Progress Log
Inspired by my idol, James Islington, I'm going to keep a monthly progress log here, because maybe being too embarrassed to publicly admit that I threw out 50,000 words and started over will stop me from continuing to *do* it.
February 2026
Guys, I did it. I did the thing. I threw out all 50k from January. Don't kill me.
This was a rollercoaster of a writing month. After several epic ten-hour plotting marathons holed up in an empty lecture hall on my old uni campus with my long-suffering dev editor, the Book 1 outline is fixed. Unfortunately, she persuaded me to listen to the voice that was trying to tell me that a.) the trilogy really wanted to be in first person, and b.) it also really wanted to open several months earlier in the timeline. Hence consigning 50k to the abyss.
It's fine. It's totally fine. (Deep breath.) The changes needed to happen. Who needs deadlines? Or sleep?
You guys, it's a really, really good outline. And Book 2 will be stronger for the foundation we're building in Book 1.
Lest you think this was a one step forward, two steps back month, I did also draft a short story, "The Medici Dragon," which I will be yeeting through Heroic Fantasy Quarterly's submission window the minute it opens, in the hope that I'll get the rejection in time to turn around and submit the same story to the BAEN contest. Because God forbid I shift myself to write two different short stories.
Anneliese wins the Trackbear this month. Outline words don't count.
In my defense, I also wrote an entire screenplay for my day job. All I can say about it is that it involves unicorns and when people have asked me how I am this month, my reply has been "still in unicorn hell."
Goal for March: Draft 50k of Book 1. Again.
January 2026
Book 1 Act 1 is sitting at about 52k, thanks almost entirely to my friend Anneliese, who is an absolute word count machine and kept me on my toes all month trying to keep pace with her on our writer Discord's word count leaderboard:
I eked out a narrow victory which necessitated a down-to-the-wire 5700-word day. Callias was trekking across the Egyptian desert for most of it. By the time I finished, I felt like I'd been trekking across the Egyptian desert.
Goal for February: With both the BAEN Adventure Awards deadline and the Heroic Fantasy Quarterly submission window reopening, emphasis next month will probably be on short stories. Anyway, I'd like to fix some holes coming up in the Book 1 outline before I fall into them.
December 2025
Holidays happened, productivity did not. I put in some hours in my favorite Portland coffeeshop (shoutout to the Jim & Patty's on Miller!) and managed to at least at least rough out the synopses for the full trilogy and a working outline for Book 1.
Goal for January: Draft 50k of Book 1.
November 2025
I now have two Librarians short stories and two novelettes in the drawer, which I will pull out, polish up, and toss your way when I need a way to procrastinate something else more urgent. If you ever wanted to know how a gorgon is created, where the astronomy department acquired the real live angel, or why the Colossus of Rhodes is neck-deep in the Mediterranean, these are for you.
Goal for December: finalize outlines for the main trilogy.
October 2025
As of the end of this month, The Muse and Her Thief (Librarians of Alexandria #0.5) is officially done and more or less version-locked. I won't be committing to a release date just yet, because I want to have the first two books of the main trilogy drafted before I launch anything. I'm thinking ARCs will go out late 2026 / early 2027.
Goal for November: Honor the spirit of dearly departed NaNoWriMo by writing 50k. Not quite ready to draft the main trilogy yet, but I have some short story hooks I might take for a spin.