Nothing to do with my Trojan SMERSH or my Sid Tanner spy thriller series per se, but for my country entry into the American Songwriter song contest, I’ve released a new single featuring a song based on an unrelated and currently unpublished fantasy manuscript that I wrote back in 2004 between Sid Tanner manuscripts.
Presenting: Boy Meets Girl (Who Turns Into A Horse).
Availble now on Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, iTunes, and all other music streaming platforms.
I’ve been sitting on this song since March 26th. For the longest time, I was reluctant to publish it because the manuscript it’s based on is not yet ready for submission to my publisher. And I know that, without context, the lyrics probably sound like they were written by somebody on drugs. Especially the bit about my Mercedes Knight character having “descended from horses of the second moon.” Of course, now, until 2084, the Earth does have a second moon (well, technically, a quasi-moon, close enough).
So, with restraint on spoilers, the story this song is based on tells the story of Mercedes Knight who, after partaking in an sacred ritual known as the Rite of Passage, essentially becomes a werehorse (or rather, a werehuman, depending on your point of view). She transforms into a horse, then reverts to human form only under the light of the Full Moon, turning back into a horse once the Moon sets. But when she and her boyfriend, Steve McQueen, share a kiss while she’s human, they both become horses.
Some of the most carefree memories of my youth were going down to Randwick racecourse with my step grandfather Gordon Mitchell. It was through those times I developed an appreciation of horse racing and horses in general. I was also a huge fan of transformation fiction, the Animorphs books by K.A. Applegate were big at the time. And not just Animorphs. It seemed every other book series or TV show or family film from my youth always had at least one entry in which the characters turn into animals. Mercedes Knight and Steve McQueen were created as my taking a crack at that genre. I am curious to see how this song and the premise behind it takes off.