A Man A Plan from James W. Ziskin

A new year is upon us! How do you plan for your writing calendar? 

1. A bit of blatant self-promotion to follow. But never fear, it does speak to this week’s question, if tangentially. 

2. And after that, I’ve posted my annual poem, “I Hereby Resolve,” spelling out my New Year’s Resolutions.

For the past several years, the day job has prevented me from maintaining a regular writing schedule. I teach high school French and devote my time to creating my lesson plans, correcting assignments, attending meetings, communicating with parents, and gnashing my teeth in despair at the future of our civilization. 

Just kidding. 

My students make the early risings and tiring days worth the while. I love teaching the spirited little darlings, despite the headlock they exert on my writing time.

But school is only in session from September to June. That leaves me most of the summer to try to write. Ordinarily, I’d like to complete a first draft of a new novel in that time, but last summer, I had to content myself with a major overhaul of my upcoming release, THE PRANK, instead. (July 26, 2026, Level Best Books.) I’m truly excited about this new novel, and thrilled that Liz Nugent—a brilliant author I admire tremendously—read it and provided a wonderful blurb. For God’s sakes, read Liz Nugent now.

“THE PRANK…enigmatic and unnerving. The pace never flags for a second. This is some masterly plotting. I loved it.”

—Liz Nugent, author of Strange Sally Diamond

 

THE PRANK. A picture clipped from Playboy magazine, a missing Swiss Army Knife, and a prank gone terribly wrong conspire to make Christmas 1968 a deadly holiday to remember.

 

A psychological thriller, THE PRANK is a cautionary tale of bad judgment and smoldering menace. Pitched as “The Holdovers meets The Bad Seed,” THE PRANK features charming but volatile thirteen-year-old Jimmy Steuben. He befriends his seventh-grade English teacher, Patti Finch, just days after her boyfriend—also a teacher—is killed in an electrocution accident while hanging Christmas lights on his roof. Patti desperately needs respite from her grief, and a chance encounter with Jimmy provides just that. Ignoring the dangers of a potential scandal, the mismatched pair begins spending time together over Christmas break. Patti finds solace in Jimmy’s company; Jimmy discovers desire and infatuation. But what Patti doesn’t know is that it was Jimmy who caused the tragic accident that killed her lover.

From two-time Edgar Award finalist; Anthony, Barry, and Macavity award-winner James W. Ziskin, THE PRANK releases July 26, 2026.

*    *    *    *    *

And now, back, despite popular protest…

I Hereby Resolve

Upon the first of Jan-u-ary each and every year

I choose a comfy cushioned chair on which to park my rear

Then taking pencil, pen, or plume I think with all my might

About my life, my hopes, my dreams, and then begin to write

I make a note of all my flaws, my missteps, and my sins

And number them from one to ten and sort them into bins:

A catalogue of wishes, goals, and changes to achieve,

To lose some weight, to write more books, and royalties receive!

But not all thoughts are for myself, I also have a heart

So I resolve to do some good, pitch in, and play my part,

To be a better person and to help human-i-tee,

Or maybe just be satisfied to keep my san-i-tee

For all in all you must admit that things are not so good

At home, abroad, in Baltimore, and in your neighborhood

With guns and hate and politics and fears we cannot quell

It often seems we’re on a highway heading straight to hell 

But then I reason as I sit here in my pensive pose

Some things I can control and fix, so why not start with those?

My wrath, my sloth, and moods most foul are faults I could improve

Why not correct them right away? Cast out, erase, remove?

While in the past I must admit that my resolve was frail

This time my pledge is resolute; I don’t intend to fail

I vow to change, to grow, to thrive, and forge myself anew

And through hard work and sweat and blood I’ll make my dreams come true

But just in case my will is weak and my plans gang ag-ley

I’ll save this verse for twelve months more until next New Year’s Day

Then with high hopes and best intents I’ll shout for all to hear

The very same prom-is-es that I made and broke this year

*    *    *    *    *

This coming summer, I’ll be working on a first draft of my next novel, tentatively titled NIGHTS ON BROADWAY. (That will surely change.) It’s an unsettling story of hedonism, seduction, and shifting identities in 1977, as the disco craze rages and Son of Sam terrorizes New York City.

