Brandon Sanderson's Blog, page 53
December 5, 2014
Saturday signing at the Orem Library
Just a quick update before the weekend. I’m working on a new State of the Sanderson post talking about various things such as Shadows of Self being finished, but it’s not quite ready. Hopefully next week.
If you missed it yesterday, the Altered Perceptions ebook is out, with deleted scenes from the first draft of The Way of Kings. And as I’ve mentioned recently, the second Legion novella is also out.
Tomorrow I’m signing at the Orem Library. Details are below and on the events page. As always, if you want email reminders of when I’ll be appearing in your city, sign up for my newsletter and tell me what city you live in.
Orem, UT – Holiday Book Sale & Author Extravaganza
Date: Sat, Dec 06, 2014
Time: 11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Place: Orem Library
Address: 58 N State St
Orem, UT 84057
Phone Number: (801) 229-7050
Event Type: Signing
Notes:
I’ll sign any book of mine that you bring. Booksellers from the BYU
Bookstore will also be there with books you can buy. Due to the
nature of the event I doubt I’ll be able to do a reading, but you can
ask questions when you get your books signed.
Here’s what the library says: Featuring celebrated Utah authors such
as Ally Condie, Brandon Mull, Brandon Sanderson, Shannon Hale, Gerald
Lund, and more, this event is the perfect occasion for you to meet
your favorite local authors, purchase signed copies of their latest
books to keep and exchange as Christmas gifts, and find out what
they’re working on now!
December 4, 2014
Chapters from the original draft of The Way of Kings in the Altered Perceptions anthology
Earlier this year I told you about an IndieGoGo project to produce an anthology that would contain chapters from my original 2002 version of The Way of Kings (sometimes called Way of Kings Prime). Well, the anthology is finished, and IndieGoGo backers received their ebook copies a few weeks ago. The hardcovers have also been printed and right now I’m signing the ones that I was supposed to sign. The books will ship out this week and next.
For those of you who weren’t involved in the IndieGoGo campaign, an ebook of the finished Altered Perceptions anthology is now available. You can buy it at the usual ebook stores—links are to the upper right. The ebook sale is being run by Waygate Foundation, a public charity that was founded by prominent Wheel of Time fans, for which I sit on the Board of Directors. Waygate Foundation, in turn, will donate 90% of the net proceeds from the ebook sale to Robison Wells’s chosen charity, Bring Change 2 Mind.
Thirty-one different authors (including Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, Shannon Hale, Larry Correia, Brandon Mull, and Seanan McGuire among many others) came together to make this anthology happen. It contains original stories, deleted scenes, and essays from the contributors about how mental illness has affected their lives and the lives of their loved ones.
I talked more about the concept for the anthology here, and you can read a snippet of my Way of Kings Prime excerpt here. Included in the book are six chapters totaling 31,000 words (or a little shorter than The Emperor’s Soul). In the first, the young spearman whose name I later changed to Kaladin made a choice that was opposite a pivotal choice Kaladin makes in the version of The Way of Kings that was eventually published. The next five chapters chronicle his adjustment to his new way of life, including his training under a certain grumpy swordmaster who you met in Words of Radiance and elsewhere.
I do want to make clear that these chapters are not even close to canon and can’t be considered to be very good. It’s obvious that I made the right choice to shelve this version of The Way of Kings and rewrite it from scratch years later, after I felt my writing skills had improved to the extent that I could do justice to the ambitious project that is the Stormlight Archive. These chapters are meant, like all my other deleted scenes, as a curiosity, a look at what might have been.
More important is the Altered Perceptions anthology’s glimpse at how the lives of so many people, including people I care about deeply, are affected by mental illness. There are some fantastic and heartbreaking essays here, and I hope you read every one.
