Behind the Scenes: Big Apple Atonement by Carolyn Miller

Today we go 'behind the scenes' as Jeanette (Jenny) O'Hagan interviews the fabulous and prolific author Carolyn Miller.

Jenny: Congratulations on your upcoming release of Big Apple Atonement – the fifth book in the Original Six - slightly sporty sweet romance - series. What inspired you to write this series?

Thanks so much, Jenny! The first two books I ever wrote (before any historicals) were two ice hockey books featuring Christian athletes who played for Chicago and Toronto, which just so happened to be two of the original six hockey teams in the National Hockey League of North America. I loved these books (Love on Ice and Muskoka Blue), and wanted to see them published, but because it’s a fairly niche market publishers weren’t so interested, so I decided to publish them myself as part of a series. This meant writing four other books (including a book serving as a prequel to Love on Ice, which became The Breakup Project), based in the other Original Six cities: Boston, Detroit, Montreal and New York. I’d visited four of these six cities, so I was thrilled to get the chance to showcase some of the amazing places I’d seen, such as Chicago’s Art Institute in Checked Impressions, and Montreal’s Botanic Gardens in Heart and Goals. The heroes of these books are linked by an online Bible study group, which I later discovered is a legitimate thing, where Christian hockey players encourage and support each other. I love that high profile Christian athletes (high profile in the US and Canada at least!) can have similar questions to many Christians, but with the added tension of money, fame, and other trappings of pro sports, which means each book has a slightly different focus. It’s been great to see numbers of readers have loved the books in this series too!

Jenny: Since publishing your popular Regency Brides romance series, you’ve been quite prolific with the Regency Wallflowers, the Independence Island and now the Original Six series. How do you come up with fresh ideas?

Several of these books and series stemmed from books I already had sitting in my computer, so it’s been a process of finding the right one for the right time. (I figure some of these books in my computer could be making me money!) But really, I find stories are everywhere – you just have to pay attention to the news, to your own life, to what God is challenging you about, to conversations, to people. I’ve recently started doing ballet fitness, and my instructor is a former ballet pro and shared some amazing stories about her life, so guess what? I now see a ballet book in my future.

Jenny: That should be fun 😊 What do you enjoy most about writing in the romance genre? Have other romance authors influenced your writing? In what ways?

Romance is basically the process of developing a relationship, which is what we all do in various ways every day. No, not every relationship involves romance, but the same kinds of challenges face us all: misunderstandings, learning to trust, to forgive, to not judge, etc I love that romance can reflect God’s ‘wooing’ of His children, and I do enjoy bringing faith elements into my books. Some of my fave Christian romance authors include Becky Wade, Susan May Warren, Susan Tuttle, Jaycee Weaver and Kara Isaac, all of whom create relatable characters and include faith elements in a non-preachy way, which is my hope too.

Jenny: After gaining a reputation and avid fans for your regency romances, you made the call to write in a different sub-genre – contemporary romance.  Were you nervous at the time? What challenges and opportunities did you face in making the change?

Ooh, good question! Yes, I was nervous, but because I’d originally written contemporary (and even won awards for it!) I knew I could do this, and to be honest, it’s been GREAT. Switching between genres is like a palate cleanser, so I write (or edit) a historical then go write (or edit) a contemporary, which means I’m mentally fresh. I joined the Independence Islands series (published by Celebrate Lit) as a transition step to gain some contemporary readers, as I fear some of my historical readers have pigeon-holed me in the Regency vein. It feels funny to have to reassure my readers that they’ll still find the same sorts of stories in my contemporary books (faith! relatable characters! realistic settings! humour!) that they’re used to seeing in my historicals, but hopefully time will win them over. It’s been great to meet some new readers, some of whom are now reading my Original Six series because they found me as part of the Independence Islands series. It’s also been great to connect with other authors as part of that series.

Jenny: You’ve successfully made the switch from being published by a traditional publisher to indie publishing. What motivated you to change. What pros and cons have you discovered along the way?

