What Julia's Writing: A Novel, A Proposal, and a List

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Happy New Year, everyone! (We can still say that for at least the first week, right?) I'm starting out 2026 with a bang - hopefully a bang like fireworks reaching high into the sky, and not a bang you hear while driving your car and suddenly the steering wheel starts to wobble.

Usually, my contribution to What We're Writing Week is 1) I'm not, really or 2) another in an endless series of excerpts because I'm still working on the same manuscript since last year. Not this time, however! Right now I have three balls in the air, two professional and one personal.

 

One: I'm picking my non-mystery novel back up after mumbledy-mumble months weeks. I was sidelined for mostly happy reasons: my daughter's wedding and the birth of my grandson, the release and tour of AT MIDNIGHT COMES THE CRY, and, of course, the holidays. As much fun as the hustle and bustle and guests and celebrations were, it feels delicious to be back at my laptop, getting words on the page.

 

Two:  I'm working on the proposal for Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne #11.  I'm at the earliest stage, where I'm noodling ideas, moving characters around, and trying to come up with something cohesive. While on tour, one of my Albany-area readers suggested the Lake George New Year's Day Polar Plunge as a setting. I responded, "Oh, yeah, imagine you're standing in the nearly-freezing water and you feel something like a fish... but it turns out to be an arm."

That image has stuck with me ever since, which means there's Something There. Of course, I need to make it work with who can investigate what, and I want to bring some new characters from the most recent book back, and I want to set up a possible story line for the 12th book if my publisher wants two... there's a lot of staring into space and scribbling into my composition notebook during this process.

 

Three: It's the new year, and I want to be even more organized and productive than I was in 2025! (Those of you who know me an stop snorting with laughter now.) So I've got out my calendars and my planning notebook and I'm making lists of EVERYTHING and THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS and WHAT I GOT RIGHT IN 2025 and WHAT I WANT TO IMPROVE. That last one tends to be a long list...

 

How about you, dear readers? Are you working on an unfinished project? Thinking of a new one? And are you debating your word of the year and your intentions? 

Much To Do About To-Do! What Do YOU Do?

Hank's notebook

HANK :  Sometimes I look at mine in wide-eyed disbelief. How can anyone’s To Do list be that long? And then I laugh, and count my blessings, and say: the only thing worse than a too-long To Do list is an empty one, right? And I have to say that I cannot live without mine. I keep it in  a very old-fashioned way, in a spiral notebook. It's a running cumulative list, and happily cross things off as I get them done.  Page after page after page. 

(You know me, sometimes I will add something to the list that I have already accomplished, and cross it off just to have the fun of crossing it off.)

I carry my list around with me wherever I go. Sometimes, when I am overwhelmed with it, I make a sidebar page with the items I simply have to do today. 

Sometimes I write an actual schedule with hour by hour listings and what I have to do each hour. We all stay organized anyway we can, right?

(I save my notebooks, and actually look back at them from time to time, almost like a diary. And to pat myself on the back, just a bit. And to prove things can actually get accomplished.)

And doesn’t December add a whole new element to our lists? Suddenly there are gifts and cards and dates and parties and deadlines deadlines deadlines.

Do you have To Do lists? On paper? Electronic? Do you save them? How do you feel about them? And what’s especially on yours for December?

Debs' notebook

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Yes, Hank, paper!!!! I use a good spiral notebook and update my lists just like you do. And I do sidebars and arrows and underlining.  I've tried all sorts of digital lists and reminders but nothing works as well as the notebook. Not to mention that I draw and doodle in it, and when a notebook is finished, I have a record of what went on my life. And I keep them. The last one ran from December 2015 to September 2017. I also keep a paper weekly planner, Quo Vadis Minister, where I keep track of all sorts of things--an abbreviated diary. 

All this reminds me that I better start on the Christmas lists. Yikes!!!!

HALLIE EPHRON: I usually don't keep a to-do list and when I do, it's on a scrap of paper that I've scrounged from the trash. Mostly I use my calendar (paper) as a to-do list. I write in what I need to do, usually a few days before it's due. For Christmas I keep a gift list... not really to remind me what I need to get, but because I always forget what I've already gotten. As I get more and more stressed and overbooked, my to-do lists get neater and more compulsive.

