About the Author
Born in 1957, Penn Miller grew up in the extreme western part of Virginia in the small town of Norton, located in Wise County bordering Kentucky. Unlike the rest of Virginia, the western tip of the state is part of the southern Appalachian region, remaining rural and tied to the coal industry. His mother was a schoolteacher and his father returned from World War II to work as a telegraph operator for the railroad.
Penn has a biology degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MBA from the College of William and Mary. For the past thirty-nine years, he has worked in downtown Richmond, Virginia, discovering the city’s historic haunts and hidden treasures on his lunch-hour walks. Drawing on his daily prowls through the city, Penn crafted his tightly plotted story of Civil War reenactors caught in a high-stakes chase. He was inspired by the often neglected and overlooked historic sites, and the nuanced history of the city and its inhabitants. Penn often states the main character of the novel is the city of Richmond.
He is married with two grown daughters and lives in the Richmond metropolitan area. He continues to go for his daily lunchtime walks and is an avid bird watcher and a rabid VCU Rams basketball fan.
Penn Miller notes, “My aim was to produce a fun, funny novel that would make American Civil War history accessible and captivating, appealing to readers beyond the Civil War enthusiasts and providing a springboard to explore Richmond’s history. My intent was never to make light of the serious subject of war, but to add a modern-day perspective to the nation’s defining event and paint a picture of Richmond, the old capital of the Confederacy, as a premier historic destination."