This was posted on facebook yesterday. it deals mainly with multiverse but does also cover other projects.
The biggest roadblock to getting these done in a timely fashion is scheduling them from MY end. The next biggest roadblock is the . . . complexity of the setting.
I face-planted into a concrete floor in Atlanta some years ago and broke my nose, damaged one cheekbone, put (I think) fourteen stitches into my mouth, and (most grievously) gave me a significant concussion which really sidelined me as a writer for r a couple of years. Then I got over it, got up to something approaching my normal speed again, and got 4 books (which I personally think are pretty good) done: UNCOMPROMISING HONOR (solo); and INTO THE LIGHT (with Chris Kennedy), THE GORDIAN PROTOCOL (with Jacob holo), and GOVERNOR (with Richard Fox).
Then I got Covid and spent 10 days in the hospital (starting New Year's Day of 2021: yaaaay!) and I've been dealing with long-duration Covid issues (that have also affected my ability to concentrate) since then. In the middle of that, I DID manage to get TO END IN FIRE completed with Eric Flint (and I think it was a really good book), but we were looking at a huge amount of deadline pressure and I . . . overdid it, frankly. It knocked me off of my normal production rate for months afterward.
In the last couple of months, I am actually getting back to something like a normal writing pace for me, and I've been pleased with both the production rate and the quality of what I've been doing, but I'm in a hole when it comes to catching up with scheduled books. And THAT means that I'm having to figure out how to budget/allocate time between projects. More so than usual, I mean.
So, I am just now really starting to pick up and go. Chris Kennedy and I just handed in the next collaboration in the Out Of the Dark series (from Tor Books); my current project is finishing up a short (for me) "mainstream" Honorverse novel for Baen; and my next project after that is the multiverse (known to some as the Hells Gate series). And I think the next one after that is REBEL with Richard Fox (the second novel in what I think of as the Murphyverse; the Fury prequels).
That's why timing is an issue where I'm concerned.
The other problem is that the Multiverse is undoubtedly the most "complicated" literary universe I (and Joelle) have going. Think about it. We have three completely separate universes: two of them actually written about and the third as the "base reference" for our readers. All of them are located on the same planet, everybody who lives in each of those universes has his/her own name for every single geographical feature and nation (none of whose boundaries exist in any of the OTHER) on identical planets, and we have to be certain we aren't introducing continuity errors, which means maintaining a complete index with all three universes cross-referenced and cross indexed in it. And not just where geographical and political features are concerned.
Writing one of these books takes about two and a half times, maybe even more, as long as writing a book of the same length in a less complex literary setting. And when working with a collaborator, it makes problems for both of us because we have to keep checking back and forth with each other to be certain that our indexes are kept up-to-date and free of contradictions.
So, especially when my writing schedule concertinas on me, I find myself forced to push this series towards the back of the bus while I put out the forest fires I can extinguish more quickly.
The good news is that Joelle is a dynamite collaborator and that she helps not only with the writing but with keeping me focused.
So, that's why these books seem to be coming slowly.
On the bright side, Joelle and I have a very clear notion of where we want to GO with the series. The problem is simply navigating the underbrush to get there.