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A Clean Slate

A new year is upon us! How do you plan for your writing calendar?

by Dietrich

The new year offers that fresh start—or, if you’re writing crime fiction, you could think of it as a fresh canvas waiting for the blood spatter. My writing plan doesn’t follow the calendar. There are no deadlines or pub dates I need to hit right now. I’m just transitioning from one story to the next, letting ideas flow, at that point where I don’t have to push too hard or feel like I’m red-lining toward a burnout.

While I aim to finish a novel every year, it’s not the end of the world if I don’t make it. The one I just completed took roughly sixteen months from start to finish. And the first draft of the new one’s only taken about a month, so it’s a difficult thing to schedule.

Right now I’m at the point of digging through a lot of research while making character notes to keep myself from getting all tangled up in a mess later on. The second draft will be for digging deeper, cleaning up and looking for weak spots. It’s also the time to toss out anything that isn’t working and add any subplots that popped up since I started on the first draft. Once I’ve completed the second draft, I’ll step away for a week or so to regain some perspective. Then the final draft will be for revising, editing and adding the final polish. 

That’s the plan for this one. The next one may demand a different approach. The one rule that stays constant is it’s never how much I get done, but how good I feel about it once I finally stop typing. I never want writing to feel like a chore, so I like to try different approaches.

I’m also looking forward to take part in some writing events this year, and I’ve got my eye on some festivals and conferences, but nothing’s carved in stone as of yet.

I’m also looking forward to the release of my new novel, Rust and Bone, which will be released by ECW Press on March 31st. Here’s the synopsis and a link:

In winter of 1945, a German village deep inside Ukraine burns under Russian assault. Young Jakob Fritsch, torn from his family, is forced onto a cattle car bound for a work camp where death looms. When a Stuka’s bomb derails the train, Jakob escapes the smoking wreckage alongside two untrustworthy survivors. They forge through snow-laden wilderness, hunted by soldiers and partisans.

A tragic turn forces Jakob to go on alone. Starving and freezing, he braves the perilous countryside of Poland en route to Berlin — the only place he can go — which is being torn apart from all sides. 

Far away in the shattered outskirts of Berlin, Frida Beckmann lives amid relentless bombing raids and encroaching Soviet forces. With her father in a prison camp and her mother broken by grief, Frida shoulders the weight of her family’s survival. Tested by hardship, betrayal and loss, she is pushed well beyond her years.

Jakob and Frida navigate their war-torn paths, struggling to survive in a time stripped of mercy — seeking refuge when all the world’s gone mad.

Plan? What Plan?

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

 Terry here, with our question of the week: A new year is upon us! How do you plan for your writing calendar? 

 Plan? Calendar? I wish I were a planner. In fact, I used to be. I used to make lists, and prioritize them. Now it seems that whatever hits my desk and shows up first is what gets done. 

  Update: I wrote this before I received a certain email over the weekend. So, although it’s still largely operational, there is a caveat. Go to the end to see what that is. 

 Hmmm, planning seems like a good topic for New Year’s resolutions. 

 Resolved: I will plan my writing calendar. (Does that mean I have to stick to the plan?) Part of the problem is that I have two works in progress—and neither of them is a book I have a contract for. One is almost ready to foist onto my agent. 

 The other I have been noodling with for months and am only just now understanding its trajectory. This is a book that was half done when I got my first contract, years ago. For years I was so swept up with the intensity of writing “the next one, and the next one” in my Craddock series, that I let it fall away. 

