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.

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!

Adam here. If you’ve been following Brandon’s Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram you will know that it’s been quite the exciting week for us here at Dragonsteel Headquarters. For those who haven’t, here’s a quick rundown.

In a previous post we showed you you a bit about the cooperative board game from Nauvoo Games based on The Reckoners series, including a video that shows gameplay mechanics. The Kickstarter launched yesterday and within 12 hours had already been funded and is now at 123%!

On Monday, we were given this sneak peak of Escape the Shattered Plains VR Experience from Arcturus XR and we’ve been told to expect something even bigger tomorrow, so tune in to Brandon’s social media channels around 12:00 p.m. tomorrow.

Brandon has several events coming up in the next few weeks. You can see full details for these events as well as his other future events at his Upcoming Events page but here is a quick look at the next few weeks.

Saturday, February 17th – Provo, UT

Life, the Universe, and Everything

Crafting Good Subplots
Time: 1:00–1:45 p.m.
Location: Zion
David Farland, Kathryn Purdie, Renee Collins (M), Charlie N. Holmberg
A discussion about using subplots to add nuance to your story without derailing your main plot entirely.

What It’s Like: Writing In Somebody Else’s Milieu
Time: 2:00–2:45 p.m.
Location: Canyon
Karen Evans, Sarah E. Seeley, Todd McCaffrey, Brad R. Torgersen (M)
This is NOT a “how to write in somebody else’s milieu”; this is “what is it like?” Did you still like the milieu afterwards? We want stories from those invited to write.

Prologues and Epilogues
Time: 3:00–3:45 p.m.
Location: Canyon
Lisa Mangum, Myke Cole, Todd McCaffrey, Jason King (M)
Find out what sets prologues and epilogues apart from ordinary chapters, and learn when and how to use them to enhance your story.

Kaffeeklatsch
Time: 5:00–5:45 p.m.
Location: Boardroom
Kaffeeklatsch: From the German for “coffee” and “gossip”, an informal social gathering at which coffee and other beverages are served while chatting. Join your favorite presenter for all their insights. Seats are very limited so sign up outside the Boardroom ASAP.

Friday, February 23rd – Provo, UT

English Reading Series at the Harold B. Lee Library

The Brigham Young University English Department Reading Series began in 1999. The program continues to expand, solidify, and gain a stronger audience. Each Friday at noon a writer, visiting or local to BYU, reads his or her work in the Harold B. Lee Library auditorium. Writers from Pulitzer Prize winners Marilynne Robinson, Maxine Kumin, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Charles Simic to editors such as Peter Davison and Helen Handley Houghton to faculty and students have shared their work in the last decade.

As a result of audience enthusiasm and the excellent writing, BYU created a course associated with the weekly event; students study the writer’s work during the week before he or she reads, then students respond to what they learned.

The readings are open to the public. Today many students, faculty, and residents come to enjoy listening to quality literature and participating in question and answer sessions.

This site archives the recorded English Department Reading Series.

Signing
Time: 2:00 p.m.
Location: BYU Bookstore

Thursday, March 4th – Seattle, WA

Emerald City Comic Con

Writing Magical Stories That Make Sense
Time: 4:00–5:00 p.m.
Location: WSCC 603
Magic can be one of the most memorable and fun components of a fantasy story, but it can also be destructive. In order for magic to “work,” what are the import…

Brandon’s booth will be in Artist Alley at table KK3. There will be swag and Dragonsteel published books (leatherbounds, con exclusive doubles, etc). All other titles will be sold at the UBookstore Booth.

We also have some exciting news coming out of Poland. Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians has been nominated by Lubimy Czytać (Polish Goodreads) for Best Children’s Book of 2017.

In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, External Conflicts for Characters, Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice discuss how external conflict is a story driver that originates outside the protagonist. In this episode a large part of what we’ll focus on is person-vs-environment as opposed to person-vs-person. PvE rather than PvP, if you will.

Last week, we took our third look at the fateful night of the treaty-turned-assassination, from the perspective of the young Listener scout who started it all. This week, we return to Urithiru, where Dalinar is facing a host of problems ranging from personal to global importance—not least of which is how to get anyone to believe him.

The Twitter Archive for February is up to date.

This week’s featured cosplay of Vin by Abigail (jedi_bria42) is from DragonCon 2016.

Hey, all. It’s awards nomination season again!

As is tradition, I’d like to do a quick post highlighting what I have that is eligible for the various awards in sf/f. As always, I request that you nominate based on work, not author. If you are eligible to nominate, and truly think one of the works below is among the best you read this year, I’d love to have your vote.

Nominations for the Hugo Awards are now open. In order to nominate you need to have already been a Worldcon member (Helsinki, San Jose, or Dublin) as of December 31st, but members who join this year’s convention anytime may vote on the final ballot once it’s available.

