What privacy?

Front page of the July 28, 2013, Providence Sunday Journal.  Art by The Journal's Tom Murphy.

 With an extensive print and online presentation, The Providence Journal today explores one of the pressing issues of our time: Privacy. We had scheduled this as part of our eWave series before Edward Snowden's revelations -- but those leaks, beginning June 5, give the issue more immediacy. At stake is an essential right Americans have held since the Founding Fathers, who wrote the Fourth Amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The threat is not only from our own government today, specifically the National Security Agency, which collects data on innocent Americans suspected of no wrongdoing. It is also from the private sector -- Google, Facebook and other entities that collect, share and store our most personal information. With our complicity.

Today's package features an essay that I wrote, plus tips on protecting privacy in the digital age, and a graphic describing the fine print of Google's privacy police (if you haven't read it, you may be surprised to learn what the internet giant takes from you). Also, a poll and great art. And a story about Timothy H. Edgar, a visiting fellow Brown University's Watson Institute who has the unique perspective of having been a lawyer with the ACLU, and a privacy expert inside the administrations of President Obama and former president George W. Bush.

As usual, the Journal's eWave team has done an incredible job from the cover art to page design to editorial support and online presence and poll. My thanks to them. This has been a collaborative effort all year in the eWave: The Digital Revolution series. And there's plenty more to come!

A new way to look at our brains and ourselves

Arriving on November 5, 2013:
Top Brain, Bottom Brain: Surprising Insights Into How You Think, a Simon & Schuster book co-authored with celebrated psychologist and neuroscientist Stephen M. Kosslyn, PhD. More details soon, but you can like the Facebook page now and follow us on Twitter.

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Roger Williams Independent Voice Award

I am honored and humbled to be named the 2013 winner of the Roger Williams Independent Voice Award from the Flickers: Rhode Island International Film Festival, to be presented 7 p.m., Tuesday, August 6, at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence during the festival's opening night.

"Wayne has a remarkable body of work that truly represents the spirit of the award," festival executive director George Marshall told The Providence Journal. "Indeed, he has illuminated the lives of the diverse folks who have allowed him to tell their stories."

The story noted: "Over more than three decades at The Journal, Miller's work has ranged from coverage of Newport society and the life of former Gov. Bruce Sundlun to the experiences of Frank Beazley, an advocate for people with disabilities, and returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans chronicled in the 2011 series 'The War on Terror: Coming Home.' "

 The award is presented to "to an outstanding artist whose vision promotes tolerance, compassion and understanding. Named after the founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams, who established an American tradition of religious freedom and individual liberty that was encoded in The Bill of Rights," according to the festival. Past winners include Trinity Rep actress Barbara Meek and stage and screen actor Paul Sorvino.

Credit for this award, of course, goes to the many people over many years who have shared their stories with me for my films, books and Providence Journal work. And so I thank all of them! Please join me on August 6 at opening night of the festival at The Vets.

Barbara Meek, winner of the 2012 Roger Williams Independent Voice Award, with friend. Courtesy RIIFF.

Critical Praise for short story collection, Vol. 2!

 UPDATE, 7/12/13: Listen to Mark Slade's interview of me on his latest Dark Dreams podcast. We talk horror, non-fiction and writing of all sorts. Also, Stephen King, the late Horror Show publisher Dave Silva and other giants of the field. Interview begins at the 26:26 mark. Also featuring selections from E. S. Wynn and vela Damon.

With Barnes and Noble promoting Vapors: The Essential G. Wayne Miller Fiction, Vol. 2, and Amazon Kindle getting in on the action, critical praise for the collection is starting to come in.

Due in the fall of 2013, the third volume of my collected shorts: THE BEACH THAT SUMMER. Read the title story now.

-- “Wayne Miller is a writer's writer. A long-time pro whose fiction is so seamless, you don't notice the barbs and sharp edges until it's far too late,” says Thomas F. Monteleone, Bram Stoker winner, author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing a Novel and publisher of the Borderlands horror anthologies.

-- "G. Wayne Miller is one of those authors who invites you in with smooth, literary prose, offers you tea, or whiskey, and then - slowly – as stories progress, and the fire on the hearth gets hotter, sears images into your memory.  These are fine, well-wrought tales that leave their mark," says David Niall Wilson, author of Deep Blue, This Is My Blood, and Nevermore.

-- “G. Wayne Miller is a legend in the horror field –– writing poetic, vibrant stories that could easily fit in The Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Vapors includes 13 stories that are unforgettable,” says Mark Slade, author and producer of the Dark Dreams podcast.

Thanks to all!

Buy at Barnes and Noble or on Amazon Kindle.