I’m excited to announce my Kickstarter for The Way of Kings leatherbound. It will go live Tuesday, July 7th at 9:00 AM MDT and go through Friday, August 7th at 3:00 PM MDT. If you don’t want to miss out on the first day, check out the landing page over on Kickstarter, click the green “Notify me on launch” button, sign up for a Kickstarter account, and you will be notified when the campaign goes live.

We still might make a few tweaks between now and July 7th, but let me share with you some of the things you’ll see on our Kickstarter page when everything kicks off next Tuesday.

Hold onto your seats! This is going to be a long post with several tall graphics to scroll through. I hope you’ll find it fun and informative because we’re excited to finally get these details out into the world.

Why Kickstarter?
In the past, we’ve offered the anniversary editions by themselves for reasonable prices. The Way of Kings is so large, however, that we needed to split it into two volumes to maintain the quality and integrity of the physical books. This results in a set that costs more to produce, therefore it also retails for more. We recognize this is your hard-earned money, so we’ve turned to Kickstarter as a way to:

1. Give you more bang for your buck.
2. Bring the excitement of a book release party home to you.

Book release parties sometimes offer attendees goodie bags full of extra swag. In this case, the more people who back the Kickstarter release, the more swag we’re going to put into your goodie bags, so to speak, mostly in the form of stretch goal rewards, which we’ll discuss further down.

I’ll save most of the photos of the unbound sample we have of The Way of Kings leatherbound for release day, but here’s a mockup of the two volumes. We’ll post more photos as we get them from the printer and bindery. Please note that many of the images are just mockups, not actual photographs, and many of the designs are not final.

When you finally hold these volumes in your hands, we hope you’ll agree that they’re the finest books Dragonsteel has produced so far.

Rewards
I recognize that many of you are perfectly happy with your existing copies of The Way of Kings, in whichever format you prefer. With this in mind, we’ve created six pledge tiers so you can get involved with the campaign at whatever tier you’re most comfortable with. We’ll use BackerKit to facilitate add-ons, which will further the customizability of your pledge, allowing you to buy some of the rewards à la carte once the campaign is over. Even pledging $1 to the “make a pledge without a reward” tier will allow access to the add-on store. More on this later. Here’s an overview of the pledge tiers with explanations for the different rewards further down.

Since the books, the posters, and the other goodies are various sizes and will arrive from the manufacturers at different times, you will be charged shipping for each package we send out, depending on which tier you pledge to. For more information, there’s a handy shipping chart in the shipping section further down.

To save on shipping (particularly overseas) some of you asked for a tier that has no physical rewards besides the leatherbound. We gave this some thought and don’t feel that discounting the leatherbound is fair to those buying it in the other tiers—plus, the amount of work and effort we’ve put into this has pushed the margins pretty tight—but we think we’ve found a balance. You can either opt for physical rewards in Tier 4, or you can opt for none of them in Tier 3, and in exchange we’ve added this reward to Tier 3: a $10 digital gift card to our store. If shipping is an issue, you can buy digital copies of some of my novellas there—or you can save up for a physical item you want, when you want it.

You’ll notice that Tiers 3, 4, 5, and 6 have a limited number of backers available. If we sell out of these, we might open up new tiers, but be aware that the leatherbound books in these new tiers won’t ship until sometime in 2021, though these books will still be considered part of the first printing of this edition. If we do open new tiers, we will only be able to do it once for Tier 6, capping the signed and numbered copies to just less than 2000 copies total.

Bridge Four Movie-Style Poster

Even without the stretch goal rewards, each pledge tier comes with the bonus of a Bridge Four movie-style poster—by the amazing Zack Stella—in either digital or physical format. Pledge Tiers 1 and 3 come with 1920 x 1080 and 1080 x 1920 digital wallpapers based on the Bridge Four poster, and Pledge Tiers 2, 4, 5, & 6 each come with a physical 23.75″ x 35.75″ Bridge Four poster—rolled, not folded.

New Stormlight Novella

I’m working on a new Stormlight novella in the vein of Edgedancer, a story about Lift that bridges the gap between Words of Radiance and Oathbringer. The new Stormlight novella will be available as an e-book in all tiers, or in both physical and digital formats in Tiers 2, 5, and 6.

Alternate Novel: The Way of Kings Prime Free E-Book

I understand these are hard times and not everyone has the funds for The Way of Kings leatherbound, so I decided to take something originally planned as a stretch goal reward and give it away for free on my website in e-book and PDF forms. You’ll be able to find these in the Online Library on July 7th.

The Way of Kings Prime was written in 2002 and is basically an alternate version of The Way of Kings, which was published by Tor Books in 2010. The Way of Kings Prime is very different from the published book. Think of it as set in a different universe with a completely different plot. If you haven’t read the 2010 canonical version, please read that one first.

The Way of Kings Prime is what we’re calling a Sanderson Curiosity. A hardcover version of it is included in Pledge Tiers 5 and 6, or as an add-on for backers of the campaign. We can’t guarantee we’ll ever reprint it once the campaign is over.

Pick Your Order of Knights Radiant

After you back the campaign, and before we fulfill your pledge when the campaign is over, we will give you the opportunity to pick an Order from among the ten Orders of Knights Radiant. If Order-specific stretch goal rewards are unlocked—and you choose Pledge Tiers 2, 4, or 5—those rewards will be themed to your chosen Order. (Read further down for more about the stretch goal rewards.)

For example, if you pledge $200 for The Way of Kings leatherbound and choose Windrunner as your Order, all five Order-specific stretch goals (sticker sheet, patch, art print, pin, and challenge coin) will be themed toward that Order, using its unique glyph and color scheme.

Not sure which Order of Knights Radiant to choose? Take the Official Knights Radiant Order Quiz. Or if you’d prefer, you can read about each Order and make a decision based on that. We’ve worked hard to give each Order its own visual identity, so when in doubt, pick your favorite symbol or color scheme.

Stretch Goal Rewards

We have prepared ten stretch goal rewards as a way of telling our backers “thank you.” Each time we unlock one by meeting a certain amount of pledged money or backers, all pledge tiers will get more rewards in the digital art package, and Tiers 2, 4, 5, and 6 will receive more physical rewards. (The exceptions to this are the “genuine leather” and “slipcase” stretch goal rewards, which only apply to Pledge Tiers 3 through 6.) Thus, the bigger we make this release party, the more rewards the “attendees” get in their goodie bags!

We hope all of these will unlock during the course of the campaign, but if there’s something you want here and are worried it might not unlock, you can check out the add-ons further down.

Please note that while we’ll carry The Way of Kings leatherbound in our online store after the Kickstarter, we can’t guarantee that future printings will have the slipcase and genuine leather (if unlocked). Future printings of the leatherbound sold through the online store will be sold separately from any of the stretch goal rewards available here.

Add-Ons

Anyone who pledges to any tier of the campaign—even if it’s only $1 to the “make a pledge without a reward” tier—will have access to the add-on store through BackerKit once the campaign ends. These are items that you can purchase in addition to what you already receive with your pledge. For example, if you pledge to Tier 4 and the campaign ends without unlocking the playing cards, you will still be able to buy the playing cards for the add-on cost through BackerKit. If the campaign ends with the playing cards unlocked, you will get a copy of the playing cards with Tier 4, but you will also be able to buy additional copies of the playing cards (and anything else in the add-on store), if you would like.

