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.

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.

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.

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.

I’d been toying with this for a while, a prequel story with Waverly that I could offer as a gift to those who preorder The Killing Beach, but nothing was clicking–and it’s not like I have the time to figure it out.

But a friend brought up The Silent Places in a conversation the other day, and a few hours later–while I was trying to sleep, of course–something just clicked in my brain and I thought…what if.

What if the one person who could figure out what happened at the end of The Silent Places went to the Yukon?

Everything opened up from there and I was up until 4am playing conversations in my head between Waverly and Imogen.

Here’s the blurb:

Private investigator Waverly Jones follows a missing persons trail to a small Yukon village called Red Fox Lake. A local PI agency in Whitehorse has offered her a deal: she can play on their turf, but they need help with a case of their own, talking to a local widow who has had more than one man in her life disappear over the years.

And soon Waverly will figure out that the north isn’t only a place some go to disappear…

Others go there to get away with murder.

So that story is in progress, I wrote a chunk on Saturday and I’m hoping to have it done in a few weeks and then off for editing/proofing. While it’ll be a free gift for anyone who preorders (or orders the paperback), it’ll also be included in the special edition hardcover, so I have to get all this done by the first of May.

Jumping into a new series is hard. I’ve been doing this the better part of two decades, and only a sliver of readership goes from series to series. On top of that, this is a new genre–it’s not paranormal at all. So it’s an uphill battle to build an audience for Waverly.

I am so grateful for those readers taking the plunge with me, however. So this is my thank you, and if you read The Silent Places, I think you’ll particularly enjoy it.

To claim your gift, forward the receipt or a screenshot of your order via email to preorder@skyladawncameron.com or upload your screenshot via the form on the dedicated promotion page here.

When the paperback is available for order (late April/early May), you can also get the story–I’ll do a reminder when it’s available.

The Killing Beach is out May 30. You’ll have until May 28 11:59pm PT to submit your receipt, and I’ll email out the free story on May 29.

Kindle – Kobo – iBooks – Nook

The hardcover editions will have an interior illustration like the old Nancy Drew books had–first is in progress, and I’m pretty excited about it.

They’re out of my budget, though. Like, the hardcover is pretty much a vanity project, I don’t sell enough print copies to justify what’s going into it but…I love mysteries. I love PI stories. I love Nancy Drew. And a friend convinced me by reminding me…we gotta have fun with this publishing thing.

So I’ve got a premade cover sale running this month, to help offset the expense of the illustration costs. 20% off with the coupon code SPRINGSALE20 at checkout.

Speaking of sales, Kobo is also having a Thriller BOGO sale this month, and Watcher of the Woods qualifies. Find all the other titles here.