I love lists.

I talk a lot about lists. I make them for everything. My brain is generally whirling chaos during every waking hour, so much so that I have trouble focusing (even without mania).

If I have a lot of chores to do, I make a list. If I have to pack, I make a list. My lists have subheadings; the former example by room, the latter example by bag. If I have to make a phone call about something–like to the vet–I make a list. (Curiously, the only thing I don’t make lists for are groceries, which is why I am always forgetting something when I get to the store.)

It gives me order to have a list, to get all my thoughts about something down to something manageable. I also like the feeling of crossing things off and the accompanying sense of accomplishment. It can help during busy times to add “Don’t Panic” every five items on particularly long lists when I’m stressed.

So I have a monthly work to-do list on a yellow legal pad, and a weekly calendar where I would typically fill in plans for each day. Except on that weekly plan, I usually had everything get scattered by Wednesday. Sometimes its because working from home means chaos frequently erupts that I have to deal with, but other times because it can be difficult to estimate the time it’ll take to complete tasks.

I can put on the list for Tuesday “Edit 60 pages”, “Draft Cover A”, “Finalize Cover B”, “Write 2000 words”, “Format Book X”, for example, but if I have a roughly eight-hour workday ahead of me, sometimes I’ll end up hours on stock sites working different drafts and trying to find the right photos, or the drafts I’m working on just aren’t co-operating, or editing gets interrupted so many times I have to go back and start again–then it’s ten or eleven at night, I’ve been at it twelve hours, and only one or two things crossed off. Which throws off the rest of the week.

I’ve battled this for, literally, years, and it’s why I end up working more hours in a day than I’d like (and than is healthy–which in turn means i get sick more often, and then can’t work, and it’s a never-ending cycle).

I’ve been spinning my wheels lately, overwhelmed with the sheer amount of stuff I have to do. Chief among them, writing–no coincidence that I only finished short projects this year–with so many irons in the fire I’m feeling really scattered. I feel guilty for working when I have writing to do, and then feel guilty for writing when I have freelance things to be working on, so basically I feel like crap all the time and like I’m letting down someone somewhere for something.

So I went back to my lists. And my other favourite tool: timers.

I wrote down all the immediate projects for writing–the WIPs, both in revision and in drafting form–and honestly it wasn’t that much. Surprisingly. It felt like more in my head, but all laid out with my targets and stages of development, it felt…almost doable.

I turned then to my work day and decided to shift the perspective from All The Things To Do–some of them large-scale, so it was hard to feel any sense of accomplishment–to breaking up my day into chunks of time and what I’d like to get done based on projects for the rest of the month.

• webmistress duties: 2 hours
• editing: 2 hours
• graphic design (covers, promotional materials): 2 hours
• writing: 2 hours (or 2K words, whichever is first)

Then I added in other daily habit-type things for the week.

• knitting gifts (1 hour)
• cleaning (30 minutes)

I have the Forest app for timing my work sessions–which also has the “feeling of accomplishment” one gets in the form of little growing digital trees!– and I’m using 4theWords for writing. I’ve also ordered a notepad specifically for this purpose.

So far it’s helping me stay on target, particularly for the larger, time-consuming projects where I can be working for ten hours straight sometimes without feeling like I’ve accomplished anything. I list each item for the week with the time, then have seven columns on the right for seven days of the week and color in each square (either fully or half, depending on if I hit my target), and then week to week it can change depending on my to-do list.

And change it will. After the tree comes down (I am abruptly on my own for Christmas, and with all of my other holidays plans moved for January, I had to scramble to make some kind of Christmas for myself–so surprise, tree taking up all the room!) and I have my living room back, I can re-add daily yoga and Peaking, and up the cleaning time to an hour in an attempt to get more in my home purged (I’m reading about Swedish death cleaning, and it is definitely my jam).

There’s an added benefit of having time limits on everything and sticking to it; if there’s a project that hasn’t been working, or something I’m behind on, it gets me working on it because there’s a clear end/break in sight. Humans can face and get through anything if they know it’s temporary.

So that’s my big plan right now for the holidays: finding more efficient ways of working going into 2020 so I hopefully don’t lose more time to illness like I did this fall. I’ve added a chunk to The Killing Beach while Blood Ties cools a bit before I return to revisions. Yampellec’s Idol is nudging me but I’m waiting until telling that story becomes a burning need before I go back to it.

A reminder that I have two Christmas shorts if that’s your thing:

• Newly released How the Werewolf Stole Christmas is about River Wolfe struggling with human customs.
• 2017’s Livi Talbot short story is a nice read for series fans, as Livi builds her own traditions with her found family, invites someone new to join them, and receives the best gift EVER.

I have a lot of friends who have complicated relationships with the holiday due to toxic family situations they grew up in, and it’s been a very difficult time of year for me for over a decade now–Livi’s story in particular was written as a comfort to myself, so I hope if it’s a rough season for you, you get some enjoyment from the stories.