Here’s what I have eligible in what category:

Best Novella:
Snapshot

Best Novel:
Oathbringer

Best Related Work:
Writing Excuses Season 12

Best Series:
The Stormlight Archive

As usual, I tend to highlight one of my releases. This year, to no surprise, I’d like to focus on Oathbringer and the Stormlight Archive. I feel that the Stormlight Archive has a good shot at a Best Series Hugo—it is my best work, and the previous volume missed a nomination by a fairly small margin of votes. I feel the series does interesting things with worldbuilding and narrative that Hugo voters would consider valuable to the fantasy genre as a whole.

If you’re eligible to nominate for the Hugo Awards, but haven’t read any of the Stormlight Archive, I’d be happy to provide a review copy of the first book to you for your consideration. The Hugo Awards nomination deadline is March 16th.

Other awards this year of interest, with who can nominate (and any notes on categories for the above works), are below. As always, the best reward for a novelist is the fact that people are reading the novels—and I don’t stress awards season very much. But I do like what these awards do for the community, and find it important to support them and fandom in general as it works to highlight our genres and the best they can provide.

• Nebula Award
  • Members of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America can nominate by February 15th.
• World Fantasy Awards
  • Members of the World Fantasy conventions can send eligible works to the panel of judges before June 1st.
• David Gemmell Legend Award
  • Nominations are now closed. Voting on the long list of nominees opens to the public on February 16th, with final public voting beginning on April 20th.
  • The Legend Award is for novels. The Ravenheart Award is for novel cover illustrations.
• Dragon Awards
  • Nominations are open to the public now through June 20th, with final public voting beginning on August 1st.
  • Oathbringer is eligible for Best Fantasy Novel. (I recommend nominations go there rather than in Best Military Science Fiction or Fantasy Novel; you can’t nominate it in two categories.)
  • White Sand Volume 1 is eligible for Best Graphic Novel.

Hello, everyone! I’ve had my nose to the grindstone working on Oathbringer. However, as awards season is upon us again, I’m pausing to do my yearly roundup of what I have that is eligible.

I know that to many of you, the science fiction awards (and the occasional drama surrounding them) are of little interest. However, I think it is important for me to support these awards, as they are valuable for our community.

Science fiction and fantasy, as genres, have become increasingly mainstream. In addition, those outside fandom are coming to understand us better. However, we continue to face unfair treatment by certain literary circles. We can’t simply say, “Hey, you shouldn’t regard an entire genre with derision, particularly when the genre is so wide,” without in turn saying, “Take a look at these books as great examples of what we do well.”

It is important that we in the genres uphold what we think is excellent about what we do. Those authors—and the world at large—deserve to understand that we’re proud of ourselves and of what we accomplish.

At worst, awards are a popularity contest. And that’s just fine. At their best, though, they are the means by which we grow as a community.

This year has a special difference from previous years, in that the Hugo Awards is trying out an award for Best Series. Below I’ve listed what I have that is eligible for the Hugo and Nebula awards this year. In addition to the below, last year Camera Panda filmed my university writing lectures, which are well worth watching and are eligible as Best Related Work.

Hugo Awards nominations are open to all members of the 2016, 2017, and 2018 World Science Fiction Conventions, and the deadline is March 17. You had to be a member by January 21st to nominate, but it’s not too late to become a member of the 2017 Worldcon in order to vote on the final ballot once it’s announced.

The Nebula nomination deadline, for SFWA members, is tomorrow, February 15.

Best Novel

• The Bands of Mourning
• Calamity
• The Dark Talent

(Note: Calamity and possibly The Dark Talent are also eligible for consideration by the Andre Norton Award jury.)

Best Novella

• Mistborn: Secret History
• Edgedancer (appeared in Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection)

(Note: Both of these novellas are slightly over 40,000 words and thus are eligible as novels for both the Nebula and Hugo Awards. However, under the Hugos’ 20%/5,000-word category relocation rule, they are also eligible for the Best Novella Hugo Award, where they fit best.)

Best Series (Hugo Awards only)

• Mistborn
• The Stormlight Archive
• Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians

In these award eligibility posts, I generally pick one thing I’d like to highlight for awards consideration. Usually it’s a novella or novel I think represents my best work of the year, or the one that I think stands best on its own.

This year, however, I feel that my novellas and novels don’t work independently. The novellas are both parts of larger series, requiring foreknowledge to really work. The two novels I released were the third in their respective series.

(Arcanum Unbounded could be eligible for the World Fantasy’s anthology award, but that is juried by a committee. So it’s up to whoever is part of that jury, not the voting public.)

