Hello, all! This is my third and final essay tying in with the release of my new book, Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds. The book has been released for about a week now, and I hope you’ve all had a chance to check it out. This story is something special to me, particularly the third part—which might be the most personal story I’ve ever written.

But how did it start? The Legion stories seem, at first glance, very self-referential. They are about a man who hallucinates a wide variety of characters—but unlike many protagonists of his ilk, Stephen knows that his hallucinations aren’t real, and doesn’t (for most of the stories) resist the fact that he is like this. Instead, he uses this ability to help him, acting like a one-man team of experts.

The parallels are obvious. Stephen is very much like me, in that he imagines a large cast of people who accompany him. It’s quite the metaphor for being a writer, though when I was working on the first story, I didn’t really see this connection. I just wanted to see if I could change something that is often portrayed in film as a huge liability into (instead) a huge advantage.

The original cast of hallucinations—specifically JC, Ivy, and Tobias—were based on actors. This is rare for me, as I don’t often “cast” my characters in stories. But to me, it felt like Stephen would have used people he’d seen in film as a jumping-off point to create these personas, much as many of my characters have their roots in the pop culture I consumed when young. Ivy, then, looks roughly like Gwyneth Paltrow, Tobias like Morgan Freeman, and J.C. like Adam Baldwin—with the name J.C. being a reference to the fact that he’s played multiple characters with those initials.

But, like any characters I create, these were just jumping-off points, used to spin me into unique characterizations. JC went into this fun mix of self-aware, playing up his quirks, while Ivy became a representation of the fight within Stephen between cynicism and sincerity.

The more I wrote, the more this became a metaphor for the complex relationship between a writer and the characters in their head. The voices that they know aren’t real—but still depend on convincing readers to buy as real people. The stories deal with mental illness, yes, but the further I wrote, the more Stephen became a stand-in for the way our perceptions—and our hopes—shape the world we perceive. And maybe for the crisis that can be caused when we realize there’s a misalignment between the two.

Going back to the points I made in the first essay, however, it isn’t that I was trying to express anything specific by writing these stories. And yet, by the end of the third one, I had indeed expressed something that was deeply personal—and real in ways that it is still strange to me that a piece of fiction can reach.

But that’s the point of stories, or at least one of them. A medium through which we can all connect in ways that we never could solely by explaining ourselves. Because art reaches inside us, and expresses aspects of ourselves that aren’t deliberate, there’s a truth and genuineness to it. A raw sincerity that isn’t always about which part of the three-act structure you’re crossing right now, or which part of a character arc this event is fulfilling. Those are important to give us a framework. But it is not itself the art.

The structure is the skeleton, but the art is the eyes. The part you can see into and feel it looking back at you. The part that somehow—despite my best attempts to quantify it—is a soul that lives on its own, and defies explanation.

Brandon

Hey, all! This is the second part of a three-part series of essays related to the release of my book, Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds. Find Part One posted here. And just in case you haven’t seen anything about it yet, the book is out right now in fine stores all across the world! The release party is tomorrow, and here are the details:

Book Release Party
Date: Wednesday, September 19th, 2018
Time: 7:00 p.m., Doors open at 6:00 p.m.
Location: Room 3222/322
Parking: Visitor and “A” parking (after 4:00 p.m.)

Here’s the cover of the US/Canada edition:

Thee UK/Ireland/Australia/New Zealand cover is below. You can also order the UK standalone edition of Legion: Lies of the Beholder.

And if you purchased the other two in the limited binding from Subterranean Press, and you want a matching one, here’s their cover: (Note, this is only the third story, and only comes as a special edition leatherbound, so it’s a little pricey.)

In the last post, I talked a little about how characters come into existence, walking the line between an instinctive process and an intentional one.

Working this way can create some issues. The first is that sometimes when I talk about my process, this part of it ends up getting presented as a lot more… deliberate than it really is. I spend a lot of time trying to help new writers, and I worry that in presenting all of these outlines, exercises, and techniques, we miss emphasizing just how little we really understand about the process.

In some ways, writing a story is like hitting a baseball. You can talk all you want about the physics involved in how a baseball is pitched, then hit with the bat. But the truth is, neither pitcher nor batter are thinking about any of this in the moment.

This makes the process feel overwhelming to some new writers, who think they need to have all of this in hand before they can write a story. Truth is, I’m generally explaining things I did by instinct early in my career, then figured out ways to talk about as I proceeded to study what I’d already done.

You don’t need to feel some mystical connection to characters to start writing—and if you focus too much on the idea that your characters should “feel” right and “do what they want,” you can end up frustrated, as you don’t have the practice writing yet to get them to do what needs to be done to actually create an interesting story.

Another problem with the voices in my head is the worry that I’ll repeat myself. Working by instinct, as so many authors (including outliners like me) do, can lead to repetition. Something can “feel” right because you’ve seen that thing done so many times, you think it is the “right” way—even when it makes for a worse story.

This sort of writing, even when you’re doing something interesting and new to you, can get repetitive as you only write in one way or style. In fact, I see a lot of writers talking about the “right” way to do something, as if it’s a hard and fast rule—but it’s not really that, it’s simply the way they’ve trained their instincts to respond. Something that goes against this feels off to them, but only because of a kind of tunnel vision.

