John Charles Miller is a groundwater geologist and writer of speculative fiction and other strange little stories. Residing in Tampa, Florida with his wife Mary, he has been a part-time resident of Citrus County, Florida since 1981, on Lake Tsala Apopka, near the small community of Hernando.

During his almost 40 years as a geologist he focused on groundwater supplies and contamination assessments, monitoring, and cleanup. He is a licensed Florida Professional Geologist. He is fluent in Spanish, having served in the US Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic from 1962-64 under John F. Kennedy's presidency, and has 8 years professional experience in Latin America.

His writing website is quarkspacetravel.com, where his short stories can be downloaded free as pdf documents for your reading pleasure. A number of his stories have been award winners in annual contests of the Tampa Writers Alliance. The Quark Space Travel website name was derived from his short story, Scammed, in which a random Google search comes across an obscure website: quarkspacetravel.com.  The story took 1st Place in Science Fiction/Fantasy in the 2009 Tampa Writers Alliance annual writing contest, and is published in Wordsmith 2010.

His short story You Can't Pick Up Raindrops was published in the online magazine, LOST, as the lead November 2008 story. http://www.lostmag.com/issue28/raindrops.php


Other writing awards and publications:

You Can't Pick Up Raindrops -- 2005 Tampa Writers Alliance Honorable Mention for Non-fiction in the 19th Annual Writing Contest and was published in the Tampa Writers Alliance Wordsmith in 2005 (Vol. 16).

A shortened version of You Can't Pick Up Raindrops was published online by the Peace Corps Writers in 2007 as http://peacecorpswriters.org/pages/2007/0703/703wr-miller.htm

Fish Face Fools -- (a one-act play) was published in the Tampa Writers Alliance Wordsmith in 2006 (Vol.17)

Zapatos -- won 3rd Place for Non-Fiction in the 2007 Tampa Writers Alliance 20th Annual Contest and was published in Wordsmith in 2008.

In Between --  won Honorable Mention for Science Fiction in the 2007 Tampa Writers Alliance 20th Annual Contest  and was published in Wordsmith in 2008

Mother Earth's Gifts -- 2009 Tampa Writers Alliance 22nd Annual Contest -- Honorable Mention for Non-fiction and was published in the Tampa Writers Alliance Wordsmith in 2010

His poem Feather Circle was published in the May/June 2009 issue of the Avocet (newsletter of the Tampa Audubon Society) Vol XX, Issue 5