Brandon Sanderson

My assistant Becky wanted me to do one last shout-out for international signed book orders. The deadline is tonight, if you want them signed before I leave on tour. Anything you order after right now I won't be able to sign until I return from the UK at the end of November, and with the way international holiday shipping goes, books I sign then are unlikely to reach you before December 24th. The release of the new Mistborn book, THE ALLOY OF LAW, is one week and eight hours away. The BYU Bookstore will start handing out line numbers for the midnight release at 7:00 a.m. on Monday November 7th. For more details, see my events calendar. This week's Writing Excuses podcast episode was recorded at Dragon*Con and features Mary, Dan, and Howard talking with Mur Laferty about continuing education for writers, such as workshops, podcasts, and books. My assistant Peter uploaded another chapter of my unfinished 2001 novel MYTHWALKER, and another collection of my Twitter posts. Barnes & Noble took a while to get the INFINITY BLADE: AWAKENING ebook online, but I'm not exactly sure how long it took, since the link I was using never ended up working (since they didn't classify the book under its ISBN for some reason). Anyway, the book is now available on the Nook, and the correct link is below. (Along with the other links for it.) The book should be DRM-free (I know for sure that the iBooks version is), so if it hasn't yet appeared on your preferred ebook store, either the iBooks version or the Nook version should work for you (if you don't want the Kindle version). The Nook version is optimized for devices using the Adobe Digital Editions framework (such as the Sony Reader, etc.), but I have not personally verified that it is DRM-free. Infinity Blade: Awakening on Nook Infinity Blade: Awakening on iBooks Infinity Blade: Awakening on Kindle InkWing, which sells shirts based on my books, recently had a contest giving away three of their new Alloy of Law T-shirts. (I mentioned it on Twitter and Facebook.) Anyway, the winners have now been announced, so if you entered, check to see if you won. The shirt itself is offered with free shipping for a limited time. Source

Here's a really cool Mistborn pumpkin by deviantART member joh-wee. She calls it "Survivor of the Flames." Be sure to check out the full image and the unlit version. My assistant Becky wanted me to remind international readers that the deadline for ordering books so I can sign them before leaving on my book tour is one week from today. More details here. There's a new chapter of my abandoned 2001 novel MYTHWALKER up. Things should start to happen again in the next chapter. This week's Writing Excuses podcast features another one of our brainstorming episodes. This time Mary, Howard, Dan, and I mash up four wacky headlines to each come up with a story. The results are pretty entertaining. And there's another collection of my Twitter posts up. If you haven't been following me on Twitter or Facebook, you've been missing each time I announce a reader's name I have inserted into A MEMORY OF LIGHT. For more details, see here. Source

I'm very happy to report that the Mistborn trilogy ebooks are now, at long last, available again in the UK (and Australia and New Zealand) in what should be error-free editions (unlike the old versions that used to be available). This has been longer in coming than any of us would have liked, but it's good to finally be able to announce this. Kindle iBooksWHSmith Kindle iBooks<li>WHSmith Kindle iBooks<li>WHSmith I also have an announcement that came as a surprise to me. It turns out that MISTBORN: THE ALLOY OF LAW has already been released, as of five days ago. In Bulgaria. So if you are currently somewhere near Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas, Ruse, Stara Zagora, Pleven, or Sliven, you can go out and buy the book now. (Thanks to the Bulgarian reader named "I." who emailed to tell me about this!) Finally, some Mistborn readers from Austin, TX wrote in to let me know they have recorded a song from Zane and Vin's points of view that is, appropriately, metal. With a lot of screaming. Not about puppies. I'll let you form your own opinion. Source

I had so much fun with the draft we did at Epic Games last month that Dan and I decided we’d do it again, only try to make it more accessible to people. So, we’re going to be going back to Epic Games (in West Valley Utah) to play again this weekend. A few things are different this time. It will be at a reasonable time. 2:00 p.m. instead of midnight. This time it won’t be a pre-release, so the place won’t be so packed. We’ll have plenty of space to sit and play.<li>I’m going to arrange it so that everyone who comes to play with me specifically gets a chance to play me in a game or two. (See below.) Q: WHAT WILL WE BE PLAYING? My goal is to do a draft (probably the new set, but maybe the three Mirrodin sets). I’ll sit in a group of eight, plus me, so we draft with nine people. Then, we’ll have a regular draft tournament with the store’s prizes. However, I will SIT OUT of the tournament and play at the sidelines with anyone who has a moment between games or who doesn’t have a match at the moment. My games will have different rewards. I still have a few of the prizes that Wizards sent me, so I’ll be giving those out to everyone who plays me. Plus, if you beat me, you’ll win other cool stuff. There should be at least one copy of THE ALLOY OF LAW up for grabs. The format for playing me will be to use your draft deck; I’ll use mine. However, I will ALSO bring my Commander/EDH deck, and we’ll plan on at least a few multiplayer Commander battles. Q: HOW MUCH WILL IT COST? Playing in the draft will have a cost, whatever the normal drafting cost is at the store. Somewhere between $10–$15, I can’t remember. Playing me has no cost, though I’ll spend the first hour or two drafting. Also, I’ll probably bring hardcovers of my older books that I will be trading in exchange for cards. (Maybe even some rare foreign editions.) Hopefully, this will be a fun time for all. I worry that last time, some people came to play with me, but because of the nature of the draft tournament (where you don’t end up playing everyone, but instead end up playing according to your win record) didn’t get the chance. We’ll fix this time by having all of my games be exhibition games for prizes, rather than part of the actual draft tournament. Q: I’M A NEW PLAYER OR I HAVEN’T PLAYED IN YEARS. IS THAT A PROBLEM? Not at all. This tournament will be casual. If we have enough people, maybe we’ll do a ‘less experienced’ tournament and a ‘more experienced’ tournament, but that will be really the store’s call. Either way, this will be very relaxed, and by the nature of the tournament you’ll eventually be playing people around your own skill level. Beyond that, games with me are just for fun anyway. If you’ve never tried drafting, it’s a lot of fun, and I’ll give a primer lesson to those who haven’t done it before. (Sometimes, I even situate myself next to those who haven’t played before so that they can ask me for advice. Last time, the person sitting next to me hadn’t drafted before, and I helped him build a deck that placed in the top three in the tournament.) So, if you have time, come play! Epic Puzzles & Games3612 W 4700 S #4Salt Lake City, UT 84820801-982-0167Saturday 10.22.2011, starting at 2:00 p.m. Source

In the most recent Writing Excuses podcast episode, award-winning editor Lou Anders joins Dan, Mary, and Howard to discuss writing endings. Give it a listen. My assistant posted another chapter of my abandoned novel MYTHWALKER from 2001. MISTBORN: THE ALLOY OF LAW will be released in three weeks, and Sam Weller's has already sold out of their preorder quota of signed and numbered copies. I'll drive up there this Friday to do the signing, and then they'll start shipping the books out with the goal of getting them to your door on November 8th. In some cases it might take a couple of days beyond that, since they need to estimate arrival time and have to be careful not to have the books arrive early (which is a no-no as far as the publisher is concerned). Please bear with them. If you want a numbered copy but didn't preorder in time, the other option is to come to the midnight release at the BYU Bookstore. Even they could sell out, so it's a good idea to preorder so they make sure to have enough copies. (If there are any left over after that night you can have one shipped to you, but this doesn't seem likely at this point.) If you don't care about a numbered copy but just want a signed book, check my events calendar to see whether I'll be signing near you. I'm hitting many areas of the US with one stop in Canada for the first time, plus my first-ever tour of the UK. My calendar also lists some of my worldwide convention appearances for 2012. If you'd like to be sent an email reminder when I am appearing near you, join my mailing list and mention what city you live in. I will even sign Kindles or Nooks if you're into that sort of thing. Regardless, the ebook will be released the same day as the hardcover, which is a frequently-asked question. You can read the first six chapters for free right now. Tor.com Kindle iBooks Nook Sony Reader<li>Kobo Source