Altered Perceptions
This anthology contains original stories, deleted scenes, and essays from the contributors about how mental illness has affected their lives and the lives of their loved ones. It contains works from the following authors:
Ally Condie
Annette Lyon
Aprilynne Pike
Brandon Mull
Brandon Sanderson
Bree Despain
Brodi Ashton
Claudia Gray
Dan Wells
Erin Bowman
Howard Tayler
J Scott Savage
Jacqueline Novak
Jennifer Moore
Jessica Day George
John C. Wright
Josi Kilpack
Kiersten White
Larry Correia
Lauren Oliver
Luisa Perkins
Mary Robinette Kowal
Nancy Campbell Allen
Robison Wells
Sandra Tayler
Sara Zarr
Sarah M. Eden
Seanan McGuire
Shannon Hale
Shawn Speakman
SJ Kincaid
Brandon Sanderson’s contribution to the anthology is six chapters from the original 2002 version of The Way of Kings, where Kaladin made a choice opposite the one he makes in the completely rewritten published novel.
Excerpt from The Way of Kings
(2002 draft/Prime)
Note: This is only a brief excerpt from the first of the six chapters (31,000 words) that appear in Altered Perceptions.
Elhokar cursed. “That move exposes our entire central line! Who is in charge back there?”
“My son,” Dalenar said.
“Renarin? The boy couldn’t duel a blind woman.”
“He’s well-practiced at tactics,” Dalenar said stiffly. “If you’d wanted to appoint someone else, you should have done it before you went dashing off to try and get yourself killed.”
Elhokar turned, his eyes dark at the lack of respect.
Be careful, Dalenar warned himself. This is not your brother. Elhokar is a different man. “We should return, your majesty,” Dalenar said, wrestling down his anger. “It is not safe.”
Elhokar waved his hand dismissively at the word ‘safe.’ His honor guard had finally managed to catch up, pushing through a widening gap that was dividing the Prallan army into two separate forces. In the distance, several more Prallan towers were rolling forward into the fray—a final, desperate attempt to turn the battle. However, with the Aleth central line threatened, they could actually make a difference.
Dalenar felt a sudden stab of worry. The battle had nearly been theirs. However, if the Prallans pressed the west, and if those towers held . . .
Renarin, what in the name of the Thoughtgiver are you doing?
The honor guard approached, accompanied by a large group of spearmen and one mounted man. Meridas regarded the corpses and fallen tower with his usual indifference. Dalenar, however, was impressed to see the man approach. Meridas was no Shardbearer—his armor was a simple breastplate of normal steel, and he wore a regular sword at his side. Venturing away from the relative safety of the tower was a brave feat, even if he was accompanied by several hundred soldiers.
“Meridas,” the king said as the councilor bowed differentially. “Good. I need your horse.”
“Your majesty?” the merchant asked with concern as Elhokar dismissed his Blade—the weapon disappearing back into smoke—and clinked forward, waving for the tall merchant to dismount.
“Elhokar . . .” Dalenar said warningly.
The king, however, simply raise a forestalling hand. “I’m just going back to the tower, uncle. I need to find out how much of a mess your son has made of our battle.”
“The scouts discovered an army of Prallans far to the west,” Meridas explained as he dismounted. “I told him to send a messenger for you, but he withdrew the line instead, fearing that we would be flanked.”
Dalenar frowned, finally understanding Meridas’s willingness to enter the field. This wasn’t the loyal vassal braving the battle to seek his king, it was the petulant underling seeking an ear to tell his tale.
“Your majesty,” Dalenar said, stepping forward. “Wait for Aredor to—”
The king mounted Meridas’ horse, then kicked it into a gallop without a word. Dalenar tried to summon his frustration, but it was growing increasingly difficult. He had sworn his life to defend the son of the brother he had loved. Spears he could block, Shardbearers he could duel, but the boy’s own stubbornness made for an impossible battle.
Behind him, several attendants stripped the Shardplate off of the young man Dalenar had killed. He had been no older than Renarin, a boy forced into the role of a man by circumstances and title. Once, hatred and fury had lent Dalenar their power. Now, pity was sapping his strength as steadily as age.
He was so distracted by his unpleasant emotions that it took him a moment to register Aredor’s yell. Dalenar’s head snapped up, turning toward his son, who was leaping atop his horse and summoning his Shardblade.
