by N.M. Cedeño

I find myself using spreadsheets far more than I ever expected when I first started writing. Back then, I had a few lists here and there in word documents and one spread sheet. That one spread sheet documented short story submissions, with stories added to the list as I submitted them.

I still have the spread sheet documenting submissions, now divided into pages by year, but I’ve created another one for published stories with a separate page for pending publications, one for unpublished stories, and one overall submission document showing all of my stories alphabetized by title, so I can easily see how many times a story has been submitted and to whom.

The most recent addition to my collection of data is a spreadsheet tracking my private eye stories by main character. At a glance, I can see that two of my private detectives have appeared in only one story each and that I’ve written three stories featuring Dallas-based PI Cleo Jimenez, one of which, “Mirror Life Meltdown,” was published by Black Cat Weekly in issue #255 in July 2026. Another of Cleo’s cases, “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Likes,” is scheduled to be published this year in the anthology Big Tex and Suspects: Crime at the State Fair of Texas. The third is on submission. Cleo currently has about 15,000 words in her series.

My character Jerry Milam, who lives and works in Texas in the 1950s to 1970s, appears in five stories. Two went out of print with the closure of the publisher, but the editor is working to get those anthologies republished by a new publisher. One story, “The Case of the Cabochon Ring,” was published in Black Cat Weekly #258 in August 2026. Another is supposed to be published in an anthology next year. The fifth story is on submission. Jerry currently has more than double the word count of Cleo, coming in at 31,500 words.

Then there’s Maya Laster, my genetic genealogy investigator. Maya beats Jerry and Cleo, appearing in eight stories so far. Four have already been published: in Black Cat Weekly #79, #110, and #242, and one in the anthology Crimeucopia: The Not So Frail Detective Agency (which was a finalist for the 2026 Derringer Award for Best Anthology and First Runner Up for a Silver Falchion Award for Best Anthology). Of Maya’s other four stories, one is pending publication in an anthology sometime next year, one is on submission, one needs to be resubmitted, and the other is in final edits. Maya’s stories currently total 49,875 words.

My investigative crew in the Bad Vibes Removal Services series, however, needed their own spreadsheet. That series beats Maya by more than double, with sixteen short stories and two novels. The short stories alone total almost 106,000 words. The most recently published story, “Wedding Vibes,” appeared in Black Cat Weekly #145. The next story is pending publication, and the word is that it will be published in the fall this year.

So why do I track this information, and what do I do with all this data?

I make plans.

The data tells me I have enough word count that at some point I could create a short e-book of Jerry Milam stories. Or that if I write five or six more stories, I’ll have a book length manuscript ready to create a collection that would work in a print or digital format.

I almost have enough short stories featuring Maya Laster to make a collection of her stories. If I write another two stories, I’ll have over 60,000 words, enough to create what’s considered a novel-length print book. The word count that I have right now would work well enough for a novella-length e-book, but would be too slim a volume in print for my taste.

The word count tells me that I could collect my Bad Vibes Removal Services short stories into a print book. Most of those stories only appear in digital formats right now and many readers prefer print. Having a print option available might be worthwhile. I have to decide if this is something I want to pursue right now.

The data suggests goals for me to reach, stories for me to write, and a path forward in time. Some writers worry about facing a blank page and not knowing what to write next. With this data at my fingertips, if I’m casting about for ideas, I can always write the next story for one of my detectives and move closer to the goal of completing a collection.

A final note: As mentioned above, I have several stories coming out soon. When I have publication dates and covers, I’ll post them here. Right now, only one of my non-PI stories has been scheduled for publication. “The Mocking Ones,” a story I wrote for Cryin’ Shame: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Lyle Lovett, is scheduled to be released in digital formats on December 8, 2026, with the print version to follow in early 2027.