 This summer, unable to focus on anything outside of the disaster of national politics, I couldn’t conjure up a new book, so I dusted that one off. And I liked it. But in the interim, I’ve learned to write better (I hope), so I realized it was a hot mess. I think I’ve wrestled it into submission. But will I be able to finish it before a deadline smacks me in the face? Yes, I have been given word that I will have two new contracts. Two books to write. So…plan? 

 Resolved: I will do better at promoting my books in 2026. I’ll put time on my calendar to do it. But how? I’ve kept dozens of articles about “how to” promote. When I try to read them I get bored. “Not now,” I think. “I’ll just write some more instead.” I get bored because none of it makes sense. I talk to writers who manage to do a good job of promoting, but their methods baffle me. Do they hire people to flog their books? Where? Do their publishers help? Rarely. Sometimes they have teams. The idea of assembling a team exhausts me. Furthermore, if I’m writing two to three books in year, exactly where is the promo time coming from? 

 Resolved: I’ll spend an hour a day on the business side of writing. That doesn’t seem like too much. I once read that an author I admire plans out her entire week on Sunday. She wrote about it in great detail. She included time for writing, but also time for the business of getting her books to the public. I thought it was a great idea. But when I tried it, I was paralyzed. I think of myself as a motivated person, but the business side of writing is daunting. It isn’t that I can’t do what needs to be done; it’s that I don’t know what needs to be done. I need a keeper. 

 Resolved: I will use my resources better. My agent. My writing friends. My tech friends. My brain. I can’t even… I had a new book come out in December. I really liked it. Thought it was a good book. But I did nothing to promote it. Oh yeah, I mentioned here and on Facebook. The problem? I don’t know what else to do. So much of promotion has gotten more complicated. (And, by the way, December is not a great time to come out with a book.)

 Resolved: I’ll pay more attention to when my publisher plans to come out with a book. So, if you’ll excuse me now, I need to get back to my jigsaw puzzle. 

 Update: My publisher has asked me to commit to when I can deliver the next books in both my series. That means…yep, getting my calendar in order. And writing the books!

Resolved: Get busy.

New Year, New Priorities - by Matthew Greene

A new year is upon us! How do you plan for your writing calendar? 

I've always loved the new year. A new start, new goals, new possibilities. Some friends and I even used to celebrate "New Month's Eve" so we could set and celebrate resolutions even more often! (Nerds, I know.) Call me a self improvement junkie, but a holiday dedicated to ambition and drive was exactly my cup of tea.

But this year, I'm just feeling a little...tired. Last year was tough, for reasons collective and personal. It's hard not to look at the expanse of calendar stretching out before me and wonder if surviving is an ambitious enough goal for 2026. 

But the muse continues to call. As do the agent, the collaborators, the (proverbial) bill collector...and so we write!

All this is to say: I'm trying to be more measured and realistic about my writing calendar this year. I'm trying to focus my efforts and spend my time on the projects that matter most. But how does one determine what's a priority? Ah, there's the rub. In the past, I've made that call based on the following questions, in order of importance:

1. Do I have a contractual obligation?
2. Is there money on the line?
3. Are other people depending on this?
4. Is this part of a strategic growth plan?
5. Does this project nourish my soul?

Wait, that can't be right. The question of whether a project nourishes my soul is in fifth place? Behind money and contracts and "strategic growth?" What a sad state of affairs for someone who dares to call himself an artist!

The reality is, though, that the moment I set forth to pursue my passion professionally, I took the risk of letting commerce trump art. Maybe I've done that too much. Maybe I've lost sight of why I wanted to be a writer in the first place. Maybe this year is the year I remedy that...at least a little.

So, in the spirit of the season, I'll make a New Year's resolution here and now. I can't forget about finances or ambition completely, but this year I resolve to pay more attention to and spend more time on the work that feeds my soul. Ideally, I'll find ways to make this work pay, of course. But it's high time I remind myself why I wanted to become a writer in the first place.

Because life is too short. And this year will be even shorter.

Here's to a successful and joyful twelve months for us all!