Dalenar followed his son’s gaze, looking past the frantic honor guard, past the confused Meridas. The king had been unhorsed somehow, and stood, looking dazed, his Shardblade still unsummoned. Above him a mounted figure raised its weapon to strike again. A fourth enemy Shardbearer. Where had he come from?
They were too far away. Aredor couldn’t get to him, and the honor guard had been left behind. Blue-uniformed corpses lay scattered around the two figures—men cut down while Dalenar hadn’t been looking. Other spearmen were running away, or standing stunned. The king . . .
One, solitary spearman in blue suddenly dashed across the rocks and jumped at the unnamed Shardbearer. Only one man.
But it was enough. The spearman jumped up with a heroic bound, tossing aside his spear and grabbing ahold of the enemy Shardbearer’s waist. The weight threw off the surprised Prallan’s strike, and he missed the king. Unbalanced, the Shardbearer reached desperately for his reins, but missed. He tumbled backward, the brave Aleth spearman hanging stubbornly to the man’s waist.
The king recovered his wits, summoning his Shardblade and backing away. Tensets of footmen, realizing their opportunity, jumped for the fallen Shardbearer, spears raised.
Read the rest of the 31,000-word excerpt from the original 2002/Prime draft of The Way of Kings in Altered Perceptions. Vendor links are above.
December 2, 2014
Cory Doctorow on Writing Excuses + Updates
If you missed it last week, the Legion sequel, Legion: Skin Deep, has been released (except for in the UK and associated territories). Go get it now in all formats!
Cory Doctorow joined the Writing Excuses crew at Westercon 67 to talk with us about the Neurobolics of Characters—the techniques and methods writers use to help our readers care about the characters we create.
My assistant Adam has updated my Twitter posts archive for October and November.
The Macmillan audio edition of Words of Radiance, read by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading, made it onto the AudioFile Magazine Best of 2014 list.
Both Steelheart and The Rithmatist were voted onto the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Teens’ Top Ten list, and they’ve posted an interview with me. Check it out here.
November 30, 2014
Tweets November 2014
Bart_Page Sat Nov 01
Looking forward to Legion: Skin Deep by @BrandSanderson on Tuesday, but surprised it is not available as a ebook? #fantasy #books
BrandSanderson Sat Nov 01
@Bart_Page It will be. Maybe not Tuesday, but very soon.
BrandSanderson Mon Nov 03
Holiday deadlines for ordering from the Brandon Sanderson Store. Also, Writing Excuses updates. link
damja28 Mon Nov 03
@BrandSanderson been trying to find answer online and can’t find it. Reading #steelheart now. Is conflux name inspired from the magic set?
BrandSanderson Mon Nov 03
@damja28 I was certainly aware of the set. Inspired might be a stretch. More a fondness for the word.
ThreadDancer37 Wed Nov 05
@BrandSanderson How’s you? Have you ever participated in the NANOWRIMO before going Colossal? Have a BLESSED day! 
(Y)
BrandSanderson Wed Nov 05
@ThreadDancer37 I did do NaNo! Three times before I sold.
BrandSanderson Wed Nov 05
Utah! Just stopped by Barnes and Noble in Sugarhouse and signed all these books and hid stickers inside! pic
BrianTMcClellan Wed Nov 05
@BrandSanderson Hmm, they stock a lot more of your books than they do mine. I wonder why…
BrandSanderson Wed Nov 05
@BrianTMcClellan Yours sell too quickly, obviously.
lamguin Wed Nov 05
@BrandSanderson What’s your protocol for this sort of thing? Do you talk to the manager? Do you just walk in and start writing on books?
BrandSanderson Wed Nov 05
@lamguin Depends on the store. Here I was spotted the moment I walked in.
BrandSanderson Wed Nov 05
Two new signings just added to the calendar: Idaho Falls Barnes & Noble on Nov. 29th & Orem Library on Dec. 6th. link
willfriedle Fri Nov 07
.@BrandSanderson I have to ask again. ANY chance of an animated series in the future? I’ll be Kaladin or Elend…or Guard #3! #justwannaplay
BrandSanderson Fri Nov 07
@willfriedle Some chance! You’d be an awesome Kelsier. Or at least guard #1.
