Author Spotlight: Meet Author Marla Miller

Friends, I met Marla Miller when she invited me to be on her podcast. She is a dynamic and interesting woman, and I’m so happy to introduce you to her today.

Marla began her freelance writing career after birthing three children and ending a career as a psychiatric nurse practitioner, RN, MSN. For 16 years, she wrote columns for the OC Register’s lifestyle magazine before becoming founding editor-in-chief of an O.C. coastal lifestyle magazine. Her first book, All American Girls, was the only authorized biography of the iconic World Cup/Gold Medal winning U.S Women’s National Soccer Team that Simon & Schuster published. SweetSpot: Now and Then, her recently published novel by Austin Macauley, explores the passion and pain midlife brings to some.

Marla teaches at writers conferences that include: The Santa Barbara Writers Conference, The Southern California Writers Conference, In 2020 due to COVID, Marla launched Writersmama ZOOM Read& Critique workshop ran for two plus years online and produced two published authors so far. She also facilitates memoir and autobiography workshops to seniors.

Marla’s advice to writers on the road to publication: It’s not good enough to write well. Marketing is key if you expect to sell; a lesson learned during the marketing phase of All American Girls. Though ‘indie’ publishing was still a few years away, this publishing experience with a major publisher taught Marla that most traditionally published authors receive very little help from marketing departments unless they are bestselling authors, and/or have sizable social media platforms and/or enjoy celebrity status.

Marla’s experience in the entrepreneurial author movement includes The Booty Bible & Decode the Black Box of Group Health Insurance. She has ghosted two books, one for a major treatment center in Malibu, Ca. Marla published her first ebook, Days Gone By: Homage to Barnaby Conrad’s Santa Barbara Writers Conference, a short story foreshadowing SweetSpot: Now and Then.

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Coming of Age in Midlife?
The Story SweetSpot: Now and Then Tells

by Marla Miller

If you believe a person’s view of the world is shaped by early impressions, then you may understand that even if you are a reasonably intelligent woman, which Darlene Robinson considered herself to be, her young years shaped the lens through which she viewed her world.

Until she took a closer look. During her sons’ wonder years, Darlene’s perspective began to shift and by the time her hot flashing years hit, her view of the world had shifted considerably. She would not grow old with a man in no need of her company. As much as she wanted to remain the good wife ‘until death do us part,’ promised at the altar when she was a teenager, she knew she’d have to break that promise. With their boys almost ready to leave the nest, she was done asking her husband for what he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, give her.

Readers meet our midlife protagonist on the evening she declares to her husband of twenty-five plus years that she wants out. Over too many years, they had discussions about the sorry state of their marriage. But until that night, she had never said those words out loud: “I want out.” Her words felt right.

A few days after making that declaration, she drove down to a town south of Santa Barbara, California to attend her first writers conference, a birthday gift from her boss who promised to support her budding writing career provided she didn’t quit working for him once she became “rich and famous.” ‘A mensch of a man’ defined Mayor Brody.

The week ahead proved transformative; beyond what she could have imagined. At the opening night dinner, while standing in line at the bar, she met and chatted with Ray Bradbury. He was a conference ‘regular’ and while standing there, he asked about her work-in-progress and then followed up with several questions. At the end of their brief discourse Mr. Bradbury thoroughly seemed to enjoy, this literary icon offered her direction that once she heard it, knew he was right. Later that week, she attended a workshop headed by conference founder, bestselling author Barnaby Conrad, who listened to her read the opening page of her ‘how-to home gardening book’ before stopping her to ask a few of his own questions. Using her answers as grist, he suggested a new opening scene she hadn’t even considered. Of the other fascinating writers she met that week, two stood out; her roommate, Susan, an MTV producer and writer who had been attending the conference “since Christ rose” and Clive Charles, the workshop leader whose interest in her seemed to extend beyond writing.

Darlene left the conference a better writer for it, the experience bolstering her resolve to become a published author. Given her decision to shift her family’s life, Darlene expected the coming year to revolve around that shift but despite that, she promised to allot herself enough time to write. What hadn’t she expected? Mama getting sick or the influence Clive Charles would have over her.

The story told in SweetSpot: Now and Then is bookended by that writers’ conference Darlene became devoted to. For the next several months, she spent time working on her how-to home garden book and even managed to flesh out a partial first draft of this story inspired by experiences she had back then. However, before too long, her home gardening how-to book did get some attention, enough to divert her focus away from SweetSpot. A few years passed by before she excavated her partially penned first draft from its WORD file. That was when she added on to the original story because by then, the lens through which she viewed the world had once again shifted, influenced by those years that came between then and now. One of Mama’s favorite expressions ‘few things remain the same’ applied to the updated perspective she thought readers should have so she sprinkled the NOW sections throughout and titled the revision, SweetSpot: Now and Then.

A mix of fact and fantasy, Marla Miller is inspired by themes developed in stories written along the lines of her favorite storytellers, Nora Ephron and Taylor Swift, iconic creatives known for weaving life experiences into their short and long form works of fiction.

Sweet Spot: Now and Then

Spring 1999, California.

Call it middle-age madness or a midlife crisis, but SweetSpot: Now and Then chronicles one pivotal year in the life of Darlene Robinson, a woman grappling with hot flashes and the weight of being raised as a God-fearing good girl. She followed the rules… until she couldn’t anymore.

Just days before leaving for her first writers’ conference, Darlene makes a bold declaration to the man she married as a teenager: she wants out. Concerned for her mental health, she can no longer pretend to be the dutiful wife of a man who seems indifferent to her presence. Little did she know that the conference, her mother’s sudden illness, and meeting Clive Charles would all play a part in reshaping her life.

Back then, Darlene chronicled her transformative year shortly after living through it. Now, with time and experience, her “other self” offers a new perspective, adding depth to the story as only time can.

Call it what you will, but shifting one’s life in midlife is a journey many face, and Darlene believes SweetSpot: Now and Then will resonate deeply with readers.