You can also start to regurgitate stereotypes and other weak or harmful tropes because they’re part of your historical experience with genre—and you take them for granted. I did this in the original Mistborn novels, where I spent a lot of time working on Vin as a character, wanting an interesting and dynamic female lead for the stories. But then I wrote the rest of the team as men—not because I consciously decided it, but because stories like Ocean’s Eleven, The Sting, and Sneakers (which were part of my inspiration) contained primarily male casts.

It isn’t that you can’t make a story that does this, or couldn’t have reasons for writing a primarily male cast in a story. But I didn’t have any of those reasons in mind; I did it because I was mimicking, without conscious thought, things I’d seen before. It felt “right” to me, but during examination later, I felt the story would have been stronger if I hadn’t just run with the default that way.

Overall, I think that repeating myself is my biggest worry as a writer. Specifically, I worry that I’ll end up writing the same characters over and over, or look at themes the same way time and time again, without even realizing that I’m doing it. That’s one of the reasons I force myself to approach stories like the Legion ones—where I have to get out of my comfort zone, write in a different kind of setting with different kinds of storytelling expectations, and see where that takes me.

And so, the third part of this series will look at the Legion stories specifically, and where the voices in my head came from in that regard.

Hello, all! My new book is coming out next week! Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds is a compilation of three stories that tie together to form a single narrative. Two of the stories (Legion and Legion: Skin Deep) were available previously, but the third (Lies of the Beholder) is exclusive to this edition.

I’d really appreciate it if you would have a look at it, and maybe give it a preorder if it looks interesting. It’s got a patented Brandon Magic System, only this time applied to a modern-day setting—and in specific, one person’s very unusual way of seeing the world.

In conjunction with the book’s release, I thought I’d delve into some of the themes I find interesting (both in writing, and in the way I see the world) that made me write the series in the first place. So I present to you a three-part series of blog posts centered around this idea. I’m calling it Voices in My Head.

One of the most common questions I get, as a writer, is some variation on, “Do you ever hear voices, or feel like your characters are real?” People ask it timidly, as they don’t want to be offensive, but there seems to be genuine curiosity about the way a writer’s brain works. (Other variations on this theme are questions such as, “What are your dreams like?” or “Do you ever get so wrapped up in your worlds that you have trouble coming back to our world?”)

They’re legitimate questions, though I’m not convinced that a writer’s brain works in any consistently different way from someone else’s brain. I think you’ll find the same amount of variation in the way writers work as you’ll find in any profession. There are as many ways to approach stories as there are people writing stories.

That said, I have talked to a lot of writers who imply a certain autonomy to their characters. “I had to write their story,” one might say. “They wouldn’t leave me alone until I did.” Or some version of, “I was writing one story, but the characters just didn’t want to go that way, and so took off in another direction.”

To me, these are ways of trying to voice the fact that the way our minds work—and the way we construct art—is in some cases a mystery even to those involved. Human beings have this fascinating mix of instinct and intent, where we train ourselves to do complex tasks quickly through repetition. In this way, writing a book is somewhat similar to driving home from work—you can consciously think about it, and make each decision along the way. Or, more often, you just let your body do the work, interpreting things your brain says should happen without you thinking about it directly.

I spend a lot of time teaching how to write and talking about writing, but I don’t consciously use a lot of the techniques I talk about. I’ve used them so much that I just move forward, without formally saying something like, “Now I’m making sure my chapter ties together the sub-themes it introduced at the beginning.” The truly conscious technique comes during troubleshooting, when a story isn’t coming together for me—and so I have to step back, take apart what I’ve been doing, and find the broken bits.

So again, a mix of intent and instinct is where books come from for me. I don’t generally feel that the characters “want” to do things—but I still write them by gut feeling most of the way, and only look at breaking down their motivations specifically when I’m either working on the outline or trying to fix something in revisions.

On one hand, I know exactly who the character is and what they would do in a situation. So it does feel a little mystical sometimes, and you can have eureka moments during writing where you finally find a method to express this character that will convey the right idea to the reader. In that way, there’s almost this Platonic version of the character that you’re chasing—and trying to explore, figure out, and commit to paper.

On the other hand, it’s likely that these characters feel right to me not because of any mystical connection to the abstract. It’s because I’m unconsciously drawing from tropes, characterizations, and people I’ve known before—and I am putting them together on the page to form something that will feel right because of the backgrounds I’m drawing upon.

It’s an exhilarating process for me, but also can lead to troubles. Which I’ll talk about in Part Two.

For those of you who have been paying attention to my various feeds on my social media channels this won’t come as a surprise, but for those of you who are just seeing this, Humble Bundle has put together a collection which includes many of my shorter works as well as the Graphic Audio edition of a few others. I will get to more on that shortly. Many of you may not know how Humble Bundle works and I don’t think I could say it any more succinctly than they have listed on their website.

Brandon Sanderson’s the man. So we’re bringing you a bundle of some of his highlights – and some lesser-known titles, too. Some are audiobooks and some are ebooks, but all are awesome.

Pay $1 or more. All together, the novellas, audiobooks, game guides, and graphic novel in this bundle would cost over $174. Here at Humble Bundle, though, you name your price of $1 or more and increase your contribution to upgrade your bundle!

