Well! This year is certainly a thing that is happening!
The past week has been much better for productivity, but I’m finding my anxiety coming out in less expected ways. I’m competent and calm in crises but that energy still goes somewhere, so for me it’s been often VERY uncharitable thoughts (that I have to remind myself not to use my outside voice for), and I find email/conversations really exhausting.
If I didn’t have to work, I’d be writing. All the WIPs are just flying in my brain at all times and I’ve been doing project research on the side. Very few writers I know are productive right now, but for me, I find storytelling comforting so my brain has decided “Oh, I know this feeling! Let’s write books where we make sense of everything again!” (More on this shortly.)
Of course yesterday the news dropped that The Last of Us 2 is being delayed indefinitely due to the pandemic. It was due out Feb of this year, then that was pushed to the end of May, and I’d scheduled time off work accordingly. Now ????
I’m incredibly disappointed. I don’t have a lot I look forward to and this game was top of the list (with Wonder Woman 1984). Particularly right now, although I know it’ll be a hell of a brutal game, I was looking forward to the catharsis of it. (AND JOEL! *sobs*)
I do worry about this sense people have that they can just postpone or rearrange things for when “everything gets back to normal”. That is unlikely to happen–this is the new normal. The likelihood is that social distancing will probably have to be in place for months yet, and even then, nothing is going to be quite like it was before. The point of flattening the curve is to keep the healthcare system from collapsing; we’re a long ways off from a vaccine (and people are so fucking stupid they’ll likely not get it and then claim cayenne pepper can heal them), so people will still get sick and the virus will still spread, it’ll just be better distributed over months instead of hitting all at once.
Adapt and survive.
So here’s the quarterly book update! I already don’t rely on public launches or bookstores, so little is changing around here. (I am braced, however, for something bad to hit me this month–every April. Every. Damn. April. Last year it was Gus–so. Yeah.)
What Released
Counterpoint: Always Kill a Boy on the First Date released the end of January. Zara Lain goes on a date, and it (of course) ends badly.
What’s Upcoming
A first-book bundle of Solomon’s Seal, Bloodlines, and River will release in Dawning as a Kindle exclusive on April 21, which means it’s free to read if you have Kindle Unlimited, giving a sample of three of my paranormal series.
Join the dawning of a new adventure with three complete first-in-a-series novels by urban fantasy author Skyla Dawn Cameron.
In SOLOMON’S SEAL, treasure hunter and single mom Livi Talbot caves, climbs, dives, battles serpent dragons, tries to outplay her famous archaeologist older brother, tangles with mercenaries, and takes on a client who isn’t all he seems–while trying to make parent-teacher meetings and wrangle her six-year-old. Features: a smart and capable though entirely human Lara-Croft-meets-Gilmore-Girls heroine, found family, the slowest burn romance imaginable, and high-octane adventure. NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Lilith Saintcrow calls it, “Whip-smart, gritty, and fascinating.”
In BLOODLINES, narcissistic vampire Zara Lain is making her living as a thief turned assassin when her witchy best friend hands her a contract that turns out to be a very bad idea on a very bad night that disrupts the entire supernatural world. Armed with a lot of weapons, a couple of allies she doesn’t trust, and a whole lot of snark, Zara takes on this new unknown villain and uncovers a shadowy organization that will have long-reaching consequences in the coming apocalypse. Features: a lone-wolf heroine out for herself, car chases and gunfights, lots of naughty language, and did we mention the snark? Bitten by Books says, “This not-to-be-missed release rocks from word one.”
In RIVER, defiant, moody, nocturnal River Wolfe sounds like a typical teenager, although she’s anything but. River is a werewolf, once the alpha female of a wolf pack turned into a human and with no way to change back–or at least until she finds the mysterious human who changed her. As if being stuck in a world she hates, with a life she never asked for, and faced with a destiny she doesn’t want wasn’t bad enough, River still must find a way to survive every human’s greatest challenge: high school. Features: a werewolf who has to face her inner human rather than battle the beast within, found family, forgiveness, and a frequent desire to murder people and bury their bodies in the woods. Also reluctant vegetarianism. ParaNormal Romance Reviews says it’s “…a terrific book, filled with unique and well-drawn characters, realistic dialogue, and a great deal of humor…”
After that, it’s time for Elis O’Connor!
Blood Ties has been posting on Patreon and will conclude in about three weeks. I’m working on a round of revisions right now after initial edits were returned, then I’ll be sending it to my copyeditor. Release date is June 2!
Elis O’Connor kills people.
“Garbage men”, to be exact—the predators, the abusers…and the occasional mansplainer. It scratches an itch and, since the death of her mother sent her spiraling, it hardly seems like the worst way to pass her time in a post-apocalyptic city crawling with demons and dimensional tears.
One thing she doesn’t do is save men.
But when a woman comes to her door for help finding her missing cousin, she realizes she might have to do just that. Because while Elis would love to send her packing, this cousin isn’t just anyone: he’s Elis’s estranged older half-brother Dev, and he’s gotten himself into trouble even the considerable magic ability they both share can’t get him out of.
Other 2020 Releases
I am really hoping to have a non-paranormal mystery/thriller out in the fall. I’d planned it to be the first Waverley Jones mystery but I’m halfway through a domestic thriller, and if I buckle down and finish it, that’ll close out the year.
There’ll also be something probably late summer or fall.
Hmm.
Not sure what that’ll be.
What could I have possibly finished last month?
Any guesses?
Turns out a global pandemic is a GREAT time to write about a character dealing with undiagnosed severe anxiety and depression while terrible things happen. WHO KNEW??
That’s it for me today–I’m having a mental health day, someone got me the new Resident Evil 3 remake out today (S.T.A.R.S.!), I bought way too many appetizers, and I’m playing my first game of D&D tonight (online).
Writer of urban fantasy, thrillers/mysteries, and horror.
Holla!