In the most recent Writing Excuses podcast episode, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells, and I talk about breaking the rules. We’ve said that you’ve got to learn the rules before you break them, so now it’s time to talk about why to break them.

Tomorrow I’m starting the second leg of my book tour, and Harriet McDougal will join me for many of the stops. Details on my events page.

Wed Feb 6: San Diego w/Harriet
Thu Feb 7: Los Angeles area w/Harriet
Fri Feb 8: Sacramento area w/Harriet
Sat Feb 9: San Francisco w/Harriet
Mon Feb 11: Portland area w/Harriet
Tue Feb 12: Seattle w/Harriet
Thu Feb 14: Vancouver, BC area
Fri Feb 15: Toronto
Sat Feb 16: Milford, NH
Mon Feb 18: Baltimore area w/Harriet
Tue Feb 19: Philadelphia w/Harriet
Wed Feb 20: Raleigh w/Harriet
Thu Feb 21: Atlanta area w/Harriet
Fri Feb 22: Birmingham, AL w/Harriet

I’ll also go to various conventions this year, and there are two or three book tours later this year that aren’t planned out yet. I’ll try to stop somewhere in Texas for the THE RITHMATIST tour in May, and I’m thinking of going to the UK around November or so. If you want to receive my newsletter, and get email reminders when I’ll be signing near you, tell me your city here.

I’ve uploaded the second video of me writing the Rysn interlude from the sequel to THE WAY OF KINGS. If you missed the first video with the prewriting, it’s here. This week’s video starts the interlude itself.

As I mentioned last week, the Elantris ebook is on sale for $2.99 until June 7th, and then from June 6th to the 16th The Rithmatist will be only $1.99. My Hugo Award-nominated novella Perfect State is also still priced at 99¢, worldwide! If you have not done so already, consider checking these out.

In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Examining Unconscious Biases,
Shannon Hale joins us at LTUE for a live-audience session in which we explore gender biases, and extrapolate from there to our many other unconscious biases.

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread posts for Words of Radiance, Dalinar’s forces finally joined battle against the Parshendi at the center of the Shattered Plains. This week, in Chapter 82, Kaladin reaches a difficult decision, while Dalinar and Adolin continue to press the battle.

My assistant Adam has updated the Twitter post archive for May.

Everyone, I come to you today deeply humbled and appreciative. Over the weekend at Worldcon in San Antonio, I was honored with not one, but two Hugo awards. Though I’m thrilled to have Writing Excuses finally win after several years of losses, I’m beyond flattered to have been given a fiction award in the novella category for The Emperor’s Soul.

I shared a little of what I was thinking during the acceptance speech, but I prefer to keep things like that short. I’ll go into a little more depth here. Many of you know the story of how I discovered fantasy novels as a young man. My first experience with fandom isn’t one I’ve talked about as often.

I was seventeen or eighteen when it happened. A teacher (a different one from the one who handed me my first fantasy novel) waved me over after class. He’d noticed a flyer for a science fiction convention called Andromeda One, which had a writing contest. Now, this teacher was not a fan of sf in the least—he had us reading Faulkner—but he was a teacher, and an excellent one. He held up the sheet to me and said, “You should check this out, Brandon. I think you’ll like it. And try submitting one of your stories.”

I’d never heard of literary science fiction cons before. I figured it was something like a Star Trek con. I was wrong, as this was something so much more. A welcoming home, a place for thoughtful discussion, and a place of learning. I spent that weekend in panels, listening to REAL writers who wrote stories like I liked to read. Katherine Kurtz was guest of honor, and I remember my utter amazement at how—when I asked her a question about writing—she sat me down and didn’t just answer, but talked to me and encouraged me for a good half hour while she waited for her next panel.

I found my home among these people. I was immediately adopted into the fold by the other teens there, and was carted from one activity to another by people whom I’d never met before that day—but who wanted to make certain I had a good convention experience. It was amazing.

As I mentioned, the convention had a student writing competition. In fact, I remember the exact words of the flyer my teacher showed me. It had a line I have never forgotten, written in big letters, proclaiming, “Andromeda One student writing contest! Join us as we search for what may be future Hugo and Nebula Award winners!”