Read them anywhere. The books are available in PDF, ePUB, and MOBI formats (instructions are here); the adventure game and supplements are available in PDF; the comic is available in PDF, ePub, and CBZ formats (instructions are here); and the audiobooks are available as MP3 and FLAC files (instructions are here).

Support charity. Choose where the money goes – between the publishers, The Moth Education Program (Storyville Center for the Spoken Word), and, if you like, a second charity of your choice via the PayPal Giving Fund. For details on how this works, click here. If you like what we do, you can leave us a Humble Tip too!

So, What’s Included?

Pay $1 or more

• Firstborn/Defending Elysium
• The Emperor’s Soul
• Legion
• Legion:Skin Deep
• Warbreaker Part 1 – Graphic Audio
• Elantris Part 1 – Graphic Audio
• Mistborn Adventure Game

Pay $8 or more to also unlock!

• Sixth of the Dusk
• Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell
• Perfect State
• Warbreaker Part 2 – Graphic Audio
• Elantris Part 2 – Graphic Audio
• Terris: Wrought of Copper Player’s Guide

Pay $15 or more to also unlock!

• Snapshot
• Dreamer
• The Hope of Elantris – Graphic Audio
• Warbreaker Part 3 – Graphic Audio
• Elantris Part 3 – Graphic Audio
• White Sand – Graphic Novel
• Alloy of Law: Mistborn Campaign

There are a few regional restrictions that we couldn’t work around, so a few items will vary from one region to another so use the link at the top to check the specifics for your locale.

My Cosmere novella Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell is on sale at 99¢ in the US on Kindle and a few other ebook vendors, for the rest of August. (And several people have been asking about audiobooks for this and for Perfect State. Those aren’t available yet, but they are in the works.)

I will be leaving for Worldcon in Spokane in a couple of hours, and I hope to see many of you there this weekend. You can see my full schedule at the bottom of this post, or in case some things need updating, you can find the full details on the Upcoming Events page on my website. I will also bring this year’s con exclusive hardcover, which is the Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell/Perfect State double.

I sent some signed copies of the new hardcover printings of Legion and Legion: Skin Deep to the Mississippi Book Festival which is this Saturday, August 22 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. You can find the books at the Basement Books booth. You can also find them on my store.

In this week’s Writing Excuses episode, Combat, with Marie Brennan, we discuss writing combat. Marie Brennan has studied fencing, combat choreography, and is *this close* to having a black bet in Shotokan Karate, and we are lucky enough to have her sit down and share her invaluable perspective with all of us. She’s also written the book Writing Fight Scenes, so she knows how to talk about this stuff.

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

Sasquan, the 73rd World Science Fiction Convention

Thursday 14:00–14:45, Spokane Falls Suite A/B (Doubletree)

Reading
Brandon Sanderson

Thursday 17:00–17:45, 401C (CC)

31 Flavors of Fantasy Devoured by Kids and Teens
Fantasy has become a catch all category for all of the subgenres featuring “fantastic” elements from action adventure to urban and epic fantasy, romantic fantasy, and more! How many subgeneres are out there and what elements help to define them? Does the reader’s age affect the growth or definition of a subgenre? Join our panel of young adult and middle grade authors for a lively discussion that gives you a little taste of each subgenre as they share some of their favorite works across the fantastic spectrum that help to define the various subgenres.
James Van Pelt, Alma Alexander, Cassandra Rose Clarke, Esther Jones, Brandon Sanderson

Friday 11:00–12:15, 300C (CC)

Writing Excuses Recording
Sit in on a recording of the popular podcast Writing Excuses, with special guests selected from Worldcon attendees.
Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells and Howard Tayler

Friday 15:00–15:45, 202A-KK2 (CC)

Kaffee Klatche – Brandon Sanderson
Join a panelist and up to 9 other fans for a small discussion. Coffee and snacks available for sale on the 2nd floor.
Requires advance signup. ALL SLOTS CURRENTLY FILLED.

Friday 21:00–03:00, Grand Ballroom: Salon IV (Doubletree)

SpoCon Presents: Magic the Gathering Tournament 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 for Sasquan, and he’s not just putting out the word, he’s offered us a tournament. So, come out and play in a MtG tournament with Brandon Sanderson! Did somebody say prizes? Why yes we did! Per Brandon, this will be a “Booster Draft.” Seats are limited to 15 players, and please note that there will be an additional $25 fee to participate in this event. ALL SLOTS CURRENTLY FILLED.

Saturday 14:00–14:45, Exhibit Hall B (CC)

Autographing
Mark J. Ferrari, Mark Oshiro, Jessica Rising, Brandon Sanderson, J. Neil Schulman

Sunday 13:00–13:45, Grand Ballroom: Salon IV (Doubletree)

SpoCon Presents: The Great Debate
Author L. E. Modesitt will moderate this Great Debate between a cast of colorful characters; and you, the audience, will determine which of our candidates will reign supreme. You can be assured that every vote will count in this hilarious battle of circumlocution and doublespeak, so join us as our candidates dazzle you with their political impotence and stupefy you with feats of circular logic. You will laugh. You will cry. You will sit and stare in bewilderment. And, in the end, you will decide.
L. E. Modesitt Jr., Patricia Briggs, James C. Glass, Brandon Sanderson

