News from the writing front:

My latest poetry collection, Deciphering the Desert: a book of poems, has been selected as a winner of the 2024 Will Rogers Medallion Silver Award in the Written Western Poetry category.

On Thursday, April 18, and Saturday, April 20, Mark McLemore’s NPR broadcast "Arizona Spotlight" featured a reading from my poetry chapbook, Making Silent Stones Sing. The program was archived on the "Arizona Spotlight" website, https://radio.azpm.org/arizonaspotlight/.

Wednesday, April 24. During National Poetry Month Gyroscope Review featured audio readings by 30 of their poets, one each day. Two of my poems were highlighted on April 24. Here’s the link:     Gyroscope Review: fine poetry to turn your world around:     www.gyroscopereview.com  

Thursday, April 25. "Angles of Reflection: a GeoPoetic Journey." I will be reading my poems during a Zoom presentation for UU-Detroit's Poetry Vespers at 7 p.m EDT. Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/99979852182?pwd=SW5ueTQyMnQxbjgwWVR1NWJ1QUJnUT09

Thursday, June 20. "Writing the Short Story: The Wherefore and the Why." I moderated a panel during the Western Writers of America Convention in Tulsa, sharing the stage with award-winning authors W. Michael Gear and Preston Lewis.

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On March 4, I was one of 9 Tucson Sisters-in-Crime mystery writers featured on Big Blend Radio in the run-up to the 2024 Tucson Festival of Books. You can listen to a replay via these links:

- Direct podcast link on BlogTalkRadio.com: https://www.blogtalkradio.com/big-blend-radio/2021/12/23/tucson-sisters-in-crime-authors-and-writers-panel-discussion

- Direct podcast link to audio podcast on Spreaker.com: https://www.spreaker.com/user/big_blend_radio/tucson-sisters-crime-2021

- YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0V_VU5ZOQ9qLGNRAKbZCVQ

- Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bigblendradiomags

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Artemesia Publishing will release MY BONNEY LIES UNDER, my first Keridec Rees Historical Mystery, in January 2025. The novel is set during an 1885 trans-Pacific voyage and in San Francisco. 

And six of my poems were published in the Fall 2023 issue of The Blue Guitar Magazine, a publication of the Arizona Consortium for the Arts. You can find the issue at https://www.theblueguitarmagazine.org/resources/Blue+Guitar+Fall+2023_ENJOY.pdf

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Donis Casey, a wonderful writer of historical mysteries, was kind enough to ask me to contribute an  essay to her November 2023 "Tell Me Your Story" blog. You can find "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Pair-a-Dice: A Geoscientist’s Curious Journey from Fieldwork to Crime Fiction" at: https://www.doniscasey.com/?p=2086

As my small contribution to 2023 National Poetry Month, I’m featured on Mark McLemore’s NPR program, Arizona Spotlight, reading one of the poems from DECIPHERING THE DESERT. My short segment in "What is the value of a quiet moment?" begins at @18:48.

[https://radio.azpm.org/p/radio-azspot-splash/2023/4/12/215585-what-is-the-value-of-a-quiet-moment/]

And yes, sharp-eyed readers and editors, the poem I read came from my latest poetry collection, not the announced Making Silent Stones Sing.

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My poetry chapbook, Making Silent Stones Sing, was released by Finishing Line Press in February, 2022. One of the poems, "No Roof but Sky: Roberts Mountains, Nevada," was a Finalist for the 2023 Spur Award in Poetry! The chapbook also was a Finalist in the 2022 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards-Poetry/AZ. And the icing on the cake: Women Writing the West selected Making Silent Stones Sing: poems as a Finalist for the 2023 WILLA Literary Award in Poetry.

You can find the book at Finishing Line Press and at online retailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

A full-length poetry collection, Deciphering the Desert: a book of poems, was released by Finishing Line Press in January, 2023. The book is available Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and at Finishing Line Press. The book may also be ordered from any brick-and-mortar store.

Susan Cummins Miller: News