Another example: Maybe you’ve pledged to Tier 4 for The Way of Kings leatherbound but also want goodies from a second Order without needing to buy a second copy of the leatherbound. We have the Order Pack add-on that allows you to buy the five Order-themed goodies in any Order of your choice at a discounted price from what we’ll eventually sell it for in the online store. This, and any of the add-ons, can be purchased multiple times with a different Order of Knights Radiant chosen each time, but please note that some add-ons might have a limit on the quantity you can purchase.

While we hope many of these goodies will be sold later in our online store, we can’t guarantee availability and pricing outside the campaign. The backer pin is exclusive to the Kickstarter and will only be available in conjunction with the campaign.

Independent Bookstores

We love independent bookstores, so as part of the campaign, there will be a few limited vendors who will have copies of The Way of Kings leatherbound as well as some of the swag items. These bookstores include:

• Subterranean Press
• The BYU Store
• Murder By the Book
• Mysterious Galaxy
• Powell’s Books
• Borderlands Books

We’ll have more information about this after the campaign, but the books likely won’t be available at these vendors until the holiday season.

New to Kickstarter?

If you’re not familiar with Kickstarter, it’s a platform that allows creators to crowdfund their creative projects. The campaign lasts several weeks, and when it’s over, my team will go into full production and fulfillment mode. We will send out Kickstarter surveys, which will allow you to choose your Order of Knights Radiant—if your pledge needs that information—and also to give you the chance to give us your most up-to-date information so that your books and goodies arrive to the correct address in as timely a manner as possible.

If you’d like to know more about how to make a pledge on Kickstarter, here’s a short overview.

Shipping

After the campaign, your shipping will be calculated based on your pledge tier and shipping address. Some rewards will have to be shipped separately from others. For example, The Way of Kings leatherbound will be shipped directly from the bindery so that it doesn’t have to come across the country to us before we then ship it back out to you. The rolled posters will be shipped separately in 24” wide triangle boxes. Because of these realities and others, we unfortunately can’t use a one-size-fits-all approach to shipping, therefore, rewards will be sent out in waves (more on that below), and shipping will be charged to you depending on how many packages you are receiving.

Reference the chart below to see how many packages and the total cost of shipping you can expect for each tier. Please note that the Total Shipping side of the chart is not the price per package, but represents the total you will pay for shipping and handling.

We welcome international orders! However, we do not ship everywhere, so if your country is not listed, we apologize. It means we haven’t been able to establish reliable delivery in that region yet.

We hope to have most rewards fulfilled by the holidays 2020, but many things like the physical editions of the Stormlight Novella and The Way of Kings Prime will not be ordered from the printer until after the campaign is over and might not ship until early 2021. If we wind up opening extra leatherbound tiers, they will ship sometime in 2021 as well.

Wave 1

When The Way of Kings leatherbound is finished, we will verify all backers’ addresses—including addresses outside of the United States—and then provide this information to the bindery who will ship your books, shrinkwrapped and packaged in custom-fit boxes, directly to you.

Posters will likely also be sent in this first wave of shipping, both to addresses inside and outside of the United States.

Wave 2

Many of the stretch goal rewards and add-on items will be produced after the end of the Kickstarter. As soon as we have all of these rewards in-hand (except for the books), we will once again verify addresses before packaging up the rewards and sending them out to you, hopefully in one box of awesome happiness.

If your shipping address is outside of the United States, your goodies will be shipped in Wave 3, as described below, to save you on shipping costs.

Wave 3

The Way of Kings Prime and the Stormlight Novella are the items most likely to be shipped in this final wave. These will be fulfilled as soon as we get the books back from the printer, but not without once again verifying addresses. Please keep in mind that printing usually takes a few months, but in some cases can take much longer.

If you live outside of the United States and have chosen pledge tiers 2, 5, or 6, postage is more cost effective for you if we wait until the Stormlight Novella and The Way of Kings Prime are delivered to us so we can ship your books and goodies together.

Risks and Challenges

As part of each Kickstarter, they ask those running the campaign to outline the risks and challenges associated with producing the products you’re asking people to help fund. Here’s what ours says:

We’ve been producing our anniversary editions for several years now, and before that, we produced some of our own hardcovers, so we’re experienced in the production of nice books and other goodies. Currently, most of the files are ready to send to the manufacturers, and some of the products are already in various levels of production.

One of the biggest challenges will be getting everything produced or printed and delivered to you in a timely manner. Our printer, bindery, and other suppliers are all top notch, but producing quality books and products takes time, with quality assurance steps all along the way. We don’t want to rush any of these steps because we want to send you the best products we can produce.

In addition, as we’ve seen from world events this year, there are sometimes things out of our control that affect more than just supply lines. If we have to hit pause once in a while because people’s safety is on the line, then we will do so, but rest assured that we will do all in our power to deliver your books and goodies as quickly as possible.

Thank You!

I have the best fans in the world. You’ve proven that to me time and again as I get to meet and interact with you, so I can’t say thank you enough. You are awesome and you are amazing. I hope you’ll join us for this online release party for The Way of Kings leatherbound on July 7^th this year.

Introduction

Welcome, everyone, to our final State of the Sanderson for the decade! If you’re not familiar with these posts, each December I take a look back at my year and talk about the projects I’ve been working on. Then I turn an eye to the future to see where I’m planning for things to go in the coming years. If you’d like to see last year’s State of the Sanderson, you can find it at this handy link.

This year was dedicated primarily to writing Stormlight Book Four; I’ll have a specific update on that for you in a little bit. I also spent a lot of time traveling, particularly to Europe—to the point that I’ve been feeling the weight of my travel. (Which indicates it’s time to scale back for a while.)

Stormlight years always have a little less variety than “off” years where I work on a more eclectic mix of stories. So while I got a ton done, there won’t be much in the way of updates on other projects. One thing I wanted to add this year, however, is a little survey—mostly about our leatherbound books. So if you’d do me a favor and hop down to answer a couple of questions, that would help us a ton. I’ve put the survey at the bottom of the following section, which will dig into leatherbounds in depth. This section is a tad long, which will come as no surprise since I wrote it. So if you’re not interested, you might want to meet me back at Part Two.

• Part One: Leatherbounds and Survey Time!
• Part Two: My Year
• Part Three: Updates on Major Projects
• Part Four: Updates on Secondary Projects
• Part Five: Updates on Minor Projects
• Part Six: Film/Television Updates
• Part Seven: Other Cool Projects
• Part Eight: Projected Schedule
• Part Nine: Bonus Section, the Future of the Cosmere

Part One: Leatherbounds and Survey Time!

This year, we’re releasing the Warbreaker leatherbound! This book is particularly gorgeous; we’ve added a few features such as illustrated drop caps and interstitial art. We put these volumes together in-house, rather than farming them out to someone else, and we pour a lot of attention into making them great. Next year is a big year for us, as we’ve reached the tenth anniversary of The Way of Kings, and will be releasing a leatherbound of that book.

Now, some of you might be wondering, “Brandon, isn’t The Way of Kings double the size of the previous books you’ve done as leatherbounds?” Yes. Yes, it is. That’s meant a lot of extra work on the part of my team, who have already been working on it for a good eight months. We want this book to be something extra special—and because of that, we’ve wanted to do preorder incentives (like goodies and swag) to go with it.

The logistics of doing this worried us a lot, however, as we’re still a relatively small team. Beyond that, we expect The Way of Kings leatherbound demand to strain our logistics and shipping departments. When talking about this with Howard Tayler, my cartoonist friend, he suggested we use Kickstarter to alleviate these problems. I was hesitant at first, as I know Kickstarter is mostly intended for people who need extra up-front money in order to create a product. We’ve been able to fund the leatherbounds ourselves so far, and we’re certain we can create these without needing extra time.

