Author: Karen GoatKeeper

Karen GoatKeeper loves to write. Her books include picture books, novels and nonfiction for science activity books and nature books. A recent inclusion are science teaching units.
The coming year has goals for two new novels, a picture book and some books of personal essays. This is ambitious and ignores time constraints.
She lives in the Missouri Ozarks with her small herd of Nubian dairy goats. The Ozarks provides the inspiration and setting for most of her books.

GKP Writing News

No Writer Is Perfect

The Carduan Chronicles have been a work in progress for years. The draft for Ship Eighteen was written and rewritten several times. But, no writer is perfect.

Plot Premise

As Ship Nineteen appeared and landed in an Ozark ravine in the midst of a February ice storm, Ship Eighteen appeared somewhere between Mars and Jupiter on the far side of the sun from Earth which they call Cardua. This ship must make the dangerous voyage from their landing spot over the sun and to Earth. Then they must land on Earth, if they make it that far.

Obviously the first step is to determine the time it will take for this ship to make the voyage. I decided on fifteen weeks. And I wrote the first draft.

No Writer Is Perfect

I had looked up the distances between the planets and the sun. Fine. However, I neglected to do the math to determine where the ship would be each of the weeks. Instead, I wrote a great draft with lots of action in it guessing my way along the voyage.

Then I did the math. Most of what was in the first draft was not possible as the timing was all wrong. So, I wrote another draft. And another draft. Finally, the voyage worked timewise and I fit in some of the action from the first draft, rewrote some new action.

The Draft Is Done?

A friend volunteered to read the draft. I read it over and sent it on.

When it came back, the things I thought my friend would notice were overshadowed by other errors. Spelling and grammar make or break a book. An occasional mistake is overlooked, but not a dozen.

Another edit was done on the draft. Maybe all the mistakes are corrected now. I can hope so. And I found a number of other things that needed changing. Perhaps the draft is done now. I need another reader to look it over as I am so familiar with it, I see what I expect, not what is.

cover for "Dora's Story" by Karen GoatKeeper — When I wrote “Dora’s Story”, timing was crucial. And I made a major mistake in it. After rewriting the novel, a friend read it and found several places where the new draft still reflected the old one. that allowed me to fix it before publishing it.

Accepting Criticism

A book is a personal thing. It is something a writer has worked on, babied along, based hopes on. Then someone reads it and criticizes it.

The first reaction is resentment. But the criticism isn’t about you or your effort. It is a way for you to improve your work.

Even if you decide to ignore some of the things a reader points out, you should consider them first. The reader wants you to have a better book. Hopefully, you do too.

Latest From High Reaches

Black Snakes Love Eggs

Years ago, there was an invasion of burrowing rats that moved in under my barn. After black snakes moved in, the rats disappeared. Unfortunately, black snakes love eggs too.

Buff Orpington chickens are a pretty color and grow into a large, gentle hen that lays big brown eggs often. This is a February pullet.

Eggs In Winter

Egg production does fall over the winter. The new pullets start laying in the fall and lay most of the winter eggs.

Hens move into the hen house nests. Nothing bothers them except the other hens. They do have a favorite nest and, when it is occupied, the next hen will stand on the other nests squawking.

I come by in the evening and collect the eggs.

Eggs In Spring

All the hens decide to start laying. The hen house doesn’t have enough nests so some hens move out to other places. Hay troughs are popular.

Now I collect eggs a couple of times a day as my egg bucket fills up each time. The biggest challenge is tracking down the latest nests outside of the hen house.

Eggs In Summer: Black Snakes Love Eggs

Once the black snakes arrive for the summer, egg production and collection change. More hens move out of the hen house after a snake slides in under them a time or two.

However, one snake was defeated. A setting hen was not about to move or tolerate any interference. The snake had a few peck spots on its head as it left.

I begin a race to the eggs. Every few hours I check the favorite nest sites and collect any eggs in them.

Since these black snakes spend every summer in the space under the barn floor, they are familiar with the animals and me. If a snake is in a nest, I encourage it to leave. If it has engulfed an egg, I can reach in and take the others out as the snake is too busy to bother with me.

Both the black snakes and I get enough eggs every day. The hens get used to both of us raiding the nests. They aren’t happy, but they tolerate us. They sit there for me and leave for the snakes.

Many people would kill the snakes. I prefer our race to the eggs to rats. And someone has to keep the mouse population trimmed down. Poison kills hens too both as bait and as dead mice they love to eat.

Eggs In Fall

Sometime in the fall, the snakes leave. The older hens slow down production. New pullets start laying. Everyone settles in for the winter.

