FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #134 A Nuclear Lab Designer Retires And Becomes A Historical Novelist
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A single brown highway sign on I-95 sent Joyce Miller down a path she didn’t expect, and it led straight to a new historical fiction novel rooted in Fredericksburg-area history. Joyce joined us to share the story behind Mrs. Gari Melchers, inspired by Corinne Mackall Melchers, an artist connected to the Gari Melchers Home and Studio at Belmont. Corinne’s work and ambition existed in a world that often asked women to step back, and Joyce explains what drew her to a figure who helped build a celebrated career while her own art stayed in the shadows.
We also talk about Joyce’s unconventional route to becoming an author. After a 30-year career as a mechanical designer in a scientific, male-dominated field at Jefferson Lab, she retired in 2019 and finally gave writing the time it deserved. Joyce breaks down what helped her move from “I’ve always wanted to write” to actually finishing books, including how curiosity, research, and persistence turn a real life into a compelling novel. If you’re searching for writing advice, motivation for a career change, or a reminder that creativity doesn’t expire, this conversation delivers.
Then we zoom out into the interests that keep her grounded and inspired, from greyhound adoption advocacy to painting and museum visits. Joyce also teases what’s next: a new historical fiction project sparked by the Chicago Art Institute’s miniature rooms and the surprising women behind them, including connections to early forensic science training. Subscribe for more local stories, share this with a friend who loves Fredericksburg, Virginia history, and leave a review to help more listeners find the show.
Joyce A. Miller
Local Author
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
The Hidden Story Of Corinne
Speaker 2Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. We've got something a little bit different today. We have a special guest joining us. We have local author Joyce Miller. Joyce, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Well, thank you for having me. I'm really excited about this and excited to dive in. And you have written a book recently that is uh so exciting because it's so local for the Fredericksburg area. So let's start there. Share with us all about your new book.
Speaker 1Okay, so my new book is um titled Mrs. Gari Melchers, and it's a historical fiction novel, but it's based on the true story of Corinne Mackall Melchers, who um, you know, is a low a local um heroine, I would say. Um she she uh was an artist herself and she married Gari Melchers, a man much older than her. And due to the time that she uh lived in, she she couldn't pursue her art in the way she wanted to, and she ended up promoting his art career and being pivotal in you know making him a success.
Speaker 2I love it, and um I it's it's such a great story, and isn't it so interesting how um I feel like a lot of women can relate to her story, right?
Speaker 1I think so. I could certainly relate to her story. I felt like we were kindred spirits. So I live in Richmond, and um, but I'm originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and so I used to drive between Richmond and Pittsburgh back and forth on Interstate 95, which I'm sure many of your viewers have driven there, and I would see that brown attraction sign that said Gari Melchers Home and Studio, and I didn't know who Gari Melchers was, and I thought that that is he like a Civil War hero? I just had no idea, and so one day I stopped and I went through Belmont, which um you know is across the river from Fredericksburg, and um I went all through his their home and their studio with all of his paintings, and but in the house there are six paintings that Corinne painted, and so I went to the gift shop and I asked if there was a book about her, and they said, No, there's no book, and um, so I just felt like I have to tell her story.
Speaker 2I love that, and so tell me about your background. Do you did you have a background in writing or art? And like how did you go from you know touring to I'm gonna write her story?
Speaker 1So so um, so I always wanted to write from the time I was a young child, um, but you know, life takes us in different directions. And for 30 years, I was a mechanical designer at a nuclear physics laboratory. Wow. In in Newport News um Jefferson lab. And um, and so when I retired in 2019, I thought I'm gonna give this writing a shot because now I have time and I can do it. And so I wrote a historical fiction novel based on the true story of my granduncle, Joe Harris, who played baseball in the 1910s, 1920s. And uh he his baseball career was interrupted by World War I. He was severely injured, and then he came back and um played in the World Series in 1927, so it was like a story that wrote itself, um, and I self-published it. And so when so then I was kind of in this writing mindset, and so um that's when I went through the house at Belmont and thought, oh, I need to tell her story, and it was this kind of the same time frame, um, the you know, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, and so um I guess uh I had a lot of the research and um so it it just kind of landed in my lap.
Speaker 2Yeah, I can see that you're you're kind of already immersed in that time period, and then you know, there's the connection with her story and um who better to tell it? I love it. Yes, I love it. So has um uh Gari Melcher's studio have they um have they picked out the book? Have they seen it? Are you in the gift shop?
Speaker 1So not yet, but we're in discussions about that right now. The uh curator is reading the book and um and we'll see if it gets uh, you know, it's not a biography, it's it's fiction. So um as I did follow a lot of her life story and that kind of thing, but you know, I did embellish it. And um, so I don't know if it will be if they'll put it in the gift shop or not, but I'm hoping so.
