I think this’ll serve as a proof of life post for the next week or so–the last post I started while I was on the treadmill was very indicative of my current mental state, so it’s best I didn’t finish and post it. I said to a friend the other day, “You know, I think I might be in a depressive episode” and they were like, um, yes, Skyla, I noticed. I guess you can only make so many jokes in reply to “what do you want for Christmas/what would most help you right now” with “applying for MAiD” before you realize you might not actually be joking.

It’s mostly situational, I think, crashing after several months of stress (and bearing witness in real time to genocide on social media), but that also means it’s mostly unsolvable because we’re all drowning under a capitalist hellscape. At least I’ve got my embroidery.

Anyway.

We’re a couple of weeks away from Waverly #2 releasing; readers who bought hardcovers direct from me seem to already have their copies (more coming to Etsy soon). I’ve still got #3’s edits in progress to get it out for copyediting (that’ll probably be something next month) but for the write-in at Patreon, I pulled out Waverly #7 again because that makes me happy. Ish.

So it’s Waverly Soundtrack Sunday time: “Sally’s Song”

Yes, that “Sally’s Song”. But not that version.

The Fiona Apple one.

This was a very early song from the Waverly Jones series, this specific one. (Because, like fifteen years ago, there was a great Twin Peaks fanvid to it about Cooper–and Audrey–so…yeah.) It’s deeply melancholic and eerie, and for me it fits both with Waverly when she was a teen, and now as an adult.

I sense there’s something in the wind
That feels like tragedy’s at hand

It’s that building sense that something terrible is about to happen. Between Apple’s voice and these lyrics, I can really feel it. Especially during Waverly’s first round with The Crossroads Butcher when she was a teen, watching from afar as this detective investigates the murder.

What will become of my dear friend
Where will his actions lead us then

It comes up in the second book (out November 7!), there were a lot of complications right before The Butcher killed her sister and then went dormant. Some early police mishandling essentially caused a miscount with the number of victims (The Butcher killed in groups of three, which I think I cover in The Killing Beach), leaving some people to believe he was ‘done’ with the town, when in fact he wasn’t.

And though I’d like to stand by him
Can’t shake this feeling that I have
The worst is just around the bend

That carries over to the present day–at this point, although there are threads about the overriding Crossroads Butcher mystery from book to book, it’s books four and seven so far that really tackle it (as will, I think, the ninth, and then the final book–whether that’s ten, eleven, or twelve, concludes it). This song is very much on the repeat list for those books as well. (And, in some respects, I realize the song also works with singer/subject reversed later in the series.)

And does he notice my feelings for him
And will he see how much he means to me
I think it’s not to be

And through it all, Waverly is very much in love with him.

I would really, at some point, like to go back to writing that prequel book, something not just from Waverly’s POV but everyone in the town during the investigation. I’ve been having trouble even meeting my regular commitments due to burnout, though, so that’s definitely backburnered pending some other projects off my plate.

Maybe eventually.

And will we ever end up together
No, I think not, it’s never to become
For I am not the one

The Killing Beach is out now and A Wild Kind of Darkness is coming November 7.

Also check out the deals page, as I have a few at Kobo on sale for the season.

The complete list of Soundtrack Sunday posts are here.

Waverly’s soundtracks are going to be a bit difficult for me because more than my other series, I listen to her songs on a loop from book to book. There are some prominent in various scenes, but for whatever reason, I guess I see her story as one big long journey and the same things are on rotation.

For the Waverly Jones Soundtrack Sunday posts, I’ll try to confine to the really specific ones per book, but there’ll probably be the same ones popping up book to book.

Karmina – “All the King’s Horses“
This was a very early song for this book, when I was getting a handle on the character.
“Caught in the thought of that time//When everything was fine, everything was mine”

Anna Ternheim – “Black Sunday Afternoon“ (acoustic)
I’ve talked about this one before, and it’s kind of a prequel song, but Waverly’s so surrounded by the past it ends up in current rotation as well. About the loss of her sister.
“They gather up, something’s wrong//They ask around, no one knows//Well, have you been where the rivers cross//by the water in the moss?//Nothing really moves on black Sunday afternoons”

Moist – “Believe Me“
“And wanting you to reach out from the dark//To wake up from the cold”

Agnes Obel – “Familiar“

Malia J – “Smells Like Teen Spirit“
This is my epic-version-of-an-old-song trailer song for the book in my head.

Hozier – “In the Woods Somewhere“
This is one of those songs I keep coming back to, because the woods of Miskwa Bay Provincial Park and farther north toward Juneberry River keep coming up in the series. Even though it’s not a paranormal series, I see the forest of having its own kind of power, something that feels supernatural about it.
“What caused the wound?//How large the teeth?//I saw new eyes were watching me”

Lord Huron feat. Phoebe Bridgers – “The Night We Met“
I think it’s one of the only songs mentioned in the book, and Waverly can’t go five seconds thinking about the person she’s with, thinking instead about her obsession Det. Kyle.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do//Haunted by the ghost of you”

Lana Del Rey – “Blue Velvet“
So Waverly references this song from the homecoming dance when she was a teen, and I swear I changed it a dozen times (dates not mentioned, but that was 2012; the first book takes place in 2024). I changed it this final time because none of the choices were sitting with me, and then I saw Lana del Rey had a cover of this song out that year. Given the book’s strong Twin Peaks DNA, another Lynch reference seemed perfect. BTW, I will be writing that full past scene for Patreon at some point.

Rebekah Del Rio – “No Stars“

Agnes Obel – “It’s Happening Again“

Madonna – “Masterpiece” (linking to the Cooper/Audrey video, because reasons)
More details about that one here.
“From the moment I first saw you//All the darkness turned to light”

Angelo Badalamenti – “Twin Peaks Theme“

Lana Del Rey – “13 Beaches“
This is one I really hesitated to include because it’s really important later in the series (sixth book) but, I mean, beaches. I listened to it a lot here. I’ll just repeat it later.
“Can I let go?//And let your memory dance//In the ballroom of my mind//Across the county line”

Florence + The Machine “Wish That You Were Here“
“And now I’m reaching out with every note I sing//And I hope it gets to you on some pacific wind//Wraps itself around you and whispers in your ear//Tells you that I miss you and I wish that you were here”

Alanis Morrissette – “Your House“
In the behind-the-scenes essay in the hardcover, I mention three songs that gave me a handle on Waverly’s character; they’re this one as well as the next two. This one in my head is when she stole the jacket all the years before the book’s start.
“Walked down the hall//Into your room where I could smell you//And I shouldn’t be here without permission//Shouldn’t be here.”

Garbage – “#1 Crush“
(I actually really like creepy obsessive love songs, this is where she gets it from.)
“I will sell my soul for something pure and true//Someone like you”

Dido – “Here with Me”
This also would’ve worked well for an epilogue song tbh. (I also see it with Waverly at home looking at her Butcher crime board)
“Oh, I am what I am//I’ll do what I want, but I can’t hide”

Anna Nalick – “Breathe (2AM)“ (both original and acoustic)
A lot more about that here; it’s the epilogue song and that scene was what kept me coming back to the book, I wanted to write it.

The complete list of Soundtrack Sunday posts are here.

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

The complete list of Soundtrack Sunday posts are here.

Bishop Briggs – “White Flag“
More on that one here. Livi doesn’t have a white flag.

NerdOut feat. Divide & Halocene – “No Fear” (Shadow of the Tomb Raider)
NerdOut has a bunch of fun songs, and this TR one fit Livi’s journey here.
“On this road of mine I have walked alone//Left my soul behind, to dive into unknown//The blood is on my hands, but I can’t let it control//The choice to rise and to stand is all that I know//I’ve come so far//I’m not turning back//After all I’ve sacrificed//I have to wonder//What will I become//With no fear left in my eyes”

Ruelle – “Game of Survival“
This is basically Livi v Nostoi
“There’s no surrender//And there’s no escape//Are we the hunters?//Or are we the prey?”

Starset – “My Demons“

Ashes Remain – “On My Own“
“Bring me out//Come and find me in the dark now//Every day by myself I’m breaking down//I don’t wanna fight alone anymore”

Ursine Vulpine feat Annaca – “Wicked Game“
More on that one here. Liv and Iluka.

RIYAYA feat John Mark McMillan – “Hunter“
More on that one here.
This was on repeat for me when Livi runs the final way toward Pluto’s Gate (I wish I could share the scene in my head, it’s very dramatic with some epic shots and slow-mo)

Tommee Profitt – “With You ‘Til the End“
When Livi reaches the underworld and discovers she’s not alone. Pretty much the whole thing lyrically.

NEONI – “Giants“
I’ll let you guess about this one but it is both metaphorical and literal for Liv.
“Heaven and hell are waiting//Don’t need more motivation”

J2 feat Lola – “Somewhere Under the Rainbow“
The underworld.

Ruelle – “Madness“
Livi in the underworld, questioning her sanity.
“Feel the fury closing in//All resistance wearing thin//Nowhere to run from all of this havoc//Nowhere to hide//From all of this madness”

Lauren Daigle – “Rescue“
More on that one here.

Ursine Vulpine feat Annaca – “Without You“
Livi leaves someone behind in the underworld.
“You don’t have to be the brave one every time//I know you wanna make it right” and “We need a bit more time”

Sarah McLachlan – “Full of Grace“
Livi reaches the surface/heads home and speaks with Em.
Pretty much the whole thing lyrically.

Charon’s Gold is now available.

Kindle | Kobo | iBooks | Nook | Smashwords | Payhip | Paperback

The complete list of Soundtrack Sunday posts are here.