Windrunner

Hey Sharders, I’m sure you’ve been enjoying the wealth of official art we have gotten in the Year of the Sanderson as we’ve been reading through the four Secret Projects. All the books may be out now, but that doesn’t mean all the fun is over yet! We were fortunate enough to be able to ask Aliya Chen, the artist behind the cover and interior art for Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, some questions about her wonderful illustrations and the process that went into their creation. Keep reading to check out what Aliya has to say and also check out her website to learn more about her and her work: (Beware of spoilers!) How much of Brandon’s work have you read? I’ve read Mistborn, Steelheart, and Stormlight Archive, with Stormlight being my all-time favorite ever since I read Way of Kings in middle school - I actually didn’t know for quite a while how vast the Cosmere universe is, and I’m hoping to find the time to delve into Brandon’s other books. Can you tell us a bit about how you came to be the artist for Yumi and the Nightmare Painter? Rachael [Lynn Buchanan] was the one who recommended me to Isaac [Stewart]! When they reached out, they knew I was a fan - perhaps it’s because I’d listed SA as my favorite when answering questions on Instagram. Any scenes from the book you wanted to include but couldn’t, for one reason or another? I think I could have included more scenes of Kilahito, such as Painter and Yumi at the carnival. I’d say that most of the time, we decided to include one scene instead of another because we wanted to make sure the illustrations were spread out as evenly as possible throughout the book. We also considered depicting the scholars and the machine, or more scenes containing side characters, but I ultimately chose to prioritize illustrations of Yumi and Painter’s relationship as the heart of this story. Can the fans hope to see some fanart from you in the future, or are you all art’ed out when it comes to this book? I might want to do some more sketches of the characters - I loved coming up with different styles to best suit this book, and the more calligraphic/watercolor style of the simpler Yumi drawings is one I’d like to revisit. Mostly, I’d love to draw Stormlight fanart someday, when I feel that I can do it justice! What was your favorite part of the book? Favorite piece that you did for the book? My favorite part was when Nikaro paints Yumi back to life :) I usually love tragedies that punch holes in my heart, but in this case, I think Yumi and Painter’s relationship was too pure and adorable not to have a happy ending. As for my favorite piece, I can’t choose between Battle of Wills and Priceless - I’ve rarely focused on characters or romance in my personal work, so being able to explore their relationship in a more expressive, less rendered style was really fun. What was the most challenging part of the project? I think coming up with appropriate styles for the story was the most challenging! For the full-color spreads, I used a more rendered style similar to my usual paintings. For the CMK illustrations, I initially tried to use pure cyan, magenta, and black in a graphic style, but was really struggling to make it aesthetically pleasing. I asked Isaac multiple questions about the limited palette and how printers work with color, and we eventually found that I was allowed to mix the three colors in any ratio and get an almost complete spectrum. Although I tend to use more realistic colors in my work, it was exciting to figure out unique palettes without yellow. For the spot illustrations, I initially tried a black brush style similar to traditional Chinese/Japanese ink wash painting, or to Painter’s own pieces. I’m so grateful to Isaac for suggesting that I incorporate some cyan and magenta and make full use of our ability to print those colors - it infused those drawings with the hion theme, while the characters themselves really came alive with those pops of color. I’d say that all the style exploration goes along with the fact that I don’t think I’ve ever devoted as much passion and effort to a client project before - part of it was because I was allowed so much creative freedom, and part of it was because I really wanted my work to live up to the beauty of Brandon’s storytelling. Have you ever designed a book before? What was that like? This was my first time! The actual layout design was done by the amazing Dragonsteel team, but, again, I was given an incredible amount of freedom regarding the visuals. In the initial email, Isaac told me I could choose to do as little as just the endpapers, or as much as everything from the cover to the chapter headers. In terms of process, there are quite a few limitations to illustrating for print (such as formatting and color modes), and Isaac was really helpful in explaining those details to me. We also worked together to figure out a schedule with deadlines for each illustration - I would submit pieces at certain stages of completion every week and receive feedback from the team. Because they were always detailed, prompt, and supportive with their feedback, I was able to keep on track and finish everything on time. All in all, it was an extremely valuable and rewarding experience, and I’m so thankful that I was able to work with a dream team for my first book Thanks again to Aliya for sharing her art with us, as well as taking the time to answer our questions and share what it was like to create all the phenomenal art that helps make Yumi and the Nightmare Painter so special. Definitely check out her website, and you can also follow her on Twitter, ArtStation, and Instagram to see her other work, or visit her Inprnt store if you want to grab some prints of her art! We're big fans, so we'll be following your future work and hope to see you creating more art in the cosmere again someday, Aliya!

