The third line of a haiku always surprises me! It is supposed to have a punch, capturing the message of the haiku with a surprise and a sigh!
What’s the history of haiku?
“Traditional haiku poetry originally was used as an introduction to a Japanese oral poem known as a renga. In the 1500s, Japanese poets began composing haiku as stand-alone verse, and in the 1600s, poet Matsuo Basho elevated haiku to an important art form. The power of haiku lies in its ability to conjure a powerful image or evoke a profound feeling using very few words.”
It’s a three-line poem metered by syllables: five syllables in the first line, seven in the second and five in the third.
My new meditation practice feeds my haiku writing. On January 9, 2023, the meditation leader read a section from Living the Life of Awarenessby Don Miguel Ruiz to start our practice. During our meditation, I ponder the reading then usually write a haiku afterwards. On this day, I wrote the following first two lines:
Where do I focus
In meditation, in life?
Then, as I considered the third line, the possibilities exploded:
Focus on Jesus.
On the crashing waves.
Your strong hand in mine.
Lin’s aged hand in mine.
The hilarious!
On my aging cat!
On my broken heart!
On God’s endless love!
On my breath and yours.
The gorgeous outdoors.
On my neighbor’s needs.
On my unshed tears.
On the dawning day.
On all mysteries!
On the positive!
It’s not about me!
My belly button!
My third lines above vary from serious and introspective to humorous, and it’s always important to add humor to life. I love the simplicity of haiku with an economy of words yet a powerful image.
My favorite haiku reference is Natalie Goldberg’s book, Three Simple Lines, where she shares some of Basho’s haikus. She also has samples from several other Japanese poets.
So, which third line of mine did you like the best of my seventeen? Let me know.
Finally,
Do you see the power of the third line in a haiku? Do you like haikus? If so, do you write them? If so, share one with me.
All available at my website: laradasbooks.com or Amazon.com
~For me, it’s Christmas all year long!Here’s a variety of Christmas greetings from Flippo & Neeca, featuring his song, “When It’s Christmas Time in Texas”: https://youtu.be/mpJCUGffU3A
Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy a chapter!
~My new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? WON the 2022 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards in the Body, Mind & Spirit Category. Have you bought your copy yet?Vist my website: laradasbooks.com or at Amazon.
Baby, it’s cold outside! Read about Flippo inside where it’s warm!
~Have you bought a copy of Flippo’s biography yet? Believe it or not—it’s been two years. Go here for your hardback or paperback: https://www.laradasbooks.com or at Amazon.
When did I start my writing? My uncle extolled an essay I wrote in high school which surprised me. I didn’t see myself as a writer then! After reading it, I shocked him when I told him my plans after graduation in 1971—business courses. But his compliments lingered in the back of my mind—hiding in my subconscious.
My graduation picture, 1971
Then on a visit back home a couple years later, my journalism teacher simply said in passing, “Send me a copy of your first book!” Shocked, I just stared at her, but she was serious! So in 2014, I sent her a copy of This Tumbleweed Landed. She had an emphasis on my start.
My Publishing & Writing Timeline
1985—I wrote When Will Papa Get Home? after a visit to the ranch and I found a blue marble at the Phillie homestead. I did nothing with it until 2015.
1987—Working at the middle school as a language arts/literature teacher, I wrote an article for the Raton newspaper, Raton Range, about a flamenco dancer who came to the Shuler Theater.
1991—I wrote This Tumbleweed Landed in a professional development workshop and did nothing with it until 2013 when I started revising it. I self-published it in 2014.
1993—Mom and I self-published Let Me Tell You a Story as a gift for my dad for his 70th birthday. We published it here in ABQ at AlphaGraphics. A friend of mine worked there (manager of the store), and they turned out beautiful. We printed a copy for everyone in our immediate family, and I printed twenty-five extras to use in my classroom.
2007—Tom Cummins, lifelong friend and historian, and I self-published Branson-Trinchera Historic Photos with lulu.com. This was my introduction to online publishing and POD (print on demand). Before POD, you had to print 10,000 copies of a book. POD allowed you to print whatever number you wanted, which made self-publishing affordable.
2012—The year before I retired, I researched self-publishing companies and found the top 3: lulu.com, createspace.com (an affiliate with Amazon and has become kdp.com) and IngramSparks.com. I decided to go with createspace.com and now kdp.com.
2013—I edited and revised This Tumbleweed Landed, adding prose (essays I wrote in the 1991 professional development workshop) because of the Black Mesa Writing Workshop with Natalie Goldberg and Julia Cameron.
2014—I self-published This Tumbleweed Landed and had a fantastic response to it which so surprised me. Really, I hadn’t planned on doing much more. I still questioned myself as a writer.
2014—For family Christmas presents after mom died, I self-published From Grannie’s Kitchen: Pies, Cakes & Christmas Candy, Volume 1, and family members said I needed to sell them.
2015—I edited, revised and self-published When Will Papa Get Home? Which I wrote thirty years before.
