“Journeys: Finding Joy on Horseback”
DustyBlues Gallery is pleased to offer Joy’s new book. Read further to find out more about Joy.
Joy S. Miller Upton, who has lived in Hocking County for almost five decades, has released her first book, “Journeys: Finding Joy on Horseback” through Buchtel-based Monday Creek Publishing.
Miller Upton’s memoir is a story of “transformation from a traditional role of wife/mother to writer/photojournalist,” framed by six horse journeys she took over a period of 27 years, beginning with a 30-day, mostly solo ride in 1973.
Many of Miller Upton’s horseback travels were through terrain people of Athens, Belmont, Guernsey, Hocking, Morgan, Noble and Perry counties will recognize. Two of her rides traced Underground Railroad routes in Gallia, Lawrence, Washington and Monroe counties.
Her memoir incorporates much history of the locales she rode through, including an 1863 sweep by Morgan’s Raiders and the 1925 crash of the USS Shenandoah. People Miller Upton met along the way portray the rich variety of those who live in southeastern Ohio for the past two centuries.
Readers will also learn what it takes to prepare a horse and ride through the countryside for days or weeks at a time. Reviewer Jocelyn Robinson describes Miller Upton’s book as “(taking) the reader on a journey to find what it means to be tough, resourceful and curious.”
Over a period of more than four decades Miller Upton’s career includes freelance writing, photography, newspaper journalism and marketing. She has had hundreds of articles and photographs published in publications such as The Saturday Evening Post, Horse & Rider, The Columbus Dispatch, Associated Press, United Press International, The Advocate (Newark), The Athens Messenger as well as other marketing venues.