However, Howard really sold me on Kickstarter by pointing out how great the site’s management tools are for creators. If I want to offer different packages for the book, with a variety of preorder items personalized to customer preferences, the only way I’d be able to manage this is to take advantage of Kickstarter’s infrastructure and tools. As we’ve looked into the process, my team and I have come to agree that this is the only way we’d be able to do what we want to with The Way of Kings leatherbound.

So, while I know some of you might be skeptical about this like I was, I ask you to give us a chance to show why it will be a good thing. Our goal will not be to move to Kickstarter for all leatherbounds, only Stormlight leatherbounds every three years—because the added size, complexity, and logistics of such a large book require us to have some extra help. We plan to launch The Way of Kings as a Kickstarter in the summer of 2020, probably June or July. The book will likely come in two volumes, and will have to be around double the cost of our previous leatherbounds. (So, $200 to $250 instead of $100.) I thought it only fair to warn you all up front. Plus, if we hear concerns from the community that we haven’t considered, announcing it this early will help us deal with those before the actual campaign.

To that end, I have a little mini FAQ dealing with issues I think you might have.

Q: You are doing the Kickstarter in the summer. When will the books be sent out?

The goal will be to start sending these out as soon as possible, hopefully months before the holidays arrive. We are going to put our order in as soon as we can for the books themselves, and get the incentives constructed ASAP. Ideally, we’ll send you a single box with book and rewards all together in one cool bundle.

There will be some digital rewards offered as well. These will be sent out the moment the campaign closes, and will hopefully tide you over until the physical products arrive.

Q: Will this leatherbound be available on your store later, like the others?

Yes, it will. If you miss the campaign, you’ll still be able to buy the book.

Some things might not be available in the later printing, however, depending on what incentives we offer for the Kickstarter. For example, we will possibly offer a slipcase as part of the Kickstarter incentives—but (depending on the size of future print runs) we might not be able to offer that with the later editions we sell in the store. In short, the book will totally be there for you to buy later—but any stretch goal achievements and swag associated with the Kickstarter would have to come from that campaign. (With one exception mentioned below.)

Q: I like supporting my local independent bookseller. Will any stores be getting this book like they have other leatherbounds you’ve done?

I haven’t cleared this with any of the stores yet, so I don’t want to speak for them. However, we love our bookstores, and have tried from the get-go to involve them in our leatherbound distribution. Our goal will be to set aside a certain number of books as requested by the booksellers we work with frequently. (And if you’re a bookseller who has had me in your store for a signing in the past, and you would like to be selling these leatherbounds too, make sure to contact us.)

My goal will be to add all bookseller orders into the final count from the Kickstarter, and order an equivalent number of physical reward objects for them to include with their books. So these bookstore editions should include all unlocked stretch goal rewards in the boxes we send for them to sell. They might not be personalized to your preferences (e.g. you might receive a random order of Knights Radiant, based on the box you get), but we hope this will work so that readers who prefer to buy from the booksellers do not feel left out.

The short version is this: if you miss the Kickstarter, there’s a good chance that a limited number of boxes with full rewards included will be available at retailers, for the same price people paid in the Kickstarter. Those stores should be similar to the ones that have been carrying our leatherbounds so far.

Q: Leatherbounds are expensive. Will I be able to participate if I’m not interested in such a high ticket item?

My plan is to write a Stormlight (or at least Cosmere) novella next spring to offer as part of the Kickstarter campaign. We’re anticipating some lower tiers that involve getting digital-only rewards and a digital copy of the novella—all for a very reasonable price. We will likely also offer just the novella in print form, along with all campaign rewards, as another slightly higher (but still well below $200) tier that you can buy into as well. (And, of course, a tier that has everything—including the leatherbound and a print copy of the novella.)

Q: So…a novella you say. Anything else you can tell us about the rewards?

We haven’t settled on anything yet. I haven’t even written the novella, so it’s possible that won’t even happen. However, it’s likely that we’ll be letting you choose an order of Knights Radiant (and we’ll post full descriptions of all ten orders, including information not yet in the books) and receive rewards based on your preference (i.e. physical rewards with that order’s symbols on them).

There’s also a decent chance I’ll offer an ebook of The Way of Kings Prime (the version I wrote of the book back in 2002 that is way different from the 2010 version) as a stretch goal unlock. This would be sent to everyone who participates in the campaign at any level.

Okay, if you’re still with me after that (we’re over a thousand words into this SotS already, and I haven’t even really started yet), let’s talk about the survey. After The Way of Kings, the next book to hit its ten-year anniversary is The Alloy of Law. Instead of being a lot larger than the average Sanderson book, AoL is half the size. We aren’t allowed by Tor to sell our leatherbounds for less than $100, and the logistics of printing them kind of preclude that anyway.

However, I thought that perhaps you all would like to get The Alloy of Law and Shadows of Self bundled together as a single leatherbound. I figured if we have to charge double for a double-sized stormlight book, shouldn’t we charge half for a half-sized mistborn book? This would require binding the two books together though.

Assistant Adam, who is a leatherbound connoisseur, mentioned that some people might not like this—he thought the leatherbound collectors he knows would just prefer to have the individual books, separate as they’re sold in stores, for their collection. So, we thought we’d ask you. The survey below is getting at this idea. The questions are very simple, so feel free to look them over before taking it.

Finally, a couple of questions for those of you who attend my book signings. I’m having some growing pains in this department. My signings, put flatly, are just getting too long for me to handle. The last Stormlight tour wore me out, with each signing lasting until 1 or 2 a.m., with signs that they were going to grow even larger. I need to do something to either speed up the lines, or make the signings easier.

Fortunately, I have some guides in this department. I’m fortunate enough to be approaching crowds similar to the ones GRRM or Neil Gaiman get, and talking to people like them, I’ve found that there are two approaches authors generally use. Neil, for example, will pre-sign all the books. You don’t get to meet him personally at a signing, but instead you get a signed book—and then he does an extra-long presentation, with much longer readings, Q&As, and speeches than I do. In short, it becomes “an evening with Neil” instead of a book signing. Other authors (I know George has done this) still sign all the books, but don’t do a presentation at all, and don’t allow personalizations or pictures.

I’m curious what all of you think. My own inclination is a hybrid of my current method and Neil’s method—where I do a longer presentation like Neil does, perhaps bringing Isaac to do a presentation on artwork too. Then have a lottery (which is not based on your ability to buy a more expensive ticket, and is instead completely random) for a hundred people to come meet me afterward and get a book personalized.

If you’re interested, I’d enjoy you answering some questions about this too. (Note that none of these apply to release parties, which will continue to be the insane and enormous extravaganzas you’ve come to expect.)

Okay, whew. Thanks for sticking through all of that for me. But we spend a lot of time on the leatherbounds, and want to make sure we’re creating them the way you want. Now, on to the regular State of the Sanderson.

Part Two: My Year

January–March: Starsight Revisions

My goal had been to launch straight into Stormlight Four in January, but I didn’t quite make it. We thought we had the book wrapped up by February, but some of the beta reader comments set me thinking about several problems with Starsight—and I made the tough call to do another round of revisions on the book to make it as good as it could be. This put me about a month behind; I’d built in a buffer, but had really wanted to start on Stormlight Four in February. (I even had a trip to Hawaii planned to kick it off—as nothing is better than writing on the beach. Alas, though I got a tad of Stormlight done on that trip, I spent most of it on Starsight.)

