For those who missed the news and are wondering about the A MEMORY OF LIGHT ebook, I talked about it at the bottom of my blog post last week.

Patrick Rothfuss’s Worldbuilders charity is auctioning off a signed first edition hardcover of THE GATHERING STORM. The auction includes dragon and sword pins from Badali Jewelry and a T-shirt of your choice from Ta’veren Tees that will be signed by the members of Team Jordan. Worldbuilders is a great charity and they also have lots of cool stuff you have a chance of getting by donating, so check out Pat’s blog posts about it.

On this week’s episode of the Writing Excuses podcast, Mary, Howard, Dan, and I discuss the Hero’s Journey. This is an episode that we’ve talked about doing for years and have finally gotten around to. Enjoy!

For Mistborn fans, World of Warcraft is adding a “Survivor’s Bag of Coins” to the 5.2.0 patch. See details here. I think this is awesome! (Also note that the Mistborn action RPG MISTBORN: BIRTHRIGHT is still in development, but right now it looks like the release might get pushed back to 2014 instead of this year. There hasn’t been an official announcement though.)

On my tour I’ve been stopping to sign books in airport bookstores as usual. Years ago some of my fans nicknamed this “Brandalizing.” Grammar Girl did a quick blog post about the term this week.

Here’s a video of Harriet reading the wind scene from A MEMORY OF LIGHT at our signing this past weekend at the College of Charleston. Thanks, Jessica Crout! The Addlestone Library there is the home of Robert Jordan’s papers. They had on display this very early draft of THE EYE OF THE WORLD with Jordan’s handwritten edits on it.

Last week I appeared on Wired’s Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast talking about AMoL. And USA Today had a cool Robert Jordan sidebar in the paper. Here’s a photo:

My assistant has also uploaded two more Twitter archive posts. [Assistant Peter’s note: The first one is spoiler free, but there are plenty of spoilers for A MEMORY OF LIGHT in the second one. Brandon tries to keep spoilers out of his Twitter feed, but there are major spoilers in several of the questions that Brandon answered.]

We’ll find out how A MEMORY OF LIGHT did on the New York Times bestseller list later today or tomorrow, but we already know it hit #1 on the Ingram and National Indie lists. (The USA Today listing above was for the week before the book came out.) We also made Shelf Awareness’s Image of the Day for January 16th, which you can see here (taken at Joseph-Beth in Lexington):

Thanks for all of your support, and I hope you’re enjoying the book! It has been an honor.

Readers have been asking if my forthcoming novellas LEGION and THE EMPEROR’S SOUL will be released in audio versions. The answer is that they will be—we have deals made for these, but I’m not sure how quickly the audiobooks will be released compared to the book versions. I’ll let you know when I have more details.

Another question commonly asked is whether Michael Kramer and Kate Reading will return to voice the audiobook for A MEMORY OF LIGHT. The answer is yes, and the audiobook will definitely be released the same day as the hardcover.

All of my books are now out in audio editions, including the last three Alcatraz books that were missing audiobooks for a few years. There are two different kinds of audiobooks of mine that have come out: standard unabridged readings (from Macmillan Audio and Recorded Books) and full-cast dramatizations (from GraphicAudio). Which type each book has depends on how contracts were negotiated.

Recorded Books has unabridged readings of Elantris, Warbreaker, and all four Alcatraz books.

GraphicAudio has full-cast dramatizations of Elantris and Warbreaker.

Macmillan Audio has unabridged readings of Mistborn 1, 2, 3 and The Alloy of Law; The Way of Kings; and The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight.

Amazon has most of the above for sale. Audible has everything except for the GraphicAudio editions. iTunes also has many of the books.

Tor.com has a free unabridged reading of the novelette “Firstborn.”

Every year for the past several years, NAME OF THE WIND and THE WISE MAN’S FEAR author (and good buddy of mine) Patrick Rothfuss has run a charity drive where he matches at 50% donations to Heifer International through his Worldbuilders team page. Everyone who enters the general drawing gets a chance at a huge number of prizes. There are also individual auctions on several of the most desirable items. Pat explains it best.

