In the past fourteen months or so since I last reported, I've had a good haul of books come my way. Well, technically, Icarus Down was earlier than October, but it's book #43. Since then, I took part in three Crabtree series, one on medieval life (trade and warfare), one on Mapping the Modern World, and one on new technology, bringing the number of books with my name on the cover to 48. What book will be number 50?
With luck, it should arrive next year. Throughout 2017, even though my fiction output lagged, I was lucky to receive commissions for a number of projects for a number of different publishers. In fact, I worked on no less than ten books ranging in topic and audience from a high school book about hydro and wave power (I loved doing that one; the subject matter was quite meaty, and the audience meant that I could devote 14,000 words on it. It also paid a decent rate), to a series of books for grade 1-3 students about vehicles "on the job" (which are short, to the point, and actually quite a lot of fun).
I don't know when these books are going to be published. I assume they'll be for next year, but some may not appear until 2019. These ten will take me up to book number 58, making me wonder what will be book number 60?
In terms of my fiction, The Night Girl is still sitting pretty as a Winter 2018-19 release, and I expect to get started on edits this coming spring. Maybe that will be book 60.
When I decided that I wanted to be a writer, I was thinking in terms of fiction books. I never expect to have so many books written. I count myself lucky to be able to do this, and hope to push on to book #100. Fingers crossed...