Day 22 – The Many Hats I Wear: Changing Constantly!

January 22, 2026January 23, 2026 Larada Horner-Miller1 Comment

I wear many different hats in my life today and have over the years. Currently the hats I wear vary and require different things from me.

Author/Poet

I love to write, and I enjoy writing in a variety of genres. My collection of ten books varies: poetry, memoir, biography, historical fiction, biography and essays. So I don’t stick to just one, and it’s worked for me for years. But recently, I have focused more on poetry—free verse poetry. I’ve published two poetry books in a five-book poetry series.

Also, I love to write haikus. As a literature & language arts teacher, I did a poetry unit every year with my students, and I had them write haiku. Back then, I didn’t write haikus though.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, I did a lot of walking on our lane in the east mountains above Albuquerque, winter and summer. The rhythmic walking and my interest in haikus opened the door to my writing them. While I walked, the lines came to me and I recorded them when I got home.

Then Natalie Goldberg’s book, Three Simple Lines: A Writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku, inspired me to write more. I love the simple framework of the 3 lines—5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables—give me. It forces me to be selective about word choice—totally different than any other writing I do.

My next project is an autofiction book, part autobiography and part fiction. I’ve written 50,000 words already, so I just need to revise it, but I keep pushing it to the back burner because everything else pushes ahead of it.

Book Marketer

Because I self-publish my books, I have to do it all—write the book, layout of books, publishing and marketing. Deeply, I love all of it except marketing. It consumes my time with the ads, the questions what to do, the different social media apps, the financial demands and everything.

For years, I haven’t made a definite marketing plan, but this year I have, and I hope I stick to it!

Co-Owner of a Ranch

My brother and I co-own our family ranch in southeastern Colorado that has been our family for almost 100 years. He lives in the community near our ranch, so he’s the boots-on-the-ground guy. I do the business side. Today, I labored at balancing the checkbook. Usually, I balance it to the penny. Today, I’m $1.69 off and I hate that.

Also, I’ve been busy entering the checkbook into an Open-Source app to prepare for our 2025 taxes. Managing our finances keeps me connected to our ranch, even though I live 5,000+ miles away now. The only way I can possible do it is through the internet.

Dancer

Since I was viciously attacked by a dog on July24, 2024, my dance life disappeared, and that activity fed my soul. Coming from a dancing family, I have danced my whole life. My parents glided across the dance floor on sawdust and dirt at our country dances.

On New Year’s Eve, Lin, my husband, and I danced at a local bar here in Boquete, mostly just to rock and roll music, but it was movement to music! For one song, we danced a Cha Cha, and my heart soared. Later in the evening, another dance song came on and we did a mean jitterbug. Oh, I miss the days!

Christian

My faith keeps me going. I am Episcopalian by choice, but I haven’t found a church yet here in Boquete, Panama. There seems to be mostly Protestant and Catholic churches. Because of this, I have attended Hope in the Desert Episcopal Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Facebook, Livestream, my church before we moved.

I have issues today with so many Christians turning away from Jesus’ teachings in loving the immigrant, feeding the poor and loving our neighbors, so that has affected my attending any churches here so far. I will find a place and land, I’m sure.

In Recovery

I have been in recovery for 37 years and it’s the basis of my life. It saved my life. So a big plus here—a strong active recovery community. I still have my connections back in Albuquerque, but I see that I will fit in here for sure.

Denver Broncos’ Fan

Yes, that’s a big hat to wear today. We just won the game last week against the Buffalo Bills, a hard-fought fight. Immediately after the game we heard our quarterback, Bo Nix, broke a bone in his ankle and is out for the rest of the year. So, I’m preparing emotionally for the game on Sunday where our backup quarterback, Jarrett Stidham, will fill in the void.

I’ve been a fan for years—been happy with the winning years and stuck with them through the lean years.

Finally,

Yes, I wear a variety of hats, bouncing back and forth between activities, demands and loves of my life. The rich variety makes my life full—I wouldn’t want it any other way!

Larada in her pink hat — I love my pink hat!

My Newest Books

Time Measured Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry, Book #2 e-book

ISBN – 9798989688654

$.99 for limited time

Is My Truth Universal?: A Woman’s Poetic Odyssey e-book

ISBN – 979-8989688623

ALWAYS FREE

Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry, Book #1 – e-book

ISBN – 979-8989688630

$3.99

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir e-book

ISBN – 978-0996614498

$3.99

Buy My Audio Books:

This Tumbleweed Landed

Let Me Tell You a Story

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Memoir Audiobook

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir audiobook cover

Book Promotion · My Books · My Thoughts · My Writing · poetry · Self-publishing

Day 18 – Accidentally, A Great Week for My New Book!

