I published my second full-length work, Tidings of Calm and Storm, on September 20, 2015. This is a short story collection that I have
been putting together over a long period of time. The book’s description is as follows:
Tidings of Calm and Storm contains a
dozen short stories of Midwest life in the U.S. throughout the 20th Century.
Every story here is concise, intelligent and clearly written. This collection
starts with a stark and violent stopover in "Indian Joe," and ends
with a mysterious sojourn taken by the protagonist in "Communing With
Angels."
Though we can
read each story separately, all of the stories are interconnected. The author
once described the story "From Sparks to Flame" as being "about
a harsh but potentially magical world that is slowly being gutted-out by
small-mindedness." Other stories in this volume express a similar theme.
However, through reading every story and coming to understand the various
perspectives of all of the characters, we also sense that the world's magic is
still within reach.
On the back cover of the book, I explain that the theme of
many of the stories is the same as theme of my novel, As Sparks Fly Upward. In the
novel, I was highly critical of the hypocrisy of individuals you put on display
of being moral and religious. I think I
did this effectively, though not every reader has been pleased with the narrator
in the novel – who often was a bit of a hypocrite as well. I tried a different approach with the short
stories in Tidings of Calm and Storm. Unlike the narrator of my novel, certain
protagonists in the short story have hope and believe decency still exists. In the stories, I tried to make every word,
comma and period count.
You can find purchase information regarding Tidings of Calm
and Storm at the following URL:
If you’re interested in my novel, As Sparks Fly Upward, you can find purchase
information at:
Finally, I now have an author page with combined information
regarding my fictional works at:
I hope for my next full-length writing project to be a work
of literary criticism where I seek to bring a bit of sanity back to literary
studies. This may take awhile.
Robert S. Miller
September 27, 2015
© Robert S. Miller
2015
