Brandon Sanderson's Blog, page 52

Tweets January 2015

BrandSanderson Fri Jan 02
Firefight tour starts Jan. 5: SLC, SEA, MIA, PDX, SFO, SAN, PHX, IAH, ATL, LEX, PHL, BOS link pic

BrandSanderson Sat Jan 03
Firefight tour stops next week starting on Monday the 5th: Salt Lake! Seattle! Miami! See: link pic

draQeSimba Sat Jan 03
@BrandSanderson will u ever come to The Netherlands?

BrandSanderson Sat Jan 03
@draQeSimba I’ve been once, and would love to return.

barryhutchison Sat Jan 03
The lovely people at Orion Books sent me a hardback copy of Firefight by @BrandSanderson. Be rude not to start it tonight.

BrandSanderson Sat Jan 03
@barryhutchison Enjoy!

BrandSanderson Mon Jan 05
Tor is doing a Goodreads giveaway (US & Canada only) of 10 copies of The Alloy of Law. link

BrandSanderson Mon Jan 05
Utah gets Firefight a day early! Prerelease at 6:00, Jordan Landing B&N. Grab a wristband now. link pic

BrandSanderson Mon Jan 05
Deseret News reviews Firefight. Mostly spoiler-free, but spoils Steelheart. link See me tonight! link

Firefight book tour & io9 post about superhero books

Happy new year! The release of Firefight is next week. I did a post yesterday at io9 talking about writing superhero books that you should check out, and they also announced the dates for the book tour. Full details are on my events page, but a summary is below.

Monday, January 5: Salt Lake City

Tuesday, January 6: Seattle

Wednesday, January 7: Seattle

Thursday, January 8: Miami

Friday, January 16: Portland, OR

Tuesday, January 20: San Diego

Wednesday, January 21: Phoenix

Friday, January 23: Houston

Saturday, January 24: Atlanta (sort of)

Monday, January 26: Lexington, KY

Tuesday, January 27: Philadelphia

Wednesday, January 28: Boston

The Way of Kings ebook giveaway ending + Updates

All, this is your last chance to get The Way of Kings ebook for free from the iBookstore (with a US-linked iTunes account). This deal only goes through December 31st 2014, so you should hurry up and get it here! (If you don’t see The Way of Kings on that list and you are in the US, use this link instead. In other countries you’ll see different books, such as Robin Hobb’s excellent Assassin’s Apprentice if you’re in the UK.)

A new Writing Excuses episode is up, a Capstone to Season 9, where we talk a bit about what we’ve each learned this year and how we have changed as writers in 2014. Hopefully this discussion will bring some insight to how your own writing has developed, and how you might take steps to develop it in the future.

Howard explained the surprising changes that came with a change in his work space
Mary told us how she reached a new understanding of pacing
Brandon talked about how recent time pressures have informed his writing process
Dan learned why he is writing

The time is fast approaching for the release of Firefight next week. We’ve been told the tour will be announced tomorrow, so watch this space.

I have included some photos below of a present that my family had commissioned for me as a birthday/Christmas gift. This handcrafted chest was made by my uncle and now holds all my favorite Magic: The Gathering cards.

Finally, my assistant Adam has updated the Twitter post archive for December.

Legion: Skin Deep free on Audible + Updates

If you haven’t heard yet, Legion: Skin Deep is free on Audible (outisde the UK/Aus/NZ etc.) until Wednesday December, 24th. Use the link to the right.

Firefight‘s release is two weeks away, and Audible has put up an audio preview that you can hear below. Links for preordering are here.

In the latest Writing Excuses episode, Dan, Howard and I talk about writing for nothing more than the fun of it.

Tor.com is continuing their re-read posts for Words of Radiance. Last week Carl Engle-Laird discussed Chapter 22 where we watch a number of threads plot along, then are surprised by an assassin.

My assistant Adam has updated the Twitter post Archive for December.

Here are a few photos from two recent book signings.

Young Mistborn at Idaho Falls book signing.

Mistborn with glass dagger at Orem Library book signing.

Shardblade letter opener from Orem Library book signing.

Two Mistborn at Idaho Falls book signing.

Go Bridge 4!

Baby Kaladin!

Application deadline for my BYU creative writing class is Monday

It’s that time again, so I’m just going to post the same thing I did last year.

