I’m Carmen Amato, a CIA veteran turning real-life danger and deception into crime fiction. Welcome to Mystery Ahead!
Find books and more at carmenamato.net/links.
When I worked for the CIA, it was easy to stay organized. I worked in a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) an enclosed area designed to protect national security information. Virtually all documents were classified, including my own notes.
Before leaving the SCIF, all paper had to be locked in a safe. Trash was put into a special “burn bag” and taken to an incinerator.
Fast forward to today. A full-time author, I’ve forgotten the rigors of working in a SCIF and gotten sloppy. I need new systems designed to save time and get more things done.
Are you also getting organized for a creative new year?
I’ll trade my top productivity secrets for yours. Deal?
Most of us have gotten used to using the tiny calendar app on our smartphones but it doesn’t visualize long-range planning. The fix is to combine your phone calendar app with an analog planner.
In the past I’ve used Filofax and Moleskine products but last year I discovered Leuchtturm1917’s weekly planner. It has a week on one side and a lined page on the other. The paper is thick and I like the way nothing bleeds through. Plus it has year-at-a-glance pages, project pages, and extra blank pages and a folder inside the back cover (great for a note scribbler like me.)
I record specific appointments on the week side and ideas, to-do lists, and reminders on the other. Highlighting every other Sunday on the year-at-a-glance page confirms the publishing schedule for this newsletter.
Every morning, I take a minute to synchronize the phone calendar app and the paper planner. Just a quick check keeps me on track and capture ideas that might otherwise fall through the cracks.
To keep this newsletter on track, I’ve created a folder on my hard drive for the year and sub-folders for each month. That’s where I keep drafts of the newsletter, plus all the images.
When I’m ready to draft a newsletter, I always check what I’ve jotted in the planner about recent news items, a particular excerpt to share, and friends’ books to recommend. (Speaking of, have you read Bradley Harper’s Titanic thriller yet? MAIDEN VOYAGE is awesome.)
I mentioned my book-in-a-box system when thriller author Baron Birtcher interviewed me on his Writer’s Bar podcast. Basically, every note, research article, pictures, and map that I need to bring a book to life is corralled in a specific project box. Not only do I need this content to complete the book, but I want to re-use it for social media and blog posts so keeping everything together is a big help.
Here’s a little Instagram reel about the boxes:
Hand-written notes are my biggest problem. Like people who keep losing their keys, I keep misplacing lists of character names, possible plot twists, etc.
Yes, apps like Notion or Trello exist but my brain does not work that way. I need paper and pen.
The solution is embarrassingly simple. Stick a shallow basket on my desk to be a landing zone for all the scraps of paper. Every few days weed through them. Keepers go into the correct project box. Duh.
I’ll bet you have a zillion passwords for everything from foodie websites to Netflix. I sure do and reject the idea of an online password keeper program. Call me skeptical but I have a healthy suspicion of tech promises to keep my data safe from Chinese hackers.
I write passwords on tabbed 3x5 cards, arranged in alphabetical order. Simple and easy to keep up to date.
Most frequently used passwords are also listed on a clip board right next to my keyboard.
Hopefully, 2026 is the year I spend less time searching for stuff and more time working on actual goals.
My top goal for 2026 is the release of DRAGON CARTEL, Detective Emilia Cruz #10! (Release date TBD)
What are you most excited to achieve this year? I’d love to hear how you’re getting organized to make it happen!
43 MISSING is now available as an audiobook narrated by the incomparable Leanne Maksin. Detective Emilia Cruz’s inner voice is captured so perfectly that I wanted to cry when I first listened to it.
In 43 MISSING, which was inspired by Mexico’s most notorious true crime, Emilia joins a national task force investigating the forced disappearance of 43 students from a rural teaching college. The action takes her from Acapulco to Mexico City and beyond as she follows a dark trail seeded with political trickery and the shadow of a cartel kingpin.
Yet at the same time, Emilia has an agenda that has nothing to do with the task force and everything to do with a human trafficker she has vowed to kill.
Here’s Chapter 1 from Audible, narrated by Leanne Maksin.
0:00
-17:20
That’s it for this edition of Mystery Ahead. I can’t wait to hear your top goals for 2026 and your organizing tips, too!
I hope this year has good things in store for you. Thank you for being on this writing journey with me.
With gratitude,
Carmen
PS: A percentage of income from book sales and affiliate links support veterans and first responder organizations. When you buy a book, invite me on a podcast or recommend this newsletter, you help me help others. Thank you.
MY BACKSTORY— I learned a few things about danger, deception and resilience during a 30-year career with the CIA focusing on counterdrug and technical collection. Now a mystery author, those lessons play out on the page, especially in the Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series set in Acapulco. Starting with Cliff Diver, the series is a back-to-back winner of the Poison Cup Award for Outstanding Series from CrimeMasters of America. I’ve also written historical and political thrillers, essays about the craft of crime fiction, and live with a very large white dog named Bear.
In case you missed previous newsletters:
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.