I’ve donated various books to the prize pool before, and this year I and Badali Jewelry have teamed up to donate a special Wheel of Time package to the auctions. My contribution is from among my personal leatherbound copies of THE GATHERING STORM and TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT. With each Wheel of Time book that is released, Tor puts out a limited edition of 126 signed copies, 100 of them numbered for commercial release, and 26 of them lettered for publisher and author use. I received copies B and S of both books, and I’m donating the matched set of S copies.

Please see Pat’s description below. The auction itself is here, and you can see the other auction items here. And remember, for every 10 dollars you donate on the Worldbuilders Team Page, you get a chance to win a book from the general prize pool.

• AUCTION: signed, leather-bound copies of The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson with Wheel of Time jewelry.
  

These gorgeous gold-lettered books are leather-bound and designated “S” out of 26 lettered copies. The books come in their own matching leather slipcase, feature a facsimile of Robert Jordan’s signature, and are signed by Brandon Sanderson.

In addition to these stunning best-selling books, this auction includes three lovely pieces of jewelry inspired by Jordan’s series: an Asha’man Dragon Pin, a Dedicated Sword Pin, and a Great Serpent Ring.

We are very grateful to Brandon Sanderson for his donation of these rare books, and to the folks at Badali for making things even sweeter with the addition of the jewelry.

To see more pictures of these gorgeous books, or to place a bid on the auction, click here.

Peter here. Brandon got back from his book tour yesterday, but Pemberly told me that he went right to bed and slept for 15 hours straight. Anyway, the result of this is that Brandon is no longer out flying from state to state or country to country, so unless you’re in Utah or Idaho he won’t be signing books near you anytime soon. Well, that’s why Brandon sells signed books in his store here—so you don’t have to come to him!

Since Brandon doesn’t want to compete with local bookstores, he only sells hardcovers after they’ve been out for at least a year. THE GATHERING STORM has now been out for over a year, so as of today you can start picking it up from Brandon’s store. Brandon will be signing books at his house this Saturday, so if you order before then you could have a signed copy of THE GATHERING STORM in a matter of days. He also might be throwing in a Wheel of Time bumper sticker left over from the tour, like a Tai’shar Malkier or Sly as an Eelfinn sticker, while supplies last. (I’ll bug him and make sure something like this happens . . . or if it can’t happen, I’ll come back and edit this post . . .)

If you want to give the gift of a signed Brandon Sanderson book (or two, or six) this holiday season, now is a very good time to order, especially if you need international shipping. Since Brandon is out of town next weekend for Thanksgiving (he’s going to Idaho Falls and will be signing books there), the next chance he’ll get to sign books for shipping out will be December 4th, which is also the deadline for international orders if you want them to arrive by December 24th. Plus international shipping can be flaky, so getting your order in right away is a good idea. The deadline for U.S. orders is December 6th, or December 12th if you choose Priority Mail shipping.

All of Brandon’s other books (besides THE WAY OF KINGS and TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT, which you might find here) are available, and there are convenient bundles too. Plus you can grab some Mistborn and Elantris jewelry and the Mistborn Table of Allomantic Metals poster. So check it out.

I should also mention that you can get Mistborn and Stormlight Archive shirts and hoodies at InkWing.com. And Garden Ninja Studios has a few more Vin and Kelsier miniatures left (unfortunately, they sold out of the awesome koloss and inquisitor minis . . . but they also have a special on Schlock Mercenary minis).

All,

Let’s do a quick (okay, it’s me, so it won’t be quick) update to let everyone know what’s going on here at Dragonsteel Entertainment HQ. (Also known as me sitting on a chair in my bedroom while my eight-month-old son throws half-eaten graham crackers at me.)

Warning, this is another of my trademarked long and rambling blog posts. So, I’ve put in some arbitrary headings to help break things up and keep it focused. At the bottom, there’s a quick timeline of books I’m working on or plan to work on soon.

PART ONE: WHEEL OF TIME BOOKS PUBLICATION TIMELINE

I posted earlier that Towers of Midnight is done, turned in, and ready for a November second release. I’m feeling pretty good (though a little frazzled) at managing to get it in on deadline, by the promised date I gave you all in the blog post I made regarding splitting the novels. I stand by what I said there. I’m not expanding the outline left to me; I’m telling the same story I would have, even if the book hadn’t been split. The order of chapters will be different in some cases, but nothing will be deleted or added.

