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Skyla Dawn Cameron

My characters kill people so I don't have to.

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May 21, 2023 By Skyla Dawn Cameron Leave a Comment

Soundtrack Sunday – “Breathe (2AM)”

We’re just over a week until the release of The Killing Beach. It’s only taken…well, almost six years since the first vague idea.

I’ve done everything I can, short of spending thousands of dollars I don’t have to advertise, to give it the best chance it can have. The reality, though, is that this is a huge upward climb and it’ll probably be years before I have any idea if these books go anywhere.

It’s hard for me to just let go, but that’s where I am–which is where Waverly Jones finds herself.

So prior to the full soundtrack going up in a couple of weeks, I give you the epilogue song from The Killing Beach.

Most of my books, I know the endings well ahead of time (often years in advance). It gives me direction while I’m writing, and even if I tweak them a little–Emperor’s Tomb was supposed to end with Livi at the funeral in Texas, until I finished the book and found all those threads I still had to bundle–it’s the glowing lighthouse I’m always reaching for.

TKB’s ending is one of the things that kept me coming back to the series again and again, no matter how many times I hit brick walls while writing it. It was crystal clear in my head and for whatever reason I heard Anna Nalick’s “Breathe (2AM)” on repeat for the scene–probably because I also heard Waverly repeating over and over, “Breathe. Just breathe.”

Waverly both starts and ends the book on the beach.

The beach that drew her home again, hoping to find the impossible.

The beach that ends up changing her whole world.

But you can’t jump the track, we’re like cars on a cable
And life’s like an hourglass glued to the table
No one can find the rewind button now

“Breathe” is a song about not being able to go back in time, and I think that’s why it stuck out to my subconscious. An ongoing theme of the series is that loss of time, knowing that it’s moving and you’re caught by the current. That hourglass it touched on again in an important scene in the seventh book (I can’t wait to talk about “Out of Sand” for that scene and its lyrics)

So I had both the original and the acoustic version of this on repeat, alternating as I finally, finally got to write the end of this book that I’d been excited about for so long, four years after I first started it.

The Killing Beach, Waverly Jones 1, releases officially on Tuesday May 30. There is one final week to claim your thank you gift.

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

Signed paperback on Etsy – Hardcover Gift Box

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May 8, 2023 By Skyla Dawn Cameron Leave a Comment

Soul Spell (Elis O’Connor 3) Now Available in Paperback

My goal was June but everyone working on it was done early, so here you go, the third Elis O’Connor novel now in print.

Serial killer and witch Elis O’Connor finally has a lead on her missing brother, and it’s brought her right back to the person who betrayed her, the one witch she doesn’t want to ask for help: Melinoë Takata.

While she weighs whether or not hopping dimensions with someone she doesn’t trust is worth it—or whether her brother is indeed a lost cause, considering it’s probably a one-way trip—once more the police coming knocking at her door. But this time they don’t bring suspicions and hopes she might incriminate herself: now they have actual evidence for arrest. With more than a hundred kills under her belt, it was probably only a matter of time before the OPP’s occult department was ready to charge her with murder.

The problem? Their evidence is for one homicide she didn’t commit.

And relying on Melinoë might be her only way of getting out of it.

And a reminder that the eBooks are Patreon-exclusive. On June 5, all patrons at all tiers will be able to download the final eBook; on July 1, it bumps to the $5+ tier. There are no plans to release it widely in eBook, though I’ll consider it when all six books are done. The exception is for books bought from me directly on Etsy (Soul Spell isn’t up yet because I don’t have copies)–direct sales also get a download code for a free e-copy.

I’ve kept my Patreon tiers affordable, though, and you can get a discount by buying a year in advance–so for about $11/year (that’s the price of two books), you can get access to this, past serials, and the upcoming fourth Elis O’Connor book Hell Fire.

I have such a blast with these books, and the opening of Soul Spell is my favourite–I laugh every time I reread it. I do hope you check it out if you need some relaxing homicide.

