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.

Hey, all! I’ve been deep into revisions on Oathbringer. Turns out, big books don’t just take a long time to write—they take a long time to revise. (Who knew?)

Last year during my trip to the United Arab Emirates, I took a break from working on Oathbringer to write a novella, as is my habit to refresh myself now and then. Other than Edgedancer (the Stormlight novella in Arcanum Unbounded), this is the only thing I had time to write last year that wasn’t Oathbringer.

Snapshot is one of those stories that, once I had the idea, wouldn’t leave me alone. I wrote it furiously, having only about a week’s time to finish it, and I’m very pleased with the product: a kind of cyberpunk–detective thriller mashup. As we’ve posted earlier, Hollywood quickly snatched this one up, and it’s currently under option to MGM.

I think you’ll like it! The print edition is only available in a special edition leatherbound from Vault Books that will be released soon (though we will also have a cheap hardcover toward the end of the year). But as is our tradition, we’re simultaneously releasing an ebook for a few bucks, DRM-free, in all markets. So you can choose whether you want the expensive collector’s edition, or the quick ebook. (Audible has also released the audiobook today.)

Please give the story a look on its explanation page, where you’ll find a synopsis and links to the first two chapters. Also, note that if you buy the print edition in any format, we’ll happily send you the ebook for free at your request. (This will be handled via a coupon for my store.)

On Short Fiction

This seems a good time to take a moment and talk about the various editions I have out for my short fiction.

There are several motives that war within me when it comes to producing editions of my work. The first is that I really don’t want people to feel they have to pay multiple times for the same piece of fiction. I figure once you’ve paid me for it, you’re good, and you should have access (at least in ebook form) to that story for the rest of your life, whenever you want to read it.

At the same time, I want to provide different distinctive editions of the works for people who like them. This sometimes conflicts with my first impression because of additional costs involved. For example, doing an audiobook is more expensive than a print book as—once all the work is done for the print book—you then have to hire another team to take that text and make an audio version. I haven’t realistically found a way to bundle audio, print, and ebook together. (Though I do think the industry will need to figure this out eventually.)

I think the best I can do for now is give away ebooks of the books I myself publish for free, once you have a print edition. (Note the emphasis—I don’t have the legal right to do this for books like Mistborn and The Way of Kings, which were published by Tor. I can only do it for my self-published ventures, like most of my novellas.)

In addition, however, I can talk about in what formats these novellas will be available, and when. This at least lets you know whether you want to hold off getting one until your preferred format is available. So here is what I see us doing with these for the foreseeable future.

Option One: Individual cheap ebook
Available DRM-free from most ebook vendors on launch day.

Option Two: Individual audiobook
These depend on Audible or some other company wanting to release an edition. (They did so for the Legion books, for example, but not others.)

Usually, individual audiobooks for shorts are a bad value for readers—as the Audible economy depends on people using credits on stories, and there are no “half” credits. Which means a credit can be applied to a three-hour novella or a full-length novel at twenty-plus hours.

So you can’t depend on these existing. Sometimes they will, but not other times.

Option Three: Individual leatherbound hardcover
I’ve done these for most novellas, partnering with places like Subterranean and Vault Books. These are meant mostly as collector’s items, and usually have a short and limited print run. For those who want each individual novella separate and in its own book, this is your best option.

Option Four: Dragonsteel edition hardcover
These editions are often printed as “doubles” around the holidays, and sometimes (before official publication) go with me to conventions as convention exclusives.

This is the economical way to get a print edition, as they usually cost $20 and have two stories. (Snapshot, for example, is being published with another story called Dreamer this fall, and will be at conventions with me all summer.)

However, there’s a windowing of a few months on most of these, meaning you can’t get it immediately. This is by request of the publishers of the leatherbounds, who want a small exclusivity window.

Option Five: Collection version (ebook, audio, print)

I will be doing two types of collections moving forward. Cosmere stories (in the Arcanum Unbounded tradition, likely named Arcanum Unbounded II, III, etc.). These will collect in a single edition all the stories that haven’t been collected so far. (Arcanum Unbounded, for example, contained every Cosmere piece of short fiction that had been published up to that point.)

These are for the completionists who want everything, but who don’t mind waiting. They’re also very economical, as if you wait for the paperback edition, they will probably give you a dozen stories (of various lengths) for around ten bucks.

I do anticipate doing a non-Cosmere collection within a year or two, which will include stories like Snapshot and Perfect State. (And probably the Legion novellas, unless they become their own thing.)