2015—I created another family Christmas present and self-published From Grannie’s Kitchen: Beverages, Bread, Cookies, Meats, Vegetables, Mis. & Records of a Rancher’s Wife, Volume 2. Mom had too many delicious recipes to put in one cookbook, so I created a three-book series.
2016—I re-released/self-published Let Me Tell You a Story, originally released in 1993.
2016—For another family Christmas present, I self-published From Grannie’s Kitchen: Casseroles, Mexican Dishes, Relish, Sandwiches, Salads & Desserts, Volume 3.
2016-2017—Giving myself a couple years after my mom’s death, I edited, revised, and self-published A Time to Grow Up: A Daughter’s Grief Memoir.
2017-2020—I interviewed, edited, revised and self-published Just Another Square Dance Caller: Authorized Biography of Marshall Flippo.
2021—Because of the coronavirus pandemic, I edited, revised and self-published Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better?.
2021-2022—I recorded, edited, revised and released my first audiobook, Let Me Tell You a Story.
2022—Enjoying my first audiobook so much, I recorded all thirty-one chapters of Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better?, then I edited and revised six chapters for the audiobook, but shingles stopped me initially and then the neuralgia afterwards.
2022—After learning so much from writing Marshall Flippo’s biography, I started writing I Said Yes!: How I Learned to Write a Biography, but shingles stopped me on this project too.
Looking to the future, I have the following projects lined up:
A Colorado Country Christmas: A Collection of Memories
An Extreme Costa Rica Trip: A Travelogue from 2020
3 books poetry series
1 Haiku poetry book
Eye Witness to Life—a novel I wrote in 2016
How does a writer start? Kind words, encouragement, years of trying? As you can see, my start came years ago. Have you read any of my books? If so, which is your favorite?
If not, why? Wholesome, family-oriented stories! Country-life, nostalgic stories and poetry about a simpler life—try one!
~For me, it’s Christmas all year long!Here’s a variety of Christmas greetings from Flippo & Neeca, featuring his song, “When It’s Christmas Time in Texas”: https://youtu.be/mpJCUGffU3A
~My new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? WON the 2022 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards in the Body, Mind & Spirit Category. Have you bought your copy yet?Vist my website: laradasbooks.com
~Have you bought a copy of Flippo’s biography yet? Believe it or not—it’s been two years. Go here for your hardback or paperback: https://www.laradasbooks.com or at Amazon.
“Haikuing” through life helps me make sense of this life we’re leading in an economy of words. Yes, life’s topics inspire me to write haikus, a three-line poem with Japanese origin broken up into syllable counts: 1st line–5 syllables, 2nd line–7 syllables, 3rd line–5 syllables.
“Haikuing” While Walking
In 2021, I walked regularly and composed haikus as I walked. Nature inspired the topics easily.
July 15, 2021
Raucous cawing of
Black birds circling above
Noisy neighborhood
July 20, 2021
See your essential
“Spiritual beingness” now
Do not dread your death!
To be present now
I must ground me to something
Earth, please touch my feet.
July 27, 2021
Cloudy skies, humid
New Mexico greens up with
July rains. So fresh!
The desert greens up
With abundant July rains.
Wet, not hot, this year!
August 11, 2021
I turned sixty-eight.
Is that old now? I wonder.
Hell, no! I’m not old.
August 17, 2021
Walking frees my heart
And soul to connect with my
World and God as one!
Puffy white clouds hang
Suspended against blue skies.
Are they cotton balls?
August 18, 2021
Tomatoes, green now
Tomorrow ripe, red and ready.
Joy and juicy now!
One small chunky start
Cucumbers ready to burst
My mouth savors them!
You can’t eat flowers,
But they feed my soul daily.
God’s heavenly fare.
God speaks through flowers.
Multi-colored—see a splash
Of diversity!
Finally,
I write free verse poetry too, but I have always had a love affair with haikus. When I taught poetry to middle schoolers, they wrote wonderful, meaningful haikus. Recently, after attending Natalie Goldberg’s “The Way of Writing” class in 2021 and reading her book, Three Simple Lines, that fire re-ignited in me, and I have fanned the flame regularly to keep them coming.
How about you—do you do “haikuing” through life? Do you like haikus? Do you write them? If so, share one!
~My new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? WON the 2022 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards in the Body, Mind & Spirit Category. I’M SO EXCITED!
~Wish You Were Here: A Novel by Jodi Picoult, one of my favorite authors, deals with the COVID pandemic in fiction as opposed to my nonfiction book. Check it out! Interesting story!
~MY FIRST AUDIOBOOK IS AVAILABLE: Go to Audible to buy my first audiobook, Let Me Tell You a Story. I’m working on Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? but have gotten stalled with shingles.
~Do you listen to podcasts? Here are three podcasts with interviews about my new book & some Flippo stories:
~Have you bought a copy of Flippo’s biography yet? Believe it or not—it’s been two years. Go here for your hardback or paperback: https://www.laradasbooks.com or at Amazon.
