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John Royce is an American author and horseman. Twenty years of training and competitive riding combined with an interest in past cultures to spark the time-traveling tale of historic adventure, The Legend of the Great Spark.
The first book of the trilogy series was Eclipsed by Shadow, the author’s debut title which won national honors including the 2009 Eric Hoffer Book Award for Best Young Adult Fiction.
Other honors include a Gold Mom’s Choice Award for best family-friendly Young Adult Fantasy, and inclusion in the noted 2010 Best New Writing anthology. Mr. Royce’s second title, The Golden Spark, won the 2012 Written Arts Award for best Science Fiction/Fantasy.
Born in California and raised in Texas, Mr. Royce has traveled ‘from sea to shining sea.’ The author’s interest in history and more than 20 years of experience riding and training horses combined to spark the award-winning trilogy, The Legend of the Great Horse.
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INSPIRATION FOR WRITING
Inspiration came in Cambridge, MA, where a wave of ‘gentrification’ in the late 1990’s was displacing the used bookstores around Harvard Square. Century-old professors’ libraries sat quietly in doomed stacks, but within their quiet pages thundered an amazing array of horses.
The history of the horse tells the story of civilization, and has inspired artists since prehistoric times. The colorful equines galloping through those stacks of books sparked the idea of an adventure through history—on horseback.
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
Mr. Royce studied English at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, before graduating from the University of Texas/Austin (BBA, Accounting).
Coastal Oil & Gas in Houston was Mr. Royce’s first accounting position. After passing the CPA exam in 1994, Mr. Royce joined the Atlanta branch of Peoplesoft to implement accounting systems for US Fortune 100 organizations. Subsequently Mr. Royce has specialized in client liaison work in both a general ledger and tax accountant capacity.
EQUESTRIAN BACKGROUND
Author’s Note: I started with horses in Houston, TX when my sister got a wonderful ‘grade’ near-rescue horse who arrived in semi-starved condition. Blaze possessed an amazingly good nature that tolerated the mistakes I made.
Blaze was also an escape artist of high calibre who scoffed at our silly fencing concoctions, and was known to drift outside neighbors’ windows as he wandered backyards. Blaze patiently—and occasionally not so patiently—opened the world of horsemanship to me. He was an inspiration for the idea of a Great Horse.
I developed a passion for horses in Western riding and eventually competed in Junior Jumpers and Eventing (Combined Training in those days). I formed the first-ever Equestrian Club at the University of Texas to provide affordable instruction to students, and in 1988 organized a national Intercollegiate Show Jumping Championships in Austin, TX, at which over 1500 spectators attended.
The success at drawing spectators led to a stint with the industry-leading Stadium Jumping, Inc. during the runup to the 1989 Show Jumping World cup in Tampa. From 1990-1993 I managed my own facility, Kendalwood, a hunter/jumper stables in Houston.
My work with horses has convinced me of their value to people in the modern age, and the importance of their humane preservation to our future.
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