Q1. Hello, can you please introduce yourself? Readers would love to know more about you.
I’m Amanda Huffman, I served in the Air Force for six years as a Civil Engineer. I left the military when my first son was born to follow my husband’s military career. When I left the military I struggled to find my identity and began blogging. That blog turned into a podcast, Women of the Military, publishing two books, Women of the Military and A Girl’s Guide to Military Service, and a number of different opportunities. Today, I am a mom of two boys and my husband continues to serve in the military. I love a good book, a day at Disneyland and anything Star Wars related.
Q2. What were the key challenges you faced while writing your book “A Girl’s Guide to Military Service”?
There was so much about the military I didn’t know. Even though I served in the military I only served in one branch and a lot of things had changed since I left the service. In the process of interviewing women for Women of the Military I gained a lot of knowledge about different branches and ways to serve. But there was still a lot to learn.
Another challenge I faced when I started was going too detailed in my description. This made the book boring and it could quickly be obsolete as the military changed and adapted. My publisher helped push me to focus on providing information from a higher level point of view with broad information and rely on military recruiters to give detailed specifics to future recruits.
Q3. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?
I have always wanted to write books and primarily I grew up reading fiction. So jumping into non-fiction was an interesting transition. But I also found that all the time I spent reading various fiction books helped me as I wove in parts of my own story. I think the real influence for writing this book is the other women veterans who have shared their story or written leadership books. Reading their stories and seeing how they impacted me really pushed me to write this story. I also wanted to reach a generation that wasn’t being focused on, the next generation of military women,
Q4. What’s your favourite spot to visit in your own country? And what makes it so special to you?
Disneyland has so many happy memories for me and my family. I just love spending time in the parks. We have a lot of fun together.
Q5. Is there lots to do before you dive in and start writing a book?
For this book a lot of the prep work was done through my podcast. I interviewed over 50 women when I started writing the book and that number has grown to over 200 today. Hearing the stories of women helped me to get a good feel on what challenges women faced and what each branch was like. It gave me a strong foundation to start doing the research. It also took a number of draft versions to get the book to the place it needed to be as a starting point and then a lot of additional revisions to get the book where it is today.
Q6. How long did it take you to write your book ‘A Girl’s Guide to Military Service’?
The book first was a guide that I created in January 2019. I had an idea to help girls as they entered the military but had no idea how to reach them. I was surprised how many young women were interested in joining the military and the response from the guide pushed me to write a book. I think I started working on the first draft in mid-2019. I did a complete overhaul of the book in early 2021, completing that draft in June 2021. Then it took another year of edits with my publisher before it was published in September 2022.
Q7. On what platforms can readers buy your books?
It is available on my publisher’s website, elvaresa.com, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and I also created an option for people to buy my book directly from me and receive a signed copy by filling out this form. It is available in paperback and digital.
Q8. Tell us about the process of coming up with the book cover and the title ‘A Girl’s Guide to Military Service’?
There was a lot of process and thought of coming up with the title. We struggled with what the right word to use was. Do we use woman? Do we use female? Do we use girl? My original title was A Girl’s Guide to the Military. But there were a number of filler titles that we went through trying to make sure the right person knew the book was for them. We did a few test runs to get feedback and A Girl’s Guide to Military Service ended up being the most popular and met the needs we were looking for. Since our target was high school girls and they related to that name it was the one that won out. It was really hard to narrow in on the title.
For the cover I worked directly through my publisher. We had a brainstorming session with a number of ideas. In the end, the one we picked was my favorite. I just love how it looked and hoped that it would draw girls considering military service in.
Q9. When writing a book how do you keep things fresh, for both your readers and also yourself?
To help keep me on track I created a detailed outline. It helped me stay focused when writing and also helped me to quickly dive back in after taking a break from writing each day. Spending detailed time up front to build the outline was critical in helping me to stay focused on not getting distracted or off topic. I also have to thank my publisher and editor for the input and feedback they gave. They really pushed me in different directions and helped me make a number of changes that helped make the book better and stronger. It is a team effort in writing and I couldn’t have done it without their help and direction.
Q10. What is the most valuable piece of advice you’ve been given about writing?
To be open to feedback from others. I have learned to open myself to constructive criticism when it comes to writing. Sometimes the changes suggested frustrated me but they were things I was holding onto that actually didn’t need to be there. The push to make changes, listen to feedback and work to continually improve the book and my writing helped me grow as a writer. I can’t believe the transformation that took place from when I first started writing to where the book is today.
Buy A Girl’s Guide to Military Service on Amazon
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