weave a warm love story into her work, while providing enough twists and turns to entertain any reader.
Currently, she’s working on the fifth book in her California Series about a group of friends in the San Francisco Bay Area who are looking for love in all the wrong places. To see a list of her current books, check out her website at http://www.sandyloyd.com.
5 comments:
So happy to meet you, Sandy. My mom loved the big three horse races. She tried to always see the Churchill Downs race.
Hi, Sandy, I have Time Will Tell and Games in my Kindle and plan to read them both soon. I love that you've written about the Kentucky Derby. I watch it every year. Best of luck to you.
Thanks, Sandy. I had a lot of fun researching this book.
Thanks, Cara. I hope you like the books. I love the Derby too! In fact, Louisville is now gearing up for this year's celebration. It's been such a long, hard winter, we're ready for it.
I love that your books give us a chance to go back in time and experience something of history but with our own modern filters.
The Derby is a huge event. I once wanted to be a horse trainer or work with animal husbandry.
All the best!!
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