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March/April 2015
Interviews Susan Cummins Miller, Author |
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Susan Cummins Miller
Susan Cummins Miller is a multiple-award winning author of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. She is perhaps best known for her Frankie MacFarlane series of mystery novels, the most recent of which, Chasm (Texas Tech University Press), will appear in March 2015. Recently she served as a judge in the fiction category for the 2015 Tucson Festival of Books. At the book festival, she will be a participant in panel discussions on literature of the American West, strong female protagonists, and unconventional sleuths. Miller is a former geologist with the US Geological Survey. She lives in Tucson. You can read more about her at Susan Cummins Miller.
Sonoran Arts Network: Susan, thank you for taking time out of your writing to talk to us. You are a California native. How did you come to live and work in Tucson?
Susan Cummins Miller: I was raised in Southern California, then lived and worked as a geologist in the Bay Area. After a four-year sojourn in northern Virginia when my boys were little, we elected to establish ourselves in Tucson. It was just as close to my geologist husband's field area in Southern California, the climate was better for my asthmatic older son, and Tucson was much more affordable than the Bay Area. I didn't take long to realize that we'd made the right choice.
SAN: You are a trained and experienced geologist. Why and how did you make the transition from geosciences to writing as a career? Was writing something you always wanted to do?
SCM: Writing wasn't an odd profession in my family. My father's mother and brother were writers, and I took as many literature classes as possible when I was working on my first degrees in anthropology and history. But then vertebrate paleontology and geology claimed me. I'd still be actively working as a field geoscientist and/or teaching geology and oceanography at the college level if we hadn't discovered that we had a special needs child. When that happened, I looked around for work that I could do from home, while still keeping my hand in the geosciences. I decided to try my hand at writing a "geologist mystery," and found that I liked the process and the people I met through writing,
SAN: Your Frankie MacFarlane series of mystery books has been very well-received. How did the idea for Frankie and her geological adventures come to you?
SCM: Frankie was there from day one, once I made the decision to write a mystery series with a geologist as the protagonist. I wanted a young female sleuth to tell the story, so the reader could see the various locales through her eyes. Frankie's my alter ego--younger, smarter, taller, and more athletic--a strong, fiercely loyal and determined character who embodies the best traits of the geoscientists with whom I worked. She shares my ironic sense of humor, my love of family, and my passion for the West and its history, prehistory, ecology, culture, and geology.
Sonoran Arts Network: Susan, thank you for taking time out of your writing to talk to us. You are a California native. How did you come to live and work in Tucson?
Susan Cummins Miller: I was raised in Southern California, then lived and worked as a geologist in the Bay Area. After a four-year sojourn in northern Virginia when my boys were little, we elected to establish ourselves in Tucson. It was just as close to my geologist husband's field area in Southern California, the climate was better for my asthmatic older son, and Tucson was much more affordable than the Bay Area. I didn't take long to realize that we'd made the right choice.
SAN: You are a trained and experienced geologist. Why and how did you make the transition from geosciences to writing as a career? Was writing something you always wanted to do?
SCM: Writing wasn't an odd profession in my family. My father's mother and brother were writers, and I took as many literature classes as possible when I was working on my first degrees in anthropology and history. But then vertebrate paleontology and geology claimed me. I'd still be actively working as a field geoscientist and/or teaching geology and oceanography at the college level if we hadn't discovered that we had a special needs child. When that happened, I looked around for work that I could do from home, while still keeping my hand in the geosciences. I decided to try my hand at writing a "geologist mystery," and found that I liked the process and the people I met through writing,
SAN: Your Frankie MacFarlane series of mystery books has been very well-received. How did the idea for Frankie and her geological adventures come to you?
SCM: Frankie was there from day one, once I made the decision to write a mystery series with a geologist as the protagonist. I wanted a young female sleuth to tell the story, so the reader could see the various locales through her eyes. Frankie's my alter ego--younger, smarter, taller, and more athletic--a strong, fiercely loyal and determined character who embodies the best traits of the geoscientists with whom I worked. She shares my ironic sense of humor, my love of family, and my passion for the West and its history, prehistory, ecology, culture, and geology.
