Well I certainly fell off the attempts to regularly blog.

The main explanation is that I was blogging while on my treadmill. That’s no longer a thing as the motor burnt out a few weeks ago. Partly probably because it’s a cheaper model, but also the cat hair didn’t help. I thought I was cleaning around it sufficiently but apparently not.

So that’s been a very expensive mistake that I spent months saving up for first when I got it two years ago and then again to get the standing desk. I now have a 600-dollar 70-lbs paperweight (and 300-dollar desk that’s little more than a cat toy)–I don’t drive, so I’ll have to hire the junk people to come and remove the treadmill, and that’ll be another couple hundred dollars. Even if I could afford the risk to get a new one, I can’t while this one’s still here.

It’s definitely contributed to the depressive episode I’m in right now. I am so discouraged with so many things. The increase cost of living, the last book tanking so spectacularly (which the new mystery series seems likely to do as well), struggling to write, and now I’ve lost those couple of hours a day of walking. The snow will melt soon, so I’ll be able to start walking at night, but I have a lot of anxiety about leaving for even an hour (irrational anxiety, sure, but based in past trauma, and also housebound for three pandemic years).

If there’s a benefit of being suicidal since the age of thirteen (lol) it’s having the experience to know feelings are temporary and trying to keep going anyway. Take that shower, drink a lot of water, keep up with vitamins (that’s one of the reasons I have chewable ones). I even spent a couple of hours yesterday chopping veggies and doing food prep for the week: raw veggies for lunch and pasta salad.

I keep this one as my guiding light.

It doesn’t stop the fact that I just want to sleep and my brain is foggy and it’s taken forever to write this update, but it helps keeps me focused on the good things, and preventing me from spiraling.

I pre-planned quarterly breaks in my schedule as to not burn out (and putting a moratorium on favours this year so I don’t kill myself again this year) and the first is scheduled for the end of this month, which means I have edits to finish and some regular graphics work, and otherwise can be gentle with myself for the next two weeks. I’ve got the Waverly prequel short story off for edits, everything else for TKB ready, scheduling some Patreon posts, and I’m trying to get work done on Hell Fire. At least if I get it structured and something down, I can fill in [important conversation later] stuff when I feel better.

Otherwise, it’s me holding on by a thread, dragging my carcass through the motions, and playing my Magic Cat Collector Game.

Just me and my twelve cats. pic.twitter.com/5vt6HhYgH0

— Skyla Dawn (@skyladawn) March 19, 2023

Okay there’s more than magic cats but this is what I’m playing for. I’m also now up to fourteen (of twenty) found.

So if all’s quiet around here the next few weeks, that’s why–I’m shutting down a little and keeping to myself, but still alive, at least, and doing my best.

I’d been toying with this for a while, a prequel story with Waverly that I could offer as a gift to those who preorder The Killing Beach, but nothing was clicking–and it’s not like I have the time to figure it out.

But a friend brought up The Silent Places in a conversation the other day, and a few hours later–while I was trying to sleep, of course–something just clicked in my brain and I thought…what if.

What if the one person who could figure out what happened at the end of The Silent Places went to the Yukon?

Everything opened up from there and I was up until 4am playing conversations in my head between Waverly and Imogen.

Here’s the blurb:

Private investigator Waverly Jones follows a missing persons trail to a small Yukon village called Red Fox Lake. A local PI agency in Whitehorse has offered her a deal: she can play on their turf, but they need help with a case of their own, talking to a local widow who has had more than one man in her life disappear over the years.

And soon Waverly will figure out that the north isn’t only a place some go to disappear…

Others go there to get away with murder.

So that story is in progress, I wrote a chunk on Saturday and I’m hoping to have it done in a few weeks and then off for editing/proofing. While it’ll be a free gift for anyone who preorders (or orders the paperback), it’ll also be included in the special edition hardcover, so I have to get all this done by the first of May.

Jumping into a new series is hard. I’ve been doing this the better part of two decades, and only a sliver of readership goes from series to series. On top of that, this is a new genre–it’s not paranormal at all. So it’s an uphill battle to build an audience for Waverly.

I am so grateful for those readers taking the plunge with me, however. So this is my thank you, and if you read The Silent Places, I think you’ll particularly enjoy it.

To claim your gift, forward the receipt or a screenshot of your order via email to preorder@skyladawncameron.com or upload your screenshot via the form on the dedicated promotion page here.

When the paperback is available for order (late April/early May), you can also get the story–I’ll do a reminder when it’s available.

The Killing Beach is out May 30. You’ll have until May 28 11:59pm PT to submit your receipt, and I’ll email out the free story on May 29.

Kindle – Kobo – iBooks – Nook

The hardcover editions will have an interior illustration like the old Nancy Drew books had–first is in progress, and I’m pretty excited about it.

They’re out of my budget, though. Like, the hardcover is pretty much a vanity project, I don’t sell enough print copies to justify what’s going into it but…I love mysteries. I love PI stories. I love Nancy Drew. And a friend convinced me by reminding me…we gotta have fun with this publishing thing.

So I’ve got a premade cover sale running this month, to help offset the expense of the illustration costs. 20% off with the coupon code SPRINGSALE20 at checkout.

Speaking of sales, Kobo is also having a Thriller BOGO sale this month, and Watcher of the Woods qualifies. Find all the other titles here.

It’s release day for my new spooky book, Watcher of the Woods, aka Haunted Vacation Lesbians as I called it while I was writing it.

After eighteen months staying home under rolling pandemic lockdowns with her girlfriend Joy, artist Thea Palmer has decided the strained relationship has run its course and she’s ready to end it—right after the stress of her birthday has passed.

Unfortunately, her surprise party comes with a special gift from Joy that puts the breakup on hold: a week-long cabin rental in the tiny northern Ontario community of Hope Falls, for just the two of them.

No phone.

No internet.

No contact with the outside world.

Joy says it’ll give them the perfect chance to reconnect and maybe restore Thea’s creativity after pandemic stress wearing down her desire to paint. But the cabin creaks at night under invisible steps, and the woods have trees that seem to shift in the corner of her eye. Thea swears she sees a strange white figure on the lake beckoning to her and an empty boat that drifts by in the early morning mist.

And Joy…Joy seems to be someone else entirely.

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

Hardcover Gift Box @ Etsy – Paperback Gift Box @ Etsy

So it’s not super romantic for Valentine’s Day, although it is about relationships, and how we deal when people aren’t what we want them to be. If you feel left out today with book releases because you like horror, I’ve got you covered.

In my head, the setting of this was very, very loosely based on my favourite place in the entire world: my late aunt Judy’s cottage. In the book, the area is farther north, but in my head it’s Beaver Lake/Catchacoma Lake. And even though it’s the most beautiful place in the world to me, the silence and the darkness are incredibly eerie and the perfect place for a haunted cabin story.

If the cover branding looks familiar, and if you think you heard “Hope Falls, Ontario” before, yes, you’re right! It’s tied to Dweller on the Threshold (50% off for another day for Shawn’s birthday!). But they can be read as totally standalone, as there are hints and easter eggs but that’s it. And although it’s set in the same world, it’s my hope that folks reading Watcher will still be surprised by a lot that they find.

“Standalone haunted pandemic trilogy of childhood trauma with totally safe pets” is kind of a long series title, which is why I don’t use it, but that’s what I’ve called these books in my head (including the third, when I’ve got time eventually [ahahaha] to write it).