Regarding Audible Hey, all. Brandon here, with what I consider to be some pretty exciting news. Many of you may remember when I wrote last year about my worries regarding audiobook royalties (particularly for independent authors). You can read it HERE, but some of the main bullet points are as follows: I seriously worried about…
One More Week! + Weekly Update Weekly Update One Week Until Launch Hey, everybody! Time for some updates. Well, we’ll start with the 3.0 of Stormlight 5. We are at, Bing! 65%. It’s looking really good. We’re gearing up for the finish of the 3.0. I will do a 4.0 after that, which will need…
A Very Boring Book Announcement + Weekly Update Hey! Weekly Update time. I’m going to say hang out till the end. We’ve got a very fun announcement at the end here. But first, our percentages. Stormlight 5, 3.0, is at, Bing! 50%. Made some good progress on that and am feeling really good about it,…
Shipping Rates and What to Expect + Weekly Update Hey! Brandon here with your Weekly Update. Let’s talk about percentages. So, Stormlight 5 is at, Bing! 41% through the 3.0 revision. Still plugging away on that, making a lot of good progress. And, Bing! Skyward Flight, I am at 20% on my revision of that.…
All Leatherbounds are Back in Stock! + Weekly Update Hey! Weekly Update time from Brandon. So, Stormlight 5 3.0 revision is at, Bing! 33%. So, I am moving along through that, on target for my deadline at the end of April. Feeling very good about that. I’ve also been working my way through Skyward Flight,…
New Cosmere Pins! + 500K Subscribers Hey, everyone! Time for our Weekly Update. So, Stormlight 5, we are at, Bing! 25% of revisions done on the 3.0. Moving along at a good clip as I need to. As a reminder, my deadline for the 3.0 draft is the last day of March. So that’s when…
A Free Skyward Short Story + Weekly Update Hey! Brandon here with the Weekly Update. Let’s start with Stormlight 5. My 3.0 revision is at, Bing! 15%. My target date for finishing that is the last day of March, and it’s looking pretty good for doing so. So, I’ll have to do that and then…
New Fan Bundles on Sale Now! + Weekly Update Hey, Brandon here. Weekly Update time. We’ve been gone for a little while. Thank you for coming back to find out that Stormlight 5 is at, Bing! 100%. In fact, Stormlight 5’s 2.0 revision is at, Bing! 100%. That’s right. Because I wrote the 2.0. I…
Stormlight 5 Finished! + Weekly Update Weekly Update Stormlight 5 is Finished!
State of the Sanderson 2023 Introduction Whew, what a year! As I write this, the first of the December boxes are arriving in the hands of backers—meaning the Year of Sanderson has come to a close. By the time this goes live, I believe all of them will be shipped. Twelve boxes, with four books,…
Dragonsteel 2023 LIVE NOW + Weekly Update Hey! Brandon with your Weekly Update. An exciting one this week. We are at, Bing! 90% on Stormlight 5. And Skyward Legacy is at, Bing! 77%. So both of those are getting very close to being done. You can follow along. I’m supposed to turn mine in one…
New Products Showcase + Warbreaker Box Now For Sale Hey! Brandon here with Brandon’s merch table, and also our Weekly Update. So, book update first. We are at, Bing! 84% on Stormlight 5. Going along really well, inching toward that deadline in December. It might actually speed up a little bit in coming weeks. We’ll…
Lightning Signing Reveal + Weekly Update! Hey, everybody! Time for our Weekly Update. Stormlight 5 is at, Bing! 82%. I did get some good writing done while I was in Hawaii, and I think we’re going to be in a smooth sail to the rest of the book. We’re probably actually a little bit more…
Defiant Bundle Preorder + Weekly Update Hey, everyone! Brandon with our Weekly Update. All right. We are inching toward the ¾ mark with Stormlight 5. We are at, Bing! 73%. That means next week, almost assuredly, we will be at 75%. So, we need a special graphic for that, Taylor, that just like, a little…
Preorder Your Defiant Bundle Next Week! + Weekly Update Hey! Brandon here with your Weekly Update. Let’s start with the book updates. Stormlight 5 is at, Bing! 71%. That’s right, 3% moved up this week. I am getting to the end of a sequence, and I have decided to put off doing revisions until I…
Legally Distinct Metallic Tickets + Weekly Update Hello! Brandon here with your Weekly Update. So, this is a longer one, all right? So settle in. I’ve got a lot of things to cover but we will do the book updates first. We are going, Stormlight 5, Bing! 55%. Only 1% this week. Just kind of…
Secret Project 3 Out This Week! + Weekly Update Hello! Brandon here with your Weekly Update. Sorry I wasn’t here last week. I did a writing retreat. It was very nice. I was able to get a bunch of Stormlight revised, which means I’ve sent the first quarter of Stormlight 5 to my editors and…
From Imagination to Reality: Mistborn Origins
Tampa Bay Comic Convention + Weekly Update Hey! Brandon here with your Weekly Update. As you can see, my hair has grown back quite quickly. It was rather magical. But this has stayed. I did grow this out for a certain video that will be coming up. A lot of people are guessing that it’s…
Convention Registration is Live! + Weekly Update Hey! Welcome to the Weekly Update. If you are curious what happened to my hair, well, we might have a video coming up for you in about a month. So watch for that. It’s quite fun. Otherwise, time for some updates. Stormlight 5 is, Bing! 52% Moving just…
Big Stormlight Milestone! + Weekly Update Hey, Weekly Update time! So, starting off, Stormlight 5 is at, Bing! 50%. That’s right. I hit 225,000 words, which I’m calling 50% on this. Hoping for a final book at around 450,000 words. We will see. But I feel very good at 50%. I warned you last week…
The Work Continues! + Weekly Update Brandon here with your Weekly Update. Stormlight 5 is, Bing! 48%. So we are moving right along. Next week we will probably cross that 50% mark. What this means is right now I’m at about 220,000 words. I’m going to hit us at 50% when we hit 225,000. Now,…
Teen Author Boot Camp + Weekly Update Brandon here. Weekly Update time! Stormlight 5 is at, Bing! 42%. That’s a very auspicious number. Things still continue to go well with that. I am working away and keeping going. And Janci has been working on Skyward Legacy, which is at, Bing! 17%. So both books are…
May Mistborn Swag Box + Weekly Update Hey! Weekly Update time. Stormlight 5, Bing! 41%. Another 2% this week, which is what we like seeing. I’ve been making good progress these last couple of weeks, so I feel great about that. I’m worried about how long the book will be. We’ll deal with that when…
Outside Snow is falling. So I look up. The world mystifies when you stare up through falling snow. Even standing still, you can soar. Even alone, you are surrounded. Even mundane, you find magic. I’ve spent my life chasing the fantastical, yet everything I’ve ever imagined can be casually matched by someone tilting their head…
State of the Sanderson 2022 Introduction Wow. What a year. I can remember writing this essay last year, and being all giddy about the fact that I was hiding four secret novels from you all. I said, “Maybe next year, I’ll be able to explain to you all why my year was so strange.” One…
Lightweaver Ornament Out Now + Weekly Update Hey! So welcome back to Weekly Updates. We took a week off, and it’s been a busy week for me. I had the holiday here in America, Thanksgiving. But I did get some writing done after that. And so I met my goal, just squeaked by it, for…
MTG Summit this Friday + Weekly Update Hey! It is time for your Weekly Update. First off, I have gotten back into Stormlight 5. I actually only got about 2,000 words last week, and so the percentage bar probably hasn’t inched up yet. But I am working on that full time now because it is…
Halloween Stream Tonight + Weekly Update Brandon here with your Weekly Update. Secret Project 4 final draft, Bing! is done. I actually finished that mid-last week a few days ahead of schedule. So I’m feeling pretty good about that one. That means that all of the secret projects are now a wrap. I have done…
Charity Magic Draft is Live + Weekly Update Hi. I am here with your Weekly Update again. So first things first, I am working on Secret Project 4, where I am, Bing! 70% of the way done. This might seem a small amount, since last week I was 50%, and I should have been a…
Prologue to Stormlight 5 Introduction Hey, all! We wanted to send one final excerpt to you to both say thank you, and give a warning that the Kickstarter is coming to an end. Today is the last day, and it ends at 5:00 MDT. I’m so grateful to you all for the overwhelming show of…
First Look at Secret Project Four (Hint: it’s Stormlight Adjacent) Introduction Hello everyone! Welcome to the next Secret Project reveal! If you have no idea what I’m talking about here, I recommend you start here. For full info about our Kickstarter, you should visit the campaign page. If you missed my reveal for the first…
First Look at Secret Project #3 Introduction Hello everyone! Welcome to the next Secret Project reveal! If you have no idea what I’m talking about here, I recommend you start here. For full info about our Kickstarter, you should visit the campaign page. If you missed my reveal for the first two Secret Projects, you…
Some FAQs You Might Enjoy Hey, all. It has been, to say the least, a wild two weeks for me. After seeing some of the discourse around what is going on with the Kickstarter, I thought you all might enjoy it if I answered a few questions I’ve been getting. (Or ones I’ve been seeing…
First Look at Secret Project #2 Introduction Hello everyone! It’s been a mindblowing few weeks. All of us here at Dragonsteel HQ are in awe over the wonderful support you’ve been showing these quirky little books. If you’ve somehow stayed out of the loop, we launched a Kickstarter for four secret novels that I wrote over…
I Am Flabbergasted! Adam here. I will update this text once the video has been transcribed.
First Look at Secret Project #1 Hello, all! It’s been a wild few days. If you somehow didn’t hear about it, we announced a Kickstarter for four secret novels! It’s live now, and is…well, kind of unbelievable. We will likely soon become the #1 Kickstarter of all time. You can watch my YouTube announcement here,…
The Lost Metal (Mistborn 7) + Weekly Update Adam here. I will update this text once the video has been transcribed.
The Lost Metal Weekly Update Hey! Brandon here with your Weekly Update. Not a whole lot to talk about this week, just I’ve been plugging away at Wax and Wayne 4, The Lost Metal. I am, bing!, right at 70%, and I am ready for the home stretch to finish this thing off. I’m very…
Update on The Lost Metal Brandon here with your Weekly Update. I have been working hard on Wax and Wayne 4, The Lost Metal. I dedicated a lot of time to it last week and I am at, bing!, 60%, just under the 2/3 mark on that one. I will cross the 2/3 mark next…
White Sand Omnibus News + Weekly Update Hey, Brandon here with your Weekly Update. I spent this week working hard on the new Wax and Wayne novel, going through a pretty significant revision using beta reader comments and my comments from my editor. So I did about—I’m about a third of the way through that…
Dragonsteel 2022 Convention Announcement + Weekly Update Brandon here with your Weekly Update. Sorry to miss one last week. Things got a little hectic. But we have one for you this week. I have been working mostly on two things. Wax and Wayne 4 revision, which I’m still not that far in. I’m about 20,000…
Dave Wolverton—A Friend and Mentor On Friday, my writing mentor Dave Wolverton (who also wrote under the pen name David Farland) passed away in his sixties from complications relating to a fall. It’s with complex emotions that I approach writing a few things here. The community has lost a great and wonderful man, and I…
Started Writing Szeth! + Weekly Update So this week, having finished the draft of Defiant, I have started really getting into Stormlight 5, and I’ve been working on the outline, just kind of refining the outline for the Szeth backstory sequence. And today I wrote a little bit of that. I’m not ready for a…
Starting Stormlight Five! It’s been a couple of weeks, since we were all off for the holidays. And I actually took a little bit of a break. I worked half days through part of the holidays, which left me a little bit behind on Defiant, book 4 of Skyward. And so last week I had…
State of the Sanderson 2021 Welcome to my yearly wrap-up. In this essay, I’ll talk about projects recently released, ones upcoming, and ones in limbo. It’s usually a very long post, so feel free to jump to the section that interests you most using the following handy set of links. Introduction Part One: My Year…
State of the Sanderson is Live! + Weekly Update Hello. Brandon here with your Weekly Update. So first of all, the State of the Sanderson is out today! What is the State of the Sanderson? Well, every year around my birthday, which also coincides with Koloss Head Munching Day in the Mistborn world, we release…
Alcatraz and Lost Metal News + a Question I Have for You Hey, Brandon here with your Weekly Update. I am working my way through Defiant, the fourth book of the Skyward series. I’m about, bing! 66%, two-thirds of the way there. I have a few weeks left to finish that, so hopefully I will…
Some Thoughts from Brandon on Episode Three Hey, all! Sorry I haven’t been able to post here right when new episodes release. Having a book launch and the holidays kind of prevented me from digging in deep with the WoT launch. However, in order to make it up to you, I’ve pulled out my actual…
Packed Weekly Update + Leatherbound Discussion with Isaac Hey, everybody! Brandon here with your Weekly Update of all the random things happening in Sanderland. This week I am up to, bing! 55% on Defiant. A little bit of a slow week for me this week, just kind of catching up after the holidays and all…
Weekly Update From the Festival of Trees Hi! Brandon here with our Weekly Update. We’re a day late because I wanted to show you our tree. This is actually at the Festival of Trees in Salt Lake. We do one of these every year for charity. You can actually bid on this tree if you…
Cytonic Out Tomorrow! + MiniCon Starts Today! Hey! Brandon here with your Weekly Update. I have been busy signing stacks and stacks of copies of Cytonic because it is out tomorrow. Please go give it a look. This is the third book of the Skyward series. I’m working on the fourth one now and, in…
Some Thoughts from Brandon on Episode Two The title is a little bit of a lie. Because I’m going to do more Episode One first. I finally saw the finished product tonight–on the big screen, in 4k, with an atmos sound system. 🙂 I knew that some of my larger suggestions had been adopted, but…
Some Thoughts from Brandon on Episode One Haven’t watched the final product yet, as I wasn’t able to make the premier. Disclosure, I’m one of the producers. My part equated to reading the scripts and offering feedback directly to Rafe, the show runner. I’ll be watching tonight, and there are a few details I’m curious…
Weekly Update from Hawaii! Hello, everybody. I am Brandon, here for a very different sort of Weekly Update for you. I am at the Turtle Bay Resort on beautiful North Shore Oahu in Hawaii. I’ve been writing here for the last week or so, a little over a week. And I’ve been working on the…
SandoWriMo + Weekly Update Hello, and welcome to Weekly Update. I am still in costume. If you are wondering why, then go watch the livestream from last Saturday, the VOD of it. You can see me in full costume. I’ve taken off the wig, which is why we’ve got some weird stuff up on my…
ReDawn Out Tomorrow! + Livestream This Saturday! Brandon here with your Weekly Update. I’m about 80% of the way through the things I need to get done in order to start the new Skyward book. I anticipate I’m going to get to it pretty soon here. The goal is still to have that one done…
Weekly Update + How to Get Into My 2022 BYU Class Hey! Weekly Update time. It’s getting to be winter and it’s getting kind of cold, so I’ve broken out the authorial jacket with the nice patches on the elbows. I feel very professorly coming to you today. A few quick updates. Skyward news. We…
TWO GIVEAWAYS! + Mistborn Playing Cards and Regular Updates Hey, Brandon here for your Weekly Update. Things are moving along on Wax and Wayne, which I am finished with the 2.0 draft and people are doing the beta reads. So not much of an update there. On Skyward 4 I am still in the pre-writing…
Limited Way of Kings Leatherbounds Available Now! + W&W and Skyward 4 Updates Weekly Update time from Brandon. All right. Wax and Wayne 4 is off to the beta readers. It has begun that process. The 2.0 draft, as I have mentioned, is done. So that one, bing! 100% on our second draft. I, right…
New Book Out Tomorrow! + W&W 4 Update BRANDON: Hey, Brandon here with Janci! JANCI: Hello! BRANDON: We are here to announce that Sunreach is coming out tomorrow. We are really excited. Janci, what is Sunreach? JANCI: Sunreach is a Skyward novella that is all about the members of Skyward Flight. BRANDON: About six years…
Sunreach Cover Reveal + An Apology All right. Brandon here for our Weekly Update. Two fun things and one apology. Fun thing one, Wax and Wayne, bing!, 75%. This is for draft number two. I should be finishing that this week and turning it in, which leaves next we me starting on the fourth Skyward…
HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT + W&W and FanX Update Hey, everyone! Weekly Update time. This is a big one. All right? I’ve got a lot of stuff to talk about today. Very briefly, Wax and Wayne 4 going very well, 2.0 draft. I am somewhere around, bing!, 70% on that. But we’re going to move off of…
Emperor’s Soul Poll + Evershore and W&W 4 Update Hello, everyone! Back for a Weekly Update. Sorry about last week. Producer Adam was on vacation, and he had a very good vacation, and we like him to go on vacation on occasion because we like to keep our Adam very happy because he’s the one…
Taking a Quick Break From W&W 4 + Poll Results Hey, Brandon here in theater mode today with your Weekly Update. Wax and Wayne 4 is, bing!, at 40% on the second draft. That’s not going to move this week because I am actually shifting gears to work on the third of the Skyward novellas…
Launching Into the 2nd Draft of The Lost Metal + Cytoverse Update Hey, everyone! Weekly Update time. Got a couple of cool things for you today. The first is, I have launched into the second draft of Wax and Wayne 4. This is how I do things. I finished it and took one day to…
W&W 4 Is Done! + Way of Kings Prime Audiobook and T-Shirt Poll Hey, Weekly Update time. It’s time for some celebrations because Wax and Wayne 4 is done, 100%. I finished it last Wednesday, which is last night to me but a few days ago to you. That book is moving on to second…
W&W 4 (The Lost Metal) Is Nearing Its Completion! Hey, everyone! Brandon here for our Weekly Update. I am hard at work on Wax and Wayne. We are getting to the final stretch. I have it at 85% right now as this recording is happening. This recording is happening on Wednesday (the Wednesday before you…
W&W 4 Update + Magellan Visits! Hey, everyone, Brandon here for the Weekly Update. I thought I’d bring Magellan along. He’s already bitten the button off of my jacket. I’m going to try to get him not to bite anymore. So I’m going to give him a nut. (Magellan, you want this? Yeah. Yeah, you…
Lux Is Out This Week + W&W 4 Update Hey, guys, Weekly Update time. This is going to be a bit of an outlier of a week. While you’re getting this update, I am flying home from Atlanta where I was at JordanCon. Hopefully, I had a wonderful time chatting with my friends at JordanCon.…
Sanderson T-800 Confirmed! + W&W 4 Update I have something fun to talk about this week. I just did one of the oddest book signings of my life. I was sitting here, in American Fork, Utah, and I did a book signing in Barcelona, Spain. How did this work? They set up this thing, and…
W&W 4 (Mistborn #7) is 2/3 Done! Hey, everybody! It is time for another Weekly Update, and I’m going to talk to you about Wax and Wayne 4. Now, I was reading the comment section to one of my previous updates, and someone had been a little confused about how I was writing this book.…
W&W 4 + New Reckoners Novel Update All right, everybody. It’s Brandon’s Weekly Update. So, Wax and Wayne. I passed, bing, 60%. Probably a little past that by now, but that’s what I am at right now, and really excited with how the story is going. I have actually—I can’t tell you too much, I…
Cover reveal for Lux: A Texas Reckoners Novel Adam here. I’m sure most of you reading this have been following Brandon’s social media—particularly his YouTube channel—and have seen/heard him discuss some of his upcoming projects where he’s partnered with other authors to help tell stories that he’s unable (due to other writing deadlines) to write…
W&W 4 Update + Leatherbound Poll Results Hey, Brandon here for your Weekly Update. We are super thankful to you guys for filling out the poll last week regarding the leather bounds. It’s given us a lot of good direction. Today Isaac and I talked a lot about how, number one, we can get unsigned…
Wax & Wayne 4 Update + Leatherbound Poll Hey, everybody! Brandon here. Couple things to talk about this week. Wax and Wayne is really close to 50%. But it’s not quite there yet because I had to take this week off and do something else. I’m actually pushing the due date for Wax and Wayne,…
The Strangely Melancholy Ending to The Good Place I’m a little behind everyone else when it comes to this show, as my wife and I tend to give television programs a good rest between seasons, rather than binging the entire thing as once. So I only just watched the ending to The Good Place, and…
Intentionally Blank Episode 1 — Popcornture vs Stubad Adam here. If you’ve been following Brandon’s Weekly Update videos on his YouTube channel, this won’t come as a surprise. If you haven’t been, well… surprise! Brandon and his good friend—and NYC Bestseller—Dan Wells have started a podcast together where they talk about movies, TV shows, videogames,…
New Project Announcement + W&W4 and Kickstarter Update Brandon here. I have a lot of updates this week. I have, like, four things I need to talk to you about. First one is Cytonic. We have announced the name of the third book in the Skyward series. We have announced a release date. It’s up…
Why is Kelsier in Fortnite? Plus Cytonic and W&W4 Update Hey! Brandon here for the Weekly Update. You might have missed our announcements this week, this last week, so I’m going to go over them again with you. The first one is Cytonic. We have a title, and we have a cover for the new…
Project Hail Mary Review Hey, guys! I actually have something different for you. I have a book review. I normally do these on my Goodreads. But I’m here in front of the camera. I just did my weekly update. And I thought, what if I just did a vlog version of this. It’s going to…
Cytonic (Skyward 3) cover and title reveal! Adam here. I know many of you have been *patiently* waiting for us to finally reveal the cover and title for the third volume in Brandon’s Skyward Series—many of you correctly guessing this would be our first announcement after Brandon’s vague teasing in his most recent Weekly Update…
Wax & Wayne 4 Update + Warbreaker Giveaway All right. Brandon here with your Weekly Update. We have two announcements coming this week that I can’t announce right now. One is on Wednesday and one is on Thursday. Watch our website. We’ll talk about it. One of them you’re expecting. It will not surprise you…
Dark One Out Tomorrow + W&W4 and Kickstarter Update Brandon here for our Weekly Update. Got some fun things to talk to you about today. First thing is I should let you know Wax and Wayne still going pretty well. I just went over 20%. And by Monday, I’m going to guess I’m around 22%-23%,…
Wax & Wayne 4 Update + Board Game Poll Results All right, everybody. It’s time for our Weekly Update. I didn’t have any sort of recordings yesterday, on Thursday, so I’m doing this on Friday just in my office again. Which means, I’m sorry, this probably came up a little bit late since Adam won’t…
Wax & Wayne Update + Stormlight Archive Game Question Hey! Brandon here. You know, I said that these were not going to be weekly probably, even though I was going to call them weekly, and now we’ve done one every week. So here is our Weekly Update. I am still working on Wax and Wayne…
Wax & Wayne 4 Update + Cosmere Art Book Question Hey! Brandon here for our next Weekly Update. This is an exciting one because I have been writing on the new Wax and Wayne book, and I am 7,000 words into it. I have had three very solid days of writing. I want to get…
Wax & Wayne #4 Writing Has Begun! Hey! Brandon here for your Weekly Update In this Weekly Update, I have a couple of cool things for you. The first one is to announce we have gotten the last piece of swag from the Kickstarter rewards, the playing cards. Or we have been shipped them. They…
Wax & Wayne Update + Stormlight Question for UK Readers Brandon here with your Weekly Update. I have been working hard on the new Wax and Wayne novel, prewriting. But I would say, it’s kind of a rough count, that I’m about 40% done with that. We don’t actually have a progress bar for this…
Skyward 3 is Done! + New Shirt and Kickstarter Update Hey, Brandon here for our Weekly Update. This is a big one. Skyward 3 is done. Last night, I’m recording this on Thursday, these go up on Monday, so last night I turned in the book, the 5.0 edition of it finally. It was a…
Skyward 3 Update, New Socks + Kickstarter Update! All right. Brandon here with our Weekly Update. The third book of the Skyward series, I have finished the 4th draft and immediately started the next draft, last draft, the 5.0. And I’m about 30% through that draft. The goal is to turn that in the 31st…
Skyward 3 Update + Mini-Hardcover Question Hey, this is Brandon. Time for our Weekly-ish Update. I am still working on Skyward 3. We came up with a name. It’s going to be announced eventually. We’re going to let the publisher do it. I’m working through the 4.0. And I am 10,000 words away from the…
Skyward 3 Has a Title. But I Can’t Tell You Yet Hey, Brandon here. Weekly Update. I am still working on Skyward book 3, which we just named. But I can’t tell you what the name is yet because the publisher wants to do publicity. It’s not going to be Nowhere. I’d warned you guys…
Skyward Draft 3.0 is done + Kickstarter Update Hey, Brandon here. I want to start a new thing on my YouTube channel, which is periodically giving you updates on the books I’m writing. This should happen every other week, sometimes every week. We’ll call it the Weekly Update. It may not actually be every week.…