Current projections are for the final book, A Memory of Light, to be about the length of the other two. (Around three hundred thousand words, or eight hundred pages in hardcover.) There are some who are hoping for it to be huge, the biggest in the series, but I will write it at the length it needs to be. I’ve finished two books, and have done two-thirds of the outline. So that gives a good indication that the final chunk will be the same length as the other two.

However, I do have to acknowledge that this is going to be the hardest chunk, for several reasons. The number of plots to be dealt with, the number of characters that need to be balanced, the sheer tactics and logistics of the Last Battle . . . there is a lot going on in this book, and it will be orders of magnitude more difficult than the previous two novels.

PART TWO: BUFFERS AND MY WRITING SPEED

Because of this, and because of my writing style, I need a little bit of a break before I tackle it. I pushed myself very hard to get both Towers of Midnight and The Way of Kings ready for publication this year. Even then, it was only possible because I had written a sizable chunk of Towers of Midnight while working on The Gathering Storm AND because I’d already finished an early version of The Way of Kings.

People have mentioned before that I am somewhat prolific. Some of this is an illusion. For a while now, I’ve been warning people that we’ve been chewing through my buffer at a frightening rate. Once upon a time, I would turn in a book three years before it was scheduled to come out. This gave me a lot of wiggle room. If a book wasn’t working, I could shelve it and think about it, then get back to it. Working that far ahead prevents most big crunches.

However, the books I’ve been working on lately were a little more high profile than previous ones—and high-profile books get released when they get turned in, not three years later. So, though I took eighteen months finishing The Gathering Storm, it looked like I finished it very quickly. (I turned it in during the summer of 2009, and it came out in the fall of 2009. Warbreaker came out that same year, though I’d turned it in back in 2006.) The very long write of that book was invisible to a lot of readers because books I’d written years before continued to come out while I was working on it.

The buffer is gone now. I’ll talk more about that later. However, I want to mention something else that helps me be productive—and that’s allowing myself deviations to keep myself interested. I’ve told people before that I wrote the Alcatraz books to give me a break between Mistborn novels. If I’m able to refresh myself on other projects, I don’t get burned out on the big epics. (Which are my true love, but can be very demanding on me mentally.)

PART THREE: WARNINGS

And so, we’re entering the “refresh and work on side projects” stage of the writing process. I did this after The Gathering Storm, and I really need it now. I am therefore taking time off between now and January first. I get to write anything I want. It will probably be bizarre and unexpected; things that keep me fresh, things I haven’t tried before.

I ask your forbearance. I do believe that as a writer who has begun series, it is my responsibility to see that the other pieces of the story are written in a timely manner. However—and it may seem odd—I need to work on these other things to keep my next Wheel of Time and Stormlight installments good. It’s how my process works.

So, that’s the first warning. I’m taking a break for three months. The second warning is that I can’t promise I’ll hit the final deadline on the Wheel of Time series. (The last one was supposed to be out in November 2011.) The problem is this: starting January, it will have been three years since I read the Wheel of Time series start to finish. That’s too long. I’m starting to forget things. I won’t feel comfortable starting the final book until I’ve done another re-read, and this is going to slow me down by three or four months. It’s an unexpected delay I didn’t fit into my original projections of how long it would take me to write the books.

If I miss the deadline (which is more likely than not) it won’t be by much. A few months, likely the same amount of time it takes me to do the re-read. But it is what must be done. So, I’d suggest that we set MARCH 2012 as the expected date of A Memory of Light. I suspect there will be some grumbling about this, but I feel I should let you know now, rather than later. It won’t be an enormous delay, however. If my previous track record earns me anything, I hope it is the benefit of the doubt when it comes to me promising the release dates of books. I won’t leave you hanging too long.