SCMiller_Chasm_ Frankie McFarlane series
SAN: What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of writing a mystery series based upon one character that readers follow through several novels?
SCM: Readers love the familiarity and continuity they find when they enter Frankie's world, and being introduced to places they haven't visited before, or haven't seen through a geologist's eyes. In a series, I have plenty of time to develop Frankie's character, revealing new facets of her personality through her interactions and relationships with other people (supporting players and antagonists). The series also allows me to take Frankie to different locales, both geographically and geologically. I can explore different parts of the geologic section, include historical and archaeological threads, and create a four-dimensional background for what happens in and around the main story.
I've discovered several potential disadvantages to writing this series. Most of them involve Frankie's being an amateur sleuth. The first is that I have to work hard to avoid the Jessica Fletcher/Miss Marple Syndrome in which the amateur sleuth is stumbling over bodies in the same small town. I solve this by moving Frankie around, as I noted above; by giving her a large family, any member of which can (and often does) involve her in a mystery; and by providing her with colleagues and students who can (and do) get into trouble. The second potential disadvantage is that I began this series primarily using first-person point of view. The rule is that you stick with what you start with in a series. And sole first-person worked until the third book, when I realized that the only way to "show" the villain's evil nature was to put the reader inside his head. In the fourth book, I returned to first-person narrative. In the last two, I've again needed to use both first- and third-person narration. Other contemporary authors break that rule. I discovered I need to be flexible--and pay attention to the transitions between scenes.
SAN: The latest Frankie MacFarlane mystery is Chasm and will be released this month (March 2015). This time the story is set in the Grand Canyon. Previous books in the series have been set in Nevada, Tucson and California, Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains, and other locations in the American Southwest. Do you consider the desert landscapes and bioregions as a character in your books?
SCM: Absolutely. Many people drive through or fly over the desert West and see a wasteland. I'd like my readers to have a more intimate experience so that the West/Southwest comes alive for them. Having my setting serve as a character in the story helps achieve that effect.
You can blame my early literary influences for my choice to use setting as character. I read Jack London's "To Build a Fire" in elementary school. In that short story, Nature is both setting and implacable foe, as it is in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I loved reading Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude because he played off Conrad's river theme/through-line. The Colorado River in Chasm serves similar roles (antagonist and through-line), and the enclosing cliffs are as much of a barrier to egress from the Grand Canyon as is the dense jungle rimming the river in Heart of Darkness. The inability to easily escape a predicament increases the tension in the story. And in Chasm, descending into the heart of the Grand Canyon through nearly two billion years of earth history offers that fourth dimension to my story.
SCM: Readers love the familiarity and continuity they find when they enter Frankie's world, and being introduced to places they haven't visited before, or haven't seen through a geologist's eyes. In a series, I have plenty of time to develop Frankie's character, revealing new facets of her personality through her interactions and relationships with other people (supporting players and antagonists). The series also allows me to take Frankie to different locales, both geographically and geologically. I can explore different parts of the geologic section, include historical and archaeological threads, and create a four-dimensional background for what happens in and around the main story.
I've discovered several potential disadvantages to writing this series. Most of them involve Frankie's being an amateur sleuth. The first is that I have to work hard to avoid the Jessica Fletcher/Miss Marple Syndrome in which the amateur sleuth is stumbling over bodies in the same small town. I solve this by moving Frankie around, as I noted above; by giving her a large family, any member of which can (and often does) involve her in a mystery; and by providing her with colleagues and students who can (and do) get into trouble. The second potential disadvantage is that I began this series primarily using first-person point of view. The rule is that you stick with what you start with in a series. And sole first-person worked until the third book, when I realized that the only way to "show" the villain's evil nature was to put the reader inside his head. In the fourth book, I returned to first-person narrative. In the last two, I've again needed to use both first- and third-person narration. Other contemporary authors break that rule. I discovered I need to be flexible--and pay attention to the transitions between scenes.
SAN: The latest Frankie MacFarlane mystery is Chasm and will be released this month (March 2015). This time the story is set in the Grand Canyon. Previous books in the series have been set in Nevada, Tucson and California, Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains, and other locations in the American Southwest. Do you consider the desert landscapes and bioregions as a character in your books?
