Today we’d like to introduce you to Gene Miller.
Hi Gene, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
From 1956, I grew up along the banks of the Delaware River in the tiny river town of Delanco, New Jersey. All of my lifetime play as a child occurred in and along that river. Dredge spoils to deepen the Delaware were eventually dredged and dumped along 40 acres of land behind our homes, creating a Sahara Desert environment right off the banks of the Delaware. Those dredge spoils trapped a long strip of water along the back side of our neighborhood and became known as The Swamp. The Swamp is where we launched our homemade rafts that were initially tested there before launching them in the Delaware. The Swamp was also in cold weather and snow our Winter Wonderland. It’s the place where frozen ice became our winter hockey home and figure skating rink. The entire area was a huge play and testing ground for the neighborhood kids in Delanco and our neighbors in Beverly.
In the middle of sophomore year, we moved away from the river and into the Pinelands of South Jersey. Farms, open fields, and forests of pine and oak trees. surrounded our views. I felt trapped, lost, and alone. I focused my new life in school on academics and sports trying to forget about the river and the lifetime friendships I had left. One spring day of junior year our second basemen, Geoge Spellman arrived in History class fashionably late as always. He was carrying two albums under his arm. George was an original Rock and Roller. As he settled into the desk next to me, he extended the albums in my direction across the aisle to me with these memorable words, “Gene, take these two albums home and throw them on your turntable. Play them loud. They will change your life.”
I went home after baseball practice and pulled Springsteen’s “Greetings From Asbury Park” from its album sleeve and cranked it up on my turntable. When “Spirit in the Night” ended it had captured my heart and my soul. Although Greasy Lake wasn’t a river, the song and its lyrics brought me back to my time and former life along the river. I just knew at that moment that I had to write a book sometime about the crazy, dangerous, and most hilarious true childhood escapades a person could ever have. A few years later Springsteen released “The River” and I was once again reminded of those timeless and unique childhood stories.
In college I became a double teaching major; English/Social Studies. That college education from Glassboro State College-now Rowan University- sent me off on a 44-year education career teaching for 19 years and coaching each and every year from 7th grade to 12th grade students at Overbrook Regional High School in Pine Hill, New Jersey. I returned to the new Rowan University to receive a MA degree in School Leadership in 1997. That summer I was hired out of district as an assistant high school principal, then two years later promoted to middle school principal in “The Blueberry Capital of the World”-Hammonton. In all of those years I never thought of ever writing that book that Springsteen’s albums had inspired.
In 2013, I retired after 35 years in public education and after the last 14 years as the Hammonton Middle School principal. What an honor. I then became an adjunct instructor in Stockton’ University’s School of Education. I had come full circle in my professional field as an educator. In December of 2021, my son and daughter-in-law gave me the holiday present of Storyworth. Storyworth is a weekly online autobiography program designed to inspire a person to write a brief vignette about a weekly question asked about their life. After 52 weeks the stories are published together in a hardback book and can be presented to family members as a holiday gift the following year. I had only completed 6 weeks’ worth of questions before I stopped writing. My mother had become ill and placed on hospice. As an only child, I had to be at work and afterwards at her side.
In September of 20222, my son had commented to me how he and his wife were so looking forward to reading the answers to their weekly autobiographical questions. They couldn’t wait to read my book. One problem remained however, there was no book! I thought long and hard about my dilemma. The answer arrived, “What about all of those river stories you had as a kid? Springsteen had first inspired you-now you must act! Your oldest two grandsons are headed into their middle school years. This would be the perfect time to write those stories and to guide your grandsons through the middle school years!”
The first stories, “The River” and “Adventures along the River’ inspired the start of over thirty stories for Storyworth that holiday season. Although the book took longer to write than planned, I had happily begun to reflect on those hilarious and dangerous stories of growing up along the river. I filled the Storyworth offering with humorous and sometimes downright unbelievable stories. Three former educational colleagues were intrigued by my authoring attempt. They asked to read the over thirty-chapter short story collection. They inquired about getting the stories published to share with other middle level readers, now engaged on the internet, computers, Xbox, TikTok, and cell phones, to show them what growing up was like before technology.
Two cardiac incidents between 2020 and 2023 forced me into permanent retirement in 2024. Those incidents had hastened my mission to get the book out to as many readers as possible in the shortest amount of time. I ended up using those three colleagues as my Beta Readers. Each chose five possible publishable stories each. The fifteen stories selected were cross-referenced and twelve were agreed on. I added three short stories that I enjoyed, but the Beta Readers did not select. What came from that is my first book, “WARNING: Short Stories for Middle School Boys Only, Because Girls Have Cooties.” It was published in June of 2024 by Palmetto Publishing in South Carolina and is distributed online through Amazon Books, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, and Walmart.
The book has been recognized in the book community by Kirkus Review proclaiming readers their famous “Thumbs Up-Get It! “In December of 2025, it took Runner Up for YA in the New England Book Festival. Other festival awards followed in 2024, however Monster’s Ink Magazine-a national children’s book influencer selected WARNING…as a First Place Dragonfly Winner in Middle Level Humor in July of 2025. The latest first place awards came from the Royal Dragonfly national writers’ contest where I was selected Best New Author for YA Nonfiction and a first-place recognition for YA.
