Dirty Dozen Author Interview – Rebecca Miller

Welcome to Rebecca Miller

Please tell us about your publications/work.  My writing credits include being a freelance journalist for The Inquisitr, The Weekly Register-Call, The Daily Camera, and the Earthkeeper. My books include Libertine Awakenings: A Psychosexual Odyssey under my pen name, Cat Ravenelle, and Being Max’s Mom under my birth name. These were self-published through IUniverse and KDP, respectively. I also did transcription work for President Obama. The Whisper is my latest novel.

 Do you think the written word (or art) bring power and freedom? Absolutely. Writing The Whisper was incredibly empowering for me and helped me heal from the traumas I’d witnessed as a hospice nurse as well as attending my brother’s death. Writing shapes history facilitates change, educates, and informs. It’s cliché, but the pen is mightier than the sword.

 What piece of advice do you wish you’d had when you started your publishing journey? Buy a she-shed and hide from your family members. Seriously, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve been interrupted….

 What’s your greatest networking tip? The Power of Three. Tell three people three times a day about your book. That can be in a post or a conversation—it’s a bit exhausting, but it works. 

 If you could have dinner with any literary character or author, who would you choose, and what would you eat. Judy Blume. I’d take her to Le French and have some wine and a Salade Nicoise. 

 How much research do you do for your work? What’s the wildest subject you’ve looked at? WELL, since you asked. For this book, it was my life, so that part was easy, BUT for my erotic fiction, I actually went to swingers clubs and observed. I had a notebook in my purse. It was pretty interesting, and no, I didn’t participate. I’m too much of a germaphobe for that type of behaviour. I found the lack of hand sanitizer and protection disturbing. 

 How influential is storytelling to our culture? It’s essential to the survival of us as a species. We are doomed to repeat history…as evidenced by our current situation. We need to tell our ancestors’ stories to continue that lineage and tell our own stories. As I’ve aged, I’ve noticed how life does spin in a bit of a spiral. Right now, I’m having my students read part of The Decameron and thinking about how they’ve survived our recent lockdowns. We are not that different from our peers in 1300 in how we deal with forced isolation and an invisible enemy.

 What’s the best advice you’ve received about writing/publishing? Don’t give up. And don’t be afraid. You can’t please everybody. Like I’ve told my friends, I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, but I am someone’s double vodka. 

 What’s the worst piece best advice you’ve received about writing/publishing? Just publish and don’t worry about being perfect—it was referring toward just barfing words on a page and hitting send. Whereas I can get behind the idea of writing drunk, edit sober, you need to edit again and again—but not get crippled. Finally, letting go of my manuscript and giving it to the world is…was…right this moment, terrifying. 

 If you could be any fantasy/mythical or legendary person/creature, what would you be and why? Wonder Woman. Spin in a circle, and BAM. Outfit changed. 

 Which authors have influenced you the most? Judy Blume was the first author who I blame for my desire to become a writer. I read a TON of feminist lit in college. Books by Ram Dass and Pema Chodron sit on my shelf. All hail Virginia Woolf. 

 What is your writing space like? I have a desk in a shared home office, and I literally have a screen I put up in a vain attempt to send the message to leave me alone. It doesn’t work. I have headphones, and I have to listen to low-fi to block out the noise. I can track my writing sprints by how many coffee cups, diet Coke cans, and wine glasses are balanced around me. I’ve tried writing in coffee houses, my bedroom, even sat on the floor in my bathroom, but they STILL find me. Hence, the request for a she-shed. Might have to put up an electric fence. Too many kids….

 Tell us about your latest piece? The Whisper is a story about love and absolution. More than that, it’s my story. I worked as a crisis hospice nurse for four years. I am Rose McWhorter. Everything in the story is true but written in a way that protects my patients’ identities. In The Whisper, I tell the story about what it’s like to be a hospice nurse and what happens when we die. While it’s not intended to be a religious book, it is spiritual. The whisper I heard to become a nurse, to the final whisper that told me my work was done came from God. I didn’t know it at the time, but my life profoundly changed. I learned self-forgiveness, trust, regained my family and fell in love with being alive.

