The Writing Peasant

Well, guys… It happened. I won’t say that I’ve been completely healthy through the pandemic, but I can say with pretty great certainty that I have, in fact, been laid low during the last month.

Not permanently. Thank goodness.

Honestly, though, I’ve kind of been pulled from one illness to another for the past four weeks (thankfully none of them Covid) but it still hasn’t been… great.

BUT. I prevail.

First, a bit of sad news. Wednesday’s Book, while being an official Whitney Awards Nominee, did not get selected to be a Whitney Finalist. It’s a definite bummer, but the competition was stiff in my category, and I’m still proud of the work that I’ve done. At least I’m not in danger of peaking too early. 😉

In other news, I finished my current sci-fi project. It has officially been given a title (er… titles), which I will reveal once I set an official release date. I can say that it is currently 6 novellas, which I plan on releasing over 6 months (that’s one per month) once I start publishing them. They could conceivably grow during editing, which means that I won’t absolutely guarantee when they will come out, or how long they’ll be – the total word count was above and beyond 180,000 words on the first draft – but I’m happy with the way it turned out, and it’ll be super fun to edit and clean up in order to publish. Right now, I’m planning on late summer / early autumn of 2023. Hopefully.

NEXT, I am prepping to write my next story. As I mentioned on my instagram (s…? More on that later) I have started writing it, but I will admit that it’s a completely different universe (again, haha) and so building this world from the ground up means that that it’s slower going for right now. That being said, I’ve met both of the main characters, and they are SO much fun. The main male character is so sweet, and I think you will love him.

I’m also working on plotting a murder mystery. This one will be a little bit different, being just a contemporary mystery (no magic. At all. I’m nervous.) but I think I’m actually going to try it in the traditional publishing world. I don’t know if it’ll actually get through, but if nothing else, I want to say that I tried. I’ll most likely write this one after the fantasy project above, but this one I’ll HAVE to have an outline to get it right, so who knows?

I also have a new Instagram! No, my Author page (http://www.instagram.com/rebekahisertauthor) is still up and running and doing just fine. What I’ve done is I’ve started up a “Bookstagram” account, or basically a public account where I can write book reviews for what I’ve read, rejoice in all the bookishness, and help foster the fun, positive community that I’ve found. Admittedly, I’ve also turned into somewhat of my own ground crew, but since I AM the staff of Rebekah Isert Publishing (I am cringing as I write that) I gotta do my own legwork for advertising and spreading the word. Anyway, if you want to check it out, the URL to that is http://www.instagram.com/thewritingpeasant. You should come check it out. I’m having fun!

Looking forward to February, I have a couple of extra responsibilities for The Day Job this month, so between that and world building, writing actual words might be a bit slow. That being said, my work life hardly ever crosses over into my normal life, so it really just depends on brainpower more than anything else. So, pray for my brain. I’m excited, though. There’s a lot to do, and a lot to explore.

LASTLY (and possibly the most fun, for me anyway) Oak and Ivy is being featured this week as part of their Fairy Tale Retellings, which is awesomely flattering, even if nothing comes of it. In honor of that, Oak and Ivy is 50% off until February 4th (at the link below) and here is the banner that Smashwords gave me to share. If you haven’t gotten Oak and Ivy yet, I highly recommend to get it through this deal. I don’t do sales very often – mostly because they’re quite difficult for me to set up – but it was worth it for this.

You can click this link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1103533 To Order!

That’s all I have for now! I hope you all are well!

Onward and Upward!