May is more than half over, but it’s “Get Caught Reading Month!” The question is: are you a reader? Have you got caught reading? Do you read?
For eleven years, I’ve been in the self-publishing business. At first, I had no plans on continuing, but I had such a great response to my first book, This Tumbleweed Landed, I continued.
Now eleven years later, I have written nine books, I have another one to my editor and several in the queue. I have recorded three audiobooks and published three cookbooks. It feels like a lot done, but I wonder—are you a reader? Do you like memoirs, stories of rural American, poetry and Christmas memories? Can you relate to a square dance caller who volunteered for the Navy at seventeen and then saw the world calling squares?
Have you read one or any of my books?
Here’s the list if you’re not familiar:
Seven of my Books!
This Tumbleweed Landed– Where dust settles, stories rise: A poetic journey through Colorado’s forgotten frontier.
When Will Papa Get Home? – Dive into a heartwarming tale of resilience, hope, and the power of family bonds in the face of prejudice.
Let Me Tell You a Story– One Family’s Triumph: Building a Ranch While Others Lost Theirs in the Great Depression.
I’m excited to continue my four-book poetry series. My editor has my second book now, editing it: Time Measure Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry.
I’m a Reader!
But are you a reader? My reading adventure goes back to early childhood memories of reading and rereading Nancy Drew mysteries on the front porch sitting on a swing. Reading always came easy for me. Did it for you? I know some people struggle with reading.
Both of my parents read, but I followed my mother’s reading choices in junior high. I’ll never forget reading Margaret Mitchell’s book, Gone with the Wind. I have such a vivid imagination, I easily pictured the whole book. Then when I saw the three hour and fifty-eight minute movie, I got lost in the scenes of Rhett and Scarlett and didn’t want it to end.
When I went to Colorado State University, I majored in English and read the classics. Shakespeare, Milton and Dickens became my new favorite authors. Before this, I had little exposure to the classics, but this gave me a great opportunity to not only read but study them. What a treat!
I have continued reading my whole life. When Tony Hillerman mysteries came out, I read every one starting with The Blessing Way. Mom and I also enjoyed Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone alphavet mystery series—starting with A is for Alibi.
Mom and I also enjoyed the Don Coldsmith series, starting with The Trail of the Spanish Bit.
One summer while traveling in California, my ex-husband and I read some of John Steinbeck’s books—Grapes of Wrath is a must read!
Then I found Jodi Piccoult, an author who has dealt with many social issues we have in her novels like My Sister’s Keeper. She now has written twenty-five books and is my heroine!
During the pandemic, my husband, Lin, and I read some of C. S. Lewis’ books. On Lin’s suggestion, I reread the Narnia Tales in chronological order. Those books ignite my childlike imagination for sure and Aslan says it all! We also read A Grief Observed about the loss of his wife—a gripping tale.
In the last several years, I’ve focused on recovery and the spiritual writings of Fr. Richard Rohr and N. T. Wright.
So are you a reader?
So you can see a pattern here—I chose an author then read everything they wrote. Through this method of reading, I became familiar with that author and they became a personal friend. That’s what I’m suggesting to you today—get caught reading one of my books this month or any month! Then read more and sample the variety I write. If you do, send me the picture and I’ll post it on my website!
National Read a Book Day was Friday, September 6, and I want to share what book I’m reading with you. I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s a page-turner! Why is reading so important to me? What are you reading?
Right now, my newest book is TheCemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez. I saw her at the Santa Fe International Literary Festival in May and bought it. She enticed me with the title and her sharing about this unusual title.
The protagonist, a writer, has numerous unfinished manuscripts she plans to bury in the cemetery of untold stories. Unusual concept? Yes, but as a writer I relate! I know there’s twists and turns coming and I wait with anticipation!
My Untold Stories—Almost
For decades, two of my manuscripts lay in my computer, whispering to me, “Finish me. Come back. Please come back!” Finally, I did and self-published them in 2014 and 2015. But I still have some I’ve let sit and not finish yet.
