Brandon Sanderson's Blog, page 43

Elantris leatherbound update + Calamity audio & Updates

So I have some bad news and some good news: We have officially sold out of the first printing of the Elantris leatherbound edition. But don’t lose hope; we should have a second printing shipped early in the new year. I will announce any updates as they come.

I heard some more good news this morning: The Calamity audiobook is now available for preorder via Audible in the US and also Audible UK. The book comes out in February in all formats! Check the regional tabs in the upper right of my blog post for your local links.

While perusing reddit, I found out one of my readers, speeddemon974, had developed a pretty cool Twitter bot to automatically post whenever a change is made to percentage bar that you can see in the upper-right corner of my website. Check it out here.

For those who didn’t see my tweet last week, Tor.com released the preview of Chapter Three for The Bands of Mourning. These chapters do include spoilers for Shadows of Self, so be warned.

There are a few Writing Excuses episodes to talk about this week, starting with the episode from a few weeks ago: How to Hand-Sell Your Manuscript to Agents and Editors, with Michael Underwood and Marco Palmieri. The two of them took the stage with Howard and Dan at GenCon Indy 2015 to discuss this topic. Marco Palmieri is a senior editor at Tor, and Michael Underwood is an author and also the North American sales and marketing manager for Angry Robot Books. We begin with a list of the things to avoid doing, including the classic mistakes like chasing editors into restrooms, but we quickly move on to where you get started, and what your task list is going to look like. We cover resources like Literary Marketplace, Locus, and Publishers Lunch, and the not-so-secret-anymore #MSWL hashtag.

In last week’s episode of Writing Excuses, Q&A on Showing Your Work, with Daniel José Older, he joined us for a Q&A on showing your work around. Here are the questions, which were submitted by attendees at the Out of Excuses workshop:

What’s the best way to meet editors and agents at conventions?
How do you write a good query letter?
What do you mention as credentials in your query letter?
You didn’t cover self publishing at all this month. Self publishing is legit, right?
Can you submit the same work to more than one agent or editor at a time?
Can you re-submit a revised work to an agent who previously rejected the piece?

In this week’s episode of Writing Excuses, Moving On, with Ellen Kushner, she joins us for the final episode of Season 10. Per the title, it’s time to be done; but what does “done” mean? How do you go about declaring a project finished when you know there are still things wrong with it? How do you clear your head, your workspace, and your life for the next thing you need to do?

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread posts for Words of Radiance, we rejoined Shallan as she attempted to outwit the Ghostbloods, and had an unnerving encounter with a (presumed) Herald. This week, in Chapter 64, she hides from Amaram while Kaladin hides from depression. It’s a cheerful sort of chapter.

My assistant Adam is working on updating the Twitter post archive for December.

State of the Sanderson 2015

Introduction

We are approaching Koloss Head-Munching Day—the day of the year that happens, by utter coincidence, to coincide with my birthday. (December 19th.) I’m turning forty this year, which isn’t as dramatic for me as it might be for some others. From the way I act, people have been joking for the last twenty years that I was “born forty.” I guess I’m finally just catching up.

It’s been almost twenty years since I finished my first book. I can remember joking with my friends in college (whom you might know as Lieutenant Conrad from Mistborn and Drehy from Bridge Four) that by forty, we were all going to be rich and famous.

The thing is, I always intended to make that dream happen. Not necessarily for the “rich” part or the “famous” part, neither of which interested me a great deal. I just knew that without a solid, stable writing career, I’d never be able to make the Cosmere happen.

Perhaps that’s where this whole “born forty” thing came from in the first place. I basically spent my twenties writing, slavishly trying to figure out how to craft stories. Friends would tell me to relax, but I couldn’t, not when these dreams of mine were so big. It should be mentioned that despite what our society would like to believe, hard work doesn’t always equate with success. For me, luck played a huge part in my being able to sit here and type this out for you.

Still, here I am, and I honestly can’t imagine things having gone better. People often seem bemused by my productivity; when I get together with fellow authors, they sometimes jokingly refer to me as “the adult” in our group. I get this—for a lot of them, writing is more of an instinctual process. Sitting and talking about the business side of things, or their goals for writing, flies in the face of the almost accidental way they’ve approached their careers. And it works for them; they create great books I’m always excited to read.

However, sometimes there’s also this sense—from fans, from the community, from us authors in general—that whispers that being productive isn’t a good thing. It’s like society feels artists should naturally try to hide from deadlines, structure, or being aware of what we do and why we do it. As if, because art is supposed to be painful, we shouldn’t enjoy doing our work—and should need to be forced into it.

If there’s one thing that has surprised me over the last ten years, it’s this strangeness that surrounds my enjoyment of my job, and the way my own psychology interfaces with storytelling. People thank me for being productive, when I don’t consider myself particularly fast as a writer—I’m just consistent. Fans worry that I will burn out, or that secretly I’m some kind of cabal of writers working together. I enjoy the jokes, but there’s really no secret. I just get excited by all of this. I have a chance to create something incredible, something that will touch people’s lives. In some cases, that touch is light—I just give a person a few moments to relax amid the tempest of life. In other cases, stories touch people on a deep and meaningful level. I’ll happily take either scenario.

Almost thirty years ago now, I encountered something remarkable in the books I read. Something meaningful that I couldn’t describe, a new perspective, new emotions. I knew then that I had to learn to do what those writers were doing. Now that I have the chance to reach people the same way, I’m not going to squander it.

I guess this is all a prelude to a warning. I’m working on a lot of projects. Many of these tie together in this epic master plan of mine, the thirty-six-(or more)-book cycle that will be the Cosmere. Even those books that aren’t part of the Cosmere are here to challenge me in some way, to push me and my stories, to explore concepts that have fascinated me for years.

These last ten years have been incredible. I thank you, and I thank God, for this crazy opportunity I’ve been given. I don’t intend to slow down.

I’m not embarrassed to be “the adult.” Even if I’ve only just hit the right age for it officially.

My Year

2015 was a bit slower than last year was, as I spent a lot of time editing.

January–May: Calamity

The bulk of my writing time this year was spent on Calamity, which I’d been putting off last year in order to write the two new Mistborn novels. Looking back at my records, I finished the last chapters in early May.

