Zas678

Thanks for doing is. I love reading your ideas about the characters as you read!

I think when he's being "old" he's doing two things at the same time- he's first of all allomantically burning his furchemal storages, but I think while doing that, he's also storing a little bit of that age he's getting out into a new bracer, so he can continue to be "young". So he's older than his norm, but he isn't anywhere close to his real age. So normally, he's burning about 1000 years of atium to stay young. However, when he's being "old", he continues to burn 1000 years of age, but he stores 100 years into a new storage, so he would look about 100 years old (though still in perfect health). He then allomantically burns that 100 years of age, getting a tenfold increase of power, and making it so that he gets 1000 years of age out of it. He then goes around like that until he starts noticing that he's getting a little low, so he repeats.

I think this goes a little too far. Pretty much all we know about dragons in the cosmere is that there's a book named Dragonsteel, which (most likely) has dragons in it. They might be highly developed, and capable of doing magic and comunicating with people- or they might just be giant flying burning reptiles. We have no indication one way or another- unless you count the "old reptile" quote from the letter in WoK as being literal, but we don't even know that for sure.

Sure. It took us FOREVER to find it, but Peter finally said that he was the leader of the Terris refugees that Elend talks to on his way back to Luthadel after Vin goes and saves the city. Here he is: Then Elend goes back to speak with Spook, where they talk about how they sent Vin back, and how they want to catch up with her, but maybe she's already taken the power at the Well. Although they're being quiet, I bet that Hoid is listening carefully.

Brandon just received a text a few minutes ago saying what most of us would hope to be true- Alloy of Law made the NYT bestseller's list! @BrandSanderson Hey, guys! We just got word from the New York Times! Alloy of Law is #7 on the bestseller list! Congratulations Brandon!

A lot of the original Trilogy cosmere stuff we learned about from the HoA Q&A, which you can find here.

So since (from the Twitter Q&A) we now know that Tan doesn't burn Atium, I think that perhaps he has another way of having an incredible response time- Zinc (Mental Speed). It's possible that Tan was "flaring" his mental speed so that he could calculate the exact instant when Wax pulled the trigger.

I would like to announce that I'm frustrated. I spent about 2 hours formatting and then typing Brandon's twitter posts only to discover that the formatting's gone all html on me. Sad day. I'll fix it. Maybe in the morning..... EDIT- I missed a word. And used the wrong emotion. EDIT EDIT- I would now like to announce that I have never been so grateful for the "find and replace" feature on word.

