Real Sale for a Fictional Birthday

While I don’t put a year in my books, I do know where every story slots into an actual calendar.

I didn’t used to, and it was fine, but I found twelve years ago when I was first drafting Livi, I had to keep track of different timezones while Livi was travelling so I had a chart with what day of the week and time it was back home vs what day and time it was wherever she was treasure hunting so her calls back home lined up. It was less of a concern with standalones, but when it comes to series works where things like birthdays and holidays and weekdays are mentioned, I need to ensure for my own peace of mind that it works (so if Halloween is a Wednesday in one book, it’s not a Saturday a year later story-wise in another book). Solomon’s Seal takes place in 2016 (The Pulse, actually, occurred on December 21, 2012); Charon’s Gold was October 2017.

So I’ve got a stack of calendars printed out to chart the events of the Waverly Jones series, since dates come up a lot–primarily the timeline for her sister’s murder when she was a teen, and when the books started up again. Waverly’s birthday is August 24th, and if you’re lining up the calendar–The Killing Beach is set in 2024–that’s her twenty-ninth birthday.

There’s a coupon code at Payhip that is good until the 26th for a couple bucks off each book: use WAVERLYBDAY at checkout.

I’ve confirmed this week that working twelve hours a day really is my brain’s limit. I hit that point and I struggle to focus and start blanking on words, so I don’t think I can push it farther (as I’d hoped). This is in an effort to catch up and I’ve gotten a lot done, but, god, time keeps moving and I still feel like I’m drowning.

I’ve been doing around eight hours a day freelancing and then four at night on writing stuff. I’m doing a pass on Hell Fire and it definitely needs some rewrites, particularly in the front half, but I wanted to get it compiled for patrons and to also remind myself what happened for when I draft Demon Fall. Then I owe a bunch of Patreon extras although I feel like the least qualified person to come up with a writing-related post or essay right now between burnout and considering whether I’ll still be able to publish at all in a couple of years.

I also owe a bimonthly short and I’ve had zero idea what to do…right until I was writing this post and realized “oh wait, tomorrow is Waverly’s birthday in the story–I could write a couple thousand words about that”. So I’m going to try to do that right now (before and perhaps for a bit after my DnD game), and I’ll still be behind on everything but it’ll be one thing knocked off my plate.

ETA: It’s live! All patrons at any level can read “Twenty-Nine” in pdf or epub right now. Come for the yearning, stay for the vegan espresso cheesecake.

Anyway if you haven’t dived in yet, get out your murder boards and binge the first three books this weekend.

My Deals page is generally up to date with current and upcoming sales, so worth checking before buying somewhere if you want the best price. Solomon’s Seal is $2.99 at Kobo for another week, and Dweller is $3.99 at Kobo and price-matched at Amazon for the rest of the month as well.