Larada Horner-Miller's Blog, page 42
February 10, 2019
Are You A Pantser, Plotter or Plantser?
When you write are you pantser, plotter or plantser? If you
don’t know what that means, here it is:
Simply put, a plotter is someone who plans out their novel before they write it. A pantser is someone who, “flies by the seat of their pants,” meaning they don’t plan out anything, or plan very little. Some people, like me, call themselves “plantsers,” which means they’re in a little of both.”
https://thewritepractice.com/plotters-pantsers/
Normally, I’m a pantser and the story evolves as I’m writing, but I had to be super-organized with this book, so I wrote this outline. I didn’t write it before interviewing Flippo; I wrote it after we talked and I saw the topics surface, so I guess I’m a plantser!
Here’s the outline for the book I’m writing. It’s organic and changes as I work with the material. The power of the outline is that it gives me direction and an organizational structure to follow—it will fun to see how it finally turns out!
Title: Just Another Square Dance Caller
Subtitle: Authorized Biography of Marshall Flippo
TO THE READERProloguesLarada’s Marshall’s – Blue Star Records, Kirkwood &
NeecaJokeCallers That Have Passed You Who Helped Flippo
CHILDHOOD & YOUNG
ADULTHOOD SECTION
Childhood & Family Volunteered for the Navy & War YearsBaseball in the NavyEarly Marriage & Life with Neeca
SQUARE DANCE LIFE SECTION
Square Dance LifeAbilene’s Where It StartedBlue Star Changed EverythingKirkwood Changed MoreJohn’s
birthYearly Tours of the United StatesCame
out of Kirkwood & Neeca organizing – From & to KirkwoodNorthEastSouthHome
– ChristmasNorth
WestYearly FestivalsAsilomar
– ahead of and before CALLERLABPermian
Basin FestivalWASCAChula
Vista ResortOthers
that I will addCALLERLAB International
Trips & CruisesJapan
– numerous timesSpainGermanyCaribbeanHawaiiSee
AlbumSpecial WeekendsAlaska
– 2 eventsRecording Companies & LifeBlue
StarChaparralOthersChoreographyTucson Years
End Of An Amazing CareerCelebrationsChaparral
Boys Labor Day, 2016 Farewell
to the RoadAbilene,
Texas – Wagon WheelHoustonAlbuquerqueLast
contract with ASDC – big celebrationLast
NM contract – State Festival – 2016Agreed for me to write this bookGreen
Valley, AZ – December 31, 2017I’m
Leaving Here a Better ManAsilomar Once MoreLast CALLERLAB
Stories From Callers & Friends About FlippoStories from Flippo About Callers That Helped
HimLetters & Notes from Callers & DancersAwardsSets In Order Hall of FameMilestoneTexas Hall of FameLifetime AchievementEpilogue – Flippo’s Memorial Service
THE BACK MATTER
AcknowledgmentsPhoto AlbumAppendicesAppendix A – Chronology of Marshall Flippo’s
LifeAppendix B – RecordingsAppendix C – AwardsAppendix D — Reference BooksAppendix E – Glossary of Square Dance TermsAppendix
F – URL’s of Videos and Audio of FlippoCopyright PermissionsEndnotes – Any footnotes when I quote a book or
web siteLarada’s Reflections – I’m writing this as we talk. I think it will be throughout the book.About the Author
Flippo and I went over this outline the last time we talked, but he was struggling at that time, so I’m not sure it’s complete. If you’re a Flippo expert, am I missing anything? Let me know.
Check out my web site at https://www.laradasbooks.com
50% Discount of A Time to Grow
Up: A Daughter’s Grief Memoir–both paperback and e-book versions–at my
Etsy Shop, Larada’s Reading Loft.
Do you want to pre-order the
Marshall Flippo biography? Go here to order the version you want. https://goo.gl/forms/4D4hwbHdme1fvJc42
February 6, 2019
11 Secrets to Transcribe Audio to Text
In today’s modern world of technology, you’d think that
transcribing an audio file into text would be a cinch, a no-brainer. The
computer would do all the work for you, and you’d sit back and sip on a cool drink
and relax—not so! Transcribing audio to text is quite squirrely at best. I just
finished transcribing 37 interviews—well over 40 hours of conversation with Marshall
Flippo for his biography. Some one hour interviews took over seven hours to
transcribe because of various issues. I’d like to share my frustrations, my
pain and my process.
