Eliza Jane Brazier: On Writing About the Glamorous and Thrilling World of Showjumping
Author and screenwriter Eliza Jane Brazier explains how her experience as a horseback riding instructor inspired her latest thriller, Girls and Their Horses.
Eliza Jane Brazier is an author, screenwriter, and journalist. Eliza entered the horse world at the age of 5 and has worked as a rider, horse trainer and riding instructor. She currently lives in California with her horse and dogs, where she is developing her books for television. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
In this post, Eliza Jane Brazier explains how her experience as a horseback riding instructor inspired her latest thriller novel.
Name: Eliza Jane Brazier
Literary agent: Sarah Bedingfield, Levine Greenberg Rostan
Book title: Girls and Their Horses
Publisher: Berkley
Release date: June 6 2023
Genre/category: Thriller
Previous titles: If I Disappear, Good Rich People
Elevator pitch for the book: Set in the glamorous, competitive world of showjumping, Girls and Their Horses is a novel about the girls who ride, their cutthroat mothers, and a suspicious death at a horse show.
What prompted you to write this book?
Roughly five years ago, I worked as a horseback riding instructor in Orange County and later Los Angeles. I taught riding fundamentals to the children of the rich and famous. I was fascinated by the parent-child dynamics.
My experiences inspired the question around which this book is based: Is it wrong to push your children? And beyond that, where is the line at which influencing another living thing becomes wrong or dangerous? Girls and Their Horses is filled with influential relationships, whether it be parent/child, teacher/student, rider/horse, or between teenage girls.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
Two years. And yes, I reworked the book multiple times with my editor and her assistant. To be totally honest, I got to the point in edits where I wasn’t happy with where the book was headed. At that point, I reached out to my close author friends to try to figure out what to do, because I did not want to publish a book that I wasn’t proud of.
I decided to attempt a total rewrite, so I sent my editor roughly 10,000 words and a pitch on a new version, which she thankfully signed off on. With my editor’s help, this eventually became the final book.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
I learned not to write books with multiple POVs, ha ha. But honestly, yeah, this was the most difficult book I have ever written, because it was like writing five novels at the same time, where each of the stories is also simultaneous and symbiotic.
I also learned that I need a support system of other authors. My author friends have saved me in so many ways. I truly could not do this without them.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
I think honestly, I was surprised by how hard it was. I’m super passionate about horses, so I thought that would make writing the book easier, but I think in some ways when you’re writing about a world that you know so well, it can be hard to have perspective.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
My absolute dream would be to inspire a passion for horse and animal stewardship.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
This job is 99% perseverance, and the other 1% is probably self-awareness.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