I managed to win that contest. Granted, I think there were only five or six submissions. But I actually won. The award was a certificate, a $50 savings bond, and a handshake. The presenter said to me, “Keep writing, kid! Maybe someday you’ll win yourself a Hugo.”

Ladies and gentlemen, almost twenty years later, here it is. My Hugo.

Photo by Eddie Schneider.

How can I explain my emotions? I’ve had writing successes, but for twenty years—ever since I saw that shiny award sticker on the copy of Ender’s Game I was buying, and looked up what it meant—this has been one of my profoundest, most personal goals in life. To write something worthy of that beautiful statue. I haven’t talked about it a lot because I believe strongly in the integrity of the award, and believe authors should avoid doing more than making people aware of deadlines and eligible works. But now I can talk about it.

The Emperor’s Soul is by far the best short piece I’ve ever written, and it rivals the best of my novels in quality. It is the perfect piece to win, one I’m exceptionally proud of. I’m amazed, gratified, honored, and deeply grateful that so many people found it worthy. This is the perfect news to use as the first post on my new website, which you may have noticed has finally come online.

Thank you to all who have believed in me and my writing. Thank you to my 3-year-old, who—upon seeing me on the video stream from home—apparently said, “Why is Daddy on the big TV?” Thank you to Emily for her love and support, to my parents for all they have done for me. To people like Moshe Feder who discovered me, to the Tachyon folks who did such a great job editing and packaging this book, and also to my wonderful agent and my dedicated assistants.

Most of all, thank you to all who voted. Thank you so very much.

Tachyon has printed a small print run of hardcovers of The Emperor’s Soul, and we were planning to put them up for sale this Christmas. Well, I don’t think that will do any longer! I’m therefore proud to offer, for sale as of now, hardcover editions of The Emperor’s Soul.

 

They are a little pricy at $25 (on sale for $20 until the end of September), because of the nature of doing small hardcover print runs—this is intended as a collector’s item. The trade paperback will continue to be sold at many wonderful locations, as will the ebook. All print copies entitle you to a free copy of the ebook as well, mailed to you directly by me in a DRM-free format. (Details here at the bottom of the page.)

So now what? Well, onward, I guess! Some of the masters of this genre collected a good dozen or so Hugos during their lifetimes. I’ve got a lot of work to do.

 

Hey, all! I had an exciting time at Worldcon, as you might have heard. I’m working on a long blog post about the experience, and it will go up tomorrow. (Actually, be sure to check my site tomorrow regardless…)

For today, though, I wanted to announce the release of my second and final Infinity Blade novella! It’s out now on the iBookstore, with a short exclusive period for them. I believe it is DRM-free, and it will move to other ebook platforms next week.

If you aren’t familiar with this project, these are based on a game series made by some friends of mine in Salt Lake City. The games are awesome, and have been bestsellers on iOS devices. I did one other novella bridging the first and second games, and now have written one taking place after the second game. It’s been a fun experience; they’ve really let me onto the team, and I’ve been able to have a lot to do with the story development of the entire series.

Pictures of Hugo Awards tomorrow!

In other news, my assistant Peter has uploaded another Twitter posts archive, covering August.

A bit of catch-up on the Writing Excuses podcast: We did episodes on making non-human characters relatable, survivorship bias, and a guest episode with Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content about digging yourself out of holes.

Brandon

ChAIR ENTERTAINMENT & NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR BRANDON SANDERSON ANNOUNCE NEW CHAPTER IN INFINITY BLADE SAGA, 
INFINITY BLADE: REDEMPTION

Pre-Order the Novella Now Exclusively on iBooks

Salt Lake City, UT (August 20, 2013) — ChAIR Entertainment, a division of Epic Games Inc., today announced Infinity Blade: Redemption, the second in a series of novellas based on ChAIR’s award-winning Infinity Blade video game series and written by #1 New York Times bestselling fantasy author Brandon Sanderson (The Way of Kings, Mistborn, The Wheel of Time, Steelheart). Infinity Blade: Redemption publishes worldwide on September 3rd exclusively on iBooks and is now available for pre-order: iTunes.com/InfinityBladeRedemption.

Infinity Blade: Redemption delves deeper into the fantastical world of Infinity Blade, a world of mystery and intrigue where magic and technology are indistinguishable and even life and death are not as they seem. The secrets unraveled will dig backward in time toward the origins of the Deathless and the true nature of the world itself.

