Why is everything terrible?

Why???

Time is arbitrary so it was silly to assume “April’s over, it’s gotta improve now, right?” No, no, it’s still terrible. (For everyone, basically, not just me–like all of my friends and their families are having nonstop terrible stuff happen too.)

I just about lost it (okay, I did lose it) yesterday morning when I discovered the “work” (aka Photoshop/graphics) laptop on its last legs, atop the other stuff I’m dealing with right now. Upon the advice and encouragement of friends, I literally just made this page for the cats over the weekend that I’ve linked to on a few relevant spots and can always post when things are bad (I mean, it’s already bad, but you know what I mean). And now…how about a dead laptop when you can’t buy another and also need to work???

Anyway, I am lucky. I have friends. One is sending her old one as a stopgap until I can figure out how to approach getting a new one. I just have found I am not handling new stress well right now, normally I’d get annoyed and spin out a little but immediately start coming up with a solution. Now, I’m basically bursting into tears every time something else comes up. (I am also dealing with a “calculation error” to the tune of $700, not in my favour, I am trying to get help with tax-wise, so I’m a little raw at the moment–and also with the aforementioned worry about not being able to provide for the cats anymore.)

If I’m posting Barbie gifs, I promise I’m still okay; mostly I’m only a real worry when I completely disappear everywhere and get quiet. If I start quoting Hyperbole and a Half on Depression, I am likely not in any danger, I’m just coping because I feel like I’m screaming that my fish are all dead.

We’re now at the year-mark until the fourth Waverly Jones book releases, which means all the ebook preorder links are live. I felt like I’d been making progress on the rewrites but the way my brain seems to approach time, nothing exists outside this current moment so I’m trying not to panic that I will never end up revising it in time since it’s a struggle to do anything but burst into tears and panic right now about non-writing stuff.

But it’ll be fine! This is only temporary. It is all gonna be FINE.

If you shop outside of Kobo, that means it’s everywhere else now.

Kindle | Kobo | iBooks | Nook 

The goal now is just to make it through May unscathed (dr appointment next week, hoping all the stress hasn’t fucked up my remission). There will be a post about the Storybundle launch in a couple of weeks.

This monster had me up in the middle of the night doing crimes so I’ll finish my book here and then try to go to bed early. If you’re not waiting on a hardcover, give Waverly a preorder!

New Waverly book is here! Waverly tackles systemic police corruption while babysitting so if RAGE mixed with ABSOLUTE HILARITY is your thing, here’s the book for you.

Two months ago, Waverly Jones was given a reason to remain in her small hometown of Port Milton indefinitely. Her problem is that even for a private investigator who has solved several high-profile cases, her client pool in the area is limited, and there isn’t enough regular work to justify taking on the odd pro bono job—especially when strapped for cash because her agency is no longer a single-person operation, either.

For the first time, Waverly has an assistant—one who is as much her moral compass as he is a welcoming face to those in need of an investigator. So when the grieving, working-class mother of Madison Simmons—whose body was found in the woods after the spring thaw—comes to them for help, Waverly can’t say no, even if the sliding scale won’t be enough to cover it.

Despite the failure of authorities to look for Madison when she went missing, the death has since been confirmed a suicide. Still, questions plague her mother: why the sudden change in Madison’s behaviour before she died? What factors drove her to suicide?

And could there have been another person involved?

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

I’m taking the day mostly offline–I’m going to take another stab at the rewrite of Waverly 4 (I think once I get this first chapter sorted, I’ll be more confident going forward), reorganize my tax expenses, take a shower, consider a walk. Release days are weird because there’s a build-up of energy but nowhere for it to go, because books are rare read right away, so you can spend two years of your life on something, anticipating it being read, and then it might take a while before you know if it has been (or was liked). (Also adding: someone read it early, a couple of people are currently reading it, and those folks have all loved it, so I am pretty lucky in that regard.)

Amazon is taking a few weeks to ship if you’re getting the hardcover, but hopefully your patience will be rewarded because this is (IMO) a great book–some more clues for the series arc, Waverly Being Waverly, glimpses at WHY Waverly is the way she is, several social justice rants in a trenchcoat, the behind-the-scenes section is loaded with long rants on the concept of unlikeable women. And while every book in the series is a little different–the character dynamics are always changing, etc–this book is sort of the prime example of my somewhat joking tagline: “She’s a feral cat. He’s a Disney prince. Together THEY SOLVE CRIME.”

(One day I will be able to afford commissioning a Disney-style drawing to that effect.)

I will try to get the soundtrack post up for Sunday, I just have to dig out the songs from it. (The only one I remember off the top of my head is Ashley Johnson’s in-character cover of “Take on Me” for the putting-together-a-bed-and-awkwardly-pining chapters.)

A reminder that Silent All These Years–Waverly 4, which is primarily focused on The Crossroads Butcher, as well as some of Waverly’s, uh, choices having consequences–is not due out until May 6 2025, so there’s no preorder outside of Kobo because everywhere else makes me wait until it’s a year away.

So I hope you enjoy this one and if you’re not started on Waverly, you can get the first book for 25% off with the code MEETWAVERLY over at Payhip.