Sunday 14:00–14:45, 300D (CC)

The Long View – Writing the Multi-volume Series
First there was the novel. Then the trilogy. But some stories go way, way beyond two or three books. Writers working on lengthy series talk about the advantages and disadvantages of world-building, history-building and character development across decades of writing and many volumes of books.
Kevin J. Anderson, Scott Lynch, Brandon Sanderson, Eric Flint

Hey, all! It’s the time of year again when nominations have opened for the Hugo and Nebula Awards. To nominate for the Nebula Awards, you need to be a member of SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. To nominate for the Hugo Awards this year, you need to be a member of the 2015 World Science Fiction Convention in Spokane, Washington, or be a member of the 2016 Worldcon in Kansas City or have been a member of the 2014 Worldcon in London (some of you became London Worldcon members when The Wheel of Time was on the ballot last year).

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.

That said, I do have a particular request this year. Although all of the stories in Shadows Beneath: The Writing Excuses Anthology are indeed eligible on their own in the fiction categories (and I’m certain each writer would love them to be considered on that merit), we at Writing Excuses (Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells, and I) consider the main purpose of the anthology to be an aid to aspiring writers.

In past years, we’ve been nominated as a podcast for a Hugo Award in the Best Related Work category, and we won that award in 2013. This year, we would ask potential nominators to consider Shadows Beneath in this category instead of the podcast. We are very proud of the anthology, and think it does things that no writing textbook has before attempted. If you are eligible to nominate for the Hugo Awards, we will happily send you a copy for review. Please drop me an email through my website, and we will get one to you ASAP.

Now, on to the list:

Brandon Sanderson’s Award-Eligible Works for the 2014–2015 Season

Best Novel (Hugo or Nebula)

• Words of Radiance (Tor/Gollancz)

Best Novella (Hugo or Nebula)

• Sixth of the Dusk (From Shadows Beneath: The Writing Excuses Anthology)
• Legion: Skin Deep (Subterranean Press)

Best Related Work (Hugo Only)

• Shadows Beneath: The Writing Excuses Anthology (Dragonsteel Entertainment)
  (Note, if you are eligible to nominate, please feel free to request a review copy through my email contact form here.)

As an aside, if you don’t have at least a supporting membership for Worldcon, you should totally consider getting one (currently $40). 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 three 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 2014 or 2016 Worldcons by that date). To vote on the final ballot, you must be a member of the 2015 Worldcon only, by the voting deadline (sometime in July).

I’m going to be attending Worldcon this year in Spokane. I visited there for a different convention a few years back, and was impressed by how well the committee—many of whom are working on Worldcon this year—ran the convention. It should be a great time, and it’s one of the most chill ways I know of to hang out with authors. Worldcon is 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.

Hope to see many of you there!

Brandon

Happy New Year, everyone! Brandon here, thanking you once again for supporting my writing. You’re getting this because you signed up for the newsletter on my website. We send around three or four of these a year. If you’d rather not get the letter, just send a reply asking to unsubscribe.

In this newsletter:

• Introduction
• Firefight is out!
• Legion: Skin Deep (in case you missed it)
• Altered Perceptions
• Welcome Adam to the team
• Conventions and tours for this year
• Writing Excuses Master Class
• Newsletter exclusive contest
• Newsletter exclusive preview

Introduction

Last year was a pretty crazy one. As I wrote in my State of the Sanderson blog post (look here if you missed it), I’m worried that I’m touring too much. That said, it was exciting to get to meet so many of you around the world.

I’ve got some tours and convention appearances coming up this year as well. You’ll find those below, as well as some discussion of what’s happening around here at Dragonsteel headquarters. (Also known as my basement.) However, if you’re just here for the sneak peek, look to the bottom of the newsletter. I’ve pasted the first chapter of a certain long-awaited sequel.

Just let me reiterate here, however, my appreciation for you all. Over twenty years ago now, I got this crazy idea for an interconnected fantasy universe called the Cosmere, with an intricate timeline and dozens of stories happening on a multitude of planets, all building toward epic crossovers.

I thought back then that my dream of three dozen books all linked together into a massive uber-series was something no publisher or group of readers would ever go for. My first attempts to explain it to my editor were met with stunned silence, followed by the wisecrack, “Well, you certainly will never be accused of thinking too small, Brandon.”

Now that idea—once a farfetched dream—is actually coming together, and better than I could have hoped.

You make all of this possible. My dreams become reality because of you. You have my most sincere thanks.

Firefight is out!

Tuesday, January 6th, was launch day for my newest novel, Firefight (in the UK/Australia it’s Thursday, January 8th). This is the sequel to Steelheart, which is in turn a near-future science fiction / superhero mashup about a world where people start gaining super powers, but those powers corrupt the people who gain them.

As many of you already know, release week is the most important week of a book’s life. One oddity of the entertainment business is that week one often determines the entire life of the project. Whether it be a film, a book, or an album, the first week usually becomes a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy to reflect future sales.

I hope you all will take the time to check it out—or, if you haven’t read Steelheart, to look into that book. Sample chapters for both novels are just below.

If you liked Mistborn, I think you’ll like Steelheart as well, as they share a lot of stylistic choices. Also, I’ll be touring for Firefight these next three weeks or so. Come see me for a chance to get a die-cut figure from the books, like the one I did for Szeth on my Words of Radiance tour! (Or look below in this newsletter for a chance to win some sent to you in the mail.)

