Alas, Jim did finish a book, just not Peace Talks... yet.  I would be surprised if we didn't have a tentative release date before the new year.

If all went according to plan, he moved in today.  That puts his schedule (if I remember right) on a finished manuscript by Thanksgiving and a tentative release next spring.

He was at a con this weekend... and It is the 4th of July 4 day weekend... so between that and settling in after a move - because moves suck and take longer than a day - assume that he isn't going to have a chance to sit down to write until the 10th (next Monday as of this post).  But still!  I've waited this long, I can wait an additional week.

I'm 2/3rds the way through TAW, and I am just convinced that the Builders are earthcrafters, and the surface creatures are Vord of some sort.  It makes sense from an Alaran perspective - They cannot defeat the Carnim Vord force, but they can build massive structures - archologies - that the Vord would find hard to penetrate and Alarans easy to defend.

That and before he started writing TAW, WoJ was that future Alera would be much more steam-punky.

He also said he probably wouldn't revisit Alera anytime soon.  So this is just crack fan theory.

TL;DR - his housing situation sucks, so hes not writing as fast as he (and James Marsters) wants.

PHCC talks indicate that he is living with his fiance, in a house she bought with her own money, so he doesn't feel he has the moral authority to tell everyone to "Shut up and go away" for him to write.  On top of that he is dealing with having his house built - a construction project that is 15 months behind schedule.  He is making writing progress on peace talks but its going at a snails pace.  Once he moves in (11 days from the date of this post, assuming the contractor didn't slow down again), he should be able to get back into a good writing pace.