Stephen J. Cannell is the brains behind the hit TV shows, The A-Team, 21 Jump Street and The Rockford Files to name just three. But, he’s also a successful author as well.

The producer has penned an average of a novel a year – and now he’s upping the ante.

Cannell has been asked to churn out one book every nine months, which is a pressure he’s both used to and thrives on.

He’s about to release The Pallbearer, the ninth installment of his Shane Scully stories due out later this month, but it’s only one in a series of three more books on the docket in short order.

No writer’s block for Cannell, who sticks to a firm schedule budgeting in time each morning to work on his novels. He does it all and somehow manages to get eight hours of sleep a night.

And he still makes time for his friends, which include his Rockford Files star, James Garner, who suffered a stroke in May 2008. Garner is doing better Cannell tells HollywoodOutbreak.com – aside from a major challenge with arthritis.

Cannell is hoping we haven’t see the last of Garner on the screen, but he is in enormous pain. So much discomfort that a few months back Garner cancelled a stage performance of A Christmas Carol.

How Cannell makes so much time for his pals is a mystery considering his dance card is so full. In addition to his novels, there are movie versions of The A-Team, Rockford Files and 21 Jump Street in production right now.

Click onto media bars for:

An update on Cannell’s new novel, The Pallbearer.

How Cannell budgets in his writing time.

How actor James Garner is doing post stroke.

Why he hopes James Garner will continue acting.

Cannell’s novel, The Pallbearer hits store shelves March 16th.