• Steelheart sample chapters
• Firefight sample chapters

Legion: Skin Deep

Also, speaking of stories that have come out: just in case you missed it, I released a second Stephen Leeds novella a couple months ago, and this is the first newsletter since that time.

Though we do release limited edition print versions of these stories, they’re mostly intended to be ebooks. This is me experimenting with style as I read and incorporate other genres into my work, something I think is essential for a writer to grow. (And extra important in the types of epic fantasies I like to write, which require intertwining plots that make use of a variety of narrative structures.)

In this case, I was looking into contemporary detective narratives, and decided to mix that with one of my screwy Brandon magic systems. Stephen Leeds has a bizarre kind of schizophrenia (maybe) where his hallucinations help him solve problems. They’re fun, short reads, and are available on a variety of digital platforms.

• Legion sample chapters
• Legion: Skin Deep sample chapters

Altered Perceptions anthology

In the May 2014 newsletter I spoke about the Altered Perceptions IndieGoGo campaign to benefit Robison Wells, who was crippled by debt caused by his mental illnesses. The campaign was successful, and backers should have received all or most of their perks by now. For those who weren’t involved in the campaign, the resulting anthology is available as an ebook. Sales of this ebook edition will go to charity, with 90% of the net proceeds benefiting Bring Change 2 Mind. The ebook is sold by the Waygate Foundation by arrangement with Fearful Symmetry.

My contribution to the anthology is six chapters from the original 2002 version of The Way of Kings, where Kaladin made a choice opposite the one he makes in the completely rewritten published novel.

For more information, see this page.

Welcoming Adam to the team

We’ve added another employee here at Dragonsteel, Adam Horne. It’s kind of ridiculous that a guy writing books needs so many employees, but we like to do weird things like release con-exclusive books and have die-cut figures to give away. I’ve kept Isaac and Peter so busy working on things like the Writing Excuses anthology and promotional material, that I felt it was time to hire someone whose entire job was to be my executive assistant. (Or, as my wife calls it, “executive minion.”)

Adam was someone we met through my sister, and he’s always impressed me with his “go do it” attitude. So far, he’s been awesome. You might see him joining me at conventions or on tours in the future, making certain I don’t get lost writing a book in my hotel when I’m supposed to be going to a signing or some such.

Just a quick rundown, then, here is “Team Sanderson” as it stands right now:

• Brandon Sanderson: Yours truly, and writer of all the things.
• Emily Sanderson: Business Manager and executive president in charge of making Brandon get his hair cut.
• Peter Ahlstrom: Vice President and Editorial Manager. He does things like maintain continuity for my books, run beta and gamma reads, and edit stuff like this here newsletter. He also watches my social media, where you might see him responding to people’s questions when I can’t get to them.
• Kara Stewart: CFO/Shipping Manager. Kara runs the store on our website, and comes up with most of the promotions and many of items we put up for sale. If your order wanders off, she’s the one to talk to.
• Isaac Stewart: Art Director. Isaac is the brilliant cartographer who did the maps for Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive, and he also manages the other art projects we do. (Which are multitude these days.)
• Adam Horne: Brandon’s Executive Assistant. He basically does whatever we need him to. (And does it very well.)

A big operation, all things considered, particularly when you add Peter’s wife Karen (who keeps my internal wiki sorted part-time) or Emily’s assistant Kathy. The whole idea is that anything I don’t have to do we give to someone else, so I can be writing. I think this is a good team, though, and I feel we’ve settled into the number of people we’re going to have for the near future. But who knows?

Conventions and tours for this year

I should be doing two tours in the United States this year—one right now for Firefight, and another for Shadows of Self (the new Mistborn book) in October. (If you’re wondering, Stormlight 3 comes in 2016.)

The Firefight tour is set, and that is posted just below. In addition, I’ll be doing international events in Taiwan in February and Sharjah (in the United Arab Emirates) in April.

Other North American convention appearances are listed below. For most, we don’t yet have details on the specific events I’m doing at the convention—so watch coppermind.brandonsanderson.com/events for details as they become available. Those of you who listed a city for us when you sent your newsletter request should get an email a few days before I attend a convention or do a signing near you. If you didn’t list a city, you can reply to the newsletter and let us know.

Firefight tour

Wednesday, January 7: Seattle
Thursday, January 8: Miami
Friday, January 16: Portland, OR
Saturday, January 17: Bay Area, CA
Tuesday, January 20: San Diego
Wednesday, January 21: Phoenix
Friday, January 23: Houston
Saturday, January 24: Atlanta (sort of)
Monday, January 26: Lexington, KY
Tuesday, January 27: Philadelphia
Wednesday, January 28: Boston
Saturday, February 21-ish: Chicago (details TBA)

Convention appearances

January 31: Salt Lake Comic Con FanXperience
February 13–16: Taipei International Book Exhibition
April 2–5: Minicon 50, Minneapolis
April 22–May 2: Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival, United Arab Emirates
May 22–24: ConQuest 46, Kansas City
August 19–23: Sasquan, Worldcon 73, Spokane
September 4–7: Dragon Con, Atlanta (tentative, I might end up not going)
November 13-14: YALLFest, Charleston (also tentative!)

