Skyla Dawn Cameron

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

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And…That’s It

rebellion-kindleRebellion‘s concluded and the story is now offline.

If you missed it, you can buy your very own copy in PDF, EPUB, or MOBI either on my site or Payhip. (Payhip, I believe, can deliver at least Kindle files the way Amazon does, possibly the Nook ones too.) Similarly, if you enjoyed it and want your very own copy, there you go. For print collectors, you should be able to find it on Amazon this weekend or Monday.

There is another post-Wolfe story I’d planned to write to tie up a few loose ends for series fans, but now I’m afraid it’ll morph from a short story into something longer like this one did and I really can’t afford that kind of time without knowing whether there’s sufficient interest or not. So I’ll be seeing how this one does over the next little while to see.

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Thank you for reading!

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Soundtrack Sunday – REBELLION Edition

rebellion-kindleLord, save me from male characters who make me listen to sappy music.

So anyway, I snagged a bunch of songs from the River soundtrack and built from there, so there’s some crossover. Without further ado, here is the Rebellion playlist, just in time for you to buy the novella now or read it briefly for free starting tomorrow.

 

Zoe Keating – “Lost“
I wrote a lot of the forest scenes to Zoe Keating’s Into the Trees. “Lost” also seemed appropriate for the first chapter called “Found”.

Jeffrey Gaines – “In Your Eyes“
C’mon, you knew this one would be on here.
All my instincts, they return//And the grand facade, so soon will burn

Lissie – “They All Want You“
And my heart breaks watching it takin’ its toll

Sheryl Crow – “I Shall Believe“
During the scene where he’s wrapping her hands up after the fight in her cabin (yes, that’s revisited in the novella).
That not everything is gonna be the way//You think it ought to be//It seems like every time I try to make it right//It all comes down on me//Please say honestly you won’t give up on me

BOY – “Drive Darling“
I’m smiling on the surface//I’m scared as hell below

Linkin Park – “Numb”
Daryl’s theme.
Every step that I take is another mistake to you

Chris Isaak – “Let Me Down Easy”
Don’t you hear my heart is calling//You don’t know how hard I’ve fallen for you

Max Frost – “Let Me Down Easy“
That there are two songs with this title is not lost on me.
Before the words are spoken//I know what’s on your mind//So now it’s in the open//Don’t wanna know, don’t wanna know why

Korn – “Alone I Break”
I wrote the book’s fight scene to this one.

David Usher – “Souring”
The opening of the chapter “Assimilate.”
Woke up thinking I love you//But I can’t say why

Ingrid Michaelson – “Can’t Help Falling In Love with You“
So take my hand, and take my whole life too

Twinbed – “Trouble I’m In”
Although this was on the River soundtrack (for a scene toward the end, where he says “No more words”), it was always a Daryl POV song.
You are the trouble I’m in

Lissie – “Hello“
I’ve been alone with you//Inside my mind

David Usher – “My Way Out“
The beginning of the fourth part, Belonging
And if I could remember//If I could find a place a time the space to see another way home//And if I could forget you//Maybe there’s no other way out

The Album Leaf – “The Light”
The final scene of the novella.

 

Fun fact #1: David Usher–or a teen version–is also roughly how I always pictured Daryl. *the more you knooow*
Fun fact #2: Daryl Marsden was named after a boy I liked in school like two decades ago, and I realized while writing this that I don’t even remember his last name. Clearly it was the love of the century.

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New Release – Rebellion: A River Wolfe Story

IT’S HERE, IT’S HERE, IT’S HERE!

(I’m excited. I might be the only one, but I had loads of fun with this story.)

If River is a story about what it’s like being in a body where you don’t belong and fighting that with every fiber of your being, Rebellion is about what it’s like to recognize you’re living a lie and can choose another path.

Without further ado, here is the blurb and buying/reading info.

rebellion-cover

Rebellion follows werewolf Daryl Marsden as he rediscovers River, the wolf he changed into a human girl three years ago.

