In between, he probably put out 200 odd books. The man wrote like his life depended on it.

As far as gaps go, I'm still hoping GRRM won't break any records

Judging by Leviathan Wakes and the others from the expanse we are safe in the unfortunate case of "a jordan". It is written by his assistant and a friend of him. They are also the people that are his "hit by a bus" insurance.

And I think that he will progress faster nowadays with the show. Not that I have high hopes for the series after book four and five.

I'm trying to understand why you brought Leviathan Wakes into this. One of the authors of The Expanse is GMMR's assistant, as I understand it, but I'm not clear how either GMMR would affect The Expanse or how The Expanse would affect Game of Thrones.

I ask as a fan of The Expanse who has not jumped into GoT, and who wouldn't like to see The Expanse side-tracked because of it. Is there some piece of this relationship I'm not seeing, or is Ty Franck more involved in GoT writing than I would have expected?

The other author of the Expanse is Daniel Abraham who is BFF with GRRM. And since the Expanse is an awesome series, they are more than capable of continuing his work in GoT if something nasty happens.

I'm pretty sure he has said that he does not want his work continued in the event of his death.

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/11/george-rr-martin-no-more-ga...

The show creators have apparently been already told about the ending, lest something unfortunate happen to GRRM. As things stand, I don't see him wrapping up the series even by Book 7, which, I hope to read before my kids go to college (I'm 26)