Writing Excuses Master Class

Writing Excuses is on its tenth season! During that time, we’ve won a Hugo Award and released our own anthology, but for Season Ten, we wanted to try something new. We visualized the episodes this year taking a slightly different format, encompassing a year-long master class in writing a story.

So, instead of jumping topics in our usual random fashion, this year we’re going to be picking a general topic (like prewriting) and digging into it for an entire month. (Though one week out of the month we still intend to do a “wildcard” episode to shake things up.) The idea is that someone who wants to write a book, but doesn’t know where to start, could pick up this 52-week course and use it as a guide.

So if you’ve never listened to Writing Excuses, and you have a hankering to write a story of your own, starting now makes for an excellent entrance point to the podcast. Just go to the website and hit play!

Newsletter exclusive contest

As I mentioned above, I’m giving out die-cut character cards as part of my Firefight tour. (You can see a photo of them in this blog post.) I want to give newsletter subscribers a chance to get some, so: Surprise! You were all entered into a contest. Here are the first 5 winners, chosen randomly from subscribers:

• Scott McVey
• Keith Luck
• Leland Hart
• Amanda Wan
• Mark Buckley

My assistant will contact you for shipping information.

Everyone else on this mailing list also gets another chance to win. Between right now and the end of Sunday, January 11th, follow these steps:

1. Take a photo of yourself holding Firefight at your favorite bookstore.
2. Post the photo on Facebook with a caption like “Here I am holding Firefight by Brandon Sanderson at my favorite bookstore, BOOKSTORE NAME.”
3. Tag the bookstore’s Facebook page (if one exists, and if that’s possible) as well as tagging me (facebook.com/BrandSanderson — if you have trouble tagging me, send a message to my assistant Peter, facebook.com/ahlstrom.peter and he will fix this).
4. Mark your photo public.
5. Don’t mention that you’re doing this for a contest or that you want to win character cards. (Unless you win—then you can mention it!)

On Monday, January 12th, Peter will randomly select 5 winners from among contest entrants, and then he will message you asking for your shipping address (anywhere in the world). The message might get sorted into your “Other” folder on Facebook, so be sure to check that folder on Monday.

Good luck! There will be a few other ways for people to get the die-cut cards, but this particular method is exclusive to newsletter subscribers.

Newsletter exclusive preview

Fiction for you! Note: this is a rough draft, and it could change substantially before it’s released! Thanks so much for subscribing, and have a wonderful new year!

Brandon

(The preview was just for newsletter subscribers. Sign up for free.)

Introduction

Hello, all! I recently turned in Shadows of Self, the new Wax and Wayne Mistborn novel. (And, well, something else too. More on that below.) In addition, tomorrow is December 19th—known with fondness as “Koloss Head-Munching Day.” Also my birthday. (I’ll be 39.)

This seemed like a good chance to take a step back and give you all a long-form update on what I’ve been doing lately, and where I am looking for the future. I like to be accountable to you, my readers, for what I’m doing. You are the ones supporting me in this, my lifelong dream of being a professional writer.

2014 was an excellent year for me. Words of Radiance has been very well received, and enthusiasm for the Stormlight books is very high. As this series is my baby, it feels awesome to see people getting to know characters like Dalinar and Kaladin, whom I’ve known for decades. At the same time, I’ve been jumping back into teen books again after the Alcatraz books. (Which kind of fizzled back in 2010 or so, though we’re planning a relaunch.)

Having two publishers made for a very challenging tour schedule. I’ve been away from home far more than I want to be, mostly because of the need to add more touring (along with things like school visits and appearances at teacher/librarian conferences) for Steelheart and The Rithmatist.

I’m still struggling to find a balance I like. On one hand, I enjoy visiting you all and going cool places. On the other hand, my real love is writing the books—and I don’t want to get so busy that the stories fall by the wayside. Anyway, the following is an account of my 2014 writing experience for those who are curious.

What I spent 2014 doing

January–March 2014: Firefight

Though I had hoped to have Firefight (The Reckoners 2) done long before January, the touring last year made that impossible. It snuck over into 2014, which is why you’re getting the book in January 2015 instead of the originally scheduled fall of this year. In March, I also did the Words of Radiance tour, which really cut into my writing time.

April 2014: Legion: Skin Deep

In April, once all the chaos was done, I took the time to finish up Legion: Skin Deep (sequel to Legion from a few years back), which I’d been working on during plane flights the year before. If you haven’t checked these two novellas out, you might want to consider it! They’re very fun, though the second book is not yet out in the UK and associated territories such as Australia and New Zealand. (Note that in those territories, Legion 1 and The Emperor’s Soul were released together in a very handsome paperback.)

We will eventually have regular hardcover copies of Legion 2 available. That will probably come sometime in the first half of next year. Our contract with Subterranean Press, who produced the very attractive limited edition hardcovers of Legion 2, says that we’ll wait until their edition sells out before we release a competing one.

May 2014: The Aztlanian (Rithmatist 2)

Next, I dove into research for a sequel to The Rithmatist. This is going to be a tough book to write, as it takes place in a fantastical version of Central and South America, and deals with things from Aztec (Mexica) mythology. (In The Rithmatist, a lot of the geography is shifted around in bizarre ways.)

