Q & A with Elizabeth Miller

1. When do you like to write (time of day, day of week)? Where do you do your writing (location)?

I do most of my writing in the morning and some at night. I am useless in the afternoons! As for location, I jot things down on scraps of paper anywhere—at home, while waiting for appointments, on the subway. Serious writing is done in my den at home where I am surrounded by shelves and shelves of research material.

2. What was your first piece in print (book, review, or article, etc)?

In the summer of 1956, the Evening Telegram (as it was then called) ran a 12-part series I wrote about a 3-month trip to Europe. Three years later they did a similar one on my travels in the Soviet Union (entitled “Russell on Russia”).

3. What other jobs have you had besides being a writer?

I spent over 40 years in the classroom, 33 of which were as a faculty member (Department of English) at MUN. I retired in 2002.

4. What are you reading now?

The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry.

5. What was your favourite book(s) when you were a child?

In my pre-teens, I was a fan of the Nancy Drew books. Later I devoured every one of Baroness Orczy’s Scarlet Pimpernel series. Sort of dates me, doesn’t it!

6. What do you like to do in your free time?

I do lots of travel, both in North America and overseas, much of it connected with my expertise on Dracula.  Here at home (Toronto) I enjoy going to baseball games and poking around downtown. On lazy days, I love to read and listen to classical music.

7. What is your favourite food?

Turkey dinner complete with stuffing (made with savory) and cranberry jelly. Mmmmm...

8. What is your favourite movie(s)?

My three favourite movies are Cry Freedom (1987), Empire of the Sun (1987), and Das Boot (1981).

9. If you could live during any time period and in any place, when and where would you choose?

I’m very happy with the time period and places in which I have already lived (and am living). But I would like to have been a student at Berkeley during the rebellious 1960s.

10. Make a question of your own and then answer it.

What project(s) are you working on at present?

I just finished an annotated facsimile edition of Bram Stoker’s Notes for Dracula, to be published by McFarland in 2008. I am also working on my memoirs, tentatively entitled From Pigeon Inlet to Transylvania.