Roberta Writes – Book Blog Tour: The Dark Horse Waits in Boulder by Lindsey Martin- Bowen
Introduction
Today I’m delighted to welcome poet and author Lindsey Martin-Bowen to Roberta Writes. Lindsey is showcasing her latest book, The Dark Horse Waits in Boulder, a romantic comedy.
The Giveaway
We’re giving away three digital copies of The Dark Horse Waits in Boulder in a random giveaway.
Leave a comment to enter.
Opportunity for an entry at every stop.
Tour Schedule
Mon. 5/11 – “Inspirational backgrounds for The Dark Horse Waits in Boulder”
Post – Poetry by Mich: Hotel by Masticadores: Masticadores Phillipines:
Tues. 5/12 – “Phase Two – Sunny-Side Up” Reading – Roberta Writes:
Wed. 5/13 – “Charli’s Character” Post – Carla Loves to Read:
Thurs. 5/14 – “Phase Fourteen – Let Me Know the Way” Reading – Patty’s Worlds:
Fri. 5/15 – “About the Dark Horse (the black stallion with blue eyes)” Post – Writing to be Read
About The Dark Horse Waits in Boulder
Recently divorced Charli Erickson arrives in Boulder, Colorado during the 1970s—a wild time for that city—where she hopes to develop her “rock poet” talent and find the perfect mate. Instead, she links up with the imperfect Ched Lyons, a Boulder native who leads her in a multitude of adventures, including scaling a mountain and a 1,200-mile motorcycle ride to southeastern Utah. While she intermittently envisions a black stallion with blue eyes, who puzzles and enchants her, she also strives to make sense of its appearance.
Through Charli’s snarky humor recounting her tales, readers will enjoy this Rom-Com doubling as a woman’s adventure story and may relate to scenes from the wild, zany era that followed the serious, revolutionary 1960s.
Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/The-Dark-Horse-Waits-in-Boulder
Reading: Phase Two – Sunny-Side Up
About Lindsey Martin-Bowen
On Halloween 2023, redbat books released Lindsey Martin-Bowen’s 7th poetry collection, CASHING CHECKS with Jim Morrison. Her 4 th collection, Where Water Meets the Rock, was nominated for a Pulitzer; her 3rd, CROSSING KANSAS with Jim Morrison was a finalist in the QuillsEdge Press 2015-2016 Contest. In 2017, it won the Kansas Writers Assn award, “Looks Like a Million.” Writer’s Digest gave her “Vegetable Linguistics” an Honorable Mention in its 85th Annual (2017) Contest. Her Inside Virgil’s Garage (Chatter House Press 2013) was a runner-up in the 2015 Nelson Poetry Book Award. McClatchy Newspapers named her Standing on the Edge of the World (Woodley Press/Washburn University) was one of the Ten Top Poetry Books of 2008. It was nominated for a Pen Award.
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Roberta Writes – Esther Chilton’s Writing Challenge, TDWC26, The Flower Hour, and Thursday Doors
Last Sunday, TC and I went for a 5 kilometre walk at the Johannesburg Country Club in Woodmead. The trees were all dressed in their autumn best and there were plenty of birds out and about enjoying the warm day. We came across a strange scene where a cat and a peahen were living together in a little domed shelter. There were water and food dishes so they are obviously fed by the residence of the surrounding houses.
I was immediately reminded of the nonsense poem by Edward Lear, ‘The Owl and the Pussy-Cat’. It was first published in 1870 in the American magazine Our Young Folks and again the following year in Lear’s own book Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets.
This poem is for Esther Chilton’s writing challenge which provides the word dish as the prompt. You can join in here: https://estherchilton.co.uk/2026/05/06/writing-prompts-114/
It is also for Dan’s Doors Writing Challenge which you can join in here: https://nofacilities.com/thursday-doors-writing-challenge-2026/
I’ve used Resa’s photograph for inspiration. You can find Resa’s art gowns blog here: https://artgowns.com/2026/03/22/growing-excitement/
The Peahen and the Grey Cat
The Peahen and the Grey Cat lived together
safe within the bird sanctuary’s fence.
They had a lovely home, in the shape of a dome,
there was no need for any defence.