~For me, it’s Christmas all year long! Here’s a variety of Christmas greetings from Flippo & Neeca, featuring his song, “When It’s Christmas Time in Texas”: https://youtu.be/mpJCUGffU3A
July is ending, and I can’t believe it. I’m going to Denver with my brother to see the Rockies play the LA Dodgers on Sunday and to the Broncos Training camp on Monday morning, so this will be a shorter blog post, featuring some of my haikus.
During my walks in 2021, these haikus came to me. I’d count out the syllable as I walked (1st line—5 syllables; 2nd line—7 syllables; 3rd line—5 syllables). Then I repeated them several times so I wouldn’t forget them before jotting them down when I got home. The subjects varied—usually the day and what was going on generated it.
So, enjoy!
March 29
Now I walk alone
Not a tragedy at all.
My best companion!
April 3
Good Friday has come.
The world awaits Easter Day.
Jesus is alive!
Repeat their dear names
Out loud, often with respect.
Keeps them present here.
April 7
A sad hollow space
In my heart. No room for him.
Abuser died—gone!
April 19
Cataracts, oh my!
Slowly my vision changed, but
Surgery clears it!
April 29
Dare to love deeply!
One more loss added today!
Open heart once more!
May 24
Blackbirds above—caw!
My walk companions now.
I prefer your view!
Finally,
The structure and limitations of haiku force me to think about my word choice, making the verse crisp. Then the punch or twist at the end sometimes comes as a surprise.
July ending had nothing to do with my haikus’ subjects. I’ll share my July haikus in another post.
Do you read poetry? Do you like haikus? What is your favorite form of poetry?
~WATCH MY NEW INTERVIEW on Chat & Spin Radio, from Friday, June 24, 2022. Join us for a lively description of all my books!
~MY FIRST AUDIOBOOK IS AVAILABLE: Go to Audible to buy my first audiobook, Let Me Tell You a Story. I’m working on Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? but have gotten stalled with shingles.
~Do you listen to podcasts? Here are three podcasts with interviews about my new book & some Flippo stories:
~Have you bought a copy of Flippo’s biography yet? Believe it or not—it’s been two years. Go here for your hardback or paperback: https://www.laradasbooks.com or at Amazon.
~For me, it’s Christmas all year long! Here’s a variety of Christmas greetings from Flippo & Neeca, featuring his song, “When It’s Christmas Time in Texas”: https://youtu.be/mpJCUGffU3A
~Wish You Were Here: A Novelby Jodi Picoult, one of my favorite authors, deals with the COVID pandemic in fiction as opposed to my nonfiction book. Check it out! Interesting story!
~What happened to you in 2020-2021 during the coronavirus pandemic? Do you care? Are you on a spiritual path? Do you want to heal from the horrible effects of the pandemic of 2020? Visit my website to find out about my new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? and my other five books and three cookbooks: https://laradasbooks.com
Lin enjoying the elephantsLarada enjoying the elephants
We visited the ABQ zoo on Thursday, July 14, 2022, an all-day affair. We left home before about 8:45 am and arrived there before 9:00 am. Here’s what we saw, and I wrote more haikus but took mostly pictures.
Map of Albuquerque Zoo
It felt so good to be back near my beloved Washington middle school, La Washa, where I taught for eight and one-half years. When I taught there, we visited the zoo annually with our students because it was within walking distance. However, it has grown so much; I felt lost most of the day.
During our visit, I found a common theme for the haikus I wrote fed by repeated signs at animal cages of species being endangered. There are seven levels of endangered species. The Red List has seven levels of conservation: least concern, near threatened, vulnerable, endangered, critically endangered, extinct in the wild, and extinct. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/endangered-species
So, in viewing all these precious animals and the thought of losing them for future generations, I ended up writing about the crisis we face with endangered species:
My Haikus
Wild animals
In our ABQ zoo park
Making me aware!
Many are at risk.
Mankind’s disloyalty to
God’s priceless creatures.
Endangered species
Way too many in the zoo
Please stop the killing!
So, I’ve chosen today to do a photo collection of the animals we enjoyed so much.
Finally, I’ll end with a video that’s deceiving. As we left the lions earlier in the day, a volunteer told us to come back about 4:30 pm because they roar every day. Throughout the day, we heard people say you could hear the lion’s roar all over the zoo. How exciting! So we extended our time there and returned.
Sadly to say, in this visit, we didn’t see the polar bears. Lin kept saying, “Where can they be hiding the polar bears?”
I said, “In the freezer!” With it being a hot day over 90 degrees, they may have been somewhere cool. We also missed the penguin exhibit by just a few minutes. We plan to start our next visit with these two favorites.
I had my iPad all set up to videotape this notable event. At 4:30 pm, we settled ourselves at the lion’s habitat with several people who we had passed on the information. As if on a schedule, the male lion stirred—his massive mane flowing. Lin commented he did not know a lion’s mane was so massive.
How we first saw the lion earlier – asleep!Waking up!Look at that mane!
