Finding Grace follows a young girl, Judith Lee, who grew up with her very
poor grandmother, Grace, and grandfather, Virgil, in Nashville. She is bullied
and mocked in school, but she is smart. She goes on full scholarship to
Vanderbilt and upon graduation, moves to California, eventually starting her
own tech company which becomes extraordinarily successful.
Grace calls Judith with a dying wish…for Judith to travel from Los Angeles to
Nashville to come visit her. But there’s a catch...Judith must make the journey
by bus.
Each day of Judith’s journey becomes a story on its own, as the people she
meets and places she visits along the way challenge her to rethink her
life. Finding Grace is a heartwarming story about Judith’s
transformation back into the real world during this journey as a result of the
people she meets on the bus, how she deals with the imminent passing of her
grandmother, and how all this changes her life’s future plans.she deals with
the imminent passing of her grandmother, and how all this changes her life’s
future plans.
Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions.
- What is your
education/career background?
I have a BS degree in Secondary Education,
but never taught. I went into sales and management before starting, growing,
and selling several companies.
- When did you
first realize you wanted to be a writer? Or what first inspired you to
write?
As a business owner, I wrote all our
marketing manuals and materials, including radio and TV spots. I never
considered writing a book until after losing Sharee. It became my way of
processing my grief.
- Where/When
do you best like to write?
Although I keep an office, when I wrote
Finding Grace, I would sit at home at
the kitchen table. I wrote
when, emotionally, I had the need. There was no schedule for when I would sit
down to write. Sometimes a week or more would go by without writing, but there
was a routine when I did write. I would sit at the end of my kitchen table with
my favorite picture of Sharee facing me on the other end. On my right was the
bay window where I could see the trees, birds, rabbits, and squirrels. Seeing
God’s blessing of nature helped. Then I would bring up my Spotify playlist of favorite songs (almost 200)
Sharee and I loved, with it playing very softly in the background.
.
- When you are
struggling to write/have writer’s block, what are some ways that help you
find your creative muse again?
Fortunately, I’ve never experienced
writer’s block. When I was in the mood to write, the words for Finding Grace came easily. When writing Finding Grace, it was as if I were actually watching the characters
in my mind on a movie screen as they talked with each other. And there were
many times when it was challenging to keep up typing their back-and-forth
dialogue. I felt like there was an angel on my shoulder, whispering in my ear.
So, I listened…and wrote.
- What do you
think makes a good story?
A plotline that is strongly
character-driven. People are interested in other people’s stories, both happy
and sad. A good story has a balance of tears of laughter along with tears of
emotion based on a connection with the characters or their situations.
- What
inspired your story?
An
old Chinese proverb says, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single
step.” That was how Finding Grace came
to be. With a single step. Unfortunately, the cause of that step was the
passing of my wife of 45 years, Sharee, from leukemia. Thus began a long
winding road of dealing with loss and finding an outlet for my grief. I don’t
believe in coincidence, and there were an extraordinary number of occurrences
which could have been attributed to coincidence. I know that sometimes we have
an angel (or angels) on our shoulder which lead us down paths meant to be
traveled. And so began my journey writing Finding
Grace.
- How does a new
story idea come to you? Is it an event that sparks the plot or a character
speaking to you?
This is my first book, but it is made
up of numerous stories about characters that are woven together as part of
Judith’s journey home, along with her own story that continues once she arrives
there.
- Is there a
message/theme in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
Absolutely. It’s actually the subtitle
of Finding Grace. “In a world that
sometimes seems out of control, we are each on our own journey in hope of
finding grace.”. That, along with what really matters in life is not material
possessions, but our connection with people who we love and who love us in
return.
- What was one
of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
That to do it right, it’s a LOT of
work! LOL
- What was
your greatest challenge in writing this book?
Working
through my grief of losing Sharee during the writing process. I first wrote the
screenplay for Finding Grace, but
quickly learned that it was MUCH more work writing a novel as compared to a
screenplay or script. A screenplay is primarily the dialogue between the
characters with some minimal detail about the day and location of the scene. In
a novel, you must create a living, breathing world, researching every detail
and nuance to bring that world and the characters in it to life. Those details and how they are woven into the story
are critically important. An example was Judith’s bus trip from Barstow to
Nashville on I-40E. I planned on making that bus trip myself but then COVID-19
hit. My solution came thanks to YouTube. I searched and found video recorded
from each city to the next along Judith’s journey that was taken by truck
drivers, students, and retirees driving their RVs. I was able to experience
every mile virtually and while it certainly wasn’t the same as being there, it
helped tremendously.
Thank you for your time and answers.
Website and Social Media:
Website: garyleemillerbooks.com
Facebook: @garyleemillerbooks
Twitter: @garymillerbooks
You can buy the book at: Amazon or B&N:
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