SCM: Absolutely. Many people drive through or fly over the desert West and see a wasteland. I'd like my readers to have a more intimate experience so that the West/Southwest comes alive for them. Having my setting serve as a character in the story helps achieve that effect.
You can blame my early literary influences for my choice to use setting as character. I read Jack London's "To Build a Fire" in elementary school. In that short story, Nature is both setting and implacable foe, as it is in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. I loved reading Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude because he played off Conrad's river theme/through-line. The Colorado River in Chasm serves similar roles (antagonist and through-line), and the enclosing cliffs are as much of a barrier to egress from the Grand Canyon as is the dense jungle rimming the river in Heart of Darkness. The inability to easily escape a predicament increases the tension in the story. And in Chasm, descending into the heart of the Grand Canyon through nearly two billion years of earth history offers that fourth dimension to my story.
SCMiller_A Sweet, Separate Intimacy_
SAN: Do you have any idea why mystery as a genre is so closely associated with British, American and Scandinavian countries and cultures? That seems a mystery in itself!
SCM: An American, Edgar Allen Poe, developed the modern form of the mystery. I grew up reading Poe and translations of Guy de Maupassant. But then they passed the ball to Brits, who later shared the spotlight with U.S. authors (and the occasional French writer, such as Georges Simenon) during the Golden Age of mystery. The Scandinavian authors became a big presence in the last half of the Twentieth Century. I've just now had the time to read the Martin Beck mysteries of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, written fifty years ago. Wonderful stories. And there are some great authors writing in Spanish. Paco Taibo II is one. The difficulty for many Americans is finding translations of their work.
SAN: Tell us about your poetry. Have you always been a poet? What is the relationship between your poetry and your mystery fiction (if any?)
SCM: I started writing poetry when I was eight, pecking out poems on an old Royal typewriter. During the years I was studying geology and vertebrate paleontology, and later, when I was a field geologist and college instructor, I didn't have time to focus on poetry. My mind was occupied with other things. But when I decided to turn to fiction and creative nonfiction, poetry came first. As it should. Sensory images and metaphor resonate with readers. They bring poems to life and are the basis for creating and describing both the tangible and fictional worlds.
I use poetic language, especially metaphor, in my mystery novels to communicate scientific concepts that are otherwise too foreign, complex, and/or difficult to explain without figures. In Detachment Fault, I use poems to capture the essence of two characters. And my heroine--the daughter of a university literature professor who teaches the work of English and American poets--has grown up listening to poetry. On so many levels, it's natural for Frankie to think, "The late afternoon sky held clouds like frozen ripples in Triassic sandstone."
SAN: You took a break from fiction writing to edit an anthology of writings by women of the American West entitled A Sweet, Separate Intimacy: Women Writers of the American Frontier, 1800–1922. Especially fascinating is that many of these woman wrote about what we might call “social justice” issues of the day. You found that topics they addressed included women’s rights, Native American rights, abolition of slavery, the discrimination against Chinese and European immigrants, and even class issues. Do you think there was something unique about the experience of women in the American West that led them to become sensitive to these issues?
SCM: Great question--and one that deserves a doctoral dissertation in reply. Let's see if I can give a brief reply.
The anthology contains work by thirty-four women who published during the settlement years of the American frontier. Many supported themselves and their families by their writing. Most were educated women, but not all. Four were Native Americans. Each had a unique perspective on one or more locales as the frontier boundary moved west. The West changed them in profound ways. Some were insiders in the long war for human rights--fighting to end slavery; to legalize a woman's right to vote; to retain title to lands stripped from Mexican Americans when European settlers swarmed into the Southwest; to protect Native American lands, property, dignity, and independence; to establish a place where a persecuted group could practice their religion in safety; and to end discrimination against people of color. Other women struggled to be published and taken seriously as writers. Still others wrote to make sense of the loss of children and spouses. These major issues affected the daily lives of these women in very personal ways. Their battles gave them unique insights. Sharing those insights was their gift to us.
