“When’s that book coming?” Spring 2024 Edition

I haven’t slept all week and I think I’m about ready to crash for the weekend, and this should have gone up last month, so let’s just jump right in.

What Released

The third Waverly Jones book!

Two months ago, Waverly Jones was given a reason to remain in her small hometown of Port Milton indefinitely. Her problem is that even for a private investigator who has solved several high-profile cases, her client pool in the area is limited, and there isn’t enough regular work to justify taking on the odd pro bono job—especially when strapped for cash because her agency is no longer a single-person operation, either.

For the first time, Waverly has an assistant—one who is as much her moral compass as he is a welcoming face to those in need of an investigator. So when the grieving, working-class mother of Madison Simmons—whose body was found in the woods after the spring thaw—comes to them for help, Waverly can’t say no, even if the sliding scale won’t be enough to cover it.

Despite the failure of authorities to look for Madison when she went missing, the death has since been confirmed a suicide. Still, questions plague her mother: why the sudden change in Madison’s behaviour before she died? What factors drove her to suicide?

And could there have been another person involved?

Kindle – Kobo – iBooks – Nook – Payhip – Paperback – Hardcover

That’s three books in that series out in under a year. I’m beat and now we’re doing yearly releases while I draft the rest.

I thought at this point it was really obvious, both given how I’ve talked about the books as well as in the text itself, but just to reiterate: this series will have an endpoint and that is when The Crossroads Butcher case will be resolved. Each book itself has its own mystery that concludes, while weaving in the series arc. I call this The Buffy Arc Method, which I also use with Livi Talbot, so the books are like episodes with conclusions but there’s a season-long arc that has its own structure as well.

This isn’t me stretching that mystery out because I feel like being awful; it’s because it directly ties to the characters and their arcs. The primary players need to be in the right place themselves for the various reveals, I even inserted two books not originally planned just to ensure everything falls the right way. The seventh is in progress, I’ve got rough titles and primary plot points for the concluding five volumes. After that, I might write Waverly standalones, just because I have a lot of ideas that won’t make it in the main series (because as much as I don’t want to rush it, I also don’t want to drag it out with filler).

I am just stating this all up front, again, before I start to drive myself insane second-guessing whether this was somehow unclear previously.

What’s Upcoming

In a couple of short weeks…

Waverly will be at StoryBundle!

I’m extremely excited about the lineup. I wrote a bonus novella, Haunting at Hayward House, that is included with The Killing Beach just for StoryBundle.

This will run from May 22 until Jun 13 and I’ll have lots of details for you later.

Current status of the Hell Fire paperback is… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I had like three nervous breakdowns in April and depression got pretty bad, and I am so exhausted, I just have not pulled it out to revise and ready for edits. I also have no ETA on starting to serialize Demon Fall. Again, I am tired. All that stuff is still vaguely slotted for “summer” and if you point out summer is almost here, I will be very cross with you.

BUT don’t forget…a new horror book!

Kindle | Kobo | Nook | iBooks

Nothing bad happens to the cat.

I’m hoping to do some cool things with the interior for the hardcover with this one–in general I try to do nice print books (Dweller and Watcher both have fun extras in the layout, both paperback and hardcover) but I am going to try to step up my game here.

So far the only firm thing set for 2025 is Waverly 4, Silent All These Years, which is currently in revision and up for preorder at Kobo. Other links coming early next week.

I know what I would like to release fall 2025. I do not know if I will have it written or not. If it’s not drafted by this fall, well… We’ll see if I can write another horror book or bump up Waverly 5 instead.

What I’m Working On

Waverly 4 revisions. I finally, finally know what I’m doing…sort of…mostly. It’s so much work (god, why do I spend so much time on things that will make pennies when I’m done?!? lolsob) but once I get these main pieces into place, later revisions should be easier. I hope.

Then I guess I have to tackle Elis’s books.

Last time I mentioned adding a Payhip alternative to Patreon. That is still on the agenda, I just…I am just so tired and spent all of April like this–I think I’m only partially upright yet.

Now I’m hoping to sleep the sleep of the dead, so I can be refreshed and tackle finishing the freelance to-do list this month. My medical stuff was all moved to this month as well, so crossing my fingers I’m still in remission.

More StoryBundle details coming soon!