My Work Life Balance as a Writer (Video at bottom.) I am a big proponent of a good balance in life. And this can be hard to do as a writer. Because a lot of you who want to write professionally, by necessity, have to have another job. When I took this class back in…
State of the Sanderson 2020 Welcome to my yearly wrap-up. In this essay, I’ll talk about projects recently released, ones upcoming, and ones in limbo. It’s usually a very long post, so feel free to jump to the section that interests you most using the following handy set of links. Introduction Part One: Mainframe Announcements…
Rhythm of War is Out! Adam here. I know it’s a bit weird to be just seeing a post about Rhythm of War being released. But between the frantic preparations (including a hard drive failing at the worst possible time) and the holiday, a post was something that I kept pushing off in wake of…
Dawnshard is Out! Dawnshard is Out! Adam here. The long-anticipated novella is finally out today! For those of you who haven’t been following Brandon on social media, or this summer’s past Kickstarter for the 10th-anniversary edition of The Way of Kings, then this will probably be a very happy surprise for you. If you’re preparing…
Rhythm of War ARC Giveaway! Adam here. And I have another exciting giveaway in celebration of, not only the upcoming release of Rhythm of War but also because Brandon’s newsletter just surpassed 100K subscribers. So firstly, thank you so much for your trust and willingness to deal with the extra form mail delivered to your…
Monsters Don’t Wear Underpants Kickstarter Campaign Today, my art director, Isaac Stewart, opened his Kickstarter campaign for his children’s book Monsters Don’t Wear Underpants: A Lift-the-Flap Book. Isaac was instrumental in designing and running The Way of Kings leatherbound campaign, so while the subject matter is quite different from The Stormlight Archive, I think this…
The Rhythm of War Release Party Details + Swag Bundle Hello, everyone! Adam here. I’ve heard that there has been a bit of confusion surrounding some of the details that have recently come out regarding signed copies of Rhythm of War and the release party scheduled for Tuesday, November 17th, 2020 at 8:00 p.m. EST.…
Creative Writing 2021 at BYU Brandon’s assistant Karen here. It’s that time again—time to send in your applications for Brandon’s Winter 2021 English 318R class. Each year Brandon likes to teach a Creative Writing class at his alma mater, Brigham Young University. The lecture portion of his class (English 490R) is open to all students,…
100K YouTube Subscriber Thank You + Giveaway Adam here. You’re probably here after watching Brandon’s recent video on YouTube about his channel reaching 100k subscribers. We had no idea the channel would grow so quickly and the engagement be so avid. So first off, we just want to say thank you. Thank you for your…
Cover Reveal for The Original Adam here. If you’ve been following Brandon’s Live Signing Sessions this year on YouTube (also on his Facebook, Twitter, and Twitch channels), than this won’t come as a surprise, but Brandon has been working on *yet* another project—this time an audio original—called The Original, which he co-authored with his friend,…
If You Missed the Kickstarter + Legion Paperback We’ve heard from some of you that you didn’t find out about The Way of Kings leatherbound Kickstarter until after the campaign had ended. We’ve opened a BackerKit store for those who might’ve missed the campaign or were unable to back it while it was ongoing. Here’s…
Only Two Stretch Goals left! Adam here. It has been an exciting few weeks since we launched the Kickstarter last month. So it’s a bit weird to be saying this already, but our Kickstarter for the special leatherbound edition of The Way of Kings ends in just a few days! It officially ends Friday at…
Funded in Three Minutes! Adam here. We are in awe. Everyone here at Dragonsteel Entertainment is just blown away by the incredible reception of the Way of Kings leatherbound Kickstarter. Watching the numbers climb so quickly, reaching funding in only three minutes, was a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. Then to see…
The Way of Kings Leatherbound Kickstarter Sneak Peek I’m excited to announce my Kickstarter for The Way of Kings leatherbound. It will go live Tuesday, July 7th at 9:00 AM MDT and go through Friday, August 7th at 3:00 PM MDT. If you don’t want to miss out on the first day, check out the…
Announcing the Official Knights Radiant Order Quiz + Stormlight Phone Wallpaper We’ve mentioned in a few places that certain pledge tiers on the upcoming BackerKit campaign will allow backers to choose an Order of Knights Radiant. Many of the items and add-ons are themed toward these Orders. But what if you don’t know which Order…
Call to Adventure: The Stormlight Archive Adam and Isaac here. Several months ago, Johnny O’Neal from Brotherwise came out to Utah to show us an early test copy of Call to Adventure: The Stormlight Archive. We had a blast. The artwork was incredible, the gameplay was engaging, and most of all—at least for me (Adam)—it…
Way of Kings Kickstarter: Bridge Four Poster Reveal Isaac here. As many of you know, we’re hard at work preparing for our summer Kickstarter for the Dragonsteel edition of The Way of Kings. Today we’re kicking off the ramp-up period before the Kickstarter with a reveal we’ve been holding onto for quite some time. Several…
Alternate Stormlight Symbol Reveal Art director Isaac here with an art reveal today. Recently Brandon, Kara, and Adam have been discussing publicity for Rhythm of War, and one thing that Tor has asked for is a simplified symbol to represent the Stormlight Archive on certain marketing materials. Now, to be clear, we love the original…
Advice for Marrying a Writer or Creator Brandon’s wife Emily here. I was recently on one of Brandon’s livestreams where I was asked for advice in regards to being married to an author or creator. The below is the (edited for reading) answer I gave during the livestream. If you’d rather watch it than read…
Wheel of Time anniversary and Award Season 2020 Hey, all. This week marks the 30th anniversary of the start of The Wheel of Time! I wanted to write something up for you, but I ended up using it for a new foreword for The Eye of the World that Tor is releasing. So you’ll be…
January YouTube Livestream In order to get the Way of Kings leatherbound ready for our Kickstarter this summer, I need to sign thousands upon thousands of copies of the first signature. (A “signature” in this context means a group of pages of the book that will eventually be trimmed and bound together. You’ll see what…
State of the Sanderson 2019 Introduction Welcome, everyone, to our final State of the Sanderson for the decade! If you’re not familiar with these posts, each December I take a look back at my year and talk about the projects I’ve been working on. Then I turn an eye to the future to see where…
The Warbreaker leatherbound is here (finally)! And socks! Adam here. Many of you reading this probably already saw my post from a few weeks ago giving you your first peak at the new Dragonsteel special leather bound edition of Warbreaker. Well today, I am please to (finally) announce that we have recieved confirmation from the…
Assistant Adam recommends James Islington’s The Light of All that Falls Those of you who pay attention to the blog have probably noticed a lot of recommendations coming from Brandon’s assistants over the last few months. First was Peter’s recommendation of Brent Week’s Burning White, the final volume in the Lightbringer series. Then, last week,…
Assistants Adam and Isaac recommend Blood of Empire by Brian McClellan (Out today, December 3) Brian McClellan’s final book in the Gods of Blood and Powder series releases today—Blood of Empire. Not only does this book complete this latest trilogy, it also completes the second trilogy set in his Powder Mage world. Fresh off the…
Warbreaker Leatherbound Preorders Adam here. I know many of you have been waiting for the day we start talking about the special Tenth-Anniversary Leatherbound Edition of Warbreaker. Well, today is that day! On top of that, I’m going to tell you how you can get your hands on one of these beautiful books (skip to the…
Brandon’s art director Isaac here. My ten-year old daughter—nicknamed “W”—has been reading Skyward in preparation for the release of Starsight on November 26th. She’s read plenty of books before, but this is the first time I’ve seen her dive into something this hefty. Of course, I’m terribly proud of her for reading a book that’s over 500 pages.
Adam here. We are only three weeks away from the release of Starsight and its coinciding party. As we’ve said before, if you’re hoping to get a personalized copy of one of Brandon’s books this holiday season, your only opportunity will be at the Starsight release party on November 26th.
Adam here. In recent years, when Brandon releases a new book, we have offered a limited quantity of signed and numbered copies to Weller Book Works—a local book seller—to ship copies around the world for people who are unable to attend the release party. Starting with Oathbringer, we opted to turn this into a fundraising event by asking for small donations that will be sent to Worldbuilders—a geek-centered nonprofit supporting humanitarian efforts worldwide—which you should definitely check out.
Assistant Peter Recommends: The Burning White by Brent Weeks Hello again. Brandon’s assistant Peter here with another recommendation. It’s been a long time since the last one, whew! Today the fifth and final book in the Lightbringer series by Brent Weeks, The Burning White was released. If you’ve read the previous books, the most important thing here…
Tips & hints for applying to Brandon’s BYU class Brandon’s assistant Karen here. Brandon has asked me to judge the applications for his English 318r class and choose the 15 writers who will be in his small group workshops. This year I will only be considering the first 65 applications I receive. Based on the…
FAQ Friday – Is my story too derivative? I, not so recently, got an email asking me the following question. I hope my response will be useful to my fellow writers. You can read my last FAQ Friday post here. Question: I’m absolutely in love with the world I’ve created and have spent years in its…
Mistborn Paperbacks 2019 Brandon’s art director Isaac here. The Mistborn series book covers have had a colorful history of different illustrations: the beautiful originals by Jon Foster, Chris McGrath’s iconic renditions that we can probably thank for some of the paperbacks’ success over the years, and of course let’s not forget Sam Weber’s fantastic covers…
FAQ Friday – Alternatives to flashback scenes A few weeks ago, a Redditor reached out to me in a direct message to ask a question. I hope my response will be useful to my fellow writers. You can read my last FAQ Friday post here. Question: My commute to work has given me the opportunity…
FAQ Friday – How do I narrow the gap between storytelling and story writing? It’s been a few weeks since my last FAQ Friday post about the need to start books with a prologue, as my travel schedule has been quite extensive as of late. As before, this post will take the same format as…
Salt Lake Comic Con schedule & Magic draft Thursday through Saturday I’ll be at the Salt Palace for Salt Lake Comic Con. I’m on various panels and am signing multiple times all three days. I’ll also be doing a Magic: The Gathering draft on Thursday night; see details below on how to sign up ahead of…
If you’re hoping to get a ticket to a signing not held at Brandon’s booth, check out Dragon Con’s website for how to acquire tickets.
FAQ Friday – Do I need to start my book with a prologue? You may have seen my first post of this nature a few weeks ago addressing the elephant in the writer’s room about the nagging feeling of dissatisfaction about the previous day’s efforts. This post will take the same format as the last,…
FAQ Friday – Unsatisfied with Your Writing? As I’m sure you can imagine, I get queried quite frequently about writing advice. Occasionally, when responding to these emailed requests, I see an opportunity to respond to the writing community at large. So, while my answer is written in direct response to the sender, I hope it…
New fan art + Updates Reader Nate Kohl sent in these awesome photos of the woodburning project he did that features Szeth with some Allomantic symbols. In this week’s Writing Excuses episode, Hooking Young Readers, we sit down with Kily Snyder, the Media Specialist (school librarian) at Discovery Middle School in Indiana, to help answer those often asked…
More interviews from Germany + Updates Adam here. A few weeks ago I posted about one of Brandon’s (and Isaac’s) interviews in Germany to his social media pages. You read the interview in Germanhere, or download a PDF of the English version a few paragraphs down. Brandon was also interviewed by the German site FantasyBlogger,…
Calamity Is Done! I have finished the second draft of Calamity, the third and final book of the Reckoners trilogy. As I’ve said before, my second draft of a story is the one where I do “bug fixing.” Essentially, I read through again and tweak any problems I know the book has, trying to make it readable by…
Giuramento (Oathbringer) is out! Adam here. Everyone here at Team Dragonsteel is completely blown away by how great this book looks. Without a doubt, this is one of the highest-quality foreign editions we’ve seen of one of Brandon’s books. For a few years now we’ve been hearing the pleas of our readers in Italy, and…
Brandon at FanX 2019 + Update Adam here. If you live in the Salt Lake City vicinity, or you don’t mind traveling, Brandon will be at FanX 2019 this weekend. You can see his schedule for FanX below, as well as on his Upcoming Events page which also shows all his future events. Friday, April…
Announcing Davriel’s Magic: The Gathering Cards Hey, all! If you’ll indulge my nerd hobby for a moment, I’ve got something cool to share with you. As you may know, I wrote a little story called Children of the Nameless last year—something of a gift to the community and a way of being involved in Magic the Gathering,…
Hugo nominations closing tonight + Updates Adam here. Nominations for the 2019 Hugo Awards close tonight at 11:59 Pacific Daylight Time. A few months ago Brandon wrote short blog about his works that were up for various award eligibility which you can read in full here, but I will give brief bullet points below. Skyward is eligible…
Writing Excuses Workshop and Retreat 2019 + Weekly Update Adam here. If you’re interested in writing you should check out the Writing Excuses Workshop and Retreat which departs from Houston and sails September 13th through 22nd and is packed with intensive seminars, writing exercises, small group breakout sessions, and more. Attendees will also be invited to attend…
Tour with Harriet, Writing Excuses, Stormlight 2 video In the most recent Writing Excuses podcast episode, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells, and I talk about breaking the rules. We’ve said that you’ve got to learn the rules before you break them, so now it’s time to talk about why to break them. Tomorrow I’m…
The Hero of Ages leatherbound, personalizations open + updates Adam here. We have some exciting news for those of you who have been waiting to order your Dragonsteel leatherbound edition of The Hero of Ages: you can now get your copy signed and personalized! We are still behind schedule so it may still take 8-12 weeks…
Award Season, Spring 2019 All, I’m hard at work on Stormlight 4. (No title yet—but you can read my update on Reddit a week or so ago right here, if you missed it.) In the meantime though, it’s time for the yearly roundup of stories I’ve released that are eligible for various awards. It was a…
Hero of Ages leatherbound, Children of the Nameless AMA + Updates Adam here. I want to begin this final blog post of the year with some good news. The Dragonsteel leatherbound edition of The Hero of Ages has arrived! Many of the Dragonsteel Minions have been working long (and often very late hours) to get these books…
A Christmas Present Introduction: The Short Version I’ve got a new story out for you to read. It’s free, and you can dive into it by going to this link. Enjoy! Once you’ve read it, here are some links of places to talk about it, all of which are likely to contain spoilers. Discussion on Reddit Discussion…
The Hero of Ages leather bound, Cyber Monday sale + Audible sale The Hero of Ages Leather Bound Adam here. We have some exciting news for all of you who have been “patiently” waiting the arrival of the Mistborn: The Hero of Ages leather bound. Well… we still don’t have them and we just found out that…
Skyward is out today! Once in a while, an idea takes hold of me, and I just can’t be satisfied until I sit down and write it. Skyward was one of those books. Some of the initial ideas had been floating around in my head for years, but once everything clicked together in my mind, it consumed…
Skyward is out next week! Adam here. With Skyward being released next week I wanted to go over the few options you have to get a signed and numbered copy as well as the release party details. If you’ve been paying attention to Brandon’s social media channels none of what I’m about to tell you…
Voices in My Head: Part Three 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…
Voices in My Head: Part Two 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…
Voices in My Head: Part One 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…
The conclusion to Brandon’s Legion series is almost here! In a few short weeks you’ll get to read the finale to Stephen Leeds’s story, complete with J.C.’s lovable antics, Tobias’s calming Wikipedia-like knowledge, and Ivy’s psychological profiling.
Signed and numbered copies of Legion for release party Adam here. We are only a few short weeks away from the release of Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds which includes the finale of the Legion saga, Legion: Lies of the beholder. The Legion Release Party will take place at Brigham Young University on…
FanX Confirmation All, I have decided for certain that I will be attending FanX (formerly Salt Lake Comic Con). If you haven’t been following the drama, I joined in many other authors signing a letter that challenged the convention to do a better job presenting a safe place for our fans to attend. While FanX has made a number…
Worldcon Wrap-up and Dragon Awards I had an excellent time at Worldcon this year. We got a chunk of Writing Excuses episodes recorded, and I was able to hang out with a number of friends I hadn’t seen in a while. On top of that, I felt that the panels went well, even if they were a little crowded…
Unfettered III All, Today, I have the opportunity to share with you something extra special. As some of you know, during the revision process of A Memory of Light, two lengthy sections ended up on the cutting room floor. The first, which we titled River of Souls, was included in the first Unfettered Anthology. The second,…
Call to Adventure: Stormlight As GenCon 2018 is in full swing, I’m reminded of how much I enjoy attending it. I couldn’t make it this year, but I do have a big announcement for fans of gaming. Next year, you’ll be able to play a Stormlight Archive card game. In Fall 2019, Brotherwise Games will…
Hugo voting deadline, Audible sale + Updates Adam here. I just wanted to give all of you a little reminder that the Hugo Award voting deadline is tomorrow (July, 31st). Voting is open to all supporting and attending members of Worldcon 76. If you’re wanting to cast your vote but aren’t a Worlcon member, it’s not…
Signing near Idaho Falls this weekend + Updates Adam here. I have some exciting news for those of you in driving distance of Idaho Falls, Idaho. This Saturday Brandon will be appearing at Iona Days just a few miles away. You can see his full schedule below, as well as on his Upcoming Events page, but it will include…
New Writing Excuses episode + Update Adam here. In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Characters as Foils, Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice talk about foils. A foil is a character who serves as a contrast to another character. The foil might be a sidekick, an antagonist, a romantic interest, or really any other character who gets enough…
Harassment at FanX All, I don’t normally discuss charged issues on my social media, but I do find harassment at science fiction conventions a topic that is very important to discuss. It is also very relevant to my fans, as conventions are often how they interact with me. Recently, Salt Lake City’s biggest media convention…
MisCon 32 and BookCon 2018 Schedules Adam here. I wanted to make you aware of Brandon’s travel plans over the next week or so, in case you might be in a position to say hello. Right now he is in Missoula, Montana for MisCon 32 and has several events during the event. You can see an abbreviated…
Skyward Cover Reveal Hey, all. If you’ve been following along, you know that my next big project is a book series called Skyward. This is my next YA project with Random House (though, like Steelheart, it walks the line between YA and adult–and is being published in my adult line with my other books in…
New Writing Excuses episode + update Adam here. In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Character Nuance, Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice talk about characters who have conflict built right into them; characters whose attributes and attitudes might seem to contradict one another; characters who like, y’know… actual people. Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread of Oathbringer, we…
Legion: Lies of the Beholder limited edition + Updates Adam here. I saw a ton of questions about Subterranean Press doing a limited edition hardcover printing of the final Stephen Leeds book, Legion: Lies of the Beholder, that would match the first two Legion books. In case you missed the announcement that went out earlier this…
Foil Maps + Updates Dragonsteel art director Isaac here. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably seen me post about the maps for the latest Osten Ard books by Tad Williams: The Heart of What Was Lost and The Witchwood Crown. The original trilogy was what hooked me on epic fantasy in the late 80s/early…
Weekly Update Adam here. In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Handling a Large Cast, Brandon, Mary, Amal, and Maurice discuss their favorite techniques for managing large casts of characters, and how their processes differ from when writing small casts. What does “large” and “Small” mean? Last week, we looked at foolish oaths, broken oaths, and the necessity…
White Sand Vol. 2 Signing Tomorrow As most of you already know, my graphic novel White Sand Vol. 2 was released a few weeks ago. I will be doing a signing at the Dragons Keep in Orem, at 2 p.m. tomorrow. So if you’ve been wanting to get your hands on a signed copy of White Sand Vol. 2, feel…
A quick update on my writing projects Hey, all! Just a quick update here on how things are going. First and foremost, I’ve worked through the rough draft and the first polish of Skyward. I love the book, and it is off to my publisher; I’m hoping for feedback soon. That done, I finally had time…
White Sand Volume 2 is out today! Dragonsteel art director Isaac here. For the last year, we’ve been working close with Dynamite to bring you Volume 2 of the White Sand graphic novel, and today it finally releases. Let me introduce this next volume in the series with a bit of a history lesson. White Sand has an interesting background.…
The Reckoners board game, The Way of Kings VR Experience + Update Adam here. If you’ve been following Brandon’s Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram you will know that it’s been quite the exciting week for us here at Dragonsteel Headquarters. For those who haven’t, here’s a quick rundown. In a previous post we showed you you a bit about the cooperative board…
New Writing Excuses Episode + Updates Adam here. In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Villain, Antagonist, Obstacle, Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard breakdown (you guessed it) villains, antagonists, and obstacles. What’s the difference between villains and antagonists? How is an obstacle character different from those other two? How are they alike? And most importantly, how can we…
Awards Season 2018 Hey, all. It’s awards nomination season again! As is tradition, I’d like to do a quick post highlighting what I have that is eligible for the various awards in sf/f. As always, I request that you nominate based on work, not author. If you are eligible to nominate, and truly think one…
Announcing the Oathbringer Reread + Updates Adam here. In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Protagonists Who Aren’t Sympathetic, Brandon, Valynne, Dan, and Howard discuss protagonists who, per writer intent, do not engender audience sympathy. Alice Arneson and Lyndsey Luther of Tor.com announced their new reread series for Oathbringer. This week they introduce themselves but next week they’ll launch…
The Way of Kings, Escape the Shattered Plains VR Experience Virtual reality makes the viewer an active participant in the story, allowing them to step into the creator’s imagination and explore their world. You are fully immersed in the experience. And we can’t imagine a better world to enter than that of The Way of Kings.…
The Reckoners board game + Updates Adam here. In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, What Writers Get Wrong, with Aliette de Bodard, Dan, Mary, Aliette, and Howard discuss “What writers get wrong.” This year the third-week episodes will follow this theme and each of the episodes will feature an expert guest who will help us understand what…
Kaladin Album + Update Adam here. In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Hero, Protagonist, Main Character, Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard start the new season with a quick discussion exploring the differences between heroes, protagonists, and main characters. Beginning with addressing the question “wait, aren’t they all the same person?” Because that’s the elephant in the room.…
Weekly Update Adam here. In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Cross-Genres as Gateways, Brandon, Piper, Howard, and Dan talk about books which have drawn them from genres where they’re most comfortable and what can be learned about your own writing by reading those gateway books. Brandon will be speaking at the Superstars Writing Seminar in February. If…
Signed books in Orem and Sugarhouse (Salt Lake City) If you’ve been following my website or social media you will already know that I had two signings this past week. One at the Sugarhouse (Salt Lake City) Barnes & Noble and another last night at the Orem Barnes & Noble–they even had a little Oathbringer Christmas tree which…