SCM: An American, Edgar Allen Poe, developed the modern form of the mystery. I grew up reading Poe and translations of Guy de Maupassant. But then they passed the ball to Brits, who later shared the spotlight with U.S. authors (and the occasional French writer, such as Georges Simenon) during the Golden Age of mystery. The Scandinavian authors became a big presence in the last half of the Twentieth Century. I've just now had the time to read the Martin Beck mysteries of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, written fifty years ago. Wonderful stories. And there are some great authors writing in Spanish. Paco Taibo II is one. The difficulty for many Americans is finding translations of their work.
SAN: Tell us about your poetry. Have you always been a poet? What is the relationship between your poetry and your mystery fiction (if any?)
SCM: I started writing poetry when I was eight, pecking out poems on an old Royal typewriter. During the years I was studying geology and vertebrate paleontology, and later, when I was a field geologist and college instructor, I didn't have time to focus on poetry. My mind was occupied with other things. But when I decided to turn to fiction and creative nonfiction, poetry came first. As it should. Sensory images and metaphor resonate with readers. They bring poems to life and are the basis for creating and describing both the tangible and fictional worlds.
I use poetic language, especially metaphor, in my mystery novels to communicate scientific concepts that are otherwise too foreign, complex, and/or difficult to explain without figures. In Detachment Fault, I use poems to capture the essence of two characters. And my heroine--the daughter of a university literature professor who teaches the work of English and American poets--has grown up listening to poetry. On so many levels, it's natural for Frankie to think, "The late afternoon sky held clouds like frozen ripples in Triassic sandstone."
SAN: You took a break from fiction writing to edit an anthology of writings by women of the American West entitled A Sweet, Separate Intimacy: Women Writers of the American Frontier, 1800–1922. Especially fascinating is that many of these woman wrote about what we might call “social justice” issues of the day. You found that topics they addressed included women’s rights, Native American rights, abolition of slavery, the discrimination against Chinese and European immigrants, and even class issues. Do you think there was something unique about the experience of women in the American West that led them to become sensitive to these issues?
SCM: Great question--and one that deserves a doctoral dissertation in reply. Let's see if I can give a brief reply.
The anthology contains work by thirty-four women who published during the settlement years of the American frontier. Many supported themselves and their families by their writing. Most were educated women, but not all. Four were Native Americans. Each had a unique perspective on one or more locales as the frontier boundary moved west. The West changed them in profound ways. Some were insiders in the long war for human rights--fighting to end slavery; to legalize a woman's right to vote; to retain title to lands stripped from Mexican Americans when European settlers swarmed into the Southwest; to protect Native American lands, property, dignity, and independence; to establish a place where a persecuted group could practice their religion in safety; and to end discrimination against people of color. Other women struggled to be published and taken seriously as writers. Still others wrote to make sense of the loss of children and spouses. These major issues affected the daily lives of these women in very personal ways. Their battles gave them unique insights. Sharing those insights was their gift to us.
Susan Cummins Miller
SAN: You have said that you became discouraged and shelved your first two Frankie MacFarlane novels when you couldn’t find an agent. Instead you turned to editing your anthology, and to writing poetry and journaling. What gave you the courage to keep Frankie alive? How did you know you should and must continue telling her story? And how do you advise writers to keep going even when obstacles appear in their artistic paths?
SCM: My second novel was in very good shape when I put it on the shelf and explored other options. Shortly after the anthology came out, I attended a Women Writers of the West Convention. An editor at Texas Tech University Press said she'd read the anthology and wanted me to write for them. Over dinner we discussed it. She was envisioning another nonfiction book. I said I wanted to get back to my mystery series. She asked to read Death Assemblage, and three months later asked if I'd consider allowing them to publish the series. I said yes.
Writing is a solitary pursuit, and we all encounter obstacles. There's no magic pill to alleviate that suffering. My advice to other pre-published writers is to work on the craft by taking workshops, and by writing every day. The work of crafting a finished and polished product takes place during the revision/rewrite phase. It's a learned process, and there aren't any shortcuts. Too many writers submit drafts that aren't ready for publication, which dooms the book. Patience, perseverance, and attention to detail win the day.
SAN: What do you think about the current revolution in publishing? Do you see indie publishing, e-books, and print-on-demand as an over-all positive development or more like the decline of Western civilization?
