Valley Stream author’s first novel hits the Internet

Sports, movies and stamp collecting are some areas that often pique people’s interests when they’re experiencing some downtime. These hobbies and interests don’t always lead to work in the future, but for Stephen Miller, it did.

Miller, a 46-year Valley Stream resident, loves to write in his spare time, and always has since he was young. His first published novel, “Web of Contradiction” is for sale on Amazon and is getting rave reviews. Miller, who works as a legal consultant in Brooklyn and Manhattan, said sales have been pretty good since his book was released on March 2.

“It’s very strange because I see a lot of the same people everyday in the courthouses and it’s really weird when you walk into the attorney’s room where you know people for years and they’re sitting there reading your book,” Miller said.

He started writing the book two years ago and said it took three and a half months to complete. Once the book was completed, Miller took an unusual route to get his work published.

“I actually forwent the agent process because I think it’s actually kind of a waste of time,” he said. “No agents take any submissions anymore anyway and if you’re not referred or if they don’t know you, they don’t really look at them anyway.”

After consulting a friend, Miller took his work directly to a publisher himself. He added that if the product is good and people enjoy the writing, there is a chance the story could get picked up, although, “it’s frustrating and it takes quite a while.”

Radio host Kevin Burke read Miller’s novel and asked him to come on his program, Community Issues, on Nassau Community College’s radio station, to promote the book a few weeks ago.

Burke particularly liked the main character in the book, Jack Dowd, because he was a “man’s man.” Burke also said, “the story line was good, there were a number of surprises and I thought overall the book was an excellent read. The character development was excellent, the dialogue was believable, his descriptions of areas on Long Island, Nassau County and New York City I thought were right on.”

“Web of Contradiction” is, “a character-driven gritty story of a once legendary NYPD detective turned private investigator who has been hired to find out who has been threatening the lives and careers of two Internet pornography producers,” Miller said. “Dowd descends deeper into their world, his ethics, loyalties and weaknesses are tried, exploited and played upon.”

Miller was a member of the New York City Police Department for four and a half years in the 1980s before committing to legal consulting as his lone full-time job. He wrote “Web of Contradiction” at night after he put his two children to sleep, and said he had to take to a break at one point from writing because he didn’t like the direction the story was heading. After a two-week hiatus, Miller resumed writing and finished his first novel.

He is now working on his second book that has a tentative release date of Aug. 1. Miller said his next book will feature the character of Dowd, but the storyline is unrelated to “Web of Contradiction.”

The book is on sale now at Amazon.com