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May 1, 2023 By Skyla Dawn Cameron Leave a Comment

“When’s That Book Coming?” Spring 2023 Edition

Normally these updates post quarterly: Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct. So I’m a few days late here, but April was, well, April, and I wanted to get my monthly update out to patrons first.

What’s New

Watcher of the Woods released in February in eBook paperback, and hardcover.

I’ve done a couple of shorts for Patreon:

Both Vignettes are Waverly Jones prequel bits–that’s three now at Patreon.

“That’s it”, I almost typed, as if a new novel release and some new shorts is nothing lol.

What’s Upcoming

Of course, Waverly Jones Mysteries is finally starting at the end of this month!

Waverly Jones has been called misanthropic. Distant. Obsessive. Manipulative. And that’s without people knowing she talks to the hallucination of her dead sister.

She’s also a private investigator.

After a lengthy absence, she’s returned to Port Milton amidst the biggest homicide investigation her hometown has seen in over a decade. Bodies of middle-aged men have been washing ashore and the police have confirmed foul play but not much else—making it the perfect case for someone like her.

Particularly when she’s the one to find the latest body.

It’s not a coincidence Waverly happened across the newest victim. She’s been combing the beach because these men match the age and appearance of Detective-Sergeant Sebastian Kyle, missing these past eleven years after investigating the now-dormant serial killer who made Waverly’s sister his last victim.

Her familiarity with the murders has left her well-prepared when hired by the wife of one of the dead men, giving her a professional reason to dig deeper into these crimes. Have the police unintentionally fumbled this case in the wrong direction, or does the widow not know as much about her husband as she thought?

Port Milton has always had its secrets, and Waverly will drag every single one into the light to get to the bottom of this mystery. And maybe somewhere along the way, she’ll get another step closer to who killed her sister and what happened to Sebastian Kyle.

MAY 30

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

Signed paperback on Etsy – Hardcover Gift Box

There’s currently an extended preview at Patreon.

The hardcovers are lovely.

It was a massive expense I am not going to get back–I’ll probably have to reevaluate next year whether or not I can afford to keep doing them. But for me, personally, I adore this book and I’m so glad to have it.

So those are up on Amazon, or I have one in a signed gift box at Etsy still left.

There are about eleven of you signed up to get the prequel short story delivered the day before the book is out. If you’ve preordered, or if you order the paperback/hardcover before the deadline, please forward your receipt/proof of purchase and get on the list! There are no immediate plans to publish that story, which means this is the only opportunity to get it outside of buying the hardcover.

I do wish I was doing some kind of launch even virtually, but I live in fear of no one showing up, and my anxiety spikes with those kinds of things. I might rewatch the pilot of Twin Peaks that day and livetweet it–if so, I’ll post ahead of time in case anyone wants to join in. If the bird site even still exists at that point.

A Wild Kind of Darkness is out November 7. This is Waverly Jones #2.

I’ve written the jacket copy so it doesn’t spoil anything, but I’ll skip posting it here anyway. Preorder in eBook is now live: Kindle | Kobo | iBooks | Nook 

Alone at Night (Waverly #3) is out April 2, 2024. It’s also up for preorder: Kindle – Kobo – iBooks – Nook

Tentatively after that, there’ll be one a year.

Also coming soon in paperback is Soul Spell, Elis O’Connor #3.

Serial killer and witch Elis O’Connor finally has a lead on her missing brother, and it’s brought her right back to the person who betrayed her, the one witch she doesn’t want to ask for help: Melinoë Takata.

While she weighs whether or not hopping dimensions with someone she doesn’t trust is worth it—or whether her brother is indeed a lost cause, considering it’s probably a one-way trip—once more the police coming knocking at her door. But this time they don’t bring suspicions and hopes she might incriminate herself: now they have actual evidence for arrest. With more than a hundred kills under her belt, it was probably only a matter of time before the OPP’s occult department was ready to charge her with murder.