Hallie's notebook

LUCY BURDETTE:  Oh you are making me realize what a mess my “so-called” organization is! I keep my calendar on the phone, where it syncs with the computer. However I also have this kind of list in piles of paper on my actual desk. (Scrap paper like Hallie's.) The one on the left is recipes to do for Mystery lovers kitchen, where I post 2 to 3 times per month. The one on the right has recipes, Jungle Red notes for my last week, and personal things. When something gets too messy or has most everything crossed off, I start a new one. And then there is the list on the bottom with notes to remember for the edits I just did on Death on the Menu. It’s kind of a miracle that I get most of it done! And as you can see, there is nothing about Christmas on the list...I better go remedy that.

Lucy's checklist

HANK: Lucy, I love the little boxes! 

DEBS: Hallie and Lucy, my mother kept notes and lists on scraps of paper. It was maddening, and the older she got, the more disorganized she was. She could never remember where she's written something down and she would spend hours searching for the right piece of paper, often in tears. So that made me very determined NOT to do that!  Everything goes in my spiral along with the to-do lists. Jungle Red ideas, notes on business, the estimate from the plumber, etc., etc., etc. And I try really hard to date everything so that it's easy to look up something later.

INGRID THOFT: I love lists, but I’m not consistent in the manner in which I keep a to-do list.  I’ve tried electronic versions on my phone, and they never take, but I hate having to carry a notebook around with me in addition to my phone.  Usually, the busier my life gets, the more I rely on a paper list, and there also seems to be a correlation with age:  The older I get, the less I remember and the more I need to rely on a written reminder.  I do have other kinds of lists like packing lists for certain climates and a shopping list that lives on the kitchen island.  I’d be lost without that list.  I’m curious, Debs and Hank, what kind of notebooks do you use to house your lists?

DEBS: Ingrid, I use a Mead 5 Star, 9 1/2 by 6 1/2 with sections. The current one is a lovely lime green. I also use a small one (4 x 6?) for grocery lists. Yes, I know I can make a grocery list on my phone, but I like to organize my lists to match the way the store is laid out. If I just put down random things, I always forget something. I usually jot the week's meal plans in this notebook, too, when I'm making the shopping lists. 

Uh, I'm not starting to sound a little obsessive, am I?

HANK: SO funny, Debs. I use Mead five star, too! (Here's mine, it's black.) Wide ruled, because my handwriting can get scrawly and I often insert notes on the notes, and there are little pockets in the back cover. Where you can tuck stuff that you later forget. I just found a whole page of postage stamps!

JENN MCKINLAY: I'm a list maker. I love scratching things off my to do list. I do find that I tend to roll my to dos to the next day and then the next until the to do  has got to be done THAT DAY. It's very dramatic and gets me motivated to actually get things done. Without a list nothing would happen in my world - ever. 

RHYS BOWEN: Another list-maker here. I always carry little notebooks with me. Sometimes I make lists on the back of envelopes. And cross off when something is accomplished. And every New Year's Day I open my special notebook and write down my goals for the coming year, what I was thankful for in the past year, and what I achieved in the past year. I cross off goals that I achieved and find that really satisfying.

HANK: How about you, Reds and readers? Are you list-makers? Scraps or notebooks? How many? How diligent are you? And what's on your list for December?

CAN YOU KEEP A DATE?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: January is the time for resolutions, for new starts. And it's also the time for new calendars.

There is a satisfaction to getting that calendar for the new year, full of blank pages, the possibility of adventures to be had and things accomplished, recorded on the waiting pages. It always makes me feel a bit like I did at the beginning of the school year with the pile of new textbooks and blank notebooks--who knew what might happen? (And I admit, there was nothing like a brand new box of crayons...)

But wait--it's the digital age.  We all have calendars on our phones, our tablets, our computers.  Do any of us still use PAPER?
I have an interior designer friend who uses a Day Runner (remember those?) that bulges with notes and drawings and scraps of fabric. My hair stylist, on the other hand, only uses the calendar on her iPhone. But recently my stylist updated the software on her phone and she lost everything in her calendar--not only all her appointments, but the record of everything she'd done for the last several years.  Ouch.

Maybe the desire for a permanent record of one's life is age-related, but having all trace of one's schedule, past and present, vanish into the ether ranges from the inconvenient to the disastrous.

So I compromise. I have Google calendar on my electronic gizmos. They not only sync with each other, they sync with my hubby's calendar, so there's no, "Oh, but I didn't know we had your great-aunt Mabel's birthday party!"

But I also have a big whiteboard calendar on the kitchen wall, and at the beginning of the month, everything goes up in dry-erase. (Okay, so it's the box of crayons...) I need that quick visual scan, without having to pull up the month on a device.

