Jeff Miller's Blog, page 5

Borderline Insanity--Coming Summer 2016

It’s finally official … Thomas & Mercer is going to release next  Dagny Gray thriller sometime in Summer 2016.  Look for more updates over the next few months.  I’ll be busy working with editors and cover artists, while trying to finish an outline for book 3.  For those who liked The Bubble Gum Thief, thank you for waiting, and I hope you like this one as much.

Twitter Chat for the DC Public Library

Thanks to my friend Jess, I’ll be hosting a NaNoWriMo twitter chat on Tuesday, November 17, 2015, from 12-1 pm.  Here’s the description of the chat:

For writers stuck in the throes of National Novel Writing Month, DC Public Library will be hosting a twitter chat  under the hashtag #NaNoDC with author, Jeff Miller to discuss the writing process and methods of getting unstuck during writing a novel.

Remembering Elaine

Five years ago, I found out that my first agent, Elaine Koster, had passed away.  Thinking about her today, I stumbled upon this wonderful Modern Love essay in the New York Times by Elizabeth Koster, Elaine’s daughter.  It starts like this:

After my mother was told she had incurable cancer, she became obsessed with finding me a husband. One afternoon from her office, between negotiations for a client’s book contract, she called three times to tell me about a man my father had met who worked in a SoHo lamp store. My mother, a powerful publisher and literary agent who had championed Stephen King, now wanted to set me up with someone who sold lamps. 

“He’s leaving for France soon,” she said. “Call him!”

Although irritated, I went home to put on my tight jeans and spaghetti-strap shirt and walked over to the store, where a handsome man talked about his coming trip to France without asking me a single question.

The whole thing is that wonderful.

Elaine hated the name The Bubble Gum Thief, which she rightly complained was a frivolous name for a serious book.  I gave her a list of thirty or so other possibilities, but we never settled upon one.  (Some on the list:  Truth and Consequences, The Great Big Empty, A Silent Black, Dead and Happy).  She wanted to shop the book with initials instead of my full name, believing that publishers would be more accepting of a thirty-five year old, anorexic female protagonist if the author were a woman.  We never got a chance to test the hypothesis.

When I talked to Elaine, I felt important.  She was a titan in the industry, and her judgment was impeccable and unquestionable.  I was so confident in her competence that I actually started to believe myself worthy of her representation, even though she was entirely out of my league, because to believe otherwise would mean that she had made a mistake about literary merit, and that wasn’t possible.  I had to believe in myself, because she did.  Before I met Elaine, I was someone who wrote; after I met her, I was a writer.  I miss her.

Very nice article about my old writers group in Northern...

Very nice article about my old writers group in Northern Virginia Magazine. You can read it here.

I’m still working on the next draft of Borderline Insanity....

I’m still working on the next draft of Borderline Insanity.  Right now, I’m starting Chapter 55, which begins:  “The Rio Grande wiggles and zig-zags such that there are parts of Mexico directly north of parts of Texas.”  Here’s one of those parts above.  Crazy, right?

Update on Borderline Insanity

Over the last month, I’ve been receiving responses from beta readers of the next Dagny Gray book, Borderline Insanity.  The feedback has been incredibly insightful and deeply illuminative; i’ve been both stunned and honored by the time and effort friends and strangers have put into reading and thinking about the draft.  All of the beta readers are extremely bright as individuals; collectively, they are genius, with all manner of unexpected expertise.  I’ve been collating their thoughts, and I am about to start the next revision of Borderline Insanity.  My hope is to get this draft in shape to share with my agent.

As you can see, Dagny was several years ahead of the rest of the...

As you can see, Dagny was several years ahead of the rest of the FBI in The Bubble Gum Thief.  She uses one of these scopes in the new book too.

A Call for Beta Readers

I’ve just finished the second draft of the next Dagny Gray book, Borderline Insanity  I’d like to do one more pass at a draft, and then share it with a small set of beta readers who would be willing to give me comments and feedback.  Specifically, I’m looking for people who:

1.  Read and enjoyed The Bubble Gum Thief.

2.  Don’t mind reading the sequel in an embryonic state.

3.  Are willing to give me written feedback about what they like and don’t like.

I don’t think it will be ready for a beta read for a few more months, but I’d like to start putting together a roster of volunteers, and start exploring a system for distribution of the draft and the collection of comments.  This might entail setting up a private Goodreads discussion group or a Facebook group for the beta readers to post their thoughts on the book.  I would anticipate distributing the draft in either Kindle format or pdf.  I may required you to sign a confidentiality agreement concerning the draft, so that plot details are kept under wraps.  

If this sounds interesting to you, please email me at jeff@jeffmillerwrites.com, and let me know why you’d be interested in being a beta reader.   

Remember, if you are a beta reader, you’re going to be reading something that’s still pretty rough.  You’ll have a better experience with the sequel if you wait until it’s done.  If you read the draft, you’ll just have my gratitude. 

I just finished typing the last words of the first draft of the...

I just finished typing the last words of the first draft of the next Dagny Gray book, which is tentatively titled Borderline Insanity.  Right now, it’s about 130,000 words and 72 chapters.  Both numbers will change in subsequent drafts.  

I’m relieved to have the complete story down, and I think it’s a good one.  Now I can just focus on making it all better. 

I’ve mentioned previously that Tony Eldridge optioned film...

I’ve mentioned previously that Tony Eldridge optioned film rights for The Bubble Gum Thief. He is one of the producers on the new Denzel Washington movie, The Equalizer, which opens this weekend. Tori Eldridge, his wife, interviews her husband about this film and his other projects in the podcast above. You’ll hear him give some news about The Bubble Gum thief at the 20:20 mark.