NYCC is this weekend, and I'll be there Saturday only. Here's my schedule. Hope to see you there! But if you live in the area and can't make it to the convention, I'll be back in November for the THE ALLOY OF LAW tour. Check out my events calendar. Date: Saturday, 10.15.11 Time: 1:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m.Place: New York Comic ConAddress: Jacob K. Javits Convention Center655 W 34th StNew York, NY 10018Type: ConventionSchedule: 1:00 p.m.Signing at Premiere Collectibles booth #2617 4:00 p.m.Signing & MISTBORN Giveaway at Tor Books booth #945 6:30 p.m.Panel: Winter is Here: Epic Fantasy Takes the Throne, room 1A15Brandon Sanderson, Peter V. Brett, David Chandler, Nils Johnson-Shelton, Philippa Ballantine, Rae CarsonLong a staple of the SF/F genre, epic fantasy is poised to take a coup over the bestseller lists, thanks in part to HBO's fantastically popular series based upon George R.R. Martin's "Game of Thrones" novel. This summer saw signing lines hundreds of readers deep (luckily none with swords in hand) for #1 New York Times bestselling author Patrick Rothfuss' American appearance. Now, in a special spotlight session exclusive to New York Comic Con, we pair internationally bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, Peter Brett, Phillipa Ballantine and epic fantasy debut authors Rae Carson, David Chandler and Nils Johnson-Shelton talk about why swords and sorcerers, king-makers and kingslayers; dragons and high drama have renewed resonance in fiction. Source

I've made another Twitter archive post. And as I continue writing the first draft of A MEMORY OF LIGHT (now up to 75% of my 300,000-word projection), keep your eye on Twitter and Facebook. Each time I come across a spot in the book where I need to insert a new name, I'll pick one from the A MEMORY OF LIGHT fundraiser drawing that's currently ongoing, and I'll announce whose name I picked. For more info see last week's post. In this week's episode of the Writing Excuses podcast, Dan, Mary, Howard, and I cover pitching. This is something we get a lot of questions about, and it's an important skill for a writer to learn. There's a new MYTHWALKER chapter up, which features a lot of Siri and Vvenna. Source

Now that the mass market paperback of TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT has been released, I've added signed hardcover copies of the book to my online store. I will personalize each copy to your request—you can have me write something like "Music to dazzle" or "Iron to bind" if you like. And of course all of my other books are available as well. Because I'm going on tour in North America and the UK all November long, the sooner you can get your order in, the better. (If getting a book by December 24th is important to you.) In fact, for international orders, we're setting a deadline of November 1st so I can sign everything before I leave. The U.S. deadline is December 5th. Jewelry orders have different deadlines; see below. Now, if your order comes in too late we will still do what we can, but the likelihood your order will arrive before December 24th goes way down. Posters & signed books ordering deadline To US addresses: December 5th by 5:00 p.m. Mountain time To international addresses: November 1st by 5:00 p.m. Mountain time Jewelry ordering deadline To US addresses: December 6th To international addresses: December 4th Source

Short version: I'm going to be drawing a bunch of names to adapt for use in A MEMORY OF LIGHT. To add your name to the pool, donate here. There will also be an auction for a more important character name in November. Long version: If you were following me on Twitter and Facebook early last year, you saw me mention a large number of readers whose names I was adapting to appear in TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT. The most common question I got in response was, "How do I get my name on that list?!" My response was that you had to have contributed to a fundraiser that TarValon.net ran back before THE GATHERING STORM came out. But I let people know there would be another chance to get your name into the final book in the series, A MEMORY OF LIGHT. Each Wheel of Time book has around two hundred new character and place names. When I was writing THE GATHERING STORM I tried inventing names the way I usually do, and I found that some of them didn't blend so well. So I decided to move to the method Robert Jordan used: He picked many names by altering ones that appear in our world today. This fits with the way he constructed the world of the Wheel of Time, as that world is both our world's distant future and distant past, and our legends are based on events from that world and that world's legends are based on events from our world. Picking names that way for TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT resulted in ones that blended in better, with the happy bonus that a lot of fans who had contributed to the fundraiser but not won the contest for the three individual name winners at the time were still able to have their name appear in the book as a minor character (or location). Auctioning off naming rights was something I started doing even before I had the opportunity to work on the Wheel of Time. I spoke some about this in my original post on the subject back in 2009. Well, in April this year, we did another auction to appear in the next Stormlight Archive book. That auction benefitted a local Utah not-for-profit corporation for educational, literary, artistic and charitable purposes, with primary interest in science fiction and fantasy. They in turn donated the funds to BYU's volunteer-run science fiction and fantasy symposium, Life, the Universe, and Everything. The symposium was a great help to me back when I was an aspiring writer, and supporting something like that is a cause I can get behind completely. So we're doing something similar this year for names in A MEMORY OF LIGHT. The process is being run by JordanCon, the not-for-profit fantasy literature convention that was founded in honor of Robert Jordan. I've been to three JordanCons now, and it is a great convention. Proceeds from this fundraiser will benefit both JordanCon and the Mayo Clinic. For the details, I'm just going to quote their news release in full. The Robert Jordan estate, Brandon Sanderson and JordanCon, Inc are pleased to announce a joint effort to raise money for two incredible not-for-profit organizations and offer fans the chance to become a named character in the final installment of A Memory of Light . Fans will have two opportunities to participate in this fundraising effort. The first option will be a highest-bidder auction through eBay’s eBay Giving Works. The highest bidder in this auction will be memorialized as a character (physical description, name within guidelines) in the final installment of The Wheel of Time. This auction will run from November 1 to November 10. The second option is through a drawing. Fans who donate $10 will have their names entered into a drawing to included in the final installment of A Memory of Light. The final number of names drawn is determined by Brandon Sanderson as dictated by the needs of the story. Donating is not a guarantee that you will be included. The Mayo Clinic, a non-profit organization and premier medial research center; as well as JordanCon, a literary convention and non-profit organization based in Atlanta, Georgia are both set to benefit from this fundraiser. WHAT IS JORDAN CON? www.JordanCon.org JordanCon is a fantasy literature convention founded in honor of the late author, Robert Jordan. Jordan was the author of the best selling The Wheel of Time series. JordanCon features four tracks of simultaneous programming, a Dealers Hall, and charity events benefiting the Mayo Clinic. Past guests have included Harriet McDougal, Brandon Sanderson, David Wong, Jana G. Oliver, David B. Coe and Eugie Foster. New to JordanCon this year will be the Art Show featuring art from a variety of fantasy and sci fi artists. Guests this year will include author Mary Robinette Kowal, artist Sam Weber and Toastmaster Melissa Craib Dombrowski. Please note that JordanCon, Inc has applied for tax-exempt status as a 501©3 corporation. While we are awaiting the final verdict from the IRS, we are allowed to begin soliciting donations. Our tax-exempt status will be retroactively applied to the day of our filing. WHAT IS THE MAYO CLINIC? www.MayoClinic.com For more than 100 years, Mayo Clinic has inspired hope and contributed to health and well-being by providing the best care to every patient through integrated clinical practice, education and research. Today, your generosity is at the heart of sustaining Mayo's mission. As a not-for-profit organization, Mayo Clinic reinvests all earnings into improving patient care. Yet philanthropy provides essential support as we develop better methods to understand, predict, prevent, diagnose and treat disease, and train the next generation of physicians and scientists. Mayo Clinic has more than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers from every medical specialty. They work together with 46,000 allied health employees to care for more than half a million patients each year, from every U.S. state and many countries. In 2006, Robert Jordan was diagnosed with cardiac amyloidosis, which is a rare blood disease where abnormal proteins form in the bone marrow and become deposited in the patient's heart. During his illness Robert Jordan received treatment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and encouraged his fans to donate in support of the clinic. JordanCon is proud to continue to honor that request each year through various charitable fundraisers at the convention. Q & A If I donate, What happens to the money? All funds received will go directly to JordanCon with 10% of the proceeds going to the Mayo Clinic. May I participate in both? Yes, you may participate in both the General Auction and the Drawing. Please note you cannot win more than one character named for you. Please follow these instructions! In the notes section, include your full name, and email address. What are the rules for naming characters? You may use your name or an appropriate name of your choice, but the author reserves the right to approve it or change it to fit the type of character created. A physical description of yourself may be used. How long is the Fundraiser and when will winners be announced? The fundraiser will run from October 1 to December 1, 2011, and winners will be announced at www.jordancon.org. The auction will run from November 1 to November 10. We will announce the winner of the auction and the first name drawn by Brandon Sanderson. All future names drawn will be announced via Brandon’s website. Can I be entered multiple times in the General Drawing by giving several donations? Yes! For every $10 you donate, you name will be entered into the drawing. If you donate $100, your name will be entered 10 times. However, your name can only appear once in the story. I am trying to donate to the General Auction or enter the Drawing, but have difficulties. Who do I contact? You must contact eBay for issues regarding payments. They are our vendor handling all the transactions. If you are having an issue with the drawing, please contact [email protected]. May I pay by check or cash? At this time we are only able to accept credit card, debit, or PayPal as methods of donation. Who is eligible to win? All fans are eligible to win with the exception of members of JordanCon, Incorporated’s board of directors and their immediate families. I have questions about my privacy All donors give consent to have their names published publicly. This is done to ensure fairness and so you may see that your name did go through before we randomly draw the winners for the Drawing. All winners, including the General Auction winner, further agree to allow us to use their names to announce them as the donors selected to be use in A Memory of Light, including use of their names in any publicity associated with The Wheel of Time in this regard. Private information such as contact emails and phone numbers will be given to Brandon Sanderson in case he chooses to use additional names at a later time. All other copies will be destroyed. What if I have more questions? Please send them to [email protected] with a subject heading indicating your question. We will get back to you as soon as we can! Source

