2019 - 07/2019 Meeting

Page Created: 05/03/19. Last Updated: 08/06/19.

SAM J MILLER

Books:

The Art of Starving

Blackfish City

Destroy All Monsters

MEETING DETAIL

Meeting Date: July 13, 2019.

Meeting Site: Barnes & Noble Booksellers. Paramus, New Jersey.

Attendance: 22.

Meeting Program: Talk / Q & A with Science Fiction / Fantasy Author.

Newsletter Account

Science fiction / fantasy writer Sam J Miller spoke at the Saturday, July 13, 2019 General Meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County. The event was hosted by Barnes & Noble in Paramus, New Jersey and began and ended a half hour earlier than usual. Pamela Webber led the Ice Nine pre-meeting general discussion. The pre-meeting Writers' Space Salon was canceled.

Our speaker has written three novels published by HarperCollins, BLACKFISH CITY, THE ART OF STARVING and DESTROY ALL MONSTERS. The first is a work for adults, the other two are YA. He has also had stories published in CLARKESWORLD, ASIMOV'S, LIGHTSPEED, and other venues.

Mr Miller grew up in a small town in upstate New York. His father was a butcher (it had been the family business for several generations until being put out of business by Walmart) and his mother was a literary writer who liked horror movies. He was not a popular child, but stayed out of the cross hairs of the bullies because he was a good liar. The town had no movie theater, so he made up accounts about what happened in movies which no one in his circle had seen. That skill proved useful in his later career as a Community Activist. He coached the underprivileged how to clearly tell their story when speaking to journalists and social workers.

He went to Rutgers University in New Brunswick where he double-majored in Russian Literature and in Cinema Studies. He met his future husband there.

It took years before Sam J Miller became a published author. He had six completed novels, both inside and outside the genre, before he was accepted to the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop. It took him a full year post-Clarion to make his first short story sale.

Story ideas are constantly floating around in the head of our speaker, but he doesn't start writing the tale until he knows three things: the first line, the last line, and the title of the story. None of these are immutable once the scrivening starts, but they provide a start, a destination, and a theme for the work.

Mr Miller was asked a number of other questions about his writing process. He composes his novels in Scrivener, but his short stories are done in Word. He employs a time-organizing app named Palmadoro when writing and listens to disco while composing, but to instrumentals while editing his work. He can write anywhere.

When our speaker completes a novel, he puts it aside for two weeks to allow him to view it with fresh eyes. Then he will go through the work in its entirety for one or two passes before sending it off to his agent. His agent has a light hand, so most of the 2 - 4 rewrites come from his editor. He feels his editors have made his work better and chooses his battles carefully when he does not agree with a suggestion.

Writers who influenced Sam while he was growing up included Ray Bradbury, Octavia Butler, Stephen King and H P Lovecraft. Writers he now admires include Ted Chiang, N K Jemisin, and Ken Liu.

When asked about limitations imposed by YA writing, our guest replied that you could do anything in YA as long as you follow the rules.

Sam has finished his next book, THE BLADE BETWEEN, which he describes as HOUSE OF CARDS by way of Stephen King. He is currently working on a story set in early 1920s featuring Jewish prizefighters and gangsters and magical tatoos.

Our thanks to James Mumm for suggesting Sam J Miller as a guest, providing an introduction and transporting our speaker and his guests.