Then a door opened on the wall inside the habitat. First, the female lion entered, then the male followed, so I thought we missed it. But immediately the roaring began, so I videotaped it, but the video shows the platform where I thought they would be. You know—like The Lion King!
As we walked through this beautiful park, the Albuquerque’s zoo, nestled among old stately Cottonwood trees, has an allure to it—a tranquil place to enjoy a day.
Finally, we enjoyed our visit and plan another one in a month. I hate the stark truth of the demise of so many of our animals around the globe. Have you ever thought about this growing concern? Hopefully, you have now.
~WATCH MY NEW INTERVIEW on Chat & Spin Radio, from Friday, June 24, 2022. Join us for a lively description of all my books!
~MY FIRST AUDIOBOOK IS AVAILABLE: Go to Audible to buy my first audiobook, Let Me Tell You a Story. I’m working on Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? but have gotten stalled with shingles.
~Do you listen to podcasts? Here are three podcasts with interviews about my new book & some Flippo stories:
~Have you bought a copy of Flippo’s biography yet? Believe it or not—it’s been two years. Go here for your hardback or paperback: https://www.laradasbooks.com or at Amazon.
~For me, it’s Christmas all year long! Here’s a variety of Christmas greetings from Flippo & Neeca, featuring his song, “When It’s Christmas Time in Texas”: https://youtu.be/mpJCUGffU3A
~What happened to you in 2020-2021 during the coronavirus pandemic? Do you care? Are you on a spiritual path? Do you want to heal from the horrible effects of the pandemic of 2020? Visit my website to find out about my new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? and my other five books and three cookbooks: https://laradasbooks.com
Yes, I wrote haikus at the Albuquerque Biopark on Tuesday, July 5, 2022. Lin and I thought we’d get there on the 4th of July, specifically to see the Botanical Garden, but we didn’t make it. We have annual passes we don’t use enough, so we went on the 5th.
To provide enough time to see everything, we arrived about 9:45 AM and found the Biopark was not too busy. We hadn’t been there in a couple years, so naive, we went in the first place we saw. At first, it didn’t seem right, then pretty quickly, we realized we had mistakenly entered the Aquarium, so we continued and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Biopark’s Aquarium
As a teacher, we took our students to the Aquarium, but that was fifteen years ago. What changes they have made! First, I missed the stingray pool when you first enter and then when you’re down below; I remember eels in the enclosure that goes over your head. That used to freak me out!
Going down under, we enjoyed the big tank where we saw sharks, stingrays, and a variety of fish. It felt like a life-size aquarium. They provide seating—I could sit there for hours!
Larada with a smiling stingray in backgroundLin with a shark in background
Lunch Break
When we finished at the Biopark’s Aquarium, we decided on an early lunch or a late breakfast at the Shark Reef Café. We enjoyed a delicious breakfast burrito smothered in green chili. As we sat and watched a variety of fish swim in front of us, the haikus started.
Are you suspended?
Floating in the water now
Supported by God!
A Stingray swims by
looking like he smiles, but
it’s his underside.
In the form of a
fish, my God swims by smiling.
HIs eyes reveal joy!
Biopark’s Botanical Garden
After finishing that scrumptious burrito, we felt rejuvenated and entered the Botanical Garden, our original destination. Lin has a gorgeous garden, so he had been expecting new discoveries on this trip.
Because of my battle with post-herpetic neuralgia after shingles, I still don’t have my regular stamina, so Lin went to the Rio Grande Heritage Farm, and I sat and wrote:
I sit and wait in
A cool spot. Fatigue comes soon.
Neuralgia remains.
I am not old yet.
Shingles changed my life so much.
Now I watch, silent.
Children grace this place.
A little girl singsher song.
Inspired by God!
Butterfly Pavilion
One of my favorite sections, the Butterfly Pavilion, featured one of my favorite creatures. We saw beautiful butterflies flying around and enjoying the delicious nectar of a variety of plants. Lin and I circled the whole enclosure and visited with the butterfly expert there. Lin asked about a butterfly I photographed in his garden during the week, and he identified it for us, a swallowtail. Then I asked about the coloring of a monarch. Next, the expert whipped out his well-worn book and showed us the monarch.
Then I had an unusual experience. A monarch landed on the brim of my hat in the front. The expert exclaimed, “That’s a good omen!” As soon as he said that, another butterfly, but not a monarch, landed on my brim in the back. Lin photographed the monarch on the front, but the butterfly in the back flew off before he caught it.
Monarch on the front of my hatClose up of this amazing experience!
A monarch landed
On my hat. Good omen!
Sheer joy I couldn’t see!
Normally,
I take lots of pictures anywhere I go, but I took limited photos this time—the ones featured in this blog like this amazing brightly colored insect attached to a piece of grass.
Instead of taking tons of pictures, I wrote haikus! How can you not write a haiku after seeing the Aquarium or the Botanical Garden?
Also, here’s a suggestion when you go to the Albuquerque Biopark’s Botanical Garden or any botanical garden anywhere. Lin had an app on his iPhone named PictureThis which has a yearly subscription, but he had some issues with it. So, he switched to Seek by iNaturalist, and he reminded me I told him about it. It’s free. I had a blast using Seek on different plants to identify them—it was so easy!