First some updates. There's a new MYTHWALKER chapter up, and this week's Writing Excuses episode features Pyr editorial director Lou Anders talking about the Hollywood Formula. In addition, Ta'veren Tees has a new shirt up for preorder, Tai'shar Manetheren, and they also have a coupon code. SHORT VERSION OF TODAY’S ANNOUNCEMENT We have an exciting announcement today. A novella I wrote—INFINITY BLADE: AWAKENING—has just been released as of this posting, and you can find it on all of the major ebook retailers. I hope you guys enjoy reading it! It’s intended as a bridge story between the iPhone/iPad game INFINITY BLADE and the sequel to that game, though I did my best to write it in a way that one does not have to have played the game to understand the story. (Though you should totally play the game. It’s heaps of fun.) BRANDON SANDERSON (a.k.a. LONG) VERSION OF TODAY’S ANNOUNCEMENT As many of you might know, I haven’t (in the past) written a lot of short fiction. I do have a couple of pieces you can read, but on the whole, I’ve not spent my time on shorter works. In the last few years, I’ve started to change this. There are a number of reasons for that, not the least of which being the fact that I like to try new things and practice types of writing I don’t do as often as others. Big epics are always going to be my first love and my driving passion in publishing. However, some ideas don’t fit a large epic—indeed, practicing short fiction seems like a way that I can explore new worlds and characters without committing myself to too many large series. You’ll see me releasing a handful of short fiction pieces over the next year. I’ve got some in anthologies, others I’m preparing to do directly as electronic downloads, and then a few other very special pieces. One of these was announced today on stage at Apple’s "Let's Talk iPhone" event. It’s called INFINITY BLADE: AWAKENING, and is a bridge story between the two video games in the INFINITY BLADE series. (An iPhone/iPad game series.) You might be asking, “Brandon, you are a big bestselling author. Why are you writing a video game adaptation?” My answer is simple: I can do it because I’m a big bestselling author. Let me explain. I’ve reached a point, due in no small part to luck of the draw, that I’m capable of passing on any project I want and writing only the things that interest me. I have somewhat eclectic tastes. I’ve said over and over again that one of the ways I stay fresh when working on large projects is by doing things I haven’t done before. Last year, this itch was scratched by THE ALLOY OF LAW and DEATH BY PIZZA. I initially downplayed the INFINITY BLADE offer. However, after a little back-and-forth, I realized that this project had the potential to be a whole lot of fun. They gave me complete creative freedom, yet I also had some pretty strong constraints. They had built a video game (a very fun one, by the way) that was very popular. My challenge was to take things placed into the game because of mechanics, and actually build magic systems, a world, characters, and a story to match them. The game developers had some ideas, but they told me I could do anything at all that I wanted. I’ve often said that interesting limitations make for interesting magic systems in books. Well, I’ve also found that interesting limitations in writing can force me to grow and stretch in different ways as a writer. I took on the project partially because the guys I was working with were so much fun, but also because—as a gamer—I’ve always had a bit of an itch to be involved in video games in one way or another. (I’ve always envied Orson Scott Card, for example, who worked on the original MONKEY ISLAND, one of the great games of all time.) This story was just plain FUN to write. I had a blast with it, and it turned out quite well. I got to play with the idea of blending entertainment media—the story is for sale in-game, and together with the game, blends storytelling with gameplay. I think our world is going to change in interesting ways as books, video games, and cinema meld together. So, this story hit a sweet spot for me. I got creative freedom, the ability to work with fun people, a chance to work with some interesting limitations, a chance to dip my toes into video games (they also let me do a draft on the script for the second game), and a chance to play with transmedia. As I said in the short version, this story is intended to be accessible to all—but that said, it does rely a lot on things that happened in the first game while throwing balls up into the air for the second game to catch. (That was part of the challenge.) Much like THE ALLOY OF LAW, it is not intended to be the end-all of my career, but rather is me exploring new types of writing and trying to have fun along the way. That said, I am quite pleased with the book and what it accomplishes. I present it to you proudly, and hope that both Brandon Sanderson fans and INFINITY BLADE fans will find something awesome in it to love. </p>Best,</p>Brandon Infinity Blade: Awakening preview chapters Infinity Blade: Awakening on iBooks Infinity Blade: Awakening on Kindle Infinity Blade: Awakening on Nook More on Infinity Blade More on Infinity Blade 2 Buy Infinity Blade Infinity Blade: Awakening concept art Source

