Weber Writing Schedule

Updated May 15, 2008

    If things work out as planned, I should be starting on the direct sequel to AAC... shortly. I have a short story I have to write (I agreed to contribute to an anthology; what was I thinking?), and hopefully Eric will very shortly be starting on the sequel to Crown. I had to work the timeline for a lot of events out in some detail to make Storm work, however, so I should be able to write most of the AAC sequel before Eric finishes his part of Crown 2. Hopefully that will mean that Toni gets two more Honorverse novels by the fall, and we're also doing another anthology, with stories by me, Tim Zahn, Jane Lindskold, Katherine Kurtz and (assuming her health holds up) Anne McCaffery. The stories on that are supposed to be delivered early next year. And then, after I get that all wrapped up, I will start on the sequel to BHD for Tor, hopefully by December.

    Please note that I did say this was all "If things work out as planned."

    BTW, I have to get the other two novels into the pipeline before Storm is released because, welllll... I guess I might as well go ahead and admit... though I don't wanna... but still...

    Okay. Storm is the first real cliff-hanger I've done in the Honorverse, and I want to make sure the other two are already written -- and that you guys know they're already written and in Toni's hot little hands -- before Storm hits the shelves. There. I admitted it.

Updated July 21, 2007

    Actually, I just handed in By Schism Rent Asunder. And in another couple of weeks, I'll be handing in By Heresies Distressed. I'm not sure what the scheduled release date for either book will be, but they'll have the third book in plenty of time to position at my January of 2009.

    As you may have observed sometimes happens with me, single books turn into a book plus a sequel, and that's basically what's happened here. The bad news is that I was supposed to have the second book in the series handed in by the end of April, so I'm running about three months late. On the other hand, three to four months is my usual writing time for a single book, so since I'm actually handing in two of them, I'm about on schedule in terms of production time. The other thing that this means is that I won't have to hand in another book for TOR until January of 2009, which means that I'll have at least until October 2008 to work on some of the Baen projects which have lagged behind. Hopefully (and please note that I make no guarantees here, given what tends to happen to my life and my work schedule) what's going to happen is that sometime in August, I'll be starting on the sequel to Shadow of Saganami. In the meantime, Eric will have been working on the sequel to Crown of Slaves. As soon as I finish with Saganami 2, I should be able to go directly to work on Crown 2, which should mean (note the qualifier) that I'll have 2 Honorverse novels finished and handed in by the end of 2007. That should give me the first six months or so of 2008 to do the next mainstream Honor novel, and also the sequel to Hell Hath No Fury, which Linda is already looking over. I'd really prefer to do the sequel to Hell Hath No Fury before I start on the next mainstream Honor novel, since I'll just have done two complete novels set in the Honorverse and I'll really be able to use the break before jumping into the "pull it all together" novel which will fuse the events and consequences of events from the two non-Honor novels. Simon & Schuster, on the other hand, would really prefer to see nothing but Honor novels, in an unending succession, and I'm not sure exactly how that's going to play out. Given that Toni will be getting a total of three Honorverse novels in a space of under one year, she ought to be able to keep the distributors -- and hopefully you guys -- reasonably happy while I work on the next multiverse book.

    That's the idea, anyway. If everything goes the way that I hope it will (which, however, it seldom does), I should be able to finish all of this up with a couple of months to spare. On the other hand, next year is Sharon and my 10th anniversary. We're planning on renewing our vows, and it looks like I'll be attending the big book exposition in London in March of 2008. That's not positive yet, but it's what we're working towards. And if it happens, then Sharon and I will probably head on to Ireland for at least a couple of weeks. That's where we went on our honeymoon, so it seems like an appropriate place to go on our 10th anniversary. I'm sure that someone is going to complain that I ought to take my laptop with me and continue working away. However, the love of my life would hit me smartly over the head (over and over) with a large, heavy, and very, very hard stone if I did any such thing. That would tend to preclude any eleventh anniversary, and, anyway, I do hope that you folks will concede that I should get to take at least a couple of weeks off every two or three years whether I really need them or not.

Updated October 28, 2005

    Guys --

    This was supposed to post earlier today, but I seem to have somehow contrived to have it fail. So I'm trying again.

    Please note: I do not really have time for this (when do I ever?) but someone (you know who you are) pointed out to me that there are questions about my writing schedule. So here are some answers.

    Just finished: Handed in the ms for the new, combined Path of the Fury plus prequel, bound together as one novel, In Fury Born. Jim has scheduled it, I think, but I don't remember exactly when for. I'm guessing it would be somewhere around March/April 2006.

    Currently: Working on the first of four books for TOR. They're going to be a new departure for me, and I think they're going to be fun. The delivery on book #1 is scheduled for the end of December, and things look good on that front.

    Next: I'm anticipating finishing up a collaborative work with Linda Evans. Again, we are launching a new series -- this one here at home under the Baen Banner. I figure that one ought to be done by the end of February 2006, at the latest.

    Next #2 (& #3): Eric and I will be working, more or less simultaneously, on 1634: The Baltic War and COS2. I'll be doing the bulk of the writing on one book; he'll be doing the bulk of the writing on the other one, and we'll be telling each other which chapters we need where. I think we're planning on getting started on this sometime in March and finishing up by the end of June 2006.

    Next #4: I'll be working on the sequel to Shadow of Saganami. This will be a solo. I need to have both the next COS and the next SI book firmly in place before I can move on to the next mainstream Honor. I'm assuming that I will begin work on SI #2 no later than July of 2006 and probably have it delivered by October 2006.

    Next #5: I'll be doing the next TOR book, which is due for delivery in December 2006.

    After that?

    I expect to have the second collaboration with Linda coming in somewhere around the end of next year, so it might be the number one project for Spring 2007. The next solo project for me, however, would be the next mainstream HH novel, which will weave together what's happened in the COS, SI, and HH threads. And, yes, there will be major changes in the environment in all three threads.

    Assuming all of this holds up (and it is, of course, subject to change), I'm thinking you guys should probably see:

    March/April 2006: In Fury Born

    June 2006: Tor Book #1 (current title: Off Armageddon Reef)

    September/October 2006: 1st Linda collaboration

    November/December 2006: 1634:The Baltic War and COS #2

    March/April 2007: SI #2

    June 2007: TOR Book #2

    September 2007: 2nd Evans Collaboration

    October/November 2007: next HH mainline novel

    Again, at this point all of this is a best-estimate situation, and things could change and slip-slide around. But that's my current best guest.

    Take care, David

    Addendum, Dec '05:

    Is there anything new on the horizon for the Empire of Man series?

    John is correct in that he is awaiting an outline from me. We discussed several possible aspects of the next book in Charlotte in June or July, and I definitely need to sit down and actually work on the outline. We're certainly planning additional books, but the problem I've got right now is that my schedule is already so full that I don't see how I can work it in In the course of 2006. So the book probably won't get written until sometime early in 2007. Hopefully I'll have the outline done sometime in 2006 so that John can fit it into his schedule and probably get the rough manuscript back to me by the beginning of 2007. Please don't anyone hold me to this as a firm promise, because I can't guarantee any of it. I'll do my best to make that schedule, however.