Therefore, the thing I’d like to highlight this year is Mistborn for the Best Series Hugo Award. Mistborn had two entries this year, and I do think I’m doing something particularly interesting with that series. (Taking an epic fantasy world and pushing it toward a modern-day urban fantasy.) I would rather people consider it, than the Stormlight Archive, as I’d prefer the attention be on Stormlight in a year when it has a full novel in consideration. Hopefully we will have many more years of the Series Hugo to consider worthy works.

Adam here. Sorry about missing last week’s update post; I have been traveling in Europe with Brandon (mostly, but I will get to that in a minute) and didn’t have good internet access. So if you have been lost—or as I like to imagine it, wallowing in the pit of despair—without my weekly update, for this I am sorry. I will try to make it up to you.

Weekly Update

Humble Bundle has put up a fantasy/sf RPG ebook bundle that features three of Crafty Games’ Mistborn Adventure Game books. This is running for only two weeks, so if you haven’t had a chance to pick up these RPG books yet, this is a good chance.

The first round of this year’s Goodreads Choice Awards is now open for voting, and Brandon has two books nominated: The Bands of Mourning in Fantasy, and Calamity in Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction.

In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Horrifying the Children, with Darren Shan, the Writing Excuses crew with the aid of Darren Shan (Cirque du Freak or any of fifty other books), breaks down writing horror for children and young adults.

Last week, in chapter one reread for Warbreaker, we met the Idrian royal family and were introduced to the political tensions that drive much of the plot. This week, in chapter two, the sisters express their dissatisfaction with the exchange in no uncertain terms, and another plot-critical decision is reached.

And with the announcement last week that DMG Entertainment has optioned the entire Cosmere series for film, with a movie for The Way of Kings fast-tracked for production, Tor.com has put up a dream cast post for that movie. Check it out.

The Twitter post archive for October is up to date.

For those who haven’t heard, I will be a keynote speaker at YALLFest in Charleston this November along with Brandon Mull, Richelle Mead, and R.L. Stine.

Back 2010, Elbakin.net in France gave an award to the first Mistborn book. This year, The Way of Kings has been nominated for the 2015 version of the same award. Best of luck to all the nominees, and I hope my readers in France are enjoying more and more of my books as they get translated there.

In this week’s Writing Excuses episode, What Makes a Scene?, we try to answer that question. How do we, as writers, structure things using scenes? When does it begin, or end, and when has it gone on too long? We each do this a little differently, and because of those differences, definitions and processes will vary widely across mediums. So we are going to talk about how we do this, making reference to Scene/Sequel format, the MICE quotient and pacing.

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread posts for Words of Radiance, Shallan attained a new level in her Lightweaving. This week, in Chapter 43, she uses her new skills to survive a meeting with the Ghostbloods.

My assistant Adam has updated the Twitter archive for June.

Just a quick update before the weekend. On Monday I will have a big post for Magic: The Gathering players, so look forward to that!

The latest Writing Excuses writing advice show episode talks about worldbuilding without breaking viewpoint. We’ve also uploaded this year’s submission for the Hugo Voter Packet in the Best Related Work section, where Writing Excuses Season Eight is nominated. It features eight popular episodes from last year, and you can also see the full episode list here. For Hugo Award voters it’s in the Hugo Packet, but anyone can see the page here, and of course anyone can download the episodes for free.

Leigh Butler at Tor.com has posted a “Hugo Refresher” with summaries of each book in the Wheel of Time, along with a favorite passage from each book.

Shawn Speakman’s The Signed Page website has a few signed hardcovers available of Steelheart and The Alloy of Law, left over from when I stopped by Shawn’s place in the past. (And of course, I have many signed books in my website store, along with jewelry, shirts, and other things.)

My assistant Peter has uploaded all of my Twitter posts from May.

Hey, everyone. This is a reminder that I’ll be at FanX this weekend, for Saturday only. This is basically Salt Lake City’s spring Comic Con, so it’s bound to be a lively experience. Here is my schedule, which you can also find on my events page:

Salt Lake Comic Con FanX

Date: Saturday, March 26
Address: Salt Palace Convention Center
100 West Temple
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Phone: (385) 468-2222

Spotlight on Brandon Sanderson
Time: 1:00–2:00 p.m.
Location: 250A

Signing
Time: 3:00–4:30 p.m.
Location: Shadow Mountain Booth 1341

Writing Excuses: The Podcast
Time: 6:00–7:00 p.m.
Location: 250A

The Brandon and Dan Show:
Time: 7:00–8:00 p.m.
Location: 151A

My solo panel is probably going to be mostly reading and Q&A. At these, I usually try to read something unpublished to give you a sneak peek, and this one will probably be from Stormlight Three. I haven’t decided if it will be one of the sections I read while on tour, or if I can find a new one that will work for a reading.