January 18, 2026January 18, 2026 Larada Horner-Miller5 Comments

Accidentally, I had a great week promoting my new book, Time Measured Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry!

Much of my promotions for most of my twelve years in the book business have been accidental—and this week it was for sure!

Part 1 – Accidentally

As a promotional idea, I did a Goodreads Giveaway from December 28 – January 09, 2026. I gave away 100 copies of this book. 736 readers participated in the Giveaway. Because Amazon owns Goodreads, they downloaded the 100 copies without paying for them. Because I have been checking my Dashboard in KDP.com often, where I publish my books, the 100 copies shocked me. So, it took me awhile to figure out the increase in sales of 100 books with no royalties. The good news—that movement of books made Time Measured Out! #1 in three categories:

Book sellers rank on Amazon - accidentally

You might wonder why I would do a Giveaway of so many books? Here’s the stats after the Giveaway on Goodreads: 661 want to read it and 694 added the book to their shelf in Goodreads. It now has a 4.2 rating out 5 there. So I could benefit it in the future.

Part 2 – Accidentally

Because of my excellent coach, Derek Doepker, and coaching group, I entered my book in the possible “BookBub New Release for Less” promotional. I had been warned by Derek any of BookBub’s promotionals are highly sought after and well worth it. I have entered other books in the past and not been selected. This time I was, and it was for January 13, 2026. Yes, it costs a lot, but the results were supposed to offset the cost.

Part 3 – Accidentally

No, the sales did not cover the cost, but the promotion caused an increase in sales. Because of the increase in sales, the book bounced between #1 Best Seller in the Poetry about Love category and #1 New Release in Poetry About Women on January 11. Then on January 12, it stayed #1 Best Seller in about Love and #1 New Release in Poetry About Women and stayed there until on January 14. Then it was Top New Release in Poetry About Love. Amazon algorithms likes all of those identifications, so then they do more organic promoting of that book.

Amazon Ranking Data about Time book - accidentally

Two above on January 11, 2026

Happily, the promotion increased the sales of the first book in the poetry series, Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry. And who know what the long-term results will be.

Finally,

Accidentally—yes, but I am going to write this formula down for my next book because it seemed to fit together nicely—first a Goodreads Giveaway and second apply for a promotion on BookBub in a timely manner. I’m proud of what happened, even if it was accidental.

I have a hard time with marketing and promoting my books. It costs money; it takes time to do all the work and it needs to be planned out and executed a month ahead of time—and I’d rather be writing! But guess what? I have put together a Marketing Plan for this year, so we’ll see what happens—wish me luck!

Larada Horner-Miller - accidentally — I’m working on my Marketing Plan for 2026. Any suggestions?

My Newest Books

Time Measured Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry, Book #2 e-book

ISBN – 9798989688654

$.99 for limited time

Is My Truth Universal?: A Woman’s Poetic Odyssey e-book

ISBN – 979-8989688623

ALWAYS FREE

Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry, Book #1 – e-book

ISBN – 979-8989688630

$3.99

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir e-book

ISBN – 978-0996614498

$3.99

Buy My Audio Books:

This Tumbleweed Landed

Let Me Tell You a Story

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Memoir Audiobook

My Thoughts · My Writing · Self-publishing

Day 15 – Handy & Used Often: Writing Tools I Can’t Live Without!

January 15, 2026January 15, 2026 Larada Horner-MillerLeave a comment

Handy writing tools make my life as an author/blogger/poet so much easier. Here’s two I have used for years and one I added in the last few years.

Scrivener 3.5.2

This app has become my go-to for beginning and organizing any writing project because of its power to keep everything in one place. Now, I don’t have to wonder where my files are—they are all in this app.

I really realized its power when I wrote the biography of Marshall Flippo, Just Another Square Dance Caller. I had 258,000 words to start with and so much research and files. This program saved my life! And I continue to use it today.

Tailor-made for long writing projects
Has Project Templates for Blank, Fiction (Novel, Novel with Parts, and Short Story),
Non-Fiction (Essay – Chicago Style, General Non-Fiction, Non-Fiction with Sub-heads, Paper –
APA, Paper – MLA, Research Proposal, Undergraduate Humanities Essay), Scriptwriting (BBC
Radio Scene Style, BBC Taped Dramas, Comic Script, Documentary Script, Screenplay, Stage
Play (UK), Poetry & Lyrics and Miscellaneous (Persuasive Lecture and Recipe Collection). It
has an Interactive Tutorial, User Manual and Video Tutorials.
k Scrivener 3.5.2 costs $59

How To Navigate

1. Download app – have Free Trial – and install.

2. Open App and select Template

3. Gives General Suggestions on Genre – Can import

4. LEFT MENU: Collections & Binder Info – Different for each genre – Shows your folders and files

5. MENU ACROSS THE TOP OF WINDOW: Differs with each genre

6. TOP MENU: File, Edit, Insert, View, Navigate, Project, Documents, Format, Window, Help

7. INSPECTOR – on the side

8. Backups when you save and quit–QUIT APP EACH TIME so that a backup version is generated. Important if there’s any problems later.

