He's said a couple of times that he needs a break from WoT so he doesn't get burned out. So he wrote this and another short novel tentatively titled "Death by Pizza" (not the final title) just for relaxation.

WoT work resumes in January, when he's going to do another reread of the entire series before writing the last book.

He is working on the outline for AMoL, and is about 2/3 through at last update. Just no actual writing involved yet.