But the revisions worked, and the book finally clicked into place. Judging from the reader responses, it feels like that extra month really paid some dividends, so I’m glad I did it.

April: Stormlight 4

The real work on Stormlight 4 started in April, where I launched into Part One. Writing went pretty good from the get-go, as I’m always kind of working on Stormlight outlines—even when I’m writing other books. So I can often hit the ground running. Stormlight books literally have two decades of planning behind them.

May: Europe Trip One (Germany)

This trip was a lot of fun—and Art Director Isaac went with me, as he speaks German. The fans were enthusiastic, and the tour was a huge success. But it did also slow me down a ton. Not much written this month.

June: Stormlight 4

I got back into it, eventually managing to catch up all the lost time from Germany. (Though I was still about a month behind because of the Starsight revision.) I might have caught all the way up, except…

July: Europe Trip Two (Spain/France/Belgium)

Another big trip through Europe, though about half of this one was vacation rather than work. My father was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in France and Belgium when he was in his twenties. Now that he’s retired, we wanted to take him back to show us around. Spain was a work trip for me (one of my favorite SF/F conventions is in Spain, and I love going there).

August–September: Stormlight 4

I jumped back into it, and despite a little detour at Dragon Con in September (the hotel room they gave me was amazing—check out my view above!). I managed to catch all the way back up on lost time, and then on October 9th caught up (finally) from the lost month in March, putting me 100% on track to finish the book by January 1st. But then on October 11th, I flew back out on tour…

October: Israel, Europe Trip Three (France, the Czech Republic)

I’ve always wanted to go to Israel, and locked in about two years ago to be a guest at a convention in Tel Aviv. The trip was great, really special—and was followed by the utterly cool chance to go visit the Wheel of Time television show set in Prague. So while I had a great time, it was a little hard to admit it put me behind again by a month.

Here are some photos from my tours and conventions!

November, December: Stormlight 4

I’ve finally caught up again as of last week, and am making the final push to finish the novel. It’s been touch-and-go all year, but I’m confident now that the book will be finished by January, which is why I let Tor announce a release date. (See below.)

All in all, it was a great year—despite being a bit frantic and putting me on way too many airplanes. (The odd part is that after all of this touring, I have a ton of frequent flyer miles—but I’m often too tired of travel to use them, so my family/assistants end up using them for trips.) At the same time, I really do love working on Stormlight books. One of the reasons I take such a long break between them is to make certain that when I come back to Roshar, I’m refreshed and eager to get back to it. And speaking of that…

Part Three: Updates on Major Projects

The Stormlight Archive

Book Four has a release date next year on November 17th. I allowed Tor to set this because I’m confident that we’ll meet it—so we should be in good shape for that release, barring some catastrophic responses that I haven’t anticipated during alpha/beta reads. The tentative title for the book is still Rhythm of War, but because of the way Stormlight books work (where each book title is an in-world book title as well), I can’t 100% say that will be the title in this case until the book is finished.

When Book Four is done, we’ll have only one more book in the first Stormlight sequence. As I’ve been saying for years, Book Five is one of the major end points of the series. I anticipate writing that in 2022, for a 2023 release. Yes, I know, many of you wish those gaps were shorter. It’s turned out that a three-year gap is best for my writing psychology, so we’re going to stick with that for now. And, since they’re each as long as four regular books, it’s like getting a Stormlight book faster than one per year—except you have to save them up to read in batches.

STATUS: All systems go!

Mistborn

I had hoped to squeeze in Wax and Wayne Four this year, but falling behind a month (plus the aggressive tour schedule) made that impossible. I sometimes forget just how much touring takes out of me—which is partly why there wasn’t a Starsight tour. (And partly why I put that question in the survey about how to make book tours a little less exhausting.)

I consider Wax and Wayne’s final book to be imperative to finish before I start Stormlight Five. Starting in July, once Stormlight Four is fully revised and turned in, I’ll have two main projects demanding my attention. Wax and Wayne four is one of those, Skyward is the other. (I might need to get to Skyward Three before it, FYI, depending on how much Stormlight burns me out on epic fantasy. But both Skyward Three and Wax and Wayne Four should be finished by the end of the year next year.)

After that, it will be time for me to be looking to Era Three of Mistborn—which will be written in the years between Stormlight Five and Stormlight Six.

STATUS: Wayne is threatening to beat me up if I don’t get to this soon. 2021 or maybe 2022 release for the final book.

Skyward

Book Two is out, if you somehow missed that fact. I’d like to say thank you to everyone for indulging me so much on my side projects. Starsight was a huge success, even without me touring for it. These books are really fun to write, and good for my writing as they allow me to relax between big Cosmere projects. The fact that all of you are willing to embrace and read them is quite gratifying. One of my biggest fears becoming an author was that I’d get locked into doing only one thing, then get burned out on it.

As you can see from the last 15 years of my publishing career, I am interested in a lot of different things. The fact that you’ve been willing to read about Spin, Jerkface, and Doomslug as readily as you do about Kaladin, Dalinar, and Shallan is wonderful to see. Thank you so much for making this new series a success.

STATUS: Should write Book Three sometime late next year. 2021 release is likely.

Part Four: Updates on Secondary Projects

Dark One

We’re moving ahead with the graphic novel on this, and giving you some glimpses of that is one of the big things I’m happy to announce for this State of the Sanderson. We’ve included some gorgeous pages below. The graphic novel is turning out to be something really special. We don’t have an exact release date for this yet, but it shouldn’t be too much longer before we can announce one.

In addition, many of you may have heard the news that J. Michael Straczynski (creator of Babylon Five, among many other cool projects) is attached to this project to make a television show. The same outline I came up with for the graphic novel drew serious Hollywood attention, which is how this happened. That said, JMS has other projects he’s working on as well, and Dark One needs to wait for the right time for him to work on it.

STATUS: Real motion here. Exciting developments in the process!

Songs of the Dead (Was Death by Pizza)

This perpetual entry in the State of the Sanderson is creeping ever closer to being a reality. My co-author, Peter Orullian, has suggested the title Songs of the Dead—which is a really great title, considering it’s about a heavy metal singer necromancer.

We’ve got a second draft done, but it needs a third one. Unfortunately, the hangup is me, as Stormlight has taken basically all my time this year. Peter sent me his latest draft in June or so, and I’m only halfway through my revision of it at this point. So I’m sorry it’s taking so long; I’m excited for you all to read the book, but as it’s my first true book collaboration, there are some growing pains as we figure out how to make the process work right for us.

Hopefully I can finish my next revision early next year, send it back to Peter for one final draft, then begin showing it to editors.

STATUS: Waiting on my next revision.

The Original

This novella that I wrote with the fantastic Mary Robinette Kowal is finished and being recorded as an audio original. It should come out very soon, and I’m quite proud of it.

I’m a little annoyed as the Will Smith movie that came out earlier this year has a similar premise. But that movie bombed and apparently wasn’t very good. So maybe people will appreciate a similar idea done right? We’ll see. I had hoped to get this out before Mr. Smith’s movie came out, but Mary Robinette was busy winning all of the awards for her excellent Lady Astronaut series, and I was busy getting rained on in Roshar.

STATUS: Out soon.

Alcatraz Six

This one is mostly done, just needing a few little tweaks. Again, I haven’t had a ton of time last year, but this one is looking really good. It’s basically all complete, only needing one last pass. We should be doing the interior artwork and editorial work next year.