PART FOUR: STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE PUBLICATION SCHEDULE

Now on to Stormlight Two. (The title was originally Highprince of War, but I’m feeling in my outlining that this book needs to be weighted more toward Shallan, so a different title is likely). I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place here on this one. Writing a Stormlight book, like writing a Wheel of Time book, is a huge undertaking. Getting one of each out in the same year required fourteen-hour days, six days a week, for a good year and a half. I can’t ask my family to go through that again. Beyond that, the buffer is gone. (I still had a little bit of it when working on Towers of Midnight—not to mention the first version of The Way of Kings that I’d written in 2002. I threw it away and started over, but having written it once before sped the process a great deal.)

So . . . what do I do? I’m feeling right now that I will go straight into Stormlight Two after A Memory of Light. But that means (at very best) it won’t be out until the fall of 2012. I don’t really have a choice, however. The Wheel of Time fans have waited too long for their ending already. I need to do AMoL, and I need to do it right, no matter how long it takes. So I can’t make any promises about Stormlight Two except that I won’t take a break after AMoL, but will go right into it and try to have it done in time for the fall 2012 season.

That means, by a quirk of the publishing business, that I have two epics this year, none next year, and two the following year. (If I meet my Stormlight deadline, which may or may not happen.) Still, this is what I’m planning to do. Barring something unexpected, this is what you should anticipate. I don’t think there will be a book at all from me next year, which punches me in the gut. But that’s what we get for pushing to have two books out last year and two books this year.

So, here’s my official future status, as I sometimes post.

BOOKS YOU WILL SEE SOON

• Towers of Midnight (November 2.)
• Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens (December 2010.)
  —A note on Alcatraz. This is the fourth and final of the Alcatraz books in my contract. I do plan there to be more in this series, but I don’t have time for them right now. And so, for now, this is going to stand as the ending of the series. I’ll do Alcatraz Five eventually, I promise.
• Scribbler (Early 2012)
  —A note on Scribbler. This is a shorter steampunk book I wrote in 2007, just before I got the call about The Wheel of Time. It’s quite good, and Tor has decided to purchase it. It involves chalk-based magic and a boy who is the son of the cleaning lady at a school for people who learn the chalk magic. I haven’t had time to give it a revision, but will likely use some of the time in my free months between now and January to do a draft of it. If I turn it in January or February, you won’t see it until a year after that, due to scheduling.

BOOKS YOU WILL SEE SOMEWHAT SOON

• A Memory of Light (March 2012.)
• Stormlight Archive Book Two (Late 2012 or early 2013.)
• Stormlight Archive Book Three (One year after Book Two.)

ANTICIPATED SEQUELS

• Alcatraz Five (Indefinite hiatus.)
• Elantris Two (Planned to be written after Stormlight Three.)
• Second Mistborn trilogy (It’s coming someday, I promise.)
• Nightblood: Book two of Warbreaker (Coming someday.)
  —Some notes here. Elantris has three books in the series, but they are loose sequels of each other. This means that side characters in one become main characters in the next. So while you’ll see Raoden and Sarene in the second book, they won’t be main characters. (Kiin’s children will be.) Warbreaker is two books. Mistborn is a trilogy of trilogies, with the second trilogy in an urban (20th-century-level technology) setting. For Stormlight, I’m planning a pattern of two every three years, with a different epic—a standalone, or one of the sequels mentioned above—in between. Thus the Elantris sequel is next in line after Stormlight Three, which would be followed by Stormlight Four and Five.

MAYBE COMING SOMEDAY BUT ONLY PARTIALLY WRITTEN

• Dark One (YA dark fantasy.)
• Steelheart (Superhero apocalypse.)
• The King’s Necromancer
• The Silence Divine (Shardworld novel, standalone.)
• White Sand (Shardworld trilogy.)
• The Liar of Partinel (Shardworld novel, one of two.)
• Dragonsteel (Major Shardworld epic. Won’t be written until Stormlight is done.)

POSSIBLE PROJECTS FOR MY TIME OFF

• Mistborn short story (Looking likely.)
• Unnamed urban fantasy (This is what I’m working on right now. Watch Twitter/Facebook for updates on this story. It involves a necromancer pizza deliveryman as a protagonist.)
• Scribbler revisions (Will almost certainly be done.)
• Finishing one of the unfinished novels mentioned above (Not likely, but you never know.)

