An Interview with Amy Smyth Miller

Amy Smyth Miller is a nationally recognized educator with a bachelor’s degree in special education and a master’s in counseling. She recently retired after a thirty-year career in public education and lives in northern Washington State with her husband, “Captain Crusty,” her adult son with special needs, and her rescue dachshund, Oscar. Her essays and poetry have appeared in The Muleskinner Journal, Women on Writing, Persimmon Tree, The Healing and CPTSD Chronicles, As It Ought to Be digital magazine, and Whatcom Writes Anthology: Legacies.

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Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

I went through several iterations, and a developmental editor helped me to land on the current title. In retrospect—it was the perfect one!

How did it feel when you first saw your book cover? Or when you first held your book in your hands?

I was given an option of five different covers—but I knew as soon as I opened the email, I knew it was “the one.”

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

I have always been a reader. I learned to write with nine-year-olds by teaching a writer’s workshop curriculum that I learned through summer workshops at Columbia University Teachers College.

What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?

I recently retired after a thirty-year career in education. I was once a cosmetologist and used to cut and color Alice Cooper’s wife Sheryl’s hair in the 1980s.

What was the most rewarding/meaningful part of publishing your book?

I would have to say getting messages on Instagram from ARC readers (advanced reading copy before publication) about how profoundly my book affected them.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

There are actually some mentioned in the book, as my memoir took place from the late 1960s through the 1970s: “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin, and “Don’t Fear the Reaper” by Blue Öyster Cult, and “I’m In You” by Peter Frampton. I’d also add “Nights in White Satin” by the Moody Blues, and so many other hits from the ’70s.

What is one thing you hope readers take away from reading your book? How do you envision your perfect reader?

I hope my book finds its way to those who have faced childhood trauma and they recognize the hope inside.

What creative projects are you currently working on?

I’m currently working on writing an historical fiction novel that takes place in Boston and Ireland and explores the relationships between three generations of women.

How was working with Atmosphere Press? What would you tell other writers who want to publish?

I have appreciated the partnership: the streamlined process for editing rounds, cover selection, and production. I wouldn’t have known how to tackle self-publishing on my own, and publishing with a hybrid allows authors to have so much autonomy.

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Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.