STATUS: Basically done.

Elantris, Warbreaker, The Rithmatist

No updates from last year, I’m afraid. There was no intention to make progress on these this year. Once Alcatraz is wrapped up, I’ll turn my attention back to The Rithmatist as the last looming series that needs a wrapup that hasn’t gotten one. Elantris and Warbreaker sequels aren’t to be expected until Stormlight Five and Wax and Wayne Four are done.

I know a lot of you keep waiting on Rithmatist news, and I feel bad having to give you the same news every year. (Yes, that paragraph above is the same one I put in the State of the Sanderson last year.) But the truth is, I really can’t work on this until at the very least Alcatraz is finished.

A glimmer of light for you Rithmatist fans is this: my son just read the book, and he’s joined the crowd calling for me to do a sequel. So you have an in-house representative.

STATUS: Keep Waiting. (Sorry again, again.)

White Sand

Graphic novel three is out now! So if you haven’t picked it up, please check it out!

We’ve learned a lot doing our first graphic novel series. Again, there were some growing pains. (We aren’t thrilled, for example, by how often we ended up needing to change artists.) The good news is that we really enjoy doing these, and so we are planning to do another graphic novel series set on Taldain, visiting darkside and dealing with Khriss and her adventures there. So if you are one of those people who read the prose version years ago, and have been waiting for some resolution, Isaac and I are outlining a sequel series right now.

STATUS: Trilogy complete, likely to do a collection of all three in coming years. Sequel series being outlined.

Part Five: Updates on Minor Projects

For many of these little projects, you may want to glance back at previous State of the Sanderson documents to see what they even are, as this is pretty long already and I don’t want to keep making the same pitch every year. So really, take note if a specific idea interested you, but don’t worry if you’re confused and you don’t get many details here on these.

The Reckoners, Legion

Both are completed. Though I’ve had enough people asking after them that we’re toying with doing some audio-original novellas set in these worlds. For example, one of my big goals for Legion was to get it made into a television series. While that could still happen, as it’s under option by a production company, I’ve been thinking that maybe I could do something like that on my own—as an audio series. We could create a sequence of episodes written by a writer’s room with me as the “showrunner.” I could see doing something like this with the Reckoners to continue that story, for those who want to know what happens next.

If we can get these off the ground, I’ll let you know. Also, if you like The Original, please let me know—as that will influence me in doing similar projects with Legion and the Reckoners.

STATUS: Completed, but cool things could still happen.

Adamant

No change from last year. This space opera series of novellas is in limbo until I find the right time to work on them. It will happen eventually.

STATUS: No movement.

Starburner/Soulburner

Something’s happening here, but it’s hush-hush for now.

The Apocalypse Guard

Well, this book got weirder—as expected with Dan and me working together on something. It’s moved to the back burner, as even Dan’s revision wasn’t enough to get it where we want it to be. So this one is entering limbo for now.

STATUS: No motion for months now, might be dead.

Other Projects

Untitled Threnody Novel, Sixth of the Dusk sequel, another story with Shai, and The Silence Divine persist as “maybe” stories that someday I might write. They are joined by a Secret Standalone Cosmere Book, that wacky YA Cosmere Book with Magic Kites, Untitled First of the Sun YA novel (not involving Sixth), and a few others as Cosmere novels that might someday make it to the front burner. (Once Skyward is done, I think it would be good to do a YA book in the Cosmere, so I’ve begun working on possible ideas.) Aether of Night also is still hanging around, maybe needing a novel. So we’ll see. I’ll talk a little more about the Cosmere in a future section, after we get to the film stuff.

If I write a novella to go with the Stormlight Kickstarter, it has about an equal chance of being Wandersail (a Rysn novella), Horneater (a Rock novella), or a sequel to Sixth of the Dusk (which is tricky because it reveals maybe a little too much about Space Age Cosmere politics).

Part Six: Film/Television

Note: read last year’s State of the Sanderson for more talk on what it takes to make a film or television show out of a novel. However, the biggest news here is that I’ve decided to try taking a more active role in getting some of these made. To that end, I’ve most specifically been working closer with Dan Mintz, the producer who is trying to get some Cosmere things made. See below.

Snapshot

New screenplay has been written, and is being shopped to directors right now, so far as I know. Still under option by MGM, and looking good—but no real updates.

Stormlight Archive

I’ve offered Dan Mintz to do treatments for this myself, and he’s been very amenable. He and I have been working more closely together lately to see if we can make this happen.

Steelheart

Option lapsed at Fox just last month. This wasn’t surprising, as after the Fox/Disney merger, there wasn’t much of a chance that Disney would greenlight a non-Marvel superhero project. Instead of immediately going out to shop this again though, I’m taking a few months to consider how I want to approach film and television.

Legion

Still under option to Cineflix Media. No updates lately.

Skyward

Deal is in the works, but can’t talk about it yet.

Alcatraz

Likewise, deal is in the works, but can’t talk about it yet.

Dark One

Working on this with JMS, which has been super cool.

Mistborn

Considering maybe writing the screenplay on this myself. After speaking with Dan Mintz, we decided he would focus on spearheading Stormlight, and I would focus on spearheading Mistborn. So we’ll see what I decide to do.

Part Seven: Other Cool Projects

Stormlight Children’s Book

A publisher Isaac has worked with doing picture books asked if maybe we could do an adaptation of “the girl who looked up” story that Shallan and Wit tell in Oathbringer. We thought this was a pretty cool idea, and so Isaac is working on the adaptation. If we do this right, it could come out around the same time as Book Four.

Brotherwise Call to Adventure Board Game

This summer, Brotherwise Games will release Call to Adventure: The Stormlight Archive. Originally planned as an expansion for the board game Call to Adventure, it has grown into a full standalone game with 120 cards and everything you need to play. Call to Adventure is a hero-crafting game that combines strategy and storytelling. It’s similar to some “tableau-building” games where you’re creating a kingdom or civilization, but in this game you’re building a character. Each player begins with cards that define your hero’s origin, motivation, and destiny. Over the course of the game, you overcome challenges and gain traits. It’s a game with points and a clear winner, but the highlight of every game is telling your hero’s story at the end.

The guys at Brotherwise are huge fans, and they’ve worked closely with us to make sure the Stormlight Archive game is true to the books. It emphasizes cooperative play as players become Radiants and face Odium, but it’s possible to choose a villainous path and work against the team. The cards are all inspired by familiar scenes and themes, and in Call to Adventure you’re piecing together those moments to tell new stories. Here’s a sneak peek at illustrations for some of the cards: Choose A Side (Ganna Pazyniuk), Herald of Justice (Petar Penev), Face the Unmade(Artem Demura), Leader (Ari Ibarra), Elsecaller (Randy Vargas), and One More Try (Artem Demura). Expect more news on the game closer to its release date in summer 2020!

Crafty Games Dice Kickstarter

If you’re reading this when it comes out, know that you’ve only got a few hours left to get in on the Mistborn dice Kickstarter (and help them try to meet their final stretch goal). This should be the last Kickstarter we do for anything until we reach the Stormlight one in the summer.

Crafty has been doing great work on the RPG front, and have been an excellent partner. If you’re at all interested in dice, have a look at their Kickstarter. I’m really looking forward to getting mine!

