Why You Should Pay Yourself First

Accountant Fleur practices her early bird writing habit and has a new fluffy houseguest.

It’s been sunny here in Colorado, which means Fleur is hitting the trails and catching freckles. This is right about the time where I hate winter the most, so it’s a good break. I love you Colorado; thank you for loving me back.

She sure is pretty.

I was on a cool Mystery Writers of America University virtual panel this past week, on writing MG and YA mysteries. Fun fact: both Christina Diaz Gonzalez and I were accountants in a former life. I only did a little of that (a very long time ago) and spent a good amount of time in finance too, at one point helping people with budgets and such.

One old financial concept you may have heard before is that you should pay yourself first—meaning, you should put money into savings the minute your paycheck hits the bank. It’s a good concept, and it occurred to me this week that this idea applies to writing too.

This early bird requires a lot of coffee.

I get up extra early every morning, just so I can get some new words written on my current work-in-progress. This worked for me when my kids were little, but still seems to be the best way toward actual writing-of-new-words progress. The thing that sneaks up on you, when the writer ‘hobby’ becomes your business as is the case for me, is how much time you spend answering emails, scheduling stuff, doing research, answering more emails (there are a lot of those).

The world is a busy and loud place, and it takes not just time but loads of bandwidth just to get through a day. So, I get up early and use my best fresh-brain energy to create new work. Otherwise, it simply gets drowned out. By those emails, for instance.

This rule of paying yourself first applies to anything, really.

What is it that you want to create? Spend your best energy on that before anything else.

Schedule what gets you closer to your goals like a dental appointment with a cancellation fee.

What I’m Writing

All those early morning writing sessions added 5k more words on my YA mystery, book 2 in a trilogy. The first book is unpublished and on the shelf for now, but I’m hoping to do something new with that. More on that later this year…

I’m also learning lots about formatting as I put together my non-fiction project, How to Write a MG & YA Mystery. I’ve been venturing into uncharted territory here, learning how to make a book look good. It’s been illuminating, and I have a whole new respect to those miracle works in a publishing house’s art department.

Good News

Amid the dull winter days, I had some unexpected good news: a short story acceptance (more on this next month) and an award nomination. Midnight at the Barclay Hotel made the CCBA shortlist for 2026; this one is extra special because the books are chosen by kids, and in my home state of Colorado.

You’d better believe there was cake.

In other good news: my story Sunday in the Park with George is now out in the world, as part of the Every Day a Little Death anthology of crime fiction inspired by Sondheim’s work. It’s quite the lineup of authors; I’m honored to be a part of it. Get yourself a copy if you’re a mystery reader.

I wrote a short essay about the writing process on Art Taylor’s The First Two Pages blog.

Where I’m Going

The next few weeks are fairly quiet, but I’ll be flying off to Malice Domestic (mystery fan conference) at the end of April. If you’re there, come say hi!

I’m on a panel on Saturday morning about mysteries for kids. They know it’s my jam.

Fluffy Houseguest

This sweet fluffy lady lost a paw to surgery, so she needed a place to recuperate outside my Humane Society, where it can be kinda busy. We’ll all wish her good healing vibes…

I’m on the job as her nursing aide; we’re getting all caught up on our crime shows together. Her name is Sweet Pea. She is indeed sweet.