Haunted by past mistakes and the need to right them now, Daryl struggles hide the truth behind the night he changed the white wolf and to pass along the rules and history given to him by his father: assimilate with humans, hide what you truly are. But River defies his plans, instead awakening the wolf in him, leaving Daryl with the choice of following the path he’s been forced on or giving in to his true nature.

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The story takes place during the first half of River, from Daryl Marsden’s POV–there are a collection of scenes from the book that appear from his point of view, and then a chunk of the story is sort of “lost scenes” that never made it into the book (you’ll see when you get there). As such, it’s more of a companion to the novel.

So this is the short (er, novella) I’d hoped to include with the re-release of River but hadn’t been well enough to write.  It’s no longer feasible to add it to existing editions of the book being sold–it’s hella-long and would increase the paperback’s size and price a lot, so as mentioned previously, I’m doing a special week-long event where you can read it free, and then it’ll be for sale only. Daily from Monday March 16 to Thursday March 19, a new part will be posted. It’ll stay live through Friday, and then come down again.

If you want to read immediately, you can buy a copy in my online shop. Remember, I can’t sell to EU countries, but you can also buy through Payhip as they’re taking care of VAT for me.

I’m undecided as to whether or not it’ll be available elsewhere later.

Patrons: you still have access to this. You don’t need to buy, PDF EPUB and MOBI are available here.

 

This story is not standalone.

(I made that big letters so you can’t miss it.)

River_2014-smIt doesn’t make sense without having read the novel, and I didn’t bother trying to make it accessible to newbies. You can buy River on Kindle, Kobo, Nook, OmniLit, Smashwords, iTunes, Payhip, and direct and you’ve got the weekend to read and catch up. If buying direct or on Payhip, enter the coupon code “rebellion” (no quotes) to save 25%.

Another argument in favour of getting the current edition of River: the scenes in Rebellion that line up with River’s previously seen POV are based on the 2014 version and not the old one. Scenes and dialogue changed. So don’t complain if it doesn’t match the 2006 version. 😛

If soundtracks are your thing, that posts on Sunday.

Also, this contains mature subject matter. River is YA, I guess, due to the age of the protag, so this should be as well, but I’d label Rebellion age 14+. I *think* anyone reading my blog is likely an adult, but just an FYI, read it before handing it to your twelve-year-old. It’s darker than River.

The title comes from a specific line of Gray’s in the latter fifth of the novel: “I still have no idea what possessed him to rebel like that.” Daryl’s story, from the time he was fourteen and changed her, straight through to when he finds her again, is about a building rebellion. This story chronicles a glimpse of it.

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A Productive Weekend

photo credit: via photopin (license)
photo credit: via photopin (license)

I actually surprised myself this weekend by pulling out Shiva’s Bow and finishing a solid first draft (as opposed to the messy zero I wrote last year) for my beta. There are still a number of things wrong with it but I’ve reached the point where I have to talk it out before I go in and fix it, both to confirm what I already know and to come at it from angles I haven’t thought of.

What surprised me most of all was that of the new characters in this book, there was one who, in the zero draft, just sort of disappeared and did nothing, and he had no function whatsoever. So I was fully planning to delete him. Just…excise him entirely from the manuscript. The books in this series are fairly hefty to begin with and a lot goes on in them, and anyone not pulling their weight gets fired.

I hit his first scene with plans to remove him when something stopped me. Just a little whisper that came to the back of my mind and said, “Hold on a second. Just see how this plays out.” I grudgingly listened (if I didn’t, it would’ve driven me nuts). By the time I got 3/4 through the book, it suddenly hit me why he was REALLY there. And I felt bloody stupid for not realizing it sooner. After I talk it out with the beta–what I think I need to do with him–I’ll go back and anyone reading the book in the future will have no idea that it wasn’t planned that way all along.

All that is to say that books, at least for me, come pre-existing and writing is a form of excavating. It’s better now than years ago–generally I know the shape of the thing and where I have to carve first, which only experience can bring–but there are always surprises as I go and I wouldn’t say it ever gets easier.