Tags black snakes, raising chickens, rodent control

Latest From High Reaches

New Arrivals: Twin Nubian Goat Kids

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date June 12, 2026
No Comments on New Arrivals: Twin Nubian Goat Kids

My days in town are packed and long. The objective is to leave for town early enough to get everything done. New arrivals cancelled those plans.

This little Nubian buck kid from High Reaches Spring is already practicing his buck stance: look cool and disinterested.

Watching Nubian Doe Spring

There are signs a doe is getting ready to kid. The kids settle low in the stomach area. Hollows appear beside the tail bone.

Spring had shown both these signs for a couple of weeks. One morning she was pawing at the bedding a little. Yet, her appetite stayed strong. She went out with the herd to graze.

Then Spring started staying in during the day. She didn’t want to get up on the milk stand. I got worried.

This little Nubian doe kid from High Reaches Spring is always hungry.

Kidding Problems

Large animal veterinarians are a vanishing breed. It’s hard and dangerous work. Cats and dogs are profitable. My nearest large animal vets are a hundred miles away.

In fifty years I’ve seen many of the problems common to a kidding doe. The most common is ketosis. The doe stops eating. It can be fatal.

Spring continued to eat. Ketosis was not the problem. That left the most probable problem as one with the kids.

Kid Presentations

Normally a kid is born front feet first with nose on the legs. The only difficulty would be a large kid, too large for the doe.

If a vet is close, a cesarian is possible. I’m lucky to have large does, so I end up pulling the kid and helping the doe recover.

My first brush with kidding was with tangled twins. Two kids were trying to be born at the same time. One gets pushed back to let the other out. The second follows quickly.

The doe has a normal attitude, pawing the bedding. Feet appear, but too many. That didn’t fit Spring either.

More serious problems are a head back or a breech. Both produce the symptoms I was seeing with Spring. These require pulling the kids.

New Arrivals

I went out to the barn early Friday morning planning to get to town early. Spring was pawing, but not seriously. She was definitely trying to kid.

Morning chores went on as normal. Town would wait as I returned to the barn after putting up the milk.

Spring’s first kid was backwards. This isn’t a big problem as long as the kid is born quickly. A pretty brown buck kid was soon on the ground talking to his mother.

There had to be a second kid. No kid appeared. I slid a hand in to check and found a big lump. The kid was breech with only the rump showing.

I could only find one back leg to pull up. It was enough. A spotted black doe kid joined her brother.

With both new arrivals doing well, I could head for town. Late.

Tags kidding problems, raising goat kids, raising goats

GKP Writing News

First Book Mistakes

I finished my first novel and was so thrilled to hold it in my hand. Then someone pointed out what was one of the first book mistakes.

In this time of self publishing, these first book mistakes are common. Traditional publishers pounce on these and have the author rewrite, edit, rewrite to get most of these out. Indie authors need to do this on their own.

cover for "Exploring the Ozark Hills" by Karen GoatKeeper

An Easy Mistake

As I edit “Exploring the Ozark Hills”, I see the same easy mistake I made in “Broken Promises. It’s easy to fix, once you notice it.

Open a reading book and look at the margins. In a regular print book the left and right margins are even all the way down the page. This is called justified.

When you write, the default setting is for left justified so the left margin is even. The right margin is ragged. This is fine for eBooks, but not print books.

The fix is to select all and click on justified. However, the fix doesn’t stop here as some lines will be stretched out and look funny. A bit of word editing fixes this.

“Exploring the Ozark Hills” is getting a makeover. I wrote the book years ago and it still sounds good. However, I’ve taken many, many pictures since then. This one of daffodils will replace one in the original book.

Widow Lines

When I write, I don’t create chapters. There may be chapter headings, but the entire manuscript is one long document.

After the draft is finished, edited, rewritten and edited again, I break it into chapters to format it to be printed. In addition, I set the manuscript size, margins, gutter, page numbers etc. I will use in the final book.

Looking over this draft, I check the ends of chapters for widow lines. These are the single or two lines left at the top of the final chapter page. They are a waste of a page and annoying to the reader.

The fix is simple, but time consuming. I look back through the chapter for paragraphs ending in one or two words. Some rewriting can shorten the paragraph that much and reduce the chapter by a line. No more widow lines.

Serious Mistake

How good is your grammar and spelling? Nothing turns a reader off faster than several of these mistakes on a page.

There are lots of fixes for these. Spell check and grammar check are places to start, but they don’t spot all of them. That takes critical reading of the draft by you or someone who has better skills than you do or both.

