Just a quick update for today. I'm currently flying to Australia.
Yesterday's Writing Excuses episode is all about writing excuses—all those handy tricks that the great authors use to prevent themselves from finishing any book before its time.
There are a couple of quotes from me in an article on CNN's Geek Out about media adaptations of fantasy.
The most recent ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS annotation covers chapter seven. I discuss crossbreeding Summa Theologica with Little Women, and
On Sunday my flight leaves for Australia, and I arrive on Tuesday. It's a long flight.
My schedule is below. I hope to see many of you there!
Doom-Con, Swancon 37, Perth, Australia
Date: April 5–9, 2012 (Easter weekend)<br/>Place: Doom-Con, Swancon 37<br/>Address: 207 Adelaide Terrace<br/>Perth, Western Australia 6000<br/>Australia<br/>Type: Convention<br/>Schedule: Specific events are located here, but are subject to change.
Supanova Melbourne 2012, Austr
If you missed it on Twitter or Facebook, here's the link to my Suvudu Cage Match writeup of Moiraine vs. Kelsier. Don't expect an epic battle. I don't have the time to spare to write something like that in this case. Instead, I played it very tongue-in-cheek. I flipped a coin to decide who won, then wrote something that made it seem logical. Warning: it not only contains huge spoilers for both series, but a lot of Wheel of Time and Mistborn in-jokes. If you disagree with the results of my coin f
Today we're officially announcing Mistborn: Birthright, an action-RPG set in the Mistborn world.
To those who have been paying close attention, much of this may not be surprising. The MB:B website went live earlier in the month, and I have tweeted several times about the impending game. In short, we're hoping to do a fun, fast-paced, action game with some RPG elements, cool Allomancy effects, and some (hopefully) killer dialogue. That last part is my job, as I'll be writing the story and most (
Hey, there's a gaming convention in SLC this weekend, and the friendly folks at Epic Games have invited me to play some Magic during it! This will be at a downtown Salt Lake convention center called The Complex, and it looks like there will be a lot of fun things happening other than just Magic.
I'll be bringing EDH and some casual decks, but it does look like a lot of my time will be spent drafting. Either way, please consider coming! I'll be starting up drafting at 2:30 at the Epic Puzzles an
I'm one of the instructors at the upcoming Superstars Writing Seminar in Las Vegas (April 30–May 2). Since the writing and publishing world has changed a lot over the past few years, when planning this year's seminar we looked carefully at the past lectures and panel discussions, giving the curriculum a thorough update and overhaul.
Below is the schedule for this year's Superstars—with some brand new talks and fresh takes on previous topics. We want to make this seminar relevant and important f
In the most recent Writing Excuses podcast episode, Howard, Mary, and I talk about writing the omniscient viewpoint. (Dan wasn't there; he was off saving his son from ninjas or something like that.)
The newest ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS annotation discusses my use of prison names, the setting, and Bastille. And I'm very pleased to announce that the audiobook for ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE SCRIVENER'S BONES is finally available. The other two audiobooks will follow within a few months. Rutabag
This Saturday I'll be participating in the Writing for Charity conference at the Provo Library. For more information and how to register, check out their site. My schedule is below. There's a book signing at the end of the day that's open to the public.
Writing for Charity<br/>Venue: Historic Provo Library<br/>550 North University Avenue<br/>Provo, Utah<br/>84601
Schedule:
Saturday, March 17th
9:30–10:30 a.m.<br/>Welcome & Author Panel<br/>Brodi Ashton
Last week I appeared on the Atomic Array podcast with the Crafty Games folks to talk about the Mistborn Adventure Game tabletop RPG.
This week's Writing Excuses podcast episode is another one where Howard, Mary, Dan, and I cover a bunch of questions very quickly:
Is it better to include romance, horror, SF, or other genre elements to flesh out a story, or should the story stand alone?
Any tips for developing an idea without getting caught in Worldbuilder's Disease?
Any NaNo WriMo tips? (yes.
Potential Spoiler Alert: I try to keep my reviews spoiler-free, but the summary paragraph of this review does contain a spoiler for the end of the first book, Soulless.
In nineteenth century England, Lady Alexia Maccon is discovering that there are all sorts of inconveniences to being married to a werewolf—small ones, such as waking up to find an entire military regiment camped on one’s front lawn, and large ones, such as one’s husband taking off to Scotland to see to “family business” without
The most recent Writing Excuses episode features David Brin talking with Dan and Mary at the World Fantasy convention about the importance of criticism.
The Hugo Awards nomination deadline is the end of this week. If you're already a member of the 2011, 2012, or 2013 Worldcons, be sure to get your nomination form submitted. I talked about this two months ago, but I and my Writing Excuses partners have various works that are eligible, particularly Writing Excuses Season Six in the Best Related W
I have finished the book. The mystery has been solved. Holy hamburgers. I am totally speechless.