Hey all, Windrunner here with another news update post. Today we have the exciting announcement that Brandon has finished the first draft of The Lost Metal, the forthcoming final book in Era Two of Mistborn. Brandon's been at it for most of the summer and wrapped up the writing late last night, only a few days behind schedule for his target of the start of August (not that we're complaining). The word count of this draft is ~149,000 words, making it about 50% longer than the previous books in Era Two, which were all about 100K in length. This word count is obviously subject to change, the book still has revisions to go through before it will be in its final form. Before you get too excited, remember that this book's expected publication date is November 2022, so fans still have a little more waiting to do before they get their hands on this conclusion. Brandon hopes to launch into the second draft on Friday with the goal of cleaning it up and revising it before sending it off to his editor and beta readers for feedback. He hopes to have this draft done by mid-September Once he has those reactions in hand, he plans working through two more drafts, one to include this new feedback and a final draft to polish the whole book up, with the goal of turning it in by summer next year. While this isn't Brandon's normal breakneck release schedule, he is intentionally trying to give his team a little extra lead time on books going forward, as it is such a challenge to rush to release a book only a few months after it has been written. While these revisions are ongoing, Brandon now intends to turn his attention to writing Skyward 4 (tentatively entitled Defiant) for the rest of the year, with the goal of starting writing on Stormlight 5 at the start of 2022 (and fitting in the Rock novella Horneater somewhere in there to boot). In terms of other new details, Brandon's writing sprint last night was working on what he has called an "extra beefy" epilogue, writing the final three scenes of the book. Since this is the ending of this arc of the Mistborn series, he wants to give a little more time to the characters and setting since we will again be jumping forward in time on Scadrial for the eventual Era 3 series. This book also includes seven or eight Steris viewpoints, which if you're a Steris fan like me, is a big step up from the previous books. For those of you who enjoyed the "shameful ribbon" tease for RoW, Brandon's context-less spoiler for The Lost Metal is that there is a minor plot point involving a desiccated frog. So now that we have that major reveal in hand, and now have various sundry theories about Adonalsium being a spiked frog, feel free to head over to our Discord channel or the forums and to chat with us and speculate about The Lost Metal and future cosmere releases! (Article image from Marc Simonetti's The Bands of Mourning cover from Brazil, published by Leya)

We've got another news roundup, with some news on Brandon’s writing progress on Skyward 3 as well as The Lost Metal, the fulfillment of The Way of Kings Kickstarter, and future publications of Brandon’s works in other formats. A lot of this info comes from Brandon’s four most recent weekly updates (see his Youtube to watch them). Brandon also participated in another spoiler free livestream. You can check out the recording of the stream here, and our summaries of a few of the questions asked on Arcanum. It looks like the next spoilery livestream is tentatively scheduled for June, with regular non-spoiler streams taking place the first week every month going forward. For even more detail on the new info from these weekly updates, read on below! Brandon writing progress and other project updates: Fourth and fifth drafts of Skyward 3 were completed since last update, the book has been turned into the publisher as of March 31, with an anticipated release date sometime in November. Release date, cover, and title reveal are coming as the marketing team decides to release them. The Lost Metal (Wax and Wayne #4) prewriting began on April 1, with Brandon spending two weeks trying to make sure the character, setting, and plot all worked out well and made sense within the logic of the cosmere and his goals for Scadrial. Writing has begun on The Lost Metal, progress bar is currently sitting at 3%. General plan is 3-4 months of writing, followed by 3-4 months of revision. Brandon has been