Finally,
The Aquarium, Botanical Garden and Zoo make up the Biopark in Albuquerque. We have plans to visit the zoo this Thursday. Do you regularly visit your zoo, botanical garden or aquarium in your city? Tell me about yours and your experience!
~WATCH MY NEW INTERVIEW on Chat & Spin Radio, from Friday, June 24, 2022. Join us for a lively description of all my books!
~MY FIRST AUDIOBOOK IS AVAILABLE: Go to Audible to buy my first audiobook, Let Me Tell You a Story. I’m working on Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? but have gotten stalled with shingles.
~Do you listen to podcasts? Here are three podcasts with interviews about my new book & some Flippo stories:
~Have you bought a copy of Flippo’s biography yet? Believe it or not—it’s been two years. Go here for your hardback or paperback: https://www.laradasbooks.com or at Amazon.
~For me, it’s Christmas all year long! Here’s a variety of Christmas greetings from Flippo & Neeca, featuring his song, “When It’s Christmas Time in Texas”: https://youtu.be/mpJCUGffU3A
~What happened to you in 2020-2021 during the coronavirus pandemic? Do you care? Are you on a spiritual path? Do you want to heal from the horrible effects of the pandemic of 2020? Visit my website to find out about my new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? and my other five books and three cookbooks: https://laradasbooks.com
My new adventure has taken over! On November 29, 2021, in my blog post, “Audiobooks—My New Adventure,” I alerted you about my new adventure of recording audiobooks. I don’t know if you’re a consumer of audiobooks, but this market is growing like crazy, so I’m jumping in with both feet!
Two months later, I have recorded and released my first audiobook, Let Me Tell You a Story, the nonfiction booklet of how my granddad put our ranch together during the depression when many others were losing theirs. I thoroughly enjoyed the process, and what a pleasure it was to reread this little gem!
Why I picked this one to be my first?
After finishing the audiobook training, I started with the shortest book I had, so this one won! It’s more the size of a chapbook. I didn’t want to do one of my sizeable books, in case the process became too difficult, but it was a breeze, thanks to good training I received.
What was the process like on this new adventure?
At first, I didn’t know whether to record everything and then take the audio through the editing and adding the effects process on Audacity, the app suggested. So, at first, I did a couple of recording and then did the editing and adding the effects. But I realized, once I started recording and got into “the zone,” I didn’t want to stop.
So, then I changed my plan—I finished recording the rest of the book and did the editing and adding effects. As I focused on the editing, I became more proficient at finding the places where I breathed and deleted them more easily.
I had such great instructions on doing the effects in Audacity. It really became a checklist of twelve steps to do for each recording, and it went quickly. I just wanted to make sure I did each step, so I took it slowly and methodically.
As a final run-through, I sat with the book in hand and listened to the audio to make sure it matched the book. It did!
How to get my audiobook out to the world?
My training taught me to put it out to two sites: acx.com and findawayvoices.com, and it warned me it could take three to four weeks for publication.
First, I tried acx.com, an affiliate of Amazon, and I had trouble because my book didn’t come up in my list of books. I spent several days and emails before that problem got solved—I could use the ASIN number (Amazon Standard Identification Number) off of the Amazon.com listing.
Each site had a different setup for uploading the files. Because we have a horrible internet connection, I saved each chapter as a file. You could save it as one file if you have a fast speed connection.
Each site warned the files had to be uploaded in the order you wanted them to be on the audiobook. I liked findawayvoices.com’s set-up for uploading because their system stopped any chance of uploading the files out of order.
For acx.com, it took about a week and a half to two weeks to go live! And how excited I was! I’m still waiting for any distributors from findawayvoices.com to go live.
What is my current audiobook project?
At the beginning of the year, I made a schedule for recording my books:
Let Me Tell You a Story—January
Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better?—February
I was right on schedule for February, but recording Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? has gone much quicker than I thought it would. Today I finished recording Chapter 25, Christmas 2020 with Charles Dickens, so I’m way early. Last Wednesday, I recorded nine chapters! I couldn’t believe it!
Since I have thirty-one chapters in the book, I only need six more chapters, Appendix A and the closing credits to finish the recording. I plan to finish the recording on Monday or Tuesday of this week. Then I can easily finish the editing and adding effects by the end of the month.
What are my future plans for this adventure?
Here’s the rest of the schedule I made earlier:
When Will Papa Get Home?—March
This Tumbleweed Landed—April
With my speed of recording so far and the length of both books, I might record both books in March. I don’t want to rush, but I do want to get as much done before the heat of the summer hits. I can’t stand recording when it’s hot outside in my closed in little recording studio (really our walk-in closet)!
What about my two longer books?
In my November 29, 2021 blog post, I wrote, “Two of my books—A Time to Grow Up: A Daughter’s Grief Memoir and Just Another Square Dance Caller: Authorized Biography of Marshall Flippo are too long for the audiobook format.”
