Russell A. Vassallo is a retired attorney, and lives with his wife Virginia on a farm in central Kentucky. Russell works the land, rides horses and lives an active life. He has written two books about his animal friends, but he is by no means limited to animal stories. He often works on several stories at once, and is now working on Street Wise, a novel about his friendships with mobsters.
Juanita: Welcome back to Reader Views Russell, we are so happy to have the opportunity to talk with you once again. The last time you stopped by Reader Views, you had just released "Tears and Tales: Stories of Animal and Human Rescue," and here you are again with another book. It looks like you've been busy!
Born Boots Reviews
Russell: Hi Juanita, it's good to talk to you again. And yes, you're right. I've just released my new book "The Horse with the Golden Mane."
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Juanita: Once again, your captivating readers with your wonderful animal stories in "The Horse with the Golden Mane: Stories of Adventure, Mystery and Romance." How many stories are in this new collection? How long have you been working on them?
Russell: There are three full novelettes in this collection plus an inspirational foreword called, When We're Down which is about a local parishioner in Casey County, Kentucky. All the stories are based on true events and I'd say I've been working on them most of my life.
Stories like Eric actually took root fifty years ago when I met a survivor of the Holocaust. The man fascinated me. He filled me with stories of pre-war Germany. And he had this dog that was terribly scarred. Eric is the story of how that occurred.
Taj, occurred to me shortly after we moved to Kentucky, sixteen years ago. The horse's name is Power Blaster, but that name never did anything for me. Once a horse has raced his name cannot be changed so I changed it by writing his story. Taj is still living here on the farm and in very good health and, I hope, enjoying every bit of his retirement. He even has a girl friend, Dusty Dart.
And finally, The Horse with the Golden Mane has been gelling ever since my wife had an auto accident in 1990. My main character just totally got away from me and created a magnificent story full of twists and turns. It takes the concept of magical thinking to a new level. I totally surprised even myself because it's just beyond anything I have ever done.
Juanita: What ties these three stories together?
Russell: The connecting tie in all three stories is bonding. Eric is the story of a lonely man and an abandoned dog, bonding with each other and facing a tremendous challenge. And it's a story of two humans bonding in a different way. The story takes the reader to life in a foreign country where such a bonding was not possible during the Second World War.
In Taj, a man and his daughter have been estranged as a result of divorce. It takes the search for a man and a horse -which are also bonded-- to forge a new and stronger bond between the main character and his daughter and grandson.
Now The Horse with the Golden Mane is the bond between a man and his wife, one that has been severed by separation and in a sense it's a case of denial because the main character, Pierce Bernard, just cannot accept the fact that his wife is no longer with him. It's the story of a man's struggle to regain his wife's love by training an unruly, untrusting horse. The reader will sit on the edge of his chair to find out if they ever find each other again.
Juanita: Russell, would talk to us once again about your love of animals? Has your life always been synonymous with animals?
Russell: As a child I was ill with bronchial pneumonia every year for the first eight years of my life. Most of that time was spent alone. Because of my illness I couldn't play outside so I was pretty much confined to bed or downstairs. Animals have just always played a major part in my life. I relate well to them.
When I was strong enough to go outside, it was only for an hour or two and my only playmate was by Pomeranian, Palsy. Later, when we visited my grandfather's farm, I palled around with two hunting dogs, Rusty and Queenie, an Irish setter and a German Short-haired Pointer.
Juanita: As the years pass, does your relationship or love for your interaction with animals change?
Russell: Yes, it does. As we age we acquire a greater understanding of life. With that, we appreciate the loyalty, the gratitude, the kindness of animals as valuable gifts. The relationship changes because we learn to communicate with them... in their language. And we learn to accept their love which becomes more precious every day because our needs grow every day. That's why the passing of an animal friend inflicts such deep emotional hurt. It reminds us of our own mortality and that is not something we comprehend when we are young.
Juanita: Russell, do you think different species of animals - dogs, cats, horses, etc. - offer their own unique gifts to their human owners?
Russell: Definitely, yes. Our dogs are tied to us emotionally but they are more servile, almost fawning sometimes. From them we gain affection. Our cats, on the other hand, have the same affection but they withhold it. When Boots comes over to be petted, it's a treat because he is independent and makes his own choices. Dogs almost have to obey. Cats do their own things. And horses, they are a different story entirely. Some are easier to bend. Others will keep you on your guard every day. Some form affection for you; others you have to earn their trust every day.
