Hello Everyone!

We are here today with our short story winner who is none other than, CalebRyanWriter, the author of the award-winning short story 'The Hoof of Providence: A Horse's Tale'.

Q: So tell us something about yourself.

A: I'm a young man in my early twenties that is a follower of Jesus the Messiah (or Yeshua HaMashiach in Hebrew). I love reading and watching Classics, and my favorite subjects are Bible, history and military stuff. I'm a family man who loves my family dearly and would love to have one of my own when the time comes; I'm single and I'm proud of it! ^_^

I'm a major chocoholic and I also love cookies & cream and Andes Mints. I'm a great cook and I've been a half-time caregiver and nurse to my mom who suffered a stroke in late-2013.

I LOVE poetry and is one of my literary strengths. I also love lullabies and fables.

I have one sibling: a little sister who I love more than anything in this earth (besides my mom and God).

I have Hyperlexia Type 3. It's not part of the autistic spectrum, and I only have a light case of it, so if you hung out with me, you never would tell that I have anything. That's because I outgrew most of the symptoms. Hyperlexia is a condition where a person can be great at reading, words, patterns, and even numbers, but struggle with social cues and have difficulty trying to use words to communicate with people. They can also have difficulty mimicking behaviors, body language, and other things that most kids can learn at a young age. Those with hyperlexia are also into patterns and schedules and have more pronounced interests than normal people, similar to being borderline-obsessed with passions like history or Thomas the Tank Engine, or dinosaurs, fandoms, etc, etc.

I hope to become a full-time professional writer, or at least as a side job, as well as an instructor that helps prepare teens and college-age adults for adulthood by teaching them life skills that will help them in life—such as cooking, washing dishes, doing laundry, cleaning rooms and floors, organizing, etc, etc—as well as other pursuits.

Q: How were you introduced to Wattpad?

A: A friend I know well from Pinterest had an account on here and invited me to try Wattpad out. I was skeptical and didn't like it at first, but I became accustomed to it. Still don't like as much as FFN and FictionPress. But I now have a core group of friends on here that I enjoy hanging out with and sharing our loves and passions for writing and books.

Q: What inspired you to write, and when did you start writing?

A: Well, aside from my Irish heritage and inheriting the gift of storytelling from my mother, what inspired me to write was probably LOTR and Narnia; but what first inspired me to write was my love for poetry. I've read the giants of classic poetry: Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot, Edgar Allen Poe, W.B. Yeats, Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Lord Byron, etc. Which inspired me to write poetry of my own. Did that from maybe late-fourteen through fifteen. By fifteen, in the year of 2010, I got into actual writing. My first story was more of a fun

story with inspiration from Saddle Club (I binge-watched it with my little sister, who was 8/9 at the time, and grew to love it) where me and my best friends rode horses and went on adventures. Then I wanted to publish it, but mom informed me that that was against the law, and that I could get sued for that. So that particular story radically changed into something else. Same story, but with a different setting, plot, and characters. And I've been writing ever since. Sadly, haven't published anything yet though. 

Q: Who would you say is your biggest inspiration as a writer and why?

A: Well, there's C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen . . . but the real inspiration as a writer is my mother. She's a writer herself and if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have even considered getting into writing (though I don't think I had a choice since I have Irish blood; we're very good storytellers, the Irish.) lol ;-)

But she's been encouraging me and teaching me since Day 1, and has had to cringe the whole way through my mistakes and my detours and everything that rookie writers do best. Despite her wanting to interfere and stop the madness, she forced herself to step back and let me experience things myself, to make the mistakes and go through trial and error and understand for myself. Then, once I realized that I took the wrong turn, she then came and tried to show me the correct way to write. So thanks, mom, for being my navigator and dealing with my spilled banana splits. ❤❤❤

Q: What books have influenced your life the most?

A: The Bible, the classics, LOTR, Screwtape Letters, Narnia, Rifles for Watie, Kingdom Series and Knights of Arrethtrae Series, G. Clifton Wisler's juvenile history books, HTTYD series, etc.

Q: How did you feel when "The Hoof of Providence: A Horse's Tale" won 1st place in Short Story?

A: To be honest, I was shocked. I wasn't expecting to win anything—particularly since I had joined in right before the deadline, giving me only one category that I could enter my work; the others were taken. That, and since my story didn't win the past several times I had entered it, I wasn't expecting it to win since it was only one chapter; normally short stories are a few chapters. In the professional writing world, 1,500 words would've been considering a large flash-fiction.

But when I saw that my story won 1st place, I was ecstatic! That was a great day for me. While I don't care about winning at all, and join contests just to bond with my fellow writers, I will admit that nothing quite brightens your day like seeing one of your works that you worked hard on winning something.

Q: What inspired you to write "The Hoof of Providence: A Horse's Tale"?