“As an avid gamer for most of my life, I’ve been thrilled at the chance to be involved in the Infinity Blade project,” said author Brandon Sanderson. “It gives me a chance to geek out in a new way, and it allows me to explore storytelling in this new world where different types of media can merge, get shaken up, and enhance one another.”

Infinity Blade: Redemption will be available where other digital books are sold beginning September 9th. Pre-order the book and read a preview chapter now exclusively on iBooks: iTunes.com/InfinityBladeRedemption.

Learn more about Infinity Blade: Redemption and other Infinity Blade products on the official site at: http://infinitybladegame.com. Follow @InfinityBlade on Twitter and ‘Like’ “Infinity Blade” on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/InfinityBladeGame

 

ABOUT INFINITY BLADE:

In 2010, Epic Games’ award-winning studio ChAIR Entertainment forever changed the landscape of mobile gaming with the introduction of Infinity Blade for the App Store. Powered by Unreal Engine 3, Infinity Blade and its acclaimed 2011 sequel Infinity Blade II, brought handheld gaming to new heights with gorgeous visuals, adrenaline-fueled battles and advanced character progression in a fully 3D world. With more that 40 million players worldwide, the Infinity Blade games are among the most popular ever launched on the App Store, receiving a combined 50+ Editor’s Choice and Game of the Year accolades, as well as the International Mobile Game Awards “Excellence in Design” Award and the prestigious 2011 Apple Design Award.

Further expanding the game’s lore, ChAIR introduced a series of bestselling digital novellas written by acclaimed fantasy author Brandon Sanderson. Fans can dive more deeply into the fantastical world of Infinity Blade with Infinity Blade: Awakening and its 2013 sequel, Infinity Blade: Redemption, available on all popular digital bookstore platforms.

 

ABOUT ChAIR:

Founded in 2005, Salt Lake City-based ChAIR Entertainment is a subsidiary of Epic Games, Inc. In December 2011, ChAIR introduced the award-winning sword-fighting adventure Infinity Blade II for the App Store. Following in the footsteps of the original iOS blockbuster Infinity Blade, introduced in 2010, the critically-acclaimed sequel won more than 25 Game of the Year and Editor’s Choice accolades and remains one of the most popular games released on the App Store. In 2009, ChAIR released the modern and masterful side-scrolling shooter Shadow Complex, published by Microsoft Game Studios exclusively for Xbox LIVE Arcade. The critically-acclaimed Shadow Complex received numerous E3 and Editor’s Choice Awards and was named Game of the Year by more than 40 media outlets. Prior to that, ChAIR debuted the award-winning underwater action-shooter, Undertow for Xbox LIVE Arcade. Follow @ChAIRGAMES on Twitter and Instagram and ‘Like’ on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/ChAIRGAMES.

 

ABOUT EPIC GAMES

Established in 1991, Epic Games, Inc. develops cutting-edge games and cross-platform game engine technology. The company is responsible for the bestselling “Unreal” series of games, the blockbuster Gears of War franchise and the groundbreaking Infinity Blade line of mobile games. Epic’s award-winning Unreal Engine technology has won dozens of awards and is available for licensing. Epic is continually recruiting top talent for its studios located in North Carolina, Washington, Utah, Poland, Korea and Japan. For more information, visit http://www.epicgames.com and follow @EpicGames.

Epic, Epic Games, Gears of War, Infinity Blade, Unreal, Unreal Engine, UE3 and UE4 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

Tomorrow and Saturday I’ll be at Gen Con. My schedule is below. See you there! But first, if you haven’t seen the STEELHEART teaser trailer, the prologue, or teaser chapters, please go give them a look! The release date is fast approaching, so think about preordering the book from your favorite vendor. (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, Audible, Apple, Kobo, Google Play.) If you would like a signed and numbered copy, Weller Book Works will begin accepting orders TODAY for delivery on or very shortly after September 24th. (Or you can come to the release event at the Orem Barnes & Noble on September 24th. More details later.) Mysterious Galaxy and Shawn Speakman’s The Signed Page will also have signed books available to preorder, but they won’t be shipped until I sign them in October.

