The author should absolutely do what he wants, there is no problem with that, and I don't claim entitlement to anything beyond what I paid for. The only problem I have is with lack of a minimal status update. I don't expect blogs, emails, honestly not even support from the author. Only a tweet "I'm taking a break for now, will continue when feel better." This is what Ryan Bates did with railscasts, and I respect that. Then again, I don't even claim entitlement to this type of tweet, it just would be a decent thing to do. Saying nothing signals abandonment, while "I'm taking time off" signals exactly what it says.
As a paying customer I do expect support and that includes at least a brief explanation as to what is happening with the product in the longer term. A tweet. A simple one line update on the website. A forum post. Any of those would be fine even if, like you said, it is just to say "I am burnt out, I am taking 2014 off". I am disappointed that if he has returned to work on the project that we just get a silent new dev build without any kind of information about the future.
