Miller, John Ramsey 1949–

views updated

Miller, John Ramsey 1949–

PERSONAL: Born October 3, 1949, in Greenville, MS; father a Methodist minister; married; wife's name Susan (a banker); children: three sons. Ethnicity: "White."

ADDRESSES: Agent—Anne Hawkins, John Hawkins and Associates, 71 W. 23rd St., Ste. 1600, New York, NY 10010. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Freelance writer. Worked as a photographer, then as a copywriter for an advertising agency in New Orleans, LA.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

The Last Family, Bantam (New York, NY), 1996.

Inside Out, Bantam (New York, NY), 2005.

Upside Down, Bantam (New York, NY), 2005.

Side by Side, Bantam (New York, NY), 2005.

Too Far Gone, Bantam (New York, NY), 2006.

Through and Through, Bantam (New York, NY), 2007.

Some of Miller's fiction has been translated into at least a dozen foreign languages.

OTHER

(With Luther Campbell) As Nasty as They Wanna Be: The Uncensored Story of Luther Campbell of the 2 Live Crew (nonfiction), Barricade Books (Fort Lee, NJ), 1990.

Contributor to Tropic.

ADAPTATIONS: The novel The Last Family was recorded as an audio book.

SIDELIGHTS: Novelist John Ramsey Miller received ninety rejection letters from publishing companies for his first three novels, and more than forty-three for The Last Family alone, before it was finally published by a major New York City publishing house in 1996. Miller's thriller focuses on hero Paul Masterson, who is convinced that Martin Fletcher, one of Masterson's peers at the Drug Enforcement Agency, is selling drugs. Although he does not have proof, Masterson frames Fletcher, who spends time in prison for the deed. Fletcher later escapes, remakes himself with plastic surgery, and begins to take out his vengeance by murdering the wives and children of the drug enforcement associates who took Fletcher down, associates he blames for the death of his own wife and child.

Miller, who came up with the idea while contemplating recent government seizures of assets obtained through drug sales, said in a Publishers Weekly article that he wondered, "What if the government were messing with the wrong person …? What if he ended up losing his job, his home, his family? He could lose his mind, too." From that idea, The Last Family was born.

Miller, the son of a Mississippi Methodist minister, began work as a photographer before joining a New Orleans advertising agency as a copywriter. He then moved to Miami, Florida, where he freelanced for the Miami Herald, writing pieces on the seedy side of society. Miller was assigned to write features on a freelance basis for the paper's Tropic Magazine. His first published book, As Nasty as They Wanna Be: The Uncensored Story of Luther Campbell of the 2 Live Crew, is about a case against rap music group 2 Live Crew, which was prosecuted for criminal obscenity by the state of Florida. "My writing matter has always been on the edge," said Miller in the Publishers Weekly article.

Miller began writing novels when the challenge of writing newspaper articles and other nonfiction wore off. Although he received no interest in his first novel, a mystery, Miller kept writing. Because of the writing disciplines he learned in advertising, Miller never suffered from writer's block and moved from novel to novel effortlessly. How did the breakthrough happen? Miller received a personal letter from an editor at Bantam who agreed to work with the writer's first draft. The novel was described as "well-paced" and "a satisfying read" by reviewer Maria Perez-Stable in Library Journal; in Booklist George Needham cited The Last Family as a "compelling read for those who like their thrillers tougher than a two-dollar steak."

Miller told CA: "My primary motivation for writing is not only that I am wholly unqualified to do anything else, but that I truly love creating characters and telling their stories in such a way that people are glad (for the most part) that they have invested their time in my story and are able to get swept up in the tale. I had a letter from a fan recently in which she said that she found my characters so real that she wished they were. I know how extremely fortunate I have been, not only to have been published, but further to have made a living by writing commercial fiction.