Steelheart Signed & Numbered Copies

Weller Book Works is excited to offer signed and numbered copies of Brandon Sanderson’s Steelheart.

A maximum of two copies may be ordered per customer. The price is $15.19 per copy plus tax and/or shipping if applicable. That’s 20% off the cover price of $18.99. [UPDATE September 13th: The discount only applied before I went in to sign and personalize the books. There were a few books left that I signed and numbered, which you can order at cover price. It’s too late for them to be personalized.]

United States shipping is via USPS Priority Mail. You may choose to have orders for a single copy shipped in a padded envelope or in a box. Orders for two copies will be shipped in a box. Shipping prices are as follows:

• US Domestic padded envelope – $7.00
• US Domestic box – $13.00

In addition, orders picked up in-store or shipped to destinations in Utah will be charged sales tax of $1.04 per book.

International shipping is via USPS 1st Class or Priority Mail for single copies. You may choose to have single copy orders shipped in a 1st Class padded envelope, a Priority Mail padded envelope, or a Priority Mail box. Orders for two copies will be shipped in a Priority Mail box. Unfortunately, we are not able to ship two copies 1st Class due to weight limits. Please note that 1st Class orders will not arrive until significantly after the release date. Shipping prices are as follows:

• Canada & Mexico 1st Class padded envelope – $16.00
• Canada & Mexico Priority Mail padded envelope – $21.00
• Canada & Mexico Priority Mail box – $ 42.00
• All other international 1st Class padded envelope – $23.00
• All other international Priority Mail padded envelope – $25.00
• All other international Priority Mail box – $62.00

Orders may be paid for with credit card or Paypal only. All orders must be placed via e-mail by e-mailing books@wellerbookworks.com.

When you order, please let us know how you would like your copy personalized. Tell us “signature only” if you just want it signed and numbered. If you would like it signed to you or to a friend, say, e.g., “Sign it ‘to John.’” If you are paying by Paypal, please include your paypal email in your order so that we can invoice you. Please include your shipping address when ordering.

This promotion is limited to 500 copies of Steelheart, and all orders must be received and paid for by August 31, 2013.

E-mail books@wellerbookworks.com to order today!

Gen Con Indy

Place: Gen Con Indy 2013
Address: Indiana Convention Center
100 S Capitol Ave
Indianapolis, IN 46225

Schedule: August 16-17, 2013

FRIDAY

11:00 a.m.-12:00 noon, ICC Room 244 (SEM1345269)
Panel: Worldbuilding: Magic & Mysticism
Learn to weave magic into your setting in a way that drives the story and satisfies the reader.
Elizabeth Vaughan, John Helfers, Lou Anders, Dave Gross, Brandon Sanderson

2:00-3:30 p.m., ICC Room 500 Ballroom/Reception (ENT1350579)
Event: Epic Villains
Bestselling authors Brandon Sanderson (STEELHEART, Sept. 2013) and James Dashner (EYE OF MINDS, Oct. 2013) introduce their new series and discuss the creation of the most horrifying villains within their fiction—past and present. For a chance to win an epic prize, collect some cool swag, and receive a limited edition signed poster, come check out this sneak peek!
Cost: $2.00

4:00-5:00 p.m., ICC Room 245 (SEM1345264)
Panel: Writer’s Craft: Novel Outlines
Discover the techniques and tricks for creating effective, compelling, and pitchable novel outlines.
John Helfers, Jerry Gordon, Saladin Ahmed, Brandon Sanderson, Erik Scott De Bie

7:00-9:00 p.m., ICC Room 244 (SEM1350944)
Panel: Writing Excuses: Live Audience Session 1
Join Writing Excuses hosts Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, and Mary Robinette Kowal for a live audience recording session Friday evening. The team will record four to six episodes of their popular podcast between 7pm and 9pm, interviewing special guests from the symposium and VIG’s and others from the wider convention. During this session at least one episode will be a rapid-fire Q&A using questions taken from the audience, so be sure to bring some stumpers.

9:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m. VIG Lounge, ICC Rooms 116-117 (TCG1352591)
VIG: Magic: The Gathering draft and tournament with Brandon Sanderson
Come draft and play MTG with Brandon Sanderson, author of the Mistborn series and the continuation of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time saga. Prizes awarded! VIG and VIG Companions only.
Cost: $24.00

SATURDAY

12:00 noon-2:00 p.m., Exhibit Hall Booth 1749
Signing: Brandon Sanderson at Howard Tayler’s Schlock Mercenary booth
Brandon’s books (including this year’s convention exclusive hardcover) will be available for purchase, or you can bring your own books. Howard Tayler, Jim Zub, and Tracy Hickman will also be at the booth at various times throughout the day. And you can also ask Brandon to sign your books any other time during the convention that you can catch him between panels.

2:00-3:00 p.m., ICC Room 245 (SEM1345288)
Panel: Exploring Genres: Young Adult
Get the inside scoop on what it takes to write fiction for the lucrative YA market.
Kelly Swails, David Farland, James Dashner, Ari Marmell, Brandon Sanderson

3:00-4:00 p.m., ICC Room 245 (SEM1345289)
Panel: Exploring Genres: Dark Fantasy
Explore techniques for writing fantasy with an edge as we discuss the darker side of the genre.
Paul Genesse, Kelly Swails, Chris Pierson, Lucy Snyder, Brandon Sanderson

4:00-5:00 p.m., Crowne Plaza Grand Central Ballroom D (SEM1343796)
Panel: Scheming through Scadrial: Making Mistborn Yours
The Final Empire is hard on Crews but it’s also tricky for Narrators. Join the creators of the Mistborn Adventure Game for an interactive panel about adventuring in Brandon Sanderson’s unique world.
NOTE: This panel is a two-hour panel beginning at 3:00. Brandon will show up for the final hour of the panel.
Patrick Kapera, Brandon Sanderson

7:00-9:00 p.m., ICC Room 244 (SEM1350945)
Panel: Writing Excuses: Live Audience Session 2
Join Writing Excuses hosts Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, and Mary Robinette Kowal for a live audience recording session Friday evening. The team will record four to six episodes of their popular podcast between 7pm and 9pm, interviewing special guests from the symposium and VIG’s and others from the wider convention. During this session at least one episode will be a rapid-fire Q&A using questions taken from the audience, so be sure to bring some stumpers.

NOTE:
Brandon’s books (including this year’s convention exclusive hardcover) will be available for purchase at Howard Tayler’s Schlock Mercenary booth 1749 in the Exhibit Hall.

Some quick updates today. But first, if you haven’t seen the STEELHEART teaser trailer, the prologue, or teaser chapters, please go give them a look! The release date is fast approaching, so think about preordering the book from your favorite vendor. (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, Audible, Apple, Kobo, Google Play.) If you would like a signed and numbered copy, Weller Book Works will begin accepting orders on August 15th for delivery on or very shortly after September 24th. Mysterious Galaxy and Shawn Speakman’s The Signed Page will also have signed books available to preorder, but they won’t be shipped until I sign them in October.

Waygate Foundation has a new charity auction to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project. They’re auctioning off a rare production sample of a Ta’veren Tees t-shirt featuring Perrin Aybara, signed by Team Jordan and me. You can’t buy a shirt with this exact design. The auction ends on August 21st.

The Kindle Daily Post has an interview with me about STEELHEART and other topics. Also, Inspiring Insomnia is giving away (US-only) an ARC of STEELHEART. I often mention giveaways like this on Facebook and Twitter when I see them, but sometimes the giveaways are over by the time I compile a blog post. So if you want to keep track of things like that, Facebook and Twitter are the best places to follow me.

The most recent Writing Excuses podcast episode is another microcasting one where we touch on the following topics:

• How do you manage your workload?
• Are writing contests worth it? Which ones are good?
• How do you make it clear that the weird aspects of your world are done on purpose rather than just being bad science?
• How do you know when to take a break from your writing?
• What are your word count suggestions for various markets?

SF Signal asked me to name two or three authors I feel haven’t received the recognition they deserve. So I had to keep the list short, but you should check it out!

Tor.com’s newest THE WAY OF KINGS reread post covers chapters 27 and 28. Chasm duty, Horneater stew, and smashing a lot of rock with a hammer.

It’s time to announce the winners of the STEELHEART Mega Vault Fan Art contest. First, if you haven’t seen the teaser trailer, the prologue, or teaser chapters for STEELHEART, please go give them a look!

