First-Time Author Signs Her Novel At
Local Bookstore
Loxahatchee author
and first-time novelist Barbara Davidson-Miles signed copies of
her novel Connor at Books of Wellington in the Wellington Mall
on March 10.
Davidson-Miles’
book is a murder mystery featuring a wildlife photographer with
an unusual ability to find lost pets.
Davidson-Miles, a
part-time resident of Loxahatchee, divides her time between
Massachusetts and Florida, as she and her husband Steve own
farms in both states. They have 13 horses, five dogs, three
cats, three parakeets, two lovebirds and a parrot.
“I come down
here for three months during the winter,” Davidson-Miles
said. “We come down here on and off during the year. We
like it. I don’t know if we will eventually retire down
here or if it’s just a real estate investment. But it
seems like as long as we have the horses, we will be coming
down here.”
Davidson-Miles, who
grew up in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, said she did not come
from a “horsey” family. She started riding when she
was ten years old and has kept on since then. She earned a
degree in biology from Russell Sage University in Troy, New
York, where she met her husband, and got her master’s in
biology at Clark University in Massachusetts. She did doctoral
research at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology
in Massachusetts.
Davidson-Miles worked
long hours at the Worcester Foundation, studying diseases and
viruses. Her husband suggested that she take some time off and
do something with the horses. She got into showing horses full
time, and they bought their farm in Loxahatchee. It was while
she was down here, doing nothing except working with the
horses, that she started writing. “I was thinking,
‘I’m 49, and what the heck have I
done?’” she said. “What am I
doing?”
Her new career as an
author actually started out as something of a joke. She had
watched the series of Rocky films loaned to her by her sister,
and surfing the net the next day, she read that the possibility
of another sequel was in the air, but star Sylvester Stallone
couldn’t come up with any story ideas. A story line came
to her while working with her horses in the barn. She ended up
writing it down over the course of several months. “I had
a whole story in my head,” Davidson-Miles said. “It
was just me and the barn. I don’t watch TV that much. It
was just a joke. I named a bunch of minor characters after my
nieces and nephews. Pretty soon, I had ten chapters. Of course,
it never got published.”
Because she was an
animal person, Davidson-Miles then got to thinking about the
story line with Mireya Richardson, her protagonist who has an
unusual gift where she communicates with animals and becomes a
wildlife photographer. She then uses her skill to solve a
murder. The book was published by 1stbooks in May 2003.
For her next novel,
Davidson-Miles is writing the story of a woman who discovers
herself in Alaska. The book is partly based on adventures that
Davidson-Miles had when she and her husband went trekking
through the Alaskan wilderness.
“It’s
going to take place in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge,” Davidson-Miles said. “It’s about a
woman who runs away from her life and finds herself.”
Davidson-Miles said
people keep asking her if she is going to do a sequel to
Connor. She will, but not yet. She wants to wait a while before
coming out with that book.
“Everyone asks
me if there is going to be a sequel,” Davidson-Miles
said. “There is, but I’m taking a break from
her.”
Davidson-Miles’s book is available through
Amazon.com or through Alibris, or at bookstores. A portion of
the proceeds from the book sale will go to NEADS, National
Education for Assistance Dog Services, a nonprofit organization
established to provide hearing and service dogs for people who
are deaf or who use wheelchairs.