Hello Fellow Sharders! So today, Brandon answered several questions on twitter.com during a #torchat, and there are quite a few interesting questions. When I orignially saw it, I panicked a bit,but thankfully the Inseperable Peter Ahlstrom came to the rescue and posted Brandon's tweets for the past two weeks today. Thanks Peter! EDIT- Part two now transcribed! I decided that since the details on which people are asking which questions aren't super important, I'm going to cut them and just make it a straight Q&A. Q. I messaged earlier regarding #alloyoflaw appendixnarrator, unaware of today's torchat. maybe you can respond in the chat? A.I haven't been telling people the name of the appendix author. It is either Hoid or one of the 17th sharders. Q. Are you going to start right away with stormlight archive 2 once AMoL is done or will you take a "break" again? A. Going straight into it, this time. No break. I start Stormlight two asap. Q. Do you have a narrowed down release window for AMoL yet? A. I've been all over on this, when people ask me. I think Tor has been saying fall, but I am not certain. The thing is, we don’t know how long it will take to edit. We want to be very careful with this one. Q. Brandon, are your worlds interconnected cosmologically? A. Yes, they are. (At least, all of the epic fantasies.) Visit the forums atthe website 17th shard for more info. But there is character, Hoid, who has been in each of the books. Look for threads on him. Q. What comes after AMoL: Stormlight 2, the sequel to Alloy of Law, orsomething else? A. Stormlight 2. If I feel good about the progress there, once it is done, Iwill do another Wax book. Q. Will Galad ever find out he's Rand's half-brother? A. Ha! You know I'm going to RAFO that. Q. Just how many Aes Sedai are there and how the heck do you keep track withall the similar sounding names? A. I use the encyclopedia wot and Tar Valon's wiki for some help, but I relymostly on the notes and Team Jordan. As for how many there are . . . well,there are a lot. Hundreds. Q. What are keys to balance family, writing career? A. Good question. I had to make certain hours of the day “off limits" forwriting, so that I didn't feel I was missing out on writing time. I could ALWAYS be working, but that's not good emotionally or for the family.Otherwise, I try to make my writing time as effective as possible, so I don't feel that sense of "I didn't get anything done." That one makes me unbalanced, as I feel anxious if I haven’t gotten some good work done in a day. Q. Any plans for a sequel to Warbreaker? A. Yes, there are. But it is a long ways off. Q. 3/4 of way through Alloy, can we twist your arms to pen another novel or 2with Wax in that era. Gripping ! A. Thanks! I plan to do more, if people enjoy this one. I’m still worried what people will think. People expect long and involved from me. Will they like quick and streamlined? Q. Any suggestions for finding time to write for a full time dad with a fulltime non-writing job? A. It depends on whether or not your day job is creatively draining. If it is writing/programming, etc. You'll have a much harder time, as those jobs flex the same muscles as novel writing. The people I’ve known who do it tend to get up an hour early, before their brain is worn-out, and write then. Basically,you'll have to give something up. Television, video games, golf, something.(But not family time.) Q. Is your luck with flights still so bad #pancakesandfries! A. Luck this tour has been great. Fingers crossed for the rest of it . . . Q. Any timeframe for when the Way of Kings annotations will go up? A. Afraid not. I haven't written them yet, as I couldn’t stop TofM to do them.I have Alloy of Law ones, though. I do plan to do TWoK annotations. It may take me a little while. Maybe they'll go up late next year. Q. Your side characters often have physical infirmities. Can you explain why? A. I feel that often, fiction tends to gloss over or ignore people like Clubs.So I find myself sticking them in. Q. How Moiraine is able to able to learn which Forsaken is in power in Tear andIllian in 'The Dragon Reborn'. A. I believe, but am not taking the time to look it up, she used means more mundane than you're probably expecting. Meaning good use of information networks. That said, I'll give a tentative MAFO and try to remember to look it up specifically. Q. (Same Person) Oh , what do mundane method do you think she used? She found which Forsaken was in power quickly and spot on in TDR A. She is very smart, and she knew exactly what to look for. She knew they were coming, and what they would likely do. Q. Will some of the loose ends in The Alloy of Law be tied up? A. All of them will, but some are foreshadowing for the second main-line Mistborn trilogy. Q. Can you post a google docs of the @JordanConInc winner names & the#brandalization of them in #AMOL #orjustmine A. Yes, I will once I have them all chosen. Q. Was Bloody Tan an atium misting? A. No, he was not. Good question. Q. What is your favorite book you've written? A. Favorite is hard to pin down. I'm most proud of either TGS or TWOK, as theywere among the hardest and most satisfying. Q. Is Mat's plot in AMOL going to be satisfying? Is the Horn of Valere involved??? A. Mat will be in the book quite a bit. And the Horn must be blown (for one side or the other) in the Last Battle. Q. OK, so, give us a great hunt A. Ha. Okay, The one about the Aes Sedai is fairly easy to guess, I think. It even has "Aes Sedai" in it. It also has some punctuation in it,though, of an organizational nature. Q. Do you read ebooks or are you a purist (Have to have the physical book)? A. I prefer to read physical when I am at home, and eBook when I'm on the road.