The problem? Their evidence is for one homicide she didn’t commit.

And relying on Melinoë might be her only way of getting out of it.

It’s formatted and out for proofing right now. I’m aiming for June-ish. The eBook will temporarily be available for all patrons and then go up to $5+ patrons while the paperback will have a wide release.

What about Elis #4? Well…

What I’m Working On

I’ve got some health stuff going on, including a procedure the end of June, and it’s at that point I’ll have a better idea of what my summer schedule will look like (if I have to change medications, I might be looking at new side effects, and I don’t want my workload overburdened). To that end, I’m focusing right now on getting freelance work done and money saved up, as well as focusing on various writing commitments, so I’m delaying the start of Elis’s serial Hell Fire by a couple of months. I’m hoping I’ll be in a better position to start it in August.

I really hate doing this, but I can’t have delays with my preorder books, so I have to focus on those right now.

There are also some upcoming shorts for Patreon, one is done and the other in progress (plus some West POV stuff I owe).

Otherwise I’m focused on AWKoD revisions and trying to keep my head above water.

I hope y’all get a chance to read Waverly this month and enjoy.

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April 12, 2023 By Skyla Dawn Cameron Leave a Comment

Unboxing

It’s been nearly a month since my last post. I wouldn’t say things are improving–my physical health is…apparently not optimal. I’ve got some tests in the next few weeks to see if the increased medication dose is having not great side effects or if it’s something else; then in June, seeing if my treatment should be swapped for something else if it’s not working (there are indications it is not as it should be).

Clinically, I feel fine, at least, but the possibilities of these other things wrong are starting to stress me out a lot. Perhaps the only good news is that at no point did my doctor say I had to go back on prednisone–for me, that was the absolute worst-case scenario, as I thought it was going to kill me last year.

So there’s that.

I’m “taking a level of Fitness” right now (in DnD-speak), which should at least up my Constitution and eventually my Strength. It may not help but it gives me the feeling of having at least a little bit of control. My doctor, too, is excellent and on top of everything, so if I’m vague about things here, that is intentional–I don’t want advice, I don’t want “help” (unless I ask directly for it), so please just wish me well in a non-stressful way if you have to say anything. And buy my books. Because it’s expensive to be sick, and I have to take some time off in the next few months for procedures and things.

Tomorrow is Gus’s anniversary, which is a rough one on top of a lot of bad April ones. Cuddle your four-legged friends for him, folks.

But all that’s not why I’m posting today (well–I am for the buy-my-books part, I guess). We’re here for an unboxing–my paperback copies of The Killing Beach are here.

Let’s turn it over to my marketing director, Shawn.

Shawn helping to unbox. pic.twitter.com/F4GohHZw0e

— Skyla Dawn (@skyladawn) April 12, 2023
(He didn’t scratch them, they’re fine.)

Signed copies are available now at Etsy. When ordering direct, you also get a coupon code to download a free eBook copy via my Payhip store. Signed hardcovers–including in awesome gift boxes with other goodies–are coming by the end of the month.

Any orders of print before May 28th, whether from Etsy or on Amazon, and you’ll get the preorder gift delivered via email on the 28th.

If ordering on Amazon, you’ll have to forward your receipt, but buying from me, I’ll just put you on the list. If you’re waiting for the signed hardcover, again, check back in a few weeks.

I do want to stress for a moment that, despite the Nancy Drew homage covers on the hardcovers, these are not cozy mysteries. These books get dark. Waverly is easily classified as “unlikable” (though two early readers familiar with my books ended up loving her). My politics as an abolitionist very much saturate every book in this series. I want people to read these, of course, but it is not for everyone and y’all have been warned.

