Where I stand on No Going Back

This message is an edited version of an exchange I had yesterday with Publisher Toni. I figured I owed folks an update.

The short form is that the book is a mess but is now on the right track.

That does nothing, however, for scheduling, so let me now give you a longer form. I will finish just in time for the very last-minute deadlines, but that is all.

I have lots of reasons for this piss-poor deadline performance, but they all ring like excuses in my ears, so I won't bother with them. What really matters is that after a very long time I finally realized I was writing the wrong book, an unrelentingly bleak novel that I would not want to read. After figuring out why and figuring out how to do what I wanted while not creating such a book, I put myself back on track. It will be a sprint to finish even on the very last-minute schedule, but I can do it.

I apologize to all for this colossal fuck-up, but I am at least now confident that this will be a good book, one I would like to read and one that others will, I hope, like to read.

I must end by noting that Publisher Toni was, despite what had to be an inner tirade of justifiable cursing and frustration, completely and totally supportive. Writers sometimes ask why I stick with Baen and don't explore other options. Among many other reasons (and there are many), one stands tallest: Toni. She makes the company a family, and she puts up with all of its eccentric members, most certainly including me, and that is worth a very great deal indeed.