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Skyla Dawn Cameron

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

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November 25, 2022 By Skyla Dawn Cameron Leave a Comment

Stocking Up, or Trying Not To

Not gonna lie, all the Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales are stressful because I’m outta cash–I’ve got gifts on my credit card I need to pay off (along with groceries; one store is late paying this month)–though I was very, very tempted a few times. “Look, this thing I use regularly is on sale! I’m going to need it in a few months anyway!” Okay yes, Skyla, but you’ll just have to wait. At the moment it’s still a want, not a need.

My natural inclination is to stock up. On everything. And keep backups. Because I’ve trudged through the snow for an hour every day to work in running shoes with holes in them and unable to afford new ones, so I keep backup running shoes. I loathe ramen because it reminds me of being poor, but I still stock up on packages and fill the pantry when I see them at 50% off, because I’ve been to bed hungry too many times. I download free Kindle books in genres I never read just in case I miraculously have time to get through the hundreds on my TBR and can’t afford something new to read.

I can’t explain why I stock up on first aid supplies, though, other than general zombie preparedness. Plus I live in Ontario, I’m better off treating wounds and factures at home.

Experiences leave long-lasting affects on the brain, and while I’ve read enough to know you can make new neuropathways, I don’t know how effective that would be for me given the overall instability of my life. I am, admittedly, in a slightly better position than I have been previously, but it is not security and I still worry monthly about making rent.

Anyway. Sales!

Solomon’s Seal is 99c at Kobo this weekend. It’s been six years and I assume anyone reading this already has it, but maybe you know someone who might want to check it out.

The Twitter implosion concerns me as that’s where 95% of my premade cover sales have come from. Even regular clients who’ve picked them up remember to check the selection when I post them on Twitter. I may try to add one or two more on Monday, if I’ve got a few minutes. Already I notice views ticking down from where they used to be as a lot of people who used to share the sales have left the bird app, so when it’s gone completely, that’ll probably no longer be an income stream for me (which makes me nervous but, well, here we are).

Black Friday Sale on premade covers. Coupon code MYHEARTWILLGOON at checkout. Excluding sale items.

The MYHEARTWILLGOON coupon code also works at Payhip, should anyone need to flesh out their collection.

Watcher of the Woods is almost ready to go, I’ve got it formatted for print and to go to the proofer shortly. Then I’ve got a few minutes of breathing room to write some new things before doing some more passes on next year’s three releases (final version of Soul Spell, then the first two Waverly books). While I feel like I’m accomplishing next to nothing right now, I keep reminding myself that Hell Fire is the only thing I really have to finish writing in the next six months; worst-case scenario, I can slot the third Waverly book into spring 2024.

But much like hoarding old pairs of running shoes in case I run out, I’m doing the same with manuscripts; last year after Yampellec’s Idol was out and I had nothing else scheduled, I got my-career-is-over level terrified (this is why nagging me is not helpful; I am already in a panic all the fucking time).

So anyway, Watcher. In it, the heroine is reading a book by Norah from Dweller on the Threshold, and in the paperback version there’s the actual pages. Because I’m a nerd and those things make me happy.

Dweller in paperback and hardcover had all kinds of little details, like the notes and scribbles Norah finds are right in the book, and I wanted to do something similar here. I don’t really sell a lot in print, but it’s a nice detail for those into that. I think I’ll be able to put together some cool Etsy packages when it’s out in February.

I’ve got a couple of books to read for work so I’m not reading anything for pleasure right now, but I did watch Wednesday on Netflix. While it’s a fairly standard teen-magic-school-predictable-mystery fare, it’s done well, with great performances across the board, and if you’ve ever wondered what a conversation with my friend Dina James is like, look no further than the titular character.

Gif of Wednesday Addams saying I do like stabbing

I also finished A Plague Tale: Requiem, and I both hope there’s a third and also hope that Amicia retires.

I like seeing story-based video games tackle the consequences of all the long-term murder these characters do, but it does mean I reach a point where I’m like “Please leave these poor girls alone and give them some therapy.” (While I don’t play exclusively female-led games, it’s what I veer toward, so I can’t say if there’s the same pattern in male-led games. But Ellie, Lara, and Amicia all need some group therapy together.)

(I love photo mode.)

(I should probably take my own advice there and get poor Livi some therapy. She is climbing her way back up again, though, I promise.)

I was going to talk about my Xmas gift to myself, my little countertop expresso bar, but this is long and I’m tired and I have to work. Today I’m subsisting almost entirely on a Bailey’s latte, and I do prefer my mocha frapp to the store-bought one because it’s a little less sweet.