 What’s your next writing adventure? Probably try to work on Book 2 of Libertine Awakenings. I have it on jump drive but never continued. 

What are your views on authors offering free books? Do you believe, as some do, that it demeans an author and his or her work? Nah. It’s like dark chocolate. If I get it for free, I’m still going to appreciate it. And, if no one eats it, no one gets to experience the sweetness of it. Which reminds me, I have some in my desk drawer.

 My son and I do art shows showcasing young people with autism. The thrill these kids get having their art up for display reinforces my stance on the free book. If no one sees your art, no one can enjoy your art or be influenced by it. I’m delighted to have my work shared. 

 What are your views on authors commenting on reviews? Depends. If someone is a troll, I think you have the right to defend yourself. 

 How do you deal with bad reviews? Weep bitterly and grab my voodoo doll. 

 Sort these into order of importance:

Good plot 2

Great characters 1

Awesome world-building 3

Technically perfect 4

 With the influx of indie authors, do you think this is the future of storytelling? I think it’s great. It’s freeing. The idea of the “vanity press” is an act of, well, vanity is long gone. I think it helps contribute to the diversity of authors and that diversity can show us the world through someone else’s eyes. 

 Is this the age of the e-book? Are bricks and mortar bookshops in decline? As long as there are dinosaurs like me and hipsters like my son, the bookstores will survive. 

 Are indie/self published authors viewed with scepticism or wariness by readers? Why is this? It’s all about myth-busting. So I didn’t get picked up by Penguin. Does that make me any less than a writer? Usually, if I get this type of snark, I’ll ask them about their latest publications. Crickets. To write, and then to publish takes guts. And time. 

What is your greatest success? Being Max’s mom—he is the light of my life. He’s changed me in ways that I cannot monetize. I learn from my son every single day, especially now during COVID. He’s taught me how to use Google Classroom so I can teach my students. 

How important is writing/art to you? During this crisis I have learned that art and music are essential. Writing kept me going. The arts are what makes us human.

What are your hopes for the coming year? Try to survive the last push of COVID19 and all its trimmings, attempt to salvage my son’s senior year of high school, and hopefully get a couple trips in once it is safe to move. I’m not sure what my next move is writing wise. 2020 taught me that plans can change, so go with the flow.

Tell us a silly fact about yourself. I still compete in beauty pageants and I’m a highland athlete. Weird combo.

What did you want to be when you ‘grew up’? Not a nurse! I wanted to be a writer. I ended up a hybrid, that’s ok.

Links to book

The Whisper on Amazon.Com

The Whisper on Amazon.Co.uk

Links —I think you already have them.

Bio I live in Denver, Colorado and I work as adjunct faculty for my local community college teaching nursing arts, anatomy and physiology, and medical terminology. Writing is my side job while I’m on sabbatical. My love, Dennis, and I share our home with three boys, two cats, and have adopted a feral cat named Darryl who lives in our backyard catching mice and chasing bunnies. 

For fun, post-COVID, we look forward to traveling overseas, skiing, taking the kids to Disney, supporting the local arts, but during the pandemic, we love working in our garden, supporting local biz via takeout, and firing up the smoker. We are grateful.

Book Spotlight – The Whisper – Creative Non-Fiction – Rebecca Miller

The Whisper – Amazon UK 

The Whisper – Amazon.com

Synopsis

Rose McWhorter is a gifted empath who can “hear” and “see” things that others cannot. She works as a hospice nurse for the largest hospice in Denver, Colorado. She’s on the elite afterhours team that responds to crisis and death calls for pediatric and adult patients. She’s a Celt and a descendant of female mystics and warriors. Rose is strong but weary. She’s haunted by her failure to sit with her mother when she died.

The Whisper begins with Rose sitting at the table where her mother used to sit. She’s charting a death that occurred at her mother’s former nursing home. Rose visits the home often and is confronted with her guilt and reminded of the first time she heard the whisper. While grieving at her mother’s bedside, she heard her deceased mother whisper “be a nurse.” Rose follows the directive and, after a few years, becomes a hospice nurse.

