Quick rumor control post

I mentioned an upcoming event on a webpage for an Australian convention, and I’ve had some questions in the various fora I participate in, so:

Yes, Linda and I are expecting our first child soonish, and so I have not volunteered to run anything at AusCon in May.  If it turns out that fatherhood is substantially simpler than my research indicates, I’ll be along.  (joke!)

There won’t be any delay in my next book.  David, the Line Manager, keeps the Ars Magica pipeline stuffed with books. The team finished Transylvania (which is formally called Against the Dark) back in 2010, if recollection is accurate.  Actually, Transylvania’s not my next book, Grogs is, and I wrote the main parts of what I eventually contributed to that in 2007 and 2009. They didn’t fit in the projects I’d written them for, and so they sort of waited around on my hard drive until the perfect project came along.

There won’t be any delay in any of the books I’m contributing to after Transylvania. My slate’s clear on primary drafting: I didn’t pitch for a couple of books, so there will be a patch in 2013 somewhere where I’m not an author on anything, rather like the recent patch, which corresponded to a health scare I had in May 2010. Mark will overtake me as “Guy who has written the most Ars books” in the next little while.  8)  Well, other than David of course.

I am still working on some ideas. I can’t discuss them at this stage, but basically on a recent project I threw aside my more recent, quite tidy style of writing and went back to my old, more meandering style. As a result I have these two huge chunks of text and research which don’t fit anything and will eventually become chapters in books, or articles, or web page material. I also have three..I don’t know what to call them.  Guided saga arcs?  I haven’t even started writing them yet, but I have solid ideas.

So, basically, if you’ve asked why I mentioned it in AusCon circles but not in Ars circles, it’s not because its putting anything behind: I just didn’t think to mention it until after the baby actually arrives.