Right now, I have several books in the queue: three more poetry books in my Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry series, three-four in a poetry book series—poems I wrote with my students, a how to write a biography book, another book of This Tumbleweed Landed poems and a women’s fiction I wrote in 2016.
Here’s a list of poems I want to add to the continuation of This Tumbleweed Landed, #2:
Dad’s smooth swing of saddle up on a horse
Grandma Dickerson’s embroidered edge for towels & washcloths
Mom’s embroidery of t-towels
My hope chest
435 cattle—12 trucks inspected and lined up when we sold out because of the drought
Prince Albert in a can all over the ranch
The distinctive ring of the school bell
Mom’s cedar chest
“Taking up food” vs. serving something in a pan
Granddad & Grandma Horner’s slide night after one of their trips
Dad telling Maynard Bowen dancing was like clapping your feet
Folsom Falls adventures
Mom’s Christmas fruitcake with Granddad Horner’s sherry
Phrases from Mom and Dad – loaded for bear, faunching at the bit, it’s raining like a cow peeing on a flat rock
Doing the Bunny Hop at midnight at the Branson dances as a child
Dad & Millard Warner—best friends in high school, then us living next door to each other
Travis Patton—exchanged water for fresh eggs
I have a couple of short stories that I’ve played with and had fun writing, but I haven’t published yet. So many unfinished stories to share!
Celebrating National Read a Book Day, why is reading so important?
Reading has been a passion of mine for most of my life. From the moment I learned that letters strung together created words, I saw worlds unfold before me. I remember sitting on our porch swing in the summer and reading. Because we didn’t have a large family library, I depended on our school library and the library in Trinidad. So, I re-read Nancy Drew books and thoroughly enjoyed them, even when I knew what was coming.
I have kept at least one book going my whole life. Right now, I have three going:
The Cemetery of Untold Stories, Julia Alvarez
Paul, A Biography, N. T. Wright
The Language of Life: A Festival of Poetry, Bill Moyer
National Read a Book Day 2024
Finally, are you a reader? What are you reading now? Are you reading more than one book?
Multiple ChristianBook Giveaway – until Tuesday, September 10, 2024!
A dream I had of George Strait inspired me to write a poem many years ago. Finally, I am in the finally stages of publishing it in my first book in a four-book series named Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry. The title of this book is Was It a Dream?.
To sample the flavor of this book, here’s the introduction to it, explaining its inception.
“Yes, you’re a poet!” Lin, my husband, responded enthusiastically.
While lounging in our hot tub one beautiful New Mexico evening last year, Lin asked me what word I’d use to describe myself in my writing. I mulled it over in my mind. Did he mean genre? Author? Writer? I don’t even remember what I said, but his answer floored me—”Poet!”
I thought, Four of my seven published books feature my poetry. I’ve written a lot of poems, but I’m not Shakespeare or Milton. I don’t rhyme and have meter in my poetry. Could I be a poet?
Even though it was something so familiar and deep-seated in me that came to light, I had needed someone else to identify it, to identify who I really was—a poet!
After this refreshing discovery, I ran to our storage shed to find all my old poems. I knew exactly where my journals were. I made a beeline to the box, and there they were! After dusting them off, I marveled at the work I hadn’t looked at in years, in decades. That joyous revelation—that I was not just a writer but also a poet—changed my life as an author.
As I mused over Mary Oliver’s poetic “Instructions for living a life,” I realized that, yes, I have “paid attention” by retelling my life’s journey through poetry for years, yet really didn’t realize it until I put this poetry series together. This first book begins with a solitary poem written in 1986 that starts with a trip to the Mayan ruin in Cobá, Mexico and ends with me in Spokane, Washington doing laundry in a laundromat, “paying attention” to a child’s first steps.
While that first poem focuses on a travel adventure, this whole book will take you on a journey through my life in the 80s and 90s, when I was in my late thirties and early forties, an unsettled time in my life. I reveal a variety of my vulnerable “heart hurts,” like being childless at forty. That was monumental for me, a big piece of my pain.