This was interrupted, on occasion, for revisions of various books—and for the Firefight tour, along with a trip to Sharjah in the UAE. Busy times. So busy, in fact, that it’s taken me all the rest of the year to give full feedback to the writers who took my class. I managed to grade their papers in May, somehow, but promised them each a personalized look at their final story submissions, which I’m only now finishing up.

June–August: Stormlight Three

I did squeeze in some writing time for Stormlight in here, though not a whole ton of it got done. I had to stop for revisions, touring, and travel through most of September and October.

September–October: Revisions and a Secret Project

Traveling so much made it difficult to do Stormlight 3 writing, which requires a lot of time investment. So between revisions, I managed to finish a project I’ve been working on for about a decade now. (Yes, a decade.) You’ll see this soon. It’s a novella.

November–December: Stormlight Three Again

I plan to keep on this one until I finish it, as I’ll talk about below. However, if you want to read a little about my writing time in November, you can read this other blog post.

Big List of Things I’m Working On

Now, let’s get to it. Each year around this time, I take stock of my many projects. You can read last year’s post here, to compare and see how things have been progressing. (And to see how well I did in my plans for 2015.)

Thank you in advance for continuing to give me the freedom I feel I need to jump between different worlds. While I know it’s frustrating sometimes that I’m not working on your world, the greater plans I have for all this require me to approach things in a certain way. Both for my health as a writer, and to bring about some large-scale awesomeness.

I’m going to go down the list of projects I’m working on, starting with what I consider my “main” projects. These are getting the focus of my time right now. From there, I’ll move on to things that I’m still toying with doing sometime soon.

Then it gets a little more speculative.

Enjoy!

Main Book Projects
The Stormlight Archive

Stormlight is going very well. I’m working on Book Three, which I’m calling Oathbringer. (That is likely at this point to be the final title.) This is my main project, and I won’t be writing any new prose on other stories until it is done. You can follow the progress bars!

Release dates for this book are still in flux. Even if I finish it early next year, it could be a year or more until you see the book. The amount of editing, continuity, and art that these books require creates a need for a long lead time. I’ve told people that Fall 2016 is the earliest they’d see it, but my team has been warning me that’s not realistic. We’ll see, but for now you should assume on a 2017 release.

What does this mean for my once optimistic “one Stormlight book every eighteen months” goal? The more I work on these books, the more uncertain I am about that. The outline for Oathbringer, for example, took about a year for me to nail down. Considering how many moving pieces there are in these books, it’s tough to judge how long they will take to write. And while there are books I can force through if some things aren’t right, I can’t afford to do that on this series.

I’ll continue to write Stormlight books at as quick a pace as is reasonable. I consider this my main project for the next decade or two, and am dedicated to it. But each book, as I’ve said before, is plotted as four books in one. So even if I release them once every three years, you’re getting four “books” in three years.

We’ll see. I’ll try to pick up the pace. In the meantime, I’ll try to get some short stories in the world out for you. (More on this later.)

Status: Book Three in Progress

The Reckoners

The last book of the trilogy is complete, revised, and turned in. It’s coming out in February, and is—indeed—the ending.

I have not closed the door on doing more in the world, but it will not be for a while. If I do return, it will be like a Mistborn return, where the focus of the books shifts in some way and I create a new series. I like leaving endings as endings, even if the world and some of the characters do progress.

I’m extremely pleased with the last book. I look forward to having you all read it, and I am grateful to you all for supporting this series. There were voices that told me something outside the Cosmere would never sell as well as something inside—but this series is neck-and-neck in popularity with Stormlight and Mistborn. It’s a relief, and very gratifying, to see that people are willing to follow me on different kinds of journeys.

Status: Completed!

Mistborn

And speaking of Mistborn, how is Scadrial doing? My current plan is still to have the Mistborn books stretch throughout my career, establishing stories in different eras of time with different sets of characters.

The original pitch was for three trilogies. The Wax and Wayne books expanded this to four series. (You can imagine Wax and Wayne as series 1.5, if you want.) This means there will still be a contemporary trilogy, and a science fiction trilogy, in the future.

I have one more book to do in the Wax and Wayne series, and I’m planning to write it sometime between Stormlight books three and four. Until then, Wax and Wayne three—The Bands of Mourning—comes out in January!

Status: Era 1.5 book three done; book four coming soonish

Secondary Book Projects
Elantris

I do still intend Elantris sequels. (And the enthusiasm for the leatherbound edition proves that people are still interested in the world.) Right now, I have them scheduled to be slotted in once Wax and Wayne is done. We’ll take a break from Scadrial at that point, go back to Sel and do some Elantris books, then hop back to the 1980s era Mistborn series.

This slots an Elantris sequel into the spot between Stormlight books 4 & 5. It is coming, just more slowly than I’d once hoped.

Status: Delayed, but coming before too long

The Rithmatist

Book two of The Rithmatist (called The Aztlanian) is another thing on my schedule that I need to get to soon. If you didn’t read last year’s update on the book, I tried writing this—and found I didn’t have a strong enough grasp on the historical period and culture to do it justice. So I stopped and did a bunch of research, but by the time I finished, I needed to be back to work on my main projects.

Therefore, I’ve slotted this in after Stormlight 3 as well. Hopefully it won’t get pushed back again. Usually I try to do about equal in pages to a Stormlight book between Stormlight books. That gives me room for three smaller books. Right now plans are for these three books to be The Lost Metal (Wax and Wayne 4), The Atzlanian, and a new project. (See below.)

Status: Delayed, but maybe coming soon

Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians

Here’s another one we’ve been able to clear off my list. With Tor republishing the first four books of this series throughout the spring next year (starting in February), I am at last able to get the fifth book (and the final one Alcatraz will write) out to you fans.

The new art for these editions has me very excited. For once I think we have covers that indicate to readers the tone of the books. Book Five should be out in the summer, though I believe Tor is scheduling it for August instead of June. It is written, and I’m doing final edits on it right now. (In the evenings after I feel I’ve hit my wordcount goal for Stormlight.)

If you haven’t read these books, give them a browse once they come out again in the spring. They’re very fun, but very different from my other books. They’re insane, fourth-wall-breaking comedies, so they’re certainly not for everyone. They have been an excellent way for me to blow off steam and refresh myself between longer, more ponderous books.