I have arthritis in my thumbs and right index finger so the
transcription became a painful chore. I had lots of suggestions from welling
mean friends along the way to help me, and I tried them all:
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Have it professionally transcribedI searched out several sites on the Internet
where it could be done technically.I hired a professional transcriber. Google Docs has an audio to text capability, so
I ran a couple interviews through it.Microsoft Word has an audio to text capability.
Again, I ran a couple interviews through it.My voice came out loud and clear on the audio and
worked perfectly on Google Docs & Microsoft Word, so I listened to Flippo
then repeated back to these two programs—time consuming for sure.
I tried all of these obvious solutions, but Flippo’s soft spoken
Texas drawl was impossible for a professional or a machine to understand. So, in
the end, I transcribed over 258,000 words when I finished.
Now I feel like I know what I’m doing, and I’d like to share
it with you.
What did I learn in the process?
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BACK UP OF AUDIOS: At the end of each interview, IMMEDIATELY, I exported the interview to DropBox. I also backed up my Marshall Flippo folder on DropBox and my laptop on a thumbdrive on a weekly basis. Lastly, I have asbackup program on my laptop that makes backups throughout the day. I bought Voice Recorder for an iPad. (FREE; Don’t remember what the upgrade price is) http://www.tapmedia.co.uk/voicerecorder-support.htmIt would do a cursory transcription of the first 10 minutes. I used that on interviews from caller friends who told me stories about Flippo, but again it wouldn’t work on his soft voice.I bought ExpressScribe software for a Mac. ($40) https://www.nch.com.au/scribe/index.htmlExpressScribe plays the audio and has a simple word processor to type the transcription in, all in one app.Whenever I stopped the audio, it rewound a few seconds to make it easy to find where I was. In the midst of this project, I had eye surgery on my right eye, so I had trouble seeing font size 10 in the word processor in ExpressScribe, so I learned to magnify the window on my Mac which was an easy fix: Hold down 2 Keys: Fn & Control and using 2 fingers on the track pad, move it up to zoom in and move down to zoom out.Any time I stopped transcribing, I copied and pasted text from ExpressScribe into Scrivener’s.In Scrivener’s, I created “Comments” on anything I didn’t understand in the transcription to return to later.When I finished each transcription, I exported the notes into a file in DropBox.Watch your laughter, responses and talking over the speaker. We truly had an ongoing conversation over the 37 hours. Flippo told a story; I laughed. I responded to his humor and his stories, but in my enthusiasm, I guffawed right over his next statement. Or we talked over each other. His words being the most important and the softest disappeared with mine being secondary and the loudest. Think about your laughter, responses and habitual talking habits beforehand to control them during the interview.Add Nuances—Whenever Flippo giggled, I put (Giggles), so when I was writing the biography later I would make sure to add is giggles and laughter to the story. He sang some of his responses, so I noted that. Be sure and note anything you hear in the transcription that you will want to add to the book later. Listen to his cadence, his pronunciation—his personality in voice and make note of it in the transcription.Hard to Understand Sections—Most of my audio was great, but there were times I had trouble understanding Flippo.Rewound and slowed the audio play down to 75% or increased it to 105%. Often this helped.In my transcription documents, I timestamped any spots that are hard to understand so I could easily return.Each time I stopped transcribing, I marked where we stopped in my notes of that interview with a timestamp.Organize your interviews beforehand by themes or topics.A friend told me before I started that Flippo would try to hijack the interviews, and he did quite often. I didn’t organize all the interviews with a theme, and after transcribing, I realized I had made my job harder in the next step of putting the interviews into chapters.Granted the organic fluidity of conversation was important, and he told lots of stories he wouldn’t have if I’d been super-rigid about this, but some organization would have helped in the long run.BIG PLUS—I realized early into the transcribing process that it was to my advantage to hear Flippo’s voice again, go over the details again and submerge myself in his voice and personality in a different way. When I was recording him, I took notes and focused on capturing as much on paper as I could. In transcribing, I had the luxury of listening to him, his voice, and the nuances and made note of them in a different ways.
[image error]Flippo and me at CALLERLAB 2018 in Albuquerque
The work is done—whew! I love the interaction Flippo and I enjoyed
in the interviews. The transcription, by far, has been the hardest part of this
project. Now, I’m ready to actually write the book which is exciting and
rewarding.
I hope my suggestions help you in transcribing any interviews
you do.
