Palomino Days

By Susan July 6, 2021

You wouldn’t see that on the streets of Cleveland, I thought, daring to peek to my right. One lane over, at Sunset and LaBrea, a bikini‑clad woman was eating a taco as she sat on top of a chestnut quarter horse. Salsa dribbled down her chest. Fifty bucks on the left breast.

Work was stale and meaningless—again. I was stranded—again—at the intersection of Thinking and Doing. I needed a drastic change—again. Who better than Pepper to provide it? Pepper Mint, an ex‑stripper/part-time phone sex operator turned country music queen, had a 54-inch bustline, a heart as big and warm as L.A.’s San Fernando Valley, and a smile as sweet as the two put together. Unlikely soul mates, we’d met at a Free Clinic benefit and clicked. I loved Pepper’s honesty and the way she bucked society. I envied her extensive vocabulary of four-letter words. I secretly admired the tattoo on her chest that spelled “Marty Forever.

What a shame the groom’s name was Michael.

Last updated on July 6, 2021

In 2006, researching for my last literature paper at Oxford, I stumbled onto the late 17th-century court of Queen Mary of Modena, consort to James II. I was intrigued because she had so many female writers in her court—rare for the 17th century. Before heading back to the states, I met with my professor, Peter McCullough, to discuss a book idea stemming from that research. Peter had stunned me with his compliment of my paper—“One of the most beautiful Bread Loaf papers I’ve read . . . The work of an artist by an artist.” He was encouraging about my book idea and later agreed to be one of my Beta readers. Rain Dodging follows my quest for a sense of Mary’s spaces, to breathe the same air, to imagine their lives, visiting palaces and manor houses in England and Scotland and exploring their sublime back roads. Rain Dodging is a kaleidoscope of memoir and mystery, a collage of images and events. As I travel through Britain, I take you on a journey through my life and into a 17th-century royal court. You'll watch the connections unfold, from tales of a troubled childhood to wild days of college and young adulthood, the music scenes in Los Angeles & Nashville, and to my growth as mother, teacher, writer, lover, and solo traveler.