Officially Announcing: Skyward Hey! I’m back from tour, and let me say, it was quite the experience. I knew you all were excited for Oathbringer—but I didn’t understand just how excited you were. Oathbringer, as of this writing, is still the #1 most read book on Amazon’s “what are people reading” chart. (I guess the length might have something to do…
The Well of Ascension leatherbound edition is here! I have some exciting news for you: after months of waiting, our special leatherbound edition of The Well of Ascension has finally shipped from the printer. Huzzah! Like our edition of Elantris, and Mistborn: The Final Empire the Dragonsteel edition of The Well of Ascension is bound in premium bonded leather, and the pages…
UK tour for Oathbringer + Updates I am getting ready to head off to the UK for the last leg of my Oathbringer tour. You can check out my Upcoming Events page for full details, but if you’re near one of these tour stops, I’d love to see you there, but if you can’t make it that’s okay. The…
Oathbringer Art Roundup Part 1 Brandon’s art director Isaac here with some insights on the art process for Oathbringer. We add a lot of illustrations to most of Brandon’s books, but the Stormlight Archive gets a special amount of attention. We fill each volume with sketches from Shallan and Navani, maps of cities and other locations,…
Oathbringer is (finally) out! Well, the day you’ve been (not so patiently) waiting for has finally arrived. Huzzah! I know that this has been a long wait for many of you as my team and I have been working on this book for about 19 months. We thank you for your patience, and we are…
Roshar’s Date System [Assistant Peter’s note: This post was written back in May by Karen Ahlstrom, Brandon’s continuity editor, but again it slipped through the cracks. I’m sorry, Karen!] I knew I’d have to deal with it sometime, and it finally caught up with me today. My Master Cosmere Timeline spreadsheet has far too many…
Oathbringer’s Timeline [Assistant Peter’s note: This post was written back in March by Karen Ahlstrom, but it fell through the cracks while we were working on Oathbringer.] I just finished the timeline for Oathbringer, and thought you might like to hear about the process. (Spoiler warning: There may be tidbits of information in this article about the…
How to apply for Brandon’s 2018 BYU Class Brandon’s assistant Karen here. It’s that time again—time to send in your applications for Brandon’s Winter 2018 English 318R class. We’re going to do things a bit differently this year, so I’ll go over the changes before I go into the details of how to apply. Because…
Edgedancer is out! Edgedancer, a novella that was originally published last year as part of Arcanum Unbounded, was just released in eBook and (gorgeous) small hardcover yesterday. For those of you who don’t know, the events that take place in Edgedancer occur between the closing of Words of Radiance and the forthcoming Oathbringer and is often referred to as Stormlight 2.5. The…
Oathbringer Release Party Brandon’s assistant Kara here with details for the Oathbringer midnight release party. Further down in the post I’ll outline how to get your signed and numbered copies of the book. VIP Backstage Party Tickets We’ve run out of space at the BYU store, so we’re trying something new this year. BYU is still hosting…
Salt Lake Comic Con & LDSPPA Hey, all! Oathbringer’s release feels like it’s just around the corner–some of you may disagree with me on that–and for those of you who are reading the excerpts on Tor.com, you can now read chapters 10–12 on their website. My other project, The Apocalypse Guard, is moving along nicely. I recently finished…
Robert Jordan Tenth Year Commemoration It’s been ten years since Robert Jordan died. In some ways, I find this a difficult post to write. I’ve known for years I would want to put something here when this day arrived. At the same time, I’ve always found it a strange thing to remember the day of…
Storybundle featuring Sixth of the Dusk For those of you who follow my social media channels, this won’t come as a surprise but Sixth of the Dusk is being featured in StoryBundle’s annual Truly Epic Fantasy collection which is curated by Kevin J. Anderson. Along with my work, this bundle will also feature pieces from the legendary author R.A.…
Kaladin: the original book soundtrack from The Black Piper We have some exciting news coming to you this fall, and no, this is not about Oathbringer (this time). The Black Piper, a cinematic band from Provo, Utah, has composed their debut album Kaladin. And as you might have guessed, this original book soundtrack was inspired by The Way…
Oathbringer’s Final Step For those who didn’t see it, right before he left on vacation a few weeks ago, Peter arranged for his daughter to do the ceremonial “stair toss” of the new Stormlight book. This is a tradition that started when she was a baby, and tossed the manuscript of The Way of Kings down the stairs. Now we get…
Gen Con Hey, all! Things are going well with both Oathbringer and other projects, and I should have a blog post for you about those going up fairly soon. In the meantime, however, I wanted to let you know that I’ll be attending Gen Con (Indianapolis) this weekend. Unlike most conventions I attend, here I’ll have a full-blown booth…
Making a mess with papers, FAQ Friday + Updates In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, What Makes a Good Monster, with Courtney Alameda, Howard, Mary, Dan, with guest host Susan Chang talk Monsters with Courtney Alameda at LTUE 2017. What makes the best ones so good? We discuss some of our favorites, and how the…
#FaqFriday voting and weekly update! In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Narrative Bumper Pool, with Bill Fawcett and Carrie Patel, Howard, Dan, with special guests Bill Fawcett and Carrie Patel who have extensive experience writing for games. This week they talk about writing for interactive stories, like tabletop RPG’s, or video games. Last week, in…
FAQ Friday Poll, Oathbringer’s UK Cover + Updates In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, “Oh Crap, the Cops are Here!”, Howard, Dan, Steve Diamond, and special guest Joe McKinney tackle law-enforcement. We invited Steve Diamond, who has been a guest before, and who has some law enforcement background, to help us grill Joe McKinney, who…
New Writing Excuses, #FaqFriday Poll Results + Updates In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Narrative Bumper Pool, with Bill Fawcett and Carrie Patel, Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley talk revision. Revision: it’s when you make a too-short piece longer, or a too-long piece shorter. (It’s also a great many other things, suggesting that this…
New Writing Excuses episode + updates In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Proposals, Pitches, and Queries, Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard talk about selling your stuff. In this episode we discuss query letters, pitches, and proposals—the tools that you use to present your material to people who can pay you for it, and who will…
FAQFriday voting and weekly update In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Hybrid Outlining and Discovery Writing, Brandon, Dan, Howard, and Piper answer some questions: what can discovery writers learn from outlining? What can outliners learn from discovery writing? Is there a balance between the two that can serve as a happy, productive place for writers?…
#FaqFriday voting and weekly update In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Retrofitting Structure into a First Draft, Brandon, Mary, Mary Anne, and Wesley speak, at least in part, to discovery writers. In this case, talking about how to take a non-outlined work and apply a structure to it in revisions. Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing…
On my way to Toronto for Ad Astra 2017 I will be off to the airport in a few minutes heading to Toronto for Ad Astra 2017. I would love to see you there this weekend, but if you can’t make it that’s okay. The greatest compliment you can give me is to read my books.…
The Brandon Sanderson Humble Book Bundle 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…
Tor.com is offering a free download of The Way of Kings I have some great news for all the US and Canada readers: in preparation for the Oathbringer release later this year, Tor.com is offering a free download of the ebook edition of The Way of Kings, the first volume of the Stormlight Archive, today and…
Brian McClellan’s Sins of Empire Adam here. Brian McClellan is a favorite with members of team Dragonsteel; you can read previous posts from Isaac and me experience more uncontrollable gushing about The Powder Mage trilogy, specifically The Crimson Campaign and The Autumn Republic. Brian recently released his follow-up to The Powder Mage trilogy with Sins of Empire that builds on the all…
Weekly Update! Adam here. As you can probably imagine, Brandon’s inbox is flooded daily with questions ranging from inquiries about his favorite color to asking how everything in the cosmere ends. For obvious reasons, Brandon can’t answer all of these. What I am going to start doing is to create a weekly poll of questions—hopefully…
Weekly Update! In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Q&A on Viewpoint, Brandon, Piper, Dan, and Howard answer your questions about viewpoint. Here they are! Do you have tips and tricks for making 3rd-person omniscient compelling? How do you make 3rd-person limited compelling? Is it normal to need several drafts to nail down a character’s voice?…
Snapshot is out! 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…
Awards season is here! Mistborn and the Best Series award. Hello, everyone! I’ve had my nose to the grindstone working on Oathbringer. However, as awards season is upon us again, I’m pausing to do my yearly roundup of what I have that is eligible. I know that to many of you, the science fiction awards (and…
Boskone schedule + updates Brandon will be in Boston next week for Boskone 54 below is a brief overview of his schedule. You can see all the details, including his future trips, on his Upcoming Events page. Friday My Toughest Book Time: 15:00 – 16:00 Signing Time: 17:00 – 18:00 Saturday Mistborn: House War Game Demo Time: 11:00 – 12:00 Building a…
MGM options Brandon’s forthcoming novella Snapshot Adam here. Yes, you read that right. Snapshot, Brandon’s forthcoming novella, was just optioned by MGM. Broken Road Productions and Entertainment 360 (Office Christmas Party) are to produce. If you’re not familiar with Snapshot, you can find a brief synopsis below. You can use the widget to the right to see preorder…
Interview with Brandon + Updates Brandon, while touring in Italy for his European tour last fall, sat down for a few minutes with Isola Illyon –an online publication known in Italy as a central hub for information on fantasy and gaming– to talk about fantasy, and whatever else came to mind. In this week’s new Writing Excuses…
New Writing Excuses Episode + Updates In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Variations on First Person, Brandon, Mary, Dan, and Howard spend a few minutes on the administrative stuff before jumping into January’s structural topic, the first person voice, with a discussion of the variations in how that POV is presented. We cover some of…
2017 English 318 Application Wrap-Up Hi all, Karen here. I’ve just finished reading and evaluating the applications for Brandon’s English 318R class at BYU. For those of you who don’t know, Brandon teaches a creative writing class each winter semester. The lecture portion of the class (English 321R) is open to as many students as…
Elantris leatherbound update + Calamity audio & Updates So I have some bad news and some good news: We have officially sold out of the first printing of the Elantris leatherbound edition. But don’t lose hope; we should have a second printing shipped early in the new year. I will announce any updates as they come. I…
Snapshot Cover Reveal, How to get your hands on the Mistborn Leatherbound + Updates Adam here. You may remember a post that Brandon wrote this past summer regarding a novella he finished on his trip to the United Arab Emirates. It is called Snapshot and is a science fiction detective thriller. Normally when Brandon releases…
Elantris Leatherbound (Official) It’s here, and it’s beautiful! This is the official launch, so feel free to retweet, blog, or otherwise share this post with people you know who are fans of Elantris! I made a little preview post last week, because of shipping deadlines, but here is the official (with pictures) post about the Elantris Leatherbound edition! Below you’ll…
Tenth Anniversary Leather Edition of Mistborn: The Final Empire + Other Goodies Kara here with an update on Brandon’s store, just in time for the holidays. We’ve been busy putting together several new products, and I’m excited to tell you about them. First off, you might’ve heard rumors about our continuing the line of books…
Arcanum Unbounded Tour Starts Today + Updates Adam here. Brandon is currently heading out to the airport to start his “short” tour for Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection. If you’re not familiar with what Arcanum Unbounded is, check out Brandon’s introduction to it here. I have listed his tour stops below, but if you want to see…
Alcatraz vs. The Evil Librarians Black Friday Sale Adam here. Awesome news everyone! The Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians ebook is on sale (at least in the U.S.) TODAY ONLY at $2.99 for Kindle users. It may be discounted in a few other regions as well (check your local region for pricing using the links to the…
Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection is out today! My new book is out today! Supposedly, it’s a short story collection, but I’m not known for the “short” part so much as the “story” part. So, really, it’s a collection of long stories, with some shorter pieces gluing them together. Almost a decade ago, I decided…
What to read while you wait for Arcanum Unbounded! Hey, all! I’ve been working very hard on Stormlight Three, trying to get it done before I go on tour for Arcanum Unbounded (which comes out next week, hint hint). The tour actually happens a few weeks later. See the (unfortunately short) list of cities here. However,…
The Brandonsanderson.com FAQ is now live! Karen here, one of Brandon’s assistants. I’m usually in charge of continuity: making sure that little details, like the color of a minor character’s eyes or the shape of each kind of spren, are consistant from one book to the next. I also keep a master timeline so that…
Tips on getting accepted into my Creative Writing class at BYU I teach a Creative Writing class at my Alma Mater, Brigham Young University each year. It’s always winter semester, one evening per week. It should generally be Thursday at 5:10pm but not necessarily. The class name is English 318R/321R My class is split into…
Calamity & The Bands of Mourning in Semi-final + New Writing Excuses Episode Adam here. Brandon is not human. I haven’t ascertained exactly what he is. He could be a robot, which is a common theory posed by many of his readers due to his prodigious production rate. Maybe he’s an alien or some other…
Arcanum Unbounded BYU Release Party On Tuesday, November 22nd at 7:00 p.m., I will be doing the world’s first signing for Arcanum Unbounded. Please note that this is not a midnight release, as we’ve done in the past, though there will likely be midnight release parties for future books, just not this time around. We’re using the Digital…
European tour continues in Barcelona & Lisbon, RPG ebook Humble Bundle + Updates Adam here. Sorry about missing last week’s update post; I have been traveling in Europe with Brandon (mostly, but I will get to that in a minute) and didn’t have good internet access. So if you have been lost—or as I like…
Introducing Arcanum Unbounded Hey, all. I’m still in Europe on tour. (I’ll be in Barcelona next, followed by Lisbon.) But I don’t want to get so busy with this and writing Stormlight Three that I forget to give you a heads-up on Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection, coming out this month. When it became apparent that Stormlight…
Italy! Lucca Comics & Games Festival This Weekend I’ve mentioned this a few times, and you’ve seen this if you check my upcoming events page, but today through Monday I’m at the Lucca Comics & Games Festival in Lucca, Italy. I’ll be doing a lot of panels and signings, so I hope to see many of you there!…
European tour starts now + Arcanum Unbounded tour next month I’m in the process of flying to Paris, where I will have a signing on Saturday. Please see my events page for full details. Here’s a breakdown of my European tour: Paris – Sat Oct 22nd Lucca, Italy – Fri Oct 28th–Tue Nov 1st Barcelona – Thu…
Warbreaker prologue reread + Writing Excuses on Elemental Drama In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Elemental Drama as a Sub-Genre, the Writing Excuses crew turns their focus on elemental drama. This can be tricky as it’s basically “character change,” and a great many stories use character change in some way—it’s almost ubiquitous. In this episode…
Review of Goldenhand on Goodreads Goldenhand Garth Nix (Note: For an explanation of my Goodreads policy, please see here.) For Writers The Short Version Rating Notes Bias Notes Anyone who hasn’t read Sabriel, the beginning of the Old Kingdom books by Garth Nix, is missing out. I consider reading it, during the years I was trying…
Final 2016 Sanderson Lecture + Updates Brandon’s assistant Adam here. Due to the overwhelming number of people who request for Brandon to work on Oathbringer (Stormlight 3) and nothing else, I asked Brandon if he wouldn’t mind if I took the weekly update posts off his plate to give him more time to devote to the enormous…
Utah Humanities Book Festival in Ogden on Saturday As it says on my events page, tomorrow I will be attending the Utah Humanities Book Festival in Ogden, Utah. I would love to see you there this weekend, but if you can’t make it that’s okay. The greatest compliment you can give me is to read my books. My…
Review of Ink and Ashes on Goodreads Ink and Ashes Valynne E. Maetani (Note: For an explanation of my Goodreads policy, please see here.) For Writers The Short Version Rating Notes Bias Notes This excellent YA book sits carefully nestled between several genres. The packaging lists it as a thriller, and that’s not a bad…
Alcatraz: The Big Reveal Any of you who haven’t read the Evil Librarians series might want to duck out here, because I’m going to talk about the big reveal at the end of the fifth novel. This is a post that’s been brewing since 2006, so I’m eager to talk about it—but anyone who has read stories…
Alcatraz ebook sale + Shadows for Silence in Storybundle Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians book 5, The Dark Talent, came out this week—including the ebook and the digital audiobook from Audible and iTunes (not in all regions); the CD version comes out on October 15th. Check the region tabs in the widget to see what’s available…
Alcatraz 5: The Dark Talent is out now! Hey Hushlanders, Alcatraz Smedry here. The fifth and final volume of my autobiography is now available in print, ebook, and audio form! The Librarians will try to stop this information getting out if they can, so as in the past we’ve made this book look like a…
Dragon Con this weekend! I’m on my way to Dragon Con in Atlanta, and I’ll be doing events Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. My full schedule is below. By the way, The Missing Volume booth will have early copies of the fifth book in the Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series, The Dark Talent, available for purchase. It doesn’t…
Review of Ghost Talkers up on Goodreads Hey, all. I’ve long wanted to start using my Goodreads account, and it seemed like reviews would be a good place to begin. Eventually, I hope to be able to get some more questions answered there—for now, I’m just going to try to post periodic book reviews. Be warned,…
Mistborn board game Kickstarter ending + Updates Tomorrow (Wednesday) is the final day to back the Mistborn: House War board game Kickstarter campaign. All stretch goals have been unlocked, including an expansion covering the time period of The Well of Ascension called Mistborn: The Siege of Luthadel, which is now available as a $30 add-on. The fifth installment of the 2016…
Audible’s Much Loved Sale + Updates Firefight, from the Reckoners series, was selected to be featured in Audible’s Much Loved Listens 2-for-1 sale, which began this Sunday and runs until Monday, August 22nd. You can check the entire selection of titles available for Audible members to get 2 books for only 1 credit here. In this…
In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, The Element of Humor, we ask, what is the driving force that gets readers to turn pages in a book that is primarily a work of humor? More importantly, how do we as writers get that driver into our books? We cover this, and provide some starting points for writers seeking to improve their humor writing, along with a bunch of neat techniques and a long example for deconstruction.
Reader Mail: Survey of Awesomeness Occasionally I receive some very cool, and creative, emails from my readers from around the world. Recently I received a survey from a few of my (self-described) weirdest, nerdiest, and most number one fans: Jessica, Matthew, and Jared Ashcraft. I thought it would be fun to share it with all…
New Elantris Maps Poster Set + Updates The new Elantris maps poster set is now available in my online store for those who have been asking. These maps were composed by Isaac Stewart for the 10th anniversary and leatherbound edition of Elantris. The seventh installment of the 2016 Sanderson Lectures, “Character,” is now live! If you missed last week’s episode,…
Lucca Comics & Games Festival + Updates For my European readers (or those of you interested in going to Italy this fall!) I will be in Italy at the end of October as the guest of honor at the Lucca Comics & Games Festival. I will announce my exact festival schedule once it is finalized. For…
Limited edition of new novella now up for preorder It’s time to talk novellas. I commonly do one or two of these a year (this year, I did Mistborn:Secret History and the Stormlight novella Edgedancer, coming out in November in Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection). These shorts are ways for me to explore cool or intriguing ideas in a…
New Worldbuilding Lecture + Updates The fourth installment of the 2016 Sanderson Lectures, “World Building,” is now live! If you missed last week’s episode, “The Illusionist Writer,” you can catch up on all the videos here. Enjoy! In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Impostor Syndrome, with Alyssa Wong, the Campbell Award nominee and Nebula Award winner joins…
New Writing Lecture + Updates The third installment of the 2016 Sanderson Lectures, “The Illusionist Writer,” is now live! If you missed last week’s episode, “Cook vs. Chef,” you can catch up on all the videos here. Enjoy! In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, The Elemental Thriller, we discuss the difference between the drivers in thrillers, horror…
White Sand Release & Signings Starting Tonight! Many of you have been asking for details about the release of White Sand. For those who don’t know, this is a book I wrote around the same time as Elantris—but which I didn’t ever sell. It needed a solid revision before I could send it out, and there were…
YALLFest 2015 + Updates For those who haven’t heard, I will be a keynote speaker at YALLFest in Charleston this November along with Brandon Mull, Richelle Mead, and R.L. Stine. Back 2010, Elbakin.net in France gave an award to the first Mistborn book. This year, The Way of Kings has been nominated for the 2015 version of the same award. Best of…
2016 Sanderson Lectures All, Several years back, grad student Scott Ashton asked me if he could record my BYU lectures and post them for an online curriculum as part of a project he was doing. I said yes, and it was never supposed to be “a thing,” not really. It was a student doing a…
Perfect State deleted scene + Mistborn: House War Kickstarter 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…
The Bands of Mourning signed copies + Updates If you were unable to get your hands on a signed and numbered copy of The Bands of Mourning, now is your chance! Weller Book Works has announced that they have some available to purchase, and they ship worldwide. Click here to see more details and order your…
Barnes & Noble B-Fest This Weekend I will be at the Orem Barnes & Noble this Saturday, June 11th, for the first ever B-Fest. This is a national teen book festival that will take place in Barnes & Noble stores all over the country June 10th–12th. Hundreds of authors of teen books will be making…
New Fan Art, Ebook Sale + Updates As I shared on Twitter and Facebook yesterday, one of my readers from Australia, David Fonti, for his visual effects class made a cool video of himself in Shardplate. Great work, David. I’ve embedded the video below. As a quick reminder, today is the last day to get your copy of the Elantris ebook for…
Writing Excuses, Signed Books & Updates Just a quick update before the weekend. On Monday I will have a big post for Magic: The Gathering players, so look forward to that! The latest Writing Excuses writing advice show episode talks about worldbuilding without breaking viewpoint. We’ve also uploaded this year’s submission for the Hugo Voter Packet…
Two Phoenix Events Starting Tonight I’m heading to Phoenix today along with the entire Writing Excuses team to attend a massive bookstore signing (it’s free!) and for Phoenix Comicon (registration required). You can see my event schedule below or on the upcoming events page on my website. I hope you can make it to either event (or both!) Elevengeddon…
Ebook Sale Continues + Updates 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…
2016 Writing Excuses cruise price going up in June I haven’t mentioned this year’s Writing Excuses retreat (September 17th–24th) very much, but I thought I’d drop a note about the impending price rise. Due the the cruise line’s requirements, May 31st is the last day to register at the current rate, and we hear it will…
Ebook Sales, B-Fest Schedule + Updates The Way of Kings ebook is on sale for just $2.99 (this may be US-only, but you can check your region’s pricing using the links to the right). This sale ends on May 30th, so don’t delay! Also on May 30th, the Elantris ebook goes on sale for $2.99 until June 7th,…
All, I’ve been wanting to post reader mail responses more often, but it keeps falling through the cracks. Hopefully I’ll be able to make this more frequent in the future.