Check out my web site at https://www.laradasbooks.com
50% Discount of A Time to Grow Up: A Daughter’s Grief Memoir–both
paperback and e-book versions–at my Etsy Shop, Larada’s Reading Loft.
Do you want to pre-order the Marshall
Flippo biography? Go here to order the version you want. https://goo.gl/forms/4D4hwbHdme1fvJc42
February 3, 2019
What Happened at Hummingbird Hoedown This Year?
I created a schedule for my blog posts back in late November for 2019, and this Sunday’s topic is Hummingbird Hoedown, an annual square and round dance festival in Sierra Vista, Arizona with caller, Jerry Story. We weren’t able to attend this year because of my husband, Lin’s hip problem.
For the last couple days, I have vacillated back and forth on whether to write about an event I didn’t attend. I decided I would because I know what happens there–great challenging dancing with a fun-loving committee and dancers. It’s an unusual festival that has gained momentum over the years.
Hummingbird Hoedown is a weekend festival the last weekend in January: a dance Friday night, workshop all day Saturday and a dance Saturday night–sounds like a lot of dancing to the non-dancer but this is the usual format for weekend square and round dance festival.
It began five years ago. Harue and Slappy (Bryan) Swift started it with Jerry Story with a new format in mind: round dance party for one hour before the dance and then only one round during the evening dance, mostly mainstream dancing with a two minutes, two seconds break between tips. That program translated into an aerobic evening of dancing, attracting high energy dancers.
Immediately it was a success and has continued growing with this year’s record number of seventeen squares! Lin and I attended the first three festivals but weren’t able to go last year and sorrowfully this year.
The schedule has morphed over the five years, and this year’s alternated mainstream, plus, mainstream and two rounds during the evening.
Another innovative addition started at Hummingbird Hoedown by Lisa Wahl. During the round dance workshop on Saturday afternoon, Lisa taught a rhythm not a whole dance and was able to teach more moves per rhythm that way. During the evening’s dance, Lisa cued the moves taught instead of a song and many people participated. This has continued throughout the years.
Bob and Lin Van Atta have cued the rounds for the last couple years and make the rounds enjoyable for all!
The Hummingbird Hoedown’s lively committee has fun door prizes and schedules dinner out Saturday night at one of the Mexican restaurants in Sierra Vista, providing time to sit and talk and get acquainted. I love this special time to sit with dancer friends and talk about our lives.
Jerry Story, the featured caller, puts you through the drill the whole weekend. Jerry is the master of making mainstream dancing a challenge. Then during the workshops on Saturday, he teaches the dancers all the key items to dancing that are important to him–his emphasis helps dancers improve their dancing.
The weekend is fun-filled, and the committee welcomes you with open arms. Jerry makes the squares entertaining and challenging. After a tip at this dance, you run to the bathroom or grab a drink– you can’t do both, and you rush back on the floor for another tip full of great choreography and singing. It doesn’t get better than this!
Lin and I WILL be there next year ready to dance the weekend away with good friends, a great caller and lots of dancing!
Want to see what happened at Hummingbird Hoedown this year? Go to the Thunder Mountain Twirlers Facebook page for pictures: 5th Annual Hummingbird Hoedown
Have you ever attended Hummingbird Hoedown? What was your opinion of it? Share it here.
Check out my web site at https://www.laradasbooks.com
50% Discount of A Time to Grow Up: A Daughter’s Grief Memoir–both paperback and e-book version–at my Etsy Shop, Larada’s Reading Loft.
Do you want to pre-order the Marshall Flippo biography? Go here to order the version you want: https://goo.gl/forms/4D4hwbHdme1fvJc42
January 30, 2019
Time Flies! What Happened to January?
Here it is January 30 and where did the month go? Have you accomplished all you hoped for these past thirty days?
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When I look at January on the calendar, I annually feel like cleaning out disheveled drawers, closets and file cabinets. I want to clear the clutter on my desk and get the year off to a good start.
I want to get tax preparation finished before it becomes a burden that haunts me in the wee hours. I yearn for organization, structure and clarity.
The sad news is life gets in the way, and here it is January 30, and very little of those desires have been achieved.
I have done a few things that I feel great about:
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I did the tax preparation for our ranch.I started my personal and business tax preparation.I set an appointment to do a living will (that’s been on my To Do List for years!).I created a weekly organizational sheet that has directed me on daily and weekly goals for my personal and writing life.