A: I was taking part in Historical Fiction's "A Snapshot In Time" contest in March 2018. There was a collection of picture prompts for us to choose our stories. Our word limit was 1,500 words. There were pictures on the Crusades, the Mongol Conquests, the American Revolutionary War, and WWII.

Funnily enough, I had jokingly asked the host if writing from a horse's POV was allowed since I saw many horses in most of the picture prompts. To my surprise, he actually said yes—so long as the horse was in the picture prompt. I had thought about it, and it sounded interesting to write, but the American Revolution wasn't really my thing and I was more of a WWII fan, so I decided to set the option aside for the moment in favor of trying my hand at the WWII picture prompt.

I was originally going to do a WWII story where the "dead" guy next to the wounded soldier is having an out-of-body experience and is watching the medics working on his friend and then both he and his buddy get moved to a hospital.

However, as much as I wanted to write this story, it was too complex for me to try in a month-long deadline—especially since March was a busy month and I only had two weeks left to write before the deadline came on March 31st.

By the time I decided to stop and go to the horse idea, I only had about four-and-a-half days left before the deadline. So with tremendous help from my sister and my mom, I quickly outlined the story and how to write it for a night and a day, and I quickly got it written after another one-and-a-half night and a full day, and, with my family's help again, edited in for the remainder of the night until the noon of the 31st—the deadline. And thus, "The Hoof of Providence" was born!

Q: Are certain events in the story based on your own real-life experiences?

A: Nope. Not at all. There's nothing in this story that would resemble anything based on my own life experiences. Especially since the main character is a horse. lol XD

Q: Give us a glimpse of your favourite part from the story without revealing much.

A: The conflict between Providence and his British rider, escalating once the skirmish gets underway at Lexington.

Q: Tell us about the main character.

A: "Every horse is like its rider," or so the saying goes (unless I've completely messed up the saying LOL). And it's definitely the case with Providence. His owner, whom Providence nicknames "Joey", has taken care of him from a colt and has him well-trained; Providence takes after him. Providence is a hard worker and takes whatever task given to him seriously. He's an even-tempered horse, laid-back, a quick learner, intelligent, obedient, and bears himself with dignity. He's very loyal and protective of his owner and his "herd", and, if he had a fighting chance, would defend them at all costs; if Providence gets separated from Joey (which is rare), unless Joey tells him otherwise, he's determined to find his way back to him. He hates loud noises, especially thunder, and gets irked with dogs. He also doesn't tolerate abusive and disrespectful riders and will have his revenge on them whenever he gets the chance. He's extremely fond of apples and corn, respectively. Providence also loves being around children and is always careful around them, and the children love being with Providence and often ask Joey to pet him or feed him apples.

Q: What made you write this story from a horse's point-of-view?

A: Well, as a writer, one must always ask the three important questions:

1) What are other writers writing?

2) How many of them are doing the same topic/idea or genre?

3) How do I make my story different from everyone else's, yet make it original and something that people will love?

So, I asked myself these questions as I've read other contestants' works. What I've found was that many of them were doing the Crusades and WWII picture prompts. When I was doing the WWII prompt, I tried making my story different by having it be about the guy lying next to the wounded soldier and giving him an out-of-body experience.

However, since I had little time to write it, I went to the horse idea. Now, why a horse? Or any animal really? Why not write from the perspective of a redcoat or a minuteman? Well, there were already three Revolutionary War entries that had that. Again, I needed to make myself different from everyone else, in order to stand out from the crowd. And I've noticed the one thing that no one did in any of the entries: there were no animal POVs. No entries had an animal as the main character. Then I realized that a lot of people love animals, and are willing to read them, even if historical fiction is not their forte. And, since I've read and watched a lot of horse movies, I figured that I could write a decent horse's POV.

To my utmost and pleasant surprise, the story was a hit. Many people loved the story and loved the idea of the horse as the main character. They also loved my story having an actual personal antagonist, while most of the other entries had generic enemies (that you see in war), but none that personally affect the character in the way my antagonist does to my main character. In fact, many of the readers requested that I make this into an actual book (or at least a short story, longer than 1,500 words), they liked it so much. So that was a great surprise. This was my first attempt at a story in a long time since my hiatus several years before, and to see people loving "The Hoof of Providence" encouraged me to learn more about writing stories.

So that is what inspired me to write "The Hoof of Providence" in a horse's POV.

That, and it was too fun not to write from Providence's POV. lol XD

Q: Where do you get your ideas to write stories from?

A: It comes from a variety of sources: writing prompts, pictures, contests, life experiences, movies and books—even a snippet of conversation. I also use Pinterest and Reedsy, which has an endless amount of writing prompts to choose from.

Q: What is your greatest challenge as a writer?

