Tamara L. Miller

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Tamara L. Miller earned her PhD in Canadian history before embarking on a career working for the federal government. Miller began as a doe-eyed policy analyst and eventually moved into an executive role with the Government of Canada. She later left public service, older and perhaps a little wiser, to become a writer. Miller is past president of Ottawa Independent Writers and has written several articles published online by the likes of CBC and Ottawa Life Magazine.

Over the years, the author has called many Canadian cities home but now lives in Ottawa with her family and two long-suffering cats. She’s always been fascinated by the raw beauty of the wilder places in the world and escapes to them whenever possible.

Miller's first novel is Into the Fall.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

Settling on a title is like casting into a very large body of water looking for just the right nugget. The best titles are layered, giving a sense of the story but also playing with the themes and readers’ expectations. Into the Fall came about thanks to some brainstorming with my agent. We wanted something that captured the Canadian wilderness at its most wild and unfamiliar, while also hinted at the fate of the characters.

The novel opens on a late season canoe trip when Sarah Anderson wakes up to a frost filled morning and a missing husband. We played with a few titles, all rooted in water or wilderness themes. Deep Waters was a holding title for a long time, but it didn’t quite capture the emotional journey that each of the characters goes through as they learn the people they loved were not who they seemed. Into the Fall, with its double entendre, was the winner as soon as we landed on it. Nothing autumn images to conjure up beauty, peril and human fallibility.

What's in a name?

In many ways, the main characters named themselves. They came off the keyboard really early, and almost right away ingrained themselves into the story. For the lead couple, Sarah and Matthew Anderson, I wanted relatively common names. Sarah means ‘princess’ in Hebrew, and that’s who she is in so many ways. She lives life in her own little reality and goes to great, even terrible, lengths to make it fit.

For Matthew, I needed a name that could move through time to distinguish two different versions of the character. So, he became Matt in the past, and Matthew in the present.

The character of Izzy was always going to need a short, tempestuous nickname. I just loved the chaos that comes with the double ‘zz’ sound. She is the ball of energy who keeps the family from falling apart, but also Sarah’s conscience.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your novel?

I think that little bookworm would be pretty darn happy with where I’ve landed on my writing journey. As a teen, I idolized the National Geographic journalists. I wanted to travel the world, write, and take pictures. Life doesn’t always take you where you expect, but if you’re lucky, it takes you where you need to be.

I had a detour towards a doing PhD and, then a career in government, but I think my teenage self would be thrilled with where I’ve landed. When I’m not writing, I love to travel. Into the Fall was released on February 1st, 2025, and my next trip will take me to Barcelona, Spain.

It’s as if my teenage self wrote my Instagram tagline — “I write books and I go places.”

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

It’s a tricky question for a debut author. After all, I only have one published example, though I’m working on a second novel now.

I tend to structure my stories in scenes. It’s like having building blocks that can be moved around as the book takes shape. I don’t know what will be at the beginning until the near final draft. That said, with Into the Fall, I knew where I wanted it to begin, and I knew where I wanted it to end, so the middle section was the most challenging for me.

The idea for Into the Fall came to me while I was camping with my family. I wake up early, so I had the entire lake to myself. I sat on a sun-warmed slab of granite and watched a devastatingly calm lake. It wasn’t hard to imagine the opening scene of the novel where Sarah, the main protagonist, steps out of a tent to face an untameable wilderness and a missing husband. This was the first scene I wrote, but also the one I polished the most as it had lived with me the longest.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

Like many writers, my characters are composites of all sorts of people, me included. Sarah and Izzy, for example, are complete opposites in the book, but they are both imbued with little bits of my personality or experiences. What I can say is that my characters feel distinctly Canadian to me, which I would say is their biggest connection to my personality.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

Into the Fall was heavily influenced by artists from vastly different eras and mediums.

The work of Tom Thomson, an early twentieth century Canadian painter, was a constant touchstone for the setting. Just like the characters in the novel, Thomson’s work is vibrant and beautiful but with a touch of darkness.

At the same time, Lord Huron’s album, Strange Trails, was on repeat most of the time I was writing. The natural world is a recuring theme in their lyrics, but it was the melancholy melodies and pops of warmth that literally scored Into the Fall for me.

Visit Tamara L. Miller's website.

My Book, The Movie: Into the Fall.

--Marshal Zeringue