I write full time, and to be honest, my earnings are not nearly what I’d like them to be (ha - whose are, right?). I also found that I was feeling a little creatively constricted by just sticking to Regency. When my publishers told me in 2019 they weren’t interested in publishing my contemporaries, I knew the only way I could get my books out there was to self publish them. So, knowing that I had a Winter Olympics story, which would be perfect to release during the 2022 winter Olympics, I decided to push to create the series and write the four remaining books in 2020 and 2021.

Some of the challenges include the huge learning curve in learning what self publishing involves (hey, I’m still learning!), but I love the creative control I have, with everything from story ideas to release dates, cover design (my daughter is now designing my contemporary covers!), to editing, to links to future book series, and promotions. I’m not hedged in by other people’s expectations, so I can try things. And I’ve found that with more books out there I’m earning more money too which is awesome. (I can now pay for our mortgage!)

Jenny: Awesome! What do you know now about the craft and business of writing that you didn’t when you started?

When I first started writing it was all about the joy of creating a story. Now I know that if you want that story to be published, you need to treat this process as a business. I’ve always been pretty good at staying motivated and enjoy beating my publisher’s deadlines for edit returns and the like, and I think that’s served me well to stay productive when it’s my own self-imposed deadlines I’m working towards. So I write (or focus on writing things) most days from 9am until my kids return from school/ uni. It’s my job, not something I fluff around with when I feel like it.

Part of that means investing in things like conferences. I have learned so much from attending the Omega Writers conferences, and they have been instrumental in helping me write in series, learn craft, and develop author connections I deeply value now. If people are serious about being authors then they should invest the time and dollars into conferences like this. I’m so glad I did. (Find out more about the Omega Christian Writers conference here – it’s only in-person every 2 years, so this is the year to make it happen!)

Marketing is huge, whether you’re traditionally or independently published, so us more reticent types need to be okay with letting others know about our books, and joining with other authors to cross promote and find new readers. That’s my goal at the moment: find new readers, and that takes time.

I’m very thankful to have learned some of the business of writing through being trad pubbed first, and that’s helped me gain readers and connections that would’ve been harder otherwise. I’m so thankful I stepped out and trusted God (not just my agent or publisher) for my writing career, especially with stepping into writing the kinds of books I like – and that other readers seem to enjoy too!

Jenny: Now that you’re nearing the end of the The Original Six series, do you have any plans for another series in mind? What elements will be the same and what will be different from your previous series?

Yes! The sixth book in this series is Muskoka Blue which releases July 28. This was actually the second book I ever wrote (don’t worry: it’s been heavily edited and tweaked since then) and I had a loose kind of series that built on it. So I plan to have two more books based on a small town in the Muskoka region (a gorgeous lake-filled area I’ve visited, which is 2 hours north of Toronto, Canada), one of which will be a Christmas book. If I can get my act together, I hope to see them release this year (yes, this self-pubbing thing might be addictive!).


I also hope to link to another hockey series set in the North-western areas of North America, so it’ll be a similar Bible study group but for players based in Calgary, Vancouver, Seattle, etc (some of these are places I’ve seen too). I LOVE writing in series, and it’s been fun to see the preorders as people move through the books, checking in on various characters to see how they’re doing 😊

I’ve also got plans for a cowboy-type series that will be part of another multi-author series releasing next year. I never thought I’d write about cowboys, but I love the fact these kinds of books are based on things I care about: relationships, the environment, faith, and the small-town factor - as I live in a small town, that works well for me!

Really, in all of my books, historical or contemporary, I’m writing about similar things: relatable characters, realistic settings and scenarios, relationships & romance, non-preachy faith threads, all mixed together with some banter and humour. I’m so grateful people have taken a chance on reading the wild imaginings of a small-town Aussie girl, and so thankful to God I get to do this amazing job!

Something to look forward too :) Thank you, Carolyn, for taking the time to share about your books and experiences.

Carolyn Miller lives in the beautiful Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, with her husband and four children. Together with her husband she has pastored a church for ten years, and worked as a public high school English teacher.

A longtime lover of romance, especially that of Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer and LM Montgomery, Carolyn loves drawing readers into fictional worlds that show the truth of God’s grace in our lives. Her contemporary romance series includes the Original Six hockey romance series, and the Independence Islands series, and her historical series include the Regency Brides and Regency Wallflowers series.


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