Leigh Butler interviewed me for Fantasy Magazine. The interview talks about THE ALLOY OF LAW, the Stormlight Archive, the Wheel of Time, THE RITHMATIST, and rules of magic among other topics. It's fairly extensive, so check it out. This week's Writing Excuses podcast episode features Patrick Rothfuss's assistant Valerie Dowbenko and my assistant Peter Ahlstrom. Many writers will never get to the point in their career where they need to hire an assistant, but some of the sorts of things assistants do often get done by significant others acting as business partners. And many of them are things that an unpublished writer can afford to let slide so they don't impinge on writing time. I've also posted the sixth chapter of my unfinished novel MYTHWALKER from 2001. Source

Tonight is the prerelease for Innistrad, which features mechanics such as double-faced cards. The set looks cool, so I've decided to head up to Epic Puzzles & Games and try it out tonight. The details are below. If you plan to come, please get there around 11:30 and make SURE to find me and let me know you want to play with me. I would rather play with people who like reading my books than just with random Magic fans. I'll try to play a game or two with everyone who's there to play with me. And if you happen to bring along some of my books, I'll be happy to sign them. Since this is a prerelease, there will be a $20 to $30 buy-in for your cards. We'll either play sealed deck or draft. Magic: The Gathering Innistrad PrereleaseEpic Puzzles & Games3612 W 4700 S #4Salt Lake City, UT 84820801-982-0167Friday 09.23.2011, from 11:30 p.m. until the wee hours of the morning. Source

There's a new chapter of my unfinished 2001 novel MYTHWALKER up. This is the chapter where things really start to happen. I've also uploaded a new collection of Twitter posts. This week's Writing Excuses podcast episode is another that was recorded at the World Science Fiction Convention this year, and on this one we talk about gender roles with guest Keffy Kehrli. A reader of mine, Laura (rasinrice), wrote in to let me know she created a envisioning what she thinks a Mistborn movie would look like, using clips from other trailers and movies. I think the overall effect is pretty awesome, and the opening quote is exactly right for a Mistborn trailer in my mind. Check it out. Source

My new Mistborn book, THE ALLOY OF LAW, will be released on November 8th in North America and November 10th in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. (See here for how to get a signed copy of the U.S. hardcover, and you can read the first six chapters for free here.) While my North American tour dates have been available on my calendar for some time, I haven't previously toured the UK. Well, for the first time ever my signing tour will have a UK leg. After I finish up my New York stop I'm flying straight to London to start a rather daunting series of signings. Most days I'll be signing twice, once around lunchtime and once in the evening, hopping a train between signings. The lunchtime signings will be quick stop-ins with no time for a reading or Q&A, but I'll try to give everyone as much individual attention as reasonable. If you want to get the most out of my visit, come to one of the evening signings, where I'll be doing my standard routine of reading and answering questions before starting to sign books. Because most of these evening events happen outside normal bookstore business hours, they are all ticketed events. Please call the bookstore hosting me for details on how to get a ticket. (Lunchtime signings don't require a ticket.) Hope to see you there! Forbidden Planet, London Date: 11.19.11 Time: 1:00 pm-3:00 pmPlace: Forbidden Planet MegastoreAddress: 179 Shaftesbury AvenueLondon WC2H 8JRPhone: 0207 420 3666Notes: I'll try to do a reading and Q&A but I'm not sure if we can work that out at this location. Waterstones, Guildford Date: 11.21.11 Time: 12:30 pm-1:30 pmPlace: Waterstones GuildfordAddress: 71-73 High StreetGuildford GU1 3DYPhone: 0843 290 8357Notes: **Signing only. No reading or Q&A.** Waterstones, Milton Keynes Date: 11.21.11 Time: 6:30 pm-8:30 pmPlace: Waterstones Milton KeynesAddress: Unit 72, Midsummer PlaceMilton Keynes MK9 3GAPhone: 0843 290 8495Notes: **This is a ticketed event. Please call the store for details on how to get a ticket.** Waterstones, Birmingham Date: 11.22.11 Time: 12:30 pm-1:30 pmPlace: Waterstones Birmingham High StreetAddress: 24-26 High StreetBirmingham B4 7SLPhone: 0843 290 8149Notes: **Signing only. No reading or Q&A.** Waterstones, Nottingham Date: 11.22.11 Time: 7:00 pm-9:00 pmPlace: Waterstones Nottingham Bridlesmith GateAddress: 1/5 Bridlesmith GateNottingham NG1 2GRPhone: 0843 290 8525Notes: **This is a ticketed event. Please call the store for details on how to get a ticket.** Waterstones, Liverpool Date: 11.23.11 Time: 12:30 pm-1:30 pmPlace: Waterstones Liverpool OneAddress: 12 College LaneLiverpool L1 3DLPhone: 0843 290 8457Notes: **Signing only. No reading or Q&A.** Waterstones, Manchester Date: 11.23.11 Time: 7:00 pm-9:00 pmPlace: Waterstones Manchester DeansgateAddress: 91 DeansgateManchester M3 2BWPhone: 0843 290 8485Notes: **This is a ticketed event. Please call the store for details on how to get a ticket.** Waterstones, York Date: 11.24.11 Time: 12:30 pm-1:30 pmPlace: Waterstones YorkAddress: 28-29 High OusegateYork YO1 8RXPhone: 0843 290 8715Notes: **Signing only. No reading or Q&A.** Waterstones, Edinburgh Date: 11.24.11 Time: 6:30 pm-8:30 pmPlace: Waterstones Edinburgh West EndAddress: 128 Princes StreetEdinburgh EH2 4ADPhone: 0843 290 8313Notes: **This is a ticketed event. Please call the store for details on how to get a ticket.** Waterstones, Newcastle Date: 11.25.11 Time: 6:30 pm-8:30 pmPlace: Waterstones Newcastle Emerson ChambersAddress: Emerson Chambers, Blackett StreetNewcastle NE1 7JFPhone: 0191 261 7757Notes: **This is a ticketed event. Please call the store for details on how to get a ticket.** View Larger Map Source

This week's Writing Excuses podcast episode is another one that was recorded at the World Science Fiction Convention. It features Lauren Beukes and talks about writing other cultures. Check it out. There's a new MYTHWALKER chapter up. This one introduces Vvenna, who eventually became Vivenna in WARBREAKER. There are a few giveaways of advance reading copies of my new Mistborn book, THE ALLOY OF LAW, that are going on right now. First I'll mention one with no regional restrictions: the official Brandon Sanderson fan website 17th Shard is giving away three copies as well as other prizes. The other contests currently ongoing are limited to U.S. residents only: Tor is giving away five copies, and Goodreads is giving away ten. THE ALLOY OF LAW will be released on November 8th in North America and November 10th in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. (See here for how to get a signed copy of the hardcover.) But you can read the first six chapters for free now on Tor.com. This preview is also available as a free ebook, for those of you who prefer to read on an ereader. Now, I'm told that some of these versions are region-restricted, but it's been reported that's not the case with the Sony Reader version. (The Tor.com version is viewable from all over the world, so the ebook restrictions are frustrating.) The ebook of the complete novel will be released at the same time as the hardcover. Kindle iBooks Nook Sony Reader Store<li>Kobo Source