Volunteering at my booth at Phoenix Comicon + Updates 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…
Perfect State at 99¢ + Updates 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…
Hugo Awards 2016 Introduction I’m pleased, and proud, to announce that my novella Perfect State has been nominated for a Hugo Award. I look forward to seeing many of you in Kansas City, at this year’s Worldcon. I’ve prepared a deleted scene and annotation for Perfect State, which I’ll be releasing soon in celebration. I would normally put this…
JordanCon this Weekend I’m heading to Atlanta tomorrow to attend JordanCon (you can register at the door). The Guests of Honor are Catherine Asaro and John Picacio with Linda Taglieri as Toasmaster. You can see my event schedule below or on the upcoming events page on my website. I hope to see many of you there! JordanCon Place: Atlanta Marriott Perimeter Center Address: 246 Perimeter…
New Writing Excuses + Updates In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Adventure as a Subgenre, we explore using the element of adventure as an ingredient in something that has far more than adventure going on in it. Why do we like adventure? What draws the reader forward? Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread posts for Words…
Reader photos from recent conventions + Updates Yesterday I announced the forthcoming Mistborn board game, Mistborn: House War. If you haven’t read that post yet, check it out! I hit two conventions recently, first Salt Lake City FanX and then up to Wisconsin for Odyssey Con this past weekend. (I will be at JordanCon in Atlanta next weekend.) Here’s…
Announcing the Mistborn: House War board game Mistborn fans, here’s some news that you probably didn’t know we’ve been waiting to announce. And that’s the Mistborn: House War board game coming out from Crafty Games, the makers of the Mistborn Adventure Game. Take a peek at the game’s cover art below. Crafty has been planning, designing, and playtesting…
Wisconsin This Weekend + Updates I’m heading to Wisconsin tomorrow to attend Odyssey Con (registration required). I will be a Guest of Honor alongside Margaret Weis and Marjorie Liu. You can see my event schedule below or on the upcoming events page on my website. I hope to see many of you there! Saturday, April 9 Interview with Brandon Sanderson Time: 2:30–4:00 p.m.…
Alcatraz is Back! I’ve been touring around so much lately, I haven’t had a chance to do write about something very important to me. My middle grade fantasy series, Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians, is finally back in print. Huzzah! These goofy books have quite the devoted following, and over the years one of the number…
Writing Excuses Patreon + Updates Writing Excuses, my podcast, now has a Patreon. Patreon is a different kind of crowdfunding vehicle. Here, instead of giving money to fund some product, you give a little money each month to support an ongoing artistic endeavor. In turn, based on how much you are pledging each month, you get…
FanX Tomorrow + Hugo Nomination Deadline 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…
Graphic Audio of The Stormlight Archive + Updates Most of my novels are available as unabridged audiobooks, and some are also available from Graphic Audio as dramatized editions. So far they’ve put out Elantris, Warbreaker, and the Mistborn trilogy, with The Alloy of Law coming in May. Well, this week also marks the release of their production of the first part…
Emirates Literature Festival + Updates I am currently in the air, on my way to the Emirates Literature Festival in Dubai, and I have been getting questions about the schedule for the festival. My assistant Adam has updated it on my website, so if you want to see full details, take a look at my Upcoming…
The Apocalypse Guard All, I’m back from tour, and slowly recuperating (and getting ready for my trip to Dubai). Calamity, I’m proud to say, did fantastically. Thank you all for your support! I didn’t think we had much of a chance on the bestseller lists this time, as—because of quirks in the system—we were up against…
Brandon’s Calamity Tour… So Far Hey everyone! Brandon’s assistant Adam here. As you probably know, Brandon has been on tour for his latest release, Calamity, which is the final book of The Reckoners series. While on tour, he likes to take pictures of people who show up in costume, or bring in something that stands out.…
The Calamity Tour Continues + Updates The Calamity tour has been going strong for about a week now, and I have been fortunate enough to visit with some awesome people so far. The rest of my brief schedule is below; check my events calendar for full details on the tour. I hope to see many of you at the…
Calamity is Out! The Calamity Release Party at the Orem Barnes & Noble is just a few hours from now. This is the final book of the Reckoners trilogy that began with Steelheart, and I’m looking forward to seeing what you think of the end. You can see my brief schedule below; check my events calendar for full details on…
LTUE in Provo This Weekend I’m getting ready to walk out the door to head to LTUE (Life, the Universe, and Everything), the local convention in Provo, UT. I’ll be there over the next three days, and you can see a brief listing of my schedule below. My full schedule is on my events page, and for more…
Calamity Preorder Hey, all! Shockingly, there’s another book launch around the corner! Calamity releases one week from today. I feel like I just did this…because I did. The Bands of Mourning, as you know, was a somewhat accidental book—and Tor slotting it in January meant that my normal release schedule of fall book/spring book has been somewhat upended.…
Calamity Tour + Updates The Calamity release is just two weeks away! Check my events calendar for full details on the Calamity tour. I hope to see many of you at the signings. Here’s a quick summary of the tour: Tuesday, February 16: Orem Wednesday, February 17: Seattle Friday, February 19: Denver Saturday, February 20: Philadelphia Monday, February 22: Chicago Tuesday, February 23: Milwaukee Wednesday, February 24: Houston…
Mistborn Releases + Award Nomination Season 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…
The Bands of Mourning Launch Party + Updates Tonight is the night! The official launch party for The Bands of Mourning starts tonight at 10:00 pm at the BYU Bookstore. Don’t forget to swing by and get your number before 8:00 so you don’t lose your place in line (bring an ID and your proof of purchase).…
The Bands of Mourning BYU Midnight Release Party At 12:00 a.m. on January 26th, I will be doing the world’s first and only signing for The Bands of Mourning. In past years some readers have enjoyed camping out at the bookstore to get a low-numbered copy. But at the Shadows of Self release for various reasons, we tried something…
The Bands of Mourning Numbered Edition It’s quickly approaching book release time again! The Bands of Mourning, the new Mistborn book, comes out in roughly two weeks on January 26th. (January 28th in the UK/Ireland/Australia/New Zealand.) Sample chapters can be read on Tor’s site. Be aware, they contain spoilers for the previous books! Because of the extensive tour I did…
Writing Excuses News + Updates It’s 2016 and time for Writing Excuses to embark on a new season. This year we are going to explore what we write and why we write, but our guidepost will be the concept of Elemental Genres. In January we’ll stay high-level and firm up the framework. Starting in February…
National Novel Writing Month Recap Hey, all! I’ve got some interesting tidbits about Stormlight Three to share, relating to what I’ve been writing this month. Before we get to that, though, I do want to draw your attention to the items we have in the store. In addition to the Elantris leatherbound, as usual we’ve got most of…
The Rithmatist ebook sale + Updates Awesome news everyone! The Rithmatist ebook is on sale (at least in the U.S.) TODAY ONLY at $2.99 on most platforms (Nook users get a slightly better deal at $1.99). It’s being discounted in a few other regions as well (check your local region for pricing using the links to the right). For…
Elantris Leatherbound Update We’ve had quite the time getting the Elantris leatherbound in stock! It was supposed to be here a week and a half ago—but the shipping company lost the crates. (Yes, lost them.) As of this morning, they’ve been found, and we’ve been promised that they’re going to arrive tomorrow. We’ll be doing a real “official launch” blog post…
The Alloy of Law ebook at $2.99! Tor announced this week that the ebook for The Alloy of Law, the first book in the second Mistborn sequence, is on sale at $2.99 for the rest of the year. (At least in the US; other countries may see slightly different prices. I’ve heard people say it’s $4.99…
Goodreads Choice Awards Voting Ends Tonight + Updates First off, thanks to everyone who has taken the time to vote for the Goodreads Choice Awards already. The final round ends tonight. Firefight is nominated in the Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction category, and Shadows of Self is nominated in the Fantasy category. Best of luck to all the nominees! In this week’s…
Goodreads Choice Awards First Round + Updates In this year’s Goodreads Choice Awards, Shadows of Self is nominated in the Fantasy category and Firefight is in the YA Fantasy & SF category. The first round of voting wraps up this weekend. Congratulations to all of the nominees! And for those of you who didn’t see the post on my Twitter and Facebook…
The Wheel of Time Companion and Mystic Hey, all. I’m back from tour at long last, and am hard at work on Stormlight 3. In fact, because it’s national novel writing month, you might see me posting daily wordcounts on social media. Back in 2002, I finished the original draft of The Way of Kings over NaNoWriMo. (Finished…
Shadows of Self tour ends + Updates My tour for Shadows of Self wrapped up yesterday, and it was awesome to see so many of you! I will be posting some of the highlights from my tour over the next few weeks. If you were unable to come to one of my tour stops, it’s okay—the greatest…
UK tour continues + Updates My tour for the release of Shadows of Self continues this week in the UK. As always, if you would like me to send you an email when I’ll be appearing near you, tell me your metro area here. Tuesday, Oct 20: Sheffield & Newcastle Wednesday, Oct 21: Edinburgh Thursday, Oct 22: Leeds & Nottingham…
Shadows of Self and the Mistborn Mega-Series Shadows of Self is out today in hardcover in the UK, and I’m touring the UK this week and next. I talked in a previous post about the book release, and will point you toward that one if you’ve not read much of the Mistborn series. (Or if you’re not interested in…
I’m on TV! [Note, I’m still on tour for Shadows of Self. If you’ve somehow missed the fact that I have a new book out, then read these blog posts, and come see me on tour! Events are listed here.] Last year, we got a very intriguing offer. A production company in Minneapolis was filming a series on mythology…
Shadows of Self is out! The newest Mistborn book, Shadows of Self, is out. (In hardcover, ebook, and audio in the US and Canada; in the UK the ebook and audiobook come out on Thursday the 8th, but the hardcover there comes out on the 15th to coincide with my UK visit starting the next day.) My job…
Elantris Tenth Anniversary Edition Huzzah! Shadows of Self (Mistborn five, the second in the Wax and Wayne era of books) is out tomorrow! I’ll have a blog post about that, and my tour, tomorrow. Though if you’re curious, the dates are on the events page of my website. Also, if you live in Utah, please consider coming to the midnight…
Shadows of Self Chapter Six Preview + Updates Tor.com has put up chapter 6 of Shadows of Self. This newest Mistborn book, the sequel to The Alloy of Law, comes out in print, ebook, and audio next week. (Though in the UK, as we recently learned, the official print release date is October 15th, even though the UK ebook…
Signed copies of Shadows of Self + Updates As I mentioned last week, the midnight release at the BYU Store for the next Mistborn book, Shadows of Self, is using a digital line. If you plan to come to the midnight release, sign up for a line number now at this link. Last Thursday I went up to Weller…
Sign up NOW for the Shadows of Self BYU midnight release digital line As I said in my blog post earlier this week, we are going to be doing the signing at the October 5–6 BYU Store midnight release party for Shadows of Self a little differently from previous signings. In past years some readers have enjoyed camping…
Shadows of Self Release Events This is going to be a long post. If you want to know how to get numbered copies of Shadows of Self, scroll down to the general release events info, the info on the BYU signing, on the Denver signing, or on the Weller Book Works signing-by-mail. Item #1: The Tour Here are the places…
Writing Excuses episode on plot twists + Updates In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, How Does Context Shape Plot Twists?, we talk about plot twists. This episode covers the way in which the type of plot twist is dependent on, or signaled by, the context of the story. Getting plot twists right may mean surprising…
A Thousand Faces Hey, all. I’ve just finished revisions on Calamity, and have turned the book in to my publisher. Which means the Reckoners as a series is a wrap! I’m very pleased with the result and with the beta reader reactions, and am very much looking forward to you all getting to read the book.…
Sale price for Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell ending + Updates My Cosmere novella Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell has been on sale on Kindle in the US, and a few other vendors, during August. The 99¢ price is ending soon, so take a look if you haven’t already. In this…
Writing Excuses Q&A on Pacing + Updates The previous Writing Excuses episode on pacing covered the sense of progress. In this week’s episode, Q & A on Pacing, we wrap up this month’s discussion of pacing. Here are the questions we received from Twitter for answering during the episode: What are some early indications of a…
Time Change in Denver Hey, all! I need to make you aware of a time change to one of my events on the upcoming Shadows of Self tour. Soon after announcing the schedule, I had a reader mention to me that they were sad to have to choose between me and Jim Butcher, who was apparently going to be signing…
99¢ ebook, Spokane Worldcon Schedule + Updates 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…
Shadows of Self tour announcement + Updates For the Shadows of Self release on October 6th, I’ll be touring several cities in the US. You can see my tour stops on Tor.com, and full details (such as bookstore ticketing policies) will be posted on my events page as they come in. (And you can also see on that page my…
New Writing Excuses episode + Updates This month the Writing Excuses Master Class divides the concept of pacing into two parts: the sense of progress within the story, and the sense of the passage of time. In this week’s episode, How Do I Control the Reader’s Sense of Progress?, we tackle that first part, and discuss…
Steelheart News + Updates Steelheart has been nominated for another regional award, the 2016 Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Readers’ Choice Award, the oldest children’s choice award in the U.S. and Canada. It was established in 1940 by Seattle bookseller Harry Hartman, who believed every student should have an opportunity to select a book that gives him…
Calamity cover reveal & preview chapters + Updates As I tweeted about a couple of weeks ago, io9.com revealed the cover for Calamity. They also posted the prologue and first two chapters for you to sink your teeth into. We have some more fantastic news about Steelheart: it received another nomination for a state book award. This time it’s the Green Mountain…
Award Updates! Over the last few months I’ve mentioned various awards that some of my books have been up for or won. Here’s some more news and a few award photos for you. It’s been a particularly exciting time for Steelheart as it has been nominated (along with The Rithmatist) for the 2016 Oklahoma Sequoya Award (one of the oldest…
Shadows of Self Previews + Updates In case you missed my tweets about it, Tor.com has put up a few excerpts from Shadows of Self, which will be released in October. You can read the prologue, chapter one, and chapter two here. At Comic-Con this past weekend, Joel Cunningham of Barnes & Noble interviewed me about this book and its…
My Comic-Con Schedule This Weekend I’m at Comic-Con today and tomorrow doing a couple of signings and panels. Hope to see a number of you there! For future events, keep an eye on my events page. San Diego Comic-Con International 2015 Date: Fri, Jul 10, 2015 – Sat, Jul 11, 2015 Address: San Diego Convention Center 111 W…
Steelheart Awards + Updates I have some more exciting news: the students of Kentucky have chosen Steelheart as the 2015 winner of the Kentucky Bluegrass Award in the 6–8 category. It has also been selected as an Evergreen Teen Book Award nominee for 2015–2016. I was fortunate enough to sit down with Adrià Guxens at Spain’s Celsius 232 Festival a while…
Words of Radiance & Awards + Updates Words of Radiance has made it past the first round of voting for the 2015 David Gemmell Legend Award and is one of five nominees on the short list. (You may remember that The Way of Kings won this award back in 2011.) The polls are open from now until July 17th, and…
Kansas City this weekend + Updates 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…
New Writing Excuses + Updates In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Build an Entire World? Are You Crazy?, we address those of you who who start writing the story before you finish building your world. Letting the story drive the worldbuilding can often be more efficient. Last week, in Tor.com’s continuing reread posts for Words of…
New Writing Excuses episode + Updates In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Q&A on Beginnings, we answer some of your questions on the matter. Here are some of the questions: What are there differences between the beginnings in different forms? How do you begin in media res when you’re not writing action? What’s the biggest…
Signing tonight in Sharjah! Tonight I will be doing a signing; details can be found below and on the events page. This will be my last public event for this trip to the UAE and I want to sign your books! As always, if you want email reminders of when I’ll be appearing in a city…
Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival + Updates This afternoon I am heading off to the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival in the United Arab Emirates. For those of you who are in the vicinity, I look forward to seeing you there! So far I’ve listed a panel on Thursday the 23rd on my events calendar, and I’ll try to add…
The Rithmatist ebook sale in the UK + Updates Good news for everyone in the UK! The Rithmatist is on sale on Kindle (and may be price-matched at other vendors) until May 4th. I have country-specific links in the tabs here. And for everyone else (including those in the UK), my novella Perfect State came out a couple of weeks…
New Writing Excuses episode + Updates There is a new Writing Excuses episode this week: How Much of the Beginning Needs to Come First? We all have cool things we want to put in our stories, which means we need what sets it up earlier. In this episode we talk about how to determine which of these elements needs…
Minicon 50 starts today! Minnesota! I’m in Minneapolis for Minicon starting today, and I’m also signing in St. Paul on Saturday. Here’s my complete schedule. My assistant Peter will also have copies of the Perfect State/Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell hardcover double that you can pick up at the convention for $20.…
New novella: Perfect State Today marks the release of a new novella of mine, Perfect State. This one is a bit different from anything else I’ve written, and I think you’ll enjoy it. Here’s the blurb: God-Emperor Kairominas is lord of all he surveys. He has defeated all foes, has united the entire world beneath his…
Newsletter coming tomorrow + Updates My almost quarterly newsletter is being sent out tomorrow; you can see past ones here. It will have an exclusive preview of one of my future books, so if you’re not on the list, now is a good time to sign up. If you fill in the “Metro Areas” field in the…
Newsletter coming next week + Updates I usually send out three or four newsletters each year; you can see past ones here. In the last couple of newsletters I included just for newsletter subscribers an exclusive preview of a future book, and that trend will continue with the next newsletter that I’m sending out next week.…
Brandon Mull Launch Party for Crystal Keepers Tonight Just a quick note to say that tonight in the Salt Lake City area I’ll be at the launch party for my good friend Brandon Mull’s book Five Kingdoms: Crystal Keepers. Come join Brandon Mull and me along with: Richard Paul Evans (Michael Vey series), Chad Morris (The Cragbridge…
New Writing Excuses + Updates If you missed it, my novella Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell is available as an independent ebook. I talk more about that here. In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Project In Depth: “Parallel Perspectives”, we discuss the 13-page graphic story (“comic book”) found at the end of Schlock Mercenary: Massively Parallel and focus on…
Goodbye, Sir Terry I woke to the news that Sir Terry Pratchett has passed away. I knew this was coming, but—as with the passing of Robert Jordan almost eight years back—it still hit me like a slap to the face. Many of you know of my fondness for Pratchett’s works. If you aren’t aware, here’s a…
Hugo nomination deadline, Shadows for Silence ebook release + Updates Don’t forget, the deadline to nominate anything for the Hugo Awards (if you’re a member of the 2014, 2015, or 2016 Worldcons) is tomorrow! For more details see my award eligibility post here. My Cosmere novella Shadows for Silence in the Forest of Hell is now out as…
Three Stories in New Formats Words of Radiance launched in paperback this week, so if you’ve been waiting to grab it, now might be a great time! (The ebook price was supposed to drop at the same time, but due to a glitch that won’t happen until Monday or Tuesday.) I don’t usually do much of…
Writing Excuses episode on story structure + Updates This month’s Writing Excuses syllabus topic is story structure. In Where is my Story Coming From?, we talk about where the story starts for the writer. The deadline for the 2015 Writing Excuses Retreat Scholarships is fast approaching. You can see the application details for the Carl Brandon Society Scholarship…
Steelhunt contest winners! For those who were not aware, I ran some contests through Facebook and Twitter a few weeks ago. Winners receive a set of Epic stand-up die-cut cards, and all are collected below! One contest was for people to tweet their favorite of David’s bad metaphors from Steelheart and Firefight. Here are the winners (selected randomly). You can find a…
Shadows of Self cover reveal + Updates Shadows of Self, my new Mistborn novel coming out in October, now has an awesome cover by the ever-talented Chris McGrath. Tor.com has the full reveal. I have more exciting news for the Reckoners series. Steelheart was nominated for the 2014-15 Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers. In this week’s Writing Excuses episode, Q&A on…
Chicago Signing Tonight. Huzzah! When Firefight came out last month I didn’t have a stop in the Chicago area, but I’ll be there tonight at Anderson’s in Naperville, before recording some Writing Excuses episodes in the next few days and doing a school visit early next week. If you’re in the area, stop by the signing, but…
New Writing Excuses + Update We at Writing Excuses are continuing February’s focus on characters in this week’s new episode, Who Are All These People?, where we explore some of the challenges involved in building a cast for your story. You need to know why you are putting your characters in your book and what the purpose each…
Brian McClellan’s The Autumn Republic Isaac here with the promised reminder that The Autumn Republic—the third volume of Brian McClellan’s Powder Mage Trilogy—was released this week. Those of you who enjoy Brandon’s fantasy novels will likely find a lot to sink your teeth into with Brian’s. As we’ve mentioned before, Brian was a student of Brandon’s…
Taiwan + Updates Greetings from Taiwan! I will be attending the Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) this week. I’ll have more information on my exhibition schedule later this week. Watch this space for details. For those who want to attend, here’s address: Taipei World Trade Center 10F., No.180, Section 1, Keelung Road Taipei City, Taiwan 110…
New Writing Excuses, Firefight tour photos + Updates In this week’s Writing Excuses episode, What Do You Mean My Main Character Is Boring?, we lead off February’s Master Class with the exploration of a common problem: the main character is often the least interesting person in the story. It’s something that each of the hosts has struggled with,…
Come see me at Salt Lake Comic Con FanXperience tomorrow! Hey everyone in Utah, I’ll be at FanX on Saturday, so you should come on down. I know a lot of you want to get Firefight signed—the booth I’m signing at won’t have copies (though we will have some of my older big titles), but the Shadow…
Woven Map Reveal, More McClellan, a Second Staveley, and Legos! Assistant Isaac here with a cornucopia of cosmopoietic cartographies. (Yes, I searched the dictionary for that second word. I’m pretty sure it has something to do with worldbuilding.) When I started working directly for Brandon, I pretty much finished up all my freelance projects and…
Philly signing CANCELED, new Writing Excuses episode + Updates I have some bleak news for everyone in Philadelphia: The signing tomorrow is canceled due to snow and the airlines canceling flights. I was going to be signing at Children’s Book World in Haverford. Instead, we will be trying to reschedule. But in the meantime, we’ll send them…
Firefight Tour, Award Nomination Season + Updates My tour for Firefight continues through the rest of this week: Find the full tour schedule and details here. Tonight (1/21) at the Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona at 6:00 p.m. Friday, January 23 at Murder by the Book in Houston, Texas at 6:30 p.m. (They also have hardcovers of Mitosis available,…
Award Nomination Season! 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…
Firefight Tour, a new Writing Excuses episode + Updates Firefight was released last week in the US and UK and the tour is underway. You can see the full tour schedule here. My next tour stop will be at Powell’s in Beaverton, Oregon on January 16th at 7:00 p.m. It looks like this isn’t a ticketed event,…
Steelheart ebook sale ending With the release earlier this week of Firefight, the second book in the Reckoners trilogy, the publishers put the ebook of the first Reckoners novel, Steelheart, on sale at $2.99 in the US and £1.99 in the UK. Well, tomorrow is the final day for that special discount in the US, and then…
Firefight released in the UK/Ireland/Australia/New Zealand etc. + Steelhunt contest Today is the official release date of Gollancz’s edition of Firefight in print, ebook, and audio in the UK and Commonwealth or former Commonwealth countries. Check out the tabs to the right for links to where to find the book. To celebrate the release of the Gollancz…
Brandon Sanderson Newsletter for January 2015 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…
Firefight is out + Steelhunt 2015! Last night we had the first signing for Firefight, and I hope everyone who came out had a great time. The book is now available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook in the United States, Canada, Europe, and many other places. (The official release date for the UK, Ireland, Australia, New…
Firefight release tomorrow! Early Utah release today, new Writing Excuses season + Updates Firefight comes out Tuesday in the US and Canada (and it comes out on Thursday in the UK, but some stores there already have it on shelves). I’ll say more about the book tomorrow, but you can see my full tour schedule here. The…
Firefight book tour & io9 post about superhero books Happy new year! The release of Firefight is next week. I did a post yesterday at io9 talking about writing superhero books that you should check out, and they also announced the dates for the book tour. Full details are on my events page, but a summary is below. Monday, January…