The Peahen looked over her shoulder and said
“I’m so glad you’re my best friend
We have shelter and a comfortable bed
Here the rest of our lives we’ll spend
We’ll spend, we’ll spend
Here the rest of our lives we’ll spend
***
Grey Cat said to the Peahen, “I’m not a peacock
My modest looks verge on being quite dowdy
My tail doesn’t splay, and make a colourful display
And I’m certainly not at all exciting or rowdy
But if I commit to you, I promise I’ll be true,
We’ll can have an agreeable life together”
“Oh Grey Cat,” Peahen cried, “I can’t think of anything better
Than you and I being together forever
Forever
Forever
Than you and I being together forever
***
Just then, a man with a tray appeared
Filling the dishes with delicious treats
There was cream and berries, sardines and cherries
And even a variety of different meats
The two creatures tucked in, with a great big grins,
Dividing the spoils between them evenly
So easy as their tastes greatly varied
They knew they’d share their haven peacefully
Peacefully
Peacefully
They knew they’d share their haven peacefully
Click on the slideshow below to see the pictures of the grey cat and the peahen. Regrettably, I didn’t take a picture of their shared home.
The Flower Hour
I am posting some photographs from our walk for Terri’s The Flower Hour. These are local wildflowers that bloom in autumn.
Click on the slideshow to see the flowers.
Thursday Doors
Here a few doors from my recent trip to Paris for Dan’s Thursday Doors which you can join in here: https://nofacilities.com/2026/05/07/carnegie-museum-doors/
This is an apartment building I spotted. I just liked it’s shape and design.
The next two photographs are of the Saint-Etienne-du-Mont Church in Paris.
Roberta Writes – TDWC26, Nothin’ but a hound dog
This is my second poem for Dan’s Thursday Doors Writing Challenge. Today, I’ve used a photograph contributed by Maureen from https://oddments70.wordpress.com/2026/04/30/april-30-26-coping-but-barely/
You can join in TDWC26 here: https://nofacilities.com/thursday-doors-writing-challenge-2026/
Nothin’ but a hound dog
young people
hypothetical cannon fodder
lead the charge
with artificial intelligence
rushing in
where angels fear to tread
experimenting
summarising
capturing ‘its’ version
of salient details
embellishing the written word
with the soul of the soulless
creating gutless art
purpose of essential organs
missed entirely
by the mindless digital mind
photographs enhanced
excluding the unnecessary
floating heads and hands
by accident not design
mistakes will be made
some doors will open
only to be firmly closed
In the end
progress will continue
some will grasp it firmly
using it to hoist themselves
further up the ladder
others will fall
lying broken and bleeding
at the feet of the demigod
On reflection
isn’t the digital revolution
just a rewrite
of Hound Dog?*
*Hound Dog by Elvis Presley is considered to be his most controversial song. It stands out from all his music, marking a pivotal, rebellious moment in rock ‘n roll history that changed music forever. Elvis Presley’s music was criticized by establishment figures, media commentators, and religious groups as being dangerous, vulgar, and lacking artistic merit. Many condemned his music as immoral and a catalyst for juvenile delinquency. Now, Elvis Presley is considered to have fundamentally changed music for the better by breaking racial barriers in radio and merging country, gospel, and blues into popular rock ‘n roll. He is said to have revolutionised the music industry by linking image and sexuality to sound, creating a youth-orientated culture, ad setting the stage for global rock stardom.