Part Eight: Projected Schedule of Releases

• The Original audio novella: 2020
• Stormlight Four: Fall 2020
• Skyward Three: Summer(?) 2021
• Wax and Wayne Four: Fall(?) 2021
• Alcatraz 6: 2021–2022
• Dark One Graphic Novel: 2021–2022
• Skyward Four (final book): 2022
• Stormlight Five: Fall 2023

Part Nine: Bonus Section, The Future of the Cosmere

One thing you might have noticed in the secondary projects section is that I have a number of collaborations in the works. This is partially because I wanted the chance to work with some of my friends on books, which is a fun and different way to write. But it’s also because I’ve begun to realize that I need to keep more of my focus on the Cosmere.

That isn’t to say I’m not going to write anything that isn’t Cosmere moving forward. (Skyward proves that.) At the same time, these State of the Sanderson posts come out on my birthday each year—and as I age, I’m growing more aware that I won’t be able to write all the books I want to. I’m still relatively young, and relatively fast as a writer.

Let me explain. Back in my 30s, I generally didn’t worry that I wouldn’t be able to finish things I started—that wasn’t even something that occurred to me. I just wrote whatever I wanted at the time I wanted to write it. Now I’m in my 40s, and I’ve realized that the Cosmere is also a big project. Back in the summer of 2007—before I even had kids and before the Wheel of Time came my way—I first sat down and asked myself, “How big is the Cosmere?” I came up with an outline of between 32 and 36 books. That seemed like an easy task. At two books a year, that would barely be fifteen years out of my (hopefully) very long career.

But I was somewhat naive then about a number of things. I didn’t realize just how much effort Stormlight books would take to write. I didn’t realize how much time touring would eat out of my schedule as I grew more popular. I didn’t realize how many other things might take my attention, like doing films.

A few years after that 2007 outline, I realized that I needed to start writing some of my side projects as novellas, rather than novel series with promised sequels. (Things like The Emperor’s Soul and Sixth of the Dusk grew out of that realization.) Lately, I’ve begun asking myself on some of my ideas, “Could I do this as a collaboration? As an audio original or graphic novel?” These are other ways to tell my stories, but to do so in a manner that takes less of my direct time. You’re all going to have to tell me if you like the products of this effort. I can’t stop doing side projects; as I’ve said many times, this is how I prevent myself from burning out. But maybe I can make the deviations I take to do those side projects a little less time-consuming.

For what it’s worth, here is what I have as the current Cosmere sequence, not counting potential YA books or the occasional novella. Finished books are in bold. This isn’t an exact chronology of when I’ll write them either.

• Elantris 1
• Elantris 2
• Elantris 3
• Mistborn Era 1: Book One
• Mistborn Era 1: Book Two
• Mistborn Era 1: Book Three
• Stormlight One
• Stormlight Two
• Stormlight Three
• Stormlight Four
• Stormlight Five
• Mistborn Era 2: Book One
• Mistborn Era 2: Book Two
• Mistborn Era 2: Book Three
• Mistborn Era 2: Book Four
• Warbreaker 1
• Warbreaker 2
• Mistborn Era 3: Book One
• Mistborn Era 3: Book Two
• Mistborn Era 3: Book Three
• Stormlight Six
• Stormlight Seven
• Stormlight Eight
• Stormlight Nine
• Stormlight Ten
• Dragonsteel Book One
• Dragonsteel Book Two
• Dragonsteel Book Three
• Untitled Threnody Novel
• Untitled Aether Book One
• Untitled Aether Book Two
• Untitled Aether Book Three
• Mistborn Era 4: Book One
• Mistborn Era 4: Book Two
• Mistborn Era 4: Book Three

That’s thirty-five novels. The original outline I made in 2007 had a maximum of thirty-six, but was a little different. For example, I had Dragonsteel in my mind as seven books back then—but as I progressed through the Cosmere I quickly realized that I was offloading a lot of that story to Stormlight. (Bridge Four, remember, started on Yolen—the Dragonsteel world. So did Dalinar, actually.)

I’ve shrunk Dragonsteel to a trilogy as I focused on what I wanted it to be: a compelling story about Hoid and his origins. (Along with the shattering of Adonalsium.) That snapped Dragonsteel into place in the Cosmere quite nicely. This is why I’m still at around the same number of mainline novels even after adding the Wax and Wayne books.

The original outline didn’t name the Threnody novel as such; that slot was filled by a standalone where I planned to do some of the things I’ll now accomplish. In the original outline I had White Sand, but that became a graphic novel series. This, plus my uncertainty at the start if there would be other standalone novels, indicates why I had a 32–36-book series in mind at the start, but now have 35 “mainline” Cosmere books. (Another point I’ve wavered on is where Aether fits into this.)

That makes eleven books in the Cosmere finished in the last 15 years, less than a third of the full Cosmere sequence. This means, at this speed, I’ve got at least another thirty years of writing to do—putting me optimistically at age seventy-four when I finish. (Assuming I don’t add anything else, like a Mistborn cyberpunk between eras three and four—or a standalone or two, which I’d really like to be doing more.)

So, perhaps you can see why I feel a need to start focusing a little more attention on the Cosmere. I don’t want the years to slip away from me, and right now seems the time I need to be thinking about this—not when I hit sixty and realize I’ve been ignoring one series or another.

I write this out not to scare you. (Hopefully.) One of the reasons I divided it all up into separate sequences, even within the same series, is so that we’ll have endings and be able to “complete” series, rather than leaving you hanging forever, feeling like these things are going on too long. At the same time, the Cosmere is my life’s work—and from the get-go, I wanted it to be epic in every sense of the word.

I hope you are enjoying the journey, because I don’t intend to stop anytime soon.

Thank you all for another fantastic year.

Brandon

Adam here. In recent years, when Brandon releases a new book, we have offered a limited quantity of signed and numbered copies to Weller Book Works—a local book seller—to ship copies around the world for people who are unable to attend the release party. Starting with Oathbringer, we opted to turn this into a fundraising event by asking for small donations that will be sent to Worldbuilders—a geek-centered nonprofit supporting humanitarian efforts worldwide—which you should definitely check out.

Below you can read a message from Brandon about his idea and the specifics for ordering. You can see these, as well as order your copy, from the Weller Book Works website.

From Weller Book Works

Each signed and numbered copy is $19.99 plus Utah State Sales tax or New York State Sales tax where applicable, and shipping and handling. Inscriptions will require an additional $5 or $20 donation to charity as described by Brandon below. If you do not want an inscription, choose “none” in the inscription box before you click Add to cart.

This offer is limited to 300 copies. One copy per person please.

Books will ship to arrive as soon after the November 26, 2019 release date as possible. Shipping will be via USPS Priority Mail or First Class International Mail only.

Customers with credit cards drawn on banks outside the United States will need to pay with the PayPal interface. We’re sorry, this requirement comes from our credit card processor.

A Message from Brandon

Every year, it gets harder and harder to do these signings, as readers’ requests of me grow increasingly extravagant, with people asking me to draw sketches or write limericks in their books. I love and appreciate my fans, and I don’t want to stop doing the signings, but boy is it getting tough to manage all of this.

I’ve decided the best way to handle this is to start charging a bit for charity in exchange for handling the more difficult requests. In part, this is to make sure that the people who truly want a personalization or more lengthy inscription are the ones getting one. I fear that many people see the posts by other people with extravagant requests fulfilled in their books, and then feel they need to ask for something similar.

If you just want your book signed (along with the number) then there is no charge. But if you want a personalization, this requires a donation to benefit Worldbuilders. Every donation made for inscriptions will be matched by the Lightweaver Foundation.