The Way of Kings ebook giveaway ending + Updates All, this is your last chance to get The Way of Kings ebook for free from the iBookstore (with a US-linked iTunes account). This deal only goes through December 31st 2014, so you should hurry up and get it here! (If you don’t see The Way of Kings on that…
Legion: Skin Deep free on Audible + Updates If you haven’t heard yet, Legion: Skin Deep is free on Audible (outisde the UK/Aus/NZ etc.) until Wednesday December, 24th. Use the link to the right. Firefight‘s release is two weeks away, and Audible has put up an audio preview that you can hear below. Links for preordering are here.…
Application deadline for my BYU creative writing class is Monday It’s that time again, so I’m just going to post the same thing I did last year. Many of you know that I teach a creative writing class at Brigham Young University once per year, Thursday evenings each Winter semester. As an undergraduate I took…
Steelheart ebook sale + Mistborn dice Kickstarter The release of Firefight is just three weeks away! My book tour should be announced very soon. And for the next few weeks up until the Firefight release, the first book in the Reckoners trilogy, Steelheart, has its ebook on sale for $2.99 in the US and Canada. (Check the country tabs to…
New Writing Excuses Episode + Updates In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, From the Page to the Stage, we were lucky enough to have Allison W. Hill and Austin Hill sit down with us to talk about turning A Night of Blacker Darkness, by Dan Wells, into a stage play. Words of Radiance has been selected for…
Words of Radiance among Audible’s Best of 2014 + Updates It was a close call this year, but thanks to your voting, Words of Radiance is #1 in Listener Favorites and Fantasy on Audible’s Best of 2014. It’s a great way to follow up 2013’s Listener Favorites win with Steelheart. Thank you! The Legion sequel, Legion: Skin Deep, was released a couple…
Saturday signing at the Orem Library Just a quick update before the weekend. I’m working on a new State of the Sanderson post talking about various things such as Shadows of Self being finished, but it’s not quite ready. Hopefully next week. If you missed it yesterday, the Altered Perceptions ebook is out, with deleted scenes from…
Chapters from the original draft of The Way of Kings in the Altered Perceptions anthology Earlier this year I told you about an IndieGoGo project to produce an anthology that would contain chapters from my original 2002 version of The Way of Kings (sometimes called Way of Kings Prime). Well, the anthology is finished, and IndieGoGo backers received…
Cory Doctorow on Writing Excuses + Updates If you missed it last week, the Legion sequel, Legion: Skin Deep, has been released (except for in the UK and associated territories). Go get it now in all formats! Cory Doctorow joined the Writing Excuses crew at Westercon 67 to talk with us about the Neurobolics of Characters—the techniques and methods…
Low-priced ebooks including The Alloy of Law 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,…
Black Friday + Signing in Idaho Falls on Saturday 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…
Introducing Legion: Skin Deep About two years ago, I wrote a little novella called Legion about a man with a very strange psychological makeup. Part of my goal in writing it was to see if I could make my personal brand of . . . whatever it is I do work in a more contemporary story. The greater goal (as…
Isaac Stewart on the artwork for Sixth of the Dusk Brandon’s assistant Isaac here to talk about the process of creating the ebook cover for Sixth of the Dusk. We knew from the beginning of the Shadows Beneath anthology project that at some point we wanted to release Brandon’s story by itself, especially for those who just wanted the…
Mitosis released in the UK/Australia/New Zealand/Ireland Rejoice! My Reckoners short novelette Mitosis was finally released today by Gollancz in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland (and other Commonwealth countries, plus everywhere outside the US/Canada). Check the store links in the various tabs to the right. Mitosis takes place between Steelheart and Firefight, which will be released on January 6 in…
New in the Brandon Sanderson Store + Updates New Brandon Sanderson Store items are below, but first some updates! Words of Radiance is in the final round of voting for the Goodreads Choice Awards in the category Best Fantasy of 2014. It’s up against nine other books, so if you’ve read many of them, consider voting for the one…
Holiday Shipping Deadlines + Updates Below you’ll find the holiday deadlines for the Brandon Sanderson Store. But before then, some updates! Writing Excuses has three episodes I haven’t mentioned yet. All were recorded at Westercon or FantasyCon. First up, Mette Ivie Harrison and J.R. Johannson joined us to talk about writing for the mystery genre. Next, the…
The Rithmatist ebook on sale today Just a quick note: the ebook of The Rithmatist is on sale today for $1.99 in the US and Canada, and it looks like it’s €1.78 in continental Europe. Check your local region to see the price there—links are on the right. I don’t know how long this lasts, but I’m guessing it’s…
Grammy Awards Nominations: Mistborn This is something that doesn’t apply to many of you, but if you’re a voting member of The Recording Academy, and you’re a Mistborn fan, you may want to take a look at your ballot. 57th GRAMMY AWARDS For Your Consideration: MISTBORN – THE FINAL EMPIRE by Brandon Sanderson in 5.1…
Mistborn Adventure Game Alloy of Law supplement, New Allomancer Jak story + Giveaway A few weeks ago, Crafty Games, the makers of the Mistborn Adventure Game, released their second supplement for the game (after the Terris supplement). This new one covers the Alloy of Law era. As in the original adventure game book, where I wrote a short story for the…
Sixth of the Dusk solo ebook out now! Today marks the worldwide release of the standalone ebook for my Cosmere novella Sixth of the Dusk. It’s the same novella that I included in the ebook and hardcover of Shadows Beneath: the Writing Excuses Anthology, which also has stories from Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler.…
Writing Excuses Episodes & Caribbean Retreat There are two new Writing Excuses episodes to talk about: Fan Writing, with Chris Garcia The Convention-Author Relationship, with Deirdre Saoirse Moen Both episodes were recorded at Westercon/FantasyCon earlier this year in front of a live audience. Chris has worked in fanzines for years (and won a Hugo Award…
The Accidental Highwayman I blurbed a book! I know, I know. That doesn’t happen very often these days, but Susan, my YA editor at Tor, approached me with a project she is very excited and passionate about: The Accidental Highwayman by Ben Tripp. And after reading it, I have to highly recommend it—Susan has discovered a gem.…
Mitosis audiobook free on Audible I’m happy to announce that Mitosis (the novelette that takes place between Steelheart and Firefight) has been released as an audiobook. What’s more, Audible is putting it up for free for a limited time. The talented Macleod Andrews returns as the audiobook’s narrator—and he will return for the Firefight audiobook as well, which comes out in January and which you can…
Mistborn Trade Paperbacks + New York Comic Con Schedule Back in May I mentioned the new trade paperbacks for the Mistborn trilogy that were coming out, starting with the first book. Since then, The Well of Ascension was released in August, and The Hero of Ages came out this week. All three books have gorgeous Sam Weber cover art, and Isaac Stewart…
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) starts in November, and tons of people all over the world will take the challenge to write a 50,000-word novel within the month. To help keep you motivated as you write, I’ll be contributing a Pep Talk this year (also check out my 2011 Pep Talk). One of this year’s sponsors is StoryBundle, and they’re…
Brandon Sanderson Newsletter for September 2014 Hey, all. Brandon here with a quick newsletter. I’ll be heading out to the Writing Excuses retreat very soon, and after that will be at New York Comic Con. But before I go, I wanted to mention a few books to keep your eyes out for. (And at the…
Writing Excuses episodes, Interview with Buzzy Mag & Updates I’m behind on mentioning the episodes of the Writing Excuses writing advice show that have aired recently. Many of these episodes were recorded in front of a live audience at Westercon and FantasyCon in Salt Lake City. Science Fiction as Science Education (with Brad Voytek) What…
Mistborn ebook on sale Hey, all. The Mistborn ebook (first book in the Mistborn trilogy, sometimes titled The Final Empire) is on sale for $2.99 at all vendors (in the US)—and I just found out that the sale ends on Sunday the 28th. After that it will go back up to its regular price. See the links on…
Steelheart paperback release! This week marks the release of Steelheart as a trade paperback in the US and a mass market paperback in the UK. We received our copies, and they look great! There’s a picture below. The new paperback cover matches the cover for the sequel, Firefight, and I think it looks great. It’s hard to tell…
The Way of Kings Free on iTunes! (Update: And Kindle in the US) Back in June, Tor approached us and asked if we’d be willing to let Apple give away The Way of Kings for free as part of a promotion to encourage people to update their Apple devices to iOS 8. I was enthusiastic about the…
Assistant Peter Recommends: City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett It’s Brandon’s assistant Peter again with another book to recommend to you. I first read Robert Jackson Bennett’s City of Stairs (which was released today) back in November when an early copy was sent here to the Dragonsteel offices. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to think…
Infinity Blade fan film kickstarter Hey all. I found out about this recently, and it looks pretty cool to me. A couple of fans want to make a live-action fan film for the Infinity Blade story. (If you’re not familiar with Infinity Blade, it’s a series of iOS games by ChAIR Entertainment/Epic Games that I also wrote…
Shadows Beneath on sale this week for Salt Lake Comic Con This weekend is Salt Lake Comic Con, and at the Dragonsteel booth I’ll have hardcovers of the Writing Excuses anthology Shadows Beneath on sale for $20. Howard and Dan will also be at the convention, so you’ll be able to get the signatures of three of the…
Assistant Peter Recommends: The Broken Eye by Brent Weeks Hello there! Brandon’s assistant Peter here. This is the start of a sporadic feature on Brandon’s blog where I recommend something to you. But don’t worry, this probably won’t happen very often. I am also going to recommend something else to you in two weeks, but…
This was Conspiracy, and I had a really solid control deck. I was dominating the board against the fan, whose name I believe was Jason. (Might be some other J-name. Sorry if I got it wrong!) Well, I was feeling pretty confident and then suddenly, he played . This wiped out all creatures, but more importantly, wiped out the little creatures I was using with to create white mana.
Ice Bucket Challenge So, both Donald Mustard and Jason Denzel called me out on the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. I figured since I was on tour for that whole strange scavenger hunt thing and couldn’t participate, I should do something for this one. Besides, it turns out we could kill two birds with one stone. We here at Dragonsteel Entertainment…
The Wheel of Time Did Not Win a Hugo. (And that’s okay.) For those who haven’t yet seen the results of the 2014 Hugo Awards, they have been posted here. The Wheel of Time, despite displaying a fine showing for first place votes, ultimately did not prevail in winning a Hugo Award. (Though Mary’s excellent novelette,…
Tweets and Writing Excuses episodes My assistant Peter has uploaded the July Twitter posts archive, as well as the beginning of the August archive. Writing Excuses has two new episodes up. First is one on Adjusting Character Proactivity. Next we have a microcasting episode that touches on the following topics: Are there biases against non-English writers submitting manuscripts in English?…
My Calgary schedule starting today—Three events open to the public I’m in Calgary, Alberta, Canada today through Sunday. The When Words Collide convention is sold out, but there are three events that are free and open to the public. See full details below. Thursday, August 7, 7:00–9:00 p.m. Fish Creek Library Signing (open to the public) Address: 11161…
My UK schedule today through Wednesday I arrived in the UK late Saturday night, and I have five events in three days. Hope to see many of you there! This is my only trip to the UK this year. Please note: The evening signings on Monday and Tuesday will have more time for running over if…
My Celsius 232 schedule in Spain Next week I will be in the UK, but right now I’m in Avilés, Spain for the Celsius 232 convention (which has free admission, so come on out). Here’s my complete schedule! Aquí está mi agenda completa. Address: Plaza Domingo Alvarez Acebal, 2 33402 Avilés, Spain THURSDAY/JUEVES, July 31 Time: 10:00–12:00 Place:…
Hugo voting deadline this week + GraphicAudio Well of Ascension & Updates The deadline for voting in the Hugo Awards is Thursday night at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time. The online ballot can be submitted here by all World Science Fiction Society members, either who will be attending Loncon 3 from August 14th through 18th, or who have a supporting membership. I posted…
San Diego Comic-Con Freebies Comic-Con International has started in San Diego this weekend, but I’m not there this year. Instead, I’m flying out tomorrow morning to Spain for Celsius 232, and then flying to the UK. But that doesn’t mean Comic-Con is bereft of things Sanderson. There are two great freebies that you can pick up. The Firefight chapter…
Awesome Prizes from Wizards of the Coast + Magic in Spain & UK Warning! This is a Magic: The Gathering post. If you’re interested in the game, particularly if you want to play some Magic with me in Spain or the UK in the next few weeks, read on. Otherwise, I promise I’ll post a…
Legion: Skin Deep cover revealed! I’m pleased to present to you Jon Foster’s cover illustration for the second Legion novella, Legion: Skin Deep, coming later this year from Subterranean Press. I think Mr. Foster did a fantastic job with this illustration, and I like it even better than his cover for Subterranean Press’s edition of the original Legion.…
StoryBundle contests + Miscellaneous Updates The SciFi ebook StoryBundle with my novella Legion is available only until Wednesday night, so the clock is ticking. I’m running three giveaway contests (ending very soon!) where you can win the DRM-free ebook bundle: One on Twitter, one on Facebook, and one on Google+. The rules for each are slightly different, so check out the posts…
Salt Lake City! Westercon/FantasyCon today! Starting today I (and the rest of the Writing Excuses crew) will be at two conventions in Salt Lake City, Westercon and FantasyCon! “Two conventions?” you say. “But which one shall I attend!” I know, it’s a bit strange, but being a member of either convention will also get you into the other…
Introducing the Writing Excuses Anthology! Ladies and gentlemen, I’m beyond proud to introduce to you Shadows Beneath, a collection of four stories written by the members of Writing Excuses, my podcast. In it, I present “Sixth of the Dusk,” a brand-new Cosmere novella. The stories you will find in Shadows Beneath are: “I.E.Demon,” by Dan Wells. US soldiers in…
Legion Sequel Preorder + Storybundle Available Now A couple months ago my novella The Emperor’s Soul was available as part of a fantasy-themed DRM-free ebook bundle from Storybundle. A lot of readers enjoyed getting the book that way, so now I’m repeating the experiment with my thriller novella Legion, available for the next three weeks along with eight other…
Warning! This is a Magic: The Gathering-related post, so those of you not interested in my random hobby need not read further. (Well, not much further, since I ended up putting a writing update next. For those wondering, I’m currently doing the last revisions on Firefight—sequel to Steelheart—and working on the sequel to The Rithmatist. I’m still planning to start Stormlight Three, Stones Unhallowed, late summer. Follow along on the progress bars!)
Hugo Voter Packet with The Wheel of Time, Convention Deadlines, White Sand Graphic Novels The Hugo Voter Packet (including all of the Wheel of Time ebooks) is now available. If you’re a Worldcon member, go to this link to download it. It’s not too late to join—Supporting Memberships to Loncon 3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention…
Legend Award Voting, Writing Excuses, Defending Elysium Audio, Shallan’s Lullaby Voting for the David Gemmell Legend Award ends on Saturday, and anyone can vote for free. If you’ve read the nominated works, I encourage you to vote. The nominees are: The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence The Daylight War by Peter V. Brett…
Signed The Rithmatist hardcovers, new paperbacks, new UK artwork + ebooks It’s now been a year since The Rithmatist was released, so my assistant Kara has made signed hardcovers available in my store. For those of you who prefer paperbacks, Tor has released a new trade paperback that you can find in the teen section of the bookstore.…
Want to join Bridge Four? The Altered Perceptions anthology final week drive Last month I talked about Altered Perceptions, the anthology to benefit my friend Robison Wells who’s suffering from mental illness. Well, the IndieGoGo campaign is in its final week, and I’ve added a few perks to the campaign. More on those farther down. The anthology…
Balticon Schedule + Play Magic with Brandon + New Mistborn YA Trade Paperback In less than an hour I’m leaving to fly out to Baltimore for Balticon. My schedule is below. I want to specifically highlight the “Play Magic: The Gathering with Brandon” event on Saturday night. We’ll be doing a draft at a cost of…
Brandon Sanderson Newsletter for May 2014 Hey, all! Brandon here. It’s been a few months since the release of Words of Radiance, and the book was a smash success. Thank you all for your continued support and enthusiasm. I’m unlikely to tour again until early next year, so I wanted to drop you all a…
Mistborn Adventure Game Terris Supplement & Giveaway Contest The first supplement to the Mistborn Adventure Game pen-and-paper RPG has been released. Called Terris: Wrought of Copper, Crafty Games describes it as providing a detailed look at the history of the Terris Dominance and its people. Inside you’ll find a guide to the city of Tathingdwen, the heart of…
Video Chat Today, Paste Magazine Article + Updates Today I’ll be doing a Google+ video chat hangout with fellow fantasy author Brian McClellan. The event description says: Join these two writers as they talk about their newest books, the epic fantasy genre, and writing as a career in a live, online event on May 1st! We’ll…
Chapters from the original draft of THE WAY OF KINGS available in anthology to benefit Robison Wells A lot has been happening this week for me, including Hugo nominations and cover reveals. While all of this is awesome, I’ve been worried about the Altered Perceptions anthology getting lost, and I’d like to take a moment to speak…
FIREFIGHT Cover Reveal and Giveaway Contest Firefight has a cover! And I think it’s awesome. It was revealed yesterday at Entertainment Weekly Shelf Life, which has a short interview with me explaining the new direction for the covers. The book turned out really, really well and we want to get a copy into your hands! Because…
The Wheel of Time Nominated for a Hugo Award The Wheel of Time, as a whole, has been nominated for a Hugo Award for best novel. I am thrilled, honored, and excited—and when Harriet heard the news, she lit up as I’ve never seen her do before. Thank you. Congratulations to all of the other nominees! I…
Salt Lake FanXperience This Weekend + Jewelry & Updates The Salt Lake City Comic Con FanXperience starts on Thursday, and I’ll be there this Saturday only. My schedule is at the bottom of the post, but first some updates! The Brandon Sanderson Store has some new jewelry. One item is the Bondsmith Glyph and another is the Oathbringer Shardblade Pendant. The most recent…
My JordanCon Schedule Tonight I’m flying to Atlanta (along with my assistants Isaac and Peter) for JordanCon. This year’s author guest of honor is Patrick Rothfuss, and there are many other great guests as well. I hope to see a lot of you there! My schedule is below, including the live writing session that will be…
Online Events This Week + Updates I have two online events to talk about: the Booktalk Nation Video Chat on Wednesday, and the second writing/brainstorming livestream on Friday. The Wednesday event is hosted by Booktalk Nation, and it will run for half an hour starting at 5:00 p.m. Mountain time (7:00 p.m. Eastern, 4:00 p.m. Pacific, 23:00 GMT).…
Games Creatures Play is out this week! I have a new short story out this week in the horror anthology Games Creatures Play, edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner. When Charlaine invited me to be part of this anthology and explained what it was going to be about, I knew I had to write…
Deleted Interlude from Words of Radiance For your reading pleasure, here is an interlude that I decided to cut from Words of Radiance. It offers new insight into a minor character who is very important to the book, and I believe that readers will want to experience it. It is called Interlude: Stick.
Hugo Nominations Deadline Tonight Back in January I put up a long post about award nominations, with a particular mention of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time. Well, if you’re a member of the 2013, 2014, or 2015 World Science Fiction conventions, it’s time to submit your nomination form for the Hugo Awards. The deadline is tomorrow morning at 7:59 a.m. BST—since this…
StoryBundle last chance, Sugarhouse signing, Shardhunt, Lego Shattered Plains Today is the final day to get the Epic Fantasy Bundle (which includes The Emperor’s Soul if you’re outside the UK and associated territories) from StoryBundle. After 11:00 p.m. Mountain time today, the bundle will no longer be available. By the way, the winners of yesterday’s contest are Ashley…
Storybundle Contest, Signed WoR, Writing Excuses Wednesday night is the last chance to name your price for StoryBundle‘s Epic Fantasy Bundle. They’ve given me fifteen download codes to give away. Five of them are being given away on Twitter and five on Facebook. I’ll also give away five here on the blog. My assistant says I have to put…
Brandon Sanderson Newsletter for March 2014 This is Brandon, and welcome to my newsletter. Words of Radiance Is Out! My Essay on Epic Fantasy Stormlight Merchandise Words of Radiance Book Tour and Worldwide Conventions The Shardhunt Words of Radiance Is Out! At long last, Words of Radiance (book two in the Stormlight Archive) is out…
Signed books, Shardhunt, midnight release video, Writing Excuses & updates Tomorrow I’m signing at Joseph-Beth in Lexington. This is a numbered signing, but if you don’t have a ticket they’ll let you sneak in at the end. Still, it’s nice to buy something from the store while you’re there. Signed Michael Whelan art prints will also…
Tour Goodies from Readers 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.…
Signing in TX, NE, AZ; Stores that ship signed copies; Storybundle & Updates My book tour for Words of Radiance continues today. Tonight I’m in Houston, and later in the week I’m in Omaha, Phoenix, and Tucson. My whole tour is listed here. If you don’t live near one of the tour cities and want…
Mistborn: THE FINAL EMPIRE a £1.49 Daily Deal in the UK Friday only + tour updates Just a quick note to let you know that in the UK today only (Friday), Mistborn: The Final Empire is the Kindle Daily Deal at £1.49. If you’re in the UK but you prefer to buy your ebooks somewhere other than Amazon, check…
THE EMPEROR’S SOUL at Storybundle + WORDS OF RADIANCE tour notes Words of Radiance came out yesterday. I’m on tour now; today I’m signing in the Los Angeles area and tomorrow I’ll be in the Bay Area for a lunchtime signing and an evening signing. We had a great turnout at the midnight release, and the BYU Bookstore ordered enough copies that they…
Brandon Sanderson Newsletter for March 2014 This is Brandon, and welcome to my newsletter. Words of Radiance Is Out! My Essay on Epic Fantasy Stormlight Merchandise Words of Radiance Book Tour and Worldwide Conventions The Shardhunt Words of Radiance Is Out! At long last, Words of Radiance (book two in the Stormlight Archive) is out…
WORDS OF RADIANCE release party tonight + Updates Writing Excuses has two new episodes: “When is your handwavium good enough?” and “What to do when truth is stranger than fiction.” Also, all of my February tweets have been uploaded here. Words of Radiance comes out tomorrow in the US and Canada in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook (the…
UPDATE: Gaming for a Cause this Friday night in SLC ans have asked about tonight’s event: Why pay money to play Magic with me when they often can come and play Magic with me for free? So in lieu of me coming tonight, I’m sending an early signed copy of Words of Radiance to auction off for…
One week left! Spoiler-free reviews of WORDS OF RADIANCE Words of Radiance comes out in one week. Here are some early non-spoiler reviews: Alice at Tor.com, Carl at Tor.com, Eric & Josh at 17thShard. On Saturday I went up to Weller Book Works and signed 500 copies of Words of Radiance. So if you ordered from them, it’s in the process of…
New Stormlight merch and A Memory of Light hardcovers in the store Hello everyone! This is Kara, the manager of Brandon’s online store. With the upcoming release of Words of Radiance, we’ve added some awesome new products, and I’m pretty excited about them. T-Shirts You might remember our Bridge Four and Stormlight Archive shirts from the days of InkWing.com.…
Mistborn Film Rights As many of you know, a Mistborn film has been in the development stages for several years now. The producers, Paloppa Pictures, were wonderful to partner with and worked very hard to bring a Mistborn vision to the big screen. However, their rights have just lapsed. They’re still interested in the project, but we’re in this…
Writing Class Videos & Updates First some updates on Words of Radiance, which comes out in less than two weeks. It’s almost here! Tor.com has posted what it was like to be a beta reader (note: I’m not currently looking for additional beta readers) and spoiler-free reactions to the book, and they’re mailing out daily context-free snippets. You can see…
I’m the toastmaster at LTUE this weekend LTUE starts tomorrow (Thursday) in Provo, with guest of honor Orson Scott Card, and I’ll be playing in the Magic tournament on Thursday night. I’ll also be on a couple of panels on Friday and Saturday, and I’ll do a reading and signing Saturday afternoon. Saturday evening I’ll…
WORDS OF RADIANCE Release Events This is going to be a long post. If you want to know how to get numbered copies of Words of Radiance, scroll down to the general release events info, the info on the BYU signing, on the San Diego signing, or on the Weller Book Works signing-by-mail (now sold out—see below for more info). Item…
THE WAY OF KINGS at £1.99 in the UK, sale ends today It’s evening there in the UK, but I’ve so far neglected to mention the £1.99 ebook sale on The Way of Kings on Kindle. And now it’s the final day of the sale, as far as we know. Some of the other ebook stores have…
Regarding Awards I’m a little late to the party this year, but I wanted to post a few words about awards season. If you want to nominate for the Hugo Awards you either need to have had a membership to last year’s Worldcon in San Antonio, or you need to be registered for this year’s Worldcon…
Preview Chapters, Writing Video, Writing Excuses & Updates The Words of Radiance audiobook is now available for preorder on Audible in the US, as well as on CD via the links at the right. Kate Reading and Michael Kramer are well into recording the narration, and it will be released the same day as the hardcover and ebook. The…
Worldbuilders hit its goal, so we’re going to give this write-a-thon thing a try. I’ve settled on this Friday, January 17th, from 2:00 p.m. Mountain time until 7:00 p.m.
