Council Bluffs author Carol Horner releases second book on division and accountability
Carol Horner of Council Bluffs has added a second title to her list of published works with the release of “Bridging Our Divides: The Spiral Way.” The new book grew out of Horner’s own struggle with anger, disagreement and division.
Horner’s first book is entitled “The Spiral of Accountability,” and was released in April of 2024. That was where she first introduced a framework designed to help people recognize destructive patterns in their own thinking and behavior. The local author had no intention of writing a second book until realizing she had fallen into the same spiral she had spent years teaching others to recognize. “I had spiraled down and hadn’t caught it for a long time,” Horner said.
She had reached what she describes as the bottom of the spiral, a place where anger, contempt and self-righteousness can begin to take over. The realization was difficult because Horner regularly teaches the Spiral of Accountability to others. At the same time, she had become increasingly angry and frustrated with those who held political and social views different from her own.
Horner began taking a closer look at her behavior while participating in a leadership development course. Participants were asked to establish both personal and professional intentions, and both of hers eventually centered on the same concern. She needed to work on her composure. “I am angry all the time,” Horner recalled realizing. “And that’s not like me at all.”
That began a lengthy period of self-examination. Horner spent much of 2025 looking at the source of her anger, the way she reacted to differing opinions and the effect those responses were having on some of her relationships. One of the things she recognized was how easily she had begun grouping others together based on their beliefs, particularly those who had voted differently than she had. “Just like when I clumped all the people that voted differently than me into one group, that wasn’t accurate,” Horner said. “Wasn’t even close.”
Horner describes that behavior as “othering,” or treating someone primarily as part of an opposing group rather than as an individual. Moving away from that type of thinking did not require her to give up her own beliefs or become less committed to her values. Instead, she began trying to understand how another person’s experiences may have led to a different point of view. That idea became a major part of “Bridging Our Divides.”
The subject also connects with Horner’s work with business leaders and organizations. She has seen teams avoid difficult conversations because they do not want to create conflict, but avoiding the conversation does not make the problem disappear. Horner believes differences are easier to address when they remain focused on the subject at hand. Once a difference of opinion becomes personal, both the original problem and the relationship become more difficult to repair.
She has taken the same approach in her personal life and has become more willing to discuss subjects people are often told to avoid, including politics, religion and other strongly held beliefs. Those conversations do not require either side to change its mind. The goal, she explained, is to understand someone on the other side of a disagreement rather than automatically viewing that individual as an opponent. “We have to have these conversations and see the human in front of us,” Horner said.
The process remains ongoing for the Council Bluffs author. Horner still finds herself having angry or sarcastic thoughts, but now pays closer attention to how she responds before allowing those thoughts to affect a conversation or relationship. “We have to remember who’s in charge, the thinker or the thought,” Horner said.
She spent about eight months writing “Bridging Our Divides” after devoting much of the previous year to examining her own behavior and relationships. The book is available through Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. Horner also plans an audiobook version of the new title.