I’ve rethought that stance. A writing friend suggested I do a set for my longer books. What do you think? Would you buy an audiobook set of Just Another Square Dance Caller: Authorized Biography of Marshall Flippo, specifically?
Take off anything that can make noise while recording. The earphones fit snugly over my ears, so I took off earrings and the chain I use for my reading glasses.
Drink room-temperature water before recording. I drank some ice-cold water once and my voice crackled.
Use your laptop or iPad instead of paper to read from. When I first recorded, I printed up pages of my script. Then, when I shuffled through the papers, it added a noise I could easily eliminate.
Have a file system for your recording files. I created three folders for raw audio files: original recordings, and duplicated edited files, and effects files. Then I created another file for the mp3s to be uploaded to the different sites for distribution.
Use an external hard drive. My laptop has limited storage space, so I bought a 2 terabytes external hard drive and save to it.
Wear supportive shoes. After standing still in the same place for nearly an hour, I realized good shoes helped how I felt afterwards.
If you are going to offer a .pdf for your audiobook buyer, make sure you have the URL correct before recording. For my first book, I posted on my website all the pictures that were in the book so the buyer could go there and see the visuals included in the book. For the Coronavirus Reflections book, I have created a personal reflection journal the consumer can download to respond on.
Finally,
I love adventures and this is one for sure. I hope to have four of my six books on audiobooks by this summer, and then hopefully the other two finished by the end of 2020. Do you buy audiobooks? Audiobooks are for any age! If you’d like to sample my first audiobook, you can at https://laradasbooks.com/sample-my-audiobook/
~Here’s Christmas greetings from Flippo & Neeca, featuring his song, “When Its Christmas Time in Texas”: https://youtu.be/mpJCUGffU3A
~Visit my website to find out about my new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? and my other five books and three cookbooks: https://laradasbooks.com
Eight years of blogging brings up some interesting insights. I love to look back over the previous year and compare it to past years and see what’s happened.
First, a big thank you to all my readers. I think of you every Sunday as I write my blog. The topic percolates during the week, and I have kept a list of topics and tried to keep up with my schedule, but serendipities make me veer off the path. I keep an imaginary snapshot of my readers in mind as I write and I write to you!
During 2021, I addressed the following topics:
Marshall Flippo—monthly
My new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better?
Square dancing
My life during this continued pandemic
My poetry
Holidays
During the year, I posted regularly about Flippo, and I continued to address my experience in the limitations of the coronavirus pandemic. In my new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better?, I included the inspiration of these posts. In looking at my statistics, I realized how often I wrote about holidays. I love writing about any current holiday, featuring all major holidays and my experiences, traditions and beliefs.
On November 2, 2021, a writing friend told me about the Ultimate Blog Challenge, an opportunity to write a blog post every day during the month of November, so I succeeded but missed the first day. What a challenge that was! This challenge increased the “Likes” and comments on my blog posts, which has historically been a problem area for my blogs. I thoroughly enjoyed it and came up with an outline of what I would write about each week:
1—A variety of writing topics
2—Where my new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? came from
3—Gratitude topics for Thanksgiving week
4—Feature some of my poetry and future poetry books
I watch these two statistics regularly and am happy to see an increase in visitors vs. views from 78% to 83% this last year. What does that mean?
Views and Visitors
The two main units of traffic measurement are views and visitors:
~A view is counted when a visitor loads or reloads a page.
~A visitor is counted when we see a user or browser for the first time in a selected time frame.
A visitor is an individual looking at your site. A visitor can view many different pages of your site or view the same page multiple times. Therefore, the views number is typically higher than the visitors number.
The significant growth of 5% tells me that visitors saw something they wanted to view in my blogs. Significant movement. But my total numbers decreased this year from last year. Last year’s high in views happened because of the pandemic and people being home more than this year. Also, Facebook changed their ads, making it hard to advertise to the world market, which limited the exposure I had enjoyed in previous years.
The good news about this year is the difference between my visitors this year was less than one thousand. I got all this data off of wordpress.com where I have my website and blog, but the numbers off of the Facebook ads surpass these numbers. With my Facebook ads, I reached 1,594,301 people and 44,836 clicked on the blog post, which doesn’t match my numbers from WordPress, so I’m not sure about that, but those are outrageous numbers to ponder!
Here’s how many posts I have published in eight years:
2014 – 7
2015 – 16
2016 – 6
2017 – 22
2018 – 54
2019 – 66
2020 – 64
2021 – 80
For a total of 315 posts in eight years! Each post is about 750–1000 words, so that’s over 236,250 words! Wow! That’s a lot of words!
My Audience Spans the World in eight years!
I continue to touch a worldwide audience, which is shocking to me! In 2019, visitors came from 154 different countries to my blog. My audience expanded to 176 countries in 2020! In 2021, 171 countries visited my blog, decreasing from the previous year. Facebook changed its selection of “Worldwide” for ads, so I’m sure this affected the number of countries who saw my advertisement.
