Hello, Sanderson fans! This is Emily, Brandon’s wife and business manager. Brandon is on tour for Words of Radiance (tonight and tomorrow he’s in Arizona), so I’m posting on his behalf today. The purpose of this post is to say thank you.

People are so kind to Brandon at signings, and I’m grateful for that. He comes home with all types of clever, unique, and even delicious gifts from readers. Often some of those gifts are addressed to me! I want you to know that we really appreciate your thoughtfulness.

This is a tricky subject to tackle, though, because I don’t want anyone to read this and get the idea that they ought to bring things to Brandon at signings! That is not expected, or necessary. Really, the best gift you can give Brandon is to enjoy reading his books and share them with others.

However, we also want those who have been generous with their talents to know that we are grateful, and it would be impossible for us to send individual thank-you notes. So, if you’ve ever given Brandon anything, a drawing, a letter, a treat, a late night spent reading, or just your time waiting in line to talk to him, THANK YOU!

We can’t thank everyone personally for everything, not just for the gifts, but also for your kindness. We’ll try to highlight these things every so often. Some of the items below are from previous tours and other events.

(Also, if you have a shardhunt code, or know someone who does, make sure it gets entered here. I’ve been told I’m not allowed to see the awesome bonus material until you guys unlock it.)

Welcome to Brandon Sanderson’s first newsletter since, as far as I can tell, July 2006. You’re receiving this because you signed up or sent Brandon fan mail. If you’d prefer not to get emails like this in the future, just reply and ask to be taken off the list.

Hi! I’m Peter Ahlstrom, and I’ll be providing the voice of today’s newsletter. I’ve been Brandon’s assistant for the last nine months, and what a nine months it has been! First we had the WARBREAKER release, followed by ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE KNIGHTS OF CRYSTALLIA, and then THE GATHERING STORM and its massive book tour. Many of you who wrote to Brandon mentioned what city you were from, so we were able to send you emails telling you when Brandon was signing within a couple hours of you. At the signings when Brandon asked who had come after getting one of these reminder emails, many people raised their hands. So if you haven’t let Brandon know what city you live in or near, now’s your chance.

UPCOMING BOOKS

THE WAY OF KINGS, the first book in Brandon’s new epic fantasy series The Stormlight Archive, is coming out in August. ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE SHATTERED LENS, the fourth book in the series that began with ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS, is scheduled for an October release. And TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT, book 13 of the Wheel of Time, will come out around November if everything goes according to plan (Brandon is in the middle of major revisions, but he thinks hitting that date is still possible). Tor currently wants Brandon to do a two-week book tour for the release of each book, both THE WAY OF KINGS and TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT. I plan to send out another newsletter with more details on each book as release day approaches, and there will be sample chapters going up (or at least linked to) on the website. The prologue for THE WAY OF KINGS should also be appearing in the back of the WARBREAKER paperback, due out on March 30th.

NEW ARRIVAL

A baby boy has come to the Sanderson family. Dallin Matthew was born on January 19th, weighing in at 9 lbs. 2 oz. He joins his two-year-old brother Joel as heir to Brandon’s literary legacy. (Though Joel has only recently started speaking much English. He used to talk and talk and talk, but apparently in an alien language with inflections that sounded maddeningly familiar. Anyway, Joel’s favorite word in English is “cars.”)

Emily, Brandon’s wife and business manager for Dragonsteel Entertainment (her official company title is “Queen”), is adjusting to being the mother of two boys. Joel is helping her out by learning not to throw things; I haven’t seen him throw anything off the second-floor balcony in weeks!

Here’s a link to some pictures of Dallin. (Photos by Faith Jennings.) Isn’t he cute?

SUPERSTARS WRITING SEMINAR IN PASADENA

Brandon was invited to teach at the Superstars Writing Seminar March 19th through 21st along with fellow writers Kevin J. Anderson, David Farland, Rebecca Moesta, and Eric Flint (whose 1632-series books are some of my personal favorites). Many people write to Brandon asking for writing advice, and besides the podcast Writing Excuses that he does, a seminar like this is one of the only opportunities he gets to help people out.