Last year, I would get a brainstorm and create a reminder on my iPad app to do some brilliant action for my book business. So often then, they went undone because I just clicked the alert off when it appeared, got distracted and didn’t do it.
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With my weekly organizational sheet, I have check boxes for key areas and have more accountability right in front of me. To really use it effectively, on Saturday I review what I did the past week and notice what I didn’t do, and prioritize that for the next week.
I’m a checklist-type person. I’ve used several checklists to organize my current writing project, the authorized biography of Marshall Flippo, world-famous square dance caller. I have 37 recorded interviews, 4 steno-note pads full of notes from the interviews, 100’s of pictures, and 6 photo albums/scrapbooks to keep track. Checklists have helped me organize and cross-reference all the support material for specific chapters in the book.
Facing this part of my life, the key words are MINDFULNESS & ORGANIZATION! Routinely I get busy with what is at hand instead of being mindful for the day and have specific activities to do. Being retired plays into that, too. It seems I used to get so much more accomplished when I was working and had to manage my free time. My organizational sheet helps me with that, especially when I start the day with a review of what’s pending for the day.
My husband is very organized; his desk is free of clutter. I’m organized in an unorganized fashion with clutter everywhere, so here’s a goal for me for the month of February:
A DESK THAT LOOKS LIKE THIS!
Yes, January puts me in the mindset of clearing out and starting fresh–the newness of a new year. Here’s to your new year and your new ways of being mindful and organized.
Are you organized? Do you have clutter? How do you deal with it? Let me know!
Two days left for 25% discount of all my digital books at my Etsy Shop, Larada’s Reading Loft
Visit my web site and see what’s new: https://www.laradasbooks.com
January 27, 2019
The Albuquerque Mystique–what is it?
years ago and am still smitten with the mystique of this lovely high desert
city. I wonder about the Albuquerque mystique. I tried to write prose to
express my feelings but this calls for a poem.
The mystery about Albuquerque escapes me.
I try to pin it down.
It’s the setting—the Sandia’s, the desert, the river.
No, it’s the people.
It’s the offerings of the community,
No, it’s the people.
It’s so much, so large, so elusive.
The watermelon red sunset over the Sandia Mountains.
Spanish name for watermelon
named for the color splashed over the
mountains at dusk.
Our spiritual Native ancestors who walked this land before us
instilling their heart and soul into the very earth.
The ancient Petroglyphs stand sentinel to the west
and Mount Taylor in the far distance west.
The gorgeous Sandia’s corral the residents on the east.
The Rio Grande weaves a thread through the scenic valley.
Sandia Pueblo borders the north,
and Isleta Pueblo hems in the south.
Albuquerque—surrounded, unique and mystique!
The people play a major role in its charm.
As a child, I visited Albuquerque often because my aunt and uncle
lived here.
Visits to the mall and the Thanksgiving Day parade downtown
echoed through my soul as I contemplated re-locating
here.
When I had the opportunity to move, I took it
quickly.
My first exposure as a working adult won my heart.
The faculty, parents and students of Washington middle school,
“La Washa” for those of us who love that south valley school,
welcomed me with open arms.
The connections there ran deep
fun collaborative projects that welded the staff together.
Many Friday afternoon after school
together in a local bar with memorable jokes
that still resonate with just one line remembered.
The staff was so tight the first couple years I worked there,
we had to have two Christmas parties.
One was not enough!
I still socialize with many of the “La Washa” staff member.
Other schools
Other faculties
Other colleagues
continued deep connections.
Many cultures live side-by-side here,
celebrating their own heritage and each other’s.
Strong Spanish/Hispanic and Native American populations,
Caucasians, Blacks, Greek, Asians and Vietnamese, too.
The mixture gives me a strong respect for all ethnicities.
My recovery community saved my life
and continues to each day.
My church community, Hope in the Desert Episcopal Church,
and its people loved and accepted me during a down time in my life.
A magnificent view of the Sandia’s out the window over the alter
each Sunday calms my spirit.
Fr. Dan’s soft-spoken words encourage me.
Today my focus is my square dance community.
A tight-knit bunch that loves to dance and have fun.
A beautiful dance hall on the north side of town
probably the best in the country.
A lively group of people, an activity, and a place that finds my soul.
Add the Albuquerque weather to the mix and the mystery.