BrandSanderson Fri Nov 07
@willfriedle Also, I am going to get major cred with my 7-year-old when he finds out Bumblebee tweeted me.
jkells Sat Nov 08
@PeterAhlstrom @BrandSanderson still waiting for the Mitosis novella on Kindle Australia. It’s been almost a year 
BrandSanderson Sat Nov 08
@jkells @PeterAhlstrom Blast. Send me an email. We will just send you a copy.
@BrandSanderson @PeterAhlstrom thanks, you’re a legend. I sent you an email from the contact page on your site.
PeterAhlstrom Sun Nov 09
@jkells @BrandSanderson In Australia/UK it comes out November 20th. We don’t actually have an ebook copy in-house.
BrandSanderson Sun Nov 09
@PeterAhlstrom @jkells Just send the .doc. That is fine.
BrandSanderson Mon Nov 10
Here’s Rick Martin’s LEGO version of Words of Radiance, part 3 (includes spoilers): link
BrandSanderson Mon Nov 10
There are 128 photos in this Lego fan art gallery for Words of Radiance part 3. (spoilers!) link pic
thecrossteddy Mon Nov 10
@BrandSanderson I understand #mistborn #elantris & #stormilght are bigger and longer, but how are #emperorssoul and #legion not movies yet?
BrandSanderson Mon Nov 10
@thecrossteddy Trying my hardest. Both have been optioned.
BrandSanderson Sat Nov 15
Today only, The Rithmatist is $2.99 on US ebook stores. Links here: link pic
BrandSanderson Sat Nov 15
The Rithmatist is also $2.99 in Canada & €1.78 in Europe…check your local price with the tabs: link pic
PatrickNeer Sun Nov 16
@BrandSanderson I’m looking for a new fantasy series to start, and I was wondering if there were any you would recommend? #readinglist
BrandSanderson Sun Nov 16
@PatrickNeer I liked The Black Prism, His Majesty’s Dragon, and Promise of Blood as recent reads.
stewpeterson87 Sun Nov 16
@BrandSanderson I bought Hero of Ages first edition; if I mailed it to you would you sign it?
BrandSanderson Sun Nov 16
@stewpeterson87 Sure will! Email me through my website and ask Kara (my shipping person) how to send it.
BrandSanderson Mon Nov 17
Just threw away the prologue to Shadows of Self. Sigh. Need to try something else. (My third attempt.)
Lironah Tue Nov 18
@BrandSanderson I just wrote my 5th prologue, using Dragonmount as a template. It’s good because it sets the stakes – i.e. Rand going mad.
BrandSanderson Tue Nov 18
@Lironah Prologues are tough. There is a lot riding on them.
TheJovialViking Tue Nov 18
@BrandSanderson Might be time for a beard Unleash your full writing potential let the creativity pour from your face like a fountain of hair
BrandSanderson Tue Nov 18
@TheJovialViking Ha. It’s the month for it, too…
Tecseiryu Tue Nov 18
@BrandSanderson How do you know when it’s just right?
BrandSanderson Tue Nov 18
@Tecseiryu Instinct. The last one was just too slow, and at the same time too similar to the one in the first book.
BrandSanderson Tue Nov 18
New shirts! link pic
BrandSanderson Tue Nov 18
New posters! link pic
BrandSanderson Tue Nov 18
Legion: Skin Deep on Audible (comes out next week) is free. link pic
BrandSanderson Wed Nov 19
Words of Radiance is in the final round of voting for the Goodreads Choice Awards in fantasy. link
BrandSanderson Wed Nov 19
I have a pep talk for everyone struggling with writing, whether you’re doing NaNoWriMo or not. link
BrandSanderson Thu Nov 20
Rejoice! Mitosis was released today in the UK/Australia/NZ/IE in ebook/audio/hardcover. link pic
BrandSanderson Thu Nov 20
Signed books w/goodies inside at the Salt Lake Airport Weller Book Works! (Just past Terminal 1 security.) See photo. pic
BrandSanderson Thu Nov 20
If you’re at Salt Lake airport, a better selection is at Simply Books by Gate C6. See photo. Say hi to Tony for me! pic
MrVicBam Thu Nov 20
@BrandSanderson need a new book tho any suggestions
BrandSanderson Thu Nov 20
@MrVicBam Have you tried Promise of Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan (sp?) It was great.