(Like now.) Q. Which book series is this Q&A for? Want to get the right questions asked. A. Any of them! But I'm on tour for Mistborn, Q. Do you have a trick for plowing through writer’s block? A. Yes. I just write anyway, telling myself I don't have to use what I write. Iwrite it poorly, then try again. For me, that gets my brain working. You can't be afraid to 'throw away' what you've done for a day and try again. With that in mind, you can have the most random of things happen, knowing you won't keep them. Just to get jump-started. Q. Have you decided who the main character of Stormlight Archive 2 will be andwhich character the book will focus on? A. Book two will have Shallan's flashbacks, though she, Dalinar, and Kaladinwill remain the focus characters. Q. What's your favorite book of all time? A. Probably Les Miserables. Hope I spelled that right . . . Q. Is the recipient of the letter in Way of Kings also in Dragonsteel? If sowould it be the person that Topaz gets mad at? A. Yes. (Good question.) RAFO on the second one. I've already given you too much! Q. You mentioned friday night in #Seattle Allomacy has "FTL" built into it, any more hints you can share on how that would work? A. It involves where the lost energy from thermodynamic issues goes in certain Allomantic interactions. Q. Has writing WoT affected the way you write your other books? A. Some of them. I look at detail differently, foreshadowing differently, and large casts differently now. Q. what was one of the first novels you read as a child? A. First real fantasy novel was Dragonsbane. As a young child, I really liked the 3 Investigators books. EDIT- So this is just part 1. I'll post the second half later, and edit it ontothis post when it's done. ; ; Q. Did you ever study at martial arts yourself? Did studying a foreign language change the way you write? A. My only martial arts study comes from reading and watching, with the occasional 'one shot' go learn some basics. Studying a foreign language was extremely helpful in opening my eyes to other cultures, and my own language. Q. Do you decide what cosmere hints you'll let out before going to events? Or just decide on the fly? A. A little of both. Usually they pry more out of me than I'm planning though. Q. I'm watching the LOTR Two Towers, what do you think of the trilogy? A. I think they are all very good, though I prefer the first two films to the last one. Q. Any chance of seeing the WoT series continue post AMoL? A. If it does, it will probably be in video game form. Q. Nice! Another question, do you think you'll eventually publish a "The World of Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere"? A. Probably. Though first, we'd probably do TWoK and Mistborn world books Q. Since the series is almost complete, if RJ could read it how would he react to your contribution to his legacy? A. I honestly don't know. I hope he'd be pleased, but I also feel he'd be sadthat he didn't get to do it himself. Harriett has said she thinks, from above,he's looking down and this is his reaction. Q. You mentioned how it's not common in fantasy literature to see magic be"discovered." Do you have a story idea for that? A. Several. We'll see if/when I can write them. Q. Will we ever explicitly find out who killed Asmodean? A. It is stated explicitly in Tower of Midnight's appendix Q. Did the ending of AMoL surprise you? As a reader and lover of the series andworld, was it fully satisfying? A. It was hard to be completely surprised by anything. (Even if some elements,like Verin, did surprise me.) Q. ???? (Presumably something about publishing Robert Jordan's notes) A. There are way too many notes to fit into one book. Many will be in the encyclopedia that Harriett is doing. ; Q. Sir, when Marsh made reference to his brother, did he mean Kelsier? A. Yes Q. Do you have plans to continue stories in the Elantris (hope I spelled thatright) world? A. Yes. I hope to write a sequel for the 10th anniversary of the book'srelease, which would be in 2015. Q. How is it that you've become so skilled? Lots of study and practice? A. You've got it. Practice and study. I wrote 13 novels before publishing one(my sixth.) Practice, practice, practice. Q. What exactly is a dueling cane anyhow? A. Depends. Some are flexible, like sparring swords, and are used for duelswhere blood is not needed. Others are basically a big length of wood forhitting people, like a tonfa without the grip. Q. (same person) Do canes have a hilt like a sparring sword then? I alwayspicture something like http://t.co/SQOUiaFw being used. A. And most taper like that one. They are often of a uniform diameter all theway down. Many have a hilt. However for most, there is no crossguard or thelike. Q. How "bad" are your 1st drafts? Many authors say their 1st draft of a novel is always