It's a known fact that animal owners tend to live longer. If they did a study I'll bet they'd find that animal owners tend to recover faster from illnesses as well.
I believe everyone has a place in their lives for animals. A horse owner will tell you that just being near a horse takes him mind off his worries. There is something therapeutic about a horse. If you ride the trail with him your focus is the horse and your surroundings. There is simply no place for worry on a trail. You and your horse are one entity.
The same is true for a walk with your dog. The fact that they can run off if they choose and yet they choose to return is a form of love in itself. It's a bonding, a very directed love.
Juanita: Would you breakdown the three stories in "The Horse with the Golden Mane"? What are they each about?
Russell: Juanita that is a real challenge because I don't want to give away the story. All the stories have a twist that will shock the reader. Let's start with Eric. The main character, Sol, is a refugee from a Nazi concentration camp who comes to America to start a new life. He finds a bloodied Doberman Pincher behind his store. These were the very animals he saw killing some of his fellow prisoners. But he and the dog become friends and one night while they are walking near a swampy area of a metro city, something happens that threatens their lives. The rest of the story relates their close bond and the struggle they both have to survive.
In Taj, the main character is a lawyer who races horses and falls in love with Taj. And Taj returns that love by racing only for Grant. When the horse is claimed away from him by other race owners, it is removed from his area. He cannot locate it. He loves the horse and wants to retire it from racing because it suffered an injury. So Grant Larsen goes in search of his horse, but before he does, his estranged daughter calls to tell him he has a grandson. She offers to help him locate his horse even though Grant's fiancée is not happy about the idea because she knows the hurt Grant sustained from his daughter.
Where Grant finds Taj and the circumstances that preventing him from getting him back immediately make an even more interesting tale since not only the recovery of his horse is at stake, but the recovery of a little crippled girl who has come to love Taj.
And The Horse with the Golden Mane is based on a concept of magic reality where someone is not certain if another person exists or not. There the question is whether or not Pierce Bernard, the main character, actually imagined his wife, Maya, or whether she really existed, whether she still does exist and whether or not his fixation that training an incorrigible red gelding will actually persuade her to return home turns out to be reality. So he sets out to train and ride the incorrigible horse, hoping that it will convince his wife he has changed and can return home again.
His quest to do that leads the reader into one channel after another until the shock ending when Pierce must face and confront a severe reality.
Juanita: Is there any truth to these stories?
Russell: Yes, there is.
Eric's story is completely true. Every event before and after and even those events contained in the Afterword are true. It wasn't difficult to write because I was actually reporting what I had seen and experienced. Even some of the dialogue is authentic. I'm not sure if that is really writing, but it makes for a fascinating story, one of the best I have ever done. I finished the story with a lot of regret because I had to leave Sol and Eric behind and move on to something else.
Taj is also true. Taj did race for us and for us alone and he was claimed and removed from New Jersey. My daughter and I were estranged. She ran off and got married against my wishes and I had not seen her in years. When she attempted telling me about my grandson, I wasn't very receptive to her call. But her sincerity and willingness to help and to reclaim her place as my daughter touched me and led to a reconciliation. It's really the story of a horse bonding father and daughter as well as finding a lost horse.
The Horse with the Golden Mane is based on a true event. In 1990, my wife was involved in a severe accident. After that, it would seem there were times when I could feel her next to me in bed, but when I turned, she wasn't there. A few moments later I would look again and there she was. Sometimes I thought I was going mad, inventing someone who really didn't exist.
So I started thinking: What if she really weren't there? What if she really died in that accident and I just invented her existence because I couldn't stand to lose my wife? On that night, I knew that Grant Bernard had been born. But I didn't know where he would end up until he told me. It was another vehicle for relating parts of my life. Lasco's really did exist. Grant really was a lawyer. Maya is based on a real person. That kind of thing.
Juanita: Russell, what keeps you inspired to write?
Russell: Approval and the desire to help. I think every writer wants approval of one sort or another. We struggle to be perfect in an imperfect world, to make a difference, to gain that pat on the back or that "yes, here's a check for your story." I also hope it will encourage other people to write of their experiences. No knowledge should be lost. No lifetime wasted.
Juanita: Russell, you've had experience rehabilitating abused animals, and include this issue in some of your writing. How does the experience of bonding with a previously abused animal differ from their unfettered counterparts?
Russell: When you gain a dog from birth or a new animal, the relationship is one of immediate trust and love. With an abused animal you really have to strive for that trust. We took on the Nikki of Tears and Tales and you couldn't raise your foot around her or pick up a fly swatter. In later years, I could do anything with her I wanted because she trusted me. That's love.