Signing on Saturday at the Sandy Costco! Sorry for the late notice on this—my assistants have been busy getting a book ready. Tomorrow at noon I’m signing in the Salt Lake City area, at the Costco in Sandy. This probably won’t be a good venue for me to do a reading and group Q&A, but…
My Class Starts Today For those who aren’t aware, I teach a course entitled “How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy” at Brigham Young University. The course is focused on the nuts and bolts of having a writing career. Characterization, worldbuilding, plotting, and publication. In previous years, a graduate student recorded my lectures as a…
Words of Radiance preview chapters & Shallan art Just dropping in to say that the first preview chapters of Words of Radiance are now up on Tor.com. This is the prologue and first two chapters. More preview chapters will follow in the coming weeks. There’s also a post about the Shallan endpapers that Michael Whelan painted for the book. Plus you can…
STEELHEART at $1.99 today in the US Just a quick note that Steelheart is $1.99 today only, in the US Kindle and Nook stores. You can also check the other stores to see if anyone is price-matching. Happy New Year!
Last-Minute Holiday Items It’s too late to have things shipped in time for Christmas from the store, but you can send gift certificates. These are sent by email to whoever you want to receive one, and you can buy them here. The Sugarhouse Barnes & Noble has signed copies of The Rithmatist, Steelheart, The Way of Kings, and all three of my Wheel…
Many of you know that I teach a creative writing class at Brigham Young University once per year. As an undergraduate I took this class from David Farland when he was teaching it, and it was invaluable to me as a budding writer. When Dave moved on, I took over the class as I feel that it’s…
Worldbuilders Hey, all. As the holiday season is here, I wanted to give a shout-out to Worldbuilders, Pat Rothfuss’s yearly, F&SF-themed charity drive. Pat puts a great deal of work into the charity, and I love how it brings the community together to do something great. The charity he supports (Heifer International) is quite worthy, and…
Words of Radiance is done! + Signing in Orem Saturday First off, keep in mind that the shipping deadline for signed books and other nifty things is tomorrow! Look here for more details. I’m also appearing at the Orem Library Holiday Author Extravaganza tomorrow morning; see my events calendar. For those who missed my posts on social media…
Signing at Hill AFB (Today!), Idaho Falls, Pocatello This (long) weekend I have three signings for you. Today at Hill Air Force Base (military ID required to get on base—sorry for the short notice!), Idaho Falls on Saturday, and Pocatello on Monday. Details are below. I’ll sign any book I wrote that you bring, and…
Two shorts released! All, I’ve got some fun news for you here in the holiday season. I have not one, but two different stories coming out today. The first is Mitosis, a novelette set between books one and two of The Reckoners. If you enjoyed Steelheart, I think you’ll enjoy this story—but I do have to warn…
2013 Holiday Sales My store manager Kara has set up some sales in the Brandon Sanderson store that I’ll tell you about below. But first I want to mention that the Steelheart ebook is $2.49 today in the US on Amazon and the Google Play store. The Way of Kings is also on sale at $2.99 in the US across all ebook vendors; for links…
Signing Tonight in Orem & Playing Magic Hey, all! This evening I’m going down to Dragon’s Keep’s Orem store. They’ll have books for sale, including the The Emperor’s Soul hardcover and the Firstborn/Defending Elysium hardcover. You can also bring any number of books from anywhere else. I’ll sign books and talk to you, even if you’re not interested in…
New York Event Video + Updates Did you know you can get this cool Allomantic Table Medallion and other jewelry in my store? There are also books signed & personalized by me (including hardcovers of The Emperor’s Soul and this year’s “Firstborn”/”Defending Elysium” combo), T-shirts, Feruchemical Table prints, and Allomantic symbol decals. If you’re interested in giving any of those things as a gift this holiday…
New York City on Saturday! Steelheart is still on sale for $4.79 on the US Kindle store, Nook, and Google Play. Additionally, The Way of Kings is on sale for $1.99 on the US Kindle store and the iBookstore—and they’ve now been joined by Nook at the same price. This Saturday I’ll be in New York City with Christopher Paolini and James Dashner.…
Ebooks on sale, Writing Excuses, Goodreads & Updates As of this writing, Steelheart is still on sale for $4.79 on the US Kindle store, Nook, and Google Play. Additionally, The Way of Kings is on sale for $1.99 on the US Kindle store and the iBookstore. As these are sales that the individual stores are putting on rather than the publisher, they’re not something…
STEELHEART Exclusive Editions + Steelhunt Photos & Updates I mentioned a while back that Steelheart has four exclusive editions in different stores. I’d like to take a few minutes to tell you about each one. Barnes & Noble: Chapter 1 annotation My website has chapter-by-chapter annotations that I wrote for many of my books, and people often tell me…
Play Magic with Brandon, Firstborn/Defending Elysium hardcover, Holiday shipping deadlines, Kindle MatchBook + Updates Lots of news for you today! First off, I’ll be doing two Magic: The Gathering drafts this month that you can sign up for if you’re local to Utah. I’ll be at Epic Puzzles & Games in West Valley this Thursday, and…
The Wheel of Time Retrospective: A MEMORY OF LIGHT: The Black Tower Just a reminder, all. Steelheart—my new novel—is out right now! It hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list in the Young Adult category. If you’re curious, you can read about the book here, and listen to a cool audio sample here. And as a…
The Wheel of Time Retrospective: A MEMORY OF LIGHT: Perrin and Egwene Just a reminder, all. Steelheart—my new novel—is out right now! It hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list in the Young Adult category. If you’re curious, you can read about the book here, and listen to a cool audio sample here. For an explanation…
Two More Mistborn Novels Hey, all. I’m neck-deep in Stormlight revisions, but wanted to pause and give you a little update on other books I’m working on. On my tour, I frequently read from the first chapter of a new novel in the Mistborn world, a sequel to The Alloy of Law. (In fact, you can…
STEELHEART Release in the UK + UK Trailer Steelheart was released Thursday in the UK! In the upper right of this post are tabs where you can see links to buy the book in the UK and associated territories. I wrote a blog post for my UK publisher, Gollancz, which you can see here. Fantasy Faction also…
The Wheel of Time Retrospective: TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT: What I Learned Just a reminder, all. Steelheart—my new novel—is out right now! It hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list in the Young Adult category. If you’re curious, you can read about the book here, and listen to a cool audio sample here. For an explanation of…
2014 Charity Fantasy Author Calendar Now Available Way back in January I talked about a Kickstarter campaign by photographer Lauren Zurchin for a calendar featuring fantasy authors in costumes. Well, the kickstarter was successful, the calendar has been finished, and it’s now available for you to preorder, with an expected shipping date in the second week of November. Here is…
The Wheel of Time Retrospective: TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT: Writing Process Just a reminder, all. Steelheart—my new novel—is out right now! It hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list in the Young Adult category. If you’re curious, you can read about the book here, and listen to a cool audio sample here. For an explanation of my…
Libros en Español, Writing Excuses & Steelhunt update For my readers who prefer books in Spanish: I found out last week that four of my books are currently priced at 2,84€ on Kindle in Spain. You can also get them on other Kindle stores (such as Mexico or elsewhere), but the price will vary according…
The Bieberllama Well, the results are in: whose book sold best, James’s or Brandon’s—and the winner is Brandon. … Brandon Mull. That’s right, Brandon Mull’s Wild Born has defeated both Steelheart and The Eye of Minds. Brandon Mull is a good friend of mine and James Dashner’s, and his book outsold both of ours last week, so I’m declaring him…
The Wheel of Time Retrospective: THE GATHERING STORM: What I Learned Just a reminder, all. Steelheart—my new novel—is out right now! It hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list in the Young Adult category. If you’re curious, you can read about the book here, and listen to a cool audio sample here. For an explanation of…
Vodník at $1.99 + Steelhunt update Hey all. I found out that Bryce Moore’s Vodník, a book I really enjoyed (so much that I wrote a cover quote for it: “Vodník is compelling, interesting and darkly humorous. I think you’ll love it.”) is on sale right now as a $1.99 ebook. See the links on the right.…
The Wheel of Time Retrospective: The Gathering Storm: Writing Process Just a reminder, all. Steelheart—my new novel—is out right now! It hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list in the Young Adult section. If you’re curious, you can read about the book here, and listen to a cool audio sample here. For an…
Signed STEELHEART at Powell’s + Steelhunt update The Steelheart tour continues. Today and tomorrow I’m in the Bay Area, and next week I’m in Seattle and San Diego. See my full schedule for details. I’ve also arranged for Steelhunt codes to be hidden at a few more stores. (See these posts for a Steelhunt explanation and other participating locations.) Latest on…
The Wheel of Time Retrospective: The Process Just a reminder, all. Steelheart—my new novel—is out right now! It hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list in the Young Adult section. If you’re curious, you can read about the book here, and listen to a cool audio sample here. For an explanation of my Wheel of Time…
THE EYE OF MINDS + Steelhunt updates Two weeks ago I talked about a bet I have with James Dashner that hinges on how many copies Steelheart and The Eye of Minds sell in their first week of release. Well, The Eye of Minds came out yesterday. You should totally check it out, especially if you want to see me forced to become…
The Wheel of Time Retrospective: The Notes Just a reminder, all. Steelheart—my new novel—is out right now! It’s sitting at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list in the Young Adult section. If you’re curious, you can read about the book here, and listen to a cool audio sample here. I usually do a Q&A session as…
Writing Excuses catch-up & Updates Writing Excuses has put up a couple of episodes that I haven’t mentioned yet. There’s an episode on dystopian fiction featuring Cherie Priest, one on publishing featuring Subterranean Press’s publisher Bill Schafer, and a Q&A session from our Out of Excuses writing retreat talking about these questions: How have your opinions on self-publishing changed in the…
More places to get signed books All, Looking for a place to get a signed copy of Steelheart? The bookstores I’ve been visiting might be a great place to look—and they are eager to ship to you, if you live out of the area. I posted about a few on Tuesday. Here are some more: Chicago, Anderson’s BookshopThis…
Steelhunt, Week Two We have entered week two of Steelheart’s release—by Wednesday, we’ll know what the opening week numbers were, and that will become the benchmark that Dashner will try to beat with The Eye of Minds. The loser will then become Justin Bieber. Many thanks to all who checked out the book last week. Of course, you’re…
The STEELHEART Big Idea + Games Creatures Play I’ve started my tour for Steelheart! After two very successful Utah signings, I’ve flown off to Texas where I will have events in Houston and Austin. You can check out my full schedule here. To accompany the Steelheart release, I’ve posted a guest Big Idea essay over at John Scalzi’s Whatever blog. It starts off like…
Sanderson’s Third Law of Magic We’re celebrating the release of Steelheart, my new novel! It’s out this week. If you missed yesterday’s post, you can read up on the book here, listen to the first five chapters of the audiobook here, and watch the trailer here. Please consider going to your retailer of choice and looking at the novel.…
Brandon Sanderson Newsletter for September 2013 Hey, all! Brandon here, writing my own newsletter this time around. Just wanted to keep you up to date on what’s happening in the Sanderverse these days. Contents Steelheart is out today! Words of Radiance progress Steelheart Tour and Release Party Steelhunt and Blog Posts Welcoming Isaac and Kara…
Steelheart Launch Day It’s here! Steelheart is out! The trailer is here, if you haven’t seen it. Also, if you live in Utah, please come see me tonight at the Orem Barnes & Noble! 5–8:00 p.m., with signed and numbered copies. Yesterday I talked about the tour and the Steelhunt I’m doing along with it. Now, I’ve got to admit something to you…
Introducing the Steelhunt Steelheart comes out tomorrow! If you live local to Utah, please consider coming to the launch party at the Barnes & Noble in Orem from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. All copies will be numbered and pre-signed, so you won’t have to wait in line unless you want a personalization. I would really like to see this…
Infinity Blade videos, IB:III out today, & Letter to Robert Jordan First some updates. The Writing Excuses podcast had episodes on transitioning characters in prominence and on when fail happens in your career. This week I added some videos to my YouTube channel. First is a letter to Robert Jordan that I recorded for Google Play. Then there are some videos…
Hugo Awards Comic & Video The Hugo Awards UStream page has posted the full recording of this year’s ceremony, with no pesky gaps from technical difficulties. You can find it here and it’s embedded at the bottom of this post. The entire ceremony is a celebration of science fiction and fantasy fandom featuring luminaries of the field,…
STEELHEART book trailer & free 5-chapter sample ebook/audiobook Random House has released their book trailer for Steelheart, and it’s pretty awesome! Check it out below. They’ve also released a 5-chapter sampler ebook (and Audible has a sampler audiobook) that you can see download links for here. (Ignore the text that says “Buy the Book”—it’s a free download.) Right…
A question for my German and other foreign-language readers If you haven’t seen the Steelheart book trailer, the prologue, or the teaser chapters (Chapter Ten and Chapter Eleven), please go give them a look! The release date is fast approaching, so think about preordering the book from your favorite vendor. Weller Book Works has a few signed & numbered copies left. You…
Hugo Awards! Everyone, I come to you today deeply humbled and appreciative. Over the weekend at Worldcon in San Antonio, I was honored with not one, but two Hugo awards. Though I’m thrilled to have Writing Excuses finally win after several years of losses, I’m beyond flattered to have been given a fiction award in…
Infinity Blade: Redemption + Updates Hey, all! I had an exciting time at Worldcon, as you might have heard. I’m working on a long blog post about the experience, and it will go up tomorrow. (Actually, be sure to check my site tomorrow regardless…) For today, though, I wanted to announce the release of my…
Warbreaker Rights and Downloads RIGHTS VERSIONS COMPARISONS For older versions of the book, scroll down to the bottom. You can also find PDF and Mobile Reader versions of the book there. For rights explanations, read on. RIGHTS I am releasing each draft of WARBREAKER under a Creative Commons non-commercial, non-derivative work license. For an official…
Infinity Blade: Redemption Pre-Order Starts Today ChAIR ENTERTAINMENT & NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR BRANDON SANDERSON ANNOUNCE NEW CHAPTER IN INFINITY BLADE SAGA, INFINITY BLADE: REDEMPTION Pre-Order the Novella Now Exclusively on iBooks Salt Lake City, UT (August 20, 2013) — ChAIR Entertainment, a division of Epic Games Inc., today announced Infinity Blade: Redemption, the second in a…
Tomorrow and Saturday I’ll be at Gen Con. My schedule is below. See you there! But first, if you haven’t seen the STEELHEART teaser trailer, the prologue, or teaser chapters, please go give them a look! The release date is fast approaching, so think about preordering the book from your favorite vendor. (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, Audible, Apple, Kobo, Google Play.) If you would like a signed and numbered copy, Weller Book Works will begin accepting orders TODAY for delivery on or very shortly after September 24th. (Or you can come to the release event at the Orem Barnes & Noble on September 24th. More details later.) Mysterious Galaxy and Shawn Speakman’s The Signed Page will also have signed books available to preorder, but they won’t be shipped until I sign them in October.
Signed Perrin T-Shirt Charity Auction & Updates Some quick updates today. But first, if you haven’t seen the STEELHEART teaser trailer, the prologue, or teaser chapters, please go give them a look! The release date is fast approaching, so think about preordering the book from your favorite vendor. (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, Audible, Apple, Kobo, Google Play.) If you would…
Steelheart Preorder and Mega Vault Winners It’s time to announce the winners of the STEELHEART Mega Vault Fan Art contest. First, if you haven’t seen the teaser trailer, the prologue, or teaser chapters for STEELHEART, please go give them a look! STEELHEART Preorders The release date for STEELHEART is fast approaching, so think about preordering the book from…
Spokane this week! Tomorrow I’m heading out to Spokane for SpoCon, and I’ll also be signing at Barnes & Noble. Details are below. There’s no signing listed at SpoCon itself, but I will sign books if you find me between panels. See you there! As always, see my future events on my events page. Barnes &…
Updates Catch-Up + Michael Whelan Stormlight 2 Cover Playing catch-up with the Writing Excuses podcast, we did episodes on both Writing Reluctant Characters and Combining Dialogue, Blocking, and Description. We also did a Q&A session at the Out of Excuses Retreat that touches on these questions: To Dan: How did you go about selling your first trilogy in Germany before…
Hugo Awards Voting Deadline is July 31, 2013 The Hugos are one of the most prestigious awards in our field, and they are given out by the readers themselves. The deadline for voting for the Hugo Awards is approaching quickly. Less than a week left! For a ballot to be counted, it needs to be…
JTVCcmNibG9jayUyMGlkJTNEJTIyMjU2OSUyMiU1RA==It has been quite a busy time these last six or seven months. Too busy, maybe? A lot of great experiences, but it has cut into my time to be at home writing. Let me give you a little update of what I’m doing writing-wise.
