I guess it was 2018, maybe 2017, but that doesn’t sound right. I had been up all night writing. Going around the Horn is what we used to call it. I would get up, eat, write, take the kids to martial arts, come home, cook dinner, go downstairs for a second shift, usually a writers group. Then I would spend one hour with my wife, and after she went to bed, I would write all night long. The next morning I would still be up. I would take the kids to school and spend the afternoon with Bekah, write some more and crash. I would go to bed at about midnight.
Next day I would do it again.
I had been up all night the night before. It was about eight at night and I got caught in a conversation about writers finishing their series. I had just finished five of them and was slowly publishing them when I was in the midst of this conversation, and I made the very reasonable prediction that I would publish every October 5th and April 15th. I say it is reasonable because the books were already written and at the time most indie writers were putting out two books a year. Sometimes more.
There was a scuffle.
A lot of people lost respect for me that day. A lot of harmful things were said about me that colored my career in a bad light. Unbeknownst to me, I made a few enemies. However, there they were, two books a year on predictable dates. Never a day late. I did that for six, maybe seven years.
I put out a few extra. I know during the Covid lockdown a lot of people were suffering and they were trapped at home with little to do. I released a book during that time. Just a little bit of salve to help coat the wound of the time. I kept writing and put out an extra series of novellas that were backstories for characters the readers either knew or would know in the future. The series was called Garden of Infamy. The next should be coming out in February if things land right.
All of my books lead up to a series called The Coming of the Redfist. It’s a seven-book, epic-length series that is written and has been waiting in line for six years. The first was put out October 5th. Like all my other work, this series can be read by itself. It is however a part of a bigger story. But I have talked too much about that. A lot of you know all about that.
Well, in came my autobiographies back during Covid. I had been posting my autobiographical stuff here, and I gathered them all up in a collection called Reality of the Unreal Mind, Volume 1: Teardrop Road. Stopped writing fantasy and started concentrating on that project. I wrote three more. Vol. 2: Normal Street, Vol. 3: The Keep, and Vol. 4: The Reliquary. I’ll have Bekah check that I spelled that right. Volume four of Reality of the Unreal Mind has not come out yet. It is ready. It just needs one more chapter that God has not given me yet.
I’m working on his time now.
During Covid, Bekah and I had some financial problems. She wasn’t working so much, so we spent a lot of time talking. We planned and dreamed, and that time I spent with her was some of the most satisfying of my life. She ended up getting a new job and things began to level out. She was gone more and I was alone more. We started to create a new understanding. A new era, a New Time.
I went back to college. I had been a student years before and a lot of my credits transferred. I found that I have very little time before I have my degree. I decided to double major in Creative Writing and Literary Theory. When I began, I realized I was actually very in-tune with literature, and with my writing experience, things started going really well.
The dream is that I get my bachelor’s in Creative Writing and Literary Theory and get a master’s in Creative Writing. With my experience and the grades I am getting, it will not be a push for me to get into a really good school for my master’s. Then a PhD.
If I get this education, I can teach. That is what I really need to be doing. Teaching creative writing. I can teach workshops and college classes. All of this while still selling at cons and still writing and publishing books. That is the dream. The PhD is a maybe. The master’s is a definitely.
Well, I have decided to slow down my publication dates. I have nothing to prove to anyone anymore. I have shown I am capable of doing what I said I could do and I have shown that I am a gifted, hard-working writer. So I am slowing down my publications. I will only be publishing on October 5th. It is the anniversary of a writing assignment I was given my Freshman year in high school. A writing assignment that caught the eye of my teacher. She encouraged me when no one else did. She was dedicated to me and I will continue to honor her by publishing on the date she found me.
With the slower schedule, I can take the pressure off my new editor. As some of you may know, I lost my long-standing editor a few years ago to a tragic death. My new guy is Nathan Hall, and he has quickly become a great match for the project I am working on now. We work really well together and have a strong, mutual respect for each other and the books we are cleaning. Like I said before, they are already written. But they still need a steady hand and a sharp mind to get them ready to be read.
Nathan is that hand and that mind. I wish my old editor could be here to see what this series is doing. But i can’t wait for him. I can’t stop in his name. I have talked to his family and they all want me to go on. I was told as much at his funeral many times by many of the people there.
At his funeral, a man walked up to me. He didn’t say much, he didn’t really say anything at all. He just shook my arm. Not my hand. That is an important distinction. He shook my arm. Just like is done in my books. I apologized to him. I had a lot of guilt over my editor’s death. This man just held my arm and shook his head. Then he left.
So I am slowing down. That is the new way forward. One book a year and maybe a novella or two. The books will come out on October 5th. You can count on that. I stand on my reputation, a reputation I have earned over the last seven years. Did we decide six?
As far as the college goes, I am excelling. I am learning a lot about why my books never took off like I wanted them to. That is a conversation for another time maybe. But I am here to tell all of you this, one because you deserve to know, also because I need your help.
See I took a story I wrote and entered it into a college-wide contest. A contest that included undergrads and graduate students, even prospective students. And out of 750 entries, I made it to the finals. I made it to the top five. The next step of the judging process is Readers’ Choice and I need votes. The story is called “Waiting for the Sun to Go Down.” I will include the link at the bottom. I would ask you to vote for my piece because I have plans for the prize money.
If I win this contest, I can use the money to get back on the road. I can get back into conventions, meet the readers and sell face-to-face again. Always stressful but always life-affirming. I can reach people and see the people who love what I love. I have plans for a bigger booth, selling more books and merchandise.
Please give me a vote. Please wait for October 5th for my next release, Where Furies Scream. And please stay. As always, there is more to come from Jesse Teller.
And I love you all. I found a new way to express my affection. “My love for you is pure.”
Vote in the SNHU Fall Fiction Contest
Public voting will be accepted on the five finalists beginning at 9 am EDT on Monday, Dec. 2, and closing at 11:59 pm EDT on Monday, Dec. 9.
Jesse Teller 
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