Red Leader, The Horse with the Golden Mane, was so abused my wife couldn't get in a stall with him and he'd charge right at you in the paddocks. Today I ride that horse on the trails and he is wonderful, follows me around the paddock like a pet dog. That's trust. Earned trust. And it's heart-warming. It's when you know that the love you have inside has molded something else in a positive force.
Juanita: Once again, you're pulling on readers heartstrings in this book. Russell, would you comment on the deeply emotional nature of your writing?
Russell: I am a very open-hearted and sincere person who is deeply touched by human or animal adversity. Others choose to go and help and that is generous and wonderful of them, but after they help, the lives of others go on untouched. By writing, I hope to make the help permanent. I hope to touch others so they will go out and help. I want others to adopt a Sweet Pea or Spunky or Red Leader. I want them to reap all the benefits from animals that I have over the years.
I write from the heart because I feel from the heart. That is why one reviewer from the Kentucky Monthly Magazine said of me in his review of Tears and Tales: And although the accounts are poignant, they are not over-wrought with cheap sentimentality."
I just don't have it in me to be dishonest or insincere and I guess it comes through in my writing. I even cry when I read my own stories because they are based on deeply emotional heartstrings for me.
Juanita: I notice that all three of the human characters in your new stories are men. Did you consciously choose this? Do you feel that men and women bond differently, or for different reasons than the other?
Russell: My main characters were all men because frankly I don't know if I can capture the essence of a female character. I know I will try one day, but I am not sure I can capture all the detail, the nuisances of how a woman might react in a situation. As I settle into writing and study more women perhaps I'll feel more secure. Right now, I know how men think. I have to learn how women do.
Not only that, but all these experiences were personal experiences so I am really writing about myself. The narrator in Eric was me. The father in Taj was me. Now, the man in Horse was a composite of several men but based on my own life's experience. I suspect that when I feel confident to move off myself I'll have a female character. Write what you know. Well, I know "me."
Juanita: Russell, what other projects are you working on?
Russell: I just finished a short story called "I'm Here" which is being submitted to a contest. I've written several short stories which I am collecting for various contests and eventually will be published as Street People: The Common and the Uncommon.
A book I've had a lot of demand for is Street Wise: Memoirs of the Mob. I grew up in a pretty tough neighborhood and my grandfather was part of the old Mafia. I had a lot of contact with mob people over the years and thought I might present another side to these people that the world seldom sees.
I have two partially finished books on the computer that might have been completed by now except for the marketing aspect of self-publishing. It just consumes a lot of time. One of them is the Search Beyond and yet another, The Last Ride, where a man and his horse are injured on an icy mountain top and face the elements.
Juanita: How can readers find out more about you and your books?
Russell: Well our web site is http://www.krazyduck.com that is with a K. They can email questions to Russ@krazyduck.com and sign up for our quarterly newsletter which is free and keeps everyone updated on the books and current events. My blog site is http://mykrazyduck.blogspot.com (it's in my newsletter to) in which we talk about our various travels to other countries. Our web site is chock full of information and you don't have to purchase a book to get our newsletter.
My books are carried on Amazon and most bookstores can order them, but we also distribute directly to the public and autograph as well. If they order directly from us, we also ship free and pay the sales tax.
Juanita: Russell, it has been great talking to you once again. Your new book "The Horse with the Golden Mane: Stories of Adventure, Mystery and Romance," is a fantastic compilation of stories and we certainly recommend it to readers. Before we depart today, do you have any final thoughts?
Russell: Well, I guess my first book didn't make the best sellers list but it has won three awards and has never had a review under five-stars. We were recently written up in Kentucky Monthly Magazine which, for a beginning author is creditable. But The Horse with the Golden Mane has something for everyone and I am confident it will win as many, if not more, awards. It's already been reviewed very favorably but several top reviewers and the results aren't all in as yet.
Horse, as I call it, transcends both gender and age. Both men and women can find something in it and enjoy it. Kids, both young and adolescent, can also find solid entertainment. And it's a clean book. No smut, so parents can be confident their children will be reading something with good moral values. I think that's important today.
I know they say you can't sell books if you don't have some sex in it. Well, I'd rather sell fewer books and know my grandchildren can read them, then hit the big numbers. Anyone who reads my books or short stories comes away with solid, core values.
Interview with Russell A. Vassallo, Author of "The Horse with the Golden Mane"
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