First Book Mistakes Gone

Writing a novel is the easy part. It can be fun. But taking the time to find those problems and fixing them is worth it. The result is a first or second or fifth book you can be proud to claim authorship of.

Tags Book formatting, book marketing, novel writing

Latest From High Reaches

Visiting Conservation Areas

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date May 29, 2026

This year I have been visiting conservation areas looking for new plants for my Dent County Flora project. Missouri is special having so many of them.

Since I do my plant research only in Dent County, I looked up the conservation areas in the county. To my surprise, there were seven of them.

Walking along one trail around a lake, The distant dam creating the lake is visible. One of the parking areas where picnic tables are available is in the distance as well. Sometimes there are others walking the trails here at ShawneeMac Lakes Conservation Area, but not on this day.

ShawneeMac Lakes

I have long been familiar with this conservation area. It is on the edge of town and popular for fishing, hiking and picnicking. The parking areas are large, the trails nice and the archery range is used.

There are several plants there I do not find at home. Much of the time the trails are quiet as they go around the two lakes with a loop through the woods.

One of the first things I saw by the parking lot at Gerhild and Graham Brown Conservation Area was a large patch of sumac. It turned out to be smooth sumac, much less common that the winged sumac near my home. Sumac is one of the first plants to invade a pasture left to grow up.

Gerhild and Graham Brown

I found out about this conservation area by accident. It isn’t very large, but is a nice place to visit. I’ve found some new plants here too.

The other thing I’ve found out is how rarely some of these places are visited or maintained. There is a small parking lot. Sometime this spring someone ran a bush hog down to make a hiking trail. It is now growing up which is fine with me as I find several plants easy to photograph there.

Although rough fruited cinquefoil is not rare, it is a pretty wildflower. The flower shape puts this plant into the rose family. The katydid doesn’t care. It smells like food.

Visiting Conservation Areas

I’ve asked around. Many of these areas have very few visitors. Some have trails, some have rutted roads, some have nothing. Most have visitors only during hunting season.

Perhaps I understand why few people go visiting conservation areas in rural areas. I spend most of my hiking time near home as I have lots of land to look over. And city people seem unwilling to go off into wild areas unless they look like city parks.

The media is full of warnings about ticks. I pick up a few, especially when I forget to spray up more than my pant legs.

People are afraid of snakes. I rarely even glimpse one. Besides, snakes are our first line of defense against ticks as they eat the rodents supporting the population.

Reason for Concern

This year the conservation/state park sales tax comes up for renewal. It isn’t much, only a penny on eight dollars spent.

Conservation areas are great places to visit. Perhaps, if more of us used them, there would be more trails. But, without the sales tax, there won’t be these places.

Please vote Yes on Proposition 1. Then go visiting conservation areas and find out what makes them and Missouri special.

Tags Conservation Tax, Hiking, Ozark wildflowers, Ozark wildlife

GKP Writing News

Too Many Projects

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date May 29, 2026

Especially during the summer, time seems to melt away. Too many projects need attention. Now there are more writing projects getting worked on.

Another dimension of summer is heat and humidity. It may not be raining much, but there is always humidity. Summer temperatures are creeping in and feel worse with the moist air.

The Garden. For years, the horseradish was content in its little patch. No longer. Now I have to enlarge the patch or start moving plants elsewhere. Just one of the too many projects on the never ending to do list.

My Normal Routine

I am a morning person. Mornings are when my writing is best so I work on it in the morning. But not during the summer.

Heat stroke is no joke. I’ve been very close several times. Gardening summer afternoons is not wise. So I work outside mornings during the summer and try to write in the afternoons.

Writing Projects

The draft is close to done for Life’s Rules. However, I put it aside for months to work on the Carduan Chronicles. So now I am reading through the part I have done. Then I can complete the draft.

Of course, it doesn’t end there. Several things included in the draft need checking by other eyes than mine. I am basing many events on memories from forty years ago. Things change.

Ship Eighteen is again being edited. My friend sent a list of suggestions and I am looking through the draft with those in mind. And I have found several other things needing changes as well.

Exploring the Ozark Hills

I thought this book was complete. It actually is. My problem is different as I consider getting more of these books printed.

Photographs are a major part of this book. To get good images in the book, all of them need to be at least 300 dpi. Unfortunately, because there are so many photographs, this makes the file huge.

Some time back I tried to shrink the size by lowering the dpi of the images. In all honesty, they weren’t as good as I wanted them to be at the lower dpi. So, I am going through the photographs and taking them back to 400 dpi. Then I will put them back in the book file so I can get more copies printed.

