Soundtrack Sunday – “Sally’s Song”

I think this’ll serve as a proof of life post for the next week or so–the last post I started while I was on the treadmill was very indicative of my current mental state, so it’s best I didn’t finish and post it. I said to a friend the other day, “You know, I think I might be in a depressive episode” and they were like, um, yes, Skyla, I noticed. I guess you can only make so many jokes in reply to “what do you want for Christmas/what would most help you right now” with “applying for MAiD” before you realize you might not actually be joking.

It’s mostly situational, I think, crashing after several months of stress (and bearing witness in real time to genocide on social media), but that also means it’s mostly unsolvable because we’re all drowning under a capitalist hellscape. At least I’ve got my embroidery.

Anyway.

We’re a couple of weeks away from Waverly #2 releasing; readers who bought hardcovers direct from me seem to already have their copies (more coming to Etsy soon). I’ve still got #3’s edits in progress to get it out for copyediting (that’ll probably be something next month) but for the write-in at Patreon, I pulled out Waverly #7 again because that makes me happy. Ish.

So it’s Waverly Soundtrack Sunday time: “Sally’s Song”

Yes, that “Sally’s Song”. But not that version.

The Fiona Apple one.

This was a very early song from the Waverly Jones series, this specific one. (Because, like fifteen years ago, there was a great Twin Peaks fanvid to it about Cooper–and Audrey–so…yeah.) It’s deeply melancholic and eerie, and for me it fits both with Waverly when she was a teen, and now as an adult.

I sense there’s something in the wind
That feels like tragedy’s at hand

It’s that building sense that something terrible is about to happen. Between Apple’s voice and these lyrics, I can really feel it. Especially during Waverly’s first round with The Crossroads Butcher when she was a teen, watching from afar as this detective investigates the murder.

What will become of my dear friend
Where will his actions lead us then

It comes up in the second book (out November 7!), there were a lot of complications right before The Butcher killed her sister and then went dormant. Some early police mishandling essentially caused a miscount with the number of victims (The Butcher killed in groups of three, which I think I cover in The Killing Beach), leaving some people to believe he was ‘done’ with the town, when in fact he wasn’t.

And though I’d like to stand by him
Can’t shake this feeling that I have
The worst is just around the bend

That carries over to the present day–at this point, although there are threads about the overriding Crossroads Butcher mystery from book to book, it’s books four and seven so far that really tackle it (as will, I think, the ninth, and then the final book–whether that’s ten, eleven, or twelve, concludes it). This song is very much on the repeat list for those books as well. (And, in some respects, I realize the song also works with singer/subject reversed later in the series.)

And does he notice my feelings for him
And will he see how much he means to me
I think it’s not to be

And through it all, Waverly is very much in love with him.

I would really, at some point, like to go back to writing that prequel book, something not just from Waverly’s POV but everyone in the town during the investigation. I’ve been having trouble even meeting my regular commitments due to burnout, though, so that’s definitely backburnered pending some other projects off my plate.

Maybe eventually.

And will we ever end up together
No, I think not, it’s never to become
For I am not the one

The Killing Beach is out now and A Wild Kind of Darkness is coming November 7.

Also check out the deals page, as I have a few at Kobo on sale for the season.

The complete list of Soundtrack Sunday posts are here.