Yes, I know, it’s been a long while since I posted an update on The Brooklyn Wars — but rest assured, it’s because I’ve been so damn busy writing the thing. Right now I have about five hours of new interviews to transcribe, plus a few more interviews to conduct, plus various research threads to pursue based on what my initial readers have given me in feedback, plus a pile of notes I left for myself along the lines of “Try to dig this up if you can, if not, no biggie.”

And then, I am pleased to say, the book will be done. At which point I can proceed with making final edits, and finalizing a cover design and imprint name (suggestions welcome), and learning how to create MOBI files and silkscreen t-shirts and do everything else that needs to happen before you all get packages of goodies arriving in your mailbox and/or email. I can’t put a firm completion date on it just yet, but this is the home stretch, I promise.

In the meantime, my ongoing Brooklyn research has spun off a couple more media appearances for me in recent weeks: a Village Voice article on how the Barclays Center arena hasn’t really worked out well for anyone concerned (to be discussed in far more detail in The Brooklyn Wars — that’s the last chapter that needs to be completed, and what most of the new interviews are about), plus a BRIC TV appearance with Hiten Samtani of the Real Deal and Azi Paybarah of Politico New York to discuss some of the latest developments around Brooklyn development.

There are so many other recent developments I’d love to stop and talk about now — the death and possible rebirth of New York City’s 421-a tax abatement that has shaped much of Brooklyn construction, Mayor de Blasio’s proposal to spend $2.5 billion on a streetcar line to boost property values along the already-white-hot Brooklyn and Queens waterfront — but I really do have to get back to work. Those interviews aren’t going to transcribe themselves.