At the World Science Fiction Convention in Reno a couple of weeks ago, we recorded a few Writing Excuses podcast episodes. The first one features Patrick Rothfuss, and we discussed suspension of disbelief. Check it out. I've put up the third chapter of my unfinished novel MYTHWALKER from ten years ago. The big announcement today is that the first ebooks of ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS are now available, in French. Currently you can buy the first three books, and I assume the fourth one will come out around the time it gets published in print form in France. I do want to get the ebooks out in English too, but for now my French publisher is being more progressive. For one thing, the books are being put out DRM-free as I suggested to them. That means you should be able to buy the ePub version (from anywhere other than Kindle, which uses a different format) and load it on your Nook or Sony Reader with no problem. Now, I haven't been able to verify that DRM is definitely not applied by all of the stores below, but some of the linked pages specifically mention there is no DRM. So I hope it's the case across all of the vendors. Kindle iBooks Feedbooks ePagine<li>Immatériel Source

Here are all the interior illustrations from THE WAY OF KINGS. This should be especially useful if you've been squinting at the illustrations in the ebook. There's also a link to the cover illustration wallpapers, which you can download if you are a Tor.com member. Source

This week's Writing Excuses podcast episode with Mary, Dan, Howard, and me covers worldbuilding communications technology. The state of communications technology can have a wide-reaching effect on your story, so give it a listen. My assistant has uploaded another chapter of my unfinished and abandoned novel Mythwalker from 2001. There's also a new collection of Twitter posts up. THE WAY OF KINGS has now been out in hardcover for a year, so I'm adding signed and personalized copies to my online store. Please note that the way my store calculates shipping charges gets confused because TWoK is the same size as THE GATHERING STORM but much heavier. The result is that if you want to buy two copies, it's probably cheaper to submit two separate orders instead of putting two copies in one order. Sorry about that. Today I started an IAmA on reddit. (Basically a Q&A.) If you're following me on Twitter or Facebook, you heard about it an hour ago. I'll keep answering questions for the next three hours or so, but there are so many questions already I'm likely not to get to anything posted after this point. We'll see. Source

My buddy and Writing Excuses cohost Dan Wells recently released his hilarious gothic vampire novel A NIGHT OF BLACKER DARKNESS as an ebook. I'm embedding a preview of it below, and you can get it on Kindle, Nook, iBooks, and Smashwords. This is still one of my personal favorite novels—quirky and strange, but very amusing and borderline genius. It's the story of a man in the 19th century who fakes his own death, and when he rises from his coffin that makes a bunch of vampires think he's one of them. (The fact that he can go out in sunlight and stand garlic proves to them that he's the vampires' "chosen one," destined to lead them to glory.) With cameo appearances by historical figures like John Keats and Mary Shelley, it's an absolute blast to read. Source

The site that has hosted my forums for years, the Official Time-Waster's Guide, has now officially gone offline. The front page hadn't really been updated in years as staff members moved on to other projects, and few areas of the forum were still active, so it's not a big loss. My official forums will now be hosted by the official Brandon Sanderson fansite, 17th Shard. (They also just posted a writeup of the Q&A from my recent West Jordan signing, covering both my books and the Wheel of Time.) Dan Wells is also moving his forum over there, and the Reading Excuses forum is also there. The admins are currently looking into moving over a read-only archive of relevant TWG posts, so we'll see if that happens. The catalyst for TWG going offline now rather than some other time is that the old forum software it was running was vulnerable, and a hacker exploited that vulnerability to harvest email addresses and salted/hashed passwords. That means that if you had an account there, you may see an uptick in spam, and if your password was an easily crackable one that you used elsewhere (especially if it was the same password you use for your email account), someone may break in to your accounts elsewhere. So it's a very good idea to change the passwords you use on any other site that shared the login you used at TWG. Because the passwords were salted and hashed they should still be fairly secure if you picked a robust password in the first place, but it's a good idea to err on the side of caution and change your passwords anyway. (If you're wondering, the forum also used a lot of custom code which made updating it difficult, and we decided the effort it would take to secure everything again wasn't worthwhile in the face of its diminished activity and the other available options.) Remember when I said last fall on Twitter that I had just written the most awesome Allomantic gunfight ever? (Okay, it was also the first Allomantic gunfight ever written.) Well, that gunfight appears in THE ALLOY OF LAW chapter six, now up on Tor.com. This marks the end of the short story that I originally planned, which turned into the new Mistborn novel coming out on November 8th. If you read the six preview chapters that have been released, you'll understand why this really was the only good place to end the preview. I wanted you to get a comprehensive sample of what this novel was really about, and with this chapter all the elements come together. But now the book doesn't come out for more than two months, and there won't be any more preview chapters. Please try to be patient. Anyway, to find out how to get signed copies of the book when it does come out, see here. I'm very pleased with how THE ALLOY OF LAW turned out. On the other hand, I'm very displeased with how my draft of MYTHWALKER turned out way back in 2001, which is why I stopped writing it. But if you're a glutton for punishment you can check out chapter one. Some of its elements will look familiar, since I cannibalized them into later books. The newest episode of Writing Excuses is up, and it covers revision focusing on description. This past weekend at the World Science Fiction Convention in Reno, Writing Excuses was beaten in the Hugo voting for the Best Related Work category by a fine book called CHICKS DIG TIME LORDS. Mary contributed one of its essays (among many great women authors). She also won a Hugo for her short story, "For Want of a Nail." (Dan lost the Campbell to Lev Grossman, author of THE MAGICIANS.) Also at Worldcon a group of us attended the Girl Genius Steampunk Ball in costume. Here's a sample photo, taken by Pemberly's assistant Kathy. I'm dressed as an Elendel Allomancer and my assistant Peter is Allomancer Jak from the Elendel Daily broadsheet. Pemberly and Peter's wife Karen are dressed to accompany us to the wedding dinner in chapter four of THE ALLOY OF LAW. (Not that Allomancer Jak was there.) You can see a few more photos on Facebook. I'll try to get more tagged soon. Source

