Remember that full-time career writer who worked on one book at a time, concentrated on that work only, saw it through from start to finish, and then considered his next project?  Yeah, I don’t remember him either. None of my writer friends ever pulled that off and still made a living.  We’ve always got lots of things on tap, juggling projects as fast as we can.

This month, two of my books were published—the paperback of Sisterhood of Dune with Brian Herbert, and the new trade paperback publication of Unnatural Acts, the second Dan Shamble, Zombie PI novel.

In March, Hellhole Awakening (also with Brian) will be released, so we’re gearing up on publicity efforts for all of those books.  I just finished proofreading the typeset galleys for Dan Shamble, Zombie PI #3, Hair Raising, which comes out in May.

But I’ve still got plenty of irons in the fire.  I’ve written the 220,000-word manuscript (900 pages) for The Dark Between the Stars, first book in a new trilogy set in the Seven Suns universe, and I’m now editing it.  I’ve also pulled out a 20,000 word standalone excerpt of the story, “Island in a Sea of Stars,” which I’ll release ahead of time as a sneak preview.

Brian Herbert and I have written Mentats of Dune, 160,000 words (650 pages), and this weekend I should finish with the third edit of that manuscript, to send back to Brian (we usually do at least eight drafts).  Brian and I will soon be getting together to plot the third novel in the Hellhole trilogy.

This month I’ll also be writing a new Dan Shamble, Zombie PI standalone story, “Road Kill,” for Brilliance Audio which will also be released as a WordFire Press e-story, and I’m also writing a collaboration with Sherrilyn Kenyon for the Dark Duets anthology, edited by Christopher Golden.

In graphic novels, Steven L. Sears and I are finishing up the script for Issue 4 (of 6) in our original SF story, Stalag-X for Gestalt Comics.  Our artist Miguel Ratera has drawn and inked Issue 1 and is well underway on Issue 2; Dave Dorman is working on the series cover.  Stalag-X will be available starting this spring.

And I have a new book deal and a new graphic novel deal, which I can’t announce yet!

Meanwhile, as the publishers of WordFire Press, we have just released the massive print omnibus of all three novels in the Pandora Sequence by Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom—The Jesus Incident, The Lazarus Effect, and The Ascension Factor with all new introductions by Bill.  I am also editing and preparing one of Frank Herbert’s unpublished novels (written between The Dragon in the Sea and Dune), a terrific jungle thriller titled Angel’s Fall, for release in the next few months.

Rebecca is converting all 70+ of our WordFire Press eBook titles for direct sale on the Kobo e-reader platform, and we’re converting all five of the Dan Shamble books for worldwide eBook distribution on Kobo and Kindle.

Oh, and we’re also working on all the administrative details for our next Superstars Writing Seminar in Colorado Springs this May.

On January 18–20 Rebecca and I will be in Seattle, with Brian Herbert, as guests of honor for RustyCon. On January 26, we’ll be in Colorado Springs for COSine, then again on February 8–10 for GalaxyFest.

So that’s what we have on tap around here, for the time being.  No writer I know makes a living working on only one project at a time.  Never a dull moment!