The United States continued to be my biggest market, followed by these countries with the most to least visits: Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Algeria, Iraq, Pakistan, Ireland, Myanmar (Burma), Singapore, China, Mongolia, Venezuela, Turkey, Canada, Libya, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Egypt, Laos, United Kingdom, Bolivia, Peru, Cambodia, Brazil, Colombia, Armenia, Germany, Lebanon, Bhutan, Somalia, Albania, Sweden, France, Ecuador, Australia, Belgium, Vietnam, Tunisia, Netherlands, South Africa, Japan, Romania, Morocco, Ethiopia, Hong Kong SAR China, Switzerland, Palestinian Territories, Guyana, Serbia, Suriname, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Denmark, Yemen, Taiwan, Argentina, Nicaragua, Haiti, Guinea, Jordan, Timor-Leste, Paraguay, Spain, Fiji, Guatemala, Ukraine, Comoros, Honduras, Malaysia, Italy, Azerbaijan, El Salvador, Macedonia, Georgia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Maldives, Israel, Senegal, Russia, New Zealand, Uganda, Madagascar, Moldova, Burkina Faso, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Rwanda, Eritrea, Trinidad & Tobago, Nigeria, Dominican Republic, 95 Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Sierra Leone, Mauritania, Mali, South Korea, Liberia, Croatia, Portugal, Samoa, Norway, Austria, Greece, Mauritius, Malta, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Uruguay, Congo – Brazzaville, Kosovo, Chile, Tonga, Micronesia, American Samoa, Ghana, United Arab Emirates, Namibia, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Belize, Tanzania, Central African Republic, Kyrgyzstan, Hungary, Bahrain, Montenegro, Zambia, Andorra, Belarus, Burundi, Swaziland, Puerto Rico, Cote d’lvoire, Lesotho, Uzbekistan, Luxembourg, Finland, Tajikistan, Cameroon, Oman, Réunion, Guam, Gambia, Botswana, Norfolk Island, Panama, Congo – Kinshasa, Curacao, Cyprus, Jersey, St. Lucia, Qatar, Papua New Guinea, Chad, Palau, Lithuania, Aruba, Slovenia, Northern Mariana Islands, Dominica, Jamaica, Mozambique, Solomon Islands, Slovakia, Isle of Man.
Top Five Favorite posts:
The top five favorite posts of 2021 cover a variety of topics.
Haunted by a Favorite Poem
Vaccinated: Short, Sweet & to the Point
Writing Groups—A Best Kept Secret for Writers?
Will Square Dancing Survive the Pandemic?
Is a Nativity Set Important?
So, I’d like to share the take-aways from this in-depth look at my blogging history:
I continue to love writing my weekly blog.
Potential readers moved from just visiting my blog to viewing it. I like that.
I continue to have a worldwide audience.
Future Plans
I plan to be more selective about my topics this year. In the past, I wrote about whatever came up, and I will continue to address current events, but I have five areas I will focus on:
Writing—my current project and writing topics
Flippo & square dancing
Poetry
Baby boomer topics
Holidays
If we return to traveling, I will add that specific topic because my readers love my travel tales.
Finally
After eight years of blogging, I’m proud of my results. Suggest any topics you’d like to hear about. Regular readers, please “like” my blog post, then leave me a comment. How about—read, reflect and respond! Then we could truly be an international community!
~Here’s Christmas greetings from Flippo & Neeca, featuring his song, “When Its Christmas Time in Texas”: https://youtu.be/mpJCUGffU3A
~Visit my website to find out about my new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? and my other five books and three cookbooks: https://laradasbooks.com
Possibilities? As I face the future as a writer, I wonder about posts I read online, about authors needing inspiration. I don’t have that problem. I have five or six books lined up in the future. Three or four of them are poetry books! These pieces whisper to me often in the dark of night, begging me to breathe life into them.
I also have a couple of short stories I’ve played with, and I have a delightful collection of Christmas memories.
As a self-published author, I do all the work, so I have kept busy promoting my books, especially my last two. I’ve concentrated on my book business the last couple months, wanting to expand possibilities. I recently realized I need to focus on my e-book sales online and boost that in all the different formats.
So, along that line, I just finished training to create audiobooks, so that’s my next venture. The training is Audiobooks Made Easy by Derek I bought the training last December then got busy finishing up my new book. I started the training immediately last year. I bought all the supplies suggested: specialized mike for audiobooks, sheet music stand, recording microphone stand, ear phones and pop filter. Sadly, they have gathered dust in my walk-in closet (where I plan to record) until now, but I plan to start recording this week.
My plan is to start with my shortest book, Let Me Tell You a Story, to learn the process. Then I plan to record my current book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better?. Then I plan to continue with This Tumbleweed Landed and When Will Papa Get Home? Right now, I doubt if I will record my two longer books: A Time to Grow Up and Just Another Square Dance Caller.