Brandon and the other instructors at this seminar are all New York Times bestselling authors and all have tons of good advice. I can personally attest to David Farland’s teaching; I was in a class of his that taught me a great deal about the publishing industry (though I took that advice in a separate direction from Brandon, who was also in that class, since my talents lie more in the editorial field than in writing novels). Other writers I know like Eric James Stone and Alethea Kontis attest to Kevin and Rebecca’s instruction. And Eric Flint cultivated many a first-time published writer with his Grantville Gazette and with his editorship of Jim Baen’s Universe.

FREE TICKET DRAWING: This week only, the seminar organizers are holding a drawing for a free pass. If the seminar is a bit out of your price range but you really want to go, this is your chance. The contest ends on February 14th, 2010, so head on over there now! http://www.superstarswritingseminars.com (the drawing has now ended).

OTHER EVENTS

Brandon has a pretty full convention schedule this year, including LTUE in Provo (this week!), Minicon in Minneapolis, ConStellation in Lincoln, ConDUIT in Salt Lake, and JordanCon and Dragon*Con in Atlanta. For a full schedule, check out https://coppermind.brandonsanderson.com/events

FOLLOW BRANDON

Main blog: https://coppermind.brandonsanderson.com/blog
Livejournal: http://mistborn.livejournal.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/BrandSanderson
Twitter: http://twitter.com/BrandSanderson

That’s it for today’s newsletter. From now on I’ll try for a better frequency than once every four years, but I don’t expect you’ll ever be getting one more than four times in a year. Let me know what you think!

Best,

Peter Ahlstrom
Assistant to Mr. Sanderson

It’s a special Valentine’s Week Amphigory:

Need a clue? This is a bit harder. It has to do with the little cherub, and what he’s holding. Also, the text itself isn’t all that important. In case you’re new to the blog, every Tuesday I do random stupid puns in pictorial form. What does this have to do with writing? Nothing! I just like bad puns. Another regular feature is the Pemberly Moment, random things said by my wife taken completely out of context. Today’s entry includes myself as a guest star. You ready?

This is the text of an actual Conversation between my wife and I:

Pemberly: “Is it still bleeding?”
Me: “Nah, I just had a carrot between my toes.”

What’s the context? Wouldn’t you like to know! Ha! In more serious tones, Pemberly asked for only one thing for Valentine’s day: A love letter. Hum. Do you think “Q” is romantic enough, or should I go with “M”?

Actually, I really don’t know what to do about this. I’ve never really written anything like that before, and you’d think that as a novelist, I’d be able to come up with something, but it’s actually a little bit daunting. Do you think those guys on the Internet who write school papers in exchange for money would be willing to do a love letter instead?

Finally, does anyone know what this is: Looks like someone’s using my website as a school assignment for web design class. Pretty nifty! I’d be curious to know why the instructor picked my website, and would be interested to see the different designs. If any of you designer-types see this, drop me an email or hop over to my Livejournal and leave a comment.

Warbreaker Tomorrow, and I promise some actual writing advice/story prompt type stuff later in the week.

First off, let there be a new annotation for Mistborn! Chapter Seven, first half.

Now, for your further entertainment, I present a feature which is quickly becoming a crowd favorite. I give you, a Pemberly moment:

“I broke a nail when I got gas yesterday.”

(This is, of course, another quote by my wife taken completely out off context and printed quite unfairly for your amusement. Think about it for a few moments.)

Finally, Beam Me Up!

(And thank you very much to everyone who commented on the Alcatraz title post on Saturday. I’ll be responding to those comments pretty soon here.)

Hello! Thank you all for your interest in me and my work. I have several points of exciting news for this letter, and not all have to do with my books.