Dealing with another group’s culture in this way is rife with opportunities for stuffing my foot in my mouth, and so I wanted to be very careful and respectful. This meant spending time devoted exclusively to doing extensive research. I didn’t actually get any writing on the book done, though I read some very excellent history books.

(As an aside, if anyone out there is an expert in the Aztec/Mexica culture—particularly if you yourself are a Native American—I’d love to have your help on this book.)

At the end of the month, I decided I needed to do way more research than a month afforded, so I put the book off for now. I still intend to write it, but I need more time to do it right.

June 2014: Alcatraz

Having spent a month with no writing, I wanted to jump into something fun and quick to refresh me before moving on to my next book. So, I dug out my outline for the Alcatraz series and at long last did a rough draft of the fifth book. These are fast, fast books to write—as I improvise them—but they are very slow to edit.

I finished the book, and am pleased with it, but I have no firm date yet for when I’ll be publishing it. Tor is rereleasing the series starting next year with new covers and extensive interior art. I believe these launch starting about a year from now. (If you want them before then, your best bet for getting them is the UK omnibus of the first four.)

I’ll want to release the fifth one once the series has been rereleased, so maybe summer 2016. If you’ve never read these, they are very different from my other work. They’re bizarre and sarcastic comedies that are self-referential and offer commentary on fantasy as a genre along the way. Those who love them absolutely love them. Those who don’t tend to find them insulting. That dichotomy alone is part of what endears them to me.

July–December 2014: Mistborn

The last half of the year was dedicated to Shadows of Self, the new Mistborn novel. And I have a confession to make.

I also wrote the sequel.

Now, before you start wagging your finger at me for being a robot, there was a really good reason I did what I did. You see, I was having real trouble getting back into Shadows of Self. I had written the first third of it in 2012 between revisions of A Memory of Light. (I was feeling Wheel of Time overload.) However, it can be very hard for me to get back into a book or series after a long time away from it. (This is another issue with the Rithmatist sequel.)

So, jumping into Shadows of Self was slow going, and I found it much easier to go write the sequel to refresh myself on the world and characters. That done, I was able to move back to Shadows of Self and finish it up.

So a week or two back, I turned in two new Wax and Wayne Mistborn novels. They’re titled Shadows of Self and Bands of Mourning, and Tor decided to publish them in quick succession: the first in October 2015, the second in January 2016. So, if you have read the original trilogy but haven’t tried The Alloy of Law yet, you might want to give it a look! From the beginning, I’ve planned Mistborn to be a continuum series, showing off Allomancy in different time periods. I think you’ll find the Wax and Wayne books to be fun, quick reads—and they introduce some very, very big things coming in the Mistborn world.

There will be one more Wax and Wayne (early 1900s-era) Mistborn book. Back after I finished The Alloy of Law, I sat down and plotted out a trilogy with the same characters. The Alloy of Law was more of a happy, improvised accident. The follow-up trilogy is meant to be more intentional. So in the end, we’ll have four total. (The final one is tentatively called The Lost Metal.) From there, I might jump to the second “big” trilogy, which is 1980s tech. Or I might dally a little more in something 1940s-era instead. We’ll see.

Amusingly, doing these two Mistborn books together totaled only about half as much writing as a Stormlight book. Perhaps you can see why it takes even me quite a long time to finish Stormlight novels. (And it’s why you might want to lay off Pat Rothfuss a little. I believe The Wise Man’s Fear was even longer than Words of Radiance.)

Tor did their announcement about these books earlier today. You may now commence wisecracks about me secretly writing extra novels when nobody is looking.

Next Projects

I’ve now begun Calamity, last of the Reckoners series. My goal will be to rough-draft it over the next three months. I have a tour between now and then (for Firefight) and a trip to Taiwan as well, so who knows if I’ll make that deadline. We’ll see.

Once that is done, I will dive into Stormlight 3. I’m still waffling on whether this will be Szeth’s book, Eshonai’s book, or Dalinar’s book. The original outline calls for book 3 to have Szeth’s flashbacks, but I am feeling that another character might match the events better.

I did some exploratory scenes for it this summer, though these may or may not end up in the actual book. I have been tweaking the outline, and am starting to feel very good about it. Writing the book should consume the entire rest of 2015, with a 2016 release. I do plan the Stormlight books to be an every-other-year thing.

Follow along starting next spring as I write the book and post updates on my website. I’ll even try to do some screen capturing with Camtasia as I write, for those who are interested in watching for them.

That wraps up current and finished projects. 2014 was partially about me getting my feet underneath me after finishing The Wheel of Time and going right into Stormlight 2. I’ve caught my breath now, and feel good moving forward.

And, speaking of moving forward, it’s time for a State of the Sanderson tradition—we’re going to play “What about the sequel to this book I love, Brandon!”

Here comes the big list.

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The big list of projects I want to do

Elantris sequels

The Emperor’s Soul is now two years old, so it is probably time to get back to Sel and do some more there. We should be releasing a trade paperback of Elantris in the next year or two, with revised (and new) maps and a better Ars Arcanum. (Read: an Ars Arcanum.)

The full sequels will need to be finished before I can do the contemporary (1980s tech) Mistborn novels because of behind-the-scenes Cosmere bits, so I will do my best to find a place to squeeze these in. At the very least, I will write them following the end of Stormlight 5. So, these are distant, but not too distant.

