The compelling first sequel to UNbridled is another unforgettable novel about fleeting youth—the second in a trilogy—after three boys discover a tragic suicide. Their lives become powerful exposes of today’s youth and the social problems they face.
Danny Salvaggio fights wild fires in the mountains of Montana and Wyoming. He sets the stakes especially high by carrying a secret deep in his untamed heart. He’s aware that he is different, but fear drives his decision to hide out with the toughest and strongest of men, while shame causes him to deny his realized homosexuality.
One Australian firefighter gives up his life to rescue a young yearling in a dramatic barn fire. No longer of use to the successful polo pony breeding operation, the traumatized horse bonds with Danny who seeks special training for the horse. The horse becomes the catalyst in an unusual string of tragic events stemming from shame, deceit and prejudice in the tough world of firefighters.
, by Samantha Elphick
When I first decided to write a book, it was to be a biography on the life of Deborah Couples, but after two years it found its way to a novel inspired by her life . . .
Deborah Couples was a high goal polo player at Wellington Florida in the early nineties. During that time she was also the notorious wife of professional golfer, Freddie Couples. After a messy divorce, that made headlines nationwide in 1994, Deborah left the polo scene and returned to California in 1998 to pursue a career as a film star. A few years later she made media headlines once again. This time under tragic circumstances for she had committed suicide.
On May 26, 2001 Deborah Couples had jumped seven stories from the roof of a church in Claremont CA. Three young boys, nine to eleven, who had been playing on the campus grounds discovered her bruised, twisted body; they had quickly gone to summon their parents.
I'm often asked how the story came about? During my research I visited the chapel's grounds and had been deeply moved. After reading the actual police reports that day (the boys names had been blocked out for privacy) the boys remained on my mind. Eventually I knew that I wanted to portray three boys, somehow. Finally I decided to emulate the real boys by creating fictional characters, much older and with varied backgrounds.
The characters would react and experience life differently when faced with adversity, and one in particular I would have identify with the victim . . . UNbridled became the theme for my first story. The boy's emotional, and sometimes physical, reactions to addressing issues on family, tragedy, conflict, obsession and addiction, had often times become quite provocative as they exploded onto the scene imitating life.
During the five years that it took to write, edit and publish the book, I had became very attached to Burton, Mike and Danny—the three characters I had created. They wouldn't seem to go away, they plagued me with their future life experiences. As each character worked through their adversities in Unbridled they had found their voices. I knew that this couldn't be just one story—it had to be three. Three stories based on subjects, not often spoken about, intertwined with horses and polo!
For the first sequel Danny became the obvious subject for the protagonist. His story invited a different set of emotions like shame, betrayal, judgment, love, deceit and homosexuality. Three stories, three behaviors, that would sometimes shock, irritate and offend, yet always those behaviors had the power to contribute to the greatest reason we live . . . to LOVE!