terrible. ; A. They're pretty bad. In a first draft, I focus on character arcs and laying down dialogue. So the descriptions are sparse, and often they're overly wordy to a fault. Drafts streamline Q. Which author would you like to meet and get a book signed by him/her? A. Alive? Terry ;Pratchett. Dead? Robert Jordan Q. Elantris is what drew me to you. I would like a sequel. A. I will do one eventually. Promise. Q. Who has been your favorite character to write in WoT? A. Perrin has long been my favorite, and continues to be one. Mat was hard, butfun. Q. When writing WoT have you ever read RJ's notes and think that you would have written the plot differently? A. I wasn't totally hip on the spanking scene in TGS. There is one other part that was tough. (can't say now.) I don't look at this as "how would Brandon do it." I look at it as "How should this work in the Wheel ofTime?" Certainly, I would have written a different series, as I'm a different person. I don't want to impose that here though. Q. Any chance of there being a biography written about RJ and the writing of the WoT? A. I think there is a good chance, though if it is done, I probably am not the right one to do it. Q. When did Thom and Moraine's romance develop? Came out of NOWHERE in ToM. A. It's in there, though subtle, in the earlier books. I'll admit, I found the engagement sudden myself. However, fans have been expecting something there foryears. RJ did foreshadow it, it was just subtle. Q. Loved way of Kings, can you say where Shardblades go when not summoned, oris it a RAFO? A. It is a RAFO, but that one will be answered for sure. Q. Has any recent progress been made on the WoT movie? A. There was a script done this summer, but it went to revisions. Q. Hey Brandon! How's it going? would a keeping weave protect the seals on thedark one's prison? A. No it would not. ; Q. Kel said he ended Atium production for a few hundred years. WIll atium reappear in Alloy & such, or did Sazed move the Pits? A. RAFO. Q. You've known for your inventive magic systems-- how was it using RJ's in WoT, which is a more traditional system? A. RJ's system was very rule-based and innovative for its time. It is part of what inspired me to do the systems I do. ; Q. Will we ever meet Elend and Vin again? Will we see more prequels/off-spins to WoT? Do you plan a trip to Slovakia? A. Elend and Vin have had their stories told. WoT spin-offs are unlikely.(Sorry.) I'd love to visit Slovakia. I'm actually reading a book about Slovakia right now, written by a friend who lived there. (It's called Vodnik.) Q. In Alloy of Law, are people still Snapping? A. Sazed chose to alter the way Snapping works. It bothered him. It does happen, but differently. ; Q. It seems that TLR still needed to store age "normally" but less. Did Miles ever have to store healing? A. Yes. He did, but not in the normal way. ; Q. Do you see WoT making its way to a video format like a Song of Ice and Fire?Or did that show hurt its chances? A. I hope that show increases the chances. But we shall see. It's not impossible, but a feature is more likely. Q. How old were you when you first started writing? Any advice for young writers, given economy at the moment? A. It will probably take a few years to get published, or to be making money,so focus on the craft first. Think of becoming a writer like becoming a doctor. It can take 6-8 years. Who knows what the economy will be like? Q. How does your approach differ in writing science fiction and then fantasy? Both stylistically and conceptually. A. For SF I take many more things for granted, meaning I focus more on story and less on worldbuilding. In SF, I will also focus on a handful of ideas instead of a whole ton of them. This usually makes my sf shorter than myfantasy. Q. Are there any plans for a Mistborn Video Game? A. I signed a deal for one last week! Details forthcoming, but I will be heavily invovled. Q. You already mentioned the Perun-Perrin connection. Any other myths we should read up on before AMoL? A. Oh, let's see. Lots. The valkyrie myth makes a brief cameo. Have a look atthat one. Q. ????(tritlo) A. If it's not in your language yet, it's tougher, as you'd have to find someone to buy the rights and publish it. Q. ;Do you have an idea of how many books you want to write for The Stormlight Archive? A. Two sets of 5. Q.I like that you are very involved with the fans. I want to start reading your books. What's the first one to start with? A. If you want more action, Mistborn. If you want a slower, more thoughtful pace, Elantris. Thanks! Q. So Demandred will be awesome in AMoL right? A. Yup. Q. Do you struggle to write Cadsuance from an unbiased perspective, since she'snot a favorite of yours? A. I thought I would, but she has such a strong personality, she's actually easy. I've learned a lot about her, and about writing, from the series. Q. Do Shardblades go to the Spiritual Realm when they haven't been summoned? A. The answer is in future books. Q. 'IronEyes' at the end of AoL is actually Marsh? It could be any kandra could it not? A. It could be a kandra, but I will tell you specifically that this time it isnot. It is him. ; Q. Thoughts on the upcoming Mistborn RPG? A. Very excited for its release. I think it is well done and fun. FINE.