Her workplace, once non-profit, was acquired by a for-profit organization and is starting to fall apart. She encounters numerous abuses, from staffing shortages to workplace bullying and violence, resulting in Rose becoming worn down by the stress and the deathwork. After a hard death, she’s decided to quit her job, but changes her mind when she hears the whisper of her deceased mother telling her to “remember her lessons.”

Rose returns home, pondering the command, and activates her Gift. She’s led to open her mother’s Bible. Inside, she finds a card with a verse about love. She decides to use the verse as a writing prompt in her journal to review the lessons she’s learned working in hospice. The first line of the verse is, “Love is patient.” That night she called to help a patient who couldn’t breathe, but the actual mission was comforting his grandson by being patient and listening to him, helping him express his love for the grandfather through a piece of art. As she moves through the weeks and months, she is challenged more and more with difficult and sometimes dangerous calls, all while her job erodes. 

One night, Rose attends to a patient who reveals a gun and his suicidal intentions. Rose comes perilously close to death but is able to talk her patient down. Her husband Dennis became enraged, demanding that she resign. Her actions resulted in a two-day suspension for removing the weapon. Regardless of the pressure, she’s determined to see the prompts through to find out what she needs to learn.

Rose continues working the afterhours, revisiting parts of her past, further reinforcing her lessons. She visits a man whose son is dying of AIDS. She sees a gun on his table, reports it, but leaves it behind, per her directive. The patient’s father later uses it to hold a nurse and CNA hostage after his son’s death. The father sexually assaults the nurse, but the CNA escapes. The father ends his own life. Dennis again demands that she quit as she was supposed to be on the call. Rose initially lies to him, but after a call where a wealthy man forces her to help him with his suicide or risk losing her job, Rose breaks. 

After the call, Rose breaks down and hears the whisper say, “almost.” Rose decides that she’s had enough. The next day she works a double-back, rolling into a benign day shift. She begins to have second thoughts. She needs to hang on just a little bit longer, intuitively sensing that her lessons were almost complete.

That day Rose receives a phone call from her brother, Kurt, that their brother, Ed had a severe heart attack and is on life support. Kurt asks her to take the lead. Rose is hesitant, based on her past with Ed, but calls the hospital to find out that her brother is on the brink of death. The hospital needs a family member present since his girlfriend didn’t have any rights to his care. Time is short, and his body is failing. Rose is heartbroken. Her brother, Ed, is 1000 miles away.

Rose wrestles with the fact that the hospital could forbid her to help Ed because of their estranged relationship. Ed was a criminal and attempted to harm her son, and they hadn’t spoken in years, despite being very close before the incident. Rose anguished between being a nurse and a sister. She’s afraid that she wouldn’t be welcome or that she wasn’t good enough or strong enough to help him. She’d failed so many others.

The whisper tells her that she must go. She realizes that she needs to be a nurse for her brothers and call on her ancestors’ strength. Rose is the family matriarch, and it’s her duty. She’s the only one with the skills to help. Rose and Dennis leave to drive across the country, racing against time. On the drive, she’s able to resolve multiple complications due to her experience. She arrives and falls into the role of a hospice nurse. She learns that Ed was devoid of brain activity and learned of a congenital brain defect, concluding that her brother was on the autism spectrum, just like her son Wolfgang. It is a moment of reckoning, explaining his erratic behavior. However, she and her brothers painfully decide to remove supports. Ed was gone.

Rose provides a peaceful passing for her brother. When he dies, she hears the whisper that he is her final patient. On the way to collect his ashes, she discovers, via text message, that she lost her job but is unburdened. She realizes that her final lesson was, “love never fails.” As a result of her lessons, she provided the greatest comfort for her brother and her family, regaining their love and inclusion and solving the mystery of Ed’s behavior.

A few months after his death, Rose was attending Catechumante with her son, Wolfie. The Dean asked the confirmands to think about how God worked in their lives, leading them on a path without their knowing. The question startles her into realizing that the whisper she heard was God and that her path to becoming a nurse was to serve her brother. All of her suffering and her work were lessons to learn to help him pass. Rose finally feels peace and forgives herself. She realizes that she was enough all along.