How To Start Writing A Book
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean that would be really cool. And I feel like a lot of um a lot of history pieces, you kind of have to fill in the gaps, right? Because you are you have limited information. So I'm really looking forward to to reading it. And I have a question for you. So if there's someone listening who's inspired by your story and and kind of, you know, you're very interesting because you came from a field completely different than than writing. And so I feel like this is very inspirational. So if someone is listening and they're thinking, I've always wanted to write, you know, what is some advice you would give them?
Speaker 1So so yeah, um, and I think a lot of people want to write a book, and of course, it takes some dedication and some patience and those kinds of things. But one of the things, um, you know, so I worked in a in a scientific field, very male dominated. Um, and so that I could really relate to her and her story, because um, even though it was the art world, which is creative, it still was dominated by men when when she was, you know, involved in it. And so, you know, I would just say to take things that you are interested in, or and and write about the things that you're interested in, or or find someone who maybe um inspires you to write their story. Yeah, yeah, that's really great advice.
Greyhound Advocacy And Painting Life
Speaker 2Yeah I love that. I love that. So I want to learn uh more about you um when you're not busy writing. What are you doing for fun?
Speaker 1So so um, so I have uh a greyhound, and so I've been involved in the Greyhound uh adoption community for many, many years. So I my Greyhound that I have now is my sixth, my sixth greyhound. So I'm I do a lot of um um advocacy for them and um I and I used to do a lot more um hands-on working with getting the dogs from the racetrack to the into people's homes. Of course, now they've um eliminated many of the racetracks, and so the need is not so great as it was when I started in back in the beginning of the 90s, um, which is uh in some respects a good thing, yeah. Um, and so I like I like walking my greyhound. I do that, you know, several times a day, and um, and I also like to paint and um so same as uh Corinne and go to museums and uh that kind of thing.
Speaker 2Amazing. Have have you has your um uh interest or um you know inspiration changed any after, you know, kind of doing the research about Corinne in your own painting?
Speaker 1Um oh that's a good question. Um so maybe so, maybe a little bit. Um so she painted a lot of a lot of still life, but and and she painted a lot of different things, still life's landscapes. Um, there's a very good portrait she did of her husband that's very technical. There's like a mirror in the background. Um so so yeah, perhaps I I've expanded my um repertoire of what I want to paint.
Next Book On Miniature Room Makers
Speaker 2I could see that. Uh so here's the question. What is next for you?
Speaker 1So so next I um writing uh another historical fiction novel, again, um based on a woman who um a similar time frame. So my husband and I uh also are are foodies and we like to go places to eat destination eating. So for our wedding anniversary several years ago, we went to Chicago and we went to the Chicago Art Museum, and in the basement of the Chicago Art Museum, there are these uh there are 68 little miniature rooms, they're all 112 scale, and some are famous rooms and some are rooms of uh the artists, but she knew the people that that and she made a little model of their room. And the person who did them was a woman, Narcissa Thorne, who married the heir to the Montgomery Ward um store. He was the uh he he he got all the money from the Montgomery Ward fortune. So she was his wife, but again, was not really allowed to do like she could have become an architect, right? But she couldn't because of the her being a woman at that time, and so she made all these little rooms, and I and of course, again, I went looking for a book about her and couldn't find one. And so I've been researching that, and an interesting thing came from that research was I found on the same street that she lived on in Chicago was another woman who also made miniature rooms, and those rooms um were called the nutshells of death, and that woman's little rooms uh each one had a different murder scene in it because she wanted to become a forensic scientist, but at the time was not allowed to go to school for that, and so uh she made these and the FBI used those rooms up until the 50s in their training to uh for the cadets to pick up different things um about the you know, like if a person died from a suicide or they were murdered or whatever. And these two women lived on the same street and were two years apart in age. So I just found it really interesting. So that's that's very interesting. That's my next book, a little science-y, a little artsy, a little yeah.
Speaker 2I I feel like a a series coming here, right? Like the unsung woman, women heroes who you know just need their voices heard and and you are the vehicle to get us there.
Speaker 1Yeah, and they and they just had to go with what they what they could go with, I guess, you know?
Where To Find Joyce And Closing
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah. So I love it. Well, I love what you're doing, and I can't wait to read your newest book. And if the listeners also want to read your book or connect with you, how can they reach you?
Speaker 1So I do have a website, it's um www.joycemiller.com. Um, and they can have there's access to all my books. Um, they also could sign up for my um email if they want to and keep up with what we're doing and um how the books are coming along. Uh, and I'm on Instagram at Joyce A. Miller Writer if they want to follow me there.
Speaker 2Amazing. Joyce, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today and sharing your books with us.
Speaker 1Well, thank you for having me. And um, and I love Fredericksburg. It's a great place for Richmonders to an hour away by car, they can also take the train and um and it's just got restaurants and art museums and uh little treasures. I like I yes, little treasures, I like that.
Speaker 2Yes, definitely awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining me. This has been fun.
Speaker 1Thank you.
SpeakerThank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to FXBG NeighborsPodcast.com.