Part Six
Chapter 57
The chapter starts off showing Sazed. It's been a week since Vin single-handedly spared Luthadel from a brutal Death by Koloss, and she's been sleeping the entire time, so it falls upon him to serve as acting Emperor until Elend gets back.
He's currently sitting in on a meeting between the three kings. Things are going about as smoothly as one could expect, considering that th
The newest ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS annotation covers chapter two and talks about how The Simpsons already did everything.
In this week's Writing Excuses podcast episode, Dan, Howard, Mary, and I cover these questions from Twitter in a rapid-fire fashion:
What do you do if you don't like your characters?
How do you keep your plot on track?
Is it better to use real locations in an Urban Fantasy?
What do you do about plot holes?
How do you know if you should abandon a story and
At long last, I have reached the sixth and final Part of the book, and I'm still at a loss as to what the end might have in store.
Part Six: Words In Steel
Kwaan instructed Rashek slay Alendi if he failed to mislead him. Clearly his attempts were unsuccessful, as Alendi could feel the Well thumping. Which also means that he must have know all along that Rashek was trying to mislead him...
Chapter 56
It feels like it's been forever since Elend's last PoV, so I suppose it's only fair that he g
The superhero era has come and gone. The war has been won, the world’s villains are all behind bars, and the heroes are no longer needed. That doesn’t mean they don’t have problems, though ... and Dr. Eva Brain-Silverman, psychologist, is here to help.
The world’s most powerful heroes have been ordered into therapy, and their jobs depend on the results. But therapy only becomes more difficult when Dr. Brain announces the death of the revered Hawk King, a personal mentor to many of Brain’s charg
The epic and not so dissatisfying conclusion to the fifth Part.
Part Five
Chapter 54
Vin battles with the blue beasts. Okay, "battle" isn't exactly the right word for it. The koloss are hardly a match for her allomantic sorceries. She basically just slaughters the cute'n cuddly red eyed killing machines, and feels great about it, too.
Vin has made a resolution. She will never kill for "shock or retribution" again. Good grief, and good riddance. Too bad there's no way shell hold to that resol
Part Five
Chapter 52
The seething tempest that is KOLOSS batters at the Luthadel gates as Breeze, becoming more and more resigned to his fate, works on soothing the ill-trained Luthadel warriors' emotions. He comforts himself with the knowledge that Allrianne and Vin have escaped this carnage. I guess he'll be a bit disappointed when he finds that they're coming back, then. That is, if he lives that long.
Clubs comes along, and, completely contradicting the thoughts in Breeze's mind--and mine
Ah, after refreshing my memory in a few areas, I can finally return to reading the book and writing this blog. The end is in sight, and it's about time I finished this book already.
Part Five
Chapter 51
The father they get from Luthadel, the further into the day mists linger. Vin notices this, thinking that they shouldn't be able to withstand the heat of the Sun. That... That's it! I get it now! I've finally uncovered the grand mystery. The mists are not, and never have been, the issue. It's
Just a very quick update today. If you didn't read my post about the A MEMORY OF LIGHT release date, it's here.
This week's Writing Excuses podcast features Mary and Dan speaking with Sarah Pinborough in an episode entitled The City as a Character.
The most recent annotation for ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS covers chapter one.
InkWing is having a contest to decide what Bridge Four T-shirt to make. Head over to their blog to vote. Three random commenters on their blog post will get a fr
Tor and Harriet have set the release date for A MEMORY OF LIGHT. Again. While I've been working on the book, this has happened a half dozen times, with varying levels of publicity surrounding the date.
This time we're saying January 8th. How likely is this one? Well, honestly, I don't know. Seems like it's the most firm of the lot. However, you've got to understand a couple of things.
First off, I don't set release dates, particularly not on these books. I pick my deadlines, then work to meet
The most recent ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS annotation talks about why I shifted the book from third person to first person. My assistant has also uploaded the third person versions of the first two chapters, which you can compare with the published versions.
I've spent all day recording new episodes of the Writing Excuses podcast with Howard, Mary, and Dan. You'll be hearing them in upcoming months. For now, this week's episode covers historical fantasy. Check it out.
There's also a n
I'm back with the beginning of Part Five! Snow and Ash is the title, which Seems pretty fitting to me.
Part Five
Chapter 49
Its the beginning of a new day, and hopefully the dawn of a new saga in Elend and Vin's relationship. They're just about ready to be on their way, but Elend and Tindwyl are having a bit of a disagreement. She's really ripping on him for abandoning the city in its most dire time of need. She says that Vin's reasons for wanting to go north are insane―and they would be, wer
Life, the Universe & Everything, the local SF convention/symposium, starts tomorrow at Utah Valley University. I'll be attending on Friday and Saturday, and my schedule is below.
Venue: Sorensen Student Center<br/>Utah Valley University<br/>800 W University Pkwy<br/>Orem, UT 84058
FRIDAY
1:00–3:00 p.m., Center Stage<br/>Writing Excuses Podcast (2 hours)
Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, James A. Owen (1–1:30), James Dashner (1:30–2
