Earlier this month my friend, neighbor, and colleague John Jos Miller passed away. Not Covid, but that doesn’t really matter when gone is gone. I’ve been meaning to post before now to acknowledge his passing and the resulting loss, but it’s been hard to put the words together.

For years we critted each other’s work, sharing the ups and downs of the writing life here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was a fantastic writer who made a name for himself primarily from working in other creators’ IP, most notably the shared universe of Wild Cards. There have been a number of write ups (Locus, SWFA, GRRM not-a-blog, Westros, the Wertzone, ) that highlight the full range of his career, and if you are at all interested in the story worlds he published in, know you are in good hands. I’m just sorry there is not more of his standalone work available because I was privileged to see some of it and know it is equally as good if not better than his licensed stories.

I’m lucky enough to have shared two TOCs with him, for S.M. Stirling’s The Change anthology as well as Worlds of Light and Darkness. That brings me comfort to have our names are connected in this small way, even though he’s gone.

He was a huge film buff, and I loved nerding out with him about movies. He shared his love for film through his posts at both Black Gate and the Cheese Magnet archives, which are full of fascinating nuggets if you are ever interested in doing a deep dive into SF/F films across the decades.

You can find his last short story “Don’t Look Back” in Dreamforge Magazine #9. I saw an early version of this, and I’m glad to know it found a home as it celebrates aspects that are quintessentially John: his love of baseball, historical fiction, and SF/F. A good read from a good man and, since it must be, a good bye too.