INTERVIEW ~The Summer That Melted Everything~ by Tiffany McDaniel
Synopsis
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 temperature 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 wrestle with their own personal demons, a fanatic drives the town to the brink of a catastrophe that will change this sleepy Ohio backwater forever.
Interview with Tiffany McDaniel
An Interview with upcoming author of literary fiction Tiffany McDaniel featuring her debut novel
The Summer That Melted Everything.
A story that will challenge you and make you re-think and re-vision certain things and issues while you take on this fantastic thoughtful and overwhelming journey.
Hello and welcome, Tiffany. So glad to have you here, it's quite an honor to be able to do this.
Let’s begin with a little intro...can you tell us a little bit about you.
1.Who is Tiffany McDaniel, a person behind her work?
First off, the honor is all mine, I assure you. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be interviewed by you. So who am I? I'm an Ohio poet and novelist who wants to fly on a crow's wing and, in a perfect world, eat ice cream every day of the week.
2.Is the real Tiffany much different from Tiffany the author?
I think people will assume from my writing that I'm much more interesting than I actually am in person. Writing is the most interesting thing about me. Other than that, I'm pretty boring, quiet, and shy.
3.What made you start writing in the first place?
As a child, writing is the first thing I remember doing because I was driven to do so by that internal gear. That gear which turns and moves me toward the page. I’m lost without writing. I can’t find my way home to infinity.
4.You also write poetry, playwrights, screenplays...is there any difference, other than in structure/format, in writing these artistic forms? Can you describe/elaborate?
With plays for the stage and screen, you're focusing on the dialogue. That has to be the key to drive forward the plot because this writing is meant to be performed, which means those watching this performance are not going to be reading the words around the dialogue. The dialogue has to be the plot as well. With poetry, you're looking at a glimpse of a story. It's a shorter form than plays or novels, but it's a wonderful medium to write because poetry is probably the closest a writer can get to being a river in spirit. With novels, you get to spend more time with the story and develop the characters. Conversations are deeper. Meanings are created on a scale meant to carry the reader through page after page. Also novels allow one to inhale and exhale and not feel rushed but rather allow the story to breathe in its own good time.
5.What do you like more? Writing poetry, dialogues ( in your plays) or prose? Why?
That's difficult. When I'm writing poetry, I love writing poetry. When I'm writing plays, I love writing plays. But perhaps most of all I love writing novels. Novels allow me to spend the most time with the characters and how can that not be a good thing?
6.About your debut novel. The summer that melted everything. Other than that, I myself, was stunned and pretty much affected by the story and characters you presented, can you tell us how the idea came to you to write this story?
The story was born as a title first. It was one of those Ohio summers that I felt like I was melting. I do always start writing a new novel with two things. The title and the first line. These two things really direct the rest of the story. It's difficult to say exactly where the ideas come from, just because it's hard to bring creativity down to an exact science, because I myself don't know either. So where this idea came from is where they all come from. That spinning swirl of chaos. That churning mist of my soul.
7.What was the essential motivator for your storyline?
The characters.Once the characters are developed to a certain extent, they become very real to me. They have taken on life and gotten a soul. So they hover around me as I write, encouraging me, but more than that they demand I tell their story as honestly as I can and that I give them the best beginning, middle, and end of a story possible.
8.The story takes place in Ohio, your home state. How much of the story's background description is true, realistic?
The story takes place in the fictional town of Breathed, Ohio, which is a landscape very much reflective of my childhood summers and school-year weekends spent in southern Ohio, where the hills speak, the creek paces in its own good time, and the roads are dirt-laid and grass-lined. That wildflower song, front porch chatter, and southern twang has shaped me as a writer. Having spent my childhood summers down-home was like being one of the rolling hills, forever rooted in rust and dirt and moon-shine magic. That being said, Breathed is not real. Elements of it exist. The hills are there. The creek flows by. But the buildings, the houses, the lay of the town exist only in the fictional landscape.
9. Some events are pretty emotional, (scratch that), they are extremely emotional and I found myself asking „what would I do in that situation? How would I react in it?“ I honestly could not imagine either. But you have written it so lyrically beautiful even when it was shattering and I could have been only a spectator but I also felt every word, every emotion flowing through them...to write smth like that, in that way that reaches deep into a stranger's core, is magic...now, my actual question is: how did that emotional aspect influence you, can you describe the process during the writing and after?