Option Six: Dragonsteel collection leatherbound

If there is interest, we might do a leatherbound edition for the 10th anniversary of the collection, like we’ve done with Elantris and are currently doing with Mistborn. So if you like leatherbounds, but miss the initial limited edition, these will eventually be available—but they are a looong way off.

Anyway, I hope that lets you plan! Thank you for your interest in these smaller stories. Your enthusiasm for them is part of what keeps me so productive, as I don’t feel locked into doing one type of story. Overall, this makes even things like Stormlight move faster, as I remain engaged and excited as an author moving between projects.
And do please consider giving Snapshot a look!

Best,

Brandon

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I wanted to post a deleted scene for Perfect State (which is nominated for the Hugo Award for best novella, and voting is now open for all 2016 Worldcon members), as well as annotations. My assistant Peter has finally gotten around to editing them for posting. The deleted scene is up now, and the annotations will follow this week.

In other news, as I’ve shared on Twitter and Facebook over the past few days, the Mistborn: House War kickstarter from Crafty Games has gone live, and it’s now already over 300% funded with six stretch goals under its belt.

I’m thrilled that Crafty Games has built this new board game with the same attention and care they’ve long given to the Mistborn Adventure Game. Playing through it, my team enjoyed battling each other for supremacy in Luthadel. Mistborn: House War (a title I cam up with myself, by the way) melds strategy and player interaction into a unique mix. A real house war could turn out a lot like this! I hope you’ll enjoy the game.

Here’s what Crafty says about the new board game:

Mistborn: House War puts you in command of the Final Empire’s great Houses during the cataclysmic events of Mistborn: The Final Empire.

Together, you must cooperate to solve myriad problems facing the empire, from environmental and social turmoil to political strife and outright rebellion. You’ll even have to stave off Kelsier, Vin, Sazed, and the other heroes of the novels to maintain the delicate balance held in place for the last thousand years.

Simultaneously, you’ll compete to become the most powerful House in the land by currying the favor of the almighty Lord Ruler. To win, you must build alliances, negotiate deals, and undermine both your enemies and your allies—all at just the right time. But be careful! Should the players’ stewardship fail, unrest will tear the Final Empire asunder and the House furthest from the top shall emerge the victor.

Mistborn: House War is created and developed by Crafty Games, publishers of the Mistborn Adventure Game, with cooperation from Brandon Sanderson and Dragonsteel Entertainment.

Designed by Kevin Wilson (Arkham Horror, The X-Files, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past), Mistborn: House War is the perfect addition to any gamer’s table, and every Sanderson fan’s collection. Whether you’re a cunning strategist or cautious diplomat, there’s plenty to love in this box.

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.

I’m going to be heading to Phoenix at the beginning of June with the Writing Excuses crew for Phoenix Comicon. Our schedule is still being finalized, but as soon as that’s done the details of my part of the schedule will be posted on the upcoming events page on my website. Also, my assistant Kara is running my booth at PHXCC, and she’s looking for local volunteers to help out. She has put a sign-up sheet here.

The ebook for Perfect State is still on sale at 99¢ worldwide (with some minor local variation). Mitosis is also on sale at 99¢ (at least in the US) for the rest of May. And starting today through the end of this weekend, for Audible members who have an available credit in their account, Steelheart is available in an Audible 2-for-1 sale. (That link only works if you have at least one credit. I don’t know whether this is US-only or what.)

In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Fashion for Writers, Rebecca McKinney sits down with us on how we should go about describing the clothing our characters are wearing. How do we use that to add depth to our story? What are the common mistakes that writers make when they start dressing their characters?

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread posts for Words of Radiance, Dalinar received a surprise or two that he badly needed. This week, in Chapter 79, he has his first actual conversation with a Listener since his brother was killed, and learns more surprising new notions.

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

As I mentioned last week, my standalone novella Perfect State has been nominated for this year’s Hugo Award. In honor of that nomination, the ebook is now on sale at 99¢ worldwide (with some local variation). Check your region by using the widget to the right. I’ll soon post the deleted scene and the annotation that I mentioned, but I want to tweak the annotation a bit first.

In other news, here’s a video by YouTuber Skillagrim arguing Lightsabers vs. Shardblades. (You can see more of his stuff on Facebook and his YouTube channel.) Note: SPOILERS for Words of Radiance.

There are a couple of new Writing Excuses episodes I haven’t mentioned yet. The first, Elemental Adventure Q&A, where we answer many of the questions you may still have questions about how to apply elemental adventure in your work. Hopefully your questions are similar to the ones we collected below, because these are the ones we answered:

• What do readers like more: protagonists going through lots of different incidents and locations, or through a few that are similar to each other?
• What lessons can we learn from adventure games?
• How can we make action scenes that adventurous, but that are not fight scenes?
• Are there tropes we should stay away from in adventure fiction?
• Do you have suggestions for non-western styles of adventure fiction?
• How do you safely skip the long, boring parts of a journey without missing out on necessary character development?

