By Ray LaVoie Photography
A new passion
Sometimes, passion comes from joy, excitement and love. Other times, passion comes from frustration.
After Grove City resident Darin Miller was disappointed by a mediocre mystery novel he had picked up at the library, he thought, “Maybe I should write my own story.” After all, he says, it couldn’t be worse than the one in his hand.
So, Miller began writing short stories outside of his day job in IT in 2000. He was inspired by the short-form writing styles of authors like Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen, but because he lacked writing experience and knowledge of the industry, publishers weren’t biting.
“I have a great big folder full of rejection notices from that,” Miller says. “But I don’t know that the stories ever got read because I had no idea what a query letter should look like. … So the query letters that I sent out were really bad. I mean, they were almost like, ‘please, please read,’ and they probably never got read.”
20 years in the making
Around the same time, Miller got an invitation to his high school’s 15-year reunion, sparking the idea for a mystery novel centered on a man who returns to his hometown for a high school reunion that goes awry. That moment began what became his Dwayne Morrow Mysteries series.
However, life would force Miller to put the book on hold.
“When my wife said that we were expecting our first child, I was also going to night school and we were trying to help a family member keep a restaurant afloat in the evening, on top of having our normal nine-to-five jobs,” Miller says. “Something just kind of had to give at that point.”
But his writing career never left his mind. After two decades away from the novel, he returned to
the keyboard and Reunion, his first published work, was released on Amazon in November 2021.
Soon after publishing Reunion, Miller released the second novel in the series, Circumvention. After shelving the series for 20 years, he began to crank out additions to it, releasing sequels about every six months. In May 2022, he released Retribution and later released Diversion in October 2022. His fifth and most recent addition to the series is Isolation, which was released last May.
He describes the main character of the series, Dwayne, as a chronic self-saboteur with a good heart and witty humor.
“I think that Dwayne is a really different character than what’s out there. So many of the mystery series that I know of you have your (Jack) Reacher, and they’re just so self-assured. … Dwayne’s not like that at all,” Miller says.
While the series is full of mystery and suspense, Miller says he skipped the graphic and gory horror elements that mark many mystery books in an attempt to make his stories lighter on the reader. A love interest storyline keeps romance fans turning the page, too.
“It’s a relatable blend of mystery and humor and suspense, there’s an underlying romance between the lead character that starts in the first book and it’s growing with each book,” he says.
Not only was the fifth addition to Dwayne’s story released in May, Miller introduced his first short story to the market with Broken Bits and Bobs: A Collection of What Ifs, What Was, and What Never Should Be.
Miller releases all his books on Amazon, where he receives positive feedback on his work.
“I’ve got hundreds of ratings and reviews on Amazon and everything just seems to be growing as I go,” Miller says. “It’s just weird. It’s surreal, but it’s kind of exciting.”
Gina’s big adventure
Miller spent his early years growing up in Portsmouth where he discovered his love for reading through his mom’s extensive book collection in their basement.
“We had a musty old basement and she had every book she ever owned from childhood and that was kind of like my own personal library,” he says.
Those who know Miller can expect to find a lot of his life and experiences in the book. His sister, Gina, who had spina bifida and severe scoliosis, tragically passed away during surgery when Miller was just 19 years old. He included an afterword page in Diversion, dedicated to Gina, in which he revealed that Dwayne’s sister is inspired by his own sister.
“I’ve just always wanted to give her an adventure that she never could have had when she was living,” he says.
Going forward in Grove City
Miller has been living in Grove City with his wife Traci, a native of the city, and his daughter Nicki, since 2000. He says the town reminds him of where he grew up in southeastern Ohio.
“The neighborhoods were nice, safe neighborhoods where you could feel good about walking around on the sidewalks and out in your own neighborhood, and Grove City has very much that same feel to me,” he says.
One of Miller’s favorite activities is attending the weekly writers group meeting at Grove City Library as well as catching a Little Theatre Off Broadway show with his family.
While he still works in IT, he is actively pursuing his “side hustle” and attends book signings and author events. He is currently working on the sixth installment in the Dwayne Morrow Mysteries series, Abduction, which he hopes to release this holiday season.
Maisie Fitzmaurice is an assistant editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at mfitzmaurice@cityscenemediagroup.com.
