Glenn Miller launched his professional career by working on television soap operas and game shows on the back lots of NBC Burbank. He holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and has served as a CBS-affiliate news producer, an executive speechwriter, and creative director at production agencies within the Twin Cities. He and his wife live in Minneapolis and are the parents of two grown sons. Doorman Wanted is his first novel. Meet Glenn:

You are an author, but is it your day job? I am fully retired from my day job, a long and enjoyable career of television, video, and event production. My days are now filled with writing, reading, and researching. When not engaged in those activities, I’m traveling, playing tennis, or wrestling with the German language.

Did you always want to be an author? I think deep down, yes. I grew up in a household surrounded by books and by family members who greatly valued the written word. Nothing was off limits – I started by reading comic books, graduated to MAD Magazine, and was reading sophisticated novels by the age of ten. I suspect that for anyone who enjoys consuming stories and literature, the idea is always kicking around in the back of one’s head: “I’d like to give this a try.”

What is your most recent book and what inspired you to write it? Doorman Wanted will be published on March 26, 2024. I have always been interested in how quickly we make assumptions about other people based on their outward appearance, and how often we are wrong. Doorman Wanted is about wealth, inheritance, and misperceptions around status. I wanted to, in a lighthearted fashion, look at these issues by inserting a few twists and turns within an unusual plot.

How do you hope your book uplifts those who read it? On a very broad basis, I hope people are simply amused and entertained by Doorman Wanted. Twenty-twenty-four might be a stressful year for Americans as we live through another presidential election cycle. I would like to think that Doorman Franklin Hanratty and his building, L’Hermitage, provide a welcome respite for those needing a break from 24-hour news cycles. But, beyond that, I hope Doorman Wanted encourages people to examine their own assumptions about the strangers we encounter on a daily basis.

What are you most excited about with this book? Being able to refer to myself as a first-time novelist is exciting enough, but the early endorsement reviews have been extremely satisfying. For artists in any field, it is always terrifying to create something and then release your baby out into the world for public review. I’ll simply do my best to enjoy this new experience before me.

How do you handle setbacks and criticism? Oh, now there’s the question. Hard to say. I would like to think that, as a confident, mature individual, any critical comments will roll off my back. But, I’m also human. During my career, all creative endeavors were a team sport, depending upon the talents of my performers, videographers, audio engineers, graphic designers, and makeup artists. Nothing moved forward without the express agreement of the client. But writing a book is such a different experience, with everything, in essence, being created by one individual – me. It’s that quality, I suspect, that makes the criticism of one’s book feel like such a personal matter.

Being an author today is like running a business. How do you manage all your publicity, social media and keep your engagement up with readers? I’m learning how important these elements are in the publication of a book. To assist me, I am working with a marketing and publicity firm, Smith Publicity, to oversee and assist with marketing matters.

How do you structure your day and make time for writing? I typically try to carve out 3-4 6-hour days of writing each week. I envy those writers – I know lots of them – who get up each morning before their workday, make themselves a pot of coffee, and write for 1-2 hours before going about their days. I am unable to write in that manner. I need chunks of a week in order to immerse myself and be productive. Within a given writing day, I begin by reading for at least one hour, thereby getting into a writing rhythm or tempo. I then spend thirty minutes reading what I wrote the previous day, and THEN I’m able to get into the creative mode. Once that hits, I attempt to kick out between 500-1000 words in a day.

What do you find most fulfilling in the career that you’ve chosen? The act of creation. We are all creative spirits and we all, in one form or another, require outlets for that creativity. When I’m not immersed in writing, I’m in a studio working on charcoal or graphite drawings.

What book uplifts you?  At any one time, I am in the middle of reading two books – one novel and one within the history or current events genres. In novels, I am particularly smitten with those that make me laugh, smile or guffaw. I recently finished Jen Beagin’s brilliant Big Swiss, a book with laugh-out-loud humor as well as a wonderfully warm message. In nonfiction categories, I am drawn toward any book that sheds light on the human existence or on this particular moment in America. I recently read a book by the insightful and funny Atlantic Monthly writer Mark Leibovich entitled Thank You for Your Servitude. It is beautifully reported while keeping a sense of humor around current political absurdities.

Connect with Glenn and get a copy of his book via his website. 

Images Courtesy of Smith Publicity, Inc.