DEL.ICIO.USAuthor of teen series finds balance in Snellville
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Each month, her advice guides millions of parents through teen tantrums and potty training pitfalls. Yet her applications to be room mom of her daughters’ classes are still pending at school.
No worries. Denene Millner, 39, didn’t move 800 miles from New Jersey to metro Atlanta to sweat the small stuff.
KIMBERLY SMITH / ksmith@ajc.com
Denene Millner usually writes at her computer in the kitchen where she can keep an eye on the goings on at her Snellville home, including the family dog Teddy, who hangs around with her during the day as she goes back and forth between writing and household duties.
KIMBERLY SMITH / ksmith@ajc.com
Millner with the books she’s already had published and one that will be published in October.
Denene Millner, who has written 16 books, including six with her husband, travel magazine publisher Nick Chiles, will appear at the Decatur Book Festival at 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 30. She will be featured at the Escape Stage.
Among the works Millner will feature is her latest, the Black Literary Award-nominated "Hotlanta" series featuring African-American teen girls.
Millner also will appear from noon to 2 p.m. Aug. 31 at the Children's Book Authors and Illustrators of the South booth. The new literary group features 20 local artists and authors of children's books. Authors from the group also are scheduled to appear at the Gwinnett Reading Festival in Lawrenceville in October and are available to visit classrooms and libraries to discuss writing.
For more information about the children's literary community, visit cbais.blogspot.com or contact author Vicky Alvear Shecter at 404-202-7374.
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Millner, an enterprising free-lance journalist, author of 16 books and mother of three, left a hectic life of deadline stress as first a New York political reporter and then an executive editor with Parenting magazine to write her family’s happy ending in Snellville.
Her husband, Nick Chiles, 43, also wanted to slow down.
“We were living in New Jersey and working in New York,” Millner said. “The cost of living was crazy. The boat just always felt like it was sinking in some way, whether it was not having enough time to spend with our girls, not having enough time to spend with each other or not having enough time to keep the house clean. We just got tired of the rat race.”
So in 2005 the family headed south to a five-bedroom brick home with a two-car garage. The move gave Millner time to volunteer — and an intriguing career opportunity.
She was tapped by Alloy Media to help create its teen book series featuring African-American characters. The series, called “Hotlanta,” follows the adventures of twin sisters Sydney and Lauren Duke, who are growing up spoiled in Buckhead with their mother and stepdad when their birth father, an ex-con, resurfaces.
The first book, one of three co-authored by Millner, was nominated for an African American Literary Award for Best Children’s Book. (Winners will be announced in September.) It will be among works featured at the Decatur Book Festival Aug. 29-31.
Millner will attend the festival also as a member of the new group Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators of the South, which visits fairs, schools and libraries to encourage children to read.
“African-American teen girls are avid readers way more than they get credit for,” Millner said. “What they are looking for when they pick up a book are characters that look like them or speak to their experience.”
In between books, Millner free-lances and writes the “Reality Check” column for Parenting. She writes every weekday — no exceptions — like when she worked at the New York Daily News. Now she has time to keep her house clean, cook spaghetti dinners and throw a birthday bash for her 16-year-old son. “It’s extremely important to me to be a good mom, a good wife and a good worker,” she said. “I finally achieved that balance here in Snellville.”