And I still keep a paper week-at-a-glance diary. For the last few years I've used Quo Vadis Minister. It's not too bulky, but there's enough room to make notes on that day's to-do list, and to add a little detail about activities. (I know most digital calendars have a to-do list feature, but I forget to look at it...) Most important of all, I put my page or word count goals for every day of the week at the top of that day, and then I have to write down what I actually achieved.  I haven't come up with anything digital that makes the same impact on my brain.

What about you, dear REDS?  Paper, or...air?

LUCY BURDETTE:  I am digital all the way now, with my iCalendar. I definitely don't want to synch my calendar with John's--I have enough trouble looking at all my dates without his tennis, golf, and business appointments mixed in! One nice thing about a digital calendar is the ability to go back a couple of years and search for some I did. And it's great to put birthdays on it in perpetuity.

I did love my day planners--I still keep years of the old ones in my closet--but this new age is so practical!

ROSEMARY HARRIS: Funny you should ask. I have decided to resurrect my old Filofax. I used to love seeing the week on two pages. I will probably still put everything on my phone and - when I think of it - sync with Outlook on my computer, but I'm looking forward to using the old Red Book. In my office I have a gorgeous botanical calendar which is beautiful but useless. In the kitchen, an Italian perennial calendar which requires me to move the days and months manually so it will be January for a long time. And I'll still probably never be sure what day it is.

HALLIE EPHRON: I'm one of those people who hates to see footprints wash away, so I'm devoted to my paper. Years ago -- when I was still working a 'real' job -- I bought a red-leather (Yay, Red) Day Runner pocket planner.  Every year since, I insert a new blank calendar.

Like Ro, I like to see a week on facing pages. And it shows me when I've overextended myself.

I've saved them all. So valuable for all my biographers! Kidding... More likely for the IRS if I ever get audited.

RHYS BOWEN: I'm another one who can't abandon paper. I do put important dates in my Google calendar, plus all confirmation numbers when I'm traveling, but I still have a big calendar on the wall (always a pretty one) and a weekly planner--carefully chosen with lovely pictures or quotes. I put everything work related into that to show the IRS that I really did spend $200 on postage mailing out signed bookplates.

I used to love my Day Runner but it was bulky, wasn't it? I still keep it in a drawer and on New Year's Eve I bring it out and look on the GOALS page. I read what I had planned for the year and then write it what I actually accomplished. I go to my bucket list and see what still needs to be checked off.

And so right about biographers. Sometimes I have a long e-mail conversation with a famous person and afterward, when I click delete, I wonder if I should have saved it for posterity. All those lovely collections of correspondence between former literary giants don't exist in our generation.

DEBS: Interesting. So far the Luddites (or the semi-Luddites) are ahead. What about Hank and Julia? Will they tip the scales the other way?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Guess. Okay, you know what? Paper. Yes, paper. I love my little slim day planner book, it's thin and takes up no room in my purse, and it's a diary and for bookkeeping and memories and planning all in one. INVALUABLE for the IRS, and fun to look back on events and keep track of where and when and who. I love the quotes, too.

And I agree, I need to see the whole week.
Then on my desk at work, I have a monthly calendar, since I need to see the whole month, too. On some days I'll put a big X, which mean "Just say no" for appearance requests!
I also have a word doc that's my schedule with contacts and addresses, and I print it out from time to time so I can see the whole year (now, actually two years!) at once.
It's not Luddite, it's logical!

ROSEMARY: I have a feeling that Hank's calendar is a little like the phone book - not many blanks!
 
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Nope. Like most of the rest of you, I combine Google calendar (SO useful when making engagements vie email - I just paste all the info into the 'description' box) with paper. I usually order a small week-at-a-glance diary from a great European company, teNeues.   This year, however, since I registered for the Albany Bouchercon while in Cleveland, I'm carrying the quite handsome pocket diary they gave me.

As for wall calendars, everyone on the family has one! I have a dear friend, the Rev. Mary L. Allen, who is a talented amateur photographer. Every year, she makes up calendars using her photos as gifts for friends and family. Mine usually winds up on the kitchen wall, where everyone can check it. It's particularly useful for me, since it's also a liturgical calendar, with moveable feasts, saints days, etc.

DEBS: Beautiful, Julia! 

So, on the whole, for people whose lives revolve around words, we seem to be a very visual bunch. And we are all concerned about our future biographers:-) After all, Agatha Christie left notebooks...

And what you, READERS?  Do you still want a tangible record of your days?