Interview-Micki Miller Author of The Darkest Sum
Give a warm welcome to Micki Miller, author of The Darkest Sum released on August 2, 2017!
Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate, and let’s find out a little about Micki and The Darkest Sum.
Micki, tell us what inspired this particular story?
I lived most of my life in Las Vegas and I’ve seen these concrete storm drains. I stood just inside one of them. They’re dark, and creepy, and I found it easy to imagine all kinds of things going on in there. For a long time, I had a story hovering at the edge of my mind, but I could never get it to work. Then I learned the sad fact that some homeless people have made the storm drains their place to live. From that moment on, my characters went from being a part of the background of the story, to being its heart and soul.
What secret do you use to blast through writer’s block?
I don’t really get anything so severe as writer’s block. I get stuck, often. When I get really stuck, I go and brush my teeth. It seems to give me a fresh start. So, if you come over and my breath is very fresh, you’ll know it’s been a tough day of writing.
Good to know Micki.
Who is your favorite character of all the books you’ve written and why?
Liz Linden in The Darkest Sum, without a doubt. She’s about as down and out as a person can be. Nobody would guess her a person with anything above a bleak future, much less a person able to save the world. But beneath her tough exterior, her heart is noble and her will is strong. Liz is far more capable than she realizes. I think that’s probably true of many of us, and I love seeing her develop and represent the possibilities.
The Darkest Sum, hmmm… sounds ominous, tell us about the story.
The embodiment of the world’s evil has but a single fear-one homeless girl.
Twenty-two-year-old Liz Linden and her nineteen-year-old brother Jacob have lived in the storm drains that run under Las Vegas for almost one year. There are many others living in the makeshift camps. She does her best to make their concrete camp into a home until she can save enough money to get them out of the tunnels and into an apartment.
Of late, her wish to get out has become desperate, as she’s come to realize something else is down there, the offspring of malice and hypocrisy. It lives, it grows, and if not stopped, it will fully exist. It is the total of all of mankind’s evils-The Darkest Sum.
How about a peek between the pages of The Darkest Sum?
The air in the tunnel was thick and dank, and as black as a shadow’s shadow. Our single flashlight was woefully inadequate. Darkness encased my brother and me while its offspring prowled the concrete corridors searching for us. I’d been fighting for survival my whole life, but never before had I so thoroughly felt it.
Over the next twenty or thirty minutes we made several turns and while I tried to keep my bearings it became more and more difficult. The water rose again.
I had an unreasonable, albeit powerful urge to turn around and run back the way we’d come. It’s possible, as Jacob had argued; it would have been suicide, but maybe not. Maybe we would have made it through and been long out of there.
As the cold water buried more of me, creeping upward faster than I was brave enough to acknowledge, that sounded more and more promising.
In all the months we’d lived down in the tunnels, I had never experienced claustrophobia. That was something for which I had neglected to be grateful. However, with us being so far in, with the water threatening to shrink the tunnel to nothing but a concrete box without air and no known way to escape, our home of almost one year might well have been a tomb.
In order to go on and not allow terror to overcome me I did what I always do when I feel close to surrendering to my circumstance. I focused on my brother. Though in all fairness, it was Jacob who’d taken control. He led the way, he held my hand, and although he was afraid too, he kept his fears from me as I had always kept mine from him. I don’t know if that made me feel better or worse.
I hadn’t a clue as to what was going on outside. Even if the rain had stopped, the water in the tunnels would continue to rise. It was the place where the town shed its’ unwanted excess.
Every so often I made a request to Jacob that we stop for a moment to rest. I didn’t need to. My legs were strong from all the walking we’d done since becoming homeless and even with the water resistance, I hadn’t yet tired. What I needed to do was to listen without the noise of our sloshing through the water.
I didn’t hear the sound of something swimming. Maybe, like us, it was walking on actual legs.
About the author:
Micki Miller has lived most of her life in the fun city of Las Vegas. For ten years she and her husband spent several months of the year traveling the country in an R.V. She was fortunate enough to see every state in this marvelous country. Then they moved to the beautiful state of Michigan, where she learned about layering clothes and boats don’t have brakes.
Micki’s Social Media haunts:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Mickimillerwriter/
Twitter: @millermwriter
Instagram: miller.micki
It was wonderful having you with us today, Micki. Please feel free to stop by anytime. Good Luck with The Darkest Sum.
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Dystopian, Micki Miller, Paranormal, Science Fiction, The Darkest Sum, Urban Fantasy by Tena Stetler with 28 comments.