The Pumpkin Project needs the same treatment.

Too Many Projects

Between gardening, lawn work, house work, summer heat and writing projects, I am a bit overwhelmed. Then I added a couple of new online ventures.

There is Substack. And the picture book reviews have moved off my Goodreads blog and onto a new account set up just for them. That means transferring the hundreds of books still on the blog.

Tags book marketing, Ozark gardening, writing novels

Latest From High Reaches

Two Savoy Cabbages

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date May 22, 2026

I loved the picture, so I ordered the seeds. Alcosa Savoy cabbage is a nice, petite head with crinkly leaves. This year I found another Savoy cabbage and am growing two Savoy cabbages.

Alcosa cabbage makes a nice little head surrounded by crinkled leaves.

Cabbage Is Cabbage, Right?

No. Regular cabbage has smooth leaves and makes a tight head. It has a slight bitterness.

Savoy cabbage has crinkly leaves and a looser head. It has no bitterness I can taste.

Both are very cold hardy and I grow most of it for a fall crop. It survives to about twenty degrees without protection.

Alcosa Savoy cabbage (right) is not that small. When I pick some to take to Farmers Market, I have trouble getting it into a plastic bag. Violacea is on the left, or rather, a leaf that dwarfs the Alcosa next to it.

Time Is Important

The Ozarks has spring. Some years it is very short. Other years it hangs around flirting with winter.

Cabbage likes it cool to cold. All the relatives – broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts – agree. Hot temperatures make them bitter, even kill them.

Time to maturity or harvest matters. Alcosa is 74 days. If I plant it in the garden in March, I usually get a few heads. It is a hybrid, but I plant it anyway.

One thing not on a seed packet is how big a plant gets. Yes, the spacing does give an indication, but I wasn’t prepared for this Savoy cabbage. It is the biggest one I’ve ever grown and is just getting started. A nearby leek is having a tough time. the frilly leaves are dill.

Violaceo di Verona

According to Baker’s Creek, this cabbage is from northern Italy. It matures in 120 days. That makes it a fall crop in the Ozarks. However, I did want to see what it looked like, so one is growing in my garden now.

Supposedly this makes a medium-sized head. It dwarfs my other ones. The leaves are huge!

This cabbage is just starting to form a head. summer is coming along with hot weather, enemy of cabbage. The shade cloths are going up.

Two Savoy Cabbages

Summer is blowing into the Ozarks. My Alcosa cabbages are ready for harvest. The Violaceo has two months to go.

I did plant it in the shade house and will put the shades up within the next week. That may help a little.

Now I have to plan where to plant my two Savoy cabbages in September. Perhaps I will have fresh cabbage all the way to New Year’s.

Tags growing cabbage, Ozark gardening

GKP Writing News

Joining Substack

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date May 22, 2026

Joining Substack is a bit out of character for me. I’m not much of a joiner and definitely not a big social media fan.

What Is Substack?

I’m still trying to find an answer to this. It seems to be lots of people doing informational or opinion blogs. The types of these is immense and mostly of no interest to me.

Another aspect seems to be to try to get people to follow your articles. There is even a push to have paid subscriptions to these.

cover for "Goat Games" by Karen GoatKeeper — As I get acquainted on Substack, I am posting about my books. This time I decided to do my first book, “Goat Games”.

Why Did I Join?

My first brush with this site was through a podcast by J.F. Penn with Anne Lamott. Authors seemed to be joining Substack.

When I went to Rendezvous on the River, two of the local authors there had accounts and were happy with them. It seemed a good place to meet other authors, possibly find beta readers, maybe readers.

Now What?

My website has two posts a week on it, most weeks. I do a monthly book review for my local library. There are several book drafts I am working on. This will be another post at least weekly to get written.

Most of the Substack people seem to have some topic they put up articles about. I have no idea what topic I would write about. Most of my topics are of little interest to other people.

My Purpose in Joining Substack

Although I love to write, I would love to have other people read my books as well. It is extremely hard to get people to notice my books among the millions published each year.

That brings up another difficulty for me. Although I have self published eighteen books, they are for many ages, on different topics, in different genres, fiction and nonfiction.

I want to find readers. Perhaps the authors on Substack can help me find some of them.

Tags book marketing, social media

Latest From High Reaches

Mule Jumping Competition

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date May 15, 2026

People love to compete. Who is better? Whose car or horse is faster. The mule jumping competition tries to determine which mule can jump higher.

