We recently caught up with one of our English M.A. alumni, Wanda Maureen (“Mo”) Miller (formerly Harrell) who currently lives in California. In our interview with her, below, we ask her about attending graduate school at the University of Arkansas in the 1960s and early 1970s, balancing her teaching with her creative writing for many years, developing an autobiographical novel, and publishing her latest book (a historical romance).
You graduated with your M.A. in English from the University of Arkansas in 1971. Do you have a fond memory or two from your time in the program that you could share?
I have too many fond memories to list here. This divorced farm girl became independent and fake-cultured during my seven semesters as a graduate teaching assistant and English student at the University of Arkansas (9-65 to 5-67, 2-70 to 5-70, and 7-71 to 8-71). I learned how to manipulate words and to appreciate classy literature. My best memories are of the friends I made with other graduate students who were so sophisticated they had never used an outdoor toilet. I hope to reconnect with them. During my first stay at the U of A, I lived with my toddler daughter and five other students in a two-story, white-frame house with a porch and swing on Leverett Street, just a few blocks from the campus.
After graduating, you went on to teach English in college for 30 years. How have you managed to balance your career as a teacher with your career as a writer?
That has been tricky, but teaching mostly remedial English prompted me to co-author and publish a series of three developmental reading textbooks for college students—Reading Faster and Understanding More: Books 1, 2, and 3—that I was able to use in the classes I taught. Books 1 and 2 went into five editions, so these books kept me busy and provided extra income from 1976 to 2001. When I wrote my first historical romance, The French, published in 1983, I took a year off from teaching. For my mem-novel, Last Trip Home, I wrote thousands of pages of these stories over three decades in my spare time. After I retired from teaching in 2001, I had time to rewrite, cut, and polish the stories into a book. I have plenty of time now to write and publish my series of historical romances. My writing time competes only with my new sport, pickleball.
What is pickleball, and why do you enjoy it?
Pickleball is mini-tennis, played on a smaller court with a larger plastic ball. I play it four days a week now instead of tennis because it’s easier on my body. It’s the new popular sport in California.
(Photo by Kat Monk)
You’ve published six books, including, as you mention above, Last Trip Home: A Story of an Arkansas Farm Girl (2018), an autobiographical novel. How easy (or hard) was it for you to write a book about your own past?
This is the only book I’ve written that tore my guts out because it is about my growing up on an Arkansas farm in the 1940s and 1950s. I included the difficulties of never having an indoor toilet but of having an overbearing, lecherous father. We did, however, get electricity in the mid-1940s, an event so important I have a whole chapter about it. I also have a chapter about reading, which was the key to my escaping that life and becoming a teacher and a writer. To protect my kinfolks, I changed names—except for my murdering, pedophile great-grandfather, who deserved to have his real name used.
Your latest book, published this past April, is a historical romance, Madeleine: Last French Casquette Bride in New Orleans. This is actually the second historical romance you’ve written, and you are already working on a third. Can you talk a little about why you’ve been drawn to writing in this particular genre of fiction?
My new book, Madeleine, and the almost-finished book about her daughter, Solange, are a rewrite of The French. I can’t say I chose this genre; I wrote in it for money. When I was in graduate school at the U of A, I was so intimidated by the literature I studied that I read romance novels for an easy escape, so I’m familiar with the genre. In the early 1980s, a friend put me in contact with Banbury Books, a publisher that was looking for authors to write a series of historical novels about immigrant women who came to America. I sent Banbury some sample pages and was assigned French immigrant women, who were paid to come to New Orleans in the 18th century. I was given a contract and $20,000 (half before and half after submitting 1000 pages). They obviously had to cut most of my manuscript. I never received royalties because Banbury Books went out of business shortly after my book was published in 1983. When I recovered the rights to this book, I dug up the original 1000 pages and decided to write a series from those pages. Book 1 was published last month; Book 2 is almost ready for publication; Book 3 may never get written because of my age (almost 81).
You’ve been writing professionally for over five decades now. What has it been like working with different publishers over the years?
Because two of my textbooks went into five editions, I have had fifteen publishing experiences with ten different publishers for my six books. Eight of the publishers were traditional and the last two, She Writes Press and Atmosphere Press, are hybrid (paying for traditional services). Most of my writer friends self publish.
What is a recent book that you’ve read and enjoyed (and/or a film that you’ve watched), and why do you recommend it?
Perhaps I should refrain from answering. I read mostly thrillers for escape. I don’t read anything literary or inspiring by choice. I just finished reading The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave (on the best-seller list) and am about the read Beneath the Scarlet Sky by Mark T. Sullivan for my book club, which will be reading Madeleine next. I used to read a book a day; now I read a book a week.
