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

I have actual news for you this time!

No, no, not about that–seriously, it isn’t written, it may never be written at this rate, please stop yelling at me.

Let’s go!

What’s New

Nothing new released, other than a couple of Patreon shorts.

I made the decision this summer to take Elis’s books entirely off my plate for the sake of my stress level, so Hell Fire in paperback and Demon Fall in ebook are pushed to next year. The paperbacks only sell maybe half a dozen copies and although it makes life easier on me to have a story serializing monthly (so I don’t have to come up with excerpts), I don’t have more than two chapters written. So I’m not losing money by not having that stuff done, but I’m still frustrated.

What’s Upcoming

Two and a half weeks to go and it’s time to visit chilly isolation of the haunted Taiga Ridge Lodge!

I’m excited for people to read it. Again, it’s very different, but it’s got so much I love in it so I hope folks connect with it.

I’m waiting on a test copy of the paperback because it’s got some full bleed images (and maps of the lodge), then I can finalize the hardcover too. Print will launch the same time as the ebooks (unsure if I’ll have any for sale myself since the postal strike is looming).

Kindle | Kobo | Nook | iBooks | Payhip 

I don’t know why I’m so connected to cold settings–I think there’s an inherent isolation to them, which I’m also very drawn to (probably growing up alone a lot, which Maya and I have in common).

Though it’s only on Kobo so far for preorder but will also be on Nook, Apple, and via Payhip–the first Waverly Jones boxset is out March 11, 2025.

Not Kindle, of course, because they force the $2.99-$9.99 price point and I take a significant financial hit if I go over or under, and no thank you. My boxsets do well enough at higher prices internationally and on other platforms, and KDP can sit this one out.

I figure that’ll be sufficient time for new readers to catch up as the fourth book is out May 6, 2025. Note that it’s gonna be a huge, hefty book, and is taking a lot of work, so the price point of $4.99 will be going up to $5.99 after release, so preorder now and save a buck if so inclined. Kindle | Kobo | iBooks | Nook 

I’ve talked about all this stuff repeatedly–so what is actually new?

Well, I have worked out a deal with Everand (formerly Scribd) for some audiobooks.

It’s difficult for me to give up control, even of rights I know I can’t afford to exploit on my own, but it’s an opportunity to have some work accessible to new readers, and I can certainly use the income. Contract signed, files delivered, now I’m waiting to get paid and listening to some narrators to offer suggestions.

A few years ago when ACX opened to Canada, I briefly looked at the royalty-share option for production as I couldn’t afford to produce any myself, and consistently in the scenes I offered, it was always West everyone read wrong. Maybe I just wrote badly but everyone opted for voicing him like this douchey alpha male PNR hero and it was so grating, I was getting annoyed and just couldn’t be bothered continuing to listen to auditions. So if I have a worry, beyond Canadianisms being mispronounced, it’s that Livi will be read like cliché alpha-male PNR (PNR is fine but that is not West). I did send along guides so fingers crossed.

It no doubt seems like a weird thing to get bent out of shape about–who cares, right?–but the reason I haven’t been able to write the last one is because the books no longer feel like mine. The hatemail, the constant theft, the shitty comments over the years has all chipped away at that connection and that love I used to have for them. So I just hope they end up with a narrator who gets them and particularly his complexity as a character. And who can also say “foyer” the right way.

More news when I have it!

What I’m Working On

Revisions on Waverly 4 has been the big thing. I finished another huge pass. The book is currently sitting at a ridiculous 137 238 words and that’s without doing a pass to add flesh. I’m going to trim out what I can, but there’s a whole lot going on in this one.

Right now it’s cooling, though. There are some books–like The Taiga Ridge Murders–I could confidently revise, edit, proof, format, and release a year after I wrote it. But the fourth Waverly book was written December 2022 and I am still fighting with it. Sometimes I wish I could just…not care. That I could be the kind of writer who just tosses up a book without thought, like how much easier it would be. Let’s be realistic–this book will never make back even pennies on the hours I’ve invested in it, from drafting to critically looking and writing myself an edit letter, to all of these revisions, to just the past two years spent picking it apart in my brain to try to work out the problems and find solutions.

But not only would not putting in that work be a betrayal of the few readers I have, it would be a betrayal of me. It would be a betrayal of Waverly and her story. It would be a betrayal of these books of my heart. So no matter what, this behemoth of a book is going to be the best I can make it, even as it delays me working on other stuff.

As of November 1, I’m off freelancing and unplugging the WiFi. Literally. I’m terrified I’m too exhausted and burned out to actually write anything, but the best chance I have is to just be unplugged as much as possible. I’ll be on to post links to the new book, to update the blog with the book’s playlist, but I’m going to stay offline as much as I can. I’d love to write a new horror book but I just finished the SH2 remake (it’s fantastic) and I’m afraid I’ll just be writing Silent Hill. I should probably write Elis, though. I want to write more Waverly. We’ll see.

I hope you check out Taiga Ridge!