Status: Book Five Completed!

White Sand

For those who don’t know, this is a book I wrote around the same time as Elantris—but which I didn’t ever sell. Once I was published, I considered releasing it, but felt it needed a solid revision before I could do so.

Well, that revision was delayed time and time again, until the point where I decided I probably would need to just rewrite the book from scratch if I ever did release it. An interesting opportunity came along a few years later, however, and that changed my perspective. You see, the comic book company Dynamite Entertainment had come asking if I had anything, perhaps an unpublished novel, that would make a good graphic novel.

This seemed the perfect opportunity to make use of White Sand. I didn’t have time to do revisions, but another writer could take my words and adapt them (really, what the book needed was a trim anyway) into a graphic edition. We said yes, and started into the process.

I’ve said before, Dynamite has been excellent to work with. Rik Hoskin, the person hired to do the adaptation, is a fantastic writer—and he really managed to preserve the core of my story, using my own dialogue and descriptions, while cutting out all the chaff. The artist Julius Gopez, the colorist Ross Campbell, the letterer Marshall Dillon, and the editor Rich Young have all done a fabulous great job.

The novel is big (no surprise), so it’s going to be released as three graphic novels. The first of these is almost ready, and we’re expecting a release sometime next year. The fine folks at Dynamite have given me permission to post some teaser pages here, so here you go! The first look at White Sand, the graphic novel:

Tertiary Book Projects

Now we move on to some of the projects that are itching at me, and I do intend to do someday—but which are delayed indefinitely until I figure out the right time to do them.

Warbreaker

While some characters from Nalthis have made appearances in other books, I still don’t have a specific timeframe for when I’ll go back and write the second Warbreaker book. (Titled Nightblood for the time being.)

I know a lot of people really want this book, and I intend to do it, but I have to find time for the Elantris sequels first. So you’re unlikely to see it until Elantris is finished. (Sorry.)

Status: On Hiatus

Legion

I owe people another (and final) Legion novella, and I plan to do this as well. Novellas aren’t as big a commitment as novels, obviously—that’s part of why I do them. But I don’t know when I’ll squeeze this in, with all the things I’m doing right now. It could happen literally at any time—but I don’t expect it in 2017, to be honest.

Status: On Short Hiatus

Cosmere Short Fiction Collection

For a while I’ve been thinking that I need to collect all the various pieces of Cosmere short fiction and put them into a single collection, for those who don’t like hunting around for them.

This might be the year to do that. If Stormlight doesn’t make it into 2016, we might be able to get a collection (with a Stormlight novella) out by the end of the year instead. Something to tide you over, at least, until book three comes out.

If we do this, my goal will be to have it include every piece of short fiction from every source up until now and bind it together in a handsome hardcover that will look nice on the shelf next to your other books.

This will give you multiple options for the short fiction, if you want to collect it. We will continue to do our little two-novella collections (like the Perfect State and Shadows for Silence double that we just released.) So if you’d prefer to collect those in the smaller size, I anticipate everything eventually being released in that format too. However, if you’d like one thick tome, every ten years or so you should see a bigger collection.

More on this as it develops. Right now I’m toying with the title Arcanum Unbound, and would love to include a star chart of all the cosmere worlds in it.

Projects in Development

These are projects you might have heard of, but for which no solid evidence of them ever being released is out there. On occasion I might do readings from them, and I might tinker with them—but I don’t have much specific to tell you about release dates.

New YA Series

I am developing a new YA series to be released after the Reckoners with the same publisher. I can’t say much about it right now, though we will probably do some announcements regarding it during the Calamity tour. If all goes well, the first book of this trilogy will be the third shorter novel I write between Stormlight 3 and 4.

I always need to have something new to be working on, if only in the back of my mind, to help prevent burnout. I’m excited about this series right now, and actively working on the outline. But I won’t be digging into writing it until next summer or fall, depending on when Stormlight Three is done. So I don’t expect a release for a while yet.

Status: Outlining

Adamant

Some of you have heard readings from, or seen excerpts of, this epic science fiction series that I’ve been working on. I finished one novella in the world, and am pleased with it, but I have no immediate plans for writing the rest. Perhaps I’ll feel different once Stormlight is done and I’m satisfied with it. (It’s always possible I’ll need a break between projects where I can do something very different.) We shall see. I have no plans to release this in 2016.

Status: On Hiatus

Dark One

A perennial favorite on the State of the Sanderson is this YA series about a boy who discovers he’s the Dark One, a figure from prophecy fated to destroy the world. My outlines are looking okay for this one, but it doesn’t feel like the right time to do it. I pitched it to my editors at Random House along with the new YA series above, and we all agreed the other project was a better follow-up to the Reckoners.

Dark One is bound to get done someday. That day isn’t now.

Status: No Projected Start Date

Death by Pizza

I had a nice breakthrough on this book recently, making the main character far more interesting. (For those who don’t know, this is about a necromancer who owns a pizza joint.) However, this remains a very out-of-left-field project for me, and something I did mostly for fun. (I have a nearly complete draft of the entire book.)

I don’t anticipate doing this anytime soon, though I did briefly consider it as an alternative to the new YA series listed above. It’s still just too strange for me to want to do right now. Perhaps eventually.

Status: On Hiatus

Dragonsteel/Liar of Partinel

This is Hoid’s origin story, a prequel to the entire Cosmere. The time is not right. It’s going to happen eventually, but I feel that I shouldn’t dig into this until Stormlight is completely done. (All ten books.) So don’t hold your breath on this one.

Status: Loooong way off

Silence Divine

This story (which is the one about a world where catching a disease grants you magical talents) is another perennial State of the Sanderson participant.

I did some work on a short story in this world a while back, and liked it, but didn’t have time to finish. (This is the thing I did readings from during the Words of Radiance tour, I believe.) It’s set in the cosmere, and I have plans to someday write this—but I’m not sure when I’ll do it. Could be a long way off still.

Status: On Hiatus

Soulburner

This is an outline I developed last year during a lull—a kind of space-opera-fantasy-hybrid like Dune or Star Wars. The setting is awesome, one of my favorites. Very distinctive.

