The 2015 April Fool's joke on this site is starting to look like not a joke :/

[Griffyn612]

     Speculation and Wild Ass Guesses are the meat and bones of this forum. What is actually written in the books has been picked apart to the "N-th degree". The very day that Cold Days came out, people were already asking when the next book would be ready.

     There may be twenty dozen reason why Peace Talks is not already on the shelves. Some of those reasons may be personal. Many artists have held back a work because the time was not right for it. With a lack of hard information, speculation is all we have.

I think the point is, WAGs about his fictional world are cool.  WAGs about his personal life are not.

[jamescagney22]

I think the nature of the internet has made everyone forgetful about perspective and exacerbates instant gratification that people can't see the forest for the trees. The average book wait for popular series is about two-four years even without other projects or personal matters and that is not even taking into account quality of said books. I mean A Feast of Crows and a Dance for Dragons took five years in publication and nothing happens except setting up for events that may eventually happen in the next book in maybe six years later. The supposed main villains the White Walkers make about two appearances, (no seriously I am not kidding two) and has the most boring and least impactful character in contemporary fantasy in Quentyn Martell. In Cold Days Harry fights Outsiders with Santa Claus, and in Skin Game pulls a heist into Hell. Granted having the premise of Peace Talks be who would win in a fight between who, does not help the geekiness in us all but we have been lucky so far that the books have been published yearly and even more so that they have been increasing in quality which I thought was impossible for a book that had a zombified T Rex in it but humility is a virtue just like patience is   

[LoopyGuru]

I'm a complete amateur regarding posting links or anything like that but there are some vids of Jim from the PhoenixCom on youtube where he discusses progress on Peace Talks and his future writing plans.  The main one I focused on was posted by Priscilla Spencer (maybe somebody less inept than me could put a link on here?).

If you want to skip to the meat of that discussion it kicks in at 13:12.  In summary he says;
- he needs to get a suitable workplace up and running, but he is hoping to move into his new house on 30th June, whereupon he will attempt to complete the following;
  - First a short story told from the POV's of Harry, Maggie and Mouse about Maggie's first trip to a zoo.  Upon completion, that and all short stories not in Side Jobs will be released as Brief Cases.  No timetable but clear implication that the publishers want it out soon,
  - Then Peace Talks, followed by Cinder Spires 2, followed by first Maggie young adult novel, followed by Mirror Mirror.  Again no timelines but he sounded very confident that once he has his writing zone back in place he will get his mojo back.

Feeling quite positive after watching that!

Edit: just noticed there is an entire thread on this on the spoilers page so please ignore this dumb post.  Dagnabbit! :-)

[Korwin]

Huh, did'nt know he is divorced...

[Tritium]

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.

[Firnatine34]

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

Has Marsters weighed in on this?

I met Marsters a few years back and despite being a Buffy born nerd (Seriously, I met my wife in the WB's Buffy chatroom), I had to talk to him about his voice work for the audiobooks. He enjoyed it but also said it was some of the hardest work he did, because he's kind of speaking into an endless void, as opposed to acting with other people etc.

I was psyched when they re-recorded Ghost Story with Marsters (Shout out to John Glover's Sir Stewart though). If nothing else I'm hoping these continued delays don't cost us ADHD listeners our star reader.

[Tritium]

Has Marsters weighed in on this?

Paraphrasing Jim at PHCC "James Marsters asked me when the next book will be ready *bangs forehead on microphone*"

[Quantus]

Well we dont want another "Scheduling Conflict if we can avoid it, re-doing the GS audiobook couldnt have been cheap.   

[DavisGentry]

I've been buying the Dresden files the first week that the hardback (and later the ebook) came out - starting around book 4.  Happy to spend the money to get the next volume as quickly as possible.   Three years later that is not going to happen.  I'll wait until the ebook hits paperback prices - however long that takes.  Maybe in another ten years if he has put several Dresden Files books out on a one a year schedule I'll go back to spending the extra money.

[Tritium]

Disincentivizing  authors, especially ones who are behind schedule, know it, hate it, and can do nothing about it... yeah, that will get books faster.

[lynde4]

I was going to say "that's magnanimous of you!" And I just did. .  .

[Romulan Cmdr]

Dont forget his dog died the other year. Life gets messed up and hectic at times.
Not to mention Peace Talks is suppose to be the biggest one yet.
I look forward to the coolness that will be Peace talks.

[SerScot]

Disincentivizing  authors, especially ones who are behind schedule, know it, hate it, and can do nothing about it... yeah, that will get books faster.

Right... punish them for having lives and being human.  That'll make them write faster and better books.   

[Warden John Marcone]

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.  I'm willing to wait.  Are you?

As to Priscilla, she normally is pretty level-headed, but she's also more active with the fandom than Jim himself is, and from what I've seen perceived insults against him are a bit of a trigger with her.  Let the man write and nobody gets hurt.

[Tritium]

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.