Nightblood (Warbreaker sequel)

This is still on the back burner, but it is coming. Probably after the Elantris sequels. I’ll squeeze it in someplace. I’m very excited about it, but now (while I’m juggling multiple teen series) is not the time.

Dark One

This is a series I’ve talked about for a long, long time about a boy who discovers he’s the “Dark One.” Basically, it’s the classic epic fantasy story told from the eyes of the dude destined to try to destroy the world instead of save it. I’ve made good progress on the setting, which is going to be awesome. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the teen series I do once the Reckoners and the Rithmatist are both done.

As a note for fans, this is a Cosmere story.

Silence Divine (this will be renamed sometime)

I did readings from this on my last tour (you can probably find them on YouTube; it was the Words of Radiance tour). I only have a few pages done, playing with the primary concept. (Diseases grant magical talents for as long as you have the disease—you lose the power when you get over it.) This one has probably been downgraded from full novel to novella, as I feel that something more Emperor’s Soul-esque will do a better job with the themes I want to explore.

Legion 3

Legion 2 is out! Are you tired of me mentioning that yet? I’m sure that someday there will be a third adventure for Stephen and his aspects, but I don’t have an outline or plan yet.

The Lurker (now renamed Adamant)

I’ve finished a novella set in this science fiction world. For those who want more SF from me along the lines of my two novelettes, this should be coming someday. I don’t have time for revisions right now, but I plan to tinker with the story again next year sometime between Stormlight 3 drafts.

White Sand

The graphic novel adaptation of this Cosmere book is coming along very well. The first volume’s script adaptation is finished, and pencils for the first chapter are done. We should have pages to show you before too long. Expect a lot of talk about this on the blog come 2015.

Dragonsteel

Hoid’s backstory series is still going to be one of the last Cosmere sequences I do, so don’t expect this until Stormlight is completely done. (Both sets of five books.)

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That’s the list of things people often ask me about. Unsurprisingly, I have other projects in the back of my mind. For example, I have two more Cosmere series that will need to be written before we can get to the third “big” Mistborn trilogy. (The sf one.) But that’s the long, long-term plan.

For now, my goal is to get Calamity and Stormlight 3 finished. As always, I appreciate all of the enthusiasm you show for this crazy thing that I have somehow managed to do with my life. Thank you for sharing my books with others, and for being willing to try the more unusual projects (like Legion) that I do.

I feel humbled to have a great crowd of fans who are willing to put up with my eccentricities as a writer—particularly my desire to not work on just one project, but to have an entire body of varying stories. You guys are awesome. May you have a happy holiday season, and do go munch some heads tomorrow in my name.

Brandon

p.s. If you aren’t on the newsletter mailing list, please consider signing up! In the summer, the newsletter included exclusive looks at some of the Stormlight 3 scenes I was working on. We plan to do more of this sort of thing in the future. As always, if you include your city, we’ll send you notifications when I’m going to be doing signings in the area.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m signing today in Idaho Falls. But there are some ebooks at low prices that I want to talk about. For links to where you can buy these books, click on the titles below.

The second Legion book, Legion: Skin Deep, which came out this week, is $4.99 (or around there, depending on the currency—except in the UK and associated territories, where it’s not yet available).

The Alloy of Law is $2.99 today only on most of the ebook stores in the US.
This is technically the fourth Mistborn book, but it takes place hundreds of years after the original trilogy, and a number of people have read this one first and really enjoyed it. If you haven’t yet read the Mistborn Trilogy, don’t be afraid to pick this one up.

The Way of Kings, the first book in the Stormlight Archive, is still free in the US on the iBookstore and in iTunes (even on Windows) for the rest of the year. It’s sold without DRM (as are all of my Tor books), so you can get it there and read it any way you like.

And the second Stormlight book, Words of Radiance is $3.75 right now in the US on Kindle and Google Play. I don’t know how long that price will last.

Legion is $2.99 (or close equivalent) worldwide. And I mention its sequel above. My recent Cosmere novella Sixth of the Dusk is also $2.99. My Hugo Award-winning novella The Emperor’s Soul is $4.99 (or less in some countries). And both Infinity Blade books are $2.99.

I hope everyone is having a great Black Friday—as a reminder, my store has some awesome new items. See here for details. And my book Legion: Skin Deep was released this week. See my previous post for details on that.

Tomorrow, I’m signing in Idaho Falls. Details are below.

Idaho Falls, ID – Barnes & Noble Booksellers

Date: Saturday, November 29, 2014
Time: 2:00–4:00 p.m.
Place: Barnes & Noble – Grand Teton Mall
Address: 2300 East 17th Street Suite #1101
Idaho Falls, ID 83404
Phone Number: (208) 552-1452

The bookseller says: Join us for an afternoon with bestselling author Brandon Sanderson. Line tickets will be available to pick up Friday, November 28 at 6:00 a.m. Don’t miss your chance to meet this amazing author!

Notes: I’ll sign any book that I wrote that you bring, but it’s nice to support the store hosting me by buying something in the store while you’re there. I’ll also be doing a reading and a group Q&A.

Check out my calendar to see if there’s another signing that will be more convenient for you.