Miller, Sarah 1969-

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Miller, Sarah 1969-

Personal

Born 1969, in Lenox, MA. Education: Amherst College, graduated, 1991.

Addresses

Home—Los Angeles, CA.

Career

Freelance journalist and novelist.

Writings

Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to The Bitch in the House: Twenty-six Women Tell the Truth about Sex, Solitude, Work, Motherhood, and Marriage, edited by Cathi Hanauer, Morrow (New York, NY), 2002. Contributor to periodicals, including Elle, TV Guide, Men's Health, Details, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and London Guardian; contributor to radio program This American Life.

Adaptations

Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn was adapted as an audiobook, Random House, 2006.

Sidelights

Sarah Miller's debut young-adult novel, Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn, was described as "earthy and crude, but intensely honest" by School Library Journal contributor Susan Riley. In the work, Miller introduces fifteen-year-old Gideon, a new student at Midvale Academy. Not quite prepared for life at this exclusive New England prep school, the virginal Gideon finds himself rooming with Cullen and Nicholas, a pair of popular, handsome womanizers who bet the newcomer that he cannot sleep with a girl by the end of October. Though Cullen and Nicholas suggest that Gideon make a play for the cute and sweet Molly McGarry, Gideon targets the campus bombshell, Pilar Benitez-Jones. According to a critic in Publishers Weekly, Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn "has a unique twist: Gideon's thoughts and actions are related by a girl at the school who is somehow able to get inside his head." "Everything you've ever wondered about what guys think (and feared about what they want), I'm going to tell you," states the narrator, who divulges the things Gideon actually does as well as "what he wishes he were doing, what he thinks he should be doing, and what he would wish he were doing if he were just a slightly better person." As Rachel Hore commented in the London Guardian, "once one buys into this idea, it works rather well, both as a plot hook—who is this girl and when will our Gid hitch up with her?—and as amusing gender-political comment on the masculine mindset."

Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn received generally strong reviews. Riley stated that the unusual narrative twist "sometimes makes it difficult to tell who's actually thinking, … but if readers can get past this issue, the story works on many levels." "Miller's humor is sophisticated, and her character portrayal is rich and discerning," remarked Joy Humphrey in Library Journal. Other critics also praised Miller's well-developed characters. "Gideon displays at times almost female characteristics of sensitivity and caring about others not shown by any of the other male characters," observed Myrna Marler in Kliatt, and Frances Bradburn, reviewing the novel in Booklist, similarly noted that "Gid is the kind of truly nice guy most girls want guys to be: sensitive, funny, and a bit lusty."

Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn was also the focus of an aggressive, groundbreaking promotional campaign coordinated by St. Martin's Press and Buzz Marketing Group. "The campaign—driven by teens' shared passion for music and the Internet—was designed to build [consumer interest] … months before the book appeared on shelves," according to New York Post contributor Holly M. Sanders. One of the more unusual aspects of the marketing strategy involved Canadian pop singer FeFe Dobson, whose debut album hit stores at the same time as Miller's novel. Miller's publisher and Island Def Jam, Dobson's record label, agreed to cross-promote the book and the album via online promotions and a sweepstakes. Advertisements for Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn were also placed on such popular Web sites as Seventeen.com and Cosmogirl.com.