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I love a good story! Good stories start with great experiences and even better people and that is exactly what I found when I began working on Buckin' Bull Buddies.
Everyone in this book is a real person with their own unique story that ties together through the two main characters, Bode Spence and Cade Smith. I became part of their story in 2022 when I interviewed them at the Junior World Finals in Las Vegas.
I was lucky enough to remain in contact with these two bull riders and followed their progress to the Iowa High School Finals in June. Soon after, my team and I started serious talks about a possible book project.
In August, I traveled to Cade's farm in Sidney, Iowa for a gorgeous morning of photos and porch interviews. The pair made me laugh with stories about the pranks they had played on one another, told me their hopes for the future, and offered advice about what it takes to chase the dream of riding bulls. Before I left that day, they shared with me a stack of childhood photos. Bode at four years old in tiny red chaps; Cade on his horse in the middle of a rainstorm, and a high school photo of them both together holding a pair of matching buckles, their prizes for a successful season.
Throughout the writing process, I kept in touch with the boys and their families, adding more characters along the way. They offered me grace when emailed them with yet another delay in the process and gave corrections to the bull riding terminology that I had unsuccessfully Googled in my attempt to sound like I knew what I was talking about.
While I was busy with this book, the boys were busy chasing their rodeo dreams; adding more buckles to their collections and more miles to their odometers.
As for me, I presented research at my first international conference along with teaching leadership workshops across the state of Iowa. I traveled to Canada for a media internship at the Canadian Western Agribition, created a Ladies in Livestock Mentorship Program, and did coverage of the Junior High National Finals Rodeo in Des Moines.
This project hit several roadblocks and I am grateful to both families for their kindness and grace as I navigated working with illustrators and printers for the first time. They were incredibly kind and in the spring of 2025 we finally had hardcover copies to share! This project was filled with lessons I would never have learned without experiencing them first hand and I am excited to see where the next chapter takes me in my pursuit of a career in agricultural communications, and the boys in their pursuit of their bull riding dreams.
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