Susan Cummins Miller

Here's a short bio:

I was born and raised in southern California and now reside in Tucson, Arizona.

My educational background is in the sciences and liberal arts. My degrees include B.A.s in history, anthropology, and geology, and an M.S. in Geology.

I worked for the U. S. Government (primarily with the U. S. Geological Survey) for nine years, conducting fieldwork in California, Nevada, Idaho, and Utah. Subsequently, I taught introductory geology and oceanography courses at the college level and offered short courses in writing, geology, paleontology, and oceanography in Tucson area schools.

DEATH ASSEMBLAGE (Texas Tech University Press, 2002; HC ISBN: 0-89672-481-6; PB ISBN: 0-89672-517-0), the first mystery featuring geologist Frankie MacFarlane, involves ancient and recent murders in Pair-a-Dice, Nevada. For those of you in bookclubs, the TTUP website (http://www.ttup.ttu.edu/books/deathassemblage.html) contains discussion questions and a conversation with the author.

DETACHMENT FAULT (ISBN: 0-89672-520-0; cover photo above), the sequel to Death Assemblage, is set in Tucson, AZ, and the borderlands of Sonora, MX. After geosleuth Frankie MacFarlane pulls a body from the Sea of Cortez, a friend disappears in Mexico, and a colleague and student are slain in Tucson, Frankie's search for answers leads her into the shadow world of money-laundering and the antiquities trade. Berkley Prime Crime has released the pb version of DETACHMENT FAULT (ISBN: 0-425-20893-1).

When Frankie returns to UC-Del Rio, CA, to defend her geology dissertation in QUARRY (hardcover, ISBN: 0-89672-574X), police seek her help in resolving past crimes, her mentor is victim of a hit and run, someone's stalking her dissertation committee, and a student's disappearance triggers a manhunt in the Mojave Desert.

My poems have appeared or will appear in, among others, Sandcutters: Journal of the Arizona Poetry Society; Oasis Journal 2003, 2004, and 2005; The Write Word; and the forthcoming anthology A LAND FULL OF STORIES: Women Write about the Southwest (University of Texas Press, 2007).

"THE DIORAMA," a short story, is included in the A WAY WITH MURDER: An Anthology by Arizona Mystery Writers (Martin and Woods, eds. Xlibris: ISBN: 1-4134-4548-9).

Previously, I edited an anthology, A SWEET, SEPARATE INTIMACY: WOMEN WRITERS OF THE AMERICAN FRONTIER, 1800-1922, published by the University of Utah Press (ISBN: 0-87480-638-0), and was primary contributing writer for Wiewandt and Wilks' THE SOUTHWEST INSIDE OUT: AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO THE LAND AND ITS HISTORY, published by Wild Horizons Press.

At present, I'm writing the fourth Frankie MacFarlane novel, HOODOO, set in the Chiricahua Mountains of SE Arizona. In my spare time, I'm researching/writing about my grandmother's life, incorporating her published and unpublished autobiographical articles, short stories, and poems.

Recent books by Susan Cummins Miller:

Quarry (a Frankie MacFarlane mystery). Texas Tech University Press, ISBN: 0-89672-574X (HC).
Detachment Fault (a Frankie MacFarlane mystery). TTUP, ISBN: 0-89672-520-0 (HC); Berkley Prime Crime, ISBN: 0-425-20893-1 (PB).
Death Assemblage (a Frankie MacFarlane mystery). TTUP. ISBN: 0-89672-481-6 (HC); 0-89672-517-0 (TR).
A Sweet, Separate Intimacy--Women Writers of the American Frontier, 1800-1922 (anthology). University of Utah Press, 2000.