Last winter and spring I was writing a book set in August. Right now I’m writing a book set in July. It’s really hard to get in a summer frame of mind, to even imagine shorts and sandals when it’s icy cold. Saturday morning in Minneapolis, it was -31. I spent a lot of time when I wrote In Twilight’s Shadow relying on my memory of what warm felt like. 
One of the things I started to do when I wrote In the Midnight Hour was to print out calendar pages and write down what chapter/scene occurs on which day. This ended up being a brilliant idea and I’ve continued doing it for all my books since then. Now, without needed to reread chapters and make notes, I know exactly how much time has passed in the story and between events. If something traumatic happens to my heroine in chapter 2, I’ll know that it’s only three days later when I’m in, say, chapter ten. I might have written it months earlier, but it’s still fresh for her and that’s something I need to keep in mind.
So on my island counter top, I have the calendar pages for July and August out. The story starts the weekend after Independence Day, so I don’t think I’ll make it into August–my stories tend to play out in short time periods–but just in case.
*jaw drops*
Omg that’s simply brilliant.
Michaels always has the mini-calendars for a dollar…I could even choose ones that suit the mood of the book.
*sniff* My inner control freak totally loves you right now.
Dayna,
LOL! You know, I never did this before Midnight Hour and the only reason it occurred to me then was because I had the story tied to equinox and the moon cycles and I couldn’t even attempt to keep that in my head. Once I realized how much easier it was to keep track of time for any book, wanted to smack my forehead. Before this, I used to print out my mss and write the days in the top margin. This is soooo much easier.
Patti