I explain where I went and why The Static is almost in your hands
Hi, hello, I’m back. Did you miss me? Don’t answer that. I’ve been gone approximately one week and I have emerged from the other side looking like someone who has been staring at a manuscript in a state of barely-controlled mania, because that is exactly what I have been doing.
Here’s the thing about putting final touches on a book: you think you’re almost done. Then you find one more thing. Then another. Then you’re rereading a scene at midnight wondering if a character would actually say that or if past-you was just tired and needed to move on. Past-you was tired. Present-you is also tired, but present-you is done, and that makes all the difference.
The Static is coming out March 26th.
I know. I KNOW. Book 2 of the Inconveniently Haunted series is actually, genuinely, for-real happening in just a few days. Dani and the whole found family — the ones who’ve been navigating the supernatural politics of Charleston, contending with a governing body that is deeply corrupt in that specifically infuriating way corrupt institutions tend to be, and generally trying to survive things that should not exist — they are coming back. The Static is spreading. Marlowe’s bakery is still standing (for now). And the legacy plot involving Dani’s biological mother Margaret is finally getting its due.
It’s a book I am proud of in a way that feels a little terrifying to admit out loud.
You can pre-order the ebook right now on Amazon. The link is : https://a.co/d/0iN7PCJg
You can pre-order the ebook on Draft2Digital. The link is: https://books2read.com/u/3RAqyB (But the process of rolling it out to other retailers — Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books, and the rest — take a little time to propagate. If you have a preferred retailer that isn’t showing it yet, sit tight. It’s coming.
One thing I want to be transparent about: The Static will not have an Amazon paperback. I know some of you like a physical copy, and I want to address that directly rather than just let it be a mystery. I was not happy with the quality I got through KDP print — and after putting this much care into a book, I want the physical version to actually feel worthy of it. The paperback will be available through Draft2Digital’s print distribution, which has been a genuinely better experience. (I’m also eyeing IngramSpark for future projects once I actually understand their interface and pricing structure — one new thing at a time, this is how I survive.) So: physical copy, yes. Just not from Amazon.
Meanwhile, on the other side of my creative brain…
The Museum of Ephemeral Arts — the first book of a cozy mystery novella about Mel, a tour guide at a haunted Victorian Charleston museum who can perceive the dead, and the suppressed history of a WPA muralist named Bette Heron — is officially in the hands of my editor.
My editor, who I will simply describe as a freaking genius.
She is a scholar. A teacher. One of the most genuinely interesting people I know, and someone I have been lucky enough to become close to over a shared understanding of what it means to have a brain that works the way ours do. We’re both ADHD. We’ve both navigated the particular joys and complications of mental health, and we’ve bonded over that in the way you can only really bond with someone who gets it — not theoretically, but in the bone-deep way that comes from living it. She brings that same depth of attention and care to everything she does.
I am so excited about what she’s going to do with this manuscript that I almost can’t talk about it calmly. I’m going to try anyway: I’m stoked. She’s going to make it better in ways I probably can’t even anticipate yet, and that’s exactly what a good editor does.
Museum doesn’t have a release date yet — we’ll get there once it’s been through her hands. But it’s in good ones.
That’s the update. Two books in motion, one week of manuscript-brain successfully survived, and a cup of coffee I’ve reheated approximately four times while writing this.
More soon. March 26th. The Static is almost here.
— Harlo
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