I don’t have a story for it yet though. I’m just putting it on here so that you know that wacky things are still bouncing around in my head, looking for a way out. It’s not something I’m going to release anytime soon, but if I ever do, you can point here and say, “Hey, I saw this first!”

Status: No Projected Start Date

Aether of Night

Another of the books I wrote around the time of Elantris, and another one that’s not half bad—but still in need of a solid revision.

I’ll likely do something with it someday. In the meantime, if you want to read it, you can send us an email to ask for a copy. (Consider it a thank you for getting this far in this huge post.) I’d ask that you’d consider signing up for my mailing list when you do email me, as that’s how I get the word out on when I’m doing signings and when I have cool new things to release. But that’s not required in order to get the book.

Projected Novel Release Schedule

There’s a good chance I won’t hold to this, but just so you know, here’s how I view my upcoming novel release schedule (not including any novellas or short stories that may or may not appear during moments when I need to do something new):

January 2016: Wax and Wayne 3

February 2016: Reckoners 3 (final book)

June 2016: Alcatraz 5

Sometime 2017: Stormlight 3

Sometime 2017: Rithmatist 2

Spring 2018: New YA project 1

Fall 2018: Wax and Wayne 4 (final book)

Sometime 2019: Stormlight 4

Sometime 2019: New YA project 2

Sometime 2020: Elantris 2

Sometime 2020 New YA project 3 (final book)

Sometime 2021: Stormlight 5 (ending of first arc)

Sometime 2022: Elantris 3 (final book)

Conclusion

Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you that the list was big.

It’s been quite the year. Lots of travel, lots of meeting people and signing books. My tenth year doing this. I’ve spent the last decade kind of looking at myself as one of the new kids in the fantasy market, but I suppose it’s time to admit that I’ve become—albeit not a member of the old guard—one of the genre’s more established names.

As always, you make this possible. Here’s looking to another excellent year. Merry Christmas, and a Happy Koloss Head-Munching Day, to you all.

Brandon Sanderson

December 2015

Elantris Leatherbound (Official)

It’s here, and it’s beautiful! This is the official launch, so feel free to retweet, blog, or otherwise share this post with people you know who are fans of Elantris!

I made a little preview post last week, because of shipping deadlines, but here is the official (with pictures) post about the Elantris Leatherbound edition! Below you’ll find shots of what makes this book so great.

Colored endpapers.

Full color inserts showing off some of my favorite covers from around the world.

New maps.

Beautiful leather binding with an Aon stamped in silver on the cover.

The entire book is two-tone, with a soft blue highlights for things like the Aons and chapter headings.

All the content of the Tenth Anniversary Edition is included in this book, and each book will be signed and numbered! (As long as they’re ordered before the end of the year. After that, if supplies last, we’ll sell the book signed without numbers.)

In addition, Michael Whelan let us include the painting of his, Passage: Verge, that inspired me to start working on Elantris many, many years ago. (And prints are available in his store, which you should totally buy. This is my all-time favorite of his paintings.)

So, where can you get this? Glad you asked! It’s available on my store and in select, awesome bookstores around the country. Please note that in my store, we also have plenty of cool things for the holidays. Most of my books signed in hardcover, this year’s con exclusive being sold for the first time to the general public, jewelry, T-shirts, stickers, a new Stormlight map poster, etc. So check it out!

For my store, we have the following order deadlines.

Note that these are the deadlines given us by the shipping companies; it’s on them to actually get you the books on time. But do let us know if you order before the deadline, but then something happens and it looks like yours isn’t going to make it on time. (I don’t think this happened a single time last year, so we should be okay.)

You can absolutely order the Elantris leatherbound (personalized or not) after the deadlines above, and we’ll do what we can to get it to you on time. We just want you to know the cutoffs the shipping companies gave us.

Now, you all should know by now that I love bookstores. Particularly the stores that invited me in to do signings early in my career, when certain other stores weren’t interested in having me. These are stores with excellent staff who work hard and are passionate about books. That’s why I sent them something special to sell. They have the low numbers. A lot of people like getting numbers under 100, and so I sent numbers 1–50 to these stores, split among them.

Please consider supporting these stores, especially if you live near them or have ever gone to a signing at their location. They are awesome! Some might even have the books going on the shelves today. (If not, they should be there very soon.)

University Book Store, Seattle
One of my favorite stores ever, the person to talk to is Duane Wilkins (though he should have prepped everyone for this). He can be found in the Children’s Department or the Science Fiction department.
Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego
No need to have a specific contact here—they’ll be on the ball and know what’s up. They also tend to carry a lot of first editions of my books, many signed, so you might want to ask them for anything else they might have in stock of mine. (Or from other writers you love.)
Borderlands Books, San Francisco
This was actually the first store outside of Utah to invite me specifically to do a signing for them. They are incredible, and will take good care of you if you go in or call wanting one of these. Note that for sponsors of the store, I’ve sent two leatherbound copies for them to give away free at an upcoming sponsor party.
Powell’s Books, Portland area
I’m not as sure for this one how you get the books, as they took a large order to be split among their several locations. I’m sure you’ll be able to find them, as Powell’s is great—but if you have trouble, you can have them look up the book by its ISBN, which is 978-0-7653-8807-0 (a different book ID number from the regular 10th anniversary).
Murder by the Book, Houston
They ordered the most copies of anyone on this list, so you should be able to find them here! In addition, they have a web form where you can order the book. Be sure to give them so love. They’re an excellent community store who has invited me in to sign time and time again.
BYU Store, Provo
My alma mater. If you can’t find the books, talk to Tammy. She’s the one who ordered them from us, and is really on the ball. But they should be right in the SF section, I would bet. I’ll also make sure they have some in stock for my release party for The Bands of Mourning next month.

Okay, now for a quick FAQ.

Q: Will these sell out?

A: The first printing looks likely to sell out fairly soon. We sold about a quarter of our stock last week, and will probably sell another quarter of it this week. We will reprint this (I plan to keep it in the store for at least a year, maybe forever, if it is popular enough), but shipping takes a good month or so to get new stock to us. You shouldn’t have trouble getting one later—but if you do want one for the holidays, you might want to jump on it soon.

Q: What about your other books?

A: If this is popular (and it looks like it will be), then we will do the other books. Our goal will be to have them sell at around the same price, and to make them match on the bookshelf, so you can have an entire Cosmere sequence of leatherbound books.