How to Add URL’s to Research Folder

1. Go to Research Folder

2. Go File>Import>Web Page

3. Paste in URL

4. Page appears in Research Folders

Resources:

Basic Help – https://scrivener.tenderapp.com/help/kb
Forums – Literature & Latte – https://www.literatureandlatte.com/forum/index.php
8 Ways Scrivener Will Help You Become A Proficient Writer Overnight

8 Ways Scrivener Will Help You Become A Proficient Writer Overnight

Vellum

This program has grown with me and offers amazing beautiful choices today it didn’t have originally. It costs more than some of the other apps in its class, but I feel it’s worth it! As I’m working, I can see a preview to the right of what it will look like in the device selected. And recently they have added beautiful designs for lead pages in a chapter, emojos and so much more.

Gorgeous Print Interiors
Beautiful Ebooks

How to

1. Download Vellum & install

2. Open – Immediately you have the choice to “Import Word File, so click and import document.

3. MENU IN OPEN WINDOW: Navigator and Preview

4. LEFT MENU: Contents & Styles

Contents – Placed your document into chapters.

Styles – Choices for Heading, First Paragraph, Paragraph After Break, Ornamental Break, Block Quotation, Verse, Photograph, Portrait, Caption, Header and Footer, & Body

5. MENU ACROSS BODY: Asterisk Pull down Menu (Subhead, Ornamental Break, Image,Alignment Block, List, Block Quotation, Verse, Web Link and Store Link–PUT ALL TEXT WITHIN ONE OF THESE FOR FORMATTING. Bold, Italics and Underline text. Pull-down Arrow for Font Choices: Small Caps, Sans Serif, Monospace, Superscript Up, Superscript Down, Strikethrough. Right Margin Word Count: Total Document

6. MENU ACROSS PREVIEW: Ebook Formats or Print, Move Forward or Back in Document, Generate Button

7. TOP MENU: File, Edit, Chapter, Text, View, Window, and Help

8. SAVE OFTEN

Resources:

Official Web Site – https://vellum.pub
Review – https://www.facebook.com/groups/818116160203635/posts/1262135099135070/?comment_id=1262168185798428
How to Format Your Ebook and Print book with Vellum by Joanna Penn

Self-Publishing Tips: How To Format An Ebook And Print Book With Vellum

Squoosh

When I wrote Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? in 2021, I had lots of photos because of the topic. I’m a visual learner and I felt the photos helped offset the depth of the emotions we felt with the pandemic. When I published it as an e-book, it’s size was off the map, so after a session with my book coach and group, my book coach asked if I compressed the pictures. No, I had not even thought of it. So I went looking for an app and found Squoosh and have been using it ever since. On top of that, it’s FREE for both Mac and PC.

I use it weekly to compress the beautiful photos I include in my weekly blog. Since 2021, I use it to compress the photos I include in any e-book.

How to

Download the app
Open app
Click and drag photo into app
Immediately it compresses photo, but I usually go Under the Edit menu on the right to the Resize part & select “Preset” on the menu to the right, and resize it by 50% more.
Then to save it, click on the download icon at the bottom of the menu on the right.

That’s it!

Resources:

Official Website: – https://squoosh.app
Review

I found the best image compressor tool, it is called Squoosh. Simple, Clean, Does it job. (Not sponsored)
byu/ishibam97 indevelopersIndia

Finally,

Writers need all the support we can get. These three apps have helped me tremendously over the years! Yes, they are handy and make my life so much more sane.

Larda Horner-Miller - handy — Yes, I smile because of these three handy writing tools!

My Newest Books

Time Measured Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry, Book #2 – $.99 for limited time

Is My Truth Universal?: A Woman’s Poetic Odyssey e-book – FREE

Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry, Book #1 – e-book or $3.99

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir e-book on sale for $1.99

Buy My Audio Books:

This Tumbleweed Landed

Let Me Tell You a Story

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Memoir Audiobook

My Books · My Thoughts · My Writing · poetry

Day 12 – Instructions for Living a Life—Mary Oliver-Style!

January 12, 2026January 12, 2026 Larada Horner-Miller3 Comments

“Instructions for living a life:

Pay attention.

Be astonished.

Tell about it.”

~Mary Oliver, “Sometimes”

Mary Oliver’s Instructions for Living a Life resonated with my heart and soul the first time I read it. Because of that, I have quoted it at the beginning of both of my poetry books in the Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry series.