A: I have to say motivation and structure. I am a pantser and thus have trouble with the infamous disposition of "writing in the moment" or "waiting upon inspiration". I have an easy time creating, but when it comes to actually writing it on paper, I get stuck. As to the structure, I have difficulty getting myself to outline my stories so that they're tightly-structured and neat and orderly. I admit that I can be disorganized, but that's something that I'm working on at the present. If any of my works look well-written and tight, it's because of my mother's invaluable assistance in helping me edit and improve my stories.

I also can have a bad habit of telling versus showing and can speak in a formal voice without knowing it, along with adding too many details and information into my stories—again checked by my mother and is another thing that I'm working on and am actually improving significantly.

Q: How has writing affected your life?

A: Writing has made me more happier and content with life, increased my creativity and has increased my confidence and self-esteem (in a good, healthy way). It's also helped me become more appreciative of the genius of my favorite authors with their quality and famous works.

Q: Is there anything that you'd like to say to your readers/fans?

A: Thank you for your loyal, amiable, and encouraging support. You have no idea how grateful I am to have people who are interested in my works and how happy I am that my works enlighten your days. I can only hope to continue such endeavors in the coming year.

I was also greatly surprised at how much of a hit my story became, and there's been much feedback about expanding "The Hoof of Providence", to my utter delight. So I am planning on expanding "The Hoof of Providence" into a longer work, as well as making unofficial plans of a series about different animal characters in various wars. I don't know when I'll work on it, but my hope is to make this one of my projects for this coming year of 2019.

Q: What advice would you give to your fellow Wattpad authors?

A: There are many slices of advices I would love to give my fellow writers. Of course, we'd be here all day if I were to do so. So I'll give a few quick words of advice.

1) Do NOT use Wattpad as a base to publish your works

If you are fine with being a hobbyist writer, then go ahead—have fun. But if you're wanting to be a professional writer, using Wattpad is a bad idea. Every single writer's class I heard of or watched, none have ever mentioned Wattpad as one of the sources to write or put your works in. In fact, many have denounced Wattpad altogether along with Tumblr and other bad sites. Now, that being said, Wattpad, along with Facebook, Pinterest, your website, etc, are great for promoting your works, but using Wattpad as a main way to publish your works would be a terrible idea. I know that Wattpad is betaing a tool to help with that (a topic where I rant about it in my profile book), but the fact of the matter is Amazon and Amazon Kindle are better sites to publish your works (aside from your website). There are so many more people that will be exposed to your works by using other sites—even magazines—than Wattpad. That, and the majority of Wattpad users are poor, financially-broke teens and college students that can't pay for books. Also, Wattpad has less members than the other sites have, so you'll end up not exposing your stories very far.

Again, you can use Wattpad as the one of many ways to promote your works, but never use them as the main site to sell and publish your works. Amazon Kindle or some other publishing site would be better. Also, use a Patreon. Most every self-published author has one.

2) Respect your brother and sister writers

While there's a lot of beautiful people out there who are so nice and loving to others and speak politely and respectfully—I'm sure that you are part of this group—there are many more who aren't that way. Wattpad is kinda like the literary version of Facebook where anything and everything can be posted on here and people can do or say whatever. The only difference is that Facebook is more popular and that Wattpad is more active in kicking out people who are mean to other people (this is another reason why I don't recommend using Wattpad as your main platform).

If there's something you don't like about someone's story, either don't read it, or if it's just a small detail in the story, then ignore it and move on or comment respectfully and politely that it's not your cup of cocoa. Fact of the matter is, if you're not respectful and nice to people and trash their stories, don't be surprised if the same thing happens to you. You get what you dish out.

The thing is, everyone will disagree on something or won't like something, doesn't mean that we can't be civil and loving to each other about it. Wattpad is supposed to be a place where people bond over their love of writing and to share each other's passions. Don't attack them for their religious beliefs or their political views or their sexual preferences—even if you don't share them or even dislike those said views or beliefs or preferences. Wattpad is NOT Facebook! So don't treat it like it is! If you're going to act uncivilized and barbaric to other people and knock them down, then you get the heck outta Dodge and hike it back to Facebook where all the jerks are at. There's enough cruelty in this world for you to add to it.

Always look to bring some sunshine into people's lives and bring a smile to their faces. If they have a problem, listen and try to give them sound advice. If they're sad, comfort them, encourage them, and then make them laugh their socks off.

That's all for the questions.

Thank you so much for being here with us today to help satisfy all of our curiosity. It means a lot! We wish you all the success in becoming a very popular author.

'The Hoof of Providence: A Horse's Tale' was not only a genre winner but it also succeeded in getting nominated for the titles, 'Writing At Its Best' and 'Imagination At Its Best'.

It was a pleasure discovering such an amazing story like 'The Hoof of Providence: A Horse's Tale' and a talented writer like CalebRyanWriter. So, if you are yet about to check this story out, I advise you to not waste any more time but to start reading it already.

You will definitely love this story if you are looking for a read that will give you a new insight and change your perspectives completely.