This is going to be a long post. If you want to know how to get numbered copies of MISTBORN: THE ALLOY OF LAW, scroll down. ITEM #1: THE TOUR This year's tour will have two legs: A North American tour (for the first time it's not just a U.S. tour—there's a stop in Vancouver BC) and a UK tour. My North American signings are listed on my events page, so check out that page to see if I'm signing near you. I don't have locations and times for my UK tour yet (those will come in September), but I'll be there between November 18th and 26th. If I'm not going to be appearing near you, there is still a way for you to get a signed book. Please scroll down to the section on Sam Weller's by mail. I am also going to Australia in April (see the events page)—in Perth, Melbourne, and Gold Coast on the weekends, probably with stops at the cities in between on weekdays (that schedule won't be worked out for quite a while). I'm also going to be somewhere in Asia in February, but that hasn't yet been announced. The focus on my tour stops will be on getting everyone's books signed. I like to do a reading and answer questions at every stop, and I also try to pre-sign some stock so if you just want a signed book and don't want to stand in line for me to personalize it for you, you can just grab the book and go. However, I already know that there won't be a reading or a Q&A at the Brooklyn stop or the daytime UK stops (they won't have room for seating), so keep that in mind. Some of the events might be ticketed (such as Murder By the Book in Houston), which means that the bookstore requires you to buy the book FROM THEM in order to get it signed. I've asked for this to happen at as few booksellers as possible, but each store has the final call. Why would they do this? Well, a lot of stores have to bring in extra staff (or even rent extra space) in order to handle an enormous event like this. In the past, they've spent this money and then had everyone bring in books they bought from Amazon to get signed. It makes them very bitter, as they lose money after all the work they put into holding an event. (In one famous case I heard of, a small bookstore held a signing where they spent hundreds on staff, promotion, and cookies, only to have over a hundred people, out of the hundred and twenty who came, bring in books they bought from Amazon.) As I said, I've requested that the signings all be open to anyone. However, I can see the bookstores' point. Please be respectful and realize one of the reasons that places like Amazon can give you the books so cheaply is that they don't have to maintain or pay rent on expensive storefronts in retail areas. Support your local booksellers; it's because of them that we can have signing events. If possible, I'd ask that you go and buy the book from the store where you're planning to see me. You can buy it early and keep the receipt. If you bring the receipt with you to the signing, that's as good as buying the book at the signing. Generally, at ticketed events, as long as you buy any hardcover book, they will let you get your other books signed. So, for instance, you could buy THE ALLOY OF LAW and then get paperbacks of the Mistborn trilogy and THE WAY OF KINGS or my two Wheel of Time books signed. And even if you don't buy your copy of ALLOY at the signing, it's nice to support the store hosting me by buying at least one book (by any author) while you're there. I don't know which events will be ticketed—other than Murder By the Book, which is confirmed. I'm slowly gathering information on this. There probably won't be many that are, but I wanted to lay the groundwork just in case. I'll add more information to the events page as it trickles in. Finally, there may be a cap on the number of books I will personalize for you at a time. I'll sign all your books, but personalizations can take a while, so if there's a large crowd, to keep the line moving I may only personalize three books at a time. However, it's just fine if you want to go to the end of the line again and wait to get three more books personalized. I WILL sign paperbacks. I WILL NOT sign books I did not write—e.g. the Wheel of Time books before THE GATHERING STORM. Yes, people have asked; often about one per signing. ITEM #2: RELEASE EVENTS I will be doing two special signings in conjunction with the book's release on November 8th. Like with my previous books, I will be numbering copies in conjunction with these release events. The two events are: the BYU Bookstore midnight release and the Sam Weller's mail order event. (Details below.) What does it mean to get a numbered copy? Well, just what it sounds like. If you get a book from one of the two release events, I'll number your copy. I intend to give out as many numbers as there are people who participate in those events (unless we run out of books). In a way, these numbers are less about being limited editions and more about getting a special add-on, an indication that you made it to one of the initial events. This is something I started doing for fun with my first book, and I had originally intended to limit the numbers to the first fifty people who got to me. However, I found that I felt bad stopping numbering if someone went to all the trouble to come to the release party, so I shifted to doing it this way. I generally stagger my numbering so that lower numbers can be picked up from each signing. Each number is unique. I will rotate by 100s. (So, 1–100 are at BYU, 101–200 are at Sam Weller's, 201–300 are at BYU, etc.) Each event will have its own rules regarding how you get your number and which number you get. Read on for info. ITEM #3: BYU MIDNIGHT RELEASE At 12:00 a.m. on November 8th, I will be doing the world's first signing for THE ALLOY OF LAW. Numbers 1–100 will be given out at this signing. (Though everyone who comes will get a numbered copy unless they run out of books.) Number twelve will be reserved for Dan Wells because of a funky thing he and I do. (He has number one of my first book, number two of my second, and so forth. I have number one of his first book and so forth.) Other than that, all numbers will be given out in the ORDER YOU ARRIVE TO WAIT IN LINE IN. Let me make this clear. It doesn't matter how early you preorder. Numbers will be given out based on line order. Details follow. The line will start forming at the northwest entrance here: In past years, people have started lining up even a few days ahead of time, so the BYU Bookstore is going to be handing out numbers to people in line to take some of the pressure off you. They will start doing this MONDAY MORNING at 8:00 a.m. Book #1 will be reserved for the first person in this line at eight. #2 to the second. And so forth. (With the exception listed above.) You can only buy ONE copy of the book in the low numbers per person waiting. (In other words, if you are there in line, you can't buy #1–10 by yourself. You have to have ten people if you want to do that.) If you need multiple copies but don't have multiple people, that's fine—we'll give you #1 and then some higher numbers. This restriction goes for anyone in the first hundred spots. Here are some more details from the bookstore: Numbered tickets will be given out on Monday, November 7th, beginning at 8:00 a.m. Numbered tickets will be given out in the ORDER YOU ARRIVE TO WAIT IN LINE. You may hold a place in line for NO MORE THAN ONE PERSON for NO MORE THAN ONE HOUR. Each person in line will only receive ONE ticket for ONE numbered book. ONE numbered book per ONE numbered ticket per person. The number on your ticket will be written on the back of your hand with a permanent marker. You will be asked to prepay for your book to receive a numbered ticket. If you have already prepaid, bring your receipt or confirmation number to claim your number, but that doesn't affect which number you receive. Please check in at the guest table to make sure your paperwork is in order for the book distribution. Once you have paid for your book and received your numbered ticket, you are free to leave until right before 11:30 p.m., BUT: The northwest entrance of the BYU Bookstore will be opened at 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. (exact time is yet to be determined) when the Alloy of Law of Midnight Release Party will begin. There may be games, a drawing for prizes, and treats! Beginning at 11:30 p.m., fans will be asked to line up, in order, according the numbered ticket that they received. If you are not in your numbered location by 11:45 p.m. you will be asked to get in the back of the line. You will still need to present the numbered ticket to get the correct numbered book. Once you have received your numbered book you are free to get into a separate line to have it personalized by Brandon. Brandon will personalize up to three books per trip through the line. If you would like to have him personalize more than three, you are free to get back in line. The bookstore has asked me to get there a bit early so I can be finished signing and numbering all the books by 9:00 or so. Once I am done, they will let everyone in and we'll have a meet & greet where you can talk to me, ask me your burning questions, take pictures, etc. (The idea is that this will help the personalization line move more quickly after midnight.) There will also be things like trivia contests going on during this time. Around 10:30 I will do a reading and/or a general Q&A, and at around 11:15 there may be a prize drawing. (At least judging by last year. I'm not totally sure what they have planned this year.) Then at 11:30 they want everyone to line up again in preparation for midnight, as explained above. I will personalize as long as I can. The past couple of years' events have finished up by 3:00 a.m. Since all of the books will be pre-signed and numbered, everyone will get a numbered edition if they come. However, since I'm local, you can always just come, pick up a book, and leave—then get it personalized at some other signing when things aren't so crazy. This will probably be a busy event, but it should be very easy to just come, get a pre-signed/numbered book, then buy it and take off without waiting in line after midnight. Now, here's the important part. It's hard for stores to judge how many copies to order for this sort of event, and I'm worried that BYU might not order enough. THEY MIGHT RUN OUT. Therefore, they are letting you preorder to be assured you get a book. If you don't preorder, it's first come first served. If a lot of people preorder, they will get in more books to make sure everyone who ordered early is covered. So, for this event, I strongly encourage you to call and buy your book ahead of time. It will save you money and will make things easier for us. Let me say one more time, however, that you do not get your number based on when you preorder. You get it based on when you arrive in line, starting at 8:00 a.m. Preordering just guarantees that you get a copy, not that you get a low number. Still—please, please preorder soon so they can be sure to have enough books for the event. Details: BYU Bookstore, Provo, UT 12:00 a.m. November 8th (Monday night/Tuesday morning) (book released) ~9:00 p.m. November 7th (doors open) 8:00 a.m. November 7th (numbers distributed) Preorder by calling (800) 253-2578. You'll need to bring your receipt or confirmation number to the midnight release and stand in line with everyone else. ITEM #4: SAM WELLER'S BY MAIL I realize that not everyone can make it to one of these events. It's unfair if you live in Germany but want a numbered copy. Therefore, I've started doing virtual booksignings with Sam Weller's—a wonderful independent bookseller in Salt Lake City that has been a supporter of my books since I was a nobody—alongside the standard signings I do there. I will be going in to Sam Weller's after the middle of October to sign, number, and personalize 500 copies. Sam Weller's will then ship them out; they will try to time the shipping so the book arrives at your door on the 8th. However, they're not allowed to deliver before that date, so they can't cut things too close and some books may arrive after the 8th. If that's the case, though, they'll try to keep the delay as short as possible. International orders will be shipped first, since those have the longest transit time. THE ALLOY OF LAW isn't as thick as last year's books, so that keeps the shipping price lower. The book itself will also be discounted to $19.99. Shipping will be $5.50 in-country, $12 to Mexico and Canada, and $13.75 to other international destinations. (Note that Sam Weller's cannot track packages internationally. They've tried.) If your order is shipped inside Utah, or if you pick it up in the store, there will also be sales tax. SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT MULTIPLE BOOKS: When the book is released, Sam Weller's will be in the middle of moving to a new location. So for this year, they need to keep things as simple as possible. That means that they won't ship out any signed book other than THE ALLOY OF LAW, and you can get a maximum of three copies. (If you want another signed book of mine, you can always use my store.) When you call Sam Weller's, please be certain to tell them (even if they don't ask) specifically how you want the book personalized. If you don't tell them specifically, they will have it signed but not personalized. Simply telling them your name is not enough. You have to tell them "I want it personalized to John" (for example). If you don't want it personalized, tell them "Signature Only" just in case. Details: Sam Weller's Bookstore Order by phone or by email: Phone: (801) 328-2586 or (800) 333-7269 Email: [email protected] Preorder deadline: October 14th Note: You may pay by credit card (over the phone) or PayPal (via email) only.Thank you all for reading, and I hope to sign a book for you at one of the tour events. Let me apologize in advance for how sloppy my signature is, though. Source