The goal will be to proceed with the 10th anniversary idea, doing Mistborn: The Final Empire next year, The Well of Ascension the year after, and The Hero of Ages the year after that. From there, Warbreaker would be next. That’s all I’m willing to commit to now, but we would eventually like to do Stormlight in this treatment. (Assuming people like these editions we’re doing.)

Q: Will you do your short stories in leatherbound?

A: The awesome Subterranean Press has done leatherbounds of some. (And is doing one for Perfect State and Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, the two novellas from this year.) So I have no plans to do other leatherbound editions. However, do be aware that it’s likely I’ll do an anthology of all the Cosmere shorts in the near future. We might end up doing that too.

Q: Ah! I can’t afford $100! What do I do?

A: Don’t worry. The tenth anniversary edition is available in regular hardcover, in trade paperback, or in ebook (with the color maps!) right now. If an expensive collector’s edition isn’t something that interests you, you can get all of the same material that way.

As always, thanks for reading. Happy holidays! May you spend some vacation time spent curled up with a good book.

Brandon

National Novel Writing Month Recap

Hey, all! I’ve got some interesting tidbits about Stormlight Three to share, relating to what I’ve been writing this month.

Before we get to that, though, I do want to draw your attention to the items we have in the store. In addition to the Elantris leatherbound, as usual we’ve got most of my books for sale, signed and personalized, shipped to your door. This includes the brand new hardcover double of the novellas Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell and Perfect State, which we just put up. (We also have both Legion books, with new covers.) We also have a couple of new T-shirts, Mistborn and Stormlight lanyards, a new Roshar map poster, Bridge 4 jewelry, and all the usual fun stuff. Have a look! And do please note the holiday shipping deadlines!

It’s rare that I get to fully participate in National Novel Writing Month. (The month of November, for the uninitiated, is a kind of challenge month for writers. During November, participants try to complete fifty thousand words of material, which is roughly 200 pages.)

The true spirit of NaNoWriMo is to start a brand new story on the first of November, and write on it all month. The life of a professional novelist doesn’t lend itself well to this kind of schedule—you often have revisions due at inopportune times, or have to be on tour in November, etc. However, when I can, I like to participate in spirit by trying to write the 50k words—even if I don’t begin a new project at the start of the month.

This was a year where I was able to do this, as I had minimal touring this month (only two events) and no big revisions due. (Though my editor is still waiting on Alcatraz 5, which I’ll need to get to ASAP, now that the month is over.) It was a fun year to do NaNo though, as it was very nostalgic for me.

You see, thirteen years ago in 2002, I was doing NaNo as an unpublished author with many of my writer friends. We posted our wordcounts on a forum we all frequented, making a friendly competition of it. The book I was writing? The original draft of The Way of Kings.

One of the images from that time, burned into the back of my brain, is sitting in the guest room at my mother’s house on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, which fell very late in the month that year. That Saturday was the last day of NaNo—and I hit a frenzy of activity. While I hadn’t started a new project during the month (even then, I didn’t really need challenges like NaNo to get me moving on my writing) I was near the end of one.

I finished The Way of Kings that night, writing more in one day by far than I’d ever written up to that point—and more than I’ve ever written since. My wordcount ended up being so high that I severely underreported it on the forums, to not make others feel bad. (Which reminds me of the time when in high school, during the very early days of image manipulation before most people knew it was possible, I edited my report card to wipe away all my A grades and make them much lower—all to trick my mother.)

That time in 2002 was a special time for me, one I’ve talked about before. Writing The Way of Kings was a relieving experience for me, as I was writing exactly what I wanted rather than worrying about what the market wanted to read. I still feel it’s no coincidence that a year later I got my first book deal. After writing Kings, I was ready.

Well, this year I’ve been working on Oathbringer, the third volume of the Stormlight Archive. It was both nostalgic and exciting to be at my mother’s house again, thirteen years later, working with the same characters as a much more mature writer (and in a much more mature version of the world).

This month, I posted my wordcounts on Twitter and Facebook, rather than on a forum with my friends. I managed to get the 50,000 words done, though I didn’t have any crazy wordcount days. This may come as a surprise to some of you, but I’m actually much slower now than I was all those years ago. There is a lot more to watch for in these books now, a lot more continuity now that I’m actually releasing them for the public. The writing just doesn’t go as fast as it did when I was more carefree. That said, here are some quick facts about NaNo this year for me:

Writing 50k words in a month is still hard (in fact, it’s harder) as a professional. There are a lot of demands on my time these days aside from writing. Having a family is certainly one—but so is touring, answering emails, doing marketing meetings, talking to my agent, and signing huge stacks of books to fill orders from the store. (Not that I mind.)
Quality doesn’t suffer from adding a few extra hours of writing a day. I’d already known this, as there are times in the past when I’ve written longer than I do now. But it’s still nice to know. In fact, I’m more fond of many of the scenes I wrote this month than I am of many I wrote earlier. Which leads me to my next point.
Being very focused on one project, eliminating distractions, can really help me figure out tough scenes. This month reminded me of the days when I was first working on the Wheel of Time books—where I had a single-minded focus, and was determined to nail the project and do right by the fans. There’s a certain excitement to times like this, and I fully intend to keep this focus on Stormlight 3 as I roll forward. (I don’t have anything else I have to do, other than the revisions on Alcatraz, until Stormlight 3 is done.)
I really love these characters. There’s a reason I have been writing about Dalinar since I was fifteen—there’s something about him, a voice I need to share. It’s great to be back on Roshar, and I’m having a blast.

So where do we stand as this month ends? Well, I got my 50k, but the book is still sitting at only 137k words. That’s roughly 1/3 of the way completed—assuming it’s around the length of Words of Radiance, which I’m hoping will be the case. (I’m not sure how much longer Tor will let me go.) There’s still a great deal of work to do on this book.

I can’t really project a release date. Peter and Isaac have been very clear with me that we need more time for editing, revision, continuity, and art than we had on Words of Radiance. We’ll make a call on release dates sometime around when I turn the book in next spring or summer. It could be out next year, but Peter and Isaac want you all to be ready for a 2017 release instead. We’ll know more once I actually finish.

As for other projects, I’ll do my yearly State of the Sanderson post sometime around my birthday (otherwise known as Koloss Head-Munching Day) late December. That will catch you up on everything I’m doing.

Either way, I hope that those of you doing NaNo benefited from seeing my daily wordcount posts. Writers make up a grand (if somewhat neurotic) community, and I’m proud to be a card-carrying member.

Brandon

BONUS: I recently dug up the notes I took when submitting the first chapters of The Way of Kings to my graduate writing class while getting my Master’s. I’ll transcribe them here, though be warned, they were reading an earlier version of the book from the one that got released. In this draft, the opening chapter was a battlefield seen through Dalinar’s eyes, showing him and Adolin using their shards to defeat an enemy army.

CHAPTER ONE

Compound words. They complained that there are a lot of them. (NOTE: Yup, I still use a lot of these! I think all the talk of Shardblades and Shardplate overwhelmed them.)
They had a major gripe with the fact that there were a ton of characters to keep track of. It got really hard to keep track of who was who. They complained that I would introduce a character for a paragraph, then he would drop out. (NOTE: They weren’t ready for the “epic” part of “epic fantasy” I guess. To be fair, this original draft of KINGS did have too many viewpoint characters—but that was a problem for later in the book. These early scenes weren’t nearly as bad as the published version for keeping track of names. I’d love to see what the class would say about THIS version, with four different main characters in the first four scenes.)
They liked it when I gave give a character a philosophy. Wanted to see that a little more. Also, they wanted more physical descriptions—they wanted to reconnect with characters through their physical characteristics. Wanted a physical quirk for everyone.
They suggested I consider writing a piece with an adviser to the king. They think that the way I write would work well with a character like that. (NOTE: I have no idea what’s going on here. I’m assuming they were confused, and were suggesting a new character to be viewpoint to the sequence. This is why it’s best not to offer solutions to writers, only outline problems. I suspect that adding a new character, one who is not participating in the action but standing around describing everything, would not improve the book in the way the class thought.)
They would like more of the big monsters. Chulls. (NOTE: Chulls were much larger in this draft, capable of pulling huge siege equipment. And really, who wouldn’t want to see more of that?)

CHAPTER TWO

They liked this better, because I didn’t summarize as much and it had more action. They still wanted more visual details.
Steve wanted to know more about the ‘nifty gadgets.’ Wanted me to flesh the ideas out. (NOTE: I think this references Shardblades and Shardplate, like the next note.)
They ask: Where did the armor and swords come from? (NOTE: This is a good sign. It doesn’t mean I should answer it here; it just means they were curious, which is what I want.)
Fighting styles were very cool—wondered if I could do more with it. They wonder if I could spent more time on the battle—a couple more chapters.
Horse stuff. Hair on the hooves, black, stout forehead.


Give physical characteristics.
Use more senses.
More graspable feel of the world’s battle tactics and philosophies.


Blood in mouth from biting tongue.

There you go! A glimpse back in time to before I’d sold any books. It was always an interesting experience submitting my work to these graduate courses, as nobody really knew what to do with me. Professors would tell me not to write fantasy, and I would anyway, telling them to fail me if they thought it was bad. Students would have critique sessions where for one piece, they’d discuss some short and obtuse poem—then move on to this enormous (and maybe obtuse) epic fantasy novel.

Don’t get me wrong—I loved being in the program, and felt it was well worth my time. But the critique sessions could sometimes go interesting places.

Elantris Leatherbound Update

We’ve had quite the time getting the Elantris leatherbound in stock! It was supposed to be here a week and a half ago—but the shipping company lost the crates. (Yes, lost them.)

As of this morning, they’ve been found, and we’ve been promised that they’re going to arrive tomorrow. We’ll be doing a real “official launch” blog post about these books, with pictures, on Monday next week. So if you’re on the fence, then please wait until then. This is a high price item at $100, and I don’t want anyone ordering without feeling sure it’s what they want.

We have to act a little quickly, however, as our Christmas deadline for people overseas to order personalized books was yesterday. We don’t want you to miss out, so just for the leatherbound and just for overseas customers, we’re going to extend that deadline.

We’re putting the Elantris leatherbound up on the store right now—but we intend this to be for people overseas. Don’t worry; we have plenty, and won’t sell out before you get a chance to order, even if you live in the States or Canada. And if you really want to order now, you can—we’ll just wait to send yours until after we have the overseas books sent out on Monday.

Anyway, details for those overseas: If you order a leatherbound edition to be shipped outside of the US or Canada, and you put in an order by 11:59 MST (Mountain Standard Time) Thursday night, I will still personalize your copy. As long as you order by 11:59 MST Monday night without a personalization, it should arrive by Christmas. (Though, as our experience lately proves, we can’t guarantee that it won’t get lost or something.)

You are welcome to order after that, and even ask for a personalization. It’s just much less likely to get to you by Christmas. (If, for some reason, your book doesn’t look like it will arrive in time, drop me an email and I’ll write up an apology for the person, along with a thank-you, that you can print off and box up instead.)

Numbering Info:

I will be numbering all the copies of this edition ordered before New Year’s Day. After that, the copies will just be signed. I’ll be randomizing the numbers, which is the only fair way to do it (I feel) since I’m forcing the US/Canadian customers to wait in line behind those overseas. So your chance of getting a low number doesn’t go up if you order fast. (With one exception. See below.)

For those of you in the States, I have a special treat. A number of stores have agreed to carry this book in stock, and we’re going to be sending them copies ASAP. (Hopefully they’ll be in the stores by Monday.) If you live local to one of these stores, I would ask you to consider supporting them, rather than ordering from me. These are stores who have long supported me as a writer, and I want to make sure they have a good experience with the leatherbound.

So, I’ll be sending numbers 1–50 to bookstores on the list, in a randomized order. If getting a low number is very important to you, then make sure to look at these stores first:

University Book Store, Seattle (Contact Duane Wilkins for details)

Mysterious Galaxy, San Diego

Borderlands Books, San Francisco

Powell’s Books, Portland area

Murder by the Book, Houston

BYU Store, Provo

Thanks! Hope this all makes sense. Sorry it’s a little crazy.

The Rithmatist ebook sale + Updates

Awesome news everyone! The Rithmatist ebook is on sale (at least in the U.S.) TODAY ONLY at $2.99 on most platforms (Nook users get a slightly better deal at $1.99). It’s being discounted in a few other regions as well (check your local region for pricing using the links to the right). For those of you who have enjoyed my other books, but have been on the fence about trying out this one, it’s a great opportunity to check this book out.

I enjoyed seeing many of my readers (over 500) at my most recent signing in Idaho Falls. I know that the holiday season is a tough time to try and squeeze in attending a signing, and I appreciate everyone who took the time to come say hi. For those who couldn’t come, don’t worry, reading my books is the greatest compliment you can give me. But if you wanted a signed book, I left a huge stack of books at the Barnes & Noble in the Grand Teton Mall. The wonderful staff (Kaaren and Melissa Thank you!) have told me that they won’t last long.

In this week’s episode of Writing Excuses, Project in Depth, The Devil’s Only Friend, We’ll be discussing the latest John Cleaver book from Dan Wells with author, podcaster, and unrepentant bacon-lover Dan Wells! If you haven’t read it, and you want to be surprised by it, stop listening and grab a copy now! If you have read it, we apologize on Dan’s behalf for any emotional scarring you may have experienced. Now give the episode a listen, and learn how Dan managed to do that to you.

My assistant Adam is working on updating the Twitter post archive for November.

Annotation The Alloy of Law Chapter Eighteen

Here is the second batch of annotations for The Alloy of Law. As with all of the other annotations here on the site, each annotation contains spoilers for the current chapter. Spoilers for chapters after the current one are hidden by spoiler tags. We recommend you read the book before reading the annotations!

Vindication

I didn’t really intend Ranette to become a kind of “Q” figure, providing Wax with a cool gun. I had written into the outline (once I added her) that he got a new Sterrion from her.

However, I wanted some more quirk to her character. Beyond that, I felt that one of the things this book should do is show the ways that Allomancy—and dealing with Allomancers—has entered the common conciousness of the world. It makes sense to build guns to deal with them, just as now we build guns specifically to deal with armor, or specific situations a combatant might find themselves in.

I felt that I wanted to integrate the Metallic Arts more into real society. You may notice, for instance, that I worked hard in this book to work Allomancy and metallurgy into the way that people speak. The metaphors they use, the way they see the world. A person who is up to no good is a “bad alloy.” That sort of thing.

It would be possible to overdo this, of course, but I feel—looking back objectively at the original trilogy—that I didn’t do enough of it. That’s okay, because in the orginal trilogy Allomancy was something that you kept hidden, and the common people didn’t know much about it. Feruchemy was an underground art, and only the Inquisitors knew of Hemalurgy.

Now however, at least two of the three are very common in society. I wanted to account for that. Building Vindication, the special Allomancer’s gun, was a way to integrate the two halves of this book—the historical western and the fantasy.

Ironspine

In the summer of 2010, my wife and I visited New York. My editor, Moshe, is a life-long New Yorker and a repository of details and facts. (I’ve found this is a common thing in a lot of editors; they tend to be the type to pay attention to details.) The result of this was him towing us all over the city, telling us little tidbits about this building or that one.

Well, one of the stories he told us was about the early days of skyscrapers, and how people would race to build the highest building. He talked about some of the famous rivalries; I think that’s the first time I began to envision a cool Allomantic fight taking place in the heights of an unfinished skyscraper. Five months or so later, I wrote this scene.

Miles as a God

I had to be careful about the Miles “Are we not gods?” monologue, as I feel this is a theme that’s come up a little too often in the Mistborn books. The Lord Ruler had it, Kelsier had it to an extent, and Zane flirted with it. We ran into it with Spook as well.

I like that it’s a running theme—this would be a real concern, I feel. In our world, we talk about one race or gender being superior, but in the end there’s really no scientific basis for it. Yes, people are different, but I find no solid argument to one group being better than another. That hasn’t stopped a lot of people from trying to prove it.

Well, what if there were something like Allomancy? It’s the only major magic system I’ve done that is gentic. And in this world, you have the only solid argument of “Well, one gentic line is obviously superior to another.” That creates for some troubling things to think about, I should hope. It goes further than skaa and nobility, as talked about in the first trilogy.

If you were Miles—who, by genetics, was practically invincible and immortal—I think it would be very hard to not to start thinking of yourself in this way. So it keeps popping up as a theme. (Eventually I’ll really dig into it, rather than flirting with it as I have in most of the books.)

[Assistant Peter’s note: This is the last of the annotations that Brandon has written for The Alloy of Law. It’s remotely possible that he will find time to get back to writing annotations in the future, but for now he’s focusing his writing time on the fiction itself.]

Annotation The Alloy of Law Chapter Seventeen

Here is the second batch of annotations for The Alloy of Law. As with all of the other annotations here on the site, each annotation contains spoilers for the current chapter. Spoilers for chapters after the current one are hidden by spoiler tags. We recommend you read the book before reading the annotations!

The Mists Form

In writing this book, I had to nail down a few worldbuilding issues I’d been contemplating even before the first trilogy ended. What would happen to the mists, for instance, once Sazed took over and became Harmony?

The mists, obviously, are a big part of the series. It didn’t make sense—either narratively or worldbuilding-wise—to lose them completely. However, they’d been created as an effect of Preservation trying to use his essence to fight against Ruin’s destruction of the world. So . . . wouldn’t they go away?

I decided that Sazed would still send them. They’re part of the nature of the world now. To acknowledge what had happened, they wouldn’t come every night any longer. But they would come. They were changed in that they are no longer simply the raw power of Preservation; they’re now a part of Harmony—so they no longer pull away from Hemalurgy in the same way as they used to. They still have the odd effect of being able to power Allomancy. (And Feruchemy as well—if one knows how to do it.)

The mists are, in part, the raw power of creation. And when one is favored of Harmony, the mists have a greater effect than they might otherwise have. We’ll see more of this later.

The Church of the Survivor

Another aspect of worldbuilding had to do with building all of the religions. Kelsier is still around, by the way. I’ll tell you eventually what he’s been up to, but if you look through the original trilogy you’ll find hints of it.

I wanted the religions of the world to all be grounded in fact, but all have different motivations. I wanted them to be realistic, however, in that they don’t always get along. Harmony may be there watching, but I didn’t think he’d interfere too much. That comes from holding two opposed powers; he’s got more of a Zen outlook on things.

The train cars get swapped

I hope this will surprise a few people, but it’s one of the more obvious twists I’ve had in my books. It’s pretty well foreshadowed, and it’s pretty much the only way this could play out, so I think the “inevitable” part of this twist is more powerful than the “surprising” part of it. That’s all right for me, as I decided to give Miles viewpoints, which meant the “How is he doing it?” side of the mystery became less important to the story than his motivations.

That’s part of what, to me, makes this book more of a “Brandon” book than a regular detective story. As I said in a previous annotation, I hope for this to be a fun page-turner, but it’s still one of my books—which means that the worldbuilding and the characters are more important to me than the amazing mystery. (Which may not be all that amazing.)

Annotation The Alloy of Law Chapter Sixteen

Here is the second batch of annotations for The Alloy of Law. As with all of the other annotations here on the site, each annotation contains spoilers for the current chapter. Spoilers for chapters after the current one are hidden by spoiler tags. We recommend you read the book before reading the annotations!

Wayne pretends to be an old woman

These Wayne scenes really did turn out well. It was very fun to write him putting on new personalities and mindsets as he put on new hats.

In a lot of ways, this is a much more standard book than I’ve released before. My biggest worry is that people go into it expecting it to be something other than what it is.

And what is it? A fun adventure story, told as a detective narrative. I’ve said that I consider this book more pulp than others I’ve done. What does that mean? Well, I just wanted to write a fun page-turner that is a quick read from start to finish, and is enjoyable along the way. It makes me wonder if people will call this unambitious. Perhaps that’s just the nervous side of me, the artist that worries about what people will say about him, no matter what.

Still, I think it’s a legitimate complaint—on the surface. I don’t expect readers to understand what’s going on in the writer’s mind. It’s not their job. I’ve delivered one type of writing in the past, so they expect I will continue to do so.

The thing is, there are lots of different forms of storytelling, and I want to learn how to do many of them. A pulp adventure story doesn’t seem less ambitious to me than a deep epic like The Way of Kings. It’s not about ambition. Yes, The Alloy of Law is far less deep than Kings—but then Alloy is trying to do different things. Sometimes, an artist wants to paint a deep, realistic painting on a canvas. And sometimes he wants to do a politcal cartoon sketch. They achieve different functions, but they’re both forms of art. I want to be able to do both.

In a way, The Alloy of Law is a reaction to what I’d been doing before. I realize not everyone is going to like the more plodding pace of something like Kings, with lots of characters doing lots of different things. I suspect people will complain that working on The Wheel of Time has influenced me. (I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but some will.)

Certainly I have been influenced. At least in one style of my writing. However, The Alloy of Law is—in part—for those who liked the pacing and action of Mistborn and were less interested in the epic scope.

I simply hope people read the book, accept it for what it is, and enjoy it.

Annotation The Alloy of Law Chapter Fifteen

Here is the second batch of annotations for The Alloy of Law. As with all of the other annotations here on the site, each annotation contains spoilers for the current chapter. Spoilers for chapters after the current one are hidden by spoiler tags. We recommend you read the book before reading the annotations!

Miles talks with Suit, gets two minders, then burns gold to see two versions of himself

One curiosity of dealing only with Mistings, rather than full Mistborn, was what to do with the less powerful metals. Certainly a Pewterarm or a Tineye can be useful. We’ve seen them in the series do plenty of interesting things.

But what about a person who can burn only gold? I think there’s just one place in the entire first trilogy where someone does it, the time Vin burns it in the first book. (I may have put a second time in; I don’t recall.) Gold, as a power, was placed into the schematics to give a clue as to what the Eleveth Metal was. Beyond that, I wanted some of the powers of Allomancy to be more metaphysical, more thoughtful, and less about combat.

I’d already decided that Miles would be a Gold Compounder, capable of the Lord Ruler’s healing. That meant he had to be a gold Misting. What would one do, with this power? Ignore it? Was there a way to use it? His nature as a gold Misting is a large part of why Miles is such a thoughtful, introspective person. He is not a good man, but he is a self-reflecting one.

There’s more going on here, of course. Pay attention to the name he mentions: Trell. This is one of the gods from the ancient religions Sazed talked about. You might think that the spikes in Miles will let Sazed influence him directly, and they would—except that Sazed has taken a complete “free will is needed” perspective on life. He won’t let himself take control of people directly unless they’ve “given themselves” to him, as most of the kandra have at this point. Even then, he usually only nudges.

But there is something odd going on with Miles.

Wax and Marasi talk in Ranette’s house

There’s a tiny bit of sexual tension between the two of them. It’s not supposed to be very strong, as Lessie’s death hovers over Wax like a shadow. He’s not really looking for romance, and I didn’t want to push the book too much in that direction.

I’m assuming that people will pick up on Marasi as a romantic interest from the get-go. And, of course, I therefore hope that they find themselves a little bit upended when Wax stubbornly ignores, or resists, the story cues that he’s supposed to be falling for Marasi. Because so far, he’s really not. Though who she is looks good on paper for him, it’s just not right, and he knows it. Sometimes in real life, you put two people together and they start dating. They seem perfect for one another, but for some reason there’s nothing there.

Part of it is the hero worship that Marasi has. He can sense it, and that makes him uncomfortable. He worries that she’s interested in him merely because she has read so much about Wax the lawkeeper. Unfortunately, he’s right. She doesn’t know him. She could fall for the real him—and she’s in the process of doing that—but from his perspective there’s still something wrong with this relationship. Too many things wrong, I should say.

An interesting note here is that my editor took great effort in this scene (for some reason) to shorten “Waxillium” each time it was mentioned to simply “Wax.” I didn’t catch what he’d done until the copyedit. That was utterly wrong, because this is Wax’s viewpoint. And in his head, he now sees himself as Waxillium, and not just Wax. If you never noticed it, read through the book again and pay attention to when he calls himself Waxillium and when he calls himself Wax. It’s done very deliberately. [Assistant Peter’s note: What name other characters use for Wax when talking to or thinking about him is something to pay attention to throughout this series.]