Conversations with Darin Miller

Today we’d like to introduce you to Darin Miller.

Hi Darin, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I never set out to be a writer, but I’ve always been a voracious reader, and that’s thanks to my mother. She was ravenous, eclectic with genre, and a real book hoarder; our dank basement had shelves laden with every single book she had ever owned, My brother, sister, and I were never at a loss for something to read, and in the days before Internet and streaming video and music, it was our personal library at the bottom of the basement stairs. We visited it often.

In 2000, I checked out a particularly underwhelming mystery from the actual library, and I thought I couldn’t possibly do worse, so I decided to try my hand at writing fiction. I started by writing short stories, aimed squarely at fans of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. I was a big fan of both and thought my initial efforts weren’t half bad. They didn’t seem to agree, however, and soon, I had quite a collection of rejection letters. Undeterred, I started considering a longer piece of work.

It was during this period that I received an invitation to my fifteen-year high school reunion. I had moved north from southern Ohio shortly after graduation, and I hadn’t seen many in my small graduating class in the years since. One rainy Saturday afternoon, I was driving south to visit my best friend for the weekend. He was adamant that he wasn’t going to the reunion, and I was trying to convince him to change his mind. He made some flip comment about how he’d rather die than go, and I suddenly had the idea for my first Dwayne Morrow book. I tried not to think of it as a whole book because that was a bit overwhelming. I just kept adding pages until it was finally done. I let a handful of people read it⎯my wife, my mother, my brother, my best friend who inspired it⎯and was both shocked and encouraged when they seemed to really like it. I started querying literary agents as KDP wasn’t really a thing back then, and I was actually signed for a bit, although nothing really ever came of it. In the meanwhile, I kept right on rolling, cranking out the second and third books in the series while I dreamed of someday getting published.

In 2003, life threw me a bunch of curveballs all at once. I was working essentially as clerical support at a non-profit organization that I really loved when their IT guy put in his notice. Many of the staff were older folks with very little computer experience. Apparently, I was more approachable than their actual IT guy, so I was already fielding many of their computer-related questions. Management recognized this and offered me the opportunity to return to school on their dime and get my degree in Information Technology. How could I say no? At the same time, a family member started an ill-fated restaurant that required everyone in the family to pitch in and help just to keep it afloat. When my wife found out we were expecting our first child, something had to give. For me, it was my writing. I had started the fourth Dwayne book, but I was only five chapters in, and I just stopped. I didn’t give writing another thought for almost twenty years.

Flash-forward to 2020. I had been at my day-job for twenty-three years when new management aggressively began toxifying the working environment, and I made the difficult decision to leave just as COVID was closing down the country. It’s incredibly difficult to find new employment when everyone is still trying to figure out how to conduct business in that sort of “new normal.” I found myself with a lot of free time as I continued to look for work when, as fate would have it, I picked up another underwhelming book from the library, and thought I couldn’t possibly do worse. And then I recalled the books I had already written. I still had the files, but it had been so long since I’d even thought about them that I couldn’t remember what happened in each. I decided to re-read them, if only for a laugh to see how bad they were. But then I started to get excited, because they seemed to hold up. This time, I had KDP on my side, and I was determined to see the process through.

I published the first Dwayne Morrow Mystery, Reunion, four-and-a-half years ago, and I haven’t stopped writing since. There are now seven books in the series with an eighth releasing in early September. I have a standalone psychological horror thriller, Equilibrium, as well as a standalone collection of mystery short stories, Broken Bits and Bobs. I also have a short novella that I co-wrote with Facebook author and friend, V.R. Tapscott. It features the leads from my series and Vic’s series engaging in a fun little self-contained romp in Las Vegas.

The first four books in the Dwayne Morrow series are recipients of the BookFest Awards, and the fifth is in the running for their Fall 2025 awards that will be announced in October. Equilibrium is the recipient of four awards since its release in September 2024, including a BookFest Award, Reader Views Reviewer’s Choice Award, International Impact Book Award, and the American Fiction Award. Many of its reviews compare it favorably to the work of my own favorite author, Stephen King, and I’m completely reeling. My first two Dwayne Morrow books were recently selected as BookBub Featured Deals, and between those two deals, nearly 37K copies of those books were downloaded.