Bonita is a little under 52 inches at the withers. This jump at the mule jumping competition is a bit over 40 inches high. Her owner is leading her up to it.

Missouri Mules

A mule is a cross of a male donkey and a mare. They vary a lot in size from miniatures to big and tall. Height is measured in hands (four inches) to the withers or top of the shoulders.

Mules were popular for work in pioneer days. They were strong and didn’t need as much care and feed as a horse. Missouri bred many of the finest mules.

Stubborn as a mule is quite true. If a mule decides to not do something, it doesn’t do it. But this is also a bit of temper on the part of the owners as mules are smart and many of the refusals were because the mule thought a path was too dangerous or had another good reason.

Bonita looked at the barrier at the mule jumping competition as she listened to her owner and the crowd urging her on. She decided to try jumping over the barrier.

Mule Jumping Competition

Horses have riders as they race to a jump and over it. Steeplechases are popular races around a jumping course.

Jumping mules are not ridden. The owner walks them to the jump and urges them to jump over it.

There are several classes for the mules. One is for little mules. Another is for those thirteen hands (52 inches) and under. The third is for the tall mules.

A clean jump at the mule jumping competition is one that does not knock the barrier pole down. Bonita has cleared it with her front feet. Now she is tucking her back feet up to get over the jump.

The Set Up

Two poles are set up, each with a moveable bracket. A third pole is wet in the brackets. A cover is over this pole making it look like a solid barrier.

If a mule doesn’t clear the cross pole, it will fall down. This way the mule isn’t hurt.

Many people came for the mule jumping competition. This was new to me and I went down to watch.

Watching the Competition

A crowd gathered at the Rendezvous at the River to watch the mules jumping. We sat around on hay bales or in chairs set up in the shade.

A mule was led over to the jump. It stopped and looked at the barrier. Then it jumped over this two-foot high pole. When all the mules in the class had jumped, the bar was raised two inches and the mules jumped it again.

As the barrier got higher, one by one the mules refused to jump it. The winner was the last mule that would and did jump over the pole.

One little mule was fun to watch even though the owner was very frustrated. It decided not to jump that day. However, it needed to go over the barrier to make the owner happy. It walked up to the pole, knocked it over and walked over.

There are only a few of these mule jumping competition events. The next big one will be at the Missouri State Fair.

Tags Author event, Mule Jumping, Rendezvous at the River

GKP Writing News

Author Event

Post author By Karen GoatKeeper
Post date May 15, 2026

It’s been years since I was last at an author event. Perhaps I should make an effort to go more often.

My book display for the author event used two tables. There was not enough room to really spread the books out.

Packing

Of course, the most important items to pack are my books. I spent an hour sorting, counting and packing five boxes with books. A plastic sheet was included to set the boxes on the ground.

Then there are tables to display the books. I own one and borrowed another small one. Both needed covers.

Food is an important item as well. Since the author event was an all day affair and my stomach demands lunch, I planned out food and herbal tea to put in a cooler. There would be food booths, but I prefer to not depend on them as I may or may not like what they offer.

If the event were held inside, this would be everything. This event was held outside. I borrowed a canopy.

Down the way from my booth was a table set up by Titus Benton for his book “65560”. It attracted many people. Next to him was Matt Ankney with his first book “Spooklight”.

The Art of Packing

I suppose everything could be stuffed into my truck. It could be sorted out once I was there and setting up.

However, it makes more sense to me to pack things carefully and in some sort of order. The boxes of books went into the truck. The canopy and tables plus a chair went into the truck bed.

Across the aisle from my booth was a music booth. I enjoyed listening to the bluegrass music.

At the Author Event

Fourteen authors set up at the event. Many had only a book or two. Several of us had many books.

I knew one of the authors: Titus Benton with his new book “65560”. This is very popular at my library. Eventually my name will work its way up the hold list so I can read it.

Everyone sold at least a few books. We got to talk to lots of people. Maybe some will check out our books later on.

It was a great opportunity to meet other local authors. We know there are quite a few of us, but we only get to meet each other at an author event such as this one.

This mule looked over the jump and decided it did not want to go over it. Unlike another small mule that knocked the jump down, it just turned sideways each time it was brought to the jump.

Busy Place

Authors weren’t the only people there. Across from my booth was a music booth. I enjoyed the fiddle music much of the day.

The highlight was the mule jumping contest. This was something new for me and I joined the crowd going down to watch.

Although I didn’t sell very many books, I am glad I went to this author event.

Tags book marketing, Rendezvous at the River