First some updates. In the most recent Writing Excuses episode we cover the excuses that keep you from writing. And recent WARBREAKER annotations talk about Vasher infiltrating the palace, Lightsong playing Terachin, and Clod’s identity.

TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT comes out in slightly less than one week. Yesterday I went up to Sam Weller’s and signed 700 books. Here’s a picture toward the beginning of the process. There are a couple more pictures on my Twitter feed. There’s also a new interview with me at Dragonmount.

Last year I was an instructor at the first Superstars Writing Seminar with David Farland, Kevin J. Anderson, Eric Flint, and Rebecca Moesta. Well, it’s happening again this January in Salt Lake City, with additional special guest instructor Sherrilyn Kenyon. I mention it now because the tuition rates go up at the end of October. This conference focuses on the business of writing, and I had a blast at last year’s event in Pasadena. Here’s how I described it last year:

So many people ask me for writing advice and help with their work that I decided to say yes to this invitation because it will give people the chance they’ve been asking for. I realize the seminar is expensive—which means it’s not for everyone—but as busy as I’m getting nowadays, something like this seems the only way.

The other writers participating could all still teach even me a thing or two. In fact, Dave specifically did teach me a lot about the writing business—it was while taking a writing class from him close to ten years ago that I finally began to understand what it takes to make it in publishing. And Kevin gave me invaluable advice that has made my life as a writer much easier over the past year. If you read the testimonials in the sidebar on the site you’ll see names of pro writers whose work I’ve mentioned before or who we’ve had as guests on Writing Excuses, including Eric James Stone, Brandon Mull, John Brown, and Bob Defendi—all of them have benefited extremely from classes taught by Dave and/or Kevin & Rebecca. The instructor talent lineup for this seminar is daunting even to me, and I’m one of them!

This year’s conference will cover topics such as:

• Economics of Commercial Publishing
• How Editors Look at Manuscripts, Novels, and Short Fiction
• Dissecting a Book Contract
• How to Read and Understand a Royalty Statement
• Dirty Secrets: What You Need to Know About Being a Professional Author
• How to Leverage Your Intellectual Property
• Balancing Acts: Writing World and Real World
• Agents
• Networking and Self-Promotion for Authors
• Understanding E-Books
• Pitching the Big Proposal
• Two Heads Are Better than One: Collaborations
• How to Get an Edge with New Media
• Movies, TV, and Authors
• How to Increase Your Writing Productivity
• and more, including open Q&A sessions, a special limited-seating VIP banquet to get to know the instructors, and plenty of networking opportunities among the teachers, other writers, and fellow students.

If this is the sort of thing you’re interested in, now’s the best time to register.