On my daily check of Tamora Pierce's livejournal I was at first overjoyed by this entry, which states that the first draft of Mastiff is finished and counts 660 pages; about 100 pages more than Bloodhound. Pierce plans on finishing the rewrite by the end of March.
The bad news of her entry's title phrase follows in the form of a surgery with rehab afterwards for which I wish her the best of luck and a quick recovery.