Ask the Author: Maryann Miller
Answered Questions (9)
Maryann Miller
Interesting question, and thanks for asking.
There is a mystery in my family that I actually touch on in my novel, Evelyn Evolving: A Story of Real Life. That book is based on my mother's life, and when she was just a baby her father disappeared. Nobody knew why he left my grandmother or where he went.
Many years later when I was already grown with a family of my own and had started writing, he contacted my mother and her sister, but he was using a different name than the one on my mother's birth certificate. He never would say why he changed his name, or where he'd been all those years. The writer in me was quite curious, so I asked him once if he'd fill in a few details of the past. I explained that I hoped to write a book about my mother's life at some point, and I could make it easy for him by sending a few questions for him to answer. He got quite angry and told me it was none of my business.
Okay, then, but he was right. He didn't have to tell me anything.
So I speculated. Maybe maybe he'd been connected to the mob and was in witness protection. That kernel of an idea stuck with me for years afterward, and since we never knew the real story, I went with that reason when writing my mother's book.
It was great fun making up his story, and maybe my fictionalized version was more interesting than the truth.
There is a mystery in my family that I actually touch on in my novel, Evelyn Evolving: A Story of Real Life. That book is based on my mother's life, and when she was just a baby her father disappeared. Nobody knew why he left my grandmother or where he went.
Many years later when I was already grown with a family of my own and had started writing, he contacted my mother and her sister, but he was using a different name than the one on my mother's birth certificate. He never would say why he changed his name, or where he'd been all those years. The writer in me was quite curious, so I asked him once if he'd fill in a few details of the past. I explained that I hoped to write a book about my mother's life at some point, and I could make it easy for him by sending a few questions for him to answer. He got quite angry and told me it was none of my business.
Okay, then, but he was right. He didn't have to tell me anything.
So I speculated. Maybe maybe he'd been connected to the mob and was in witness protection. That kernel of an idea stuck with me for years afterward, and since we never knew the real story, I went with that reason when writing my mother's book.
It was great fun making up his story, and maybe my fictionalized version was more interesting than the truth.
Maryann Miller
This summer I've read a number of books. A Bend In the River by Libby Fischer Hellmann and Thao Tran. The Key to Everything by Valerie Fraser Lusse. Hawthorn Woods by Patrick Canning. The Gulag P-Pa Diaries by Preston Lewis. Landing in My Present by Mary Walker Clark, and many more. I enjoyed them all and recommend them to other readers.
Maryann Miller
I'd love to go to The Secret Garden where I could play with plants all day long.
Maryann Miller
My eagerness to get the next scene written in a work in progress is usually my first, and almost daily inspiration to write. It is wonderful when I first wake up and am convincing my cats that it is time to move and let me get up, that I will start thinking about the current story. Then ideas for what to write next will come to me, and I can feel the excitement mounting. That's when the cats do get pushed off the bed. I get up and get all the critters fed, and get to my home office as quickly as possible to get those new ideas down.
On the occasions when I am feeling a bit blah about writing, I go online to connect with other writers. There are a number of really good blogs that offer words of encouragement and inspiration to writers; Writer Unboxed, and Kristen Lamb's blog to just name two.
On the occasions when I am feeling a bit blah about writing, I go online to connect with other writers. There are a number of really good blogs that offer words of encouragement and inspiration to writers; Writer Unboxed, and Kristen Lamb's blog to just name two.
Maryann Miller
I encourage new writers to read, write, read, write, read, write, and keep repeating the process. Now and then I hear about authors who say they don't read, and I am so puzzled by that. I just can't imagine a writer not loving story enough to explore as many as possible. I have learned so much about the craft of writing by reading top authors in a number of genres.
Which is something else I tell aspiring authors to do. Read outside the genre in which you are writing. Craft is craft, and it transcends the boundaries of genre.
And finally, be open to constructive criticism from a critique group, beta readers, and editors. Sometimes we forget that a negative comment is not aimed at our heart and soul, it is aimed at words on paper. :-)
Which is something else I tell aspiring authors to do. Read outside the genre in which you are writing. Craft is craft, and it transcends the boundaries of genre.
And finally, be open to constructive criticism from a critique group, beta readers, and editors. Sometimes we forget that a negative comment is not aimed at our heart and soul, it is aimed at words on paper. :-)
Maryann Miller
There are several really good things about being a writer. First is the excitement and thrill that comes with the creative process. When the writing is really going well, it creates an incredible high - or maybe it's the wine. I don't know.
Seriously, it is the writing. I can't drink wine and work. Wine makes me too sleepy.
The other best thing about being a writer is connecting to readers through the stories and the people in the stories. As a reader, I often find characters in the stories I read becoming like good friends that I am eager to meet again. And as a writer, I find that the characters I create start living in my head and in my house.
Seriously, it is the writing. I can't drink wine and work. Wine makes me too sleepy.
The other best thing about being a writer is connecting to readers through the stories and the people in the stories. As a reader, I often find characters in the stories I read becoming like good friends that I am eager to meet again. And as a writer, I find that the characters I create start living in my head and in my house.
Maryann Miller
First I apologize for the delay in answering questions. Have had some health issues keeping me offline for quite a while. Things are improving, so I hope to be more social, as I do like interacting with readers and other writers. We are all readers, too, right? :-)
I don't have writer's block very often as I learned early in my journalism career that I had to meet deadlines, which meant I had to write every day whether my muse was talking to me or not. That experience taught me to just sit down and write, even though the first few pages might be horrid. After a while, better pages start happening. I think that process is a bit like priming the pump on an outside well, if any of you know what that is like. You have to push on the handle a few times, or many times, to get a good flow of water.
I don't have writer's block very often as I learned early in my journalism career that I had to meet deadlines, which meant I had to write every day whether my muse was talking to me or not. That experience taught me to just sit down and write, even though the first few pages might be horrid. After a while, better pages start happening. I think that process is a bit like priming the pump on an outside well, if any of you know what that is like. You have to push on the handle a few times, or many times, to get a good flow of water.
Maryann Miller
The book I am working on now is quite a departure for me, and we'll have to see what it ends up being. My mother died this spring, and I have started writing about her life, which had many challenges. I like to celebrate strong women in my books, and she was one of the strongest women I have known, although she wasn't seen as such for most of her life. Because there are many holes in the history of her life, I am having to make up some of the details, so I guess you would call this a fictional memoir of sorts as her life obviously connects with mine. :-)
Maryann Miller
My latest book, Doubletake, came from brainstorming with my co-author, Margaret. We had read a news story about a blanket rapist that was targeting women near Dallas, and started the "what if" game. What if the killer did more than rape the victims. About halfway through the book, Margaret came up with the idea of the "doubletake." I wasn't sure it would work, though, but she convinced me, and I'm glad she did.
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