Ashaman3000 Thu Nov 20
@BrandSanderson so what’s the deal with Rand’s pipe? Too lazy to Wiki…
BrandSanderson Thu Nov 20
@Ashaman3000 RJ wrote that scene and didn’t leave notes explaining it. So I actually don’t Know.
TheMurryMonster Thu Nov 20
@BrandSanderson Im curious. Will The Rithmatist ever get a second book?
BrandSanderson Thu Nov 20
@TheMurryMonster It will. But it will be a year or two.
BrandSanderson Fri Nov 21
UK/Aus folk, missed it yesterday? Mitosis is now out for you in ebook/audio/hardcover. link
authorsahunt Fri Nov 21
@BrandSanderson Someone told me yesterday that I write like you. Achievement unlocked, I guess?
BrandSanderson Fri Nov 21
@authorsahunt Depends on if the person who said that likes my books or not, I suppose.
BrandSanderson Fri Nov 21
My assistant @PeterAhlstrom & his assistant checked the proof for the First Ideal poster. link pic
BrandSanderson Fri Nov 21
My assistant @IzykStewart blogged about the cover design for my novella Sixth of the Dusk. link pic
BrandSanderson Fri Nov 21
Liked my novella Legion? The sequel is twice as long and you can preorder the ebook now. link pic
BrandSanderson Sat Nov 22
Missed it yesterday? Legion: Skin Deep‘s ebook is now up for preorder. link pic
BrandSanderson Mon Nov 24
Legion: Skin Deep is out in ebook & audio today in the US and Canada. Hardcover also shipping. link pic
kperry Tue Nov 25
I was so impressed by my authors on the Fantasy panel.Thx for the great discussion. @BrandSanderson @catwinters @colleengleason #alan14 #fb
catwinters Tue Nov 25
@kperry @BrandSanderson @colleengleason Thank you for organizing us, Karin!
BrandSanderson Tue Nov 25
@catwinters @kperry @colleengleason It really was a fantastic panel. I had a great time!
BrandSanderson Tue Nov 25
Introducing Legion: Skin Deep. Available now. link pic
tommartell Wed Nov 26
Just bought the few random @BrandSanderson books / novellas I haven’t read for my flight to Strasbourg. Might have reread Way of Kings…
BrandSanderson Wed Nov 26
@tommartell
BrandSanderson Wed Nov 26
@tommartell Also, digging the @alliebrosh avatar. I’m jealous.
BrandSanderson Fri Nov 28
Happy Black Friday! Reminder of new stuff I have available, plus I’m signing in Idaho Falls tomorrow. link
BrandSanderson Sat Nov 29
Idaho Falls! I’m signing books in less than 2 hours. link
BrandSanderson Sat Nov 29
I have a bunch of ebooks ranging from free to $4.99, including The Alloy of Law today only. link pic
cmurph_mv Sat Nov 29
@BrandSanderson just learned you are doing an event at my Bookstore! Nearly had a heart attack of excitement!
BrandSanderson Sat Nov 29
@cmurph_mv
BrandSanderson Sat Nov 29
Idaho Falls! I’m signing books in half an hour. link
RyanWatters2 Sat Nov 29
@BrandSanderson Oh MAN! Turkey hangover and leaving my phone off for a nap, I miss Brandon Sanderson signing books 5 minutes from my house.
BrandSanderson Sat Nov 29
@RyanWatters2 I left many signed books.
BrandSanderson Sat Nov 29
Off to my signing in Idaho Falls! Also, Shadows of Self (the new Mistborn novel) is officially done! Pub date next fall.
NovelWanderer Sat Nov 29
@BrandSanderson Binging on Season 1 of Writing Excuses podcasts while racing thru the end of my #NaNoWriMo novel – great stuff! Thank You.