Mild winters and summers
Our snow accumulation is normally slight
The summer weather only goes over 100 degrees a few days,
otherwise, balmy, beautiful weather for most of the year.
Summers and fall are the best.
Often, I sit outside in the night time
listen to the serenades of the cicadas
loud and boisterous yet so soothing.
The desert moon’s light magnifies the stars strewn
across a black canopy of night.
And there’s so much more!
The University of New Mexico
The Balloon Fiesta
The Gathering of Nations
The Greek Festival
Old Town
Yes, I believe Albuquerque has a mystique about it!
For years before I moved here, I listened to
Jim Glasser sing about “The Lights of Albuquerque.”
Every time I heard it,
My heart leapt,
My spirit soared.
It has always had a mystique for me!
Have you ever been to Albuquerque? Share your comments.
Check out my web site: https://www.laradasbooks.com
Until January 31, 2019, 25% Discount on Digital copies of my books at my Etsy Shop, Larada’s Reading Loft
January 23, 2019
How Do You Start Your Day?
When we are home, my husband, Lin, and I start most days off with Cribbage games over breakfast. The winner for the day is the best of three games or two if someone gets skunked because a skunk is worth two games. I kept track of our games last year like a tournament, and Lin won the year. For Christmas, I made him a 2018 Cribbage Champion t-shirt as a prank gift.
It’s such a fun, peaceful way to start the day. We laugh and carry on as the games progress. We whine about our cards, our luck and losing. We laugh about the strange combination of cards we get. Lin often says the S word first (Skunk) as we watch the movement of the pegs around the board. We talk about our current plans and future plans and the dreams we have. We connect!
Lin has played and loved this game since the 70’s. He taught me how to play when we got married seven years ago, and I have gotten better each year. For a couple of years, we stayed in Pagosa Springs, Colorado for the month of July with a couple and moved around town to different coffee shops and cafes, playing Double Cribbage. People would stop, stare and ask what we were playing. Many responded, “My grandparents play that game.”
I was still teaching at the time we were playing in Pagosa Springs with our friends and often told them that they should teach Cribbage in school to help students learn math—what better way to learn counting than playing a fun game.
Lin often wisely shares one of his favorite Cribbage lines as we near the end of the game, “I like your position,” or “I like my position.” Then he explains his rationale for the comment on how many moves it will take to win. It’s usually the best-case scenario. We’ve had lots of laughter over that comment when it backfired.
To me this morning ritual is a sacred space of love, laughter and communication—a nice way to connect and begin our day.
Well, our daily ritual this morning took a surprise twist! It was a red-letter day for sure. We’ve both said for years that we didn’t care which one of us got a perfect score, but we just wanted one of us to get it. The score for a perfect hand in Cribbage is 29, and neither one of us had ever seen it.
On the first hand today of the first game, Lin got it! He had 3 fives and a jack of diamonds in his hand. Then when we turned over the card we share, it was a five of diamonds, matching the jack of diamonds in his hand. Yahoooooo! 29 points!
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Lin’s enthusiasm was priceless. In a way, he was speechless which is hard to imagine if you know him–he couldn’t believe it. I photographed his perfect Cribbage hand and put it on Facebook for all to see.
And he went ahead and won that first game, I won the second one, and he won the day on the third game—to boot, he skunked me! A memorable day and time shared.
Have you ever played Cribbage? Let me know if you share this interest of mine.
If you’re interested, you need a Cribbage board and a deck of cards. Here’s the rules for Cribbage: http://cribbagecorner.com/rules
Check out my website and my 4 books and 3 cookbooks: https://www.laradasbooks.com
25% Discount on Digital Copies of my books until January 31 at my Etsy Shop, Larada’s Reading Loft
January 20, 2019
DNA Testing—Why Do It?
I had toyed with doing the DNA testing on ancestry.com for
years, but I didn’t know anyone who had done it, and I couldn’t see a reason to
spend the money.
[image error]Lin and I with the driver of our bus on the Ring of Kerry Tour in Ireland, July, 2017
My husband, Lin, and I went to England and Ireland in July 2017 for my second cousin’s wedding in England. It was Lin’s dream to go to Ireland because of his Irish heritage, so we added the side trip to Ireland to this trip. I had no connections to Ireland, so I let Lin know before we left that the Irish side trip was for him; however, I enjoyed our trip through Ireland and loved the people.