AI is controversial and many people are resistant to its implementation in its current form. I have some reservations about how AI will impact young people and the growth of their mental abilities. You have to exercise the brain if you want it to grow. The fate of the Eloi from HG Wells clever story The Time Machine always comes to mind for me when I think about how AI is currently being utilised. If you are interested in my thoughts on this book and the Eloi, you can read my review here: https://latinosenglishedition.blog/2026/04/30/the-time-machine-by-h-g-wells-by-robbie-cheadle/
AI is a topic of many blog posts. All of the posts I’ve read about AI have interested me deeply. Here are a few links to interesting posts about AI I’ve read recently:
Thomas Wikman from Super Facts – https://superfactful.com/2026/03/21/large-language-models-is-just-one-branch-of-artificial-intelligence/
Grant from Grant at Tame Your Book – https://tameyourbook.com/dont-confuse-ai-with-a-benign-tool/
Rebecca Budd from Rebecca’s Reading Room – https://rebeccasreadingroom.ca/2026/04/28/ai-and-humanity-reflections-from-a-modern-reading-room/
Laura Lyndhurst of Books That Make You Think – https://booksthatmakeyouthink2.co.uk/2023/12/13/prophet-of-old/
Audrey Driscoll of Audrey Driscoll’s blog – https://audreydriscoll.com/2026/04/26/is-this-the-end-of-the-golden-age-of-indie-publishing/
Meeks from acflory blog – https://acflory.wordpress.com/2026/05/01/i-hate-what-ai-is-i-love-what-it-could-be/
Progress shot – Mona Vervet acrylic painting
Meeks asked for a progress shot on my latest painting so here it is … Mona Vervet!
Roberta Writes – W3, Dan Antion’s Writing Challenge, Thursday Doors and The Flower Hour
W3 and Dan Antion’s Writing Challenge
Dan Antion’s Doors writing challenge starts today and continues throughout May. I used one of my own doors pictures because the colours inspired a poem that also fitted Yvette’s W3 challenge to write about a fantasy world (mine’s 22 lines and not 20 – sorry Yvette!)
You can join in W3 here: https://skepticskaddish.com/2026/04/29/w3-prompt-209-weave-written-weekly/
You can join in Dan’s Doors Challenge here: https://nofacilities.com/thursday-doors-writing-challenge-2026/
Dinah in Wonderland (freestyle poem)
Beyond the door
Dinah sees the colours
Dancing and swirling
Enticing … calling
“Come and play, Dinah
Come and play”
Squeezing through the cat door
She pitches forward
Falling … down and down
Landing softly on
Pink, blue, green, and yellow
Sweet! Her nose quivers
What? It’s candy floss
Between the bright puffs
Pale shapes swarm
Marshmallow fish
They wriggle their tails
“Chase us, Dinah, chase us”
Off she goes
Bouncing from one sugary cloud
to the next sweet indulgence
Extraordinary!
Thursday Doors
For Dan’s Thursday Doors, I’m sharing the rest of my Hilton Hotel, Munich photographs. I was only in Munich for ten hours so this is what I saw of it in the hotel from about 8pm until 4am the following morning.
You can join in Thursday Doors here: https://nofacilities.com/thursday-doors-writing-challenge-2026/
The Flower Hour
These are orange and yellow arum lilies I discovered in my summer garden (it is now autumn).
You can join in Terri’s The Flower Hour here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/04/28/the-flower-hour-28-flowers-in-water/
Roberta Writes – Tanka Tuesday and Bird of the Week
Tanka Tuesday and Bird of the Week
Melissa has provided a choice of a painting by Romare Bearden as inspiration for this week’s Tanka Tuesday poem. You can join in here: https://tankatuesday.com/2026/04/28/tankatuesday-poetry-challenge-no-62-romare-bearden-4-28-26/
This is the painting I chose:
This is also my entry for Don’t Hold Your Breath blog’s Bird of the Week Challenge. You can join in here: https://anotherglobaleater.wordpress.com/2026/04/28/common-myna-birds-of-the-week-invitation-clxvi/
Southern Masked Weaver (Tanka)
reeds adorned with nests
stretching for miles and miles
Southern Masked Weaver
energetic males building
twenty five woven nests each
Roberta Writes – Reblog: Art Quiz – The Impressionists
Roberta Writes – d’Verse: Haibun Monday & Esther Chilton’s Writing Challenge
d’Verse: Monday Haibun
Frank’s haibun challenge is to write about silence. You can join in here: https://dversepoets.com/2026/04/27/haibun-monday-4-27-26-silence/
I’ll Take It – haibun
I cherish the near silence of the early mornings, suffering the rasping cough of the kettle just long enough to make a welcome cup of tea. Outside the window, a garden bird twitters and the hadedas screech their ode to the dawn. In a world that worships noise, my love of silence is just another characteristic that differentiates me from my family and colleagues. I’ll take it.