No, that totally works! Thanks for asking the question. If you want to, you can post your transcription here: http://www.17thshard.com/forum/topic/1150-signing-111011/ Note- I already typed up the last ten minutes of the general Q&A (Starting with the Shardblade/Nightblood question) that someone else posted.

I have always held the idea that every person on every world is born with a Breath- the only thing that's special about Nalthis is that they can give theirs away. Why? The life sense. Most people feel a subtle feeling (including Vin at times) when people are watching them. Drabs have no such feeling.

Uggh. But killing 5 or 6 innocent people simply to get Wax where he may have gone anyways? Doesn't seem very harmonious to me. Also, it doesn't work with Harmony's idea of agency.

Green Hoodie Mistborn was the question asker, but I came from with the question. Bwahaha. Thank you Green Hoodie Mistborn! Also, here is my transcription from the recorded parts of the interview: Last ten minute transcription: Q: Is there any relation between the smoke that you get from a Shardblade and the smoke that comes from Nightblood? A. Yes there is. Are you a 17th sharder? That's a really smart question. (Basic explanation of Hoid, worlds are connected) Q. Annotations for Alloy of Law, Wheel of Time, Way of Kings? A. I do have annotations for Alloy of Law, but not for Way of Kings. What I want to do for Wheel of Time is after the books are out, I would really like to do a collection of Robert Jordan's notes, interspersed with my annotations of "here's what I had, this is what I did with it". It's up to Harriet though. She has a good reason not to- she doesn't want people's last memory of Robert Jordan to be his unfinished notes. He didn't like to show unfinished works, and so it really would be her call. If she lets me do it, I'll do it. Q. Annotated Copies of your books? A. I would really like to release annotated copies of my books. Perhaps I would do that for the 10th anniversary of Elantris, than do the sequel the next year if I can. Q. For the Mistborn Film: How are you going to show the special effects of the metals? A. One thing we're going to do is when we burn Iron/Steel, having the metals glow instead of shooting blue lines. It should help keep it less cluttered. We'll also dim the screen while the metals are glowing. When you start burning emotional allomancy, have a pulse come out from the user and wash over the target. Q. How much time do you spend writing each time? Cause you produce like crazy! A. I do this very conspulsively. So how many hours? All of them, except when I'm doing something else. I get up at noon (Yes I get up at noon. Don't knock it. It's the author's way!), work till 5, hang out with my family from 5-8, then write till 4 in the morning. And if there are other things going on during the night, I'll do them, but that's pretty much my standard. Especially with the Wheel of time taking up so much of my time. Maybe once it's over I'll spend more time playing video games and reading Terry Pratchett novels. Blizzard gave me a bunch of games, inclduing Diablo 3 and said "Hey, you can go play this!" and I was like "hey guys..." Q. Is there a difference between being an author who works for Tor, and an author Tor works for? A. Yes there is. Most authors are actually independent workers who send out their various books to various publishers for different languages, so I don't actually work for Tor. However, Tor and I get along very well. I do a lot of good things for Tor, and Tor does a lot of good things for me. We have a very good working relationship, but I liscence them books. That means I control my books, my characters. They can't make a single comma change without my approval. Everything outside the covers is the publishers. It's all packaging. That's why authors don't have a lot of say in book covers. The covers is the marketing, and the publishers. There are some authors who work for hire. For example, me with Wheel of Time. I work for Harriett on the Wheel of Time. I am employed by her. Now I have an awesome contract, and Harriet was very kind to me, but at the end of the day, I work for her. I am a contracter working for her. Q. Now that you're starting Stormlight Archives, how do you keep your series from blowing out of proportion, like Robert Jordan and George R.R. Martin? A. That's a really good question. A lot of series seem to "get away" from their authors at times, but I have the advantage that Robert Jordan and George R. R. Martin didn't have- I was able to read Robert Jordan and George R.R. Martin. What I tried to do is that each book must have it's own arc. Each one must have a point, must be it's own book. That way they won't blend together. So that's why I give each book it's own character, with flashbacks for that character in that book. That won't mean we won't see the other characters in other books. We'll see Kaladin in other books, we'll see Dalinar in other books (assuming they survive). But I will give each book their own character. Another thing that happens to authros is secondary character bloat. This happens when authors want to show off cool parts of the world, so you write a new character who is there, and then the author is like "Wow I want to write more of that character", and then Boom. In Way of Kings, I let myself do interludes. This is basically two or three short stories between each of the sections that show some of the scope of the world, and also characters you don't really need to know. This lets me get it out of my system, but it also tells me that "these won't be main characters". I'm hoping this will keep the series more focused. Q. WoT question that I'm unsure of. A. I see one shadow that bursts out that leaves a trail with a little blur, and if you have two waves than its a lot of blur, but yeah.