But Shawn likes it very much, despite all the noises it makes.

Final reminder, in case I don’t blog until late next week: this month is the last chance to get Witch Hunt in ebook for all patrons. December it bumps up to $5+ patrons going forward. Print is at Amazon for everyone, at least.

ETA: The Painscreek Killings is like $5 on Steam right now for the weekend sale–this is well worth grabbing, as it’s a good little mystery walking simulator.

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: life, sales, writing

August 13, 2022 By Skyla Dawn Cameron Leave a Comment

THAT Thread

So…this week was definitely a thing that happened.

I barely even know what day it is, and the rest of the month is going to be extremely tight because I’m now a week behind on freelance (and writing), but my head’s still kind of a mess.

I wrote a thread on Twitter, not thinking it would leave my sphere (most things don’t). If I’d thought the story of “Here’s a dude who creeped on me years ago that I shut down before he could do much damage and oh by the way I found out he’s in prison now for doing a murder” would go viral…I honestly wouldn’t have written it.

I feel badly saying that because I know posting my Letter of Shame provided a good template for reaffirming boundaries that people appreciated. I want to think it helped people. As a woman, I don’t often see a firm pushback against boundary crossing, it’s been through seeing other women in my life have those kinds of boundaries that I learned to state my own–as well as the consequences of those boundaries being breached. I was really proud of that.

But also, I am a fucking nobody.

I fight tooth and nail for any book sales at all. I live in poverty. I’m isolated due to multiple plagues while I navigate a serious autoimmune disease (it’s been 883 days since I had physical contact with another human being outside of doctors and nurses poking and prodding me) so I have very little interaction with people. I am not used to any public attention beyond my usual circle. It was already extremely difficult for me to handle hundreds of notifications a minute of likes, RTs, QTs, replies, follows, etc.

I had another boundary, initially implied but later stated in the original Twitter thread: Please stop trying to find this guy and attempting to link me to him.

That should be painfully obvious–this is someone who was deeply creepy and poised to involve me in endless harassment if I’d fallen for his grift, plus now he’s a murderer. I don’t want that associated with me and I deliberately didn’t name him. Even the fact that everyone kept getting it wrong wasn’t sufficient because, like, hai, I don’t want to be linked to a bunch of murderers at all! And if you get it right, I’ve just posted a semi-redacted copy of an email that humiliated him. Please do not put a target on me.

I like to believe most people are good, or just clueless, but a lot are not, and I did not like the type of attention I’d started to attract by the third day. I had a hundred people on my website digging into posts from 2014 when I dealt with this man, looking for things I referenced I guess in the hopes of finding him. Rifling through my personal life, my posts various places, my twitter.

That boundary crossing also had a consequence: now my account is locked and the thread is gone. I’m hoping to go back to normal by Monday.

I’m pretty much a wreck.

All the attention from being viral was hard on me to begin with because of my anxiety. That attention turning negative made it ten times worse. I posted a kind of thought-dump at Patreon during it all, trying to process while I felt like alternating between throwing up and bursting into tears, which did help a lot (and if you want something really raw and unfiltered, it’s there for all patrons).

Everything I’m feeling right now is all a biological process which, I guess, helps to identify and name? I understood the sensations I experienced–hypervigilance, panic attacks, etc–and that it’s a normal response to this kind of stimuli for me. I understood today that I was crashing after all that, which dumped a different cocktail of chemicals into my body that I’ve had to manage–resulting in headaches, executive dysfunction, brain fog, fatigue, pretty dark thoughts. I’m wavering on the edge of depression and doing what I can not to tip too far into it, and I’m mostly off social media because I saw a story of a missing elderly dog that sent me into hysterics crying so I know my stress cup is beyond a little full. I know I need to try to take care of myself for the next few days while I recover, and at least I’ve got a lot of grounding tricks I’ve picked up over the years to help a little (thanks PTSD!).

this is your brain crammed with stress and past trauma. any questions?

If you ever go through something like this, know that all those physical sensations you experience are extremely normal, and are temporary.

Yeah, temporary–it’ll be fine, but I have so much to do I really couldn’t afford this bullshit this week. And, you know, I’m actually fucking mad, because I sold a handful of books before I had to lock my account–every sale helps and now that’s gone too.

So anyway, here we are. If you find this and you read/shared/commented on that original thread and were cool: hey, thank you for that. Sorry it turned out like this. Hopefully that won’t happen again.

But…

I did want to pull up that Letter of Shame for you.

I’ve trimmed a bunch out, but you can use this for a template if you want and read it with my example in mind.