When we returned home, we had a conversation with Lin’s brother-in-law and sister-in-law about genealogy. They oozed with enthusiasm over having just gotten their results from their DNA testing. As they described their experience, I grabbed my iPad, went to ancestry.com and ordered two DNA kits.
When they arrived, Lin and I did the tests at the same time—we each had to come up with enough spit to fill our individual container. As we continued, the vial seemed to grow bigger and my mouth dried up, but we finally finished it.
We had to wait for about six weeks, but finally, ancestry.com alerted us when the results were ready. I nonchalantly opened the file and deciphered the results. Lin did his at the same time—and mine shocked both of us!
I knew I had a strong English ancestry—my mom had done our genealogy for both sides of the family, and she had records for the Horner’s, my dad’s side, all the way back to our immigration from England.
I thought I had a strong German heritage. My Mom’s maternal grandparents were stow-aways from Germany, so I thought this would be the largest statistic.
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No! My largest ethnicity group was England, Wales &
Northwestern Europe with 36%, so that surprised me, but the big shock was the
second largest group – Ireland & Scotland with 32%.
I shared my findings with Lin wondering what his were. Irish would be his biggest group for sure. His silence screamed his disbelief. I asked again. He hung his head and whispered, “I can’t believe this! You’re 32% Irish; I’m 25!”
My mouth fell open, then a belly laugh hit me hard! I was
more Irish than Lin!
We have had lots of laughter about this new find, but I love
the information I’ve received. We got our first results in August and then
received an update in September—no the testing didn’t change. Ancestry.com came
up with new data and refined our information.
“There’s lots of new data. Ancestry recently announced that they have more than 10 million people in their DNA database. That large population allowed them to use 16,000 reference samples to develop their new ethnicity estimates (up from 3,000 reference samples from the previous estimates). This has allowed for refinements of the existing estimates, as well as the addition of new regions.”
https://www.legacytree.com/blog/6-things-you-need-to-know-about-ancestrydna-update
My DNA results changed from 36% to 70% England, Wales & Northwestern Europe, and but my Irish went down from 32% to 21%. My initial results cited Europe West (Germanic Europe, France) as 16%. The update lowered it to 9%.
Lin’s update erased any Irish heritage identified in the initial results. His original results listed twelve regions of ethnicity. Then his update did the same as mine. It shortened his list to four areas.; I had three.
I like the warning ancestry.com has, “Your results are up to date! Your DNA doesn’t change, but the science we use to analyze it does. Your results may change over time as the science improves.”
So, our laughter continued as we shared our new results. I playfully shared my newfound Irish heritage with family and friends any time I could.
Ancestry.com also chronicles the immigration of my families
to the United States to two areas:
Central North Carolina, Southeast Missouri & Southern
Illinois, more specifically the Carolina Piedmont Settlers, and Tennessee &
Southern States, more specifically West Tennessee, Western Kentucky &
Virginia-North Carolina Piedmont Settlers in 1700’s. Then our families migrated
farther west over the years.
Another advantage to doing the DNA testing is I have had several
new contacts with family members I didn’t know before.
On the original
report, after the top three groups, I had 7% Scandinavia, 4% Iberian Peninsula,
2% Europe South,
a region has been replaced by a smaller region or multiple regions;new data indicates that a region does not belong in your results.”
[image error]
The updated report
isolated my heritage to the three areas identified: England, Wales & Northwestern
Europe, Ireland and Scotland and Germanic Europe.
All in all, I enjoyed the DNA testing and results. I look forward to how it might be updated and fine-tuned even more. I also anticipate finding new unknown relatives.
Have you done a DNA testing? If so, what happened?
Take a look at my 4 books and 3 cook books on my web site: https://www.laradasbooks.com
Stroll over to my Etsy Shop, Larada’s Reading Loft, for 25% discount on all digital copies of my books.
January 16, 2019
From Where Does Inspiration Come?
Someone made a comment on my blog yesterday, asking me where do I get the inspiration for my writing–that spurred me to think about it, and I promised my reader I would respond. I love this kind of analytical musing!
I wrote This Tumbleweed Landed over 30 years ago in response to a class assignment. As a writing teacher, I attended a National Writing Project workshop and during one session, the facilitator asked us to grab a children’s book from the stack and use it as a writing prompt. I selected Waiting to Waltz by Cynthia Rylant, a cycle of thirty poems chronicles a young girl’s growing up in a small Appalachian town.
