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As many of you know, Brandon just finished his last draft of A Memory of Light, the last book in the Wheel of Time. The next day, he was so surprised to wake up and not have any more Wheel of Time to work on. This work has been one of his primary goals for the past five years, kicking his career into high gear, having him grow his writing by leaps and bounds, and gained him thousands more fans. Here's what Brandon has to say about it: I finished the final revision on A Memory of Light early in the morning Saturday, then sent it off to Team Jordan. And I was done. Team Jordan will handle the copyedits and proofreads; I might have a chime-in now and then on how a passage should be tweaked or how a continuity issue should be addressed, but essentially, my involvement as a writer in the Wheel of Time has come to an end. I'm still a little in shock about that. Just about five years ago, I got that fateful call from Harriet. Since that time, I have always had a Wheel of Time book that I needed to be working on. Occasionally I would take breaks, as I did to write The Alloy of Law a couple years ago. However, the knowledge that I soon needed to be back to work on the Wheel of Time was always there. That work has been my constant companion. For reference, when I got that call, I had only released a couple of books: the second Mistborn novel had come out the month before. I had written others that were awaiting publication—including several Alcatraz books, the last Mistborn book, and Warbreaker. I also had a draft done of The Way of Kings, another done of The Rithmatist, and some preliminary work done on a book called Steelheart. Yes, I'd written a lot. I still had only a handful of books out in stores. It had been two years sinceElantris was released. I was brand new at this. I still feel brand new. Yet, oddly, I also feel weathered. Finishing the Wheel of Time has been a wonderful experience, but it has also been grueling. I have always respected Robert Jordan, but now I respect him even more—and for a multitude of reasons. One of those is the fact that during most of his career, he was able to release a Wheel of Time book every year or two. That's an awesome amount of work. Doing three books has worn me out. For five years, whatever I've been doing—whether it be going out to dinner, sitting down to write, or checking my email—I've known that there was more to do on the Wheel of Time. I've known that I gave my word to Harriet and to the fans that I would work hard to get those books out quickly, and I carried a weight of responsibility for the book being split and people being forced to wait years beyond when they expected to get the ending. For five years, I have worked long hours because of those reasons. All the time I could find, I dedicated to the Wheel of Time in one way or another. And then, today, I did not have a Wheel of Time book to work on. I've reached the end of the journey and set down my burdens. It's wonderful, relaxing, and solemn all at once. I love the Wheel of Time. It's also great to be done. And so, today, I officially take a step toward a line. I step away from being pilot of this series, and toward once again being just a fan. I will never cross back over that line—whatever else happens, I will have written three books in this series. I will continue to support and engage with Wheel of Time fandom. However, an ending has arrived for me, and it is time for my attention to be turned elsewhere. Now I stroll back into my workshop and find that a little bit of dust has gathered. Out of necessity, the Stormlight Archive has been neglected. I am pleased I made the choice to work on A Memory of Light instead of Stormlight 2. However, it is time to pick up that story again and make this series all of the awesome things I've dreamed of it being for some twenty years. The stories of Mat, Rand, Egwene, and Perrin are now done. Returning to the stories of Kaladin, Shallan, Jasnah, and Dalinar will be my next major project. You'll also see me doing revisions on bothThe Rithmatist and Steelheart this fall—as I've made arrangements for both to be published next year or the year after. You'll probably hear more about them in the days to come. And yes, I WILL be doing a sequel to The Alloy of Law. It has been an incredible experience finishing the Wheel of Time. I hope that some of you who were with me on that journey will join me for the Stormlight books, but I want to note that I don't automatically assume that if someone reads the Wheel of Time they will read my other work. I occasionally have someone come through one of my signing lines who feels guilty for "only" having a Wheel of Time book. There is no need to feel guilty for this; I love the Wheel of Time as you do, and we share that. I'm glad you've enjoyed some of my writing, and I feel as close to those books as I do to any I've written. Yes, the Wheel of Time is not mine. But those three books are mine. I love them just as much as any I've worked on. I look forward to continuing to meet many of you at conventions and signings as the years move forward. Thank you, Wheel of Time fandom, for accepting me in and putting up with my mistakes. (There have been many.) Thank you, Brandon Sanderson fandom, for putting up with my deviations in the Wheel of Time universe. I know it has slowed down you getting your books, but this was something very important for me to do. Robert Jordan was a great man, and was the single greatest influence on my development as a writer. What I have done these last five years has been an attempt—a sometimes flawed but always earnest attempt—to show my appreciation. This entire genre owes him an enormous debt. My debt to him, and to Harriet, is greatest of all. Mr. Jordan, may you rest in the Light. Everyone else, take a breath and get ready for the end. May you find his final words as satisfying to read as I did when I first picked them up five years ago. The very last scene is his, touched very little by me, as are significant chunks of the ending at large. I have achieved my goal in writing the books so that they pointed toward this ending he wrote, allowing us to include his words with as little alteration as possible. Once again, thank you. May you always find water and shade. Brandon Sanderson Written July 30th, 2012 Posted August 1st, 2012