So I thought I’d share the Introduction to my new book, Time Measured Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry.

Introduction With Instructions

Life’s all about paying attention and not letting the world pass you by. Some call it mindfulness. That’s a big order, but I see that’s what I did over the years with my poetry by being present and seeing the specifics in my life around me. Prior to writing poetry and taking note of my life, years escaped me! The poet arose in me, and this is what transpires: I write poetry when I’m happy, when I’m sad. I write about what’s important—and about what’s trivial.

And now you’re getting a peek into me. Not only am I sharing the vulnerability in my poetry, but in my life.

This is the second book of poetry in a five-book poetry series that chronicles my journey from 1986 to the present, showcasing both diﬃcult times and, ultimately, my most fulfilling era. It all changed at fifty-eight and my fourth marriage, but that’s much later, in book #5.

My first book in this series, Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry, which covered my life in poetry from 1986 to 1998, won a Gold Award in the Global Book Awards and second place for poetry in the Next Best Reads Writing Contest, which felt so aﬃrming.

When I choose a title for my books, I consult my husband. I gave him the list of poems chronicling my life from 2000-2003, and he quickly came up with Time Measured Out. I love how this title captures not only the transformative time this was for me, but my playfulness in poetry, as well.

So much happened in the years this book covers, not just for me personally, but also globally. Because I worked as a middle school teacher, I did a lot of my writing during the summer, sitting in the passenger seat, my ex-husband driving down the road to the next square and round dance festival. The summers were my time to write, to travel, to get away from the crushing schedule of teaching, and to see our country near and far—and to dance!

Introduction Continues with Instructions

In 2000, my ex-husband, Ted, and I bought a Four Winds Majestic Flyer Class C motorhome in preparation for our 2001 road trip to Alaska on the Al-Can Highway. I dubbed the summer of 2000 “The Majestic Flyer Summer,” after our RV, as we tested it out while traveling to dance festivals.

We spent hours planning our Alaska trip, and my excitement grew as we prepared. We traveled north to the Canadian border then followed the Al-Can Highway from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Delta Junction, Alaska, via Whitehorse, Yukon. The rough uneven roads made it an adventure for me, but Ted as the driver grew tired of it. But our journey didn’t go how either of us expected. We broke up in Homer, Alaska in one of the most picturesque spots, the ocean surrounding us. Ted took me to Anchorage to my cousin, then I flew home, leaving him to drive the RV back.

After our breakup, I sought refuge at the Santuario de Chimayó for the second time, but how diﬀerent my experience was this time compared to my first visit in 1991 (see book #1)!

My ex-husband and I tried to resolve our diﬀerences for seven more years, but our reconciliation didn’t fare smoothly. We did have some good times sprinkled in, but it was mostly trouble, chaos, and agony. We struggled until 2008, and I share our final breakup in book #4. Amid this, I continued to turn to poetry to make sense of life—my writing comforted me and helped me survive, and survive I did!

Introduction & Instructions Ends

Though there’ve been deep struggles in my life, my positivity always weaves its way through. In this book, you’ll see me repeatedly struggle with my relationship with my ex-husband and how I viewed myself because of it—a dysfunctional relationship at its worst! Yet I bounced back, resilient. If you’ve had similar experiences, resilience saved our lives!

The book will draw near its end with poems I wrote in celebration of my niece for her thirtieth birthday and, lastly, a tribute to my mom. Ending this book with my thoughts about Mom brings a smile to my lips and an ache to my heart! Yes, Mom, you end this second book—so apropos!

Just a reminder! Someone wrote this comment in a review on Goodreads about Was It a Dream?: “There were a few places where these poems felt amateur. In some ways that adds to the charm, but I can’t help wanting to poke at them and try to use one of the many tools we have to make poetry more eﬀective.”

Please remember this poetry series dates back to 1986, and I didn’t polish any of the poems. I wanted you, the reader, to see my progression through the years as a poet. Refraining from “fixing” them felt risky, yet I committed myself and you to this journey. And, yes—it’s been hard!

Step into my world of poetry, and don’t look back. You might decide to grab a seat and linger or even stay.

Finally,

These three short lines of instructions have become my motto in life. I always want to remember them and be sure and adhere to them—otherwise, I lose essence of the life I’m living! My poetry will direct me!

Larada Horner-Miller - instructions — First I have to pay attention!

My Newest Books

Time Measured Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry, Book #2 – $.99 for limited time

Is My Truth Universal?: A Woman’s Poetic Odyssey e-book – FREE

Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry, Book #1 – e-book or $3.99

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir e-book on sale for $1.99

Buy My Audio Books:

This Tumbleweed Landed

Let Me Tell You a Story

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Memoir Audiobook

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