The waltz title attracted me because I love to dance. After I read it, I thought, “I can write a collection of poems about my childhood,” and that’s what I did.
I found the topic for my next book, When Will Papa Get Home?, one day when my parents and I were rummaging through an old homestead on our family ranch. I found a blue marble lodged between the front step and the house. I asked my dad who did it belong to, and he dismissed it with probably an arrowhead hunter.
I went home that summer and wrote this story about the blue marble and the factual owner of the homestead and what happened to him. He was accused of being a cattle rustler; I fictionalized it and made him a horse thief and the blue marble became an intricate piece in the story.
My next book, Let Me Tell You a Story, my dad dictated to my mom the story of how my grandfather put our family ranch together during the depression, then I typed it up and put it in book form with pictures. It was my dad’s 75th birthday present from Mom and me, and he loved it.
My therapist urged me to publish my last book, A Time To Grow Up: A Daughter’s Grief Memoir. I wrote poetry as a part of my grief process when my mom died and shared it with my therapist. She wanted it available for her daughters when she died. It is a collection of poetry and prose describing my grief and growth process in losing my parents.
I wasn’t looking for my current project–it fell into lap. I was encouraged by my husband and friends to offer to write the biography of Marshall Flippo, a 90-year-old world famous square dance caller. I had just finished a woman’s fiction in NaNoWriMo in November 2016 and thought I would publish that next, but the biography took priority because of Marshall’s age. I interviewed him for one hour weekly for over a year, and it will be released at the end of this year.
I’ve written about my family, our ranch and my childhood. That’s the inspiration I’ve had for my books.
For my poetry, imagines and ideas come to me softly, and I try to quiet down and listen to the message. I jot the idea down and list it on a database of ideas I have on my iPad–it seems I never have a problem with topics. In fact, I have so many ideas, I don’t have time to write them all. Sometimes, those untreated ideas scream at me to be created–it gets noisy in my head.
From where does your inspiration come? How do you deal with it?
Check out my four books and three cookbooks at my web site: https://www.laradasbooks.com
25% Digital Discount on all my books at my Etsy Shop, Larada’s Reading Loft
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January 13, 2019
What Does Five Years of Blogging Look Like?
Five years ago, I took the advice of writing pundits that I should blog as an author, so I did it sporadically and half-heartedly for four years. I didn’t do regular posts. I wasn’t committed. I didn’t know what to do.
Then in 2017, my husband and I took a fabulous trip to Ireland and England, and it hit me–blog about every day of the trip. We were gone for 23 days, so I had topics for twenty-three posts, and I was off and running. I realized the power in having planned blogs. My statistics changed, and last year, I hit it full tilt. Now I have a database of topics for 2019 already.
I wanted to take this opportunity to look at my statistics and thoughtfully consider what’s working and what needs to be tweaked! Let’s look at my statistics for the last five years:
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For the first two years I had 207 views but my visitors increase. In 2016 views more than doubled and visitors increased also. In 2017 again, views increased but visitors more than doubled.
But 2018, my numbers went off the map! My views increased more than six times and the visitors jumped by seven times. Wow! Why?
Over the years I increased my posts, and last year I posted on a regular weekly basis–some weeks I posted twice a week. I more than doubled the number of posts published. What do I take from that? Readers like regular blog posts, and they like more.
Here’s what my posts published statistics look like:
2014 – 72015 – 162016 – 62017 – 222018 – 55
Let’s look at specifics from 2018. My most popular post published was “Day 3 – 4 Kissing A Stone and on to Killarney.” I wondered about its popularity for months, then my husband said it was the blog post that came up every time he went to my blog, so is that the reason? Or are people enamored with “Kissing the Blarney Stone?”
“Live Lively, Square Dance” was the second most popular. I shared it on several Facebook square dance pages, and the response was great. Sharing about my personal life seems to spark more interest.
What was your favorite blog post of mine in 2018?
I love the growth statistics this last year, but I do have two disappointing statistics: likes and comments.
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Likes:
2014 – 02015 – 12016 – 82017 – 452018 – 136
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Comments:
2014 – 0
2015 – 2
2016 – 77
2017 – 8
2018 – 48
I want more interaction with my visitors. I end each blog with questions to stimulate conversation, so help me out. What do I need to do? What would make you like and/or comment more on my blog?
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Visitors to my blog come from all over the world which fascinates me, so what countries visited my blog last year and how many did I have for each country?