working on some unspecified videogame related stuff that he cannot announce at this time. He’s teased this a bit in livestreams before, but we have no details. Videogame projects have fallen apart before, so don’t hold your breath here. Store and Kickstarter updates: New shirts up on the store with the simplified/space-age Roshar symbol New socks in the store - Journey before Destination and Bridge Four socks Way of Kings Prime and Dawnshard hardcovers are in the process of shipping to backers in the US Kickstarter challenge coins have arrived Unclear if the coins will go up for sale to non-backers eventually; they are focused on getting them out to backers ASAP Kickstarter playing cards have been shipped to Dragonsteel, they are final piece of swag that has not yet arrived Swag packs start shipping later this month or early next month International backers should anticipate receiving their Way of Kings Prime/Dawnshard with their swag pack to reduce shipping costs. Future publishing updates: Pocket-sized Stormlight UK hardcovers without dust jackets are coming (Similar to pocket-sized Mistborn editions that already exist) The covers will have a watermark of the Double Eye symbol on the cover and be published with each book in two volumes (TWoK part 1 & part 2, etc) These editions will be sold in at least UK, mainland Europe, and Australia, not sure about other markets Dragonsteel will likely go forward with a small edition of Mistborn Secret History (in the style of the small Edgedancer/Dawnshard hardcovers) You can now buy the Mistborn: Secret History ebook as a stand-alone on Amazon, if you are only interested in Scadrial stories or don’t already own Arcanum Unbounded Dawnshard audiobook should be released sometime this summer It has already been recorded with Kate Reading voicing Rysn and Michael Kramer voicing Lopen The publisher is currently uncertain; they’re looking for the right distribution place That’s all the updates for now, keep an eye on the main page and we’ll keep you up to date with all the future news about Starsight 3, The Lost Metal, and anything else noteworthy Brandon is up to!

We've got another weekly news round up, with some brand new news on fulfillment of The Way of Kings Kickstarter, Brandon's weekly update on Skyward 3 and Brandon's event at Gollanczfest@Home tomorrow! Kickstarter Update The Kickstarter news is that for all those that can't get enough of Brandon's work, the physical editions of The Way of Kings Prime have arrived at Dragonsteel HQ! These foiled cloth hardcase covers turned out great and should look really nice on a bookshelf. They are currently in the process of shipping out 20,000 (!) orders to people who ordered both the physical editions of The Way of Kings Prime and Dawnshard via the Kickstarter last summer. For those who ordered only a physical Dawnshard or a physical The Way of Kings prime, they should already be in transit or leaving soon. Backers keep an eye on your emails for shipping details! Skyward 3 Update: In the next of Brandon's weekly updates, he's revealed that he's at the 92% mark on Skwyard 3 and has settled on a title, which the publisher will be announcing eventually. The remaining 8% is about 10,000 words in length and he hoped to have it done as of Monday this week. He is hoping to start the 5.0 draft which will be the final revision of the book today. They are also putting up a poll on Twitter and Youtube to see if there would be any interest in a future mini hardcover for Mistborn: Secret History in the same style as the mini hardcovers of Edgedancer and Dawnshard. The results are looking like a firm yes, but feel free to make your voice heard! Gollanczfest@Home reading: In terms of events, Brandon will be attending the virtual Gollanczfest@Home this year this Saturday with a reading at 10:00 AM GMT (6:00 AM EDT or 3:00 AM PDT for those of us across the pond). He may also be attending the virtual panel at 11:50 AM GMT, the schedule is somewhat unclear. To watch live yourself the link is here ready to go, but the videos will be available for others to watch after the event. Check it out to see what Brandon's reading and maybe find another new favorite author! That's all for this news round up but if you still can't get enough Brandon, make sure to follow his YouTube account to check out the weekly streams and shorter excerpts from those streams with his thoughts on writing!