Read preview #2 of STEELHEART, STEELHEART poster, STEELHEART book trailer! So, I’m at Comic-Con in San Diego right now. You can see my schedule here. Among the other things I’m doing at the con is an interview with MTV Geek. That’s not a public event at the convention, but they will be streaming it live on their…
My San Diego Comic-Con International Schedule I’m leaving today for Comic-Con, and I’ll be there Friday through Sunday. See you there! There will also be a Steelheart trailer reveal online on Sunday with MTV Geek; I’ll add the link later. Date: July 19-21, 2013 Place: San Diego Convention Center Address: 111 West Harbor Drive San Diego, CA 92101 Schedule: Friday,…
THE RITHMATIST Tour Swag Recently I got back from the The Rithmatist tour, so it’s time for me to post some pictures of some of the cool things I saw and some of the neat things you all gave me. I appreciate the time and thought put into the gifts. Take a look at this Steel Inquisitor…
THIS IS HOW YOU DIE, Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death The anthology THIS IS HOW YOU DIE, sequel to THE MACHINE OF DEATH, was released today. I don’t have a story in it (I was considering submitting something, but I’m way too busy), but my friend and alpha reader Karen Stay…
STEELHEART fan art contest ends tonight + Updates This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode is entitled “Your First Contract” and it’s about exactly that! We’re not lawyers so don’t consider this to be legal advice, but as a writer you’re a a small business owner who should be thinking about this sort of thing. The STEELHEART…
My ConnectiCon Schedule I’m in Connecticut this weekend for ConnectiCon. Below is my schedule! But also, the STEELHEART fanart contest (you can win books!) is still ongoing, with a deadline of Monday. Details here, and the first entries from readers are up here. ConnectiCon, Hartford Place: ConnectiCon Address: Connecticut Convention Center 100 Columbus Boulevard Hartford, CT 06103 Phone: 860-249-6000 Type: Convention…
Random House Mega Vault Contest + Updates Below I have info on a contest that’s Steelheart-related (sorry, for the US and Canada only). But first some updates. This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode covers chapter breakdowns—what determines our chapter breaks? How do we handle POV shifts, scene/sequel balance, and other considerations when we’re carving our stories into…
Updates for this week In this week’s Writing Excuses episode, Mary, Dan, Howard, and I talk about Space Opera. Give it a listen. My assistant Peter has uploaded another Twitter posts archive. There will be another one next week; we’re a bit behind. As always, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook (both have basically the same content) for up-to-the-minute…
Guest post by Elise Matthesen: How to Report Sexual Harassment (A friend of mine wrote this, and I and a few other people in the community are posting her narrative to raise awareness. —Brandon) How to Report Sexual Harassment by Elise Mattheson We’re geeks. We learn things and share, right? Well, this year at WisCon…
UNFETTERED (with A MEMORY OF LIGHT deleted sequence) now out + Updates The ebook for UNFETTERED, which contains the A MEMORY OF LIGHT deleted sequence “River of Souls,” has now been released. Details below. Tor.com’s reread of THE WAY OF KINGS reached chapters 16 and 17, the first flashback with Laral and Tien, and Kaladin leading…
Saturday Spanish Fork Costco signing time change Hey there, everyone who was planning to come to my signing tomorrow—I just found out that it’s going to start an hour earlier than previously announced. So if you can swing it, please try to come at 11:00 a.m. instead of noon. I’ve never done a Costco signing…
June is Audiobook Month + Updates This week the Writing Excuses podcast has a “project in depth” episode on Mary Robinette Kowal’s novella “Kiss Me Twice,” which was nominated for the Hugo and Nebula last year. Give it a listen, though you’ll probably want to read the novella first. Tor.com had a couple of The Way of Kings articles last week. First…
Alcatraz in the UK & Updates ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE SHATTERED LENS has now been released in the UK (and presumably also in Australia and New Zealand). That means all four books are now out, and since they all came out this year, it should be relatively easy to find them on shelves and in ebook…
Book trailer for THE RITHMATIST & Kickstarter for HEX Tor made a book trailer for THE RITHMATIST (which is out now). Enjoy! There’s also a cool Kickstarter campaign (well past its goal, ending in two days) from Cryptozoic Entertainment for a digital TCG/MMO called HEX. The developers of the (targeted for fall 2014) MISTBORN: BIRTHRIGHT video game, Little Orbit,…
Signing Tonight at the Provo Library + Updates This week’s Writing Excuses episode talks about prewriting with our guest E.J. Patten, author of RETURN TO EXILE and THE LEGEND THIEF. Check it out. The Tor.com reread of THE WAY OF KINGS has reached chapter 12, covering the introduction of Dalinar and Adolin. I’m signing tonight at the Provo Library, with books sold…
THE RITHMATIST Illustrations, Book Expo America & Updates The newest Writing Excuses podcast episode is called “What The Avengers Did Right.” It has a bunch of spoilers for that movie and talks about it from the point of view of a writer. I’ve uploaded all of Ben McSweeney’s awesome illustrations for THE RITHMATIST. This includes the map (which…
My Phoenix Comicon Schedule Today through Sunday I’m in Phoenix for Phoenix Comicon. Here’s my schedule. Thu, 6:00-7:00PM (Room 104B) Books & Authors Phoenix Comicon Kickoff Kick of Phoenix Comicon 2013’s Books and Authors programming with a brief look at what all is going on this weekend and a group interview with several of our author…
Brandon Sanderson Newsletter for May 2013 In this newsletter: The Rithmatist is out! The Rithmatist Tour Steelheart is coming in September. (Prologue going live Thursday!) Baby Melvin is here, and growing up too quickly Words of Radiance (Stormlight 2) update From Brandon. You’re receiving this because you signed up or sent me fan mail. If…
Hugo Voter Packet Out Now, Signed THE RITHMATIST + Updates A few weeks ago I talked about the Hugo Voter Packet and how for a $60 supporting membership to Worldcon you could get copies of most of the Hugo Award-nominated works. Well, the packet was finally released today, so if you’re already a member go download…
STEELHEART Prologue + Signed THE RITHMATIST Tor.com’s reread of THE WAY OF KINGS reaches chapter 11 today, which is Kaladin’s low point. My YA dystopia STEELHEART comes out in September. Today the Onion AV Club put up the prologue of the book. Check it out! I’m in the middle of the tour for my YA fantasy THE…
THE RITHMATIST Out Now The Rithmatist is out! Buy it from the links to the right or visit your local bookstore. (In the UK/Australia, the release date is May 23rd.) My book tour starts tonight in New York and continues in Philadelphia, Denver, Omaha, New Orleans, Houston, San Jose, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Provo, and Spanish Fork. For…
Quick Update Just a quick update today. I’m on my way to New York for the release of THE RITHMATIST on Tuesday. More about that in another post tomorrow, but The Book Smugglers have an interview with me where I talk about it and about writing YA, among other things. This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode talks about the…
THE RITHMATIST audiobook, THE EMPEROR’S SOUL ebook at $2.99 & Updates My YA fantasy novel THE RITHMATIST comes out next week. Read the first 5 chapters here and check out my signing tour schedule here. Tor.com also put up an article today talking about the book’s magic system. I’m also pleased to report that Michael…
JordanCon Swag I got back from JordanCon a few days ago. Often times at cons and signings, my readers bring me small gifts. I’m deeply grateful for the time and thought put into these, and I try to post pictures of some of them from time to time. JordanCon was no exception. Here are some…
My essay on Terry Pratchett + Updates On Saturday Tor.com posted an essay of mine entitled “Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Might Be The Highest Form of Literature on the Planet.” I’ve mentioned my love of Terry Pratchett a few times on the blog before, but in this essay I lay out my whole case. Michael Whelan…
THE RITHMATIST Book Tour + Signed Copies My YA fantasy novel THE RITHMATIST comes out on May 14th in the US/Canada, and May 23rd in UK/Commonwealth countries. (Read the prologue and first five chapters here.) This book tour’s stops are listed at the bottom of this post, and included are a bunch of cities I haven’t…
Stormlight Videos + Updates This past weekend I had a great time at JordanCon. Next year‘s Author Guest of Honor will be Patrick Rothfuss, with Artist Guest of Honor Larry Elmore. It should be awesome. While I was there I signed a number of books for two booksellers, The Missing Volume and Basement Books. They each…
My JordanCon Schedule + Updates This weekend I’ll be at JordanCon in Atlanta. My schedule is below, and the full schedule is here. Guests of Honor this year are Seanan McGuire (a.k.a. Mira Grant) and Michael Whelan. Team Jordan will also be participating. Stormlight/Mistborn/Rithmatist artists Isaac Stewart and Ben McSweeney will also be there. They have a…
Reddit AMA + Updates I’m doing a Reddit AMA (ask me anything) right now at /r/fantasy. Ask away. This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode talks about narrative rhythm. Here’s the penultimate video of me writing the Rysn interlude from WORDS OF RADIANCE, the next Stormlight book. Next week I’ll put up the conclusion and the sped-up version with everything…
A MEMORY OF LIGHT ebook + Updates A few random pieces of catch-up news for today. The ebook for A MEMORY OF LIGHT came out this week, if you didn’t notice. You can find it at the usual vendors. This week the Writing Excuses podcast has another brainstorming episode, where I come up with a concept…
Helping Ben Wolverton Many of you know that a certain author, Dave Wolverton (who also writes as David Farland), was an important mentor to me early in my career. Well, Dave has run into some difficult times recently, as his son Ben had a longboarding accident and is now in a coma. Dave, like many…
WITHOUT A SUMMER + Updates This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode is called “Fake It Till You Make It” and in it Mary, Dan, Howard, and I talk about the things we do or have done to feel professional. Also, as I mentioned earlier this week, Writing Excuses has been nominated once again for the…
THE EMPEROR’S SOUL Nominated for a Hugo Award! The nominations for the 2013 Hugo Awards were recently released, and I’m elated to announce that The Emperor’s Soul has been nominated for Best Novella. This is, quite frankly, awesome. It’s my first major award nomination in a fiction category. Alongside it, Writing Excuses has been nominated for Best Related Work for…
2013 Convention Exclusive: Firstborn & Defending Elysium This year I’ll be going to several conventions—JordanCon, Phoenix Comicon, ConnectiCon, and SpoCon (among others not yet announced). Last year I started doing convention exclusives, which I’d been wanting to do for a while—something to make it worth the effort for people to go out of their way…
Podcasts, STEELHEART & THE RITHMATIST Covers, Writing Video A couple new podcast episodes for you. This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode is an in-depth discussion of “Deus ex Nauseum,” Howard’s bonus story at the end of Schlock Mercenary: Emperor Pius Dei. Also, on the Farland’s Authors Advisory Conference Calls, artists Isaac Stewart and Ben McSweeney (whose work has appeared…
Stormlight 2 Video + Writing Excuses In this week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode, Robison Wells joins us once again to talk about abnormal psychology. There are a lot of depths there to plumb for characterization, so check it out. My assistant has uploaded another Twitter posts archive. And there’s a new video up of me writing WORDS…
Way of Kings ebook for $2.99, Giveaway, & Tor.com Reread Today Tor.com announced they’re doing a reread for THE WAY OF KINGS. You can read the announcement here. Buy the $2.99 ebook here (DRM-free): Kindle (US)(CA) Nook iBooks (US)(CA) Kobo Dragonmount If you’re not familiar with Tor.com’s rereads, which they’ve done for The Wheel of Time and other…
Writing Excuses & Writing Video Just a quick update today. This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode is another brainstorming episode. This time Mary, Dan, and I help Howard brainstorm for a comic. Though apparently the end result was a failure! Check it out. I’ve also uploaded another video of me writing WORDS OF RADIANCE, the sequel to…
Hugo Nomination Deadline + Signed Copies of AMoL Below I have bookstore listings where you can find signed copies of A MEMORY OF LIGHT (and a few have THE EMPEROR’S SOUL as well). They will ship to you, so give them a call! This Sunday night is the deadline for nominating for the Hugo Awards,…
Writing Excuses & Stormlight Archive writing video Just a quick post today. The newest Writing Excuses podcast episode is another where we sat down with Dan’s brother Robison Wells. This time we talked about writing and personal health. Give it a listen. For the fifth of my Stormlight Archive volume two writing videos, we were able to…
Stormlight writing video & music + Updates The most recent podcast episode of Writing Excuses features Dan’s brother Robison Wells talking with us about cliffhangers and icebergs—when it’s a good idea to leave people in the dark, and when it’s a bad idea. Check it out. My assistant Peter has uploaded another Twitter posts archive. This…
Life, the Universe, & Everything 31 starts today in Provo The local symposium (read: convention) on science fiction and fantasy starts today. I was planning to be there, but instead I’m on tour. I’ll be in Vancouver tonight and Toronto tomorrow. But if you’re in Utah, you should check out LTUE! The guest of honor this year…
Videos & Updates I donated a signed first edition of MISTBORN for an auction at Con or Bust, which helps fans of color attend SFF conventions. Check it out. The most recent Writing Excuses podcast episode talks about retellings and adaptations. Believe it or not, yesterday was the five-year anniversary of the very first episode. Wow! I have…
Stormlight 2 Writing Video, Hugo Nomination Deadline, DANGEROUS WOMEN & Updates Michael Whelan has put up an awesome post on his process for painting the cover of A MEMORY OF LIGHT. Very, very cool. If you’re at all interested in art or illustration you should check it out. You can also buy signed prints in his store.…
Worldbuilders, Tour Dates & Updates Pat Rothfuss’s Worldbuilders charity drive runs until midnight tonight Central time. Today is the last chance to donate this year, with a good chance to win a cool donated book. The latest batch includes a signed leatherbound copy of my novella LEGION. By the way, last week’s THE GATHERING STORM auction went for $300. This week’s…
Spectre Kickstarter from Jason Denzel Hey all, this is just a quick post to let you know about the Spectre Kickstarter from Jason Denzel. Remember this awesome Towers of Midnight trailer from a couple years ago? Jason (founder of Dragonmount & all-around cool guy) was responsible for making that trailer. Well, he has also filmed a short epic fantasy…
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.
I’m sitting here on a plane, flying to Minneapolis after signing 1280(!) books last night at the midnight release of A Memory of Light. That marks it as my largest signing ever, though a whole lot of readers (understandably) grabbed their pre-signed books and ran off to read them, rather than waiting for a personalization.
YA Novels + AMoL 8:00 Q&A Map + Updates Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive cover reveal for my YA post-apocalyptic novel STEELHEART that’s coming out from Delacorte in September. Check it out here. Also, Tor.com put up the prologue and first chapter of my YA fantasy THE RITHMATIST that’s coming out in May. Read them here. (Illustrations by Ben McSweeney, who…
Hugo Nomination Season Hugo nomination season is upon us! If you are unaware, the Hugo Award is given by fans attending that year’s Worldcon. (This year’s convention will be held in San Antonio, Texas. I do plan to attend, as I went to Dragon*Con last year, and I try to vary which one I go to.)…
AMoL Q&A time change! Also, Waygate Foundation & Updates Planning to attend the midnight release of A MEMORY OF LIGHT at the BYU Bookstore? Want to see Robert Jordan’s wife Harriet McDougal at the event? Then be sure to check out the newest details. Harriet can’t stay up for the midnight release itself, but she…
Signing & Magic Draft in Salt Lake area Saturday Just a quick reminder that I have a signing up in West Valley tomorrow, followed by a Magic draft. The signing is focused on the Mistborn RPG, but I’ll have my other books there too. Hope to see many of you there! Details below. Signing &…
Utah events this week + Updates Writing Excuses has two new episodes this week due to a goof on our part. We had planned to hold Mary’s brainstorming episode back until the spring, but we forgot that there was a direct followup episode. The followup got released first and people were confused, so we’ve gone…
Signing Thursday in West Jordan Just a quick note to remind you that I’ll be signing at the Jordan Landing Barnes & Noble tomorrow. Details are below. I also have signings this month in Orem, West Valley, and the Salt Lake City Library. Some of those include Magic drafts. See my events page for details. Date: 12.06.12 Time: 6:30…
A MEMORY OF LIGHT happenings + Updates A MEMORY OF LIGHT happenings + Updates This post will have quite a few random tidbits. First off, my friend Tracy Hickman wrote to tell me about a holiday serial novel he and Laura are putting up. If you preorder, you can read and comment on the chapters as…
Brandon Sanderson Newsletter for December 2012 In this newsletter: Brandon’s new novella The Emperor’s Soul is out now! December signings A Memory of Light book tour schedule Other events Hi there. It’s Brandon’s assistant Peter again (plus a few words from Brandon). Brandon’s new novella, The Emperor’s Soul Brandon says: I’m extremely proud of this…
Fan Art, Shirts, NaNoWriMo InkWing, which does Mistborn and Stormlight Archive shirts, has a new blog post announcing Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, as well as a limited edition Windrunner pin. Plus they have a contest for a free T-shirt. Check it out. This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode talks about raising the stakes—putting things at risk…
A MEMORY OF LIGHT Release Events This is going to be a long post. If you want to know how to get numbered copies of the book, scroll down. ITEM #1: THE TOUR Tor is almost ready to announce the book tour. When it gets announced, all of the signings will be listed on my events page,…
THE ALLOY OF LAW signed hardcovers, THE EMPEROR’S SOUL episode + Updates Since it’s been out for a year and the mass market paperback has been released, I’m now putting THE ALLOY OF LAW in my signed hardcovers store. I also have a 6-pack that includes the four Mistborn books, Elantris, and Warbreaker for a special holiday price…
Two Utah signings this week, THE EMPEROR’S SOUL ebook, Writing Excuses Retreat scholarship My novella THE EMPEROR’S SOUL came out in trade paperback a few weeks ago, and the ebook version is out today. You can find it at most of the ebook stores, but we’re still waiting to hear from Google Play about this…
Toronto this weekend: Chapters Markham & World Fantasy (sold out, 1 membership available!) I’ve flown up to Toronto for the World Fantasy convention. My schedule is below. I’m also doing an off-site bookstore signing at Chapters in Markham on Saturday. See below for details. Hope to see many of you there! The convention is sold…
Canadians! Halifax, Toronto I’ll be in Halifax, Nova Scotia this weekend for Hal-Con. My schedule is below. Next weekend I’ll be in Toronto; I’ll post my full schedule next week, or you can check my events page. I’ll have two signings in Utah after I get back from there. I will sign copies of THE EMPEROR’S SOUL…
EMPEROR’S SOUL signing-by-mail, AMoL audiobook promo, Holiday shipping deadline + Updates This post will be another run-down of a bunch of different topics. Weller Book Works is once again handling a signing-by-mail for one of my releases. In this case, since THE EMPEROR’S SOUL is already out in bookstores, it’s going to run slightly differently.…
The Emperor’s Soul Now Available Though the official release date is still two weeks away, it appears that B&N, Amazon, and a number of indy bookstores all have copies of The Emperor’s Soul in stock. I’d like to take this chance to introduce the book to you. You can read an excerpt here on Tor.com. In working on the Wheel of Time…
Updates, Contests, Random Links This week’s Writing Excuses episode features Janci Patterson and talks about writing contemporary YA fiction. I mentioned Janci’s book CHASING THE SKIP a couple of weeks ago. She has a lot of great insights, so give it a listen! I’ve got a rather random collection of links for you today. First up, my friend…
LEGION ebook available now! As I write this, my novella LEGION is being uploaded to the various ebook stores. It should now be for sale everywhere at $2.99. Check out the beautiful cover of the ebook version by the talented Isaac Stewart (also known for his work on the maps and symbols for many of…
A MEMORY OF LIGHT deleted sequence “River of Souls” to appear in UNFETTERED anthology Shawn Speakman has put together a great anthology coming out in early 2013 that features a bunch of big names in the fantasy field (including Terry Brooks, Pat Rothfuss, Tad Williams, and others). He asked the authors to record videos to promote…
A MEMORY OF LIGHT Signing-by-Mail (SOLD OUT) + Updates First some housekeeping. I should mention that Subterranean Press has a handful of the leatherbound signed limited edition of LEGION leftover and available for order on their site. In completely unrelated news, my assistant has uploaded another Twitter posts archive. There are two Writing Excuses episodes up that I…
LEGION (free) on Audible + Google Hangout with Pat Rothfuss, Cherie Priest & Terry Brooks My novella LEGION came out a month ago in hardcover and two weeks ago as an ebook. Now the audio version is available for download. Until the end of 2012, the Audible version of LEGION comes at a price of $0.00. (Steep, I know.)…
CHASING THE SKIP by Janci Patterson I’ve got a special announcement today. Perhaps not as special for you as it is me, but hopefully you’ll find it interesting enough to read onward. You see, one of my good friends—and former students—is releasing a book tomorrow. Her name is Janci Patterson, and the book is called CHASING…
THE RITHMATIST Cover Art + Updates I sent out a newsletter over the last couple of weeks, which you can see here. If you want to be on the mailing list (I send maybe three or four of these per year), sign up here. And if you want me to email you when I’m signing near…
Brandon Sanderson Newsletter for September 2012 In this newsletter: Introduction Brandon’s new novella, Legion, is out now! A new Sanderson on the way A Memory of Light is Done A Memory of Light book tour Stormlight Two progress Two YA books to be released next year INTRODUCTION Hi, all! Brandon here, writing my own newsletter…
Late Notice Signing! Hey, all. It’s last minute, but I’ll be joining the mass signing at the Orem, UT Barnes and Noble tomorrow (Saturday.) The event is at 4:00, and I should be there for at least an hour. Maybe two. Event: Signing Where: 330 East 1300 South, Orem, UT 84058 Phone: 801-229-1611 Time: Saturday…
League of Utah Writers Roundup This Weekend The most recent Writing Excuses episode is entitled “Pantsing.” In it, Howard, Mary, Dan and I talk about discovery writing (a.k.a. “seat-of-your-pants” writing). Check it out. I’m doing two events on Saturday at this weekend’s Roundup in Park City. First at 12:00 noon, Pemberly and I will join Howard and Sandra Tayler…
Writing Excuses Parsec + A MEMORY OF LIGHT Excerpt In the most recent Writing Excuses podcast episode, Mary, Howard, and I help Dan brainstorm ideas for a military thriller short story. The working title is “I.E.Demon” and you can hear us hash it out. This past weekend, at the Parsec Awards ceremony at Dragon*Con, Writing Excuses…
Magic with Brandon at Dragon*Con + LEGION out now Hey, all! This is kind of late and all, but here are the details on this year’s Dragon*Con Magic draft. I think we’ll go ahead and go with the 8:30 time on Friday. The location is the WoT track room—Roswell 1-2 in the Westin. (Same place…
This week’s Writing Excuses episode was recorded live at Gen Con and features Monte Cook talking with Mary, Howard, and me about writing gaming fiction. On a related topic, this weekend we will learn the fate of the two awards Writing Excuses has been nominated for: the Hugo Award in the Best Related Work category, and the Parsec Award in the Best Podcast about Speculative Fiction Content Creation category. Mary and Howard will be at the Hugo Awards ceremony at Worldcon in Chicago, and I will attend the Parsec Awards ceremony at Dragon*Con in Atlanta.
My Albuquerque Bubonicon Schedule This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode is titled “How to Start the Next One.” Dan, Mary, Howard, and I talk about how to move from writing one project to another, specifically something that’s not a sequel or is very different in tone from your previous book. Tomorrow I’m flying out to…
My Gen Con Schedule I’m heading to Indianapolis for Gen Con today, and my full schedule is below. This con runs quite a bit differently from other conventions I’ve been to. For one thing, each event or panel is individually ticketed (though the book signings are not ticketed). And since the panels I am on…
Isaac and Kara at InkWing have news about the Feruchemical Table prints and Szeth shirts. I’ll just quote from their blog post here.
