Goodbye and Other Endings
Dad had every intention of making it to 300 like the maharishi he’d read about in a magazine. He’d outlive me if it could be done by the sheer force of his will. At 82 Dad was Mr. Carrot Juice, poster boy of healthy living. Dad hopped a plane to Guatemala—a penny...
Good News, Bad News, Weird
May 8, 2003, Gilbert AZ—I idled down Loma Vista in our minivan—unlike my usual Mrs.-Miller-gets-airborne-over-speed-bumps reputation from the neighbor kids. One block till home. Twelve-year-old Annie sat shotgun. The back end of the van was stuffed with our sleeping...
Surviving My Survivalist
Mom and Ralph, my stepfather of over 20 years, bustled into my Indianapolis house after a two-day car trip from Florida. “Where’s your father?” Mom strode through the kitchen. I pointed her toward the bedroom where Dad had camped out since his hernia surgery. Mom...
Food Wars
The food wars started innocently enough. Dad tagged along with Jim and I and our three-month-old firstborn for a cookout at Robin and Lanie Roberts’ farm house near Loudonville, Ohio. I glanced across the newly mown backyard at Dad. His hair still dark blond at...
Rocks, Stocks, & Headstands
I looked up from the French toast remains and dirty dishes on the breakfast bar to watch Dad supervise the kids choosing polished rocks he’d brought them as gifts. Their four heads ducked around the dwindling pile. The soft smile on Dad’s face made me hope he’d...
Forgiving Dad
I stood in a slice of sun and dust motes coming through a gap in the storage barn while Dad rooted through our pre-boat life. Dad barked at me to help him look for the box labeled “memorabilia.” He hunted the April, 1953 Athletic Journal that contained a four-page...
Navigating Dad
The fairytale ending I’d hoped would happen between me and Dad—didn’t. I matured. Dad mellowed into middle age. But we still muddled through life in the emotional ruts we’d laid down long ago. The only thing that shifted in my teens was the balance of power. While I’d...
FREE Publishing & Marketing Class!
The Queen Creek Branch Library is hosting a FREE Publishing and Book Marketing seminar on Saturday, June 25, 9:30-11:30 a.m. Hear other writers' stories of their journeys to publication....
Car Crash and Other Wrecks
I pedaled after Dad, each downward push of my legs drawing me closer to meeting his wacko friends. Overhead a storm brewed. With my luck, I’d be soaked before I ever hit their house, much less swim practice later. Mom said Dad wanted to show me off to his friends....
Hippie in the Headlights
When I came up for air at the end of the last fifty yard sprint, my nemesis, Celeste, said, “Who’s that old hippie?” I peered at the far end of the pool thirty yards away where the girls in my lane stared. Dad. Stringy, dark blond hair fell on his shoulders as he...
FREE Writing Class–Queen Creek Library
FREE Writer's Workshop Fun at Queen Creek Library! I'm teaching on writing scenes for novels, short stories, and memoir this Saturday, June 11, 2016 at the Queen Creek Library from 9:30-11:30 a.m. Admission is free. Come, bring a friend, and pen and paper or a laptop....
Swimming Into Forever
I muscled through the pool, my chest heaving, as I stroked for the tile cross on the wall where my feet would hit in a flip turn. I bent at the waist, threw my legs over my head, and pivoted as the balls of my feet hit tile. A powerful thrust from my bent knees and I...
Dad’s World Class Secret
Swimming Records caught my eye as I thumbed through the fat Almanac of World Records and I slapped my palm down on the page. Jane’s pencil stopped on the sheet of loose leaf where she’d been scratching out an essay on the Boston Tea Party—her quirky anachronistic...
Boys Are the Balm
The sun sank into Southeast Florida in the balmy butt-crack of winter. I’d just turned fourteen and this was my eighth move—a VW van, a sailboat, and six houses. I glanced out the picture window of our cement block cracker box at R.J. and the neighbor kids riding...
Tin Can Keno Summer
Miami must sound more romantic from Ohio than it does when your skin is actually sizzling in Johnson’s Baby Oil under the South Florida sun. I glanced at my cousin Di who re-upped for a second stint on the Annie Lee this summer. She laid tanning on the fore cabin...
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.