Author Ron Miller resides in Anniston, Alabama where he has spent his life teaching. His first novel, A Broken Reed, won Mayhaven's Award for Fiction.

What inspired you to write this novel of suspense?

Miller: "When I was fourteen years old, I read about a similar event in the newspapers. I tucked that event away in my mind for all those years. Anyone who was alive during that time, when the novel came out, remembered that event. There was so much speculation as to who was actually involved.

Why didn't you write the original event as non-fiction?

Miller: "I thought about it, but the person who went to prison for the crime refused my request to interview him, so I just decided to forget that story and create a novel, make up my own story, inspired, I guess by that event."

Were there other influences or inspirations?

Miller: "As an adolescent, I read a lot of murder mysteries, crime stories, that type of book, and in college I had to read a lot of classics, and when I wrote, I wanted it to be more than suspense. I tried to consider the literary qualities. I wanted it to be suspenseful, and I also wanted to include the influences of that literature in the background."

And were there other influences?

Miller: "Yes. Quite frankly, I grew up in the roughest neighborhood in our town."

This was a first novel—and award winner, part of that was due to your writing style.

Miller: "I've heard people say it's just like me talking. I think a heavy influence on style would be—I used to read a lot of William Faulkner. I guess everybody in the South has read him, of course. Naturally he has had an influence on what I do, how I write. But I wanted to develop my own style by adding some humor, random observations of nature, and I guess, experiences from my frame of reference."

A Broken Reed is set in the 1950's, but you also use references to the Civil War.

Miller: "I have an older brother who has done a lot of research and has written some books on the Civil War, and I read, in graduate history courses, about the 'mind of the South', so I guess that sort of sneaked into my writing. In the South, fifty years ago, the Civil War was still prominent in our minds."

And you use cars as a theme, a device.

Miller: "I guess the cars thing—(laughs)—my brother and I grew up just loving mechanical things. We did street racing, drag racing, cars are a big thing in our culture, too. Frankly, one of the reviewers said the book was a "manly" book, indicating it would only appeal to men because of the references to cars, but I think there are just countless men my age who grew up with the mechanical mentality."

I would agree, it is a "manly" book, in the sense that 'Captain Walker Bishop' is quite virile, and the young boys in the book are certainly interested in the female of the species, but I don't agree that A Broken Reed is just for men. I have heard several women state that part of its appeal is that it does depict "real men" and they find that, well—appealing,

Miller: "(Laughs) Well, I've heard some of that."

But you depict women in subtle, unexpected ways. You tackle serious themes, without making the women stereotypical.

Miller: "I tried to do that."

And you tackle some important social issues.

Miller: "My parents, they were Christians, but they had a lot of problems in their marriage. And I tried to address domestic abuse in several contexts.

You have a new novel coming out soon. Another suspense, based on the same characters, in the same period of time. Very readable, very literate, very scary.

Miller: "Do you like the title?"

I don't know. How did you select the title?

Miller: "I was sitting in church, and I was thinking about the main character, 'Ollie', and all the challenges he would have to face in the situations I had planned for him in the new novel. I was reading the Bible, a Proverb, and came across the words, 'You don't have to fear the evil that approaches', and I read a little more and I settled on the title for my new book. It comes from the Proverbs—Be Quiet from Fear."

Where can readers purchase your book?

Miller: "I've had two signings at Waldenbooks in Oxford, Alabama. They keep it on hand. And, of course, we don't always know which bookstores carry it. Ask, if you can't find it. You can always purchase a copy directly from Mayhaven.