Yeah, I did it again.

WINTERBORN hit a bump in the road right near the end and I’m now struggling to wrap up the last little bit of the book. Since I’d given myself a due date of July 31 on this one, it is now 10 days overdue. However, since I’d given myself an Aug 15 turn-in due date, I’m still good.

Probably.

What’s funny about this is that it ties in to something I inadvertently started a few weeks back. Larry Correia (I blame that man for everything) posted a picture of everything he’s had published since 2011, which is the same year when both Patrick Rothfuss and George R. R. Martin last published a novel in their respective popular series. I decided to challenge all of my author friends to post all the books they’ve published or been published in since 2011. And thus the Rothfuss-Martin challenge was born.

I wanted it to serve two purposes. The first is obvious — to show off their abilities to work within a deadline, meet their deadline, and their commitment to their craft and work. You see, a lot of people think writers write only when they’re inspired and the muse is ready. That works, sure, to a degree. A few authors even make money doing this weird writing trick (I’m looking at you, John Ringo). For the most part, however, us authors treat writing as it is — a job.

The second was to allow the authors to showcase their books. When I posted my picture, I was missing 6 books from my stack. It still stood a fairly good height. Others posted their pics and I have to save, they were equally impressive if not more so than mine was. I knew I had a lot of successful writers as friends but I hadn’t realized just how many there were. The best was probably Kevin Steverson, who despite only getting started as a writer less than two years ago, already has like 12 books out. That’s impressive no matter how you cut it.

A lot of authors miss deadlines. It happens. We understand. Your editor understands, though they might not be too happy about it. However, as long as you let them know you missed the deadline and when you expect to get the book in, they usually don’t go off on you in a public forum (not a veiled reference to the DAW editor recently tearing Patrick Rothfuss a new one at all). For an editor to hear about your next book’s progress at the same time as the internet does kind of hurts that author/editor relationship a bit.

(Oh, and by the way Gary? Purely coincidental, but I’ll have the fantasy book to you by the end of the year.)