Part of me is very glad this awful year is almost over, but honestly I’ve had so many terrible years in a row now it doesn’t even feel like relief–I’m sure 2020 will be awful too. But hey, at least I have Shawnie, and his little heart is okay! Trying to focus on that much at least–he’s the light of my life. (Everything on my work list is interrupted several times a day with “Cuddle Shawn” when he struts over and climbs on me–and I wouldn’t have it any other way.)

New short story out today! This time it’s a rare revisit of the River Wolfe series with How the Werewolf Stole Christmas under the First Dates (that end badly) banner.

Teenage wolf-turned-human River hates Christmas. And capitalism. And human customs.

And she’s about to combine all three in the most terrifying thing she can imagine: engaging in the human mating ritual known as a “date”. It’s against every fiber of her being, but she’ll do anything to show her mate that she cares.

Police involvement optional.

Kindle | Kobo | Nook | iBooks | Payhip

Next month will be Zara’s novella Counterpoint: Always Kill a Boy on the First Date–I nearly had it ready to release the end of last month, but I was out sick for literally half of October and November, and I have to focus on freelance catch-up at this point to pay the bills. It’s due out the end of January instead.

Pretty much everything I’ve finished this year has been short–yes, Shiva’s Bow released, but it was originally written in 2014. All I’ve done this year are short stories and novellas, I think because my novels are getting bigger and more complex with each one and carving out time to focus on them is getting tougher. (I wish my writing income was a little more predictable; it was on an upward trend this year, but this fall dropped significantly–as I’ve mentioned–and if my focus wasn’t split on so many different income streams, I feel like I could get more novel writing done sooner.) I’ve got revisions for Blood Ties in progress and hopefully will complete them over the Christmas break, or at least enough to send for content edits, and it’ll be my next project.

BTW–last call for Emaleth’s Cat short story fundraiser! It goes out tomorrow, and then will be on Patreon next year.

River Wolfe fans, I hope you enjoy the new story! I actually liked revisiting the world, and Wolfe remains on my ever-lengthening to finish list.

Well, last week Shawn gave me another heart attack when we thought he might’ve had a partial blockage. Some xrays revealed something weird in his tummy but some special food and hairball medicine seemed to help, and he was swiftly back to his usual self.

Then I got sick again last weekend, because this year is determined to see my on my deathbed before it’s over, apparently.

So last week was pretty shot but we’ve all made it to the end of this week. I finished a draft of the fundraiser short story tonight (about 7300 words for the zero), but I want to let it rest for a couple of days before I clean it up and send it out. I need to write an author’s note for it as well.

Tentatively looking at sending it on Wednesday, so if you’d still like to grab it, you can do so for a buck on the fundraising page. The page will remain until the story is sent out, so likely Tuesday will be the last chance to grab it. If you miss it, it’ll go up on Patreon sometime early next year.

Don’t forget: Tuesday the new River Wolfe short story goes live (it’s already up for Patrons!)

Gonna go collapse now in bed with my devil kitten and finish the new season of Mrs. Maisel.

Shawn had his ultrasound today! And it went fairly well. He has a shaved chest and belly that is totally adorable, and even though I had to take his food away at midnight and he was SUPER hangry, he has since forgiven me.

His heart looked okay, so we’re all heaving a big cautious sigh of relief because it still has to go to a cardiologist to review. It’ll be a few more days before I hear about that, but for now, this means that even if he does have an issue, it’s not going to kill him in the immediate future.

He did not get his bloodwork because he said NO THANK YOU, I WANT TO GO HOME AND EAT NOW, so we’ll schedule that for later just to double check some potential neurological stuff I saw. Today’s bill with tax was just over $800 and I paid it all in one go. My sincerest thanks to everyone who contributed in some way, I actually feel lighter.

The premade cover sale is continuing until December 1.

The Emaleth’s Cat story fundraising is still going to give folks a chance to grab that before November 30. Any remaining money will go for his bloodwork in a few weeks. I’m five hundred words into it and should be delivering it the first of December.

I feel like I’ve aged ten years with worry the past while (combined with handraising the kittens, which also knocked a decade off my life, I’m basically ready for retirement now), and am trying to unwind a little to get back into some semblance of a schedule.

Good news–the appointment is scheduled for tomorrow! The estimate is also a little bit less than my research indicated, though the number might fluctuate a little depending on a couple of factors.

It comes not a minute too soon because I had a meltdown Saturday night when I thought he might’ve coughed.

Some premade covers have sold, and I had another thought yesterday that might be fun–three years ago a friend did a fundraiser for the not-for-profit where I volunteer, and I shamelessly took said idea.

I’m going to write the story of how the Talbot family got their family cat Giles–and you can read it for throwing a buck in the pot.

There are various prizes I’ll randomly draw for should the total climb higher. Any excess raised will be put down on my account at the vet so I have it for whatever else he needs.

You’ll find all the details on this page.

The story will be sent to everyone toward the end of November or early December. It’ll go on Patreon next year and not be available for sale elsewhere. The fundraiser will stay open until November 30.