Marriage

If you haven’t heard, I got married on July seventh, 2006, to the beautiful and intelligent Emily Bushman. Emily is a school teacher in Provo, Utah. (She teaches eighth grade English, Spanish, and ESL.) She is, of course, a fan of the fantasy genre—though she’s not quite as extreme as I am. I’m still trying to talk her into going to a science fiction convention. We’ll see what she thinks of the marriage once that happens. . . .

I’m very excited about this event, even though it means quite a few changes in my life. No more staying up until four and five a.m. writing! I also live in a different house, now, so my old address is no longer correct. If you want to meet Emily, she’ll be at my signing tomorrow. (See below.)

ELANTRIS Paperback

Also, if you weren’t aware, the ELANTRIS paperback came out about a month and a half ago. If you were waiting for a cheaper version of the book before you bought it, then your time has come! And, if you already have the book, then every word of recommendation you can offer is extremely valuable to me. Thank you for everything!

ELANTRIS has continued to sell very strongly. The paperback numbers are quite good, and the foreign sales have continued. I think we’re up to fourteen or fifteen of those by now. The Spanish version of the book finally came out, though it’s only being distributed in Spain right now. I’m working on figuring out how people can get it over here. I’ll be bringing a copy with me to booksignings, however, so make sure to ask about it if you come see me.

MISTBORN Hardback

I’d call this the biggest news of the letter, but I think Emily might get a little jealous at that. However, this is certainly exciting, and probably the main reason I decided to send another newsletter.

My newest novel, MISTBORN, is being released on July 25th. That’s less than a week away! MISTBORN is set in a different world than ELANTRIS, and represents—in my opinion—the best writing I’ve ever done. If you weren’t aware, ELANTRIS is a book I wrote around seven years ago. MISTBORN is much more current—I wrote it after I got the book deal with Tor, and is the first novel I wrote knowing that it would be published.

It’s very hard to explain the book. On one hand, it’s a heist novel, with a group of thieves trying to steal from a powerful emperor. On the other hand, it’s a character drama—a coming of age story for a young girl who has trouble learning to trust those around her. It includes the best magic system I’ve ever devised, and (hopefully) enough twists and turns to keep everyone guessing.

I’m really hoping for good sales on this one. In a way, the MISTBORN series (there will be three books) will determine my future as a writer. With my first novel, I had a little leeway—a publisher expects you to be an unknown with your first book, and so sales expectations are lower. While numbers for ELANTRIS were great for a first novel, I’ll need to do much better to make a career out of this! So, please consider picking up a copy of MISTBORN next week.

For those of you in the Utah area, I’ll be doing a special pre-release signing event at the Waldenbooks at the Provo Towne Centre (yes, that’s how they spell it) Mall. It will be on Saturday, the 22nd, from 5pm until I decide to go home! I’ll stay as long as there are people wanting to chat with me or buy books. This is a very special event, with Tor having given permission directly to the store to sell copies of the book ahead of its release date. There will be a prize drawing, sponsored by the bookstore, as well as lots of festivities (including a reading and Q&A by myself.) And, if that weren’t enough, the hardback will be discounted by 15%! You can also, of course, pick up signed ELANTRIS paperbacks.

MISTBORN Tour

Other than the signing on Saturday, here are some of the events I’ll be doing in the future:

Friday, July 28th: Pocatello, ID Waldenbooks 2:00pm.
Saturday, July 29th: Idaho Falls, ID Barnes and Noble 2:00 pm.
Saturday, August 5th: Hill Air Force Base BX 1-3pm
Saturday, August 12th: Orem, UT Barnes and Noble’s 2-4pm.
Thursday, August 17th: 6:30 pm Sam Weller’s in Salt Lake 6:30 pm
Saturday, August 19th: 2:00pm West Jordan UT Barnes and Noble

I’ll be doing other dates in September, I’ll be in Spain in November, and in December I’ll be doing a book tour through California, Oregon, and Seattle. So, watch the website for updates!

Thanks for everything,

Brandon Sanderson
7-21-06