For a $5 donation to Worldbuilders, in addition to the price of the book, I will personalize your copy with a name of your choice-and will write a short line (chosen by me) from the book. You can, instead of the quote, ask for something very simple. A “Happy Birthday” or the date, or something along those lines. Nothing more than three or four words. “Rust and Ruin” or “Life before Death” would be appropriate. The entire first paragraph of The Eye of the World would not be, nor would asking me to do a sketch. In most cases, I suggest just leaving me with a name, and letting me use the quote I’ve chosen.

For a $20 donation to Worldbuilders, you can ask something more extreme of me. This still has to be within reason. Along with a name, you can ask me to write a specific quote in the book up to around fifty words, or you can ask for a simple sketch, or something like that. (If you must have a limerick, then I’ll do that.)

Please note that my handwriting, as you may already know, is not fantastic-and the longer the thing you ask me to write, the more cramped it is going to look in the book. (Also, I can’t draw worth a hill of beans, so be careful asking for sketches. You’ll get a stick figure.)

Hopefully, this will calm things down a little for me during the signing process, but also make it certain that the people who have a special request are taken care of-all while doing some good for charity.

As always, thanks for reading, and please feel free to send me feedback about policies like this through the email form on my website.

Best,
Brandon

Adam here. A few weeks ago I posted about one of Brandon’s (and Isaac’s) interviews in Germany to his social media pages. You read the interview in Germanhere, or download a PDF of the English version a few paragraphs down. Brandon was also interviewed by the German site FantasyBlogger, which Google Translate makes easy reading in English.

In this week’s new Writing Excusesepisode, Governments Large and Small, Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mahtab talk about talk about governmental systems. What kinds do you live within? What kinds do you implement? Answering these questions can help you with the worldbuilding of political power structures.

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread of Oathbringer, Kaladin tells Azure who he really is and discovers that the way they’re getting food is a Soulcaster secreted away in an aluminum-lined bunker. Meanwhile, Shallan has an emotional breakdown and is visited by Hoid, who gives her some much needed advice and—of course—a story. This week, in chapter eighty-three, Elhokar and his group (including Adolin, Kaladin, Shallan, and Azure) leave the tailor’s shop as the walls come under attack, leaving a spanreed with an ardent with orders to use it to alert Dalinar of the impending opening of the Oathgate. They make their way to the palace, where Kaladin, Shallan, Skar, and Drehy break off to loop around and take the Sunwalk. After assaulting the main doors of the palace and making it inside, Adolin discovers a small group of palace guards who didn’t fall under the sway of the Unmade. Kaladin and his men (and Shallan) rejoin them, and they regroup for a moment before Elhokar leads Kaladin off to try to find his wife and son. Meanwhile, the rest of the group continues along the Sunwalk towards the Oathgate platform… and the two Unmade waiting there for them.

Most of the gang from the Wheel of Time showed up to Planet Comicon for this week’s featured cosplay.

Adam here. If you live in the Salt Lake City vicinity, or you don’t mind traveling, Brandon will be at FanX 2019 this weekend. You can see his schedule for FanX below, as well as on his Upcoming Events page which also shows all his future events.

Friday, April 19th

Strange New Worlds: Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction
Time: 3:00-4:00 p.m.
Location: Room 250A
With: Eric Flint, Jonathan Maberry, James Owen, Brandon Sanderson, Larry Correia, Erin Summerill, Dan Wells (moderator), Tyler Whitesides

World Building 101: Creating the History of Your World
Time: 5:00-5:30 p.m.
Location: Convention Stage – Exhibit Hall 1831
With: Brandon Sanderson, Michael Haspil, M. K. Hutchins, Brian McClellan

Signing
Time: 8:00-9:00 p.m.
Location: 151A

Saturday, April 20th

Writers of the Future: Story Prompts, Short Fiction & Winning the Contest
Time: 3:00-4:00 p.m.
Location: Room 151D
With: Eric Flint, Brandon Sanderson, Robert J. Defendi, David Farland, John Goodwin, Scott Parkin, Darci Stone, Eric James Stone

The Brandon & Brandon Show: Spotlight on Brandon Sanderson and Brandon Mull
Time: 6:00-7:00 p.m.
Location: Grand Ballroom
With: Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Mull, Dan Wells

Signing
Time: 8:00-9:00 p.m.
Location: 151A

In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Technology, Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mahtab talk about talk about science and technology in that same way as they have worldbuilding. This has been a staple (perhaps the defining staple) of science fiction since before “science fiction” was a word.

At risk of opening the “where do you get your ideas” can of worms, this episode covers a little bit of where they get their ideas, and where you might get—and subsequently develop—some more of yours.

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread of Oathbringer, Kaladin, having joined the Wall Guard, walks the patrol beat inside the wall with Lieutenant Noro’s squad. He mostly enjoys the banter, obtaining new perspectives on how other people view the social stratification of their society, then helps guard a supply wagon until they turn it over to Velelant’s soldiers. They return to the barracks, then are sent up to the top of the Wall for duty after a short break. As Kaladin arrives, a group of Fused attack the Wall, but in a different location, apparently continuing to test the defenses. Kaladin is reminded in multiple ways that he has neither responsibility nor authority in this setting. This week, in chapter seventy-four, Shallan, as Veil, checks in with her regular poor-folk contacts, but is frustrated that she can’t do more. Encountering a parade of cultists, she creates a new Illusion and “becomes” a very convincing spren, but nearly loses herself to whatever is influencing the cult. Shocked, she tells the cultists to quit playing at being spren and go home to their families; she herself returns to the tailor’s shop for the night. Elhokar is in the kitchen, writing up lists of possible troops and contemplating heroism; Shallan does an idealized drawing of him before going to her room. Ishnah awaits her there, with a note inviting her to join the revel.

In honor of the recent trailer drop of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, today’s featured cosplay of Szeth (which also features on of my favorite characters from all of science fiction) is from Brandon’s recent trip to Planet Comicon in Kansas City.

Adam here. Nominations for the 2019 Hugo Awards close tonight at 11:59 Pacific Daylight Time. A few months ago Brandon wrote short blog about his works that were up for various award eligibility which you can read in full here, but I will give brief bullet points below.

• Skyward is eligible for various awards, including the Andre Norton Award and the award for Best Young Adult book that is given out alongside the Hugos.
• Children of the Nameless would be eligible in various novella categories. As it was released for free, you can download it here.
• Legion: the Many Lives of Stephen Leeds was released as a novel, and is eligible as such.
• The graphic novel White Sand Vo. 2 is also eligible for nomination this year.
• And as usual, you can nominate Writing Excuses in the Best Related Work category.

In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Magic Systems, Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Mahtab design magic systems! They talk about how they do it, and how the principles of magic system design apply to the science fiction systems they create, and vice-versa.

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread of Oathbringer, featured Hoid, our favorite world-hopper who’s never straight forward about anything, and he’s certainly in rare form dropped hints about everything from his age to his role in the Cosmere. And along the way, he imparted a bit of wholesome advice to Shallan, nestled in amongst the jokes and snark. This week, in chapter sixty-nine, Kaladin experiments with Stormlight to determine what will draw the Voidbringers, and determines that Lashing a rock is out of the question. The team returns to the tailor’s shop to change their clothing, and Shallan sets their disguises to match. The men are off to a party, which makes Kaladin no end of grumpy; he ducks out of the party gig and ends up meeting the Wall Guard.

Today’s featured cosplay of Vin is brought to you by 17thsharder Stormwatcher.