STEELHEART Preorders

The release date for STEELHEART is fast approaching, so think about preordering the book from your favorite vendor. (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, Audible, Apple, Kobo, Google Play.) If you would like a signed and numbered copy, Weller Book Works will begin accepting orders on August 15th for delivery on or very shortly after September 24th. Mysterious Galaxy and Shawn Speakman’s The Signed Page will also have signed books (without numbers) available to preorder, but they won’t be shipped as quickly. When I’m on tour in October, I’ll stop by both of these places and sign the preordered books, which will then be shipped out.

Mega Vault Contest Winners

We had a great response to the STEELHEART fan art contest. Take a look at all the entries over at my official fan site, 17th Shard. The fan art is just fantastic! There were so many awesome entries, in fact, that we had a hard time choosing winners. So we’ve made space for five winners and five runners-up.

The five winners of the Random House Mega Vault are, in no particular order:

Bleed by HeavenlyHedgehog

Steelheart by Archetype

Deathpoint by Kristal

He Was Majestic by Rodrigo

Legoheart vs. Deathlego by Neverland

The five runners-up will receive a STEELHEART poster signed by me, and their choice of one signed book from my online store. Here are the runners-up, in no particular order:

I’ve Seen Steelheart Bleed Poster by jlequire

What Are You Doing Here? by GalaxyFlyer

Steelheart Custom Binding by Stairdweller

Steelheart’s Ultimatum by ktep

Steelheart Promo Video by Scott Capener

To the winners: My assistants will be contacting you through the 17th Shard message system.

Thank you again for entering the contest, and thanks to Random House for providing these awesome Mega Vaults and posters as prizes.

Tomorrow I’m heading out to Spokane for SpoCon, and I’ll also be signing at Barnes & Noble. Details are below. There’s no signing listed at SpoCon itself, but I will sign books if you find me between panels. See you there! As always, see my future events on my events page.

Barnes & Noble, Spokane

Date: Thursday August 8th, 2013
Time: 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Place: Barnes & Noble Booksellers – Northtown Mall
Address: 4750 North Division Street
Spokane, WA 99207
Phone: (509) 482-4235
Notes: This signing is in conjunction with SpoCon, but you don’t have to be a SpoCon member to attend the signing. Please consider attending SpoCon as well though, since they are flying Brandon out and he’ll be doing many more events there this weekend.

SpoCon 2013, Spokane

Dates: Friday August 9th-Sunday August 11th, 2013
Place: SpoCon 2013
Address: DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel – Spokane City Center
322 North Spokane Falls Court
Spokane, WA 99201
Phone: (509) 455-9600

Fri, 08/09/2013 – 15:30 to 16:30, Parkside II
Writing For the Youth Market
Do you enjoy telling your children stories? Do you remember childhood stories of your own? Would you like to share them with other youth; to help shape and put a bug of creative imagination in to their minds? Why just infest your own children’s imagination, or that of friends and family, when you can tweak the youth of the world’s imagination. Buahaha…
Brandon Sanderson, Jessica Rising, Deby Fredericks, Fallon Jones, Shelley Martin

Fri, 08/09/2013 – 18:30 to 19:00, Salon 5
Opening Ceremonies
Come join SpoCon Staff and distinguished Guests as we celebrate the opening of SpoCon 2013; see our Guests introduced, and hear about some of the great things that SpoCon has to offer this year! As usual, SpoCon’s opening ceremonies are not something to be missed….
Brandon Sanderson, Kaja Foglio, Phil Foglio, Mark Osier, Scott C. Brown, Andy Dopieralski, Christian Doyle, Beau Prichard

Fri, 08/09/2013 – 19:00 to 19:45, Salon 5
Marmot Talk
Sitting in for the Mad Marmot himself will be the one and only Scott C. Brown with his mostly fearless sidekick Tim Martin. Join us for a style of talk show only SpoCon can produce. On the schedule is a Q&A with our distinguished Guests. We are pretty sure you won’t want to be missing this…
Scott C. Brown, Brandon Sanderson, Phil Foglio, Mark Osier, Kaja Foglio, Tim Martin, Christian Doyle, Andy Dopieralski, Beau Prichard

Fri, 08/09/2013 – 20:00 to 21:00, Shades
Reading – Brandon Sanderson
Come and enjoy a reading from SpoCon’s 2013 Guest of Honor, author Brandon Sanderson. Brandon will read a number of selection, and will include some of his works for younger readers.