"I have been lucky enough to have been surrounded by people who were, and are, totally supportive of what I do. I have produced the work I have because of that support. Even when it appeared I might never be published and was working in the dark, that support never wavered. If that weren't the case, I would have found the success I have enjoyed. If my wife, other members of my family, and my friends hadn't believed in my ability, I doubt I could have kept going during the hard times when my wife supported the family financially by working at a bank, while I sat in our bedroom typing on a computer resting on a slab of wood as I sat on the bed. My wife's sacrifices and those of my children made my writing (and refining of my craft over the years) possible. While I compiled rejection slips on four attempts at novels, my family shared my frustrations and failures, without ever doubting that I could and would break in. As my circle of support grew, adding an agent and finally an editor and people who worked for the publisher, all of whom shared my belief in my work, I grew stronger in my own conviction and more determined to succeed, not just for myself, but for them. Those lean years of unwavering support made whatever success I have enjoyed possible, and that support sustains me to this day.

"My writing begins with characters, and in finding an idea for a plot involving them that is believable; and which they are capable of working through to a successful and totally possible conclusion. The hardest part of writing a novel is keeping it real and believable and giving the reader reasons to want to go on the journey my characters are taking, to invest their precious time in the story, to feel something while they are sharing the characters' trials and triumphs, to put down the book satisfied that they spent their time reading pure fiction wisely, and to want to get the next book as soon as my next offering appears. The most important part of writing lies in the thinking a writer does that puts the characters in motion and keeps the story moving toward a satisfying conclusion, leaving the reader satisfied. I always strive to be accurate in reality and in making fiction as real and possible as I can make it.

"Writing is only hard if you do your job correctly. That means hard thinking, which is the most difficult part of the craft. I have heard some writers say they sit down and write a novel that works by developing characters and letting them go where they want to take the writer, but if anybody can work that way and remain successful, I have yet to meet them. Writing a thriller, or any work of fiction, isn't accidental or an exercise in letting fictional characters dictate direction. My thrillers are constructed, and most successful thrillers have real-feeling characters who are cobbled together from bits and pieces of real people with whom the writer has had experience. Thrillers are like puzzles in which each piece is integral to the whole picture. I won't go into the rules for writing a thriller, because they are available on the Internet and books exist on the subject. What I know is that it the thought and planning that makes a thriller work. Characters have to be true to who they are, have to react to situations the way they would if they were real, and the reader has to like or dislike them enough to want to spend time with them and to invest in their fictional lives. Story has to be driven by the characters that feel real to the reader, and in a thriller they have to keep moving really fast.

"All of the books I have written to date involve law-enforcement based individuals. My inspiration for my books comes from knowing about cops and federal agents and the kinds of people they oppose in their day-to-day careers. I see street-level cops and field agents as human beings and as heroes, and I bring that to the table each time I sit down to write. I see the majority of firefighters and soldiers the same way. Over my life I have respected the men and women I've known who go out through their doors knowing they may not return, yet they keep going and face truly bad people so society can be safer than it would be without them. They see the difference they make, and that drives them to risk life and limb every day. Crime is a carousel that never ends, and cops understand that they merely chip at it, and that is a source of frustration for them. There are corrupt and inept cops and cops who don't feel the dedication to society, and I write about them, too. That is all the inspiration I need to write stories that show what these people go through. True, my heroes are almost superhuman at times, but they are merely extrapolations of the people in the job who I have known and respect sincerely and deeply. As of today I have never received a letter from any law enforcement personnel that was critical of how I portray them, or questioning my technical writing.

"Over the course of my writing, the biggest change has been in the amount of thinking about my characters and the story that I do before I wrote. I don't sit and write without knowing what I need to say that will advance the story or build the characters or define the problems they have to solve. I do not begin a chapter until I know what it is going to add to the story I am telling. This saves me time in the long run, as I don't go off on tangents that don't stick with the story. I know the end of the story before I begin, so I have a target and I stick to getting there. I also know my characters before I write about them, and I know how they will think and react. I don't think about how long the book needs to be, but what has to be resolved in its pages. I believe I am more economical with words and use fewer of them because less really can be more. I also don't send a book to my agent or editor until I have worked over the text until I believe it is as right as I can make it without input.

"I have had a lot of disappointments in my career, but I have tried to take the unpleasant things that I have experienced and use them to make myself a stronger writer and better human being."