Looking back at these poems, I am astonished at how deeply vulnerable I am. When I wrote these poems, it was to process my life at that specific moment, not to share my innermost thoughts with the world.
Because of that, there are so many different key elements throughout: the pain, the celebration, the wonder, the astonishment, as Mary Oliver says. So, if you’re looking for a central theme, my collection may upset you because I share a hodgepodge of life events, but it is my story.
My first wedding was September 9, 1973, and at that point in my life, I did not see myself as a writer much less a poet. I wrote nothing—poetry or prose. I was still in pain from some past traumas, so I couldn’t see the trees for the forest.
Because of that, I struggled through that relationship, and we ended up divorcing in 1980. For eight years, I actively struggled with alcoholism. That sounds like a short span of time, but for women, the average length of their drinking years is seven years, so I was right there. During those years, I didn’t write any poetry.
From 1982 to 1986, I attended Colorado State University—forty years ago! After a false start for my freshman year in Occupational Therapy, I switched my major to English with a teaching concentration two weeks into the semester and walked into a class with the professor reading Beowulf in Old English. It felt like a foreign language, but I persevered. I was twenty-eight years old when I went to the university for the first time, so I had forgotten anything I had learned in high school, not that I had a very strong background in literature to begin with.
At the beginning of that first semester, I remember sitting in an English literature class and the professor asked a probing question about sirens. Having no clue what a siren was, I sat with my hand firmly not raised, but because of my good-student-mindset, I almost responded anyway. When a student spouted off the answer sought for, my mouth dropped! My only reference to a siren was a noisy alarm on emergency equipment. Sirens on the rocks, warning sailors. I had no idea, and apparently, I hadn’t studied the passage for the class that day enough.
From then on, I knuckled down and prepared for each class thoroughly, realizing I almost had an embarrassing moment in front of my peers ten years younger than me.
It was in those English and American literature classes that I found a poetry. I stumbled through the poetry sections of my classes, in awe of the meaning the professors gleaned from the words lined up in stanzas.
In my upper-level classes, I eagerly absorbed the Shakespeare and Milton tomes and internalized their influence, unknowingly preparing to embrace my own inner poet years later.
There at the university, I started writing for my education classes and realized through good grades and positive comments made by different professors that I certainly did have the ability to write an educational paper. Though I never thought I’d be publishing not only one, but four poetry books in this series, and more.
In 1986, I graduated in the top four percent of my class with a B.A. in Education, a minor in Spanish, and concentration in Education.
I got sober on December 22, 1988. I’ve often thought that my poetry writing paralleled my recovery, but it was in 1986 that I wrote that first poem about Cobá, which I find so rich. Writing that poem and graduating ignited something in me that year, and that was the first glimmer I had that I was a poet.
I can see now that already I was starting to see myself as a poet and noting life.
Four of my seven published books feature poetry and prose, so it’s not a new genre for me. While teaching middle school language arts and literature, I taught a poetry unit every year, but I didn’t take myself seriously as a poet. I was a middle school teacher, but I only dabbled in poetry.
I also participated as a fellow in the Rio Grande Writing Project, an affiliate of the National Writing Project, a professional development program for teachers. It promoted writing “across the curriculum”—in math, social studies, science, and electives, as well as language arts and literature classes.
During this time, I followed the training of Nancy Atwell’s book, In the Middle, where I learned about “Writing and Reading Workshop,” her successful plan for teaching writing and reading to middle school students. This book changed my classroom. I wrote daily with my students at the beginning of class. I would write a prompt on the board before class so the students knew to sit down, open their writing notebooks, copy the prompt, and respond. Each day, I timed it for seven minutes. When I finished my daily teacher chores, like attendance, I grabbed my writing journal and a chair near a student and wrote. I wanted them to see me as a writer and often I chose poetry to express myself.
