Believe it or not, this is the way I always work. It’s nothing to do with focus or not-focus; I work on ECHO pretty much every day. But I normally _do_ work on multiple other projects at the same time. It keeps me fresh, and I never have writer’s block. [g]

The only thing that’s different here is that most of the other things I’ve been working on have been _short_ pieces, which are therefore going to be published within the next year or so. I wouldn’t normally talk about all the longer-term stuff I work on, because it would be so long before any of it became actually visible to you.

I’ve said six million times that you’ll get ECHO in the fall of next year. Nothing’s changed, nor would it if I dropped everything else I do on the spot.

It isn’t that other things eat into time I _could_ be spending on ECHO. It’s that there’s a rhythm to a book, and for most of its construction, there’s a definite limit to how much time _can_ productively be spent on it in one day–then the mind has to kind of recharge itself for the next day’s work, and one way of doing that while keeping the flow going is to work on other things.

(I really really wish there was a “sarcasm” font – those “geniuses” at Apple need to work on that).

Really can’t wait for Echo in the Bone – since reading Breath of Snow and Ashes, I’ve listened to all of the books from the beginning again (and accumulated the associated library late fees because, seriously, who can listen to 48 disks in 3 weeks?? Honestly, I’ve started to consider them donations to a good cause.). Thank you for the updates on everything!

Oh, it’s a completely different thing to write with someone (I’ve done stories with all three of my kids–just when an anthology would invite me to do a short story; “short” is sort of not my natural form [g]) than alone. (I’ve also done a chapter in a collaborative novel with a bunch of other authors, but that’s a different thing.)

As far as writing, I much prefer to work alone. Collaborating with someone is interesting and occasionally fun, but it’s not at all the same process or feeling as being plugged into what’s happening Over There, and struggling to bring that through on the page.

Bedelia