This week's Writing Excuses podcast episode covers making descriptions serve multiple purposes. This helps keep your descriptive passages from being dry, among other things. Give it a listen. I haven't mentioned it here yet, but Tor.com put up chapter five of my new Mistborn book, THE ALLOY OF LAW. There will be one more preview chapter after this; I think it will go up before the end of the month. Then there's a bit of a gap before the book comes out in November, but Tor.com has other surprises planned. The WARBREAKER annotations are finished, and the only annotations I have written now are for THE ALLOY OF LAW. I hardly think you would appreciate me putting those annotations up before the book is even out. In a perfect world I would put up annotations for THE WAY OF KINGS, but I didn't write any. I usually write annotations for a novel while going through its copyedit, but last year I was so busy writing TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT that I had my assistant Peter Ahlstrom handle the copyedit for THE WAY OF KINGS instead. And now I'm busy writing A MEMORY OF LIGHT. I may yet write annotations for THE WAY OF KINGS, possibly when I finish AMoL and am gearing up to write the second Stormlight book, but that won't be until November or so. So I need to start putting up a different kind of bonus content for a while, and that means dipping back into something I've already written. For now, that's MYTHWALKER, which in some ways is a very early version of WARBREAKER. I gave my thoughts on it back in the first chapter annotation for WARBREAKER: Back around the year 2000 or 2001 I started writing a book called Mythwalker. It was an epic fantasy novel, an attempt to go back to basics in the genre. I'd tried several genre-busting epics (one of which was Elantris) that focused on heroes who weren't quite the standards of the genre. I avoided peasant boys, questing knights, or mysterious wizards. Instead I wrote books about a man thrown into a leper colony, or an evil missionary, or things like that. I didn't sell any of those books. (At least, not at first.) I was feeling discouraged, so I decided to write a book about a more standard fantasy character. A peasant boy who couldn't do anything right, and who got caught up in something larger than himself and inherited an extremely powerful magic. It was boring. I just couldn't write it. I ended up stopping about halfway through—it's the only book of mine that I never finished writing. It sits on my hard drive, not even spellchecked, I think, half finished like a skyscraper whose builder ran out of funds. One of the great things about Mythwalker, however, was one of the subplots—about a pair of cousins named Siri and Vivenna. They switched places because of a mix-up, and the wrong one ended up marrying the emperor. My alpha readers really connected with this storyline. After I abandoned the project, I thought about what was successful about that aspect of the novel. In the end, I decided it was just the characters. They worked. This is odd because, in a way, they were archetypes themselves. The story of the two princesses, along with the peasant/royalty swap, is an age-old fairy tale archetype. This is where I'd drawn the inspiration from for these two cousins. One wasn't trained in the way of the nobility; she was a distant cousin and poor by comparison. The other was heir to her house and very important. I guess the idea of forcing them to switch places struck some very distinct chords in my readers. Eventually, I decided that I wanted to tell their story, and they became the focus of a budding book in my mind. I made them sisters and got rid of the "accidental switch" plotline. (Originally, one had been sent by mistake, but they looked enough alike that nobody noticed. Siri kept quiet about it for reasons I can't quite remember.) I took a few steps away from the fairy tale origins, but tried to preserve the aspects of their characters and identities that had worked so well with readers. I'm not sure why using one archetype worked and the other didn't. Maybe it was because the peasant boy story is so overtold in fantasy, and I just didn't feel I could bring anything new to it. (At least not in that novel.) The two princesses concept isn't used nearly as often. Or maybe it was just that with Siri and Vivenna I did what you're supposed to—no matter what your inspiration, if you make the characters live and breathe, they will come alive on the page for the reader. Harry Potter is a very basic fantasy archetype—even a cliché—but those books are wonderful. You have to do new things. I think that fantasy needs a lot more originality. However, not every aspect of the story needs to be completely new. Blend the familiar and the strange—the new and the archetypal. Sometimes it's best to rely on the work that has come before. Sometimes you need to cast it aside. I guess one of the big tricks to becoming a published author is learning when to do which. (If that sort of authorial analysis interests you, be sure to read the rest of the annotations. I also annotated ELANTRIS and the Mistborn trilogy. Check them out.) At this point I'm still too busy finishing up the Wheel of Time to comment much on these chapters, so my assistant will fill in when he feels there is something to say. He has a few comments at the end of the MYTHWALKER prologue that went up today. But as I said, the book is boring. I know it's possible to pull off writing yet another book about a peasant boy coming of age, but it didn't work for me. I wish I had something better to put up for you than a bad book like this, but this is what I've got. The good books that I want you to read are MISTBORN and WARBREAKER. But I still put up WARBREAKER's draft chapters for you to see, warts and all. I think looking at the early seeds of an idea and comparing them to the eventual successful novel can be valuable to the aspiring writer. Please don't read MYTHWALKER expecting it to be any good. If you read it at all, do it to see the origins of the much better novels that I eventually wrote. Source