SCM: I take the middle road. I think it's wonderful that people can write a memoir for a limited audience, publish it, and give it away to family or sell it. Most self-published books, however, receive limited editing, and tend to muddy the water on Internet vending sites.
There are, however, many fine small presses springing up that produce beautiful, competently edited products. I think they are filling the gaps left when the mainstream presses became mega-conglomerates producing relatively few authors. We may, in fact, be returning to the situation that characterized of American publishing a century or more ago (if you put blinders on and ignore the Amazon behemoth in the room). The jury's out on whether that will be a positive development.
SAN: What are you working on now? A new Frankie MacFarlane novel?
SCM: A poem was released this month in More Voices of New Mexico, a project from the New Mexico Book Co-op. I have a short story in And All Our Yesterdays, an anthology of historical short stories published by Darkhouse Books in March. Another short story has been accepted for So West: So Deadly, a mystery anthology from Sisters in Crime-Desert Sleuths, due out in August. And I'm researching el Pinacate Biosphere Reserve in Sonora, Mexico, for my next MacFarlane novel.
SAN: Finally a question we’re asking all the artists that are interviewed for Sonoran Arts Network: What do you think would make life easier for artists (of all types) in Tucson and in our region?
SCM: I can't speak to the visual arts, music (I no longer perform with a chorus), or theater. I'm profoundly grateful for the Tucson Festival of Books and the hundreds of volunteers who help bring authors and readers together--and who help raise funds for literacy groups. So, encouraging people to attend or volunteer at the Tucson Festival of Books would be great!
SCM: My second novel was in very good shape when I put it on the shelf and explored other options. Shortly after the anthology came out, I attended a Women Writers of the West Convention. An editor at Texas Tech University Press said she'd read the anthology and wanted me to write for them. Over dinner we discussed it. She was envisioning another nonfiction book. I said I wanted to get back to my mystery series. She asked to read Death Assemblage, and three months later asked if I'd consider allowing them to publish the series. I said yes.
Writing is a solitary pursuit, and we all encounter obstacles. There's no magic pill to alleviate that suffering. My advice to other pre-published writers is to work on the craft by taking workshops, and by writing every day. The work of crafting a finished and polished product takes place during the revision/rewrite phase. It's a learned process, and there aren't any shortcuts. Too many writers submit drafts that aren't ready for publication, which dooms the book. Patience, perseverance, and attention to detail win the day.
SAN: What do you think about the current revolution in publishing? Do you see indie publishing, e-books, and print-on-demand as an over-all positive development or more like the decline of Western civilization?
SCM: I take the middle road. I think it's wonderful that people can write a memoir for a limited audience, publish it, and give it away to family or sell it. Most self-published books, however, receive limited editing, and tend to muddy the water on Internet vending sites.
There are, however, many fine small presses springing up that produce beautiful, competently edited products. I think they are filling the gaps left when the mainstream presses became mega-conglomerates producing relatively few authors. We may, in fact, be returning to the situation that characterized of American publishing a century or more ago (if you put blinders on and ignore the Amazon behemoth in the room). The jury's out on whether that will be a positive development.
SAN: What are you working on now? A new Frankie MacFarlane novel?
SCM: A poem was released this month in More Voices of New Mexico, a project from the New Mexico Book Co-op. I have a short story in And All Our Yesterdays, an anthology of historical short stories published by Darkhouse Books in March. Another short story has been accepted for So West: So Deadly, a mystery anthology from Sisters in Crime-Desert Sleuths, due out in August. And I'm researching el Pinacate Biosphere Reserve in Sonora, Mexico, for my next MacFarlane novel.
SAN: Finally a question we’re asking all the artists that are interviewed for Sonoran Arts Network: What do you think would make life easier for artists (of all types) in Tucson and in our region?
SCM: I can't speak to the visual arts, music (I no longer perform with a chorus), or theater. I'm profoundly grateful for the Tucson Festival of Books and the hundreds of volunteers who help bring authors and readers together--and who help raise funds for literacy groups. So, encouraging people to attend or volunteer at the Tucson Festival of Books would be great!