office hum
enhanced by white noise
my ears ring
Esther Chilton’s Writing Challenge
Esther’s challenge word for this week is Mobile. You can join in here: https://estherchilton.co.uk/2026/04/22/writing-prompts-112/
What a Feeling – haibun
When I was a girl, children had a lot more freedom than they do now. My little sister, Cath, and I used to go out and about on our own. We both had bicycles so we had the option of riding or we walked, depending on where we were going. When I was in Grade 3 at primary school, roller skates came into fashion. The roller skates then took the form of a boot with four wheels on the bottom. The wheels were spaced out more like the wheels on a vehicle and were attached to a chassis-styled frame on the bottom of the boot, unlike the modern roller skates which are more like ice skates with wheels.
Cath and I both received a pair of roller skates for Christmas that year and I spent the rest of the December / January school holiday learning how to skate. I soon go the hang of swinging my legs correctly to enable forward motion and quickly learned to add arm movement to go faster. I learned to do spins and turns and how to skate backwards. It was an obsession for me and I spent hours practicing. As time passed, I started creating dances on skates to music. I’d set my small cassette recorder up on my bedroom windowsill and practice skating to my favourite soundtracks. The theme song to Flashdance was the track I liked the best and remember practicing my skating dance over and over to that song on repeat. Thankfully, Dad was out working during the day when I practiced so he didn’t complain about the endless refrain of ‘What a feeling’.
Skate dancing to Flashdance is one of my best memories and it was this process of mastering motion on roller skates that taught me I could learn to do anything if I set my mind to it.
freedom in movement
flowing like a waterfall
my spirit flying
CFFC – Something that took you higher
You can join in Dan’s CFFC challenge here: https://nofacilities.com/2026/04/27/view-from-something-that-took-you-higher-cffc/
Roberta Writes – d’Verse, Tanka Tuesday, Thursday Doors, CFFC, and The Flower Hour
d’Verse, a quadrille
Punam’s d’Verse challenge is to write a quadrille about digging. You can join in here: https://dversepoets.com/2026/04/20/quadrille-246-lets-get-digging/
Digging for Victory
World War Two
Opportunity for women
To demonstrate their worth
Operating heavy machinery
Working as blacksmiths,
welders, pipefitters, and masons
Driving trucks and ambulances
Serving in the navy and air force
Growing crops and caring for animals
Land Girls, digging their way to victory
Tanka Tuesday
Yvette’s challenge is to write a syllabic poem about sisterly love. You can join in here: https://tankatuesday.com/2026/04/21/tankatuesday-poetry-challenge-no-61-sisterly-love-04-21-26/
I’ve written a rensaku poem.
Poor Dad
poor Dad, five females
all talking and giggling
sharing is caring
usually at the same time
high pitched chatter
***
all eager to please
baking challenges galore
father chief taster
but, he mustn’t put on weight
poor Dad, five females
***
phone always ringing
chittering and chattering
boyfriends and girlfriends
parties and socials
poor Dad, five females
***
clothes on the floor
wet knickers and pantihose
hanging in bathroom
makeup stains on the carpet
poor Dad, five females
***
sick in hospital
poor Dad, five females
visit, plump up his pillows
bring sweets, crisps, and fizzy drinks
drive nurses crazy
Thursday Doors, CFFC – View From a Bridge, The Flower Hour
For Thursday Doors, I am continuing the virtual tour of Chateau de Chenonceau in Loire Valley France. The photographs are from inside the Chateau. You can join in Thursday Doors here: https://nofacilities.com/2026/04/23/the-carnegie-carnegie/
For View From a Bridge, I am sharing some pictures of the River Cher from the bridge that forms part of Chateau de Chenonceau. You can join in CFFC here: https://nofacilities.com/2026/04/20/view-from-a-bridge-or-elevated-walkway-cffc/
I am sharing more flowers from the garden for Terri’s The Flower Hour which you can join here: https://secondwindleisure.com/2026/04/21/the-flower-hour-27-daffodils-celebrate-earth-day/
Interior doors inside Chateau de Chenonceau
Interesting household articles
The slideshow below includes two photographs of the River Cher. The first is from the bridge and the second is from a bedroom inside the chateau.
These are some more amazing flowers from the garden. I loved the shaggy purple tulips.
roberta-writes.com 