  1. Repeat the boundary.
  2. Show how it was breached.
  3. Include what further evidence you’d like.
  4. Reaffirm the boundaries and conditions, if any, of future contact.
  5. Lay out the consequences (realistic ones) if that boundary is breached again.

THEN FOLLOW THROUGH ON THE CONSEQUENCE.

Don’t apologize. Don’t soften your words. Speak plainly and the only emotion you should be showing is fury (and contempt). I also repeat all the inappropriate behaviour so that if the receiver shares the email with others, they look like the asshole. This also has to be used only in certain circumstances with certain people, so be careful.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: life, personal

February 10, 2022 By Skyla Dawn Cameron Leave a Comment

Next Year’s Release Schedule

This is part proof-of-life post (although another will be coming on Sunday for Shawn’s birthday, theoretically), part actual update.

This week has been marginally better in that I don’t seem to be having the panic attacks and frequent tachycardia–last week was bad enough I very, very nearly considered an ambulance when even medication couldn’t get my heartrate down after an hour–but that might also be due to the lack of human contact. I did spend basically all of last Sunday and most of Monday just crying nonstop for no reason except that it was a taper day for my meds and that’s what happens when I come down, which was not my favourite thing. But Tuesday was unexpectedly a semi-normal workday, as was today, and hopefully that means the end is in sight. I also only had one episode of internal bleeding so SCORE. And my biopsies are all cancer and pre-cancer free.

A couple of bedrest days have lead to binge-watching The Vampire Diaries because apparently I am still making bad decisions. My Platonic Murder Wife checks in regularly and keeps me company when I need it–it’s that weird spot where I absolutely should not be alone, but it also might be safest if I am–and as usual, she and Shawn are probably why I’m not dead yet.

I’m more than halfway through Soul Spell, which is Elis #3…which was supposed to be called Hell Fire, but it’s taking longer to get to the reason WHY the book was supposed to be called Hell Fire, and I just decided to bump that to Elis #4. Confused? Me too! But the end result is that yes, Elis will be back this summer (#2 concluded at Patreon last week) with her third book, now called Soul Spell, and the fourth one that will serialize next year will be called Hell Fire.

I’ve tried my best to keep my Wednesday writing days, along with the Saturday night write-ins, though that’s sometimes challenging as well. I did not have any new words in me yesterday, but I pulled out Watcher of the Woods and…made some more decisions.

Watcher in the Woods–standalone, but set in the same world as Dweller on the Threshold–is going to release next year ON VALENTINE’S DAY (February 14 2023) because either I have terrible timing or I expect other people would rather read a horror book on a romance day like I would. (Why not both?)

A big reason I pulled it out is because Dweller on the Threshold actually has four times the preorder numbers Livi #6 does. And to be honest…that’s still a pretty low number, but it’s not insignificant, so I thought having another standalone hauntings book for preorder when this one comes out in April would be a good idea. I’ve assigned it some ISBNs, set up preorder pages, and given it a dedicated page on my site so…I guess we’re doing this!

As a result of that, I’ve decided to keep Waverly #1 in spring but just bump it later, so The Killing Beach is officially set for May 30 2023.

Most stores won’t list preorders earlier than a year before the release date, except for Kobo, so both are live there now and the books pages here will update as other stores come up (Kindle for Watcher will be next week).

Here’s what that all looks like:

I literally had just redone the graphic to replace Hell Fire with Soul Spell and then redid it again, but here we are.

The UPCOMING page also has everything listed in one handy place.

Still speaking of Dweller: the hardcovers arrived on Monday and they came out lovely. At this point, I’m only doing standalones in hardback (maybe Waverly, we’ll see) because the trim sizes are limited so I have to redo my interiors from 5×8 to 5.5×8.5 and I am not putting that energy into a format no one will buy lol but if that’s your thing, you’ll find Dweller and The Silent Places for sale in hardcover on Amazon. I’ll have a Dweller signed gift box and that in my shop probably by the end of the month.

Hopefully I’ll have a cute post here on Sunday for Shawn’s third (THIRD!!!) birthday–he’s got a bunch of presents from me and his aunties, which is basically already a day ending in y for him, but he’s very special.

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: dweller on the threshold, elis o'connor, life, news, personal, update, watcher of the woods, waverly jones

July 27, 2018 By Skyla Dawn Cameron Leave a Comment

“When’s That Book Coming?” Summer 2018 Edition

It’s very hard to write books when everything you love is dead. Also hard to do: get up, work, clean, bathe, breathe, not cry, have patience with people who discard their cats like trash. But alas I manage to do most of those things, even if it takes longer and is quite taxing, and last night I finished the fourth draft of the third Livi novel.

