If you’d like to hear my dulcet tones talking about the background and themes of my book, you now have several opportunities to do so.

First, the guys at the meditative art-and-faith podcast The Color of Dust had me on for a characteristically curious and digressive conversation that was a lot of fun. If you watch the video, you can enjoy the sight of me doing an interview in an unheated garage sitting in front of a pegboard covered with tools. Yes, that’s right, I have finally hit the big time.

The Color of Dust

34. Leaves of Healing/Matt Miller

To begin the new year, Dr. Matthew Miller joins us to talk about his new book Leaves of Healing: A Year in the Garden. His book brings together the church calendar with the “garden” calendar. As usual, the fellas have plenty of insights to add. Thank you, Matt, for this delightful conversation! Look at the chapter headings below to see the ground we cov…

Listen now

a year ago · 2 likes · Sam Kee, Jack Baumgartner, Seth Wieck, and Matt Miller

Second, Seth from the podcast separately interviewed me by email about the book—that interview is now out with Front Porch Republic. Here’s part of Seth’s preface, which gave me a slightly uncomfortable third-party glance at my own personality:

Afew years ago, I visited Matthew Miller at his home outside of Branson, Missouri. Initially, I had invited him to meet at a coffee shop so we could get to know one another, but he replied, “I make a better cup of coffee than anything you’re going to get in Branson, so just come over.” That’s a bold statement, but then you meet Matt. He resists being a passive consumer. If he drinks coffee—maybe the most passively consumed commodity on the planet—he’s going to order the raw beans wholesale, blend them, roast them, grind them, and brew them. If coffee trees could possibly be grown in Missouri, he’d cultivate them and wait 10 years for production so he could enjoy a cup of coffee. So, on an early March morning, while we both sipped the best cups of coffee that could be found in the Ozarks, Matt walked me around the property that is the setting of his new book Leaves of Healing: A Year in the Garden out now from Belle Point Press.

Third and most excitingly, I’ll be making two live appearances in Oklahoma City in late March to share the book. On March 28, I will be reading with my fellow Belle Point author Benjamin P. Myers at Full Circle Books in a conversation hosted by my mentor and undergraduate professor Scott LaMascus. Then the next day, I will be leading a workshop and speaking at the McBride Writers Festival at my alma mater, Oklahoma Christian University. Interested parties can register for this free workshop and potentially do a craft workshop on creative nonfiction with me, as well as hearing from the distinguished novelist Rilla Askew.

I expect to speak about the book a couple more times this spring/summer, but for now I hope you’ll enjoy the virtual interviews and certainly come out if you are local to Oklahoma City.

I hope to have more new writing out via this Substack soon, as the spring semester settles into a rhythm. Stay tuned.