Who knows when/if anything written during my side-project time will get published. Sometimes, these stories are too unformed (as I like to be very free and loose when I write them) to make it. On other occasions, there isn’t time to do revisions on them. (I write initial books very quickly, but spend many months in revision.) For instance, Alcatraz books were my deviations for 2005 and 2006, and the first of those came out very quickly. Scribbler was the one for 2007, and it won’t be published for a year or so yet. I didn’t have time for much in the way of deviations in 2008 or 2009, just the unfinished projects I mentioned above.

We shall see. As always, thank you for reading and supporting me in this compulsive writing addiction of mine.

The book’s release is getting closer, folks. Are you excited yet?

Dragonmount has announced the Tower Guard program for the upcoming book tour, similar to the Storm Leaders program from last year. Basically, this is an opportunity for a few hardcore fans in each city to spend some personal time with Harriet and me, in exchange for helping out at the signing. I had a great time with the Storm Leaders last year, and I look forward to it again this year. If you’re interested in the opportunity, Dragonmount’s application is right here.

I’ve also put up a page explaining how to get signed & numbered copies of TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT. For those who can’t attend a signing during the tour, pay close attention to the section on the Sam Weller’s signing by mail. There’s an important addition to that this time: For no additional shipping cost, you can buy another book to be delivered in the same box, such as a second copy of TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT, or a copy of THE GATHERING STORM or THE WAY OF KINGS. (Only TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT will be numbered, but I’ll sign and personalize the other books too.)

On the same page, details on the numbering system for the midnight release are there too. If you went to the THE WAY OF KINGS release it will work pretty much the same way, but there are a few changes from how it worked at last year’s THE GATHERING STORM release. Plus they have some cool things planned for the release party. Check it out.

The World Science Fiction Convention, Worldcon for short, is held in a different city throughout the world each year. Next year it will be in Reno, Nevada, from August 17th through 21st. Hundreds of professionals in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror field congregate along with a few thousand fans. I’ll be going, and will likely be on a few panels talking about the craft of writing and related topics.

This is also the convention where the Hugo Awards are voted on by the members. When I was a teenager first getting into fantasy and science fiction, I soon learned that “Hugo Award Winner!” emblazoned on the cover of a paperback meant it was going to be a good book. If you’ve ever wanted to vote for a Hugo, all you have to do is preregister early enough to get a voting ballot (sometime next spring, though to nominate you need to be a member by January). The convention in 2011 votes for books that came out in 2010, as well as for awards such as best editor, best dramatic presentation, and best fan artist.

Anyway, the cost for registration goes up this Friday and will go up again in March. So if you’re interested in going, now is the time to register. I hope to see a lot of fans there.

In other news, I’ve posted a couple more annotations for WARBREAKER. First I talk about the God King’s arrival at the Court of Gods. Then I discuss the life-sense aspect of the magic system.

We’ve got two new things up for you on the Writing Excuses podcast site. First is the newest episode on creating suspense. Next Dan, Howard, and I recorded an acceptance speech for our Parsec Award. Once again we missed the awards ceremony, though Dan and I were both there at Dragon*Con… (And don’t worry about the way I sound; my voice has since recovered.)

There’s been some Wheel of Time news I haven’t mentioned here. First, two early reviews of TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT have gone up, from Leigh Butler on Tor.com and Jason on Dragonmount. And today I received proof covers from Tor. The book comes out in a mere 34 days. Are you ready? My tour schedule is on my site, along with a few conventions I’ll be attending later. Oh, and the paperback and ebook versions of THE GATHERING STORM came out today.

Finally, InkWing Arts, the store started by Mistborn and Stormlight Archive artist Isaac Stewart for merchandise based on those series, is having a drawing for a free T-shirt. If you saw me on the THE WAY OF KINGS tour you may have seen me in one of the T-shirts or received an Epic Bookmark. Anyway, it’s all pretty cool stuff and Isaac’s designs are great. Check it out.

Well, here it is the last day of June and I haven’t mentioned audiobooks at all like I was supposed to, and we all know whose fault that was . . . that’s right, my assistant Peter.

