Tag: Audiobook Appreciation Month

June 30 Ends Audiobook Appreciation Month! Did You Leap?
Audiobooks · My Thoughts · Self-publishing

June 30 Ends Audiobook Appreciation Month! Did You Leap?

Larada Horner-MillerLeave a comment
June is Audiobook Month

June 30—hard to believe, but now we face the end of Audiobook Appreciation Month. Did you leap? Did you download an audiobook or two and try it out? Listening on a drive somewhere? Or on a walk around the neighborhood or in the park?

I’ve featured my three audiobooks this month and my adventure in this area of publication. Hopefully you have had plenty opportunity to look them up and download one or two or three!

I ended up featuring my newest audiobook, This Tumbleweed Landed, and my first one, Let Me Tell You a Story on Father’s Day this month, so I’m going to end with my Christmas audiobook. Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir.

June 30, 2024 Made Me Think of My First Audiobook Recording Experience

Interestingly, in 2015 after I self-published my first book, This Tumbleweed Landed, in 2104, my cousin called and asked me if I had plans to do an audiobook of this book. She wanted to share it with my aunt and thought hearing the book in my voice would be delightful.

So, I began researching. I bought an e-book, Audiobooks for Indies: Unlock the Audio Potential of Your Book by Simon Whistler. Looking back at his book now, he suggested a Blue Yeti for a microphone, but I bought a Blue Snowball. I ignored his other suggestions which looking back now at this book after my training with Derek Doepker, I missed a lot.

Blue Snowball Microphone

On February 8, 2015, when I was at my home in Branson, Colorado, I went into the bedroom and recorded one part. I thought I still had that recording and was going to share it with you and compare it with the one I did recently. But the folder is empty—I deleted it! I must have done that when I decided to record it a few months ago.

The sad part—that’s the only time I used that microphone. I stepped away from creating audiobooks—it seemed too much, too hard! I couldn’t do it! It just wasn’t the right time.

Fast forward to 2021 when I bought Derek’s training, “Audiobooks Made Easy,” and started recording my first audiobook! I released my first one in early 2022, my second before Christmas 2023 and my third in early 2024. I’m so glad June 30 came and I looked back on this adventure! My message to you authors out there—don’t give up!

Here’s the audiobook posts this month in case you missed them:

With us facing July tomorrow, enjoy Christmas in July! Here’s some samples from my Christmas audiobook, Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir. Enjoy!

Finally,

I have plans for more audiobooks, so which one should I do next? Let me know!

Buy My Audio Books:

This Tumbleweed Landed

This Tumbleweed Landed audiobook cover - June 30

Let Me Tell You a Story 

Let Me Tell You a Story audiobook cover - June 30

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Memoir Audiobook

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Memoir Audiobook audiobook cover - June 30

Enjoy my interview on the podcast, The Writing Table

Listen—The Joy of Audiobooks!
Audiobooks · My Books · My Thoughts · Self-publishing

Listen—The Joy of Audiobooks!

Larada Horner-Miller1 Comment
Listen to an audiobook

Listen—that’s the joy of audiobooks. Sit back, grab a cool drink and find a shady place to sit this afternoon for a fun-filled experience of a watermelon fight!

Listen To A Section Of My New Audiobook

This Tumbleweed Landed audiobook cover meme - liste

Listen to a section, “The Sting of the Rind” in of my new audiobook, This Tumbleweed Landed, which will be available in the next couple weeks at many distributors.

Yes, what an experience that was for me! I had sticky, gooey watermelon juice all over, then a ride in the back of a truck with loose hay dancing around down a dirty country road—a formula for a mess!

Listening Not Your Thing—Read!

The Sting of the Rind

“My goodness! What happened to you? Hay?” exclaimed my grandmother as she circled us.

“We had a watermelon seed and rind fight at the picnic; we rode in the back of a truck—with hay,” I said, softly fighting back tears. My brother quietly ducked in the door behind me.

What a week! My dad had gotten bucked off his horse on Thursday preparing for fall shipping of calves and was in the hospital with a broken hip. My brother and I were staying with my grandparents. I desperately wanted to go to the 4-H picnic tonight at the Winfords’—the social event of the fall for this country community. My uncle and aunt agreed to take us along with their six children.

The problem at the picnic arose around my dad. He was our club square dance caller, and we were to have a barn dance. He didn’t make it, but the watermelons did.

When we arrived, everyone asked about Dad—how he was, how bad he was hurt, whether he needed help. 

The warm October evening invited all outside once plates were filled with the delicious food that our potluck offered.

Sitting under the table seemed to be hundreds of watermelons; ladies chuckled. Being busy shipping time, everyone had brought watermelon for dessert.

Questions arose about what to do for the evening. We had brought Dad’s records—we could dance, but the records stayed in the case. It wouldn’t be the same without Dad.

It was time! Dessert—juicy, red watermelon cut in quarter pieces—waited in stacks. No forks or spoons—we just ate with bare hands, juice dripping down to our elbows. A second piece, a third, and more!

One timely seed spit at an innocent passing victim caused a full-fledged war, escalating into rind-throwing. All of us—high school to elementary—ran, threw, hid, and got hit.

Have you ever been hit with a watermelon rind? It stings like a bee bite.

Where were the adult chaperones? They stood well out of our range, enjoying our freedom to create an enjoyable activity and relieved they didn’t have to entertain us.

This battle went on, and I managed pretty well, being hit enough to be thoroughly sticky. Everyone I looked at had plastered hair, faces, and clothes.

On the trip home we rode in the back of my uncle’s truck. The truck bed was covered with loose hay, and as soon as my uncle started up the ten-mile dirt road, hay danced around like it was a spirit.

As we sped down the lane, the dirt from the road swirled back into our faces and pelted us with grit.

When we arrived at my grandparents’ door, my brother and I looked tarred and feathered—only this time with sweet-smelling watermelon juice, pungent hay, and a light layer of dirt.

I stood tentatively in front of my grandmother, wondering if we were in trouble.

“You two need a bath” was her only response as she settled in her favorite chair.

A sparkle lit her eyes, and she giggled to herself. “Good, clean fun,” she said, maybe remembering a similar incident from her own childhood.

Larada Horner-Miller, This Tumbleweed Landed, (Horner Publishing Company, 2014), 129-131.

To this day, watermelon remains my favorite summertime treat. It cools me down and the sweet flavor gives me a pickup for sure, and I always chuckle with this memory in mind.

To listen or to read, that is the question! Because this is Audiobook Appreciation Month and I just finished and uploaded my book, This Tumbleweed Landed. I’ve become a fan of audiobooks. How about you?

If so, you can purchase and listen to my books at the following places:

Buy Let Me Tell You a Story Audiobook

Buy Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Memoir Audiobook

When Will Papa Get Home? Cover - Listen

Here’s a FREE Father’s Day gift for you! June 11-15 my e-book, When Will Papa Get Home?, will be FREE! Click and download a copy for Dad at Amazon!

Enjoy my interview on the podcast, The Writing Table