The next panel will be Writing Excuses-focused. We won’t be recording actual episodes though. I believe this is going to be more of a free-form writing help panel, with us taking questions.

The highlight will probably be the Brandon and Dan show—depending on your definition of highlight. This will just be me and Dan telling stories, primarily about role playing sessions we’ve been in, and interviewing one another about random (and probably goofy) topics. So if you want something more lighthearted yet personal, this is the one for you.

If you can’t make the panels, I have a signing as well. This will be at the Shadow Mountain booth, where they should have most of my books on sale.

Hugo Awards

Finally, if you’re a member of the upcoming Worldcon (or were a member of last year’s Worldcon), you should know that the deadline to nominate works for the Hugo Awards is coming up soon. (In about a week. Nominations need to be in by the 31st.) I wrote an earlier blog post about this, listing the works of mine that are eligible.

It is my tradition to highlight one work I think is worthy of consideration, and offer a free copy of it in the spirit of the Hugo Packet to anyone eligible to nominate for the Hugo Awards. This year, that piece is Perfect State. If you are interested, and are eligible to nominate, feel free to request an electronic copy through the contact form on my website.

As always, I strongly request that readers only nominate works (by me or anyone else) they have both read and feel exemplify the best that science fiction and fantasy have to offer.

On Monday night we had a very successful release party for the newest Mistborn novel, The Bands of Mourning. It’s now available worldwide in print, audio, and ebook, and you can find links to where to get it in the tabs at the upper right of the post. If you have already read Shadows of Self (which came out in October), then check out the sample chapters of the new book. (They do have spoilers for the previous books!)

There’s also a surprise novella that came out at the same time, ebook-only for now. If you haven’t finished The Bands of Mourning yet, it’s best to pretend the new novella doesn’t exist until you finish Bands. But it’s something I’ve been hoping for years to be able to share with you, and I’m very pleased that now is the right time.

I talked about both of those, plus a Stormlight 3 update and something about what my writing space is like, in the January 2016 Brandon Sanderson Newsletter. If you don’t want to miss a newsletter in the future, sign up here.

On a different topic, it’s time again to consider your nominations for awards in the genre.

Nominating for the Nebula Awards is the privilege of active members of SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. (To join SFWA, you need to be a qualifying professional.) To nominate for the Hugo Awards this year, you need to be a member of the 2016 World Science Fiction Convention in Kansas City, or be a member of the 2017 Worldcon in Helsinki, Finland, or have been a member of the 2015 Worldcon in Spokane. (Anyone can join Worldcon; see the bottom of this post.)

It has become traditional in the field for writers like myself to provide a list of which works of theirs are eligible, so that people who are interested in nominating can look into them and give them consideration. As always, it is better to nominate a work because you love it in particular, rather than because of your general preference for a specific author. (Except in certain cases where the creator is instead the focus of the award, such as is the case with the Campbell Award.) The Hugo Awards have only the strength, and prestige, we give them. Please consider my works below, but nominate them only if you sincerely think they are among the best works you read last year.

Brandon Sanderson’s Award-Eligible Works for the 2015–2016 Season

Best Related Work (Hugo Only)

• Writing Excuses Season 10

Best Novel (Hugo or Nebula)

• Shadows of Self (Tor/Gollancz)
• Firefight (Delacorte/Gollancz)

Best Novella (Hugo or Nebula)

• Perfect State (Dragonsteel Entertainment)

As I’ve done the past few years, where I send out a review copy of one work to eligible nominators, this year I’ll be doing the same for Perfect State. So if you have a membership for the 2015, 2016, or 2017 Worldcon, feel free to drop me an email through my website requesting an ebook of Perfect State and saying which Worldcon you’re a member of (or saying you’re an active SFWA member), and we’ll respond with a copy of the novella.

If you don’t have at least a supporting membership for Worldcon, you should totally consider getting one (currently $50). With a supporting membership, you get voting rights on the Hugo Awards, and will be sent ebook copies of most (if not all) of the nominated books and stories (last year, the publisher of several of the novels decided not to include them in the packet). To nominate, you must have your membership by January 31st (or be a member of the 2015 or 2017 Worldcons by that date). Nominations close on March 31st. To vote on the final ballot, you must be a member of the 2016 Worldcon specifically, by the voting deadline (sometime in July).

Worldcon is one of the most chill ways I know of to hang out with authors. It’s not like a comic con; there’s no frantic air of merchandising or enormous crowds. (Though I do enjoy comic cons.) Worldcon is about interacting with fellow fans and with writers. You can nominate and vote on the Hugo Awards with just a supporting membership, but to attend the convention requires an attending membership.