Category: Ranching

Day 22 – The Many Hats I Wear: Changing Constantly!
haiku · MY LIFE · My Thoughts · My Writing · Ranching

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

Larada Horner-Miller1 Comment
Hats

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!
Larada in a hat

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A Whirlwind Week: Back in the USA & My New Book’s Cover
family · My Thoughts · New Mexico · Panama · Ranching

A Whirlwind Week: Back in the USA & My New Book’s Cover

Larada Horner-Miller2 Comments
Whirlwind

What a whirlwind week I’ve had. I started it in Panamá. Then I flew to Albuquerque for a few days and then on to Branson, Colorado to be with my brother! Whew!

Monday, October 27

It was an early day for Lin and I—up at 4:30 AM with our trusty Uber driver, Joel, picking us up at 5:15 AM. At the airport, we went our separate ways: Lin returned to David, Panamá and our dear neighbor picked him up.

I flew to Houston, Texas in Business class, a new experience for me. The reason we did that—we don’t get charged for two suitcases. Otherwise, in Economy Premium you pay for the second suitcase. So, to explain: I put my medium suitcase in my big one to fill when I go through the storage shed. On the flight, I worked on the final layout of my second book some, but not as much as I had hoped.

In Houston, once again I went through customs easily because Lin and I bought the “Global Entry” which makes entry into the US seamless because of facial recognition.

I had a four-hour layover in Houston, but it worked because I did have to get my suitcase and recheck. I needed to eat, and I love sitting in an airport and watching people.

On my flight to Albuquerque, I slept most of the way. My dear friend, Sheri, picked me up and we went to one of our favorite eateries, Rusty Taco, for dinner.

Tuesday, October 28

Immediately Sheri offered to chauffeur me around, so we went to two different Walmarts to pick up some things I knew I couldn’t get in Panamá—yarn for the baby afghan I’m knitting for my great nephew and three-hole hole puncher. Sheri graciously offered to go to the second one.

Then in the afternoon, we drove up to our house in Tijeras to change the air conditioning to heating. It ended up being super easy because when we put in the air conditioning we bought a top-line thermostat.

We walked around Lin’s garden and marveled at how well it looked, but we were sad to see the absence of the three big fish we had in our pond. Sheri and I only saw the three little ones.

Then, on our way home, we stopped at our storage shed just to check on it. Everything looked great, and I easily found the scale we have to weigh a suitcases. Lin had left it out in the open on top of the “Panamá” boxes near the door.

After that, we went home and enjoyed a relaxing evening of watching “Dancing With the Stars.” I used the yarn I bought and knitted like crazy. I want to finish it on this trip and mail it—it’s late because he was born May 25, on his granddad’s (my brother) birthday.

Wednesday, October 29

This whirlwind day centered on medical needs. I had messaged my primary care physician about the hearing loss I’ve experienced since the ear infection I had in September. His nurse called back but I didn’t answer because I didn’t recognize the number. She left a voicemail, so I called back and they got me an appointment on November 14. I had to delay it because I was going to  northern New Mexico on the train on Thursday and staying a couple weeks with my brother.

Then a little later I got a phone call saying they had a 1:00 appointment THAT day! OMG! I had plans to go with our realtor to our house to meet a painter for an appraisal at 11:30 AM. So, I declined.

When our realtor picked me up and we barely pulled away from Sheri’s house, my phone rang and it was primary care physician with no greeting, only a question—“Why can’t you make the 1:00 PM appointment?”

I told him what I was doing. After a short silence, he said, “Can you make it at 3:00 this afternoon?”

I looked at my realtor and she shook her head, so I said, “YES!” Wow! Can you believe that!

We met the painter then had lunch and great conversation, catching up.

Sheri took me to my 3:00 appointment. My doctor had concerns about my right ear and the possibility I still had an infection in it, so he gave me a prescription for an antibiotic.

Sheri has dinner every Wednesday with two girlfriends, so I joined them. What a delightful time I had to meet the women I heard her talk about often. Afterwards we picked up my prescription. When we got home, I went through seven weeks of junk mail mostly that our realtor had collected! It was a bin full! To end the evening, I organized my suitcase, to prepare for my trip the next day.

Thursday, October 30

Sheri woke up sick because of an antibiotic she was taking, but she did feel better later so she took me to the Amtrak train station. The train was an hour late from Albuquerque then delayed thirty minutes more on the trip.

Because of problems with my leg still, I sat downstairs by a 92-year-old woman traveling to Wisconsin. She was a retired high school English teacher, so we had a lot in common.

On the trip, I worked on my book business and set up a couple ads to promote some of my books.

When I arrived in Raton, New Mexico, my brother was waiting. We went to Bruno’s for pizza and had some of the best pizza I’ve ever had. Then we drove the hour trip home to Branson.

