Jeanne Selander Miller will sign copies of her latest book, A Million Miles from Home, at the Old Forge Hardware on Saturday, July 20 from 2 to 4 p.m.
The book is Selander Miller’s second memoir and, like her first, A Breath Away, has received international recognition.
“I have journaled most of my life, but I got more serious about writing after moving to Old Forge four years ago because I found I had more time and space to do so,” she said.
Her inspiration to start writing came from writing coach, David Hazzard, who asked her to send him some of her writings.
“That’s how this got started,” she said.
Her first story, A Breath Away, is a love story and a spiritual journey that begins with the day she met her first husband.
“It’s about what happens when your whole life turns upside down and you don’t get the life you were expecting—that you somehow thought you were entitled to—and learning to embrace your life the way it is,” she said.
Early in her marriage, with a four-year-old and an 18-month-old, her husband was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bone marrow cancer.
He was given three months to live, but lived for eight years after the diagnosis.
This story, which ends with his passing, was released last June. It received honorable mentions at the Southern California Book Festival for Memoirs and the New England Book Festival for Spirituality.
It took first prize at the London International Book Festival as Best Spiritual Book of 2012.
A Million Miles from Home, which was released in April 2013, has already received an honorable mention for memoirs at the Paris International Book Festival.
The book begins with Selander Miller as a grieving widow with children ages nine and eleven. She remarries six years after the death of her husband.
But her new husband was not the right person for her, she said.
Her third book, about the recovery of innocence, is currently in draft form and she hopes it will be published this spring.
“I’ve come to a place where I’m not so cynical, well-protected in armor or fearful,” Selander Miller said.
Her books are available locally at the Old Forge Hardware and Sisters Bistro, at Amazon.com and in a number of independent bookstores.
The Old Forge Library’s book group is using A Breath Away as a summer read, and Selander Miller has been invited as a guest at their book discussion.