Sat, 08/10/2013 – 12:30 to 13:30, Parkside II
World-Building: Creating a Magic System
Learn how to tackle the challenges of creating a magic system for your world or universe from true masters of the art.
Brandon Sanderson, S.A. Bolich, Rhiannon Louve, Shelley Martin

Sat, 08/10/2013 – 15:30 to 16:30, Spokane Falls Ballroom B
The SpoCon Unquisition!
So, you think you know The Wheel of Time? Bring your questions to SpoCon’s Unquisition – Our panel of Unquisitors will listen to your question about The Wheel of Time, that may NOT contain any name, or direct reference to anything IN The Wheel of Time series. Should our panel of Unquisitors deem the question “correct”, our Guest of Honor will then answer the approved query in any manner he so chooses.
Brandon Sanderson, Debbie Lentz, Christian Doyle, Molly Lloyd

Sat, 08/10/2013 – 20:00 to Sun, 08/11/2013 – 02:00, Spokane Falls Ballroom D
Magic the Gathering Draft with Brandon Sanderson
Brandon loves playing Magic the Gathering. Brandon enjoys it so much that when he travels, he often puts out the word that he’s up for a game. Now Brandon is here at SpoCon, and he’s not just putting out the word, he’s offered us a tournament. So, come out and play in a MtG draft with our Guest of Honor, Brandon Sanderson! Did somebody say prizes? Why yes we did! Per Brandon, this will be a “Booster Draft.” Our friends at Gamer’s Haven will help administer this event. Seats are limited to 15 players, and please note that there will be an additional $25 fee to participate in this event.

Sun, 08/11/2013 – 15:00 to 16:00, Salon 5
Guest of Honor Address – Brandon Sanderson
Join famed author Brandon Sanderson in Salon V for his Guest of Honor address. Learn about his career, his current and future works, and more.

Sun, 08/11/2013 – 16:00 to 17:00, Salon 5
Closing Ceremonies
You’ve packed your days full of all of the awesome fun that SpoCon has had to offer. Join us in Salon V to finalize our time together and talk about what we have in store for you next year.
Brandon Sanderson, Phil Foglio, Kaja Foglio, Mark Osier, Scott C. Brown, Christian Doyle, Andy Dopieralski, Beau Prichard, Rob McDonell

Playing catch-up with the Writing Excuses podcast, we did episodes on both Writing Reluctant Characters and Combining Dialogue, Blocking, and Description. We also did a Q&A session at the Out of Excuses Retreat that touches on these questions:

• To Dan: How did you go about selling your first trilogy in Germany before selling it in the US?
• To Howard: did you consider doing a separate storyline on Sunday strips? Why or why not?
• Have you transitioned between outlining and discovery writing?
• To Brandon: Why is John Scalzi your evil nemesis?
• To Dan and Howard (and Mary): When you had full-time work, what did you do to “reset” when you came home from work, especially since your job used the same parts of your brain that writing does?

Tor.com has revealed Michael Whelan’s cover art for WORDS OF RADIANCE, the sequel to THE WAY OF KINGS. The cover is gorgeous, as always, and I love how the wraparound looks on it. Many thanks to Mr. Whelan for all his hard work!

Tor.com has also announced that the tentative release date has been pushed to March. I may have more to say on the reasons for this in the future, but it’s important that I get this book right. On July 24th I tweeted a screenshot of me starting the third draft.

I’ve missed mentioning a couple of THE WAY OF KINGS reread posts; you can find all of them here.

Tor.com also put up an excerpt of my novella “Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell” coming in the George R.R. Martin/Gardner Dozois anthology DANGEROUS WOMEN that will be released on December 3rd.

My Comic-Con interview with MTV Geek is archived here. The video is at the bottom of the page; I appear at the 1:59:38 mark. There’s also an extremely short preview of the STEELHEART book trailer right before I come on. The full trailer should be released fairly soon. And on that page you can also read the second excerpt from the book.

There’s also an interview with me about STEELHEART over at Big Shiny Robot.

My assistant Peter uploaded another Twitter posts archive. This one covers most of July.