One of the surprises with this series was that I wrote Shiva’s Bow thinking it was the third book only to realize it’s the fourth, so now I have to go back and fill in another book: Zheng’s Tomb, wherein our intrepid heroine ends up in the boobytrapped tomb of Qin Shi Huang, crossing a lake of mercury and battling his terracotta army (which of course are brought to life, because Reasons. Badass reasons).

I can’t wait.

Anyway, it’s Daylight Saving Time now in my neck of the woods and thank gods I don’t have any early mornings this week as I am right confused. It’s just me and work, and everything else is scheduled to go this week, so I don’t have to brain much.

Two points of interest for readers this week:

  1. Author October Weeks has invited me to celebrate the release of her urban fantasy novel, The Damned, over on Facebook. I’ll be there from around 7:30 – 8 EST on Thursday, March 12, giving away a book or two and chatting. Please consider attending if you’re on FB and giving October some support.
  2. Rebellion will be released on Friday, for real and for true. This is the first time I’ve revisited the River Wolfe world with new content in several years so I’m hoping people check it out and enjoy it. Patrons can currently download the novella free. It’ll be for sale here and on Payhip on Friday, and then next week you can read it on my blog free over a period of four days.

Rebellion is another example of a book surprising me–there were a few details about the night River was changed into a human that I had no idea about until the end of the novella. It certainly brings a new perspective to the events of River and I hope you dig it. (It also sets up where the River-ten-years-later short story will go, which I’m writing after Wolfe is re-released, and y’all are gonna kick me for that one, so sorry in advance.)

Well, back to work for me. I hope to see you on Facebook this Thursday and then back here for Rebellion‘s release on Friday!

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The Thing They Don’t Tell You

Yesterday I got excellent news from Dr. M, my specialist. My MRI showed no active disease and I’m not that badly damaged yet, I don’t yet require surgery, and I seem to be tolerating the medication well. I can cut down on my visits to her AND my frequent bloodwork.

I sort of sat there and blinked for a few moments, because I wasn’t prepared for that.

I prepare for worst case scenario, always, because bad news always hurts that much more when you have hope. At least for me. So I was quite prepared for something dire and had trouble adjusting to the idea that, for a little while, I’m okay. It’s that “for a little while” that is key, however. It’s not permanent. It’s never permanent; this can’t be cured. Oddly, it’s a little like mental illness that way. Periods of wellness in between periods of, “Oh, fuck”. There are all kinds of instructions on how to deal with bad news, but the thing they don’t tell you about is the good.

For a brief moment, sitting there with my doctor, I nearly stumbled over words (thank GOD she seems to find me coherent and like me as a patient, at least I’m generally educated on things) and the question flared in my head, “What now?” A different sort of panic than I’m used to, the good news triggering another shuffling of the ground beneath me. I’d mentally prepared me for one path and yet here is another, brighter one.

I recovered quickly, of course. Because the answer to that question is, well, carry on.Maximize this time of wellness, do all the things you comfortably can, and enjoy the hell out of it. Don’t ever squander it.

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Anyway, this should mean we’re back to our regularly scheduled bloggage about books and such.

So I came home yesterday to the internet losing its damn mind (I still don’t even know wtf) AND the wonderful surprise of Patreon meeting its first milestone(!). This means that not only is my monthly medication paid for, but the Alchemy Red short, Prey, will soon be posted (one scene to finish and then a proofread on my end) for patrons. It’s a lot of fun and contains several familiar faces even if that’s not initially apparent from the description.

rebellion-kindleMarch also continues to be a busy month as things are on track to release the novella Rebellion. This is the first time I’ve revisited the River Wolfe world with new content as a writer since 2008 and for readers (when Wolfe was actually publisher), 2009. I am reasonably certain I am the only one excited for this novella (other than the friend who is currently reading it for coherency for me), but I don’t care: I’m tremendously pleased and I hope River Wolfe readers who catch it enjoy it.

So that’s it for me today. Errands to run, a flat to clean, some naughty assassins to get into trouble with some of your favourite characters, editing to do…

And possibly some nachos. Remission feels good.

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 and Waverly 4 Revisions.