Former Findlay man wrote book inspired by twin granddaughters

SPRING HILL, FLORIDA — Chris Miller wrote about snails, elephants and alligators in his first book. Now he's on to turtle twins named Maisie and Reagan, a turkey excited for Thanksgiving and a shark whose best friend is a seagull. "Maisie and Reagan, The Turtle Twins Who Hated Being Slow" is Miller's second children's book. It was recently released and is now available on Amazon. "It's the same kind (as the first) with the limericks, little lessons for the kids," he said. "All the names are family or friends, but they don't necessarily represent that person. I just throw them in there." Writing and illustrating children's books is a far cry from the years he spent in Findlay as a radio sportscaster. But Miller, who is now retired and living in Spring Hill, Florida, said he hopes there are more books in his future. In this current series, Miller is writing books for his grandchildren. The first one from 2020 is titled "Lily, the Snail Who Wanted to Go Fast." Each of the characters in the book face day-to-day challenges — in limerick form. Miller calls them life lesson limericks. "I guess that's the Irish in me who loves limericks," he laughed. The star is Lily the snail, who is based on Miller's granddaughter, who is also named Lily. In the book, she dreams of going fast so she learns to roller skate. There are also snippets about Eleanor the elephant, who has a peanut allergy, and an alligator named Abby with anger issues. Maisie and Reagan from the second book are Miller's 5-year-old granddaughters, Maisie and Reagan. "One day I was walking them and a turtle came across the path," said the 62-year-old Miller. "I saw that turtle and thought, Oh my goodness, that would be good for these two." "The girls were little at the time," he said. "They were amazed at it. What the heck is this thing? So they're the turtle twins." He worked on the book on and off after the first one was done. But he finally finished it when he was recuperating from major back surgery in December. "So as I was sitting around I thought I might as well have something to do so I finished that baby off," Miller said. The twins are now 5½ and getting for kindergarten. Another limerick in the book talks about a turkey who is mistakenly anticipating Thanksgiving. "She doesn't know why she's getting all this free food," Miller said. "Then there's two donkeys I named after my brothers, kind of as a joke. So they're the ones that shine the light, hey, this is why you're getting all this food." Like the first book, Miller also did all of the illustrations. "I wouldn't want anybody else to do them. That's the most fun," he said. "I mostly use colored pencils and then I color in with marker. Maisie asked me how I was so good at coloring." Miller opted to self-publish instead of using a publisher. His wife, Diana Starkey, helped with designing the book. "She's retired from Marathon, but now she's on the other side of the business. She's an oil broker. She sits in her office and wheels and deals all day," he said. "And I sit back and color little kids' pictures. It's more fun, but it doesn't pay as well, that's for sure." The second book doesn't have quite as many pages as the first one, said Miller. "The young kids would like the pictures. The stories might be for more like third, fourth, fifth grade kids," he said. Miller said the next book will be for his granddaughter, Alana. The soon-to-be 4 year old is Lily's sister. "After that, I've got some tall tale kind of things I want to write," he said. "Hopefully there's more to come."