THE WAY OF KINGS Deleted Scene + Updates This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode with Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells, and me focuses on writing authentic emotion. Give it a listen. Since the ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS annotations are all posted now, I’m running out of bonus content to show you. If you…
August Conventions, LEGION & Updates A reminder about the conventions I’ll be attending this month. I’ll be in Indianapolis for Gen Con August 16th through 19th, Albuquerque for Bubonicon the 24th through 26th, and Atlanta for Dragon*Con the 31st through September 3rd. I’ll put up more details and my full schedule as each convention approaches. My novella LEGION comes out from…
Mistborn Adventure Game Release Event in Provo Saturday As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Game Den in Provo is going to throw a release event on August 4th (tomorrow) for the Mistborn Adventure Game from Crafty Games, and I will be there signing. Hopefully you called them to preorder a copy—they will only…
Today I got up, and I did not have a Wheel of Time book to work on. I finished the final revision on A Memory of Light early in the morning Saturday, then sent it off to Team Jordan. And I was done. Team Jordan will handle the copyedits and proofreads; I might have a chime-in now…
Hugo Voting Deadline Tomorrow + Updates Somehow I missed announcing that Writing Excuses Season Six was nominated for a Hugo Award in the Best Related Work category. The voting deadline is tomorrow (Tuesday the 31st), and you can vote if you are a supporting or attending member of this year’s World Science Fiction convention in Chicago. Other nominations from the…
My Chattanooga LibertyCon Schedule This Weekend Today I’m flying out to Chattanooga to be Literary Guest of Honor for LibertyCon this weekend. Below is my schedule. See you there! And remember that I’ll be at Gen Con, Bubonicon, and Dragon*Con in August. Date: July 20-22, 2012 Place: LibertyCon 25 Address: The Chattanooga Choo-Choo 1400 Market Street Chattanooga, TN 37402 Phone: (800)…
Mistborn Adventure Game Release Event in Provo The printed version of the Mistborn Adventure Game from Crafty Games has finally shipped, and everyone who preordered should have received their copy by now or should receive it very soon. Gam Den in Provo is going to throw a release event on August 4th for the book, and I…
Interviews + Updates The most recent ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS annotation covers the penultimate chapter, including the meaning of the name “Rashid” as in the Sands of Rashid. This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode with Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and me talks about the villain problem. By that we mean when the hero…
San Diego Comic-Con! (NOTE: Scroll all the way down for my booth schedule.) (PLEASE NOTICE: The Friday spotlight panel starts at 1:00, not at noon as previously announced!) This is the first year I’ve been a Special Guest at SDCC. On top of that, Gen Con has me as their Author Guest of Honor and Dragon*Con is…
Final 2012 Creative Writing Lecture + Updates There’s a new ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS annotation on the site. There are only three left after this one, which mentions that the end of a book is the best and worst part, among other things. My assistant has also uploaded another Twitter posts archive. Two more Writing Excuses…
My Comic-Con Schedule I’m a Special Guest at Comic-Con International in San Diego next week. My schedule is below. I’ll also have a table in Artist’s Alley (#II-10) where I will often hang out (and maybe play some Magic if it’s feasible) when I don’t have a scheduled event. Kara and Isaac from InkWing will be manning…
M13 Prerelease For those who enjoy hanging out and playing Magic, it looks like I’ll be able to swing going to the prerelease of the new core set this weekend. I’ll be doing it at Epic Puzzles & Games in SLC, like previous prereleases, at midnight on Friday night. No need to sign up this…
THE HOLLOW CITY Release Party Tonight My good friend and Writing Excuses cohost Dan Wells’ new book THE HOLLOW CITY is out today. The release party is tonight at Weller Book Works (the bookstore formerly known as Sam Weller’s, at their new location, which has parking!) in Trolley Square. Mary, Howard, and I are going…
June is Audiobook Month 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…
Szeth T-Shirt Contest, Lecture Video + Updates InkWing has another T-shirt contest going on at their blog, for a shirt that will be available at Comic-Con in San Diego. They don’t have a picture of the shirt yet, but it’s going to use Ben McSweeney’s image of Szeth from THE WAY OF KINGS. InkWing has also…
I Hate Dragons Speech Competition + Updates My assistant uploaded a new ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS annotation. This one covers chapter sixteen, which has various obscure references including a dinosaur eating the “C” section of science fiction books. There are two new episodes of the Writing Excuses podcast up. First Mary, Howard, Dan, and I…
Lloyd Alexander Documentary Kickstarter, Creative Writing Lectures + Updates When Lloyd Alexander (author of many novels including the Chronicles of Prydain) passed away, he left his papers to the BYU library, which has an exhibit that is a recreation of Alexander’s home office. BYU student Jared Crossley is making a documentary on Lloyd Alexander, the…
Bay Area this weekend: BayCon, including Magic Here’s my schedule as Writer Guest of Honor of this weekend’s BayCon. There’s not a signing on the schedule, which means that I’ll sign books whenever you catch me somewhere at the con, unless I’m running to get somewhere else. I’m also doing a Magic: The Gathering draft,…
Updates + Reader Mail The most recent Writing Excuses podcast episode starts a new “Project in Depth” series where Mary, Howard, Dan, and I take a project that one of us has completed and grill the creator about it. These episodes necessarily contain spoilers. The first one covers Howard’s Hugo-nominated Schlock Mercenary volume Force Multiplication. In future episodes (not all in…
Play the Mistborn Adventure Game with Me at Gen Con + Updates There’s a new ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS annotation up. This one talks about chapter thirteen, when Alcatraz breaks out of the Librarians’ holding cell. This week’s Writing Excuses episode is another one that was recorded at Life, the Universe & Everything in…
More Creative Writing Lectures + Updates The most recent ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS annotation covers the chapter where Alcatraz gets tortured. Check it out. This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode features Q&A with James Dashner at Life, the Universe & Everything. We cover the following audience-supplied questions: Why is the ARC of James’s first book so different…
Class Lecture on Characterization + Updates Right now I’m in Las Vegas for this year’s edition of the Superstars Writing Seminar where I’m an instructor. I posted about this several times over the last few months, so I hope it’s not a surprise to anyone! Hal-Con in Halifax, Nova Scotia has been added to my events calendar for October this…
Magic with Brandon and Dan: Avacyn Restored Hey, all! This weekend is the Avacyn Restored prerelease, and as with the previous two sets, Dan and I are going to head up to Epic Puzzles & Games for their midnight release party. We’re hoping you are all interested in playing with us again, because as long…
Mary Robinette Kowal Signing in SLC Tonight Just a quick note that my good friend and Writing Excuses cohost Mary Robinette Kowal will be appearing tonight in Salt Lake at Weller Book Works. This is Sam Weller’s new store in Trolley Square, where there’s actually parking unlike at their old location. Go see her and…
Creative Writing Class Lectures + Updates I arrived home from Australia yesterday to find that yet another surprise home makeover had taken place. (The previous one was after my New York Comic-Con trip.) In this week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode, Larry Correia joins Mary, Howard, Dan, and me in front of a live audience at Life, the Universe &…
My Gold Coast Schedule, JordanCon, Superstars Writing Seminar Supanova Gold Coast 2012 Date: April 20-22, 2012 Address: Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre 2684 Gold Coast Highway Broadbeach QLD 4218, Australia FRIDAY 6:00 p.m.: Opening Ceremony SATURDAY 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Signing at Dymocks booth #67 1:50-2:35 p.m.: Panel in Filmink Features room B 3:10-5:30 p.m.: Signing at…
Sydney Signing + Updates This week’s Writing Excuses continues our discussion of Mary Robinette Kowal’s outline of a middle-grade novel she planned back in 2003. At twenty-five minutes it’s a lot longer than our typical episode, but if you’re wondering about outlining, a listen will be worth your while. My assistant has put up another of my…
My Melbourne Schedule; Sydney & Gold Coast Next Week Supanova Melbourne 2012 Date: April 13-15, 2012 Address: Melbourne Showgrounds Epsom Road Ascot Vale Victoria 3032 Australia FRIDAY 6:00 p.m.: Opening Ceremony SATURDAY 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Signing 1:30-3:30 p.m.: Signing 4:10-5:00 p.m.: Panel in the Supanova Seminar Room SUNDAY 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: Signing 1:30-2:00 p.m.: Signing 2:20-3:05 p.m.:…
GLAMOUR IN GLASS, Suvudu Cage Match Finals, ALCATRAZ Annotation Today marks the release of Writing Excuses cohost Mary Robinette Kowal’s novel GLAMOUR IN GLASS, which you should read. On this week’s podcast episode, Mary offers up an outline from 2003 (of a middle-grade fantasy Mary was planning) for us to dissect, and it’s an educational…
Mistborn Movie Update and Hugo Nomination Two big updates today! First off, we at Writing Excuses are proud to be Hugo nominated in the Best Related Work category for our second year in a row. Huzzah! Thank you to all who nominated. (You can see the other nominees in all categories here, and you can also watch recordings…
Google+ Hangout on April 18th I’ll be hanging out on Google+ from the Google offices in Sydney, Australia on Wednesday, April 18th at 1:00 p.m. Australian EST. (In US Eastern Time, that’s 11:00 p.m. on April 17th.) If you would like to join the Hangout, post a question in the comments of this post on Google+ and…
Swancon $1 Gold Coin Day Friday in Perth All! I just wanted to give an extra shout-out for Swancon this weekend, particularly for what’s happening this Friday. The convention has been given a grant to run Friday as a “gold coin day” where you get into the convention for the day by paying a single…
New military SF story with Ethan Skarstedt in ARMORED When editor John Joseph Adams invited me to contribute a story to his ARMORED anthology focused on power armor, I naturally thought of Ethan Skarstedt, a friend in my writing group who specializes in military science fiction and has the combat experience to back it up–he’s…
Writing Excuses, ALCATRAZ annotation, CNN’s Geek Out Just a quick update for today. I’m currently flying to Australia. Yesterday’s Writing Excuses episode is all about writing excuses—all those handy tricks that the great authors use to prevent themselves from finishing any book before its time. There are a couple of quotes from me in an article on…
My Australian Schedule: Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast On Sunday my flight leaves for Australia, and I arrive on Tuesday. It’s a long flight. My schedule is below. I hope to see many of you there! Doom-Con, Swancon 37, Perth, Australia Date: April 5-9, 2012 (Easter weekend) Place: Doom-Con, Swancon 37 Address: 207 Adelaide Terrace Perth, Western Australia…
Moiraine vs. Kelsier, Gen Con Indy, Interview + Updates If you missed it on Twitter or Facebook, here’s the link to my Suvudu Cage Match writeup of Moiraine vs. Kelsier. Don’t expect an epic battle. I don’t have the time to spare to write something like that in this case. Instead, I played it very tongue-in-cheek. I flipped a…
Announcing the Mistborn Video Game Today we’re officially announcing Mistborn: Birthright, an action-RPG set in the Mistborn world. To those who have been paying close attention, much of this may not be surprising. The MB:B website went live earlier in the month, and I have tweeted several times about the impending game. In short, we’re…
Play Magic with Brandon at SLC Nerd Hey, there’s a gaming convention in SLC this weekend, and the friendly folks at Epic Games have invited me to play some Magic during it! This will be at a downtown Salt Lake convention center called The Complex, and it looks like there will be a lot of…
Topics we’ll cover at the 2012 Superstars Writing Seminar I’m one of the instructors at the upcoming Superstars Writing Seminar in Las Vegas (April 30-May 2). Since the writing and publishing world has changed a lot over the past few years, when planning this year’s seminar we looked carefully at the past lectures and panel…
ALCATRAZ 2 Audiobook, Trailers + Updates In the most recent Writing Excuses podcast episode, Howard, Mary, and I talk about writing the omniscient viewpoint. (Dan wasn’t there; he was off saving his son from ninjas or something like that.) The newest ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS annotation discusses my use of prison names, the setting, and Bastille. And…
Writing for Charity Conference This Saturday This Saturday I’ll be participating in the Writing for Charity conference at the Provo Library. For more information and how to register, check out their site. My schedule is below. There’s a book signing at the end of the day that’s open to the public. Writing for Charity Venue: Historic Provo…
Podcasts + Updates Last week I appeared on the Atomic Array podcast with the Crafty Games folks to talk about the Mistborn Adventure Game tabletop RPG. This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode is another one where Howard, Mary, Dan, and I cover a bunch of questions very quickly: Is it better to include romance, horror, SF, or other genre elements to…
Hugo Nominations Deadline, Suvudu Cage Match & Updates The most recent Writing Excuses episode features David Brin talking with Dan and Mary at the World Fantasy convention about the importance of criticism. The Hugo Awards nomination deadline is the end of this week. If you’re already a member of the 2011, 2012, or 2013 Worldcons, be…
Updates + More T-Shirts The newest ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS annotation covers chapter two and talks about how The Simpsons already did everything. In this week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode, Dan, Howard, Mary, and I cover these questions from Twitter in a rapid-fire fashion: What do you do if you don’t like your characters? How do you keep your plot…
Updates + Bridge Four Shirts Just a very quick update today. If you didn’t read my post about the A MEMORY OF LIGHT release date, it’s here. This week’s Writing Excuses podcast features Mary and Dan speaking with Sarah Pinborough in an episode entitled The City as a Character. The most recent annotation for ALCATRAZ…
A MEMORY OF LIGHT Release Date Tor and Harriet have set the release date for A MEMORY OF LIGHT. Again. While I’ve been working on the book, this has happened a half dozen times, with varying levels of publicity surrounding the date. This time we’re saying January 8th. How likely is this one? Well, honestly, I don’t…
Sanderson’s Second Law A few years back, I wrote an essay on creating magic systems that I titled Sanderson’s First Law. It had to do with the nature of foreshadowing as it relates to solving problems with magic. In that essay, I implied that I had other “laws” for magic systems that I’d someday talk…
Alternate ALCATRAZ Chapters + Updates The most recent ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS annotation talks about why I shifted the book from third person to first person. My assistant has also uploaded the third person versions of the first two chapters, which you can compare with the published versions. I’ve spent all day recording new episodes of the Writing…
Taiwan Trip Haul Hey, all! I had a wonderful time in Taiwan, and I thought I’d post some of the things I came home with. I always mean to do this following a tour, and hopefully I’ll make a habit of it from here out. First up, I wanted to show a few of the…
My LTUE Schedule Life, the Universe & Everything, the local SF convention/symposium, starts tomorrow at Utah Valley University. I’ll be attending on Friday and Saturday, and my schedule is below. Venue: Sorensen Student Center Utah Valley University 800 W University Pkwy Orem, UT 84058 FRIDAY 1:00-3:00 p.m., Center Stage Writing Excuses Podcast (2 hours) Brandon…
Newsletter + Updates This is just a quick update as I recover from my Taiwan trip and get back into the swing of the second draft of A MEMORY OF LIGHT. First off, this week’s ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS annotation talks about the dedication page. The most recent Writing Excuses episode draws back the curtain…
Brandon Sanderson Newsletter for February 2012 2012 Conventions: Taiwan, Orem, Australia Australia Australia, Las Vegas, BayCon, SDCC, Chattanooga, Gen Con Indy, Albuquerque, Dragon*Con Hello again. It’s Brandon’s assistant, Peter. This newsletter is mostly about the conventions Brandon is going to attend this year, so if you keep up with the blog regularly and have already…
Brandon Sanderson Newsletter for February 2012 2012 Conventions: Taiwan, Orem, Australia Australia Australia, Las Vegas, BayCon, SDCC, Chattanooga, Gen Con Indy, Albuquerque, Dragon*Con Hello again. It’s Brandon’s assistant, Peter. This newsletter is mostly about the conventions Brandon is going to attend this year, so if you keep up with the blog regularly and have already…
New novella “Legion” up for preorder at Subterranean Press “Legion” is a novella I wrote on the flight home from France last summer. It came from an idea I’d been kicking around in my head for a few months, and the time seemed right to explore it on paper. As it turned out very well,…
Superstars Writing Seminar Prize Drawing The upcoming Superstars Writing Seminar in Las Vegas that I’ll be an instructor for at the end of April/beginning of May is having a drawing. For details, I’ll just quote their press release below. The first time I taught at this seminar, I was blown away by how awesome an…
2012 Conventions 2012 Conventions: Taiwan, Orem, Australia Australia Australia, Las Vegas, BayCon, SDCC, Chattanooga, Gen Con Indy, Albuquerque, Dragon*Con Peter here filling in for Brandon since he’s on a flight to Taiwan for the book expo. Below you’ll find most of Brandon’s convention schedule for 2012. There might be a couple more one-day stop-ins with…
Alcatraz Annotations + Updates In this week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode, Dan, Mary, Howard, and I talk about brevity. Since all the chapters of my abandoned novel MYTHWALKER have now been uploaded, it’s time to start dishing out something else for your weekly bonus content. So my assistant has put up the first annotation for ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS.…
Magic: Dark Ascension Prerelease Hey, all. The new Magic the Gathering set is coming out in a little while, and the prerelease is this weekend. Dan and I had a lot of fun at the prerelease last time, so we’re going to be doing it again–with a twist. Like for Innistrad, we’ll be going to…
Signed, leatherbound THE GATHERING STORM and TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT auction for Worldbuilders charity 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…
Sanderson’s Second Law + Updates This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode covers more on fauna and flora. Check it out. My assistant Peter has uploaded a new Twitter posts archive and the final chapter of my abandoned 2001 novel MYTHWALKER. He’s also put up my Sanderson’s Second Law article, which was first printed in the June 2011 issue of LEADING EDGE SCIENCE FICTION…
Soulcaster Fan Jewelry, Writing Excuses Season 7 & MYTHWALKER Forum member FeatherWriter posted this image of the Soulcaster that her mother made her for Christmas. Cool! Season 7 of the writing advice podcast Writing Excuses that I do with Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Dan Wells has just kicked off. In the first episode,…
First Draft Finished + Updates This week’s Writing Excuses episode is titled “Help, I Can’t End My Book!” This is the final podcast of this season for Howard, Mary, Dan, and me. Check it out. There’s a new chapter of my abandoned 2001 novel MYTHWALKER up. My assistant has put up a new Twitter posts collection that includes my…
Mistborn Adventure Game Out Now + Updates My assistant has uploaded another chapter of my abandoned 2001 novel MYTHWALKER. He also put up a new Twitter posts archive. This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode features Mary, Dan, Howard, and I talking about character foils. Give it a listen. The biggest news for this week is that the long-awaited Mistborn…
Utah Signings This Week I’ll be signing twice in Utah this week in the run-up to Christmas. Details are below. Sorry, Idaho Falls folks, but I don’t currently plan to go there as I usually would this time of year. I need to keep buckling down here and finish writing A MEMORY OF LIGHT. As…
Where to buy signed copies of THE ALLOY OF LAW + Updates First some updates. The naming rights auction for a Stormlight (or other) character that I talked about last week ends in 38 hours, as do most of Orion’s other auctions benefiting the UK charity Samaritans. My assistant Peter has put up another chapter…
Stormlight (or other) Naming Rights Charity Auction I know we just finished one of these for A MEMORY OF LIGHT and JordanCon, but while I was in the UK, Marcus from Gollancz/Orion told me about the charity auctions they were going to be doing. 100% of their proceeds go to the Samaritans charity there in…
Darrell Sweet For those who do not know, Darrell Sweet—illustrator of all of the Wheel of Time covers—has passed away. The first of his covers I can remember seeing was his beautiful cover for THE EYE OF THE WORLD. I’m sure it wasn’t actually the first, however. Mr. Sweet was one of the premier fantasy…
Interview, Giveaways, Ordering Deadline & Updates In this week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode, Dan, Mary, Howard, and I build fantasy settings that you can use. It was a bit of an experimental episode; I hope you enjoy it. The deadline to order signed books and have them shipped to U.S. addresses in time for the…
Magic with Brandon, Monday the 5th Edition So, I’m going to be heading up to Epic Games on Monday to do a spot on Dungeon Crawlers Radio. (Listen live from 6:00 to 7:00 on Monday. Details below.) I realized that if I’m going to be in a game store, I must play some Magic! I…
Official NaNoWriMo Pep Talk + Updates My assistant Peter has uploaded a new Twitter posts collection and another MYTHWALKER chapter. This is a novel that I abandoned back in 2001, but I cannibalized the parts that were working into WARBREAKER when I started writing that. This chapter contains the first scene that another scene in…
Brandon Sanderson Newsletter for November 2011 Hi all! A note directly from Brandon here. I’m proud to present the new Mistborn book for you all, THE ALLOY OF LAW. You’re receiving this because you signed up or sent me fan mail. If you’d prefer not to get emails like this in the future, just reply…
Mistborn & Stormlight gamer bags + Updates In the most recent Writing Excuses podcast episode, Dan, Mary, Howard, and I talk about characters who do dumb things. There are a lot of traps that writers fall into involving this, and we talk about how to avoid them. InkWing has a limited number of Mistborn- and…
ALLOY illustrations, Blood and Bloody Ashes Shirt + Updates I’m in the middle of my tour for THE ALLOY OF LAW right now; I’m in Houston today and will be in London by Saturday. If you want email reminders when I’ll be near you, sign up and tell me your city. Meanwhile this year’s Great…
Mysterious Galaxy can ship you THE ALLOY OF LAW Hey all, just a quick note that Mysterious Galaxy, where I signed last night in San Diego, now has a bunch of autographed copies of THE ALLOY OF LAW. If you want a copy and couldn’t get one from Sam Weller’s before they sold out, give…
New Wheel of Time Great Hunt Well, I’m off on my tour. The THE ALLOY OF LAW release party was a blast, even though the bookstore was a little light on copies. We managed to get everyone a book, I think. So huzzah, and forward. One of the things I announced yesterday on Twitter and…
THE ALLOY OF LAW midnight release tonight, Fan Trailer + Updates This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode features Jonathan Mayberry talking with Mary, Howard, and Dan about avoiding pigeonholing yourself as a writer. There’s a new chapter of my unfinished 2001 book MYTHWALKER up. The big news, of course, is the release of my new…
Mistborn: THE ALLOY OF LAW comes out in one week First, on an unrelated topic, the charity auction for getting your name in A MEMORY OF LIGHT is now live. There will be one winner, and the auction ends November 10th. You can also still donate to the drawing through December 1st and have a…
Alloy of Law T-shirt, Infinity Blade novella on Nook + Updates My assistant Becky wanted me to do one last shout-out for international signed book orders. The deadline is tonight, if you want them signed before I leave on tour. Anything you order after right now I won’t be able to sign until I return from the UK…
Holiday deadline, Mistborn pumpkin & Updates Here’s a really cool Mistborn pumpkin by deviantART member joh-wee. She calls it “Survivor of the Flames.” Be sure to check out the full image and the unlit version. My assistant Becky wanted me to remind international readers that the deadline for ordering books so I can sign them before…
Mistborn UK ebooks, Bulgarian ALLOY release, Mistborn metal music I’m very happy to report that the Mistborn trilogy ebooks are now, at long last, available again in the UK (and Australia and New Zealand) in what should be error-free editions (unlike the old versions that used to be available). This has been longer in coming…
Play Magic with Me: Saturday the 22nd Edition I had so much fun with the draft we did at Epic Games last month that Dan and I decided we’d do it again, only try to make it more accessible to people. So, we’re going to be going back to Epic Games (in West Valley Utah)…
THE ALLOY OF LAW in three weeks + Updates In the most recent Writing Excuses podcast episode, award-winning editor Lou Anders joins Dan, Mary, and Howard to discuss writing endings. Give it a listen. My assistant posted another chapter of my abandoned novel MYTHWALKER from 2001. MISTBORN: THE ALLOY OF LAW will be released in…
My New York Comic Con Schedule NYCC is this weekend, and I’ll be there Saturday only. Here’s my schedule. Hope to see you there! But if you live in the area and can’t make it to the convention, I’ll be back in November for the THE ALLOY OF LAW tour. Check out my events calendar.…
A MEMORY OF LIGHT names + Updates I’ve put up another Twitter archive post. And as I continue writing the first draft of A MEMORY OF LIGHT (now up to 75% of my 300,000-word projection), keep your eye on Twitter and Facebook. Each time I come across a spot in the book where I need to insert…
Get a personalized copy of TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT + Holiday shipping Now that the mass market paperback of TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT has been released, I’ve added signed hardcover copies of the book to my online store. I will personalize each copy to your request—you can have me write something like “Music to dazzle” or “Iron…
A MEMORY OF LIGHT Naming Rights for JordanCon and the Mayo Clinic Short version: I’m going to be drawing a bunch of names to adapt for use in A MEMORY OF LIGHT. To add your name to the pool, donate here. — EDIT: The donation period is over, now! Sorry. We will do something like…
New novella INFINITY BLADE: AWAKENING + Updates First some updates. There’s a new MYTHWALKER chapter up, and this week’s Writing Excuses episode features Pyr editorial director Lou Anders talking about the Hollywood Formula. In addition, Ta’veren Tees has a new shirt up for preorder, Tai’shar Manetheren, and they also have a coupon code. SHORT VERSION…
Fantasy Magazine interview with Leigh Butler + Updates Leigh Butler interviewed me for Fantasy Magazine. The interview talks about THE ALLOY OF LAW, the Stormlight Archive, the Wheel of Time, THE RITHMATIST, and rules of magic among other topics. It’s fairly extensive, so check it out. This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode features Patrick Rothfuss’s…
Magic: The Gathering Tonight in West Valley Tonight is the prerelease for Innistrad, which features mechanics such as double-faced cards. The set looks cool, so I’ve decided to head up to Epic Puzzles & Games and try it out tonight. The details are below. If you plan to come, please get there around 11:30 and…
Mistborn Fan Trailer + Updates There’s a new chapter of my unfinished 2001 novel MYTHWALKER up. This is the chapter where things really start to happen. I’ve also uploaded a new collection of Twitter posts. This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode is another that was recorded at the World Science Fiction Convention this year, and…
November 2011 UK Signing Tour My new Mistborn book, THE ALLOY OF LAW, will be released on November 8th in North America and November 10th in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. (See here for how to get a signed copy of the U.S. hardcover, and you can read the first six chapters for free…
THE ALLOY OF LAW giveaways & ebooks + updates This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode is another one that was recorded at the World Science Fiction Convention. It features Lauren Beukes and talks about writing other cultures. Check it out. There’s a new MYTHWALKER chapter up. This one introduces Vvenna, who eventually became Vivenna in…
Updates + ALCATRAZ ebooks in French At the World Science Fiction Convention in Reno a couple of weeks ago, we recorded a few Writing Excuses podcast episodes. The first one features Patrick Rothfuss, and we discussed suspension of disbelief. Check it out. I’ve put up the third chapter of my unfinished novel MYTHWALKER from ten…
THE WAY OF KINGS interior illustrations now uploaded Here are all the interior illustrations from THE WAY OF KINGS. This should be especially useful if you’ve been squinting at the illustrations in the ebook. There’s also a link to the cover illustration wallpapers, which you can download if you are a Tor.com member.
Reddit IAmA, Signed THE WAY OF KINGS + Updates This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode with Mary, Dan, Howard, and me covers worldbuilding communications technology. The state of communications technology can have a wide-reaching effect on your story, so give it a listen. My assistant has uploaded another chapter of my unfinished and abandoned novel…
A NIGHT OF BLACKER DARKNESS My buddy and Writing Excuses cohost Dan Wells recently released his hilarious gothic vampire novel A NIGHT OF BLACKER DARKNESS as an ebook. I’m embedding a preview of it below, and you can get it on Kindle, Nook, iBooks, and Smashwords. This is still one of my personal favorite novels—quirky…
Forum move, ALLOY preview, Worldcon costumes + Updates The site that has hosted my forums for years, the Official Time-Waster’s Guide, has now officially gone offline. The front page hadn’t really been updated in years as staff members moved on to other projects, and few areas of the forum were still active, so it’s not…
THE ALLOY OF LAW Release Events This is a long post. If you want to know how to get numbered copies of MISTBORN: THE ALLOY OF LAW, scroll down. ITEM #1: THE TOUR This year’s tour will have two legs: A North American tour (for the first time it’s not just a U.S. tour—there’s a…
MYTHWALKER Prologue + Updates This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode covers making descriptions serve multiple purposes. This helps keep your descriptive passages from being dry, among other things. Give it a listen. I haven’t mentioned it here yet, but Tor.com put up chapter five of my new Mistborn book, THE ALLOY OF LAW. There will…
My Worldcon Schedule Next week I’ll be at Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention, in Reno. My schedule is below, with a few comments from me interspersed. Worldcon is a great place to meet industry pros, so I’m looking forward to seeing many of you there. Highlights for me this year include the live…
Final WARBREAKER Annotation + Updates On this week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode, Mary, Dan, Howard, and I talk about Orson Scott Card’s M.I.C.E. Quotient. That stands for Milieu, Idea, Character, and Event, and