Today we’re visiting with Iscah.  She has a new fantasy coming out this fall.  Let hear about it – and the other work she does.

Jim: The Girl with No Name is a prequel to your upcoming novel Seventh Night.  Can you tell us a little about the prequel?

Iscah:  It’s about a girl with the ability to shapeshift who is orphaned before getting a name and eventually banished from her village.  Most of the story follows her journey to figure out who she is and where she belongs.  This first story is told in a folklore style much like the original Grimm’s fairy tales, but it unfolds through a series of meetings more like The Little Prince or Alice in Wonderland, only with an older audience in mind.  Because it’s an introduction to a new fantasy world, I weave in a bit of world building.

Jim:  Okay, and how about a little about The Seventh Night?

Iscah:  Seventh Night is a romantic, comic adventure fantasy.  It’s a bit like the Princess Bride, plus unicorns.  It’s light fantasy, so the novel itself doesn’t spend a lot of time world building.  It’s very accessible.  The characters are adults, and it deals with some adult issues like marriage and politics, but it’s clean enough to be enjoyed by a wide age range.

Jim: And when will The Seventh Night be available to the public? And where?

Iscah:  Later in 2013. It will definitely be available on Kindle, but it may not start out exclusive to Kindle like The Girl With No Name did. Amoeba Ink is a fairly new publishing company, so they’re more concerned with getting things right than getting them out fast.

Jim: Do we need to read the prequel prior to The Seventh Night?

Iscah:  So it doesn’t matter which you start with.  However, I would strongly suggest reading Seventh Night before the third story in the Before the Fairy Tale set. But the first two in the set are safe to read before Seventh Night. The second prequel story Horse Feathers is fairly safe to read before Seventh Night, though I would suggest reading the set in order.

Jim:  You also do art. Did you do the covers for your books? Did you illustrate them?

Iscah:  I created the cover art and the map. The current versions of the book are not illustrated. I did draw some rough illustrations for the prologue reading on YouTube.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8o0umyJEEc

Jim:  You have also written in the non-fiction line.  Let’s start with a little bit on your book Living Single on Minimum Wage. How did that come about?

Iscah:  It started in college.  I had a scholarship that covered classes but was living on about $400/per month from a part-time job.  I started realizing most budgeting books were written for middle-income families and upper income investors.  I enlisted the help of a friend.  P.J. wrote the first draft of each chapter.  I would then rewrite it and send it back to him, etc., until we were both pleased with it.

Jim:  Does it work?

Iscah:  Yes, my co-writer was deep in debt and living in his parent’s basement at the time.  He started applying ideas from the book, and really got his finances in order.  While the core advice is pretty universal, the examples are getting a little outdated now.  So I’m planning to get a second edition out in 2014 to deal with some big changes like the Affordable Healthcare Act.

Jim: You also mention that you have a deep interest in psychology and theology.  Have you written in those areas, and if so, tell us what and a little about it.

Iscah:  I take a very holistic approach to life. I think everything interweaves with everything else.  The Before the Fairytale set is a bit about exploring the psychology of these characters.  I tried to keep the religion element light, but Phillip loves philosophy so it was natural to weave in some perspectives about God into the story. I thought it was nice to feature something monotheistic that wasn’t an allegory.  But that also harkens back to Grimm’s era fables where people did not see an incompatibility between Christianity and fairies.

I have nonfiction and fiction that are heavily psychological in planning.

Jim:  Plus, you write songs.  Tell a little about that side of Iscah.

Iscah:  I have over 70 songs that don’t stink sitting in a binder.  Recording an album is on my bucket list,  I realized it’s best to launch one career at a time.  There’s a short song in The Girl With No Name and a rather awful little one in Horse Feathers and Seventh Night.

Jim:  And with all that, there may be no spare time.  But if there were, what would you like to do with that spare time?

Iscah:  I’d like to travel more.  Do some more of the things my characters get to do like ride horses, fence, and shoot arrows

Jim:  Thanks, Iscah, for sharing a little of you very diverse life. I expect we’ll be hearing a lot more about you.

You can order The Girl With No Name on Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D3RI4PK