Ask the Author: Allen Tiffany
Answered Questions (6)
Allen Tiffany
I'm currently working on several things. Probably the next to publish is another historical military fiction novel similar to Youth In Asia and patterned after traditional works in the genres of battle narratives such as "Band of Brothers", "The 13th Valley", "We Were Soldiers Once...And Young", and "The Longest Day", etc. After establishing the characters in the early portion of the novel, the last 3/4ths of the novel depict battles from the primary characters' different perspectives.
It is set in the first Persian Gulf War and chronicles the challenges a dedicated young sergeant experiences as he takes charge of an infantry platoon heading into battle. Though the war was a lopsided victory for the US-led coalition, one platoon found itself isolated and trapped behind enemy lines while a US armor division bears down on the local Iraqi defenders. The small battle will be lost to history, but Sergeant Paxton will have to figure out how to keep the lead armor units from being ambushed while keeping his men alive. Paxton will have to come to terms with being a military leader and making decisions for the greater good.
It is set in the first Persian Gulf War and chronicles the challenges a dedicated young sergeant experiences as he takes charge of an infantry platoon heading into battle. Though the war was a lopsided victory for the US-led coalition, one platoon found itself isolated and trapped behind enemy lines while a US armor division bears down on the local Iraqi defenders. The small battle will be lost to history, but Sergeant Paxton will have to figure out how to keep the lead armor units from being ambushed while keeping his men alive. Paxton will have to come to terms with being a military leader and making decisions for the greater good.
Allen Tiffany
Writing comes easy for me...if I had enough time. So I don't really feel a need to be "inspire", or maybe I'm just inspired to write all the time. I do not write because I have dreams of fame and fortune. That has never really crossed my mind. I understand there is very little money in writing. It is true that a handful of people really make it big, but they are the exception (by far). I write because I love writing...creating new worlds and entering them.
Allen Tiffany
I don't have a great answer for this one because everyone is different. If there is one thing I would say is that you have to write. You have to practice. You have to see what works for you and your target readers. If you are not putting your work out there, then you are living your own fantasy, which is fine, but writers have to write if they are really writers.
Allen Tiffany
I love the creative experience of writing. In many ways, I see writing as solving a complex puzzle. When I lay out a character and their task, it is a complex undertaking to show how they grow and change while navigating the troubles that make up the plot.
Allen Tiffany
Honestly, this has never really been a problem for me. The biggest challenge I have is lack of time... :(
Allen Tiffany
In Dec of 2013, I started a story while I was stuck in a Honda dealership for seven hours. I’ve long struggled with plotting, so it began as an exercise in structuring a story. I would be lying if I told you I knew exactly where I was going when it started, but I did want to keep it simple. This is what it became after three months of writing: A wagon train in the old West bogs down and becomes stuck. They are running out of food and under constant attack by the Indians. The protagonist is the daughter of the community’s leader, and though she is fiercely loyal to her father, she is beginning to see his failings as half of the members set out on their own. Her father has a different idea of how find help, and takes the rest of the able riders with him in a desperate gamble. He leaves his daughter and her fiancé in charge of the old, young and weak. As the evidence mounts that her father and his team were killed, and with mounting losses of her own team, there is little hope as the girl becomes a ferocious fighter though also an increasingly fatalistic and isolated leader. But salvation does arrive, though not the salvation they expected.
It is not the salvation they expected because it is not a western at all. It is science fiction.
The wagon train is an isolated and dying colony, and the Indians are really aliens. Their salvation? It comes from the darkness of space, and is not what they were hoping for…
This novel is "Lonely Hunter". It has been through one review cycle at CritiqueCircle to generally positive reviews, though there are some structural and organizational issues I’m addressing. You can see an excerpt at my website: http://www.allentiffany.com/lonely-hu...
When I completed it, in addition to several other beta readers, I gave it to my wife and twin 15-year-old daughters. They enjoyed it and asked me what happened next. "Vicious Harvest" is what happened next, and it will soon go through a review cycle at CC as well. I’ll soon post an excerpt of that one, too.
As I finished Vicious Harvest, more threads came rushing to me, and it has turned into a 400k word story that is broken into five novels. The third is also nearing completion, called "The Finer Points of Time", and the fourth and fifth are collections of disconnected chapters at the moment.
That is what I’m working on…
It is not the salvation they expected because it is not a western at all. It is science fiction.
The wagon train is an isolated and dying colony, and the Indians are really aliens. Their salvation? It comes from the darkness of space, and is not what they were hoping for…
This novel is "Lonely Hunter". It has been through one review cycle at CritiqueCircle to generally positive reviews, though there are some structural and organizational issues I’m addressing. You can see an excerpt at my website: http://www.allentiffany.com/lonely-hu...
When I completed it, in addition to several other beta readers, I gave it to my wife and twin 15-year-old daughters. They enjoyed it and asked me what happened next. "Vicious Harvest" is what happened next, and it will soon go through a review cycle at CC as well. I’ll soon post an excerpt of that one, too.
As I finished Vicious Harvest, more threads came rushing to me, and it has turned into a 400k word story that is broken into five novels. The third is also nearing completion, called "The Finer Points of Time", and the fourth and fifth are collections of disconnected chapters at the moment.
That is what I’m working on…
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