S02E00: April, Spring, & New Beginnings - Welcome Back! - TRANSCRIPT

Welcome back, friend! It's great to be back here, speaking to you again, with a brand new season of Hyba Is Writing. This time, you might have noticed that I'm doing something a little bit different with my podcast. Season 2 is going to be all about The Pirates of Sissa, and I'll get into the why of that in just a moment. (Also, stay tuned because I do have a little spring sale announcement to share at the end of this episode!)

First, though: I want to gush about the spring a little bit. 

It's spring, and I'm especially excited because something beautiful happened to me this spring. All of winter I struggled to find my motivation and be productive. I had several ups and downs, and it was hard to remain optimistic when everything around me felt cold and hard and drab. As soon as the weather started to turn and the sun became a more frequent visitor, however, that all changed. 

Spring is often used to represent rebirth and life, and I truly feel like this is a fitting way to describe how I feel this spring. It was as though as soon as the sun brought with it its bright warmth, I was thawed and able to move and ready to be alive again. Do you feel the same way when spring comes around? I think it must be a pretty common feeling, right?

I'd never really noticed it before, but this winter must have been particularly difficult for me to realize how badly I needed the spring. Maybe that has something to do with the pandemic, or the general madness happening around the world, but seeing my garden soaked in sun every day, feeling that cool gentle breeze against my skin when I go out for my daily walks, and realizing that everything has come back to life again - somehow, all of that makes all of the crazy of the outside world seem muted, even if for a little while.

So, it's spring. And I'm happy. And because of that, I'm feeling productive and motivated and I'm ready to kickstart this podcast again with an all-new season! This time, I'm taking you on a journey through my experience writing The Pirates of Sissa, which I hope to complete by the end of 2021, if all goes according to plan. But knowing me, things rarely do go according to plan.

The reason that I wanted to focus this season on one book only, in contrast to what I did last season, is because I wanted to narrow down the scope of my podcast a little bit. The thing is, my podcast is pretty niche in and of itself. It's basically my journey as an author, and you can't really get much nicher than a podcast that follows an individual's experiences doing a specific thing. But I realized something after wrapping up the first season, and that was that somehow, as niche as my podcast is, I still felt like the episodes that I'd recorded were kind of all over the place. I really wanted to narrow it down for the second season, and thought long and hard about how I wanted to do that in a way that made sense to me, and that would make sense to you.

So, this season, I'm trying out a new format, in which I'm only going to be discussing The Pirates of Sissa. Now, that might seem pretty narrow, but there's so much to talk about! I can record episodes about my characters, my worldbuilding, challenges I've faced, personal records I've broken, lessons I've learned, and accomplishments I've achieved. In fact, I figure I can keep this season alive for as long as it takes for me to finish The Pirates of Sissa - and that's another part of this new format! 

Previously, I'd mentioned in a blog post that I wanted to release two seasons per year. This time, though, I've decided that each season will just have to be as long as it takes for me to complete the book or project that it focuses on. 

This is pretty perfect for me, as it allows me to return to the original purpose of this podcast, which was to chronicle my own author journey first and foremost. It also gives me a little motivational push because I can't record episodes about the same book forever, so I've got to complete it sometime, right? Rest assured, though - I'll make sure my episodes are as engaging and interesting as possible! 

Oh - and another cool perk of focusing on The Pirates of Sissa? I get to continue my JTQ segment! For those who are new, JTQ stands for Journey Through Qarra, and it's a segment of my podcast where I release episodes that take you on an adventure through the fantasy continent of Qarra, where my fantasy series The Qarran Tales takes place. I especially love recording this segment because I get to record and produce my own sound effects and use them in tandem with the storytelling, and it's a fun and rewarding experience for me - and hopefully for you as well.

Alright - that's enough about that! I'm about to wrap up this episode, but before I do, I want to make an announcement. Starting April 1st, 2021 - hey, that's today! - I'm hosting a Spring Sale. You can find the discount coupon in the description below! So, make sure you subscribe! The sale will continue until the last day of April, so time is limited!

That's all for today's episode. Thank you so much for tuning in, and I can't tell you how lovely it is to be back and speaking with friends again! Drop by my social media and follow me there, or subscribe to my newsletter to get monthly emails from me containing a bunch of awesome perks and subscriber-exclusive deals. All the links are in the episode description. Until next time! 

 

📕Have you checked out my debut novella, Apartment?