Paint the Wind (17 page)

Pam Muñoz Ryan was born and raised in California's San Joaquin (pronounced wah-
kceen
) Valley, where the summers are hot, often over 100 degrees. The summer before fifth grade, Pam's family moved across town, and she became the new girl in the neighborhood. She hadn't made friends yet, and since her family did not have a swimming pool and the local library was air-conditioned, it became her favorite hangout and her refuge. She went through a stage of reading every horse story she could find.

Although Pam knew from a young age that some day she wanted a book-related job, she didn't know that she wanted to be a writer. After college, she worked as a bilingual Head Start teacher in Escondido, California. It wasn't until after she was married with four young children that she went back to school to get her master's degree in education and a professor suggested she consider a career in writing. Suddenly, writing was all she could think about.

More than thirty books later, Pam Muñoz Ryan is the award-winning author of the novels
Riding Freedom, Esperanza Rising
, and
Becoming Naomi Leon
, as well as numerous picture books, including
Mice and Beans
, illustrated by Joe Cepeda;
When Marian Sang
and
Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride
, both illustrated by Brian Selznick; and
Nacho and Lolita
, illustrated by Claudia Rueda. Pam lives in North San Diego County near the Pacific Ocean with her family.

For more information about Pam Muñoz Ryan, visit her online at
www.pammunozryan.com
.

Q:
What were you like when you were a child?

A:
I was the one who was in charge. At home I was the oldest of three sisters, and next door to us there lived another three girls, all younger than me, too. Whenever we played together, I decided what we did. I was the director of the play, the conductor of the train, or the heroine who saved the day. I was also the oldest of the twenty-three cousins on my mother's side of the family. When we had get-togethers at my grandmother's house, I was the self-appointed leader again. I would say, “Let's pretend this is a circus or a school or a jungle.” I didn't know it at the time, but I was already creating stories with a cast of characters. Now, I'm still in charge, but I'm in charge of the characters in my stories.

Q:
Did you ride or spend time around horses when you were growing up?

A:
Only vicariously. As a young girl, I was obsessive about books and I remember reading Marguerite Henry's
King of the Wind, Misty of Chincoteague
, and
Justin Morgan Had a Horse
. Many of my friends collected Breyer horses, which I loved but couldn't afford. One of my friends owned a horse, and I can still remember going out to the corral behind her house to pet it. The horse world fascinated me. But it was so far removed from my everyday (and beyond my family's financial means), that it never occurred to me to ask for riding lessons.

Q:
What classic horse stories did you read (or reread) as you prepared to write
Paint the Wind?

A:
I reread dozens of children's and adult classic horse stories, and contemporary ones as well. I made a list of over thirty titles, and to my surprise, discovered that most featured a boy and a horse:
The Red Pony, King of the Wind
,
The Black Stallion, My Friend Flicka, Seabiscuit
, the Billy and Blaze series, and many others. That fueled my desire to put a girl protagonist in a unique and character-strengthening situation. I also noticed that many horse stories ended with an inevitable race or competition and that the value of the horse was often depicted through its ability to win something for the owner. I wanted more than that. I wanted reciprocity — for the human to “win” something for the horse, too.

Q:
How did you become interested in wild horses?

A:
I began researching horses in general, reading nonfiction books about the historical and mythical significance of the species to humans. Many world cultures revered the horse and measured a man's worth by how many horses he owned. Then I read
America's Last Wild Horses
by Hope Ryden and became fascinated with the social dynamics in wild herds and harem bands. I learned about the stallion's role as protector, the mare's role as leader, and the alliances made among “sister mares.” I came to appreciate the equine sense of community. Now I understand why people advocate for the protection of wild horses.

Q:
What affected your decision to learn how to ride, especially now, as an adult?