June is audiobook month! There are lots of audiobook-related posts on Twitter with the hashtag #JIAM. There have been contests, some of which are still going on. If you like audiobooks, check it out.

I know many fans enjoy the performances of Michael Kramer and Kate Reading on the Wheel of Time audiobooks. Did you know that Michael Kramer also voiced the audiobooks for the Mistborn trilogy? They’re unabridged and available from Audible.com and via iTunes. And remember how last year Tor.com previewed the second chapter of the audiobook of THE GATHERING STORM? Well, at least one of the upcoming previews of THE WAY OF KINGS on Tor.com is going to be in audio form, and Wheel of Time audiobook fans should be pleased with who you hear reading the chapters. The Stormlight Archive series will also be available via Audible and iTunes as well as on CD.

Most of my other books are also available in audio form. There’s an unabridged recording of ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS. Both WARBREAKER and ELANTRIS are available in two different forms—traditional unabridged readings and full-cast dramatizations. The unabridged readings are from Recorded Books and are also on Audible and iTunes. The dramatizations come from Graphic Audio and are available as audio CDs, mp3 CDs, and mp3 downloads. (They also have an international store.) Graphic Audio editions aren’t completely unabridged in that they don’t have dialogue tags (he said/she said) since the characters are voiced by different actors, and some description is replaced with sound effects, but aside from that you won’t miss any words. Their tagline is “A Movie in Your Mind,” and if you’re an audiobook fan it’s an experience you should try out.

I’ve mentioned a few times that both WARBREAKER and THE GATHERING STORM are among five nominees for the David Gemmell Legend Award. Well, voting on the award ends on Monday May 31st. Since the award is based in the UK, I assume the voting closes at midnight UK time, which is 5:00 or maybe 6:00 p.m. Mountain time (depending on whether daylight saving time is taken into account).

If you’re struggling to pick between the two books, I recommend THE GATHERING STORM since I feel it’s more in the spirit of Mr. Gemmell’s work. Plus, you know, Robert Jordan collected weapons, and I think an award that’s a battleaxe would be right up his alley. So go vote! (Assuming you want either book to win.)

Voting has begun for the David Gemmell Legend Award, which I mentioned last week. It will continue through May 31st. Both WARBREAKER and THE GATHERING STORM are among the five nominees, but if you’re struggling to pick one I’d recommend THE GATHERING STORM since I feel it’s more in the spirit of Mr. Gemmell’s work.

There’s a great article on Robert Jordan, Harriet, and finishing the Wheel of Time in the Charleston City Paper. I’m not sure about the print edition, but online it’s listed as the cover story.

THE GATHERING STORM has won Audible’s 3rd Annual Tournament of Audiobooks, defeating THE HELP in the final round. Wow! Since this is a fan-voted award, I’m honored that you decided to give it the nod. I’m sure Mr. Jordan is also pleased. Performers Michael Kramer and Kate Reading have many fans as well; if you haven’t had a chance to check out the Wheel of Time series on audiobook, give it a try.

Speaking of audiobooks, over at Fantasy Literature they’ve posted reviews of both audio versions of WARBREAKER. There are also reviews of my other titles on that page, and many other reviews throughout the site.

In the most recent podcast episode of Writing Excuses, Dan, Howard, and I brainstorm story concepts using ideas from science. We started out by using a New Scientist article called “13 More Things We Don’t Understand”. Check it out.

In the most recent MISTBORN 3 annotations I talk about the beginning of Vin’s climax and her fight with the Inquisitors, Marsh and the earring, and cinematic writing. We’re getting close to the end… I guess I should start putting up the WARBREAKER annotations soon.

Finally, my good friend Janci Patterson just got her first fiction sale: her YA novel SKIPPED was bought by Christy Ottaviano at Henry Holt. I couldn’t be more pleased for her; I gave her some comments on the book (I basically thought it was brilliant). Janci also gave me some comments on THE WAY OF KINGS that proved invaluable in writing the final draft; if you’re following me on Twitter or Facebook you heard a little more about that. You may also recognize Janci from the MISTBORN 3 chapter 30 annotations. Anyway, I assume Janci’s book will be out in 2011 or 2012, after which you can all buy it and find out for yourself how great it is.