Where did January GO???

I wanted to post a "what I did in January" list, but I simply haven't had time. It's amazing how busy you can be while writing a first draft, editing a second, and promoting another book. Who'd have thunk it. :)

Anyhow, I'm going to post it now even though we're a week into February. I'm actually quite pleased with my January achievements! (I have rounded the numbers below to the nearest thousand, because my initial "I wrote 39,394 words" list seems ridiculous for some reason. :)

• I wrote 39,000 words of the first draft of the book codenamed Dinosaur.
• I edited 35,000 words of Cookie's first draft.
• However, the total words in the second draft file are 39,000, which means I added 4,000 words to the book as I edited. Not a surprise; I'd thought the first draft was a bit thin.
• Therefore, I edited 35,000 words and wrote a total of 43,000, which means I "touched"a total of 78,000 words. That's a full novel, pretty much! Not bad for one month, especially since I didn't start work until the fourth. :)

Since I track my work time, I can also report that I worked for 56 hours and 14 minutes this month. (I know that seems low. It seems low to me too. But I only track "head down at the desk" time, not the time I spend thinking about the books as I fall asleep or wake up or take a shower or drive or...)

I have already written over 20,000 words on Dinosaur's first draft in February, and I anticipate finishing it by Feb 12th. Then I'll go back to a more intense focus on Cookie AND start looking for the next one, Eaglet.

It's a little terrifying when I think about it... I'm planning to release three more books this year. Cookie, Dinosaur, and Eaglet will be those books. I don't know what Eaglet is yet. Eep!

So I don't think about that much. I just keep working. "Just keep swimming", as Dory said. Smart fish. :)