Welcome to the tenth edition of Cheri's 20 Questions! My interviewee today is the ever-talented Tiffany Rose. Welcome! Tiffany Rose is still waiting for her Starfleet uniform to arrive, but isn't so picky about color. Until then she spends her time writing about magical girls, the morally grey, and articles that would warrant the title of cyberpunk beatnik since the themes are unabashedly focused on queer theory in the information age. Any extra time would ideally be spent looking out for plot bunnies and serendipity.
Hi Tiffany! Please tell us a little something about what you write:
Character driven stories with a message have become even more important to me in recent years. Combine that with the increasing focus of #OwnVoices and I’m quite content with what I’m doing as an artist.
Interview Questions:
Cheri: What is the first book that made you cry?
Tiffany: Probably the The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray. I love that series, it’s the first one that truly made me love reading and writing. But sadly, the ending wasn’t what I hoped for. I can’t remember if there were tears or not, but it’s been a long time and I’m still not over it.
Cheri: Does writing energize or exhaust you?
Tiffany: Both! Writing is magical when it flows, whole worlds appear at the tips of your fingers. But when things aren’t working as well, writing becomes a marathon that all you can do is slug on.
Cheri: If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Tiffany: When I was younger I didn’t take writing seriously. It was just something I did on the side for fun, it took me until college to realize how much I loved it. I’d tell younger me to look at what makes you the happiest, and chase that early on.
Cheri: How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?
Tiffany: Interesting question! I used to write more socially and plan things out far more. The balance between those things is how my first stories were written. One would think sequels would be planned out even more, but before being published I didn’t realise the weight of it. There’s expectations like strangers classifying your work as [x] which comes with a new set of fears. Now I focus more on the art of it. Being published means you gotta market yourself, so when you come back to writing you gotta separate what you do as an “author” versus as a “writer” so you can find the heart of your story. And for me, that resulted in less plotting, or more just seeing where life took my characters.
Cheri: What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?
Tiffany: When I was just starting out I bought a lot of books, mostly guides that tell you where you can submit, but they didn’t end up being all that helpful. The one thing that I still use to this day is The Emotional Thesaurus. When I get stuck, I’ll look up an emotion and it pairs it to an action, serving as a quick stitch that allows for better flow during dialogue heavy scenes.
Cheri: What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?
Tiffany: I can’t think of any early experiences, but when I look back to the stories accepted as history I realize several historical figures were only made popular years after their death because of a fiction author. For example, Christopher Columbus could have been forgotten if it wasn’t for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow author, Washington Irving rewriting his accomplishments to sound positive. Actual history changed by a few choice words is incredibly powerful.
Cheri: What’s your favourite under-appreciated novel?
Tiffany: I’m not sure what counts as under-appreciated but The Planetary Tarantella series deserves a movie. I haven’t enjoyed a disaster movie in ages, Hollywood needs to fix this!
Cheri: As a writer, what would you say is your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
Tiffany: Hmm, a cat. Likes to cuddle, cautious when it comes to strangers, sometimes accidentally knocks things off the desk because who knew a pen was so roll-y.
Cheri: How many published, unpublished, and half-finished books do you have?
Tiffany: I have one novel, two stories in different collections, and words in an art book published. Unpublished there are two in the pipeline, two not quite ready to be queried, and one shelved away never to been seen again.
Cheri: What does literary success look like to you?
Tiffany: I think that really depends. I feel like commercially it’s walking into any Barnes and Noble and finding your book in stock. That’s the sort of distribution you only seen in big name authors. As an artist, success is being able to look at reviews on the negative side about something you know your book does and knowing you wouldn’t do it differently. Because it’s not a flaw, it’s a feature that happens because you specifically designed it that way. Being proud of those things instead of worried or embarrassed is how you know you are happy with your work.
Cheri: What do you feel is the best way to market your books?
Tiffany: I don’t know if I can claim to know the most effective way, but the best way in my opinion is anything that gives you a reward by the very nature of it simply existing. For example, making graphics and trailers for my works feels great. It’s like a bonus art for work I already did. And when I have done similar while marketing for other authors, that’s always the part they appear the most excited about.
Cheri: What kind of research do you do, and how much time do you typically spend researching before beginning a new book?
Tiffany: I rarely research a lot before beginning a new book. Most topics I write about I already have a baseline for, so mostly research as I go. If I need [X] to happen I’ll stop to see in what way it’s possible and make my timeline is correct. For example, once I stopped to figure out how long the trip would take by horse on roads in the 17thcentury and then had characters react to the longer then expected number of days off. By doing it this way, I never have to stop long to research anything.
Cheri: How do you select the names for your characters?
Tiffany: I go to a baby name website and search until something jumps out at me. Sometimes that’s based on names my coauthor has picked, sometimes it’s just what sounds right to my ear and doesn’t remind me of much else.
Cheri: Do you hide secrets (or Easter Eggs) in your books for people to find?
Tiffany: Hello World ended up having a lot of ace jokes in it. Those are likely the easiest to spot, but fellow panda author Rachel Sharp and I have talked about our characters being in each other’s books.
Cheri: What was your hardest scene to write?
Tiffany: There’s uh, a “suggestive” scene in Hello World, and it will likely be the most challenging I’ll ever have to write. Despite people telling me there was nothing wrong, I was never happy with it. I wanted perfection and knew I had to juggle mixed sexualities, disabilities, clear consent, and safety all while still making the scene emotionally meaningful.
Cheri: What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?
Tiffany: Art forms that are visual are easier to share. Sure, you might lose some scale and texture, but nearly everything can be contained in a tweet. Novels aren’t like that in the slightest. There’s no way to see the whole picture besides reading it. The hardest part is stopping to look at your work from as many perspectives as possible to make sure what you paint as blue, looks blue to every reader.
Cheri: How long, on average, does it take you to write a book?
Tiffany: Lately it takes of six months to a year of the idea pre-heating, and about five weeks to write the first draft. I often try to write during NaNoWriMo but most books are over 50k so the extra week is to finish and go back to an area I feel was rushed.
Cheri: What is your favourite childhood book?
Tiffany: I had these Mary Kate and Ashley mystery books as a kid, they were a fun read.
Cheri: Where/when do you find yourself most inspired?
Tiffany: I feel most inspired when I know where the story is going and even after that scene is written another is right there in my head waiting.
Cheri: Lastly, do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Tiffany: Stop waiting. If you wait for inspiration, “proper” schooling, or life to be less busy, you aren’t going to go anywhere fast. It’s all possible now. Write your book, even a sentience a day will help plant the seeds of you being published. The industry has a lot of waiting, don’t hold yourself back and add to that.
Cheri: Thank you so much for answering my questions, Tiffany, and letting us get to know you better! It's been a pleasure having you! Next month the prolific Jeff Messick will be joining us, so stay tuned!