Friday, October 31

Of course, we went out to our ranch in the morning! I love going out there with him. Recently we’ve had road work done on our canyon and created two new reservoirs. What fun it was to see the road improvements and water in both of the reservoirs.

My brother is a big sports fan, so we watched the sixth game of the World Series with both of us cheering for the Toronto Blue Jays. Sadly they didn’t win which pushed it into a seventh game.

Saturday, November 1

What a busy whirlwind day I had full of Zoom meetings!

First, I joined my CoDA meeting at 10:30 AM in Albuquerque via Zoom. I love staying connected to this meeting and my friends there.

During the meeting, my brother texted me that his deer meat was ready to pick up. He’s a great hunter and shot a buck last week. So, he drove to Capulin, New Mexico to pick up the meat and the head. He’s going to have the head mounted to add to his collection of nine heads he already has in his living room.

After the meeting, I cooked some antelope backstrap for us for lunch. When he got back, I went to his house to watch the Texas Tech football game and eat lunch. His great nephew, Coy Eakins, plays on the team and our whole family has been following Coy and Tech.

At 3:00 PM, I changed from Tech football and came to my house and did a Zoom meeting with my three friends for our monthly meeting. Again, I enjoyed the stories and the camaraderie of this group.

That night, we watched the seventh game of the World Series that stretched into an eleven-inning game. These two teams were evenly matched, but the LA Dodgers won. Sadly we had no trick or treaters!

Another whirlwind day for sure!

Sunday, November 2

Because I’m a Denver Broncos’ fan, I missed church and went to my brother’s house to watch the game with him. He’s an avid Broncos’ fan with a house totally decorated with Denver Broncos’ stuff and San Francisco Giants’ stuff—he lived in northern California for 32 years.

And the Broncos pulled out another win, driving us crazy until the end.

Afterwards, my brother and I drove fifty miles to Trinidad to his friend Bill who is a taxidermist and gave him the head of the buck my brother shot. I love Bill! We sat for quite a while listening to his stories.

Finally,

As you can see, this whirlwind week overflowed with activity. In the midst of everything, I did a poll on four book cover possibilities for my new book. Let me know which one you like.

This book will be out sometime this year, hopefully at the end of November! Be on the lookout!

Larada outside - whirlwind
A New Mexico/Colorado greeting to my readers!
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Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir e-book on sale for $1.99

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This Tumbleweed Landed

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Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Memoir Audiobook

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My Dad, Harold Horner!
Audiobooks · family · My Thoughts · Ranching

My Dad, Harold Horner!

Larada Horner-Miller1 Comment
My Dad, Harold Horner on Rusty
My Dad, Harold Horner, on Rusty

Meet my dad, Harold Horner, this Father’s Day, 2024. He was a lifelong cowboy who loved his a job dearly. Also Dad loved to dance! Here are two of my poems about Dad in written format and in audio format from my new audiobook, This Tumbleweed Landed.

Dad’s Special Move on the Dance Floor

Dancing with my dad at his 75 birthday party!
No one did it his way!
He slithered into the next move 
with a step like no one else, graceful and fun. 

He said he got drunk one night, stumbled, 
liked how it felt,
and decided to keep it. 

I wish one of his male offspring had learned it; 
one of his dancers, Bub or Wade, 
but it’s gone now—with Dad. I dream about it— 
the illusive move that felt so good and united me with him. 

Mom and I can do it!
But it just was not the same.
 It was his move!

Larada Horner, This Tumbleweed Landed, (Horner Publishing Company, 2014), 21.

Listen to the audio of this poem:

Memories of the Ranch

East of Branson, 
one-half mile starts 
the Horner ranch! 

My granddad put it together 
in the late 1920s— 
quite a feat during the Depression. 

Granddad and Dad worked side by side. 
Many years of 
a teamwork so instinctual 
words were not needed. 

Dad gave it his life, 
a life full of 
potential bodily harm
and deep, deep joy and satisfaction. 

Warmhearted memories abound... 
memories of our land, horses, cattle. 

Time three generations spent together: 
My granddad, 
my dad,
and Sue, Bub, and me.

Larada Horner, This Tumbleweed Landed, (Horner Publishing Company, 2014), 65-66.

Listen to the audio of this poem:

Finally,

Last week I shared a story about a watermelon rind fight from my new audiobook. This week I wanted to feature poems I wrote about my dad, celebrating Father’s Day. When I remember Dad, I smell leather and sweat. I see a man who wore a long-sleeved western shirt, jeans and boots every day out to the ranch. In the summer, Dad wore a straw cowboy hat; in the winter, he wore a felt cowboy hat. He prided himself on old-fashion morals and standards: be honest, a handshake was as good as a contract and family came first, above all else.

