Meet Kelly Miller
Kelly Miller is a poet living in San Jose, California with her husband, a poet and software engineer. Their children are grown and on their own. She recently awarded herself the Most Obsessed Writer award for her extensive portfolio of work and you can see samples of her talent and obsession on her blog.
Kelly is a kindergarten teacher with a degree in Health Science and in her spare time rides bikes and studies behavior change and health. The strangest job she’s ever had, however, was taking inventory at Osmond Studios.
As a child she read “Nancy Drew, Little House on the Prairie, Willy Wonka, and everything else.”
Kelly began her career in 2005. “I had a son leave on a mission and I was really studying the Book of Mormon with Hinckley’s challenge to read it by the end of the year. I woke up one morning with a song in my head. There is a time to receive enough. My son had some road blocks right up to the week he left- but he kept to his decision and was blessed.” For her, a writing career was a complete surprise. “I just woke up one day doing it.”
I asked how she started and what she wrote in her early career.
“At first I was writing songs and it evolved into poetry writing. Music writing is very painful when you’re not a musician. I stopped at about 60.” Like many of us, she also experimented with writing stories for children, but faced reality with a sense of humor.“ I have written only a few for my achievement girls. I would like to write more- but, I have found they are actually better than me.”
So today, she writes poetry based largely on gospel topics, and often based on the scriptures or talks from General Authorities. “I write because I love it. I will read something or hear something and off I go. I have the advantage through my blog of seeing what searches people do that ultimately lead to my blog. When I see it several times- then I know there is a need. Death, family, and mission come up a lot.” She is currently working on writing that shows “how the scriptures can change the heart.”
Kelly is a very flexible writer, happy to work anywhere. “I write them anywhere- planes, buses, parks, anytime and on anything.” She does, however, have a desk, which hosts a back scratcher and a giant rubber iguana in memory of Iggy. That must certainly have some impact on her writing, especially since she does most of her writing at night.
She chose self-publishing as her starting point. “I started a blog after worrying that I might lose my poetry. It is a great way to store them.” She likes blogs for their immediacy. “I post before I have even proof read. I get too excited to wait. That is the advantage of a blog. Very few leave a comment.”
She also self-published some of her poems and has cautions for those considering this route. “It could have been edited a little better, as it ended up without page numbers. And, it is incomplete. I have since written 300 more poems.”
Her advice to those who want to follow in her footsteps? “Enjoy it and don’t stop.” She recommends Rhymezone.com for budding poets.
Kelly’s dreams for the future? “I would love to have a recording of the general authorities reading my poems based on their talks. I would settle for my husband- if I could ever talk him into it…I dream of writing a sacrament hymn. Any music writers need a poem?” She says she would feel she’d reached the pinnacle of her career if she could make the publishing of poetry books popular again. I’m sure there are many poets and poetry fans hoping she succeeds at this goal.
2009 Poet's Market (Paperback) by Nancy Breen