Future Possibilities—My Line-up of Books:
Three or four poetry books
Watch a Poet Grow: Where It All Began #1—my early poetry
Watch a Poet Grow: Look at Life Look #2—my later poetry
Watch A Poet Grow: Haikuin’ Life #3—haikus about my daily life
Watch a Poet Grow: The Death of a Marriage#4—poetry record of my third divorce
I Said, “Yes!”—how to write a biography or memoir
Eye Witness to Life—a fiction I wrote in 2016 during NaNoWriMo
This Tumbleweed Landed #2—continuation of my first poetry book
How about some Cinquains?
“The cinquain, also known as a quintain or quintet, is a poem or stanza composed of five lines.”
In 2002, I took a poetry class from the University of New Mexico’s Continuing Education, and I wrote the following cinquains. They are cinquains loosely-defined but have no rhyming pattern.
Sunshine
light playing on
my skin, a reminder
that life will go on no matter!
I shine!
Cooking
fresh food ready
green cut aroma fills
the room and the space in my heart.
Refresh!
Land where?
A tumbleweed
bounces against barbed
wire fence, gets caught for a moment!
Now gone!
My words
my life caught in
a box, limited yet
real! I want to communicate.
Let’s talk!
Music
touches the deep.
I move to the beat. My
soul reacts to the sound and moves!
How come?
Playful
childlike laughter,
like bells ringing in the
chapel — angels swinging their wings
out loud.
Life force
Sensual light
burns deeply in my heart,
ignites with any willing soul
Alive!
Of what
are my dreams made?
Fluff, a sprig of cedar,
Flesh and bone and sawdust sprinkled!
Gone soon!
As you can see, I’m not done! As I referenced yesterday, I’m a Baby Boomer with a purpose! I love having future possibilities to look forward to—that’s the only way I can live!
Finally
This week, look for poetry—a variety of it, ranging from my early poetry to some of my recent haikus. Recently, after my walks, I have recorded a couple of haikus that came to me as I enjoyed being out in nature. I believe in possibilities, and I see them everyday all around me.
What are your future projects? Do you plan ahead? Share your thoughts below!
Visit my website to find out about my new book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better? and my other five books and three cookbooks: https://laradasbooks.com
Are writing groups one of the best kept secret in the writing world? Not for me! Currently, I take part in two groups, each one focusing on a unique part of writing.
East Mountain Writing Group
In 2016, I joined the East Mountain Writing group. This group has played a key role in my preparation for the publishing of my last three books. Presently we have four in our group, but we have had six. We meet monthly for a couple of hours and submit work to be critiqued. These in-depth critiques substantially breathed life into many of my submissions, which later became my published books.
I can’t compliment this writing group enough because of their dedication to specificity. Each time they critiqued my work, I always looked forward to their comments because I knew my writing will improve. Also, I have the privilege of reading and critiquing their amazing work.
Over the years, our socializing time has grown because we’ve become deeply acquainted with each other’s lives. Because of our longevity, our familiarity with each other’s work causes check-ups on long-term projects. The coronavirus pandemic didn’t stop us from meeting. Immediately, we jumped on the Zoom wagon for our meetings.
Colorado Writing Practice Group
In March and April 2021, I took part in Natalie Goldberg’s “The Way of Writing” class, focusing on her “writing practice.” In 1986, Natalie’s book, Writing Down the Bones, began a new practice for writers, a ten-minute timed writing practice that changed the writing world. I used this book and her idea when I taught writing to my sixth-grade language arts classes, but got away from it.
Fast forward to this year—during her class, Natalie suggested we join a writing group that focused on writing practice. So, using Zoom, I joined one in Colorado and one in New Mexico, but the New Mexico group didn’t continue.
The Colorado group started out small, with just a couple of us. Then we had some writers join and leave, but currently we have five committed members. We meet weekly at 4:00 PM MST for an hour.
This is how this group differs: our faithful leader comes up with two thought-provoking writing prompts, and we do “writing practice.” The rules are simple:
1. Keep your hand moving. 2. Don’t cross out. 3. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar. 4. Lose control. 5. Don’t think. Don’t get logical. 6. Go for the jugular.
Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within (1986): 8.
In 1990, Natalie added a couple more rules:
1. Be specific. 2. You are free to write the worst junk in America.
Natalie Goldberg, Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life (1990): 3-4.
After we have done the timed writings, then we each read our writing. How it differs is the response of the listeners: all we do is listen and thank the writer—no comment, no critique! So, you might wonder about the benefit of this writing group. We’ve met weekly since March, so we’ve become familiar with each other’s’ voices, and I can see how each writer has grown as a writer during our time together. When I write, I know beforehand that I can write “the worst junk in America,” so I can risk going deeper, being authentic! My writing has improved because of this group and this discipline.
Finally
Each writing group offers something different. Each one feeds my writer’s soul distinctly. If you haven’t joined a writing group, find one that meets your needs and then commit to attend regularly.
Are you in a writing group? If so, how does it help you? Share your comments below (Scroll down)!
Starting on November 2, I joined the Ultimate Blog Challenge, a challenge to write a blog post every day of November. For the first week, I focused on writing topics.