I’m a firm believer that things happen for a reason, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I’m a little disappointed I wasted so much time. I had completely forgotten how much I love the process of writing. It’s what I was meant to do.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road for an indie author is anything but smooth. Most of us are a one-person team, responsible for almost every aspect of getting our work out there including promotion, which is probably the biggest challenge of all. With limited resources, it is vital to make every advertising dollar count, and as most of us are not experts at this, there’s a whole lot of trial and error involved. While Amazon and Facebook ads have at times proven to be valuable, both platforms are constantly evolving. There are some campaigns that work like gangbusters for a while before something in the algorithm changes and it’s almost like flipping a switch. You’re suddenly just wasting your money. Live events can be a big boon but require a certain level of salesmanship that doesn’t come naturally to me. I am better today than I was at the start, but I still have a lot of room for improvement.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am best known for my BookFest award-winning Dwayne Morrow Mysteries. There are seven titles in the series with an eighth one releasing on 9/09. What makes my series different than most is Dwayne is just an everyday guy. He has no special training, no superhuman strength, no uncanny ability to profile criminals with startling precision—he’s just a regular guy with a good heart who finds himself in a great deal of trouble fairly frequently. The books are suspenseful with a healthy dose of humor and even a touch of romance. (Let’s suppose the late, great Sue Grafton collaborated with the uproariously entertaining Janet Evanovich to create a male lead—that’s Dwayne’s vibe.) My books feature characters that will feel just like folks you know…or wish you didn’t. And word on the street—and by street, I mean Amazon and Goodreads reviewers—is that each one is better than the last! Most recently, I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone and released my first full-on psychological horror thriller, Equilibrium, and the reviews that are trickling in are dropping my jaw, with some folks even comparing it favorably to a couple of different titles from my hero, Stephen King. 🤯 I’ve also released an unrelated anthology of mystery shorts, Broken Bits and Bobs, and my work has been featured in the Ohio Writers’ Association anthology, House of Secrets, and The Library Centennial Anthology, a collection of work curated by the Southwest Public Library system celebrating local artists in the Grove City community as of the library’s centennial celebration.

Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Developing a presence on social media is absolutely essential. Not only will you have the opportunity to interact with potential fans, but you can follow other authors and learn from what they are doing. Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have the power to expand your personal network, if you can learn the ropes of using each effectively. Admittedly, I mostly stick to Facebook. It’s what I know best.

My local Grove City Writers’ Group has been very supportive. I’ve also been incredibly lucky to find other authors on Facebook who were willing to share their experience and knowledge and who aren’t afraid to share the truth, even if it may be difficult to hear. V.R. Tapscott, author of the successful indie Jane Bond series, reached out to me to let me know he loved my books, but my original covers were likely doing me more harm than good. He shared some fundamentals of cover design, and after implementing those suggestions, my books immediately started doing better. I’m also fortunate enough to count traditionally published authors, Katie Mettner and Charly Cox, as friends, and both have been instrumental in guiding my path. I’m fairly certain it was Katie’s further tweaking of the cover concepts that Vic initially shared that landed me my first BookBub Featured Deal. While everyone says you should never judge a book by its cover, folks inevitably do, and my covers are finally holding their own with top-selling books in my genre, thanks to Katie and Vic.

Pricing:

• Dwayne Morrow Mysteries # 1-4 $2.99 for Kindle
• Dwayne Morrow Mysteries # 5 -8 $4.99 for Kindle
• Dwayne Morrow Mysteries # 1-8 $15.99 for paperback, $22.99 for hardcover
• Broken Bits and Bobs $0.99 for Kindle, $15.99 for paperback, $22.99 for hardcover
• Equilibrium $6.99 for Kindle, $24.99 for paperback, $32.99 for hardcover

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.darin-miller.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darinmiller4628/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DwayneMorrowMysteries/
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/author/darinmiller