By focusing on the writing process, I grounded this writing time in Natalie Goldberg’s book, Writing Down the Bones, and introduced my students to her preferred writing practice, a timed free write. She listed seven things to consider for this time:
1. Keep your hand moving. No matter what, don’t stop . . .
2. Don’t cross out.
3. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, or grammar.
7. You are free to write the worst junk in the world (I added, “in the universe!”)
Can you imagine a writing teacher telling her students not to worry about spelling, punctuation, or grammar? My students loved it, and their writing blossomed. Then when the poetry unit came up, I guided them through haikus, free verse, and self-expression. It became a favorite of theirs and mine.
Yet at this time, it was a nominal gesture! I didn’t feel like a writer, much less a poet. That identity came years later.
Then something happened! Poetry became the genre I ran to when life tilted in ways I had no control over, good or bad—my mom’s death, the coronavirus pandemic, life!
Almost forty years after writing my first poem, I gathered all my poems together and realized I had written enough poetry to fill at least four poetry books. After taking Natalie Goldberg’s writing practice class during the pandemic and reading her book, Three Simple Lines: A Writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku, I’ve currently moved to haikus to express my life, yet I still write free verse occasionally.
Today I write poetry when I’m happy; I write poetry when I’m sad. I write about what’s important and about what’s trivial.
This collection of poetry, spanning the first fifteen years of my poetry writing, takes a peek into me and my world. From the luscious green jungles of Mexico to the beautiful purple orange sunsets of New Mexico. From losing my dad and my second and third husbands to living a life without my own child.
Today, several famous poets influence me: contemporaries Mary Oliver and Billy Collins, classics William Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson, and Native Americans Joy Harjo and Louise Erdrich.
Some of those influences are evident in my poems. Magical realism from my Spanish literature classes seeped into my poem on Cobá, for instance. George Strait, my country and western hero, shows up in the title poem (“Was it a Dream?”), doing what I love to do besides write—dance! His advice became my motto for life.
But it was when I found Mary Oliver’s “Instructions for living a life” in her poem, “Sometimes” that I realized I had followed her directions in my poetry to the tee. She was an influence without my even knowing!
So please, step into my world of poetry and walk through my journey with me in this first book as I look at personal growth, reflection, and the twists and turns life can make.
Larada Horner-Miller, Was It A Dream?: Navigating My Life Through Poetry, (Horner Publishing Company, 2024): ix-xv.
Finally,
So many of my books sat for years on a shelf, in a folder on my computer, unpublished. I wrote them then put the notebooks away. As life unfolded, I faced joys and sorrows and wrote poetry. That’s how I navigated my life—with words. With Lin’s prompting, I knew I had to publish this book and this series. Let me know what you think.
[1] Mary Oliver, Devotions, (Penguin Press, 2017), 105.
[2] Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones (Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1986), 8.
Listen to an interview released Wednesday, August 7, 2024 on Hump Days Calls podcast
I just finished the 3rd annual Santa Fe International Literary Festival and it was off-the-map! Lots of well-known authors and lots of fun! Here’s how I ended up there!
In December, I got a Christmas newsletter from a friend and in a blurb at the bottom, she referenced she organized the volunteers and tickets for the Santa Fe International Literary Festival. I had never heard of it, but immediately I emailed her and volunteered.
So, I’ve been anticipating this event for months. I left it up to her for my volunteer shift times. She said, “How about 7:30 am-12:30 pm both Saturday and Sunday?” Sounded good to me.
As I planned and prepared for this weekend, Lin had a garden event at the Randall Davey Audubon Center in Santa Fe Saturday morning, so he joined me in our hotel Friday night—what a nice treat.
The Friday night welcome began with a poem from the renowned Lucy Tapahonso, spoken in Navajo and English. Then I saw Jesmyn Ward, author of Let Us Descend, interviewed by Tracy K. Smith. What a great opening night.
Now I have to confess that I didn’t know the names of all the authors, but because of working the morning shifts while I worked, I saw the following:
Saturday morning
Roshi Joan Halifax started the morning with meditation. I have heard her speak before but never meditated with her. I did see her and help get the people in the room, but I didn’t get to meditate with her because I also was room manager in the Sweeney ballroom. Maybe next year!
