Very Tentatively

It’s my scheduled weekly writing day, which has been a lot of admin stuff and some revision. I don’t 100% know everything I need to weave into Hell Fire (and how to make the ending sit right), but I’m cleaning up October’s chapters so I can get those scheduled to go at Patreon.

Proofer got back the fixes for A Wild Kind of Darkness, so I made those on the weekend. It’s formatted for print (paperback and special hardcover), and the full-wrap covers are done, so now it’s a matter of waiting a few more weeks to upload those files and the eBooks.

Patrons in good standing before a new release are thanked on the credits page (I would love to credit every single person during a book’s creation, but people come and go at Patreon, so it’s a lot to keep track of; the easiest on me is to check the list before publication), so I always wait until closer to release to finalize everything with an updated list of folks. The eARCs are loaded for the Book Club Tier, though, and the extended eight-chapter preview for November 1 for everyone.

The Killing Beach hardcover had two illustrations–one with the main book and one with the short story. The Nancy Drew books I remember used to have those at the beginning, an illustration of a later scene and a little enticing quote from it without much other context, so I’ve tried to recreate it. A Wild Kind of Darkness has the main one, but as I’ve added extras to the bonus features, I found myself wanting another one to go with the prequel short…which is very much outside my budget, with everything going on this fall.

So I tried my hand at drawing in Procreate.

In the writing essay tier of Patreon this month, I’ll have a longer post about it, but just doing something for a few nights that was creative but not writing–something with my hands (even if it’s a stylus)–seemed to jostle things loose in my brain, and I actually wrote a chunk at Saturday night’s write-in on The Only Way Out.

Funny how I keep forgetting and relearning these tricks that help refill the well.

The book still does not have a significant word count, but I’m hoping between Waverly 3 revisions, I’ll make some progress. Very tentatively (very tentatively), I’m hoping to fit it into the fall 2024 spot that’s empty in my release schedule, because at this point it’s the closest I am to having something done.

There is no preorder, and will not be until I have a rough draft done, but that’s the current plan.

I don’t even really have a jacket copy as, at this point, the narrator doesn’t have a name (she does, it’s given at the very end, but it’s a little joke I don’t expect most people outside of gothic fans to get) so it’ll be kind of tough to write. But it’s interesting writing a book through the lens of Norah from Dweller because the story is filtered through her and her experiences as much as they are my own (she’s even going to slip a “Fuck you, Greg” remark in there).

It’s at least on the homepage now (though not linked yet), so you know I’m serious.

Stay tuned! …very tentatively lol.

Second medication loading dose is Friday. Still no idea how it’s getting paid for after that, but I did all the government forms and my case manager is taking it from here (she can follow up with the Ministry of Health) since that’s what she’s paid for. My private insurance will cover a bit, but I’m pretty sure the shots are something like $500 a pop? That’s still an extra $300 a month I’ll be paying, at least until the insurance runs out and then it’s a full $1000? Or double that if biweekly doesn’t work and I end up needing them weekly.

I’ll figure it out, even if it involves selling panties on the internet. In a deep dive about side effects and what to expect, I ran into all kinds of stories of people with my illness and the complications inherent as the disease progresses. And…nope. Not doing that. Even though I feel fine right now, that will not be the case if it keeps progressing, and it will, so I need treatment.

Healthcare is such a fucking racket. This is going to be my villain origin story.

Anyway, if you haven’t already: A Wild Kind of Darkness is up for preorder, so please check it out. Two months before release is normally when I start picking up preorders, but these books have totally stalled, given how small readership is when starting a new series from scratch. (If you’re on Bsky, I’ve got a thread here about career stalls [that I even dug out the Oblivion sales numbers for lolsob], and nestled in it is a great thread by Krista. If you’re not on Bsky and want an invite, leave a comment here and I’ll send it to the email address you leave with it.)

Second treadmill session of the day almost done here–it’s so hot, I can’t stay on for long (I can’t run the a/c at the same time or I risk burning out a fuse), so I might be stuck at 7K steps when the day is done. At least it’s something. I’ve also been listening to the Unpacking soundtrack while walking, which has become my top anxiety game–not only is it great storytelling, but it’s just very soothing to arrange everything. That and Stardew Valley‘s soundtrack make great, unobtrusive background noise.