“Polyxena” helped H. Allenger through his transition to retirement

For H. Allenger, going into retirement wasn’t hard, no small thanks to his mythology-inspired book Polyxena.

He would wake up in the mornings, enthused by the idea of starting a new chapter. Allenger confessed that he never had any writer’s block while writing the manuscript, which he completed in six months.

However, publishing the book posed unforeseen challenges to him. So he decided to choose the self-publishing method after three fruitless years of finding a publishing house.

In an unexpected twist, he scanned the pages of his other novel, Ahuitzotl, instead of Polyxena, and it became his first novel instead of his first manuscript.

Beyond fiction, Allenger also wanted to dabble in nonfiction. He already completed a photographic journal with a working title The Pleasures of Green Lake. It contains photos of his daily strolls around Seattle’s Green Lake over 18 months. He is also working on other fictional books: Assortments, a potpourri of stories about his odd dreams, and The Mayas: A Private Passion, which contains his views about several Mayan archaeological sites.