F.H. So, are you a musher?
S.M. My wife Terry and I have eighteen dogs: one Alaskan Malamute, two Alaskan Huskies and fifteen Inuit Sled Dogs. The main dogs get run over a thousand miles a season.

F.H. Is Signs of Winning about ISDs then?
S.M. No, the protagonist starts with Malamutes and ends up with Alaskans. She gets into mid-distance racing and looses sight of everything except winning. There's a fair amount of racing and training and running dogs in it, but it's mostly about the relationships between the characters and how they handle the situations they find themselves in.

F.H. How much of the story is based on things that have actually happened to you?
S.M. Most of the things that are painful have happened to me or my wife. A lot of the embarrassing things have actually happened to us too. The part with the black lab at the finish line really did happen except it was a Malamute during a training run. I was so proud of them I had to include it in the book.

F.H. Have you written other books?
S.M. I'm currently putting the finishing touches on two other young adult novels. One is about a young boy who finds an ISD that belongs to a neighbor that has a reputation for mistreating dogs. His parents say he has to take her back but he's afraid of what will happen to her if he does. The other book is about a young girl whose family comes into possession of a pair of wolf puppies and the problems that arise. I'm also kicking around an idea of a young adult who runs a big race like Race to the Sky. I haven't decided how they get into the race or if they might race ISDs. I have a couple of other books I'm working on but they have nothing to do with canids.

F.H. What made you decide to write a book?
S.M. Oh, I went through a poetry phase and a short story phase. I've written a lot of songs even though I'm a horrible singer and only a slightly better guitar player. But ever since college I've wanted to write a novel. I have about five half finished novels stuffed away somewhere. 

F.H. Why were you able to finally finish one?
S.M. I gave up trying to write the great American novel. I think writing for young adults allowed me to tell a story without having to worry about whether or not a college professor would find universal truths and lasting value in it. Kids just want to have fun reading.

Signs of Winning is story about dogsleds, huskies, tuglines, ice hooks and dog booties. But mainly it's a story about thirteen-year-old Kaitlin, a deaf girl with a passion for dogs.

As I think back to my childhood and my shocking capacity for stubbornness and clumsy manipulation, I think Miller has succeeded wonderfully at making Kaitlin real. Kaitlin is not an angel, yet she's thoroughly likable. She's not a disabled wallflower, yet she doesn't always win. Kaitlin's spunk, and humor ("I saw Joe Workman. He was doing the deaf cheer and as near as I could tell asking for ice cream."), make Signs of Winning an entertaining read.

In Signs of Winning, Kaitlin struggles to define what makes her a winner and what makes her a loser. That's not easy for a deaf girl in a hearing world, or for a child who feels cheated by her mother's death and resents her father's detachment. 

Kaitlin is thrown more challenges in the story, but she also gains some friends. George, who knows sign language, helps Kaitlin train her young sled dogs. Her new best friend Sarah, is deaf and (as she says) erudite, and wants to get multiple body piercings and a tattoo of a dove and an olive branch on her ankle. 

Kaitlin is an aspiring sled dog racer. In the story, she progresses from the three-mile Snowflake Days race with her two Alaskan malamutes to the 150-mile Moccasin Run with her newly trained team of six Alaskan huskies. It's through sled dog racing, with help from her friends and family, that Kaitlin learns that being a winner isn't about crossing the finish line first.

Signs of Winning is a good story. It doesn't just zoom to the finish, it lures with twists and turns. In the end, it's a winner.

Signs of Winning; 192 pages paperback, for ages 12 and up, ISBN 0-9681675-5-1, US $9.00 plus shipping, Cdn $12.00 plus shipping from Whippoorwill Press, Box 206, Inwood, MB R0C 1P0 Canada, also available at Amazon.com and Barnes&Noble.