An Interview with Brandon Sanderson:

[Focusedbrute]

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all doing well. I just wanted to pass this along to all of you. Consider it a christmas present from one Sanderson fan to another.

I recorded this interview with Brandon this summer in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The total running time is around 20 minutes, and he talks about

a great deal of his personal story as an author. It would have come out much sooner if it hadn't been such a crazy year for me.

I am very proud of how it turned out and I hope you enjoy it. Please pass along the link to anyone you think might be interested.

Thanks for your time & Merry Christmas.

- Derek Pearson

Here is the link:

[Nepene]

Summary. You can see my motivation to note down stuff dropping by the end, but I note all the big things so you can find anything you want.

0.52 Brandon dodged book reports from his teacher by making reviews from the blurb till she told him to read a book from his private collection.

1.16. He read dragonsbane, loved it, loved the cover.

1.30 LOTR too hard to read.

1.50 Asked for more dragon books, got dragonflight.

2.14 Read Terry Brooks, everything he could get his hands on.

2.20 Robert Jordon released eye of the world after this, he picked it up as it came out. He liked being the first to see an epic.

2.50 He wanted to be a writer in the summer.

3.20 Sent to Korea by his LDS people, not will.

3.50 The culture was very different, useful for a fantasy writer.

4.20 Loved writing, dreaded chemistry, changed major as you have to do english to be a writer.

4.45 Got a hotel job from a friend for money. Got information from people for future writer. Used hotel computers.

5.50 Wrote nine novels on hotel shift, didn't let people read them till he took a class by Dave Farland.

6.20 Saw an author making a living, built his interest in fiscal side.

7.10 Dave said to go to conventions to make contacts.

7.50 Chatted with an agent for Tor at con, networked.

8.10 It's not an old boy's network.

9.00 Learned to target his books to editors.

9.20 Wrote six more books. Wrote Elantris as he loved epics. Sent books to Joshua.

10.00 Joshua asked him to improve more, helped him.

10.40 He told him to improve a particular book.

11.00 Sent to an editor, can't unscramble his name. Mosher Fader? He wanted to buy the books. Joshua negotiated contract.

12.00 Why are you interested in children's books? Talked about writing Mistborn.

13.00 Mostly wrote new books. Writing Mistborn 2 was scary in case they rejected one. Wrote YA book to cleanse palate.

14.00 Book is like a brainless comedy.

14.40 Why write Stormlight Archive? Editor told him he wasn't good enough to write it. Couldn't write it properly. Spiraled out of control.

16.10 He knew he could write it after gathering storm and wrote it. Turned out perfectly.

16.50 What's it like writing wheel of time? He was chosen by widow after he read her writing.

Kept talking about wot.