“When’s That Book Coming?” Winter 2025 Edition

New year, same bullshit? Maybe? Hopefully not?

2024 feels like an absolute failure on the writing front. I did not get the things done I’d intended when I had the time off–I had to work 12-hour days literally leading up to the very last “in the office” day despite doing everything I could on my end to ensure things weren’t left to the last minute, and I was so wound up and stressed, it took forever to decompress.

Not doing that again.

I don’t make a lot writing, but it makes up a high enough percentage of my income (50-75%) that I cannot let other people abuse my time and have it affect my own projects like it was.

As a result, there’s that fall hole in my schedule this year, and I won’t have anything to fill it. This will have a very negative ripple effect on my income but, well, here we are. Lesson learned. Nothing I can do about that but focus on what I do have scheduled and to never be in this position again.

What’s New

The Taiga Ridge Murders released!

Some people liked it? I think? Or not sure what to think? It’s probably good that I assume everyone hates everything unless I’m told otherwise so I’m rarely disappointed lol. But I still love it and that’s what counts.

What’s Upcoming

Still only listed at Kobo so far, but Waverly Jones Mysteries: Vol I is out March 11. I guess I should upload it elsewhere (due to the $12.99 price tag, it will not be on Amazon).

That gives you a couple of months if you’re a new reader to catch up in time for the fourth, Silent All These Years which is still set for May 6 but might yet end up bumping by a few weeks.

It’s the twelfth anniversary of Meadow Milton’s murder, and Waverly Jones is at last taking on the missing person case of Detective Sebastian Kyle.

Given both his former position in law enforcement and proximity to notorious—and now-dormant—serial killer The Crossroads Butcher, the case should be at the top of everyone’s priority list. But with the enemies Waverly Jones Investigative Services has made with the local authorities after uncovering corruption on the force, the inquiry into Sebastian’s disappearance—and who was responsible—has hit a standstill. Now Waverly’s determined to get some long-awaited answers as she delves into his past—both professional and personal.

Meadow’s anniversary dredges up skeletons everyone has kept buried, however, and Waverly isn’t innocent either. A true-crime podcast, bolstered by online rumours, is about to drop a bombshell, suggesting old choices—including a murder—are catching up with her. There’s precisely one revelation that could threaten not only the career she’s built but the friendship she now has with the only man she’s ever loved, and the clock is ticking down to when they expose their suspicions to everyone…

Unless someone stops them permanently.

The price goes up to $5.99 after release so preorder if you want to save a little: Kindle | Kobo | iBooks | Nook 

I should have the hardcover cover reveal this spring…when I am actually done it. Note that it will not be in paperback as the third book did not sell enough to justify me continuing–it’s ebook and hardcover for the foreseeable future.

There is one cool new thing coming likely around the same time: in working on the revisions, keeping notes for myself about things, and seeing other readers who use sticky notes and highlight passages in the books to track the clues, I decided it might be cool to have a semi-blank journal for those three or four readers who want to follow along and try to solve the mystery.

It’s set up to look like it could be Wavelry’s, with coffee stains on some pages, notes to herself and doodles. It also will have the timeline surrounding Meadow’s murder and I’m working on a couple of road maps that show where significant events occurred (where Det. Kyle’s car was found, where Meadow was last seen, where bodies were found).

I’m pretty excited, just a fun little extra project where I can be creative and do something a little different. It’ll just be through KDP, I will probably only sell a couple of copies so that’s easiest.

For the audiobooks, I know Solomon’s Seal is presently in progress, as the narrator passed along some things to double check. I made some narrator suggestions but I have no idea who it is and I probably won’t listen, but the voice actors in these productions are all excellent so I’m sure it’ll be great. More updates as I get them.

What I’m Working On

Well, as down as I’ve been about things, I did get that next big revision pass done on Waverly 4, as well as a final pass, and it’s now in the editor’s hands.

It’s also, uh…152K words.

That is now the longest book I have–Yampellec’s Idol was just shy of 151K IIRC.

Despite cutting a lot, it did need some flesh, and there’s just…a lot going on. And unless the editor tells me to sacrifice various character moments, I can’t see a drastic cut, because so much information is coming at the reader, some downtime is needed and generally that’s going to come in the form of YEARNING and LONGING so here we are, a million words of Waverly being awkward and pining while having lengthy murder conversations.

I got 21K into Demon Fall and realized the reason it wasn’t working for me is that I was not getting to the story early enough. So the stuff I’ve got can stay, but I need to go back and revise the beginning.

That will be my next thing here, I think, I’ve gotta get it scheduled at Patreon. (This is the fifth Elis book, which should be the penultimate one; in the event I get the series done, I’ll consider releasing them wide as ebooks again, starting with Witch Hunt, but we’ll see. That would be a couple of years away.) And I need to revise Hell Fire and get that out in paperback, hopefully by the summer.

I’m back to my usual schedule now, more or less, which means Wednesday is my writing day. I have to unplug more–that was the only reason I got through that big Waverly pass the end of December through the first of January. It’s really hard because online is my only opportunity to socialize, but my brain gets so scrambled with email and DMs and social media and the terrible, terrible news, I can’t always handle it.

So I’m unplugging tonight before bed and will put the WiFi back on either before bed or Thursday morning, and see what I get done.

Linking to this excellent Kameron Hurley post–if you’re on social media, you’ve seen it from me probably, but just in case you haven’t. It gets into some of the stuff I’ve been thinking about as well.

My only sale right now is The Killing Beach on for the rest of month at Kobo for $2.99, no other sales yet on the docket but watch this page for updates.

Final personal note: our hail mary pass for Libby seems to be working. She gets a whole combo of meds because I don’t even know what part is working, but whatever. I hand-fill capsules I give her three times a day and her food is on backorder here so I am about to spend a small fortune I don’t really have on the heels of Shawn’s dental xrays to some imported (who needs groceries!), but she’s feeling better and that’s what matters.