BrandSanderson Sat Nov 29
@NovelWanderer oh man. Season one is kinda bad…
November 29, 2014
Low-priced ebooks including The Alloy of Law
As I mentioned yesterday, I’m signing today in Idaho Falls. But there are some ebooks at low prices that I want to talk about. For links to where you can buy these books, click on the titles below.
The second Legion book, Legion: Skin Deep, which came out this week, is $4.99 (or around there, depending on the currency—except in the UK and associated territories, where it’s not yet available).
The Alloy of Law is $2.99 today only on most of the ebook stores in the US.
This is technically the fourth Mistborn book, but it takes place hundreds of years after the original trilogy, and a number of people have read this one first and really enjoyed it. If you haven’t yet read the Mistborn Trilogy, don’t be afraid to pick this one up.
The Way of Kings, the first book in the Stormlight Archive, is still free in the US on the iBookstore and in iTunes (even on Windows) for the rest of the year. It’s sold without DRM (as are all of my Tor books), so you can get it there and read it any way you like.
And the second Stormlight book, Words of Radiance is $3.75 right now in the US on Kindle and Google Play. I don’t know how long that price will last.
Legion is $2.99 (or close equivalent) worldwide. And I mention its sequel above. My recent Cosmere novella Sixth of the Dusk is also $2.99. My Hugo Award-winning novella The Emperor’s Soul is $4.99 (or less in some countries). And both Infinity Blade books are $2.99.
November 28, 2014
Black Friday + Signing in Idaho Falls on Saturday
I hope everyone is having a great Black Friday—as a reminder, my store has some awesome new items. See here for details. And my book Legion: Skin Deep was released this week. See my previous post for details on that.
Tomorrow, I’m signing in Idaho Falls. Details are below.
Idaho Falls, ID – Barnes & Noble Booksellers
Date: Saturday, November 29, 2014
Time: 2:00–4:00 p.m.
Place: Barnes & Noble – Grand Teton Mall
Address: 2300 East 17th Street Suite #1101
Idaho Falls, ID 83404
Phone Number: (208) 552-1452
The bookseller says: Join us for an afternoon with bestselling author Brandon Sanderson. Line tickets will be available to pick up Friday, November 28 at 6:00 a.m. Don’t miss your chance to meet this amazing author!
Notes: I’ll sign any book that I wrote that you bring, but it’s nice to support the store hosting me by buying something in the store while you’re there. I’ll also be doing a reading and a group Q&A.
Check out my calendar to see if there’s another signing that will be more convenient for you.
November 25, 2014
Introducing Legion: Skin Deep
About two years ago, I wrote a little novella called Legion about a man with a very strange psychological makeup. Part of my goal in writing it was to see if I could make my personal brand of . . . whatever it is I do work in a more contemporary story. The greater goal (as it always is) was to get this idea out of my head and onto the page so it would stop pestering me.
Well, the story of Stephen Leeds was not only very popular with readers, it was quite fun for me to write. As many of you know, I keep myself fresh and excited as an author by making certain that when I end one project, I have something very different queued up to try next. Lately, this has meant jumping from epic fantasy to teen adventure, and then back to epic.
Legion was different enough to really give me a change of pace—but it also had all of the things that really excite me about writing. So it’s not surprising that, over the last two years, I began writing another story about Stephen. I wrote big chunks of it on plane flights, particularly the takeoff and landing portions where they made me put away my laptop. (So this story was about 50% handwritten in its original form.)
At long last, I’m proud to present it to you. Clocking in at about twice the size of the first, Legion: Skin Deep is the story of a missing corpse—and the information that corpse knows. Stephen Leeds returns, a man who “is not crazy, just compartmentalized.” He can become an expert in virtually any subject in a short amount of time—but that knowledge manifests as a hallucination with a personality that can act as an expert on that subject.
The second story stands very well on its own, if you haven’t read the first. (Though I think you’ll enjoy both.) The only print edition currently is the leatherbound, limited-edition hardcover available through Subterranean Press—but you can find the audiobook on Audible and an inexpensive ebook version on your favorite ebook vendor’s website. (See links above.)
