Interview with Author Paula Miller

Ordinary people; ordinary lives. One sovereign God changes them all.

Today we’re talking with children’s historical fiction author Paula J. Miller. One Eyed Jack, the first book in her Faces of History Series was released July 2006 and will be reviewed on this blog Friday, August 24. Her latest release is The Best Sister in the World, published by Howard Books in July. Paula is offering One Eyed Jack for our drawing this week, so be sure to post a comment anytime during the week to be included in the drawing.

Paula, welcome to Favorite PASTimes! Please tell us a bit about your background, including when you began to write—and why.

I’m a wife and homeschooling mother to four boys (two of which are old enough to be in school). I began writing as a child—silly stories about farm cats stuck in culverts and the like. I started my first novel when I was still in high school and played with it for several years, but it took a back seat after getting married and starting a family. My serious attempts at writing finally came in 2003, in between babies.


I’ve never been to college for writing, never attended a writer’s conference (though I’d love to go), and never joined a critique group other than cornering my sister and begging her to read my drafts. But, I had an insatiable desire to write down all the scenes and stories running around in my head, so I just plunged in and had a go at it.

You’ve written articles for a number of magazines and contributed stories to several compilations: Mistletoe Madness (Blooming Tree Press, 2004), All My Bad Habits I Learned from Grandpa (Thomas Nelson, 2007), and The Best Sister in the World (Howard, 2007). One Eyed Jack (Blooming Tree Press, 2006) is your first full-length children’s book. Do you find it easier to write short or long fiction for children? Which is more challenging?

I don’t know that writing short fiction comes all that easily to me. It seems each character just wants to take over. They want bigger dilemmas, longer searches for the truth, or just have more to tell than can be written in a short story. How can I tell them no? But the longer the story the more challenging in a way. Making sure all my loose ends are tied up and everything comes to the reader the way I see it in my head.

What gave you the idea for One Eyed Jack? Why did you give it a historical setting instead of a contemporary one?


One Eyed Jack is the extended version of the short story (Lost!) that I wrote for Mistletoe Madness. I’d found it very difficult to find good quality books for boys—at least in my opinion. When the opportunity came to write a short story, I knew I wanted to write one for boys. My husband said, “If you want a story a boy would love, write about a boy and his dog.”

Who can forget such classics as Old Yeller and White Fang? Add to that my love for history, especially in America during the 1800’s, and the story formed from there. When the publisher asked if I’d consider making the short story into a chapter book, it took me about two seconds to jump at it.

What things do you need to keep in mind when you’re writing historical fiction for children?

Today’s kids are so involved with Game BoyTM, TV, IpodsTM and such that history gets lost. To them, history is a bunch of dates and names of dead people. I want history to come alive for them. I want them to experience the surge of excitement when they settle a new frontier, I want them to feel the ground shake as a herd of buffalo thunders past, I want them to choke up for the brother who lies in the field at Gettysburg. In short, I want them to feel history.

I sure relate to that. Sounds like we’re on the same wavelength. LOL! What projects are you currently working on?

One Eyed Jack is the first in the Faces of History Series. Tentatively titled, Escape to the New World, book two in the series is about an indentured servant boy who escapes his cruel master by stowing away on the Mayflower. Unknown to him, his master is aboard the ship. We’re still in the editing phase for this book. Book three is coming along nicely. No title yet, but it deals with a boy living in southern Minnesota during the 1862 Dakota uprising. This is right in my back yard so research has been fun and very eye opening.

Both of them sound like great adventure stories that will really appeal to kids. As you’re beginning a new project, what generally comes into your consciousness first—characters, plot, era, a specific theme?



Hmm, that’s a good question. I think it varies a lot for me. One Eyed Jack came to mind as a specific theme—a boy and his dog. This third book I’m currently working on has a bit of family history to it.

My husband’s great-grandpa found an old rifle when he was plowing up a field. He stored it in a barn for years and it was eventually passed down to my husband. We had it assessed and discovered it’s a pre-Civil War rifle. Just that fact got my heart pumping, but then came the realization that the family farm is only 5 miles from the site of a massacre during the 1862 Dakota uprising.

My first thought was, who owned the rifle? Was it one of the settlers? Did they use the gun to defend themselves from the Dakota? Did it belong to one of the Dakota warriors? How did it get left out in the middle of nowhere? Did the man carrying it drop it? Was a woman or child carrying it?

A story was born.

How do you go about constructing a story? Do you do an outline and plot carefully, or do you tend to write by the seat of your pants?

I’ve been known to write by the seat of my pants, but I always run into trouble about half way through the book. I end up getting lost and having all these loose ends I forget to tie up. I’ve been learning the importance, for me anyway, of doing an outline of sorts and get my thoughts together and organized before getting too far into the story. It’s a work in progress, but everything goes so much smoother.

Thanks to Joan for conducting this interview with Paula! Don't forget to post a comment to be entered in the drawing to win a copy of Paula's One Eyed Jack. It sounds great!

Join us tomorrow for part two of Paula's interview.