Because he had asthma, during World War II he had a 4F rating and couldn’t volunteer or enlist. So he helped the different ranchers in the area who had sons who went to fight. He shared many stories about the Dick Louden ranch and the fun he had there—it was his favorite!

He absolutely loved his life!

Dad died January 6, 1996—that date altered my life forever. When Father’s Day comes up every year, nostalgia sets in and I remember Dad. These poems share some of my heartfelt memories and feelings! Many people romanticize cowboys—I actually lived with one and saw who he really was—my hero!

Buy Let Me Tell You a Story Audiobook

Buy Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Memoir Audiobook

When Will Papa Get Home? Cover - My Dad

Grab When Will Papa Get Home? this week for $.99 until June 20 on Amazon. A great after-Father’s Day gift!

Enjoy my interview on the podcast, The Writing Table

How Important Is a Book Cover?
Books · My Thoughts · Ranching

How Important Is a Book Cover?

Larada Horner-MillerLeave a comment
Three Southwest Book Covers

A book cover? Important? I’ve often heard, “Don’t judge a book by its cover!” Today authors know that a cover can determine the fate of a book. Let’s look at the first three book covers I created.

IngramSpark, a leading self-publishing company, suggests 7 Book Cover Design Tips

  1. Give readers a sneak peek of what’s to come.
  2. Let the reader know the book’s genre.
  3. Introduce your protagonist.
  4. Set the right tone.
  5. Follow the rules of design in a way that makes sense for your genre.
  6. Pay attention to the details.
  7. Have a distinct style.

https://www.ingramspark.com/blog/book-cover-design-basics

So much goes into the design of a a successful book cover, and I had no idea when I first started this journey. I created what I like, not thinking about what the reader liked.

My First 3 Book Covers

For my first three books, I created the covers.

This Tumbleweed Landed 2014

This Tumbleweed Landed Book Cover

This being my first book, I created the cover on Amazon’s createspace.com and thought it was beautiful. Excited with my first book, I loved everything about it.

In 2014, Lin and I spent a memorable spring afternoon on the dirt road going out to our ranch, trying to photograph a tumbleweed. The piercing cold spring wind had blown them around recently and lodged them into the fence posts. Yes, there were lots, and we took lots of pictures. I will never forget going through those photos and the awe I felt of the pictures he took, and then this one came up and I knew it was perfect. It had a tumbleweed locked into the barbed wire with an old wooden fence post and in the background Mesa de Maya, a landmark noted by Spanish invaders on early maps.

I liked the cover I created, but someone who reviewed the book identified a problem. The box around the title blocked out the tumbleweed. After looking closely, I realized how true that was!

In 2014, I didn’t realize the importance of a subtitle. This book has no subtitle on the book cover; it does on the Amazon website description I added later.

After ten years of researching and training, I plan on having the cover redesigned to feature the tumbleweed.

When Will Papa Get Home? 2015

When Will Papa Get Home? Book Cover

Again, I created the cover for my second book, When Will Papa Get Home?, on createspace.com too. On the cover, I featured a photograph I took of the homestead house that’s featured in this book.

The book cover generator on createspace.com in 2015 had limited templates. I liked the one I selected: it featured the homestead photo, and in the background, it had the photo, too, but I don’t think anyone realized what was in the background.

Again, I didn’t include a subtitle on the cover, and this book desperately needed one because this is an immigration story, but the title doesn’t say that.

So, readers, be looking for a redesign for this cover later this year.

Let Me Tell You a Story 2016

Let Me Tell You a Story Book Cover

I chose a simple cover for the re-release of my third book, Let Me Tell You a Story. In 1992, my dad, mom and I collaboratively published this for my dad’s 75th birthday. He dictated to Mom the story of how my granddad put our ranch together during the depression when many homesteaders were losing theirs, then I word- processed it and laid out the book, adding pictures. Then Dad selected the picture for the book cover—him on his favorite horse, Rusty. We printed enough to give to everyone in our family, and I printed twenty-five extra copies to read in my literature and language arts classes in Denver, Colorado.

After publishing the other books about my country roots and life, I wanted to get Dad’s retelling granddad’s story out to the world, so I re-released it. Again, I published it on createspace.com and used their template for the book cover.

I’m not sure if I will redo this cover—I like its simplicity; however, you can’t easily read my name or my dad’s as authors, so it probably does need to be redone!

How important is a book cover? Can you judge a book by its cover? In today’s hurried world, the visual representation of the book must catch the reader’s eye. So, yes, it’s vital to the success of the book.

Next week, I’ll share the next four book covers and why I moved to a professional company to do the last two.

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

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