I am so pleased this is nearly here, though. It was almost six years ago that I started playing with the idea–I got mad about Twin Peaks: The Return and suddenly Waverly Jones wouldn’t leave me alone. It went through many false starts and has completely morphed from what I had planned originally. I thought, many times, that I’d never finish it. I almost gave up, in fact, right before I did finish it in 2021. I took private investigator training to give myself a better basis for this series. More revisions, more edits…and here we are.

I am very proud of this book. Very proud of this series.

It’s a struggle sometimes for readers to move from one series to another, and a new genre entirely is a huge ask. So those of you giving this a try: my sincerest thank you. I really hope Waverly is exactly what you need right now.

In November I’ll be adding #2, and next April #3 (after that, probably one book a year). My other paperback shelf is full now, so here she is on my desk with her biggest influences.

I also wanted to share a link to Lilith Saintcrow’s weekly reading series where she just shared her love of The Silent Places. Head here for that, and then sign up to watch her live every Friday on Twitch where she talks about books.

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March 20, 2023 By Skyla Dawn Cameron Leave a Comment

By a Thread

Well I certainly fell off the attempts to regularly blog.

The main explanation is that I was blogging while on my treadmill. That’s no longer a thing as the motor burnt out a few weeks ago. Partly probably because it’s a cheaper model, but also the cat hair didn’t help. I thought I was cleaning around it sufficiently but apparently not.

So that’s been a very expensive mistake that I spent months saving up for first when I got it two years ago and then again to get the standing desk. I now have a 600-dollar 70-lbs paperweight (and 300-dollar desk that’s little more than a cat toy)–I don’t drive, so I’ll have to hire the junk people to come and remove the treadmill, and that’ll be another couple hundred dollars. Even if I could afford the risk to get a new one, I can’t while this one’s still here.

It’s definitely contributed to the depressive episode I’m in right now. I am so discouraged with so many things. The increase cost of living, the last book tanking so spectacularly (which the new mystery series seems likely to do as well), struggling to write, and now I’ve lost those couple of hours a day of walking. The snow will melt soon, so I’ll be able to start walking at night, but I have a lot of anxiety about leaving for even an hour (irrational anxiety, sure, but based in past trauma, and also housebound for three pandemic years).

If there’s a benefit of being suicidal since the age of thirteen (lol) it’s having the experience to know feelings are temporary and trying to keep going anyway. Take that shower, drink a lot of water, keep up with vitamins (that’s one of the reasons I have chewable ones). I even spent a couple of hours yesterday chopping veggies and doing food prep for the week: raw veggies for lunch and pasta salad.

I keep this one as my guiding light.

It doesn’t stop the fact that I just want to sleep and my brain is foggy and it’s taken forever to write this update, but it helps keeps me focused on the good things, and preventing me from spiraling.

I pre-planned quarterly breaks in my schedule as to not burn out (and putting a moratorium on favours this year so I don’t kill myself again this year) and the first is scheduled for the end of this month, which means I have edits to finish and some regular graphics work, and otherwise can be gentle with myself for the next two weeks. I’ve got the Waverly prequel short story off for edits, everything else for TKB ready, scheduling some Patreon posts, and I’m trying to get work done on Hell Fire. At least if I get it structured and something down, I can fill in [important conversation later] stuff when I feel better.

Otherwise, it’s me holding on by a thread, dragging my carcass through the motions, and playing my Magic Cat Collector Game.

Just me and my twelve cats. pic.twitter.com/5vt6HhYgH0

— Skyla Dawn (@skyladawn) March 19, 2023

Okay there’s more than magic cats but this is what I’m playing for. I’m also now up to fourteen (of twenty) found.

So if all’s quiet around here the next few weeks, that’s why–I’m shutting down a little and keeping to myself, but still alive, at least, and doing my best.

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In Memory of Gus

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MEET SKYLA DAWN

Writer of urban fantasy, thrillers/mysteries, and horror. Fifth-generation crazy cat lady. Bitchy feminist. So tired all the goddamn time.

My characters kill people so I don’t have to.

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