Next week I'll be at Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention, in Reno. My schedule is below, with a few comments from me interspersed. Worldcon is a great place to meet industry pros, so I'm looking forward to seeing many of you there. Highlights for me this year include the live Writing Excuses recording and the Girl Genius Ball on Thursday and the Hugo Awards ceremony on Saturday. WEDNESDAY Wed 1:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m., A01+6 (RSCC)Panel: Tourists: Creating Characters and Stories in an Existing WorldPaul Cornell (m), A. C. Crispin, Brandon Sanderson, Dean Wesley Smith, Melinda M. SnodgrassWriters discuss working within the confines of an already existing world. They’ll discuss how they create something unique and original within the space of something already established and loved. What are the issues at work in that situation? What freedoms exist there that don’t exist when creating a completely original work? THURSDAY 11:00 a.m.–12:00 noon, A03 (RSCC)Reading: Brandon Sanderson 3:00 p.m–4:00 p.m., A09 (RSCC)Panel: Creating GodsBrenda W. Clough, Brandon Sanderson (m), Carrie VaughnHow does an author introduce superbeings into a work without pushing the human characters into insignificance? Gods are often gigantic projections of human characteristics. Can they serve other functions as well? Why are polytheistic settings so common in fantasy? What sources are authors using, and why? Why do readers find them so compelling? 5:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m., D05 (RSCC)Writing Excuses PodcastMary Robinette Kowal, Jordan Sanderson, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Dan WellsThe Hugo-nominated crew from Writing Excuses will record one of their podcasts—a series of interviews with well-known writers. Recorded in front of a live audience, with guests such as Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant and Patrick Rothfuss. </p>8:00 p.m.–1:00 a.m., C03 (RSCC)Girl Genius BallKaja Foglio, Phil Foglio, James Myers (m), Cathleen Myers (m)A Grand Ball Hosted by Phil & Kaja Foglio, featuring Victorian Steampunk & Gaslamp Fantasy Dancing in the European Style. Music by one of the top Celtic fusion bands, Avalon Rising. Victorian, Victorian Steampunk, or modern evening dress is admired, but not required. Mad Scientists, Minions, Clanks, Constructs and Innocent Villagers are all welcome, as are visitors from other Dimensions and Realities. Neither dance experience nor partners are required. All set dances will be taught and called, and frequent partner changing is encouraged in the spirit of true scientific inquiry. Pemberly and I plan to attend in costume; I'll be an Elendel Allomancer. My assistant Peter and his wife will also be there, and Peter will be dressed as Allomancer Jak from the Elendel Daily broadsheet. (By the way, Peter will also be on two panels himself; you can see any program participant's schedule here.) FRIDAY 11:00 a.m.–12:00 noon, A16 (RSCC)Panel: Lighting the Fire for ReadingDavid-Glenn Anderson, James Bacon, John DeChancie, Ellen Klages, Brandon Sanderson (m)</i>How do you get your kid/young relative/neighbor to read? Why not an SF/F book? What about comics and graphic novels? Where do you start? Start with your own kids—read to them! Authors, editors, and educators discuss genre books to give to the next generation. 2:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m., Hall 2 Autographs (RSCC)Autographing: Brandon Sanderson 5:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m., D03 (RSCC)Panel: Post-Modern Fantasy, Epic and OtherwiseN. K. Jemisin, William Lexner, Nick Mamatas, Peadar Ó Guilín (m), Brandon Sanderson, Brent WeeksThere’s been considerable discussion of Fantasy, Fantastika, and Post-Modernism. What is this about, and why is it interesting for those who read, review, or critique present day fantasy? SATURDAY 12:00 noon–1:00 p.m., KK1 (RSCC)Kaffeeklatsch with Brandon Sanderson. This will be a small group of 9 people sitting around talking with me; signing up ahead of time is required. You can sign up at the Information desk on Friday from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., but you may want to line up a little earlier than that. If you've had an opportunity like this before or see me regularly, please give someone else a chance! Drinks will not be provided this year (but you can bring your own). Also, if you're a writer looking to break in, kaffeeklatsches or literary beers with editors are extremely valuable, so consider signing up for those. Don't ever try to pitch anything at a kaffeeklatsch unless the editor asks you to, but just let them talk about what they love. Later on you can mention it in a cover letter: "When you mentioned _____ at the kaffeeklatsch in Reno, that made me think my novel would be right up your alley." 8:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m., Tuscany Ballroom (Peppermill)Hugo Awards CeremonyThe Hugo Awards, nominated and voted for by your fellow Worldcon members, are presented for excellence in SF and fantasy for 2010. Masters of Ceremonies Jay Lake and Ken Scholes will introduce the presenters: our Guests of Honor and previous Hugo Award winners (Robert Silverberg, George R.R. Martin, Nancy Kress, Stu Shiffman, and others). The ceremony will also include the Big Heart Award, and a video highlighting Japanese Fandom including the Seiun Awards for the best SF published in Japan. SUNDAY 1:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m., A01+6 (RSCC)Panel: Twenty Years of the Wheel of TimeWilliam Lexner, Jennifer Liang (m), Brandon Sanderson, Linda TaglieriThe Wheel of Time series is perhaps the most influential epic fantasy after Tolkien. The panel looks back at the series and its importance to the genre. Source

On this week's Writing Excuses podcast episode, Mary, Dan, Howard, and I talk about Orson Scott Card's M.I.C.E. Quotient. That stands for Milieu, Idea, Character, and Event, and it is a valuable tool for improving your writing. The final WARBREAKER annotation is up. Next week my assistant Peter will start putting up draft chapters of MYTHWALKER, the unfinished book that I lifted Siri and Vivenna from, among other things. These will go in the deleted scenes section of the library filed under Warbreaker. I need to warn you though that the book is really bad. I abandoned it with good reason. But sharing it with you is in line with my philosophy on the whole WARBREAKER experiment, as I explain it here. All the old drafts are still available here, so you can see how things progress from clunky, malformed initial idea to polished final execution and one of Library Journal's five best science fiction and fantasy novels of 2009. There's also a new collection of Twitter posts up. Source

Just a quick reminder that I'll be signing in West Jordan tonight. I'm going to be driving back from Idaho, so if I end up a tiny bit late that will be why. But I shouldn't be late. I'll try to bring some of the Elendel Daily broadsheets to give out, and maybe two or three THE ALLOY OF LAW advance reading copies. (Whether this happens depends on logistical concerns, since I don't have them with me here in Idaho.) Peter Orullian, author of The Unremembered, will also be signing at the same time. So if you want to get signed books from two different epic fantasy writers, this is a good opportunity. If you haven't heard about this signing before, you probably haven't been watching my events calendar. Also make sure to drop me a note mentioning the city where you live if you want me to send you email reminders of signings near you. Date: 08.04.11 Time: 7:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m.Place: Barnes & Noble Booksellers – Jordan LandingAddress: 7157 Plaza Center Drive West Jordan, UT 84084Phone: (801) 282-1324Type: Signing Source