That's a good question. I bet that they would have to do it in their "new" native language. For example, if a born Japanese speaker moved to America, and due to lack of use, lost the ability to use Japanese, I bet that they would awaken in English.

I have to agree with you Jacob. It was me who was talking with K-Chan and FirstRainbowRose about the Cop being the kandra. Although while I was reading, I thought that the Butler might have been a kandra (simply because I believed the butler to be not-bribale)but the motivation given by the Uncle at the end satisfied that. Also as to this: There is one time in the book that Ruin reads minds (probably). Why Zane? I don't know. All I know is that he has a self-placed spike.

That sounds good. I just wanted an estimated date that we could use for Chronology and such. Also, according to the broadsheet we now have a date for Alloy of Law- 341 years since the end of Hero Of Ages (It's 341 in the upper left hand corner)

Aaaaand this is a topic for the Mistborn threads. Give me a bit, and I'll pull over some of the questions I have. I also need to decide if I have enough time to transcribe the Q&A.... These are the questions I overheard. I'll let others do the other ones. Are the usual quadrants (Physical, Mental, Temporal, Enhancement) preserved in Feruchemy and Hemalurgy? Status:No. In Ferchemy, it is based Realmantically. There is a quadrant of Spiritual, a quadrant of Cognitive and two quadrants of Physical. How do Kandra decide gender? Is it just intellectual? Or are there subtle physical differences? Status- Kandra have a specific gender that is associated with scent- you can tell if a kandra is a boy or girl depending on how they smell. There is more to it than that. They also know who they are attracted to. Does the person being pierced in order to charge a Hemalurgic spike have to die? Status- Not necessarily. A spike does require you to rip pieces of a soul from the victim, but that does not mean they must die. They would be a very different person afterwords though. Why do Seons become broken when their person is taken by the Shaod? Status- A Seon has a Spiritual Connection with their user. When the Shaod takes the user, it messes up the spiritual nature of the user, and it really messes up the nature of the Seon.

I agree with what has been said here. Ads would be fine, and although I don't think that there would be much of a market for the insta-book for a monthly cost thing, I don't think it would be too much trouble to order 10ish (?) copies for those people that decide they'd be in for it. The thing about shirts- and I'm not too worried, since I've seen a lot of the work that the graphics design people have done here- I want them to be cool. I like to wear my shirts and have them look pretty fashionable for even those people who don't know who Brandon Sanderson is (What? Those people exist? The blasphemy!). But that's my two cents. Oh! Idea! Another option (Though we'd have to talk to Brandon/Peter about this one) is to print out nice copies of the Brandonothology (Or Annotations, but I feel more squeamish about that one) and sell those for about $5 more than it costs us to make it and send it. We make it clear when we sell it that you can get it other places for free, but that these copies will look pretty nice. Plus, what's more proving of fandom than to have 300+ pages of behind-the-scene action?

Sure. The way I wrote the first question was because in one of the annotations, it says that Nightblood was named after the Corrupted Breaths that he creates when he Destroys Evil. But the second way is more clear. And Chaos, I'll go ahead and edit the original post. With what I remember.

I don't think that's a typo. I think that Allomancy has perhaps changed since the Final Empire.

@Green Hoodie Mistborn- Peter is most certainly correct. I have two questions that I would like you to ask if you can. Is the smoke that we see when Shardblades cut a person Nightblood? Do people on other planets have a Breath? Like people from Scadrial, and Roshar and such? Another way to ask it is if the only difference with the Breath in Nalthis is that the people can give their own Breath.