Hey everyone! Today I've got something a little bit different....an interview with author Tiffany McDaniel. Enjoy!
Q: What inspired you to write The Summer That Melted Everything?
A: The novel started out as a title. It was one of those Ohio summers
that I felt like I was melting. I always start writing a new novel
with two things. The title and the first line. These two things direct
the entire story. For me, the inspiration
along the way comes from the characters themselves. I owe it to the
characters to write them the best beginning, middle, and end of a story
that I possibly can.
Q: What was the hardest part about writing The Summer That Melted Everything?
A: For me, writing isn’t the hard part. Getting published is the hard
part. I wrote my first novel when I was eighteen. I wouldn’t get a
publishing contract until I was twenty-nine. It was eleven years full
of rejection and fear I’d never be published.
That was definitely hard.
Q: How long did it take to write The Summer That Melted Everything ?
A: I wrote The Summer that Melted Everything
in a month. On average that's how long it takes for me to write a
novel. The thing with me is I like to get the beginning, middle, and
end down as soon as I can because I don't
like the story to sit for too long. If the story sits for long it can
start to lose its essence for me. Polishing the story can always come
after, but it's important for me to have that foundation on the page
from which to build from.
Q: How long have you been writing stories?
A: I’ve been writing since I was a kid and was able to hold a crayon
in my hand to scribble what was in my head. Writing to me is as natural
as breathing. I’ve always been drawn to story. To read it. Create
it. Live with it.
Q: What are your three favourite books?
A: Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Above the River: Collected Poems of James Wright.
Q: Do you have any advice for new and aspiring authors?
A: To never give up. Like I said it took me eleven years to get a
foot in the publishing door. The road to publication can be full of
heart-ache and disappointment, but don’t give up. It will happen for
you. Believe it.
Q: Are you planning any other novels?
A: I have eight completed novels and am working on my ninth. The novel I’m hoping to follow The Summer that Melted Everything up with is titled, When Lions Stood as Men.
It’s the story of a Jewish brother and sister who escape Nazi Germany,
cross the Atlantic Ocean, and end up in my land of Ohio. Struggling
with the guilt of surviving the Holocaust, they create their own camp of
judgment. Being both the guards and the prisoners, they punish
themselves not only for surviving, but for the sins
they know they cannot help but commit.
Q: If you could bring one of your characters to life, who would it be and why?
A: For me I always say all my characters feel real. As a writer, once
I get to a certain point in their development, they take on life as
real as you and me. They exist and though I may not get to meet them
here in this world, I think in some other plane
of the universe or afterlife I will hopefully be able to meet them all.
To give a little more of an answer to your question, I think Sal will
be really wonderful to meet. He's a mystery even to me. I'd just love
to sit and chat with him a bit. Listen to
what he has to say. Maybe learn something more.
Q: How would you describe your writing style?
A: Literary fiction with southern Gothic elements.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
A: That while I’m not on social media, readers can find me on my website here at www.tiffanymcdaniel.com
Readers can connect with me directly
through my website. That connection to readers is very important to
me. As I’ve said before, readers are the ones who determine an author’s
entire career. How can I not give readers some
of my time, when they’ve given me some of their time reading my book?
~~~~~
Fielding Bliss has never
forgotten the summer of 1984: the year a heat wave scorched Breathed,
Ohio. The year he became friends with the devil.
Sal seems to
appear out of nowhere - a bruised and tattered thirteen-year-old boy
claiming to be the devil himself answering an invitation. Fielding
Bliss, the son of a local prosecutor, brings him home where he's
welcomed into the Bliss family, assuming he's a runaway from a nearby
farm town.
When word spreads that the devil has come to Breathed,
not everyone is happy to welcome this self-proclaimed fallen angel.
Murmurs follow him and tensions rise, along with the temperatures as an
unbearable heat wave rolls into town right along with him. As strange
accidents start to occur, riled by the feverish heat, some in the town
start to believe that Sal is exactly who he claims to be. While the
Bliss family wrestles with their own personal demons, a fanatic drives
the town to the brink of a catastrophe that will change this sleepy Ohio
backwater forever
~~~~~
An Ohio native, Tiffany McDaniel’s
writing is inspired by the rolling hills and buckeye woods of the land
she knows. She is also a poet, playwright, screenwriter, and artist. The Summer that Melted Everything is her debut novel.
“Sometimes this world is like red fences in the snow. There ain’t no hiding who we really are.”—THE SUMMER THAT MELTED EVERYTHING
“Sometimes this world is like red fences in the snow. There ain’t no hiding who we really are.”—THE SUMMER THAT MELTED EVERYTHING
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