Ward

Are...are those spears the same ones from the Kaladin chapter icons?

As I obsessively read everything to leave Brandon's pen, the more I notice elements of his personality and writing habits peeking through consistently through all of his work. When I come across them, it momentarily breaks the fourth wall, but in an endearing way. I only notice these things because I'm familiar with his writing. Examples: When Joel eats a really salty sandwich in The Rithmatist, that's a sandwich Brandon would love. Frowning signifying contemplation. "Elend frowned" could be it's own sub-genre. Interesting, that. Good points, those. Pretty gowns and sharp, buttoned-up military uniforms The 1920s. Oh goodness the 1920s. And I am among the least of these, the Sharders. What are some other things others have noticed?

When you're watching Tangled and you think to yourself, "Yeah but clearly it's not her hair itself that's Invested. The original investiture was present in the flower which was then transferred to Rapunzel presumably through her blood, and also manifests through her tears. Gothel shouldn't have withered."

Also when Dalinar sides with Kaladin vs Amaram. Injustice wrenches my gut, especially when caused by false witness. So when Dalinar carefully and privately re-investigates Amaram, ending with summoning the shardblade, I cheered.

I cut onions every time I read Syl bringing Kaladin more Blackbane, hoping it will make him happy.

Due to how much I love the State of the Sanderson, Brandon's birthday is the only birthday I know, outside my own family. It's going to be a long wait for Oathbringer, but I'm excited for any mini-projects to tide us over in the first half of 2017. In last year's SotS, he said 2017 would see Stormlight 3, Rithmatist 2, and nothing else major. (http://brandonsanderson.com/state-of-the-sanderson-2015/).

I believe Brandon has hinted very strongly that Hoid ate the Lerasium. Either that or he's purposefully conflating correlation and causation when he tells us you've seen Hoid using allomancy.

Hrathen, from Elantris. His struggle with his faith is very fair and very relatable. Plus he struts around in red plate armor.

Welcome! I'd stay with the pre-packaged treats. New Theory: The razor blades in candy apples scare was Ruin spiking a new generation.

Can't wait until November! I wonder what sort of secret goodies he'll release to tide us over this year.

This is paraphrased, as I had no recorder. 1) Whim: When Harmony ascended, I think he said he had trouble seeing what was going on in the Spiritual realm. Does he get better at this? Brandon: He does. Also it's important to note that the Spiritual Realm is not the Beyond. 2) Whim: At the beginning of WoK, Kaladin is annoyed by a mischievous wind spren, but not particularly shocked. Are personality quirks common to specific types of spren? Brandon: Yes, although you'll see those quirks more common in elemental spren than in emotional spren. 3) Whim: When a Threnodite shade ruins silver, is that a natural, physical process, like a chemical reaction resulting in silver phosphate, or is the silver actually transmuted into something no longer silver? Brandon: RAFO

I'm going to be able to attend a signing for the first time, and I'm beside myself with excitement. Protocol question though: I really really want my hardcover Way of Kings signed as a matter of principle, rather than Arcanum Unbounded. Will that be OK if I show up with that in hand rather than AU?

So for the first time ever, I'm going to be able to attend a signing. I've already got Arcanum Unbounded pre-ordered on Amazon. My question: is it bad manners to take that Amazon copy to the signing? Should I instead cancel that and pay a bit more for the in-store copy?

That's what got me. As far as I understand, silver doesn't really "age" because it's so non-reactive. Same as Gold. Silver Jewelry will only tarnish due to the other metals in the alloy being reactive. And since Brandon started out in Chemistry, I suspect there's something sneaky afoot other than just, "*shrug* it's magic."

In Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, silver that makes contact with a shade is ruined. It turns black and crumbles. My question: is the ruination a natural process (turning into silver sulphate, or silver bromide, for example), or is the silver transmuted into another element, alchemy-style?

I want to see Steelpush engines. Imagine a water wheel or a weather vane (or an electric motor), except the rotational motion is produced by pushing on a metal fin, then switching to the next one, continuously.

I feel a bit crestfallen at Tor's official announcement of the contents of Arcanum Unbounded. Yes, I knew it was going to put in print all the e-books I had already purchased and read, but I was hoping for a bit more Sanderfan-service than Allomancer Jak and Edgedancer.

I think Brandon does a really good job of keeping the realities of sexuality "behind the scenes." I don't personally find it objectionable to say "Straff is a rapist" because we're not given any graphic detail for the theatre of our minds. Brandon doesn't try to pretend that stuff doesn't happen, but he also doesn't give you any details, a la GRRM, or even Orson Scott Card (who I'm convinced is absolutely obsessed with sex, but writes with just enough plausible deniability to maintain card-carrying Mormon status)

This is probably the first work from Sanderson that I'm just not going to buy, at least not until it's cheaper than $25 for a third of a book told in pictures. I'm honestly just not a fan of the art from the previews, and the practice of bolding really important words. Plus, thanks to Brandon's generosity, admittedly, I already know what happens minus Hoid. Ais being a girl now shatters my Javert image. Some quick math from the preview: It takes me 30 seconds to read a page of the graphic novel with a medium amount of text. (I already said I don't really enjoy the art, so I'm not taking time to absorb it.) Amazon says there are 160 pages in this book. I will be done with this book in 80 minutes. This book is charging me $18.75/hr to read it.

Plan ahead for all of your other inevitable fan trailers: you should be Hoid. That way the actor doesn't change. One shot in the trailer needs to be Kelsier passing coins to Hoid disguised as the beggar, but you can see a glint in his eyes. The whirling push/pull storm around Kelsier as he fights the inquisitor is a good clip. Welcome!

Oh they do, but if they could actually know how slowly he's writing instead of only suspecting, he'd never show his face at PAX again. We know Brandon's incredible work ethic, but every time I see Patrick in public I think, "Shouldn't you be elsewhere? Writing something?"

I just wanted to create a space for those who really don't have much to add in terms of theory or questions, but just wanted to gush a bit on how much they love the combined works of Brandon Sanderson. I'll start. *ahem* I love it so much. I'm an engineer by trade, so often have to shove down that analytical side of my brain when seeking entertainment, whether it's a superhero movie (that dude running at supersonic speed doesn't "save" that girl, he kills her just as surely as the train would!) or the various soft magicks of Harry Potter and company. Then came Brandon, and suddenly magic mechanics had clear limits and made sense and could be hacked. I'm not very good at predicting things (I'm more just along for the ride), so I always buckle up for the last 50-100 pages of every book, because I know Brandon is going to blow me away. And I'm never disappointed. Hrathen is my all time favorite antagonist. I love that Brandon listens to Daft Punk while writing Szeth.

Hopefully he just hasn't updated the website in a while. I guess it's a double-edged sword being so open with your fandom. Can you imagine if Rothfuss used progress bars? People would constantly be poking him.

If a two-year cycle is 1000 days on Roshar, and Kaladin is 20 years old, does that mean that he would appear 20*500/365= 27 years old on Earth? Or do Rosharans age relative to their years the same as we do to ours?

I just hope that there's a lot more material than what was already available for Kindle readers, as I throw my wallet at the monitor whenever Brandon releases a new short. And I'll buy this too. And he knows it.