When I first met Joan Ranquet, she had just been cast as the glamorous, exotic leading lady and I, the shorter, more earnest half of the team providing comic relief. This has pretty much defined our respective roles ever since: as I have plodded along here in Los Angeles, earnestly struggling to establish a foothold in design, then consulting, then speaking, Joan slipped on her magical jet-pack and zipped off to a series of glamorous locales, acquiring exotic skills in intuitive healing and trans-species communication along the way, establishing a small empire to provide the appropriate bucolic surroundings for herself and her horses, always looking fucking fabulous doing it. She makes entrepreneurship seem stranger and more fun than anyone I've ever met, "manifesting" money, opportunities, and lucrative book contracts seemingly whenever the mood strikes her. Yes, there is a touch of Dr. Doolittle about her—I mean, what else do you call someone who talks to the animals? But even more aptly, she is the human embodiment of one Mary Poppins, only far more supercalifragilisiticexpialidocious, not to mention a snappier dresser.
When did you decide to become a writer?
I don’t know that I ever decided to be a writer, I have always written. I am aware that I started writing in a diary at age 7. I wasn’t writing because I had anything significant to say or some drama at that point yet. There was always an awareness, sensitivity within that had to be expressed. That being said, those entries are rather dull. A Brontë I was not. Ironically, that year, I wanted to get a horse so I devised a plan that I would perform plays that I had written and then sell the scripts after the show to the 4 neighbors that came and eventually I could buy a horse. Thankfully, that year I won a horse and the world was spared my bad musicals. Even when I was an actress, writing followed like an eager younger sibling. I had a play published in a college literary magazine, I went to the Edinburgh Festival with a show that I co-wrote, I earned a living in Hollywood rewriting while my scripts had been optioned. It’s just always been there. Once I transitioned to be an Animal Communicator of course that skill was very handy in getting my first and soon my second book published. It’s also been helpful to be able to write articles and have people understand their animals better through the stories I tell.
Who was your favorite teacher?
Mrs. Keating. She was my sixth-grade teacher and not a nun at my Catholic girl school. She had been one of those naughty nuns that ran off with the priest which made her quite human and admirable. She was very encouraging and nurturing and yet had a little nun-like no-nonsense. She was passionate about teaching and creativity.
What do you love to write about?
I love to write about animals, giving voice and character to their magnificent instinctual ways in this human thought driven world. I love writing about people transforming – having an epiphany as they realize how much they are already communicating with their animals (for better or worse)……and I love writing about anything that could improve the adventure for all!!
What has writing taught you?
Patience and focus for sure. I had written on a Post-it note in 1998 that my animal communication book would be published by Hay House. It took them 6 years to find me!! I never even put a book proposal in. I just knew I would get that deal. So I was patient and focused. And kept writing.
How has writing made you stronger?
Being able to write about an experience can help you forgive someone or even yourself. Being able to write about an experience can help you let it go. Sometimes writing about something gives you the perspective to say “yeah, I did do that!!” because you captured a delicious moment or “dang girl, I am all that!!” And honestly, to walk in to bookstores big and small and see a stack of your books is the bomb.
If you could go back in time and tell 10-year-old you anything, what would it be?
You’ll have a lot of beautiful horses. The men will come and go….that’s the good news. Just keep writing.
What are your five favorite books, blogs or things to read?
Kinship with all Life, by J. Allen Boone
Living Buddha, Living Christ, by Thich Nhat Hanh
Anatomy of the Spirit, by Caroline Myss
used to adore fiction and anything Chekhov, Tennessee Williams, or Pinter. Of course Winnie the Pooh, James and the Giant Peach and Goodnight Moon.
The New Yorker.
Joan Ranquet is an internationally renowned Animal Communicator and author of Communication with all Life, Revelations of an Animal Communicator published by Hay House, and is founder of Communication with all Life University. Joan teaches Beginning through Advanced Animal Communication. She works with individual pet owners, dog, cat, horse trainers, behaviorists, rescues, therapeutic riding centers, barn managers and vets. She troubleshoots behavioral and medical issues, stimulates healing in conjunction with conventional treatment, and facilitates clients to deepen their ability to care for and understand their animal companions. Joan has been featured in dozens of media including Pet Nation on Dateline NBC, The Today Show on NBC, Good Morning America on ABC, Animal Planet, the National Enquirer, The Los Angeles Times, The Sun Sentinel, and The Palm Beach Post, to name a few. She was the “celebrity animal communicator” in a short documentary on the AMC Channel. Her newest book Energy Healing for Animals: Techniques to Enhance the Health, Longevity and Happiness of the Animals we Love will be out Spring 2012 published by Sounds True. www.joanranquet.com.