I’ve always said I’m drawn to the crash, not the landing. I want to explore the wreckage, the broken fragments, the things that which were once whole and are now scattered upon the ground. I never have that urge to stop or turn away because to me these moments that test us emotionally are moments we’re closest to the truth of our own infinite selves.
10. The family Bliss is somewhat unusual and I dare to say, unconventional in some aspects and yet they are quite secluded and closed off in they own unity. From all of your characters in Bliss family, who did you relate to, as an author, the most? Which character was the most intriguing to write?
Sal, while not born into the Bliss family, becomes a part of the family. He was a very intriguing character to write because he's a contradiction. An old soul in a young body. That type of wisdom, language, and poetics is always interesting to express. He's also balanced between being a fallen angel and being a thirteen-year-old boy. It's not often one gets to write dialogue for the devil himself.
11. To which character did you relate, as a reader, the most?
I love Grand. Grand is the older brother we all want. Kind, intelligent, heroic. More than that, Grand so easily gave love. If you had any promise given to you from Grand, it was that he would love you for the length of eternity.
12. What was your final opinion, after you have finished writing this book?
Whenever I finish any piece of writing, there's a wonderful feeling of having just accomplished the task at hand. More than that, a pressure is taken off my shoulders because I have fulfilled my promise to the characters and that promise is to write their story.
13. Why 1984? What is significant about that exact year, other than you mentioning George Orwell's reference to the same year, as a year of big turmoil and changes? Does it also have a personal touch?
When I was thinking about the time period in which to set the novel, the 1980s came to mind. With its neon colors, dance-worthy music, and big hair, those years seem like a decade-long summer. I was born in 1985 so I can't attest to whether this is true of the decade, but knowing what I know of the time, those years and the story felt like a natural fit. I knew I needed the novel to take place early enough in the 80s so that the fear and panic of the AIDS epidemic was emerging on to the scene. 1984 fit as well because of the parallels to George Orwell's novel, as you mention in your question. For me, there's no better year for this summer than 1984.
14. About your writing style. I have to admit that I found your writing style poetic. Was that deliberate?
I think that's just my natural writing style. I've always been drawn to reading and writing poetry. I recognize there is a proper time and place to be poetic in a novel so I balance the poet in me with the novelist.
15. What are your future plans? Can you tell us if there's another project in sight?
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.
16. Where can we see/find some of your previous works? Plays?Poems?
Just various literary journals and magazines around the internet. I’m currently working on a collection of poems I’d like to release in the near future. Any updates can always be found on my website: www.tiffanymcdaniel.com
17. Where do you see yourself in the near/far future?
As long as my future is as an author, I can see myself in a pretty happy place.
18. Is there anything more you would like to say to your readers? Give it a shout?
I would like to say to readers that without you, there are no novelists to be had. Readers give meaning to an author’s words. So if you like a book, tell everyone you know. Be that book’s champion because if you do, you’re being a champion for the author herself. My only hope is that readers like what I’ve written. That they can count on me to deliver a story that is worth both their time and their hard-earned money. Nothing would make me happier than to know a reader has finished one of my books with the pleasure of having read it. That’s what I strive for as an author. To be someone’s favorite author as so many authors have been mine.
As far as where readers can find me, I’m not on social media, but they can jump on to my website here at www.tiffanymcdaniel.com
Readers can also connect with me directly through my website. That connection to readers is very important to me. As I’ve said, they’re the ones who determine an author’s entire career. How can I not give them some of my time, when they’ve given me some of their time reading my book?
Thank you so much, Tiffany for participating in this interview and for choosing The Sirens Book Reviews as your promotors . So this chance you have given us, means so much. Thank you.
We can't find enough praise for your debut novel, it really made an impact on us, a huge one and I won't deny that it did make me re-evaluate some of my own points of view on a certain matter...
I will never see the „right“ and „wrong“ in the same way. LOL
Looking forward to your next book, so we could repeat this extraordinary experience again.
Much love,
The Sirens Book Reviews (Denise, Shanny & Snow)
The interview conducted and arranged by the Sirens July 23, 2016.
About Tiffany McDaniel
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. www.tiffanymcdaniel.com