A:
I kept asking myself, “How can I write a book about this character and this horse and not know how to ride?” Besides, here was my chance to live what I thought was a lost dream! I'd been on a horse before, but only a few times. In each of those instances, I sat placidly on a mount that followed a line of horses, nose-to-tail. I needed a different, more hands-on experience. So I approached a trainer, Dana Rullo, in Olivenhain, California, and told her what I needed to accomplish in order to research and write this book. I admitted to her that I'd never had
one
lesson in my life but that I wanted to learn everything the correct way — no shortcuts. And I asked her to be strict with me. She agreed to train me. She was demanding and thorough and exactly the type of teacher I needed. I took hundreds of private riding lessons from her, sometimes riding three days a week to prepare for the two research rides I'd arranged. I still laugh at all the mistakes I made and how many times Dana said the words, “do-over.” Like my character, Maya, I had to learn that good horsemanship is as much about feeling as it is about thinking.

Q:
Paint the Wind
is a departure from your other novels — it's still your signature storytelling, but the epic Western landscape is new terrain for you. What kind of research did you do to get to know your setting?

A:
I needed to go where my story would be set, or somewhere similar, to see the wild horses in their habitat. So I signed up for two research rides. During the first one (in May 2006, in the eastern Sierra Mountains), the weather turned wet and cold, but our group rode anyway, one day for six hours in freezing rain. I will never forget the moment we finally encountered a harem band: That first sighting was aweinspiring. The horses' spirits were self-righteous and noble. And I realized how very seldom I have ever seen a large mammal in the wild, living free within its own defined society. That experience also gave me profound respect for the horses' abilities to withstand the elements and the restraints of man.

On the second ride (in August 2006, in southwestern Wyoming, near the Red Desert), we rode for eight days. I slept in a tepee, was caught on horseback in a swarm of “mean bees,” bathed in the Sweetwater River, and spent long days in the saddle. In that part of the country, there is much more sky above than there is earth below, and for me, there was something unsettling
and
settling about the wide open spaces. I wanted to convey that feeling to the reader.

Q:
How did your heroine, Maya, develop?

A:
After researching the wild horses and going on wilderness rides to see them up close, I began to wonder about a young girl who lived a repressed life: one of confinement and loneliness, with no sense of community, which is the opposite of the wild horse world. Then I imagined what it would be like to thrust Maya into a remote and wild setting similar to that of the wild horses. I questioned how she might grow and change under those circumstances. I wanted Maya to discover a sense of community not only with her new family, but with the horse world, and with the land.

Q:
Were there any special challenges in writing Artemisia's chapters from the point of view of an animal?

A:
The biggest challenge was to avoid giving the horses anthropomorphic characteristics. The book would have been much easier to write if I
could
have given them human emotions! But that wouldn't have been true to the animal world. A horse's sensibility is different from a human's and I wanted to portray it correctly. I tried very hard to depict appropriate equine responses, but I still left a little room for some creative license.

Q:
The scene in which Maya first learns to lope is exhilarating to read. Did you have a similar experience?

A:
I'll never forget the time I loped a long distance in Wyoming. We had been out all day for another long ride. Before we headed back to camp, we arrived at a vast grassy plain. We divided into two groups, those who wanted to hold back and those who wanted to move out. I didn't want to miss the opportunity. I moved forward in the saddle. I didn't have to cue my horse because as soon as one horse started, mine immediately picked up the gait. The remuda horses were amazingly adept at loping over the sagebrush and avoiding holes. We loped faster and faster. It was as if the horses were racing each other in a great arching leaps. I have never ridden so fast or so far in my life. It was frightening and thrilling and invigorating, and … well … I can't wait to do it again someday. I can't wait to once more paint the wind.

Pam Muñoz Ryan's favorite inspirational quotes have to do with conquering fears of change and of the unknown, and working hard to overcome obstacles. You might want to display some of these quotes above your desk at home or in your locker at school, as a reminder that putting yourself in new and challenging situations can sometimes feel frightening, but will often have exhilarating results.

“Leap, and the net will appear.”

— John Burroughs

“The harder you work, the luckier you get.”

— Gary Player

“Every great and commanding movement … is the triumph of some enthusiasm.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 3oo games. Twenty-six times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

— Michael Jordan

“You cannot solve a problem from the same level of thinking that created it.”

— Albert Einstein

“If nothing in your life is a challenge, then you are setting your goals too low and your dreams too small.”

— Pam Muñoz Ryan