An apology to people in the UK/Ireland/Australia/New Zealand: I’ve given my UK publisher publication rights on this story, as they did a very nice job with the print edition of the first, and I can’t quite promise when they’ll be releasing it. They’re moving as quickly as they can, and I’m sure they’ll do a wonderful job. I realize this is frustrating—but on the flip side, they did just release the only print edition of the Reckoners story “Mitosis,” which you can get and nobody else can. So there is that.
Regardless, please check out the book! Hopefully it will tide you over until Firefight (sequel to Steelheart) launches in early January.
Brandon
November 21, 2014
Isaac Stewart on the artwork for Sixth of the Dusk
Brandon’s assistant Isaac here to talk about the process of creating the ebook cover for Sixth of the Dusk.
We knew from the beginning of the Shadows Beneath anthology project that at some point we wanted to release Brandon’s story by itself, especially for those who just wanted the story apart from the extra content about the writing process. Even as I searched artists and images for the anthology cover—and eventually settled on the now-Hugo-Award-winning Julie Dillon’s lovely kaiju illustration—I was on the lookout for something we could eventually use for Sixth of the Dusk.
For the anthology interior, we commissioned a black-and-white illustration from the talented Kekai Kotaki, so in looking for a cover image, I wanted to find something that could complement Kekai’s vision of the story. We’re not quite looking at a tropical paradise here, so I wanted something that said beautiful, lush, and tropical, yet rugged and adventurous at the same time.
Often we commission art for our interiors and covers, but in this case during my search for the Shadows Beneath cover image, I’d set aside an image that I thought might work. I showed it to Brandon, and he agreed, and afterward I contacted the artist, Jorge Jacinto, who let us license the image from him. Going above and beyond, Jorge also touched up the illustration to match the text, adding Dusk and his birds as the foreground figure. This bit of customization only improved upon an already wonderful painting. In the final cover I wound up tilting it a bit to 1) fit all the elements in that I felt portrayed the story and 2) add a few dynamic diagonal lines to the final cover composition.
Typographically I wanted to tie Sixth of the Dusk to its mother publication, Shadows Beneath, so I returned to those earlier files and lifted the style we’d created for the anthology and began adapting it to an ebook-only release of Sixth.
Sometimes we create two different covers. In the case of Shadows Beneath, we altered the text size from the print to the ebook version in order to make the image and title more legible at thumbnail size. In ebook covers, bigger, bolder, more contrast, and less visual noise often work for a more successful image. The thumbnail needs to be attractive and legible to readers looking for a particular book, or a particular kind of book. Here you can see the difference between the print book and the ebook.
Hardcover:
Ebook:
With Sixth of the Dusk, I jumped right into the “make it big and legible” mindset. I wanted readers to see the title and be intrigued, I wanted Brandon’s name prominent so that his fans would recognize that this is a story for them, and I wanted those same readers to know that this is a story that takes place in Brandon’s connected universe, the Cosmere.
The straight porting of the beveled text wasn’t quite working for me. It was looking too busy visually, and I didn’t like what was going on with the bevel on the X in particular, so I stepped back. The fonts worked fine for me, so I returned the text to its raw form and began building up from there, eventually settling on a flatter, cleaner look, which I think links the story to the original anthology while at the same time working well within the world of the new illustration.
I haven’t mentioned yet how much I love Sixth of the Dusk. It’s a beautiful, engaging story, that not only expands Brandon’s Cosmere, but also poses some interesting questions worthy of contemplation. I hope you enjoy reading it!
November 20, 2014
Mitosis released in the UK/Australia/New Zealand/Ireland
Rejoice! My Reckoners short novelette Mitosis was finally released today by Gollancz in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland (and other Commonwealth countries, plus everywhere outside the US/Canada). Check the store links in the various tabs to the right.
Mitosis takes place between Steelheart and Firefight, which will be released on January 6 in the US and January 8 in the UK. It’s a little something to tide you over until then.
In addition to the ebook and audiobook that the US and Canada received, Gollancz has also released a spiffy little hardcover. Here’s a photo (alongside the Steelheart editions that the UK got).
If you live in the US or Canada and are jealous of a print version of Mitosis, you might consider importing it via The Book Depository, which has free worldwide shipping.