The most interesting part of this author journey after having a third cardiac issue last summer was that although the book was written for middle level readers, Kirkus reviewed it as an Adult Nonfiction Memoir. That Kirkus cataloguing has created a multiple-genre read for adults willing to recapture their youth over fifty years ago yet still allowing the chance for middle level readers to enjoy discovering what play was like before technology and cell phones. Parents on Amazon/Goodreads and Barnes and Noble are submitting the most wonderful reviews for their children and themselves about WARNING….
March is Read Across America Week and National Reading Month. Last year I presented at two public schools with a “Time Capsule” Writing Lesson connected to the 15 short story collection. What has captured the readers of all ages is the fact that there are fourteen separate themes out of fifteen short stories about growing up. The stories connect to a variety of readers in this short story standalone collection in many different ways. The themes of Coming of Age, friendships, exploration and discovery, bad decisions with worse consequences, and finally discovering that girls did not have cooties captures the imagination and usually ends with a hilarious chuckle a chapter! If you want to laugh, you need to read these stories!
The collection also makes a powerful summer enrichment read for middle level readers. Homeschool organizations are acknowledging it as a perfect summertime read with meaningful student connected Chapter Lessons included in the back. What is next for this first-time author? A sequel already has five of the ten stories written. If WARNING… is met with continued success, an Adult Nonfiction Memoir version can possibly arrive next year… for more book information and a sample chapter please visit: www.genemiller56.com
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The struggles of many authors are universal. At the recommendation of my Beta Readers to publish, I queried literary agents. Having had the first cardiac incident in April of 2020 in Covid, I felt an urgency to land a literary agent sooner than later, however that did not happen. After sending out 28 queries, I received 18 rejections, 1 resubmit and 9 ghosted replies. I knew I needed to write an improved query letter, but I felt the time slipping away. In 2023, a second cardiac condition arose. I became more motivated to get this short story collection published. Since I was about to go into my 44th year of public education I researched Scholastic Books. At that time in November ’23 they were advertising online that you needed a literary agent to submit your book to Scholastic. I still didn’t have an agent. The twist of fate was that Scholastic added that “If you had a book with prepared teaching lessons, they would accept a book without a literary agent! So, in November of ’23 I sat down and developed a lesson for each chapter. I researched and presented new vocabulary terms, root words and word etymologies, definitions, critical thinking questions with themes, cross curricular research ideas, writing prompts, literary terms and types of conflicts in the stories. It took me until mid-February of 2024 to complete the creation of the individual student-centered Chapter Lessons. When I approached Scholastic Book’s website a new message was posted. “As of January 1st, 2024, we are no longer are accepting books with teacher guides without an agent.” I was devastated.
I then decided that was my last chance, or else I had to self-publish and take the financial risk on my own. I discovered Palmetto Publishing through my son and daughter-in-law who had used them for publishing their first novel previously. They were starving writers out of Los Angeles. Palmetto edited and published the book in June of 2024. Since then, I have been doing book shows at libraries, book fairs, and independent book shops while attempting to market on social media. Book ads have appeared in Publishers’ Weekly, Kirkus, and Story Monsters Ink Magazine.
In July of 2025 a new cardiac set back landed me at Penn Medicine. Determined to get to an improved fitness level for self-survival, I’ve lately been marketing the book less and taking better care of my heart. After the first cardiac incident in 2020 the cardiologist informed me that I was a one percenter. 99% of those in my condition do not survive, after a few more rounds of cardiac issues I feel prepared to take this book to its next level before I’m not around to support it. I personally feel as though I’ve been on a mission…
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As a classroom public educator for my first 19 years, and then an administrator for 16 years I learned to build relationships with children, teens, parents, and faculty. Having been formerly a 15-year high school football coach, 7-year high school basketball coach, a high school Head Tennis Coach 4 years and 8 years as a 7th and 8th grade baseball coach I learned to become a people person and to serve my audiences. I followed up on all of that by teaching for my last 9 years in Stockton University’s School of Education. I connected with our student body at Stockton University from ages 18 to 36 years old.
As an educator I learned not to bore people on most occasions. Therefore, as a writer I use high interest content with a wide variety of interesting themes to hook my readers. You may ask, “Do you have a secret weapon?” My reply is “Yes, it’s humor. Everyone loves to laugh.”
Overall, my book is a humorous fast read that strikes most readers with the need upon completing a story to turn the page and keep going into the next one. The best compliments I have received are the ones where they started one story expecting to stop halfway in, however they delayed dinner to complete the entire book! Also, another regular compliment that has occurred is that once the book is completed, the readers are left wanting to read more stories.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
In life most of what matters is health and family. Everyone must understand that both must be worked on and cared for. Children are our most precious gift in our society, so we as parents, grandparents, and adults must serve as constant role models to bring a brighter future for every child. Our society must perpetuate the common expectations to our children in order to build a better world. Kindness and respect are just the tip of the iceberg that adults can model for their children.
Pricing:
- $14.99 soft cover
- $9.99 Kindle
- $14.99 Audiobook or free on Audible
Contact Info:
- Website: www. genemiller56.com
- Instagram: genejohnmiller56
- Facebook: genemiller24@comcast.net
- LinkedIn: gene.miller@stockton.edu
- Youtube: GeneMiller-g8s
