Waiting for the Real Deal
I sat back on my heels in the front window of Behrens’ Book Store and eyed Jackie Herold’s Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls cradling a copy of Love Story. Ralph, my stepfather, had roped me into decorating the window for Valentine’s Day and I’d Tom-Sawyered Jackie into...
Nailing Normal
Susan Sigler narrowed her eyes at me across the lunch table. “We saw you heading into New Smyrna Beach in Big Kev’s truck Saturday night.” I shoved a huge bite of peanut butter and jelly sandwich into my mouth for an excuse not to answer. If they got me to admit I’d...
Five Minutes of Fame
I shimmied out of the extra swim suit I wore over my red New Smyrna Beach High School team suit, hopped onto the starting block, and bent to on-your-mark position almost in one motion. A Mad Magazine could be read through a dry team suit and wet—let’s just say the...
Song From an Innocent Time
A white piece of paper fluttered onto my lit book as James Knox, moved past my desk. Song for Emil had been typed across the top of what must be song lyrics. My forehead wrinkled and questions bumper-carred around my head. I watched James, the most vocal member of...
Spoons, Nudes, and Tuna Casserole
I glanced at Jackie’s kitchen clock shaped like a frying pan. Twenty minutes till I had to exit the warmth—literal and figurative—for my unheated house. I wanted to soak up every second. Jackie’s Uncle Louie Kistner, only a few years older than we were, shuffled the...
Beached, Brokendown, and Blessed
The screen door clanged shut on our icy house and I lifted my cheeks for New Smyrna Beach’s kiss of warmth. I rubbed my biceps through my bulky sweater and headed toward Riverside Drive, careful to keep to the sun-heated stretches of pavement. Last night I could see...
Friendless on the First Day of School
Mom pulled our green Plymouth Duster in front of New Smyrna Beach High School smack at the front walkway teeming with football players and cheerleaders. I could tell by the “cool” wafting off them in waves. “No! Not here! Drive up further.” The crutches tossed across...
Writers’ Weekend Feb. 17-19, 2017
You’re invited to a Writers’ Weekend in Pine, Arizona, February 17-19. Invest in your writing. Immerse yourself in a supportive writing community. Imagine. Write! During three days of tranquility you’ll be able to take advantage of writing classes, concentrated...
Dodging the Day After Christmas Blues
Cold and grumpy, I walked faster down Murray Street. I gritted my teeth and headed for the Indian River and sunshine. Our tree dappled house, riddled with windows, made summer without air conditioning bearable, but in the winter it morphed into a mausoleum. I dug my...
Too Much & Not Enough Testosterone for the Christmas Parade
The smallest bridge in New Smyrna Beach, rising less than six feet from Washington Street, might as well have been the Sunshine Skyway over Tampa Bay. My shoulders bunched with tension and my knuckles whitened on the stick shift as I eyed the first “hill” in my...
A Couple of Kids Cobble Together Christmas
R.J. and I stared at the wreckage of our family’s holiday cheer. Between us lay a flapped open cardboard box labeled Christmas Decorations. Mom poked her head into my bedroom. “I’m sorry, kids, but we can only afford one gift for each of you this year. And money is...
Summer of the Charlotte Catholic Bad Boys
After pulling the overnight waitress shift at a Daytona Beach HoJo’s for a month—just me and a big black ex-con flipping burgers—camp never sounded better. But I hadn’t counted on a different kind of danger driving into Our Lady of the Hills in 1977 in the back of...
“The Cutest Boy I Ever Saw…”
....Was Sipping Cider Through a Straw." I eyeballed the other counselors circling the Canteen, my knee bouncing with first evening jitters. My gaze slapped into Mike Smith the same second his T-boned into me. A high school chemistry experiment combusted inside...
Broken Bones and Dreams and Other Things
The Florida to North Carolina trek took sixteen hours—one for each year I’d been alive—or long enough to read Go Ask Alice, Love Story, and a Mad Magazine cover to cover. I packed my K-Mart steamer trunk with enough T-shirts, shampoo, and books for a summer at Our...
40 Years After They Saved Me From Stupid
The six of us peered into each other’s eyes, trying in short seconds to excavate the girls we’d known when we were sixteen from the fifty-six year old faces staring back at us. Then we flung ourselves into hugs. Wonder and words and laughter and very old trust...
About Ann
Ann Lee Miller holds a BA and MFA in creative writing. She teaches writing online for Grand Canyon University. She’s lived in Ohio, Indiana, Arizona, and Oregon but left her heart in Florida where she grew up. Over 100,000 copies of her novels have been downloaded from Amazon. She is hard at work on a memoir-novel about growing up on a sailboat. When she’s not embroiled in a crisis–real or imagined–you’ll find her hiking with her husband or meddling in her kids’ lives.