Hey all! So January is over, and boy was it a long year. For me, it was an incredibly productive month. In fact, it was the most productive month I’ve ever had.
So I thought I’d share it here, along with one of the ways I track my word count: I write it on an old-school paper calendar every day. This way Mr. Burns can get a look and if I’m having a slow period, give me a poke. (Okay fine, it’s more so he’ll praise me when I’m doing well.)
Imaginary cookies to anyone who can guess any part of my random notation system.

Kara
Hi! I just discovered the Kismet Wolves trilogy and I love them, so I had to join your mailing list right away.
I’m going to guess…red for new words, blue for revisions, and green for final version? Or maybe green is “back from editor and looked over their changes”. And the fish is for completing a chapter, or maybe a whole novel (with red or blue depending on whether it’s the first or second draft).
Sam
Good guesses! Since you’re the only person who guessed, I’ll tell you. π
Red is for solo projects, blue is for projects co-written with Fawkes. The green is a new thing I started tracking this year: words in an outline for the next book. The fishes are indeed for completed novels, in this case, Ruby Run as a solo and then The Prince’s Dragon with Fawkes.
The green was the outline for Wolf Found. It was unique among books for me, in that I outlined and wrote it–no joke–in two weeks. I worked 12+ hour days for 14 days straight, admittedly, but the book just wanted to be written.
Thank you so much, I’m glad you liked Kismet! The new book is coming next month, hope you like it too. I’m pretty excited about this one, it’s a whole new urban fantasy world with an unlucky mage, the ghost who loves him, and the world’s derpiest fox.
Kara
Thank you for writing me back! That’s so interesting – I love hearing about authors’ writing processes. And I’m pleased I guessed the fish right! π
The new book sounds really fun – you’ve gotten me really curious about it. (But I certainly wouldn’t mind if you ever decided to continue the Kismet series, haha!)
Sam
I don’t have immediate plans to write another Kismet book, but it’s definitely not out of the question. There’s certainly more to explore in that world!