Gothic Spring
Caroline Miller wrote from childhood, but her writing took dimension as a young woman in the 1960s. Like many educated women of that generation she chafed at the confining stereotypes assigned to women exploring their possibilities. Out of that experience emerged an early version of her novel, Gothic Spring. That draft lay in her desk drawer for several decades, while Caroline began distinguished careers in education, labor advocacy and the arts.
A wiser, mature Caroline Miller revisited that original draft, reevaluating the characters and sharpening its point of view. She rewrote the material and the resulting novel came out in 2009. Ironically, it can be truthfully noted that Gothic Spring has two authors, both Caroline Miller!
Heart Land: A Place Called Ockley Green
In her own words, Caroline candidly explains how reassessment figures into her first published novel, Heart Land:
We want to embrace and be embraced; so we are always experimenting and digesting what we’ve learned. We live in the present because we haven’t much past. Without the glue of a mutual history, sometimes we tear ourselves apart. But we pull ourselves together again with renewed hope and a fresh vitality.
I suppose we never will find our equilibrium for long, given our hodgepodge of disparate races, religions and traditions. We’ll keep on changing to accommodate our cacophony of views. But, I love that we keep trying to bring everyone into the tent… even if it takes a while. That’s my Heart Land.
Trompe l’Oeil (To Fool the Eye)
In Trompe l’Oeil, Caroline Miller explores the ways the mind attempts to organize the world using faith, mysticism, or science. Can any of these approaches provide a clear understanding of an infinite universe, she asks. Or do our senses betray us, creating illusions of our own making? What is true? What is false? How can we know if we cannot be sure whether or not we are awake or dreaming?
Ballet Noir
Her first tour in Europe, Tara Bentley, young prima ballerina with a small Seattle dance company, watches her excitement turn to horror when she’s haunted by the voice of her deceased dance teacher, Yelena Natilova. She fears she might be going mad until she meets a necromancer who assures her the voice is real. Is he a charlatan? Or, has he the power to guide her through this nightmare as she struggles to hold her career together? Their dash through the great theaters of Europe becomes the performance of a lifetime with death waiting in the wings.
Other Publications
Fiction
Caroline’s fairy tale, “Grimahlka” first published in Tales of the Talisman in 2007 has been selected for republication with Digital Fiction Publishing Corp of Canada.
It is being published electronically and it has been selected for a small anthology, scheduled to appear later.
Agent of God, October 2015, a novella in the anthology,
Under a Dark Sign, is an allegory: the chaos that follows
evil poses as virtue. ISNB 978-1-942450-06-1
- Secret, September 2017, published in Adelaide Magazine, An American woman returns to England to tell her former lover he has a son.
- Gustav Pavel, July 2017, a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential
- Marie Eau-Claire, May 2012, a serialized novelette published on The Colored Lens
- Ballet Noir, 2017 (ISBN 978-0998169781) Rutherford Classics
- Trompe l’Oeil, 2012 (ISBN 978-0998169743) Rutherford Classics
- Heart Land, 2009 (ISBN-978-0998169705) Rutherford Classics
- Gothic Spring, 2013 (ASIN: B06XZDSL6D) Rutherford Classics
- Grimahlka, republished 2016, a witch stumbles upon a human child in the forest. Love forces her to make a dark decision.
- Grimahlka Tales of the Talisman, 3/2007
- Proverbs, Mosaic June 2007, 46th edition
- The Christmas Doll, 2003 Grit
- The Summer of the Burlap Bag, 2000 Grab a Nickel
- Bodacious Scurvy, 2000 Caprice
- Saying Goodbye, 1996 The Advocate
- Yearnings, 1994 Oregon English Journal
- The Christmas Eve of Doubting Thomas, 1989 Young American
- Under the Bridge and Beneath the Moon, 1989 Children’s Digest
Non-Fiction
- Elements of Expository Writing, Portland Public Schools
- Guidelines for Board of Equalization – Multnomah County
Drama/Plays
- Woman on the Scarlet Beast, performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015
- Semi-finalist in competition JAWS
