I used to think that if I got a book or two published, I could consider myself an "author" as well as a reporter, editor and occasional broadcaster, and be done with it.

And, now, here comes lucky Number 7. I've agreed to write a book about Quincy Jones, the legendary musician. He'll talk about his six-plus decades bridging jazz (including bebop) to R&B and pop (including hip-hop). I also plan to get comments from a few of Q's friends-you know, Oprah, Maya Angelou, the Clintons-people like that. It's going to be a lot of work, but I'm going to learn more about music with this one project than I have in my entire career.

Oh, yes. Those six other books. Most of them are on this very homepage. And they're in a brand-new space on the Web called "The Red Room," at redroom.com. All writers, all the time, with blogs, audio and video clips, and ways for readers to interact with authors, including real ones like Amy Tan. My half-dozen, from most recent to earliest, are: The Doors By the Doors; Becoming Almost Famous; Not Fade Away; The Hits Just Keep on Coming; The Rice Room; Hickory Wind, and The Motown Album.

And the hits do keep coming. I've always dug doing radio on the side, and it's back at my side again. Sundays, I've got a show, "Backstage," on KFRC here in San Francisco-and it streams live at www.KFRC.com. It airs twice, at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., runs two hours, and it's mostly music & memories from the '60s and '70s. KFRC is a "Classic Hits" station, but I get to inject older and newer sounds-it's that bridging of music thing again. And there are plenty of rarities, interview snippets, and surprises.

And, finally, I've been writing a music blog at www.TVLand.com since July 2007, and it'll run through the end of the year, and maybe beyond. It began as an all-Elvis project, building up to the 30th anniversary of his death. Now, it's about…whatever.

Of course, my main columns continue at Asian Connections, at www.AsianConnections.com, and in the San Francisco Chronicle, where my radio column runs every other Sunday and can be found, with aggressive digging, via www.sfgate.com.