David Gunn, who wrote Killers of the Flower Moon, interviewed by Santa Fe’s own Hampton Sides. David talked of how the book became a best-selling movie and promoted his new book, The Wager. His personality shone through.
Lynsey Addario, a photojournalist, who has photographed all major wars in the 21st century. Her presentation stunned me, so I had to buy her memoir, It’s What I Do.
The morning’s duties exhausted me because I did a lot of standing, yet I had bought tickets to four more events Saturday afternoon. Because I didn’t have enough time to grab lunch quickly, I decided not to rush off to the first afternoon session for me.
Saturday afternoon
Poet, Arthur Sze, interviewed by poet, Wang Jiaxin. I love poetry but I had trouble understanding these two, so I left early to regroup for the rest of the day.
Tracy K. Smith, poet, interviewed, by Hakim Bellamy, entertained me with her strong shares about poetry writing.
Anthony Doerr, author of All The Light We Cannot See, interviewed by Bryan Curtis. Anthony was one of my favorites with a high energy, fun-filled talk.
Saturday evening, I saw Julia Alvarez, Dominican Latina author of The Cemetery of Untold Stories. I had heard of Julia for years but never read any of her books. So, a month or so ago, I started reading her first book, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and fell in love with her writing. She was interviewed by Manuel Munoz who identified her as his idol.
So, when the day ended, I went to bed at 10:00 pm (early for me) super-exhausted but so satisfied. Lin went home so I was on my own.
Sunday morning, I worked the same shift I worked on Saturday and again saw some super stars in the literary world
Sunday morning
Natalie Goldberg, a longtime mentor of mine, led the morning meditation with writing practice (see Writing Down the Bone if you are not familiar with that term). I stayed with her until she assigned the first writing prompt, but I had to go the Sweeney ballroom to prepare for the author’s presentation there.
Kai Bird, co-author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer and other biographies, interviewed James McGrath Morris, shared his experience of co-writing a biography. He waited 19 years to have this book produced as a movie! The story tells more than just about the bomb—the tragic trial and accusations were horrible.
Patrick Radden Keefe, investigative journalist for the The New Yorker, shared chilling stories about his work reporting on the opioid crisis and El Chapo Guzman and the Sinaloa Cartel.
I learned from Saturday to take a break for lunch so I did, missing one session. Then I jumped on it for the rest of the day:
Sunday afternoon
Javier Zamora, author of Solito, interviewed by Demetria Martinez, told his story of coming illegally to the USA as a 9-year-old, let by a “Coyote” who left him. What a compelling story! His commitment to standing up for the Latino world touched my heart.
Hampton Sides, author of The Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook, interviewed by Mark Bryant, highlighted the process of writing this book and a look at his successful career of writing biographers.
The evening program began with Hakim Bellamy reciting a poem he just wrote to reflect the weekend experience—a powerful statement!
Then the evening and the conference ended with one of my mentors, Anne Lamott, author of Somehow: Thoughts on Love, interviewed by Ellen McGirt. I had waited with anticipation for this talk and she didn’t disappoint me. I have followed her work for years, starting with Bird by Bird, a book that directed my teaching of writing to my students.
Her entertaining, humorous exchange with Ellen and the crowd sent me home celebrating the whole experience.
Finally, I bought lots of books and got most of them signed by the authors. I talked to a lot of like-minded readers and authors, and I can hardly wait for next year. Being a volunteer gave me an inside view of the mechanism of a super-successful event.
And two asides:
My books for saleCloser look
The New Mexico Book Association had a display of New Mexico authors in one room and I had two books there: Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better and Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir.
When I got paperwork Friday night, I saw that Natalie Goldberg and Katie Arnold are offering a hike with walking meditation and writing at the Randall Davey Audubon Center Monday, May 20 from 9:00 am – 12:00 pm, so I’m going! What a way to end this fantastic experience!
~ Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir available in audiobook format at the following places:
