It starts with an incident—something unlikely or coincidental happens that turns out to be a turning point in the characters’ lives.
That’s how author Anesa Miller’s story writing process begins. From there, Miller goes deeper in a creative discovery process, asking ‘Who are these people? How are they related to each other? How did they get to this moment? Who else is involved?’ “It’s like casting,” Miller said in a recent interview with the PRT. “Other characters and their backstories come on the scene as the story takes shape.”
Miller’s latest novel, “I Never Do This,” narrated by the intrepid young woman LaDene Howell, was published this spring. LaDene’s life-changing incident—which turns an ordinary Friday evening into a crime spree—is coming home and “catching a whiff of something not quite ordinary” in her apartment after work. She is startled to find a large man splayed out on her couch, who turns out to be her outlaw cousin, Bobby Frank, just released on parole. He had broken in looking for some company and a drink.
“I Never Do This” draws on the “what-ifs” that women think about in real life. Between true-crime TV and a harrowing story from her grandmother’s life, LaDene has “had thoughts now and then of what it must be like to come home and find someone lurking inside.”
As Miller traces the threads of her characters’ pasts and unspools the circumstances leading up to the key incident that triggers the story, she reveals layers of her characters’ psychologies, life experiences, and family histories in multi-faceted fullness. She follows those trajectories into the rest of the story, including revisiting memorable locations from LaDene and Bobby Frank’s youth, and a chance encounter—and kidnapping—of their high school principal.
Like protagonists in Miller’s other books, LaDene has had to rise up to face challenges throughout her life that begin with unremarkable events, but become crises because of societal forces that are stacked against her. Small town people leading ordinary lives confront major issues like addiction, gun violence and spiritual abuse. Miller reveals how and why her characters get tangled up in such troubles, evoking empathy and understanding of the human condition.
A seasonal resident of Patagonia since 2016, Miller celebrated the publication of “I Never Do This” with a well-attended reading at the Patagonia Library in March.
Miller had briefly passed through Patagonia in 2015 with her husband, world renowned neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp, who was a professor at University of Arizona at the time. They came back in 2016 when they couldn’t find a place to rent in Tucson. “I instantly felt at home here,” Miller said. She bought a home here after Jaak passed away in 2018.
Originally from Wichita, Kansas, Miller had early experiences of loss and struggle. Her mother died when she was young. Her grandparents had hardscrabble lives and were not able to provide much support.
Luckily, she developed a love for literature, which led to studying existentialism and Dostoevsky in high school. Discovering a real ear and talent for learning languages, she dove deeply into Russian and Slavic languages and literature, earning a PhD and several teaching posts during the Cold War years.
Miller met Jaak when they were both teaching at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, where they married and raised their family. Miller then turned back to her original love: literature. She fully embraced the craft and identity of a writer.
Now she travels between Arizona’s sunny winters and Ohio’s lush, green summers. With a keen eye for the state’s many subcultures, and ear for its dialects, her novels set in the Ohio River Valley ring true.
“I Never Do This” is available at the Patagonia Trading Post and the Patagonia Library, which also has copies of Miller’s earlier books. She also offers discounts for book club purchases through her website, AnesaMiller.com.