There’s still a fifth draft to go. And copyediting. And proofreading. But it’s a big chunk of work done at last, and the book is now up for preorder.

But first…

What’s New

The West prequel novel, Tiger’s Memory, is complete, polished, and available at Patreon for folks $10+.

The prequel novel about West’s first major assignment, his first girlfriend, and how it goes terribly wrong for him on both counts.

Before he was known as brutal operative Dale West, he was Suh Dae-il, a twenty-year-old rising star in the agency who escaped a North Korean prison camp five years earlier.  Charismatic, brilliant, and manipulative, he’s the perfect spy—right up until he’s assigned his first target.

Becoming the person who could convince a girl to flip on her family means submerging himself in another world entirely. If he disappears in this other persona completely, he risks losing his job, his purpose, and the people who gave him a new life after he fled hell; if he remains the operative beneath the surface, he could lose the girl he’s fallen in love with when she learns the truth about his subterfuge.

Either way it may not matter when agency operatives and their targets in the area are killed. Dae-il is in someone’s crosshairs—someone who shares his unique abilities and has no qualms about his girlfriend becoming collateral damage in a mission that will change the magical landscape of the entire world.

That’s about all I finished. The Livi Postcard Story is in progress at Patreon, and I’ve just started Solomon’s Seal from West’s POV.

 

What’s Upcoming

Mark your calendars…

October 16, 2018

Yes, the title changed, but the cover hasn’t.

Preorder: Kindle US | Kindle UK | Kindle CA | Kobo | iBookstore (more coming soon)

This is a big book. Current draft is at 121 525 words (Livi books are normally 106K). That might bump up a bit as the book needs some prettying up–I try (and hopefully succeed) to make Livi’s books very visual and cinematic, but this one was difficult to just get all the pieces in place. Next draft will smooth it out. I’m frightfully insecure about it because it was so difficult, and I know it’s a year behind schedule, but I sincerely hope it’s worth the wait for readers and y’all enjoy it.

This book has…

  • Livi vs a terracotta army!
  • The elixir of immortality!
  • A hot Australian treasure hunter!
  • SEA MONSTERS!
  • A sort-of apology for Certain Things in Oblivion!

I think when I’m done hating it, I will ultimately be very proud of it. It caps off Livi’s character arc nicely–if I ended it here, it would make a solid trilogy of books, I think. There are of course more–I’m writing the fifth right now–but Livi is on life support and can use all the help she can get. Please, during the blood moon/eclipse, sacrifice a virgin or two (I mean, whatever you can find) and at least half a dozen unicorns to whatever deity of your choice and maybe sales will increase.

The countdown is on to be thanked in the acknowledgements of Emperor’s Tomb! Like the producer credits on the movie, Patrons of Snark get thanked for their monthly support in all my books. Join for as little as a buck a month and get added to the acknowledgements.

Then, coming either next month or in September,

The Oblivion bundle will be on Kindle Unlimited for three months before distribution is expanded elsewhere. Here’s the table of contents:

Bloodlines
“Thrall”
Hunter
“Malice”
Lineage
“Sunrise”
“Whiskey Sour”
Exhumed
“Fated”
“Prey”
Oblivion

It does not include 9 Crimes (or “Aftermath”), Damaged, “A Vampire Walked Into a Bar”/”Zombie Faeries”, “Resist“, or Dial V for Vampire.

I wanted to give the series a quick proofread (again) but I haven’t the mental capacity for it, so that’s why I’m being vague on the release right now. So…”soon”.

 

What I’m Working On

Besides more revisions on Livi 3, I have other stuff in progress I’m not ready to talk about yet. When I have details, I’ll share them, I just don’t like to jinx projects in early development.

 

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: Demons of Oblivion, life, livi talbot, patreon, preorder, sotu, state of the union, update

April 7, 2017 By Skyla Dawn Cameron Leave a Comment

Wherein Livi Talbot’s on Life Support

Nov 21 Update: the series has been cancelled prematurely.

So titled because of this post. Hey, I like carrying a rough metaphor through, okay?

If you’ll indulge me for a moment, there are some things I have to get off my chest, and it may be lengthy and something I regret, but this is my page so, well, here we go–whatever, I do what I want.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: epub, life, livi talbot, mobi, news, odin's spear, pdf, personal, piracy, rant, solomon's seal, torrent, update, writers and readers, writing

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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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What I’m Working On:

Writing Elis 5. Also kind of sort of writing Waverly 8.

I'm not inclined to resign to maturity.