Adam here. If you’re interested in writing you should check out the Writing Excuses Workshop and Retreat which departs from Houston and sails September 13th through 22nd and is packed with intensive seminars, writing exercises, small group breakout sessions, and more. Attendees will also be invited to attend a live recording of the Hugo award-winning podcast Writing Excuses, hosted by Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Dan Wells.

In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Showing Off, Brandon, Mary Robinette, Dan, and Howard discuss how to infodump without infodumping and deliver lots of exposition without sounding expository. How to talk with the maid and the butler without having maid-and-butler dialog.

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread of Oathbringer, Shallan, as Veil, goes for a walk through the marketplace. She discovers that the rich lighteyes are prioritizing giving food to the rich over the poor (surprise surprise) and runs into a familiar face telling stories to the beleaguered populace. This week, in sixty-eight, is featuring Hoid, so you just know it’s going to be full of witticisms and mysteries! Our favorite world-hopper’s never straight forward about anything, and he’s certainly in rare form this week as he drops hints about everything from his age to his role in the Cosmere. And along the way, he imparts a bit of wholesome advice to Shallan, nestled in amongst the jokes and snark.

Today’s “awesome” cosplay of Lift is brought to you by the talented Epnona Wingfeather.

Adam here. I want to begin this final blog post of the year with some good news. The Dragonsteel leatherbound edition of The Hero of Ages has arrived! Many of the Dragonsteel Minions have been working long (and often very late hours) to get these books ready to ship out next week—or as quickly as Brandon can get them signed. If you’re not familiar with these versions, these are special editions that we release to celebrate the book’s original publication ten years earlier. You can see all of them on Brandon’s website store.

If you’re hoping to get a personalized copy of this book, we will open the personalization option again once all the pre-ordered leatherbound Hero of Ages have shipped. I’m sure we will announce when personalizations are again available on Brandon’s social media channels, so watch there.

Brandon was able to hop over and do an AMA (ask me anything) on Reddit earlier this month for his Magic the Gathering novel Children of the Nameless (which is free to download). If you’re not familiar with this book, you should check out this post from Brandon from a few weeks ago. While Brandon isn’t answering any further questions from this AMA I thought many of you would find it interesting to browse. While you’re there, you can read Brandon’s first update for Stormlight 4.

In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Working Dad is a Spaceman, Howard, Mary, and Dan, with NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn who is both spaceman and parent, talks about what it’s like to be both.

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread of Oathbringer, Taravangian is having a genius day. He fools his testers into thinking that he’s not having a “so intelligent he’s dangerous” day and proceeds to begin tearing up the Diagram, looking for hints and codes that cannot be deciphered when the pages are bound. When Adrotagia calls him out for his deception, he shoves her out of the room and continues, finally coming to the conclusion that Dalinar is not to be killed, now—they’re past that point. Now he must be dethroned as leader of the Coalition, to make room for Taravangian to take his place and hence be in a better place to negotiate directly with Odium. This week, in Interlude 6, Venli and several of the remaining Listeners await the coming Everstorm, promised by Ulim that it will bring them more power. But when it passes, Venli realizes that they had been misled. Her friends are gone, their souls destroyed and their bodies claimed by the ancient Listener gods. She alone remains, destined for some greater purpose by Odium. In the aftermath of her grief, a strange spren appears, which Venli hides, certain that the creatures residing within the bodies of her friends will destroy it.

Adam here. With Skyward being released next week I wanted to go over the few options you have to get a signed and numbered copy as well as the release party details.

If you’ve been paying attention to Brandon’s social media channels none of what I’m about to tell you will come as a surprise. And don’t forget: by pre-ordering Skyward, and filling out this form, you can receive an exclusive map print featuring the world of Skyward signed by Brandon!

Option One
The first option is to “pre-order” your book by calling or visiting the Orem Barnes & Noble. You don’t need to pay for it when ordering but it gets your name on the list so you are guaranteed a book for the release party.

I will go into more details on this later.

Option Two
For those unable to attend the release party in Orem—or if you like to donate to charity—your best option is to order a copy from Weller Book Works. There are only 500 copies available and they can only be ordered from their website. Specific details are on their website, but these few points will give you the gist.

• They ship internationally
• Continuing the tradition we started with Oathbringer, we are asking for small donations for inscriptions. If you’re looking for just your name and a quote of Brandon’s choosing, it is $5.00. If you’re looking for anything other than that (some have asked for limericks in the past), we’re asking for a $20.00 donation.

Details for the release party

9:00 a.m. – Doors open and wristbands will be distributed on a first-come-first-served basis. Your line number is your book number with the first 300 book numbers being reserved for those on the pre-order list.

6:00 p.m. – Readers can begin to assemble at the Orem Barnes & Noble. There will be a raffle, game, and picture op available.

7:00 p.m. – Brandon’s presentation followed by a Q&A. The signing will begin as soon as Brandon is finished.

A few additional notes

• One numbered wristband per Skyward book. One companion wristband may be requested per number.
• If you are bringing your own copy of Skyward, you may request a book number, but it will be after all the Barnes & Noble numbered books.
• If you are coming to the signing and you are not planning to bring a Skyward book to be signed, you may receive a wristband for the event but will be asked to wait until the numbered wristbands have been asked to line up. A purchase is not required, but encouraged.
• If you do not want a Skyward book signed, but have other books you would like signed by Brandon, you will receive a different colored wristband and will be admitted into the line after all the line numbers have been called.
• All books will need to be paid for before you leave the event. Not prior to the event.

A note about numbered copies of Skyward:

Skyward book numbers will be shared with other bookstores (like Weller Book Works), so the book numbers available for the release event are as follows:

• • The Orem Barnes & Noble event will have the following book numbers for copies of Skyward pre-ordered through them:

• 1-99, 200-299, 400-499

• • Those who wait to buy the book at the Orem Barnes & Noble on the day of release will have the following book numbers:

• 600-699, 800-899*

• • Those who are bringing a Skyward book NOT purchased from the Orem B&N will be given these book numbers:

• 1000-1099, etc.*

*These numbers will be pushed back if pre-orders exceed 300.

I had an excellent time at Worldcon this year. We got a chunk of Writing Excuses episodes recorded, and I was able to hang out with a number of friends I hadn’t seen in a while. On top of that, I felt that the panels went well, even if they were a little crowded in the rooms. (Apologies to any of you who might not have been able to get in.)

The Hugo Awards ceremony was a delight. We didn’t win the Best Series award, but to be honest, at only three books into the Stormlight series it might have been a little preemptive to give it any awards. We’ll see how things go as the series progresses. Many congrats to Lois McMaster Bujold (the winner), who is a favorite around the Dragonsteel offices. She’s a fantastic writer, well worthy of the award.

Oathbringer still has one shot at an award, the Dragon Award, given out at Dragon Con. This is a newer award, one I’m not as familiar with, but man…the award itself is gorgeous. (Seriously, you guys should go have a look at the thing.)

This, like the Gemmell, is a fan-voted award. So if you feel inclined to vote for Oathbringer, you can sign up at the form on this website. They’ll send you a ballot to fill out, though you need to do this before the end of August to vote. The award does seem to be getting some traction, so maybe give it some attention!

As always, however, I strongly urge you to be a thoughtful voter when it comes to awards. Don’t vote for Oathbringer just because I wrote it—only do so if you think this book, in specific, deserves the award. And there are some other excellent nominees, so if you enjoyed one of those more, then vote for it!