Local writer finds motivation in Alaska

After spending a month in Sitka, Ala., Miller is adjusting to life back in International Falls. She returned home Sept. 21 after spending five weeks in Alaska for a writer’s residency program sponsored by the Island Institute in Sitka.

After retiring from her post in 2008 as superintendent of Voyageurs National Park, Miller has been able to pursue the love she’s always had — writing. Ever since she was age 5, writing has been a natural thing for her and the way she responds to the world, she said.

“Most of my career has been pretty utilitarian one might say,” Miller explained. “Once I retired, I was like, ‘yes, the world is mine. I can write.’”

Her passion has always been fictional history, particularly Russian history. Following her retirement, Miller took on her current project, which involves writing a historical novel set in the 1800s, while Alaska was a colony of Russia.

“While I was with the park service, I had done a number of projects with Sitka and I got tied in,” she said. “However, I had known prior to that, that I was going to do a historical novel set in that city.”

She said she thought her novel would be from the perspective of an American couple moving to Alaska just after it was sold to the United States. However, as she got into it, the “good stuff,” as she referred to it, was before the move.

“I’ve been researching for this novel since the 1980s,” she said. “I still spend a large part of my time doing research.”

Miller said she traveled to Russia twice with the park service. Her trips gave her some first-hand impressions of the country’s culture, which helped tremendously with her novel, she said.

“I was taken with the Russian people — especially their courage and kindness — and gained a lot of respect for them,” she said. “Without experiencing this first hand, I wouldn’t have been able to write about it.”

About a year ago, after at least 25 years of researching and traveling, she finally started getting everything down on paper. Her writing is what landed her in the writer’s residency program.

According to Miller, learning about the program came by luck. She had been reading a special edition of “Poets and Writers” magazine on residencies and retreats and found a small box advertising the deadline for the application for the program sponsored by the Island Institute in Sitka.

According to the program’s website, the Island Institute’s writers’ residencies provide opportunities for four writers to each spend a month in Sitka pursuing their own work and getting to know the unique island community in the coastal mountains of Southeast Alaska. The residents may use their time to pursue their work.

“I couldn’t believe that this residency was in the exact town in Alaska that I was writing about,” Miller laughed.

After being selected for the program, she had a lot to prepare before she made Sitka her home for a month. She started to reread what she had already written and started the planning process of how she would use her time while she was gone.

“I just kind of sat with it,” she explained. “I didn’t do a great amount of writing before I left. I just thought about what I wanted to get done while I was there.”

With a relaxed sigh, Miller recounted her time in Sitka.

“Imagine a day that you can just do whatever you want. Day after day after day.”

Of the entire experience, Miller’s favorite part was when inspiration would come calling.

“On the Sunday before I left Sitka, I thought I would go for a walk in the mountains and just get out and breathe in the gorgeous fresh air,” she said. “And then, this little voice started bubbling up in my head telling me she needed to get on paper today. It was a character I hadn’t developed yet and she was ready to go. I didn’t know if she’d come back, so I didn’t get my walk.”

Since she’s been home, Miller said she’s been trying to answer the question of what she learned from this experience.

“It definitely changed me,” she said. “I believe in myself as a writer in a way that I didn’t before. I’ve always had a little bit of terror in approaching the blank screen — writing a novel is a big project and it all has to come out of my brain. However, I realized that no matter how dead one day may seem, it will eventually all pop to life and hopefully people like it. I had such a phenomenal reception for my work while I was there. I wasn’t prepared for that.”

She said many people started to recognize her as the writer in residence while she was in Sitka and would ask when her novel would be coming out — including James Gibson.

“James is a very renowned historian of the Russian colonial period and he came to a session I was holding. I was really nervous about reading in front of him,” Miller remembered. “Afterwards, in a very dignified manner, he came up to me and said he had a question for me. I thought ‘Oh dear, he’s found something wrong.’ Instead, he asked how soon the book would be out. When I said it would be three years he replied, ‘I hope you finish it sooner because I want to be around to read it.’”

Miller said she just about fell over. “I had better hurry up so James Gibson is around when this book is done.”

Miller said she’s readjusted her timeline. Instead of the novel’s completion in three years, she hopes she can have it ready in two.

“I’m thinking I need to get this thing written this winter,” she laughed. “I want to have the first draft done and ready for revisions a year from now. I will then start to market it as necessary. I am very susceptible to external pressure and highly motivated by approval.”

Overall, Miller is very proud of her novel.

“I want people to come away from the book feeling they’ve experienced a time in history that they knew very little about before,” she said.