United States – 3962Australia – 108Canada – 103United Kingdom – 69Germany – 36Ireland – 34India – 26Japan – 25Hong Kong (China) – 19Sweden – 8
Other countries listed are Netherlands, Philippines, Qatar, Mexico, Russia, Denmark, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, France, Armenia, Portugal, Belgium, Ukraine, Spain, Lithuania, New Zealand, Finland, Egypt, Romania, Thailand, Italy, China, Cameroon, Nigeria, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Poland, and Colombia. Readers from 29 countries have visited my blog in 2018–Wow!
So, why did you come to my blog from such far-away places? Let me know.
One more change I did these last two years was use a variety of quality photographs and graphics.
Over 84% of all marketing strategies use images, popular GIFs, graphics, animations, and signs among others to pass information. Visual communication has more impact in passing information to people.
https://www.eztalks.com/unified-communications/why-visual-communicaion-is-important.html
I plan to include these topics this year:
Our TravelsSquare DancingMarshall Flippo and promoting my new bookPersonal life stories Being 65 and fully aliveHoliday highlightsRanch life in southeastern Colorado
All-in-all, my blog has become a major focus of my writing career, so stick around and see where we go this next year!
I have 4 books and 3 cookbooks to check out on my web site: https://www.laradasbooks.com
25% Discount on Digital copies of all my books at my Etsy Shop, Larada’s Reading Loft
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January 9, 2019
10 Secrets of Interviewing Someone
Being a rookie at interviewing someone on a big project, I let my instincts take over, and it worked. I’d like to share what worked for me.
I spent over a year interviewing Marshall Flippo, a ninety-year-old world famous square dance caller, for his biography weekly for one hour. Our first meeting was face-to-face and we talked for over two hours, but the majority of the weekly interviews lasted one hour and were over the phone. I limited the time because of his age, and it worked well for scheduling in my busy life, too. I recorded all the interviews using the Voice Recorder app for my iPad.
We did a face-to-face marathon session at the end of March, 2018 at CALLERLAB, the annual meeting of callers, in Albuquerque, NM. We clocked nearly two and a half hours of conversation and went through two photo albums/scrapbooks to stimulate his memory–what rich stories came from this.
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During our next few interviews, we continued scouring the third album, and a square dance friend made this possible. Flippo had the album in front of him, and I had a digital copy on my computer this friend scanned for a birthday celebration presentation he did in 2016 for Flippo. Again, the visual helped him remember events, people and places.
If you’re looking for advice about how to interview someone, here’s what I learned:
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Record the interviews and back up regularly to multiple places. Number the recordings for later reference. Be in a quiet space for the recordings–several of mine have interior noise from my cat and my husband.Set a specific time and length of time. Think of the age of the talker and set the length accordingly.Take notes. I used four steno-pads and numbered and dated them, following the numbering system of the recordings. I also noted where I was when recording.Ask questions about spelling and specifics immediately–don’t wait. Flippo passed away before I could get answers to all my questions.Don’t stop the talker from sharing a memory multiple times because he goes deeper and adds details each time he recalls it. The meat of the stories and memories is in the details.Listen to what the talker is saying and not saying.Limit your responses because the focus is on the person interviewed. After transcribing all of these interviews, I realized I laughed uproariously at Flippo’s stories, and my laughter blocked his comments that followed. My laughter made some parts hard to transcribe.Use a visual to stimulate memories. Flippo’s ex-wife, Neeca, put together three photo albums/scrapbooks, and we went through them page by page. They sparked many stories that I don’t think I would have gotten otherwise; he had so many.No Comment–you may have an opinion about what is being said but refrain from commenting. Your opinion doesn’t matter.After transcribing interviews, ask any questions you have from unclear recordings or information you don’t understand.
I wanted Flippo to feel good about the interviews and the direction this project was going, and he did. He let me know often, and family and friends told me how much he looked forward to our weekly time together.
Flippo’s biography will be released September 2019–I’ll keep you posted.
Let me know how you handle interviews like this. Do you have any advice? In a couple weeks, I’ll share some secrets I learned about transcribing recordings of interviews.
Check out my four other books:
This Tumbleweed LandedWhen Will Papa Get Home?Let Me Tell You a StoryA Time to Grow Up: A Daughter’s Grief Memoir
Visit my Etsy Shop, Larada’s Reading Loft, for specials!
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