Okay, so by now you've (hopefully) heard the news... there is a sequel to Path of Destruction coming out on December 26, 2007.

Just to be clear - we haven't officially locked down the title yet. And, no, I wasn't lying back in the spring when I said I didn't know if the sequel was coming... the deal only came together a couple weeks ago.

So that begs the question...
Isn't six months a rather short time line for a novel to hit the shelves?
Answer: Yes - novels usually have a lead time of 12 months or more.

Which begs another question...
Isn't this going to suck because it's a rush job?
Answer: No. Absolutely not. And here's why...

Six months is a tight squeeze to get a book on the shelves, but not necessarily because of the reasons you expect. Whenever a book comes out it must go through many, many steps before it reaches the public: it must be written, obviously; it must be edited, reviewed and possibly rewritten; it must be edited again; it must be typeset; it must be printed; it must be bound; then comes packaging; shipping and distribution; arrival at retailers... there are many, many people involved. And to be honest, that's where most of the lag time comes in.

I finished Path of Destruction about 9 months before it hit the shelves. That's pretty standard for all my novels; it's really all the printing and shipping that takes time. Publishers have set schedules; they like to plan these things well in advance, so they like as much lead time as possible between a completed novel and the date it hits the retail shelves.

Fortunatley, Del Rey and Lucas are pros at this process. Look at how many Star Wars novels they've printed over the years - they know all the ins and outs, and when push comes to shove they can get things done much faster than the average organization. (Maybe it's the power of the Force...)

And, in this case, it just so happened that Del Rey and Lucas both had a spot in their schedule where a post-Christmas release was doable. So things are covered on their end.

As for me... well, I've got about 3 months to write this novel. Once I started work on Darth Bane it took me about ten weeks to go from outline to first draft, working 2-3 hours per night, 5-6 nights per week. Same thing for Mass Effect: Revelation. In fact, that's pretty standard for me when I tackle a novel.

Also, both of those were written while I was working some long hours at BioWare - which made it harder to focus creatively. Not impossible, just harder. With summer coming up and Mass Effect starting to wind down, my hours at BioWare shouldn't be an issue and my creative mind should be fresh. So I figure it will take about 10 weeks for me to get this novel done. So there's no unusual time limits on my end... all the rush on this book is being picked up by the folks on the other end. And, like I said before, they've done this enough times to know how to pull it off.

So there you have it - hopefully this has given you a very brief glimpse into the publishing world (at least from my side of things) and hopefully this will put to rest any fears you might have about a sub-standard novel. (Not that anyone had any doubts, right?)

Now, seeing as how I have about 13-14 weeks before it's actually due, I should be able to relax for a while before I even start. (No, not really.)

Okay, that's all for now. See you again in a couple weeks... maybe with confirmation of a title.

Embrace the dark side.
Drew