For the second episode, Elemental Horror, we’re joined by Steve Diamond, who helps us kick off our month on the elemental genre of horror. We explore the emotional components that readers seek from horror, and then drill down into the ways that we can create those reactions in our readers.

Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread posts for Words of Radiance, Shallan and Navani began their scholarly collaboration, while Kaladin started to take small steps back toward Honor. This week, in Chapter 78, Shallan gives Dalinar some truth and some defiance, and Parshendi are encountered.

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

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.

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

Tomorrow I’m off to Kansas City for the ConQuesT convention that starts on Friday. My complete schedule (including a “Play Magic with Brandon” game) down below. Also, copies of the Perfect State/Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell con exclusive double hardcover will be available at the Basement Books booth in the dealers’ hall. But first some updates.

I’ve mentioned before that my middle grade humor series that starts with Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians will be republished next year by Tor, leading up to the release of the fifth and final book that Alcatraz will write. Well, there will also be a ton of new illustrations in the book, and Isaac Stewart has written up a post for Tor.com that introduces the illustrations to you. Enjoy!

Over the weekend, Words of Radiance was named the winner of a 2014 Whitney Award for the Speculative category. Thanks to all of the Whitney Awards academy members who found it deserving! And many congratulations to all of the winners and finalists.

There are a couple of Writing Excuses episodes I haven’t yet talked about in the blog. The 19th episode this season talks about Intrigue. What’s the difference between intrigue, suspense, and mystery? We answer this and then talk about what makes intrigue useful as a tool for any story, and how to use it without falling back on idiot character plots, or simply withholding information from the reader. Intrigue is also its own genre, with spy stories and political intrigue stories fitting into this space. We talk a bit about how those stories work and how they’re built. Next, the 20th episode is titled, How Do I Write a Story, Not an Encyclopedia? You’ve done piles of worldbuilding. How do you convey this world to reader without infodumping? We talk about the different skill levels involved, and then the techniques that you’ll be using as you get better and better at what is probably the most critical skill unique to genre fiction writers.

ConQuesT 46

Date: Fri, May 22, 2015 – Sun, May 24, 2015
Address: Kansas City Marriott Downtown
200 West 12th St
Kansas City, MO 64105
Phone: (816) 421-6800

Friday, May 22

4:00 p.m., Count Basie Ballroom A
MidAmericaCon II
MidAmeriCon II is coming to KC in 2016. Learn more about Worldcon and the local fans helping make this happen.
Diane Lacey, Ruth Lichtwardt, George R.R. Martin, Jeff Orth, Mark Oshiro, Brandon Sanderson

5:00 p.m., Count Basie Ballroom A
World Building – Religion and Magic
We’ll discuss creating believable worlds from religion to magic systems. We’ll also look at how you make everything work together and decide what everyone needs to see and what only you need to know.
Kathleen Collins, Gera L. Dean, Brandon Sanderson, Bryan Thomas Schmidt, Thomas Trumpinski

7:00 p.m., Count Basie Ballroom A
Opening Ceremonies

Saturday, May 23

1:00 p.m., Count Basie Ballroom A
Brandon Sanderson Interview

3:00–5:00 p.m., Count Basie Ballroom A
Brandon Sanderson Book Signing

5:00 p.m., Count Basie Ballroom A
Research – How Much Do You Really Need?
Discussion of what to research, where to research, how much to research, when to quit researching. How to determine if the information is legitimate. How to use Google and other serach engines for research.
Holly Messinger, Penny Cockrell, Gera L. Dean, KD McEntire, Brandon Sanderson

7:00 p.m.–midnight, Mary Lou Williams room, 3rd floor
Magic Draft with Brandon Sanderson
This will be a Magic: The Gathering draft of the type that Brandon likes to do at conventions. The cost is $15. Limited to 16 participants. Sign up ahead of time using the signup sheet located in the main gaming area.

Sunday, May 24

12:00 p.m., Bennie Moten A/B
The Story Mind
Neurological research suggests that the human mind is hardwired for stories and that humans remember stories more easily than they remember facts. Panelists discuss this theory and what this means for sf & f tales.
M.C. Chambers, Zo Allen, Marshall Edwards, Lezli Robyn, Brandon Sanderson

5:00 p.m., Count Basie Ballroom A
Closing Ceremonies