Launch of John Winn Miller's
RESCUE RUN
By Leslie S. Lowe
John Winn Miller is a former award-winning investigative reporter (Pulitzer finalist), foreign correspondent, newspaper editor and publisher, screenwriter and novelist. His first novel, The Hunt for the Peggy C, was a semi-finalist in the Clive Cussler Adventure Writers Competition and was awarded a gold medal by the Military Writers Society of America.
How would you describe this book and its themes in a couple of sentences?
In Rescue Run, Capt. Jake Rogers leads his crew on a daring mission to rescue his beloved’s father from the Nazis, but a shocking betrayal forces them to flee across occupied Europe with the SS, French gangsters, and a ruthless bounty hunter in hot pursuit.
What inspired and attracted you to writing historical fiction?
I’ve always loved reading history and historical fiction by such greats as Colleen McCullough, Gary Jennings, Robert Harris, James Clavell, and Gore Vidal. But I didn’t pick this subject or genre; it picked me. The idea for the series came to me in a dream when I was a young journalist. I originally wrote it as a screenplay, and then, when COVID hit, I decided to try writing a novel.
This is a sequel to The Hunt for the Peggy C? Will there be another in the series? If not, what are you working on now, and is it related to this in any way?
I surprised myself–and my publisher–by finishing the third volume of the series even before I had finished editing Rescue Run. It features many of the same characters and takes place during World War II. That third volume will be published in 2026.
Does any part of your own life experiences as an investigative reporter and foreign correspondent contribute to the story? What difficulty did you have in writing this one?
As a journalist, I learned how to do research quickly, and as a foreign correspondent, I learned how to observe and write using all five senses. But even those experiences didn’t prepare me for the huge amount of research I had to do for the series. I had never been on a submarine or merchant ship, knew nothing about the sea, and had only read World War II histories about famous battles or leaders, not ordinary people. For these books, I had to research what people ate, the types of weapons they used, and even what their shoes were made of (leather was reserved for the military).
Is there a key historical event you found in researching that inspired you to write this story to convey a message for now?
I was stunned when I ran across a book about the Westerbork Transit Center in Holland, where more than 100,000 Jews were held during the war. They lived ordinary lives, had jobs, a theater, sports teams, and even a synagogue. But it was all a cruel hoax to keep them calm before being sent off to concentration camps in Poland. The utter depravity of this disinformation struck me as particularly relevant to today.
What kind of research did you do for this story? Did you get to do any interesting interviews?
Most of my research involved books, but I also got valuable information from scholarly articles, historical blogs, documentaries, military training films, and historical associations. I was also greatly helped by historians and fellow authors who were kind enough to reply to my pesky emails. Google Earth was also helpful in allowing me to describe the locations where my characters walked along that I couldn’t visit in person. As for interviews, the most interesting were the ones of real historical figures recorded by the British Imperial War Museum.
How do you think the reader will connect with your main characters? Is there one that you feel connected to and why?
This is not your typical World War II thriller. Rather, it is a tale about ordinary people doing extraordinarily brave things for love amid the horrors of Nazi-occupied Europe. Capt. Jake Rogers and Miriam Maduro, who fell in love when Rogers rescued her and her family on the Peggy C, are constantly challenged with agonizing moral dilemmas. Miriam, once a mere damsel in distress, grows from those experiences into a tough and righteous leader that readers will cheer on as they feel sorry for her.
Every author has their own publishing journey. Tell me about yours.
In some ways, writing my novels was easier than getting published. I sent out more than fifty query letters to agents and publishers. A handful of agents were kind enough to respond with “no thanks.” Most didn’t respond at all. But I refused to give up until Bancroft Press signed me.
The writing process I developed was largely spontaneous. I had no daily word quota, no set writing times, and no expectations each day other than to write or research something. Every day I focused on plowing ahead and not stressing about re-writing, remembering what Hemingway said about the first draft of everything is crap. While researching the history, I constantly sought books on how to write. The best one I found was Sol Stein’s Stein on Writing.
What advice would you give to other aspiring historical writers?
Never give up. Remember, Stephen King threw away the first three pages of his fourth unpublished novel in frustration. His wife Tabitha pulled Carrie out of the trash and told him he was on to something and should keep writing. John Grisham, who King’s editor at Doubleday discovered, says he couldn’t give away his first novel, A Time to Kill, until after The Firm was published. And just think what poor John Kennedy Toole could have accomplished if he’d kept plugging along after writing A Confederacy of Dunces instead of committing suicide.
What is the last great book you read? Why?
The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson. I love non-fiction books written like novels that surprise me with obscure historical details, especially about Winston Churchill.
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