About
Robert Hays has been a newspaperreporter, public relations writer, magazine editor, and university professorand administrator. A native of Illinois, hetaught in Texas and Missouriand retired in 2008 from a long journalism teaching career at the University of Illinois. He has spent a great deal oftime in South Carolina,the home state of his wife, Mary, and is a member of the South Carolina WritersWorkshop. His publications include academic journal and popular periodicalarticles and several non-fiction books. His novels include The BabyRiver Angel, Circles in the Water and TheLife and Death of Lizzie Morris, all published by Vanilla Heart. Robert andMary live in Champaign, Illinois. They have two sons and a grandsonand share (long story!) a cat named Eddie with the family next door.
Description
<p>The Race for Flugal Farm is the first book in a trilogy that charters the lives and adventures of the inhabitants of the Riding Stables at Flugal Farm.</p><div>Times had been hard for George Flugal and his wife, and this inevitably resulted in him having to sell the majority of the school's horses until he was left its just four: Pogo, Biff, Troy and an ex-racehorse called Chance.</div><div>The horses who along with a young stable hand Rachelle Perkins, a dog named Nugget, a pig called Nigel and an old family friend Uncle Dave, make up the Flugal's extended family.</div><div>When they find themselves facing the possibility of having the farm repossessed by the bank, and bought out by the odious Mr Williams, have to pull together to enter a carriage drive in order to win the prize money and save their way of life.</div>
Story Behind The Book
I collaborated on a book (G-2: Intelligence for Patton) with Oscar Koch, a retired general who served as Gen. George S. Patton's intelligence chief during World War II. Documents used in that work included the U.S. Seventh Army's detailed planning and after-battle reports on the invasion of Sicily. I wanted to write an authentic story of a veteran of that invasion, and at the same time deal with the very difficult issue of how we face death--and particularly the loss of a long-time mate. I did careful research on both topics to make the setting of this story accurate in detail as well as in broad scope.