As many of you know, Brandon is currently at Comic-Con. Well, while at Comic Con, he not only read part of the first chapter of , but also of . Someone thankfully posted it on youtube, and now both are transcribed.Emperor's Soul, for those of you who don't know, is on the Elantris world, but is unrelated to the Elantris book. It is coming out November 1st, and is a novella that is probably shorter than Alloy of Law. It has to do with Forging, where you change the history of an object. We have the excerpt below: Gaotona ran his fingers across the canvas inspecting one of the greatest works of art he had ever seen. Unfortunately, it was a lie. “That woman is a danger.” His voices came behind him. “What she does is an abomination.” Gaotona tipped the canvas toward the hearth’s orange-red light, squinting. In his old age, his eyes weren’t what they once had been. Such precision, he thought, inspecting the brush strokes, feeling the layers of thick oils. They were exactly like those of the original. He would never have spotted the mistakes on his own. A blossom slightly out of position. A moon just a sliver too low in the sky. It had taken their experts days of detailed inspection to find the errors. “She is one of the best Forgers alive.” The voices belonged to Galatona’s fellow arbiters, the Empire’s most important bureaucrats. “She has a reputation as wide as the Empire. We need to execute her as an example.” “No.” Frava, leader of the arbiters, had a sharp nasal voice. “She is a valuable tool. This woman can save us. We must use her.” Why? Gaotona thought again, Why would someone capable of this artistry, this majesty, turn to Forgery? Why not create original paintings? Why not be a true artist? I must understand. “Yes,” Frava continued, “the woman is a thief, and she practices a horrid art. But I can control her, and with her talents, we can fix this mess we have found ourselves in.” The others murmured worried objections. The woman they spoke of, Wan ShaiLu, was more than a simple con artist. So much more. She could change reality itself. That raised another question. Why would she bother learning to paint? What’s an ordinary art compared to mystical talents? So many questions. Gaotona looked up from his seat beside the hearth. There stood a conspiratorial clump around Frava’s desk, their long colorful robes shimmering in the firelight. “I agree with Frava,” Gaotona said. The others glanced at him. Their scowls indicated they cared little for what he said, but their postures told a different tale. Their respect for him was very deep, but it was remembered. “Send for the Forger.” Gaotona said, rising. “I would hear what she has to say. I suspect she will be more difficult to control than Frava claims, but we have no choice. We either use this woman’s skill or we give up control over the empire.” The murmurs ceased. How many years had it been since Frava and Galatona had agreed on anything at all, let alone something so divisive as making use of a Forger. One by one, the other three arbiters nodded. “Let it be done,” Frava said softly. **** Great. Shai pressed her fingernails into one of the stone blocks of her prison cell. The rock gave way, slightly. She rubbed the dust between her fingers. Limestone. An odd material for use in a prison wall, but the whole wall wasn’t in limestone, merely that single vein within the block. She smiled. Limestone. The vein was easy to miss, but if she was right about it, she finally had found all forty-four types of rock in the wall of her circular pit of a prison. Shai knelt down beside her bunk, using a fork - she had bent back all the tines but one - to carve notes in the wood in one of her bed legs. Without her spectacles, she had to squint as she wrote. To Forge something, you had to know its past, its nature. She was almost ready. Her pleasure quickly slipped away, however, as noticed another set of markings on her bed leg left by her faint lit candle. Those kept track of her days of imprisonment. So little time, she thought. If her count was right, only one day remained before the date set for her public execution. Deep inside, her nerves were drawn tight as strings on an instrument. One day. One day remained to create a soulstamp and escape. But she had no soulstone, only a crude block of wood, and her only stark carving tool was a fork. It would be incredibly difficult. That was the point. The cell was meant for one of her kind, built of stone with many different veins of rock to make them difficult to Forge. They had come from different quarries and had unique histories. Knowing as little as she did, Forging them would be nearly impossible. And even if she did transform the rock, there was probably some other failsafe to stop her. Nights, what a mess she’d gotten herself into. Notes finished, she found herself looking at her bent fork. She’d begun carving a wooden handle, prying off the metal portion as a crude soulstamp. You’re not going to get out this way Shai, she told herself. You need another method. She’d waited six days, searching for another way out, guards to exploit, someone to bribe, a hint about the nature of her cell. So far, nothing had- Far above, the door to her dungeons opened. Shai lept to her feet, tucking the fork handle into her waistband in the small of her back. Had they moved up her execution? Heavy boots sounded on the steps leading into the dungeon. She squinted at the newcomers who appeared above her cell. Four of her guards, accompanied by a man with long features and fingers. A grand, the race who led the empire. The robe of blue and green indicated a minor functionary who had passed the tests for government service, but not risen high in its ranks. She waited, tense. The grand leaned down and looked at her through the grate. He paused for just a moment, then waved for the guards to unlock it. “The arbiters wish to interrogate you, Forger.” (For those of you that want to read the AMOL excerpt, it's here at Dragonmount)