Many of you know that I teach a creative writing class at Brigham Young University once per year, Thursday evenings each Winter semester. As an undergraduate I took this class from David Farland when he was teaching it, and it was invaluable to me as a budding writer. When Dave moved on, I took over the class as I feel that it’s important to give back to the community and foster the next generation of great fantasy/science fiction writers.

As you can imagine, it has been a popular class that’s very difficult for students to register for—it often filled up on the first day of registration, and often only graduate students (who get to register earlier than undergraduates) would make it into the class. Starting last year we tried something different that worked well, so we’re continuing that this year. The class is broken into two parts—one class just for the lectures, and another class for the workshopping portion. The lecture class is open enrollment (both classes are only for registered daytime or evening students of Brigham Young University), and the workshopping class is by application only. As of today the lecture class is already full with a long waiting list, but I haven’t yet made any decisions on which applications I will accept for the workshopping class.

The application deadline for the workshopping class is Monday, December 22nd, and I’m mentioning it here in the blog because at this point not all that many applications have been submitted. My assistant Peter is wondering if everyone is waiting until the last minute, or if many prospective students think the competition will be too fierce.

Whatever the case may be, here’s your reminder, all BYU students who like writing fantasy and science fiction: the application deadline is Monday.

State of the Sanderson: December 2014

Introduction

Hello, all! I recently turned in Shadows of Self, the new Wax and Wayne Mistborn novel. (And, well, something else too. More on that below.) In addition, tomorrow is December 19th—known with fondness as “Koloss Head-Munching Day.” Also my birthday. (I’ll be 39.)

This seemed like a good chance to take a step back and give you all a long-form update on what I’ve been doing lately, and where I am looking for the future. I like to be accountable to you, my readers, for what I’m doing. You are the ones supporting me in this, my lifelong dream of being a professional writer.

2014 was an excellent year for me. Words of Radiance has been very well received, and enthusiasm for the Stormlight books is very high. As this series is my baby, it feels awesome to see people getting to know characters like Dalinar and Kaladin, whom I’ve known for decades. At the same time, I’ve been jumping back into teen books again after the Alcatraz books. (Which kind of fizzled back in 2010 or so, though we’re planning a relaunch.)

Having two publishers made for a very challenging tour schedule. I’ve been away from home far more than I want to be, mostly because of the need to add more touring (along with things like school visits and appearances at teacher/librarian conferences) for Steelheart and The Rithmatist.

I’m still struggling to find a balance I like. On one hand, I enjoy visiting you all and going cool places. On the other hand, my real love is writing the books—and I don’t want to get so busy that the stories fall by the wayside. Anyway, the following is an account of my 2014 writing experience for those who are curious.

What I spent 2014 doing
January–March 2014: Firefight

Though I had hoped to have Firefight (The Reckoners 2) done long before January, the touring last year made that impossible. It snuck over into 2014, which is why you’re getting the book in January 2015 instead of the originally scheduled fall of this year. In March, I also did the Words of Radiance tour, which really cut into my writing time.

April 2014: Legion: Skin Deep

In April, once all the chaos was done, I took the time to finish up Legion: Skin Deep (sequel to Legion from a few years back), which I’d been working on during plane flights the year before. If you haven’t checked these two novellas out, you might want to consider it! They’re very fun, though the second book is not yet out in the UK and associated territories such as Australia and New Zealand. (Note that in those territories, Legion 1 and The Emperor’s Soul were released together in a very handsome paperback.)

We will eventually have regular hardcover copies of Legion 2 available. That will probably come sometime in the first half of next year. Our contract with Subterranean Press, who produced the very attractive limited edition hardcovers of Legion 2, says that we’ll wait until their edition sells out before we release a competing one.

May 2014: The Aztlanian (Rithmatist 2)

Next, I dove into research for a sequel to The Rithmatist. This is going to be a tough book to write, as it takes place in a fantastical version of Central and South America, and deals with things from Aztec (Mexica) mythology. (In The Rithmatist, a lot of the geography is shifted around in bizarre ways.)

Dealing with another group’s culture in this way is rife with opportunities for stuffing my foot in my mouth, and so I wanted to be very careful and respectful. This meant spending time devoted exclusively to doing extensive research. I didn’t actually get any writing on the book done, though I read some very excellent history books.

(As an aside, if anyone out there is an expert in the Aztec/Mexica culture—particularly if you yourself are a Native American—I’d love to have your help on this book.)

At the end of the month, I decided I needed to do way more research than a month afforded, so I put the book off for now. I still intend to write it, but I need more time to do it right.

June 2014: Alcatraz

Having spent a month with no writing, I wanted to jump into something fun and quick to refresh me before moving on to my next book. So, I dug out my outline for the Alcatraz series and at long last did a rough draft of the fifth book. These are fast, fast books to write—as I improvise them—but they are very slow to edit.

I finished the book, and am pleased with it, but I have no firm date yet for when I’ll be publishing it. Tor is rereleasing the series starting next year with new covers and extensive interior art. I believe these launch starting about a year from now. (If you want them before then, your best bet for getting them is the UK omnibus of the first four.)

I’ll want to release the fifth one once the series has been rereleased, so maybe summer 2016. If you’ve never read these, they are very different from my other work. They’re bizarre and sarcastic comedies that are self-referential and offer commentary on fantasy as a genre along the way. Those who love them absolutely love them. Those who don’t tend to find them insulting. That dichotomy alone is part of what endears them to me.

July–December 2014: Mistborn

The last half of the year was dedicated to Shadows of Self, the new Mistborn novel. And I have a confession to make.

I also wrote the sequel.

Now, before you start wagging your finger at me for being a robot, there was a really good reason I did what I did. You see, I was having real trouble getting back into Shadows of Self. I had written the first third of it in 2012 between revisions of A Memory of Light. (I was feeling Wheel of Time overload.) However, it can be very hard for me to get back into a book or series after a long time away from it. (This is another issue with the Rithmatist sequel.)

So, jumping into Shadows of Self was slow going, and I found it much easier to go write the sequel to refresh myself on the world and characters. That done, I was able to move back to Shadows of Self and finish it up.

So a week or two back, I turned in two new Wax and Wayne Mistborn novels. They’re titled Shadows of Self and Bands of Mourning, and Tor decided to publish them in quick succession: the first in October 2015, the second in January 2016. So, if you have read the original trilogy but haven’t tried The Alloy of Law yet, you might want to give it a look! From the beginning, I’ve planned Mistborn to be a continuum series, showing off Allomancy in different time periods. I think you’ll find the Wax and Wayne books to be fun, quick reads—and they introduce some very, very big things coming in the Mistborn world.

There will be one more Wax and Wayne (early 1900s-era) Mistborn book. Back after I finished The Alloy of Law, I sat down and plotted out a trilogy with the same characters. The Alloy of Law was more of a happy, improvised accident. The follow-up trilogy is meant to be more intentional. So in the end, we’ll have four total. (The final one is tentatively called The Lost Metal.) From there, I might jump to the second “big” trilogy, which is 1980s tech. Or I might dally a little more in something 1940s-era instead. We’ll see.

Amusingly, doing these two Mistborn books together totaled only about half as much writing as a Stormlight book. Perhaps you can see why it takes even me quite a long time to finish Stormlight novels. (And it’s why you might want to lay off Pat Rothfuss a little. I believe The Wise Man’s Fear was even longer than Words of Radiance.)

Tor did their announcement about these books earlier today. You may now commence wisecracks about me secretly writing extra novels when nobody is looking.

Next Projects

I’ve now begun Calamity, last of the Reckoners series. My goal will be to rough-draft it over the next three months. I have a tour between now and then (for Firefight) and a trip to Taiwan as well, so who knows if I’ll make that deadline. We’ll see.

Once that is done, I will dive into Stormlight 3. I’m still waffling on whether this will be Szeth’s book, Eshonai’s book, or Dalinar’s book. The original outline calls for book 3 to have Szeth’s flashbacks, but I am feeling that another character might match the events better.

I did some exploratory scenes for it this summer, though these may or may not end up in the actual book. I have been tweaking the outline, and am starting to feel very good about it. Writing the book should consume the entire rest of 2015, with a 2016 release. I do plan the Stormlight books to be an every-other-year thing.

Follow along starting next spring as I write the book and post updates on my website. I’ll even try to do some screen capturing with Camtasia as I write, for those who are interested in watching for them.

That wraps up current and finished projects. 2014 was partially about me getting my feet underneath me after finishing The Wheel of Time and going right into Stormlight 2. I’ve caught my breath now, and feel good moving forward.

And, speaking of moving forward, it’s time for a State of the Sanderson tradition—we’re going to play “What about the sequel to this book I love, Brandon!”

Here comes the big list.

The big list of projects I want to do
Elantris sequels

The Emperor’s Soul is now two years old, so it is probably time to get back to Sel and do some more there. We should be releasing a trade paperback of Elantris in the next year or two, with revised (and new) maps and a better Ars Arcanum. (Read: an Ars Arcanum.)

The full sequels will need to be finished before I can do the contemporary (1980s tech) Mistborn novels because of behind-the-scenes Cosmere bits, so I will do my best to find a place to squeeze these in. At the very least, I will write them following the end of Stormlight 5. So, these are distant, but not too distant.

Nightblood (Warbreaker sequel)

This is still on the back burner, but it is coming. Probably after the Elantris sequels. I’ll squeeze it in someplace. I’m very excited about it, but now (while I’m juggling multiple teen series) is not the time.

Dark One

This is a series I’ve talked about for a long, long time about a boy who discovers he’s the “Dark One.” Basically, it’s the classic epic fantasy story told from the eyes of the dude destined to try to destroy the world instead of save it. I’ve made good progress on the setting, which is going to be awesome. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the teen series I do once the Reckoners and the Rithmatist are both done.

As a note for fans, this is a Cosmere story.

Silence Divine (this will be renamed sometime)

I did readings from this on my last tour (you can probably find them on YouTube; it was the Words of Radiance tour). I only have a few pages done, playing with the primary concept. (Diseases grant magical talents for as long as you have the disease—you lose the power when you get over it.) This one has probably been downgraded from full novel to novella, as I feel that something more Emperor’s Soul-esque will do a better job with the themes I want to explore.

Legion 3

Legion 2 is out! Are you tired of me mentioning that yet? I’m sure that someday there will be a third adventure for Stephen and his aspects, but I don’t have an outline or plan yet.

The Lurker (now renamed Adamant)

I’ve finished a novella set in this science fiction world. For those who want more SF from me along the lines of my two novelettes, this should be coming someday. I don’t have time for revisions right now, but I plan to tinker with the story again next year sometime between Stormlight 3 drafts.

White Sand

The graphic novel adaptation of this Cosmere book is coming along very well. The first volume’s script adaptation is finished, and pencils for the first chapter are done. We should have pages to show you before too long. Expect a lot of talk about this on the blog come 2015.

Dragonsteel

Hoid’s backstory series is still going to be one of the last Cosmere sequences I do, so don’t expect this until Stormlight is completely done. (Both sets of five books.)

That’s the list of things people often ask me about. Unsurprisingly, I have other projects in the back of my mind. For example, I have two more Cosmere series that will need to be written before we can get to the third “big” Mistborn trilogy. (The sf one.) But that’s the long, long-term plan.

For now, my goal is to get Calamity and Stormlight 3 finished. As always, I appreciate all of the enthusiasm you show for this crazy thing that I have somehow managed to do with my life. Thank you for sharing my books with others, and for being willing to try the more unusual projects (like Legion) that I do.

I feel humbled to have a great crowd of fans who are willing to put up with my eccentricities as a writer—particularly my desire to not work on just one project, but to have an entire body of varying stories. You guys are awesome. May you have a happy holiday season, and do go munch some heads tomorrow in my name.

Brandon

p.s. If you aren’t on the newsletter mailing list, please consider signing up! In the summer, the newsletter included exclusive looks at some of the Stormlight 3 scenes I was working on. We plan to do more of this sort of thing in the future. As always, if you include your city, we’ll send you notifications when I’m going to be doing signings in the area.

Steelheart ebook sale + Mistborn dice Kickstarter

The release of Firefight is just three weeks away! My book tour should be announced very soon. And for the next few weeks up until the Firefight release, the first book in the Reckoners trilogy, Steelheart, has its ebook on sale for $2.99 in the US and Canada. (Check the country tabs to the right to see what your local price is.) If you haven’t read it (or Mitosis, the $1.99 ebook novelette that goes between the two books), now is a great chance!

There’s also something cool for Mistborn fans that just started this week. Crafty Games is putting out more Mistborn dice (for use with the Mistborn Adventure Game or any other game with dice). They’re normal 6-sided dice, but since each Mistborn metal symbol has a dot in it, the one-dot side of the die is replaced with a metal symbol. To determine quantities and how many different metal symbols to use, Crafty is running a Kickstarter campaign. Since the campaign went live yesterday it has already funded, but the stretch goals add to the number of symbols included. Right now each set of eight dice has four symbols in it, but each goal adds a symbol until they get up to ten dice with ten symbols—with additional campaign-exclusive dice possible after that if the total goes high enough.

The campaign runs for 39 more days. Check it out here.

New Writing Excuses Episode + Updates

In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, From the Page to the Stage, we were lucky enough to have Allison W. Hill and Austin Hill sit down with us to talk about turning A Night of Blacker Darkness, by Dan Wells, into a stage play.

Words of Radiance has been selected for inclusion into the iBookstore Best of 2014 list.

The Legion sequel, Legion: Skin Deep, is available now (except for in the UK and associated territories). Go get it now in all formats!

The Firefight tour should be announced soon. Watch this space for details.

The Twitter archive for December has been updated by my assistant Adam.

Words of Radiance among Audible’s Best of 2014 + Updates

It was a close call this year, but thanks to your voting, Words of Radiance is #1 in Listener Favorites and Fantasy on Audible’s Best of 2014. It’s a great way to follow up 2013′s Listener Favorites win with Steelheart. Thank you!

The Legion sequel, Legion: Skin Deep, was released a couple weeks ago (except for in the UK and associated territories). Go get it now in all formats.

Last week there were two Writing Excuses episodes, a little surprise for you who were wanting an extra dose. Both episodes were recorded at the Out of Excuses Workshop and Retreat in front of a live audience. The first one talked about how to effectively write for readers who are familiar with the genre or story structure in which we’re writing. The second one was a Q&A episode touching on the following questions:

Given the trend toward moral ambiguity, is there still a place for an unquestionably evil character?
Should you publish a first book that isn’t in the style or genre that you’re ultimately interested in?
Is it possible to write epic fantasy with a single POV?
Of all of the myriad talents of the literary agents you work with, what’s the one that makes you stick with your agent?
How do you maintain your writing chops when you’re buried in the research phase of a project?
What are some issues a short story writer should be aware of when tackling a novel?
How do you go about discovery writing characters?
When you build a story, does the foreshadowing go in during the first pass, or in later edits?

In Tor.com’s continuing series of re-read posts for Words of Radiance, Carl Engle-Laird last week discussed chapter 20, where Shallan brought out the best in a ragtag group of misfits who just wanted to make right.

I sent a set of signed copies of The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance to Patrick Rothfuss’s Worldbuilders charity. Anyone who donates $10 or more to the Worldbuilders charity drive has the chance of winning the set or any of the other donated prizes. The drive ends next Monday.

Inside Flipboard did an interview with me on topics ranging from the Wheel of Time to advice for young writers.

The Twitter archive for December has been updated by my assistant Adam.

Tweets December 2014

BrandSanderson Tue Dec 02

Cory Doctorow was on an episode of Writing Excuses. Also, some updates. link

BrandSanderson Thu Dec 04

Altered Perceptions ebook; net proceeds to charity. Has 6 chapters from original Way of Kings link pic

BrandSanderson Fri Dec 05

Missed it yesterday? Altered Perceptions ebook is out now, with 2002-draft Way of Kings chapters. link

BrandSanderson Fri Dec 05

Shelf Awareness is giving away 10 ARCs of Firefight to their newsletter subscribers (it’s free). Worldwide contest. link

BrandSanderson Fri Dec 05

Utah! I’m signing at the Orem Library tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. with a few other authors. link

BrandSanderson Fri Dec 05

Inside Flipboard did an interview with me: link

BrandSanderson Fri Dec 05

For the evening crowd: I’m signing with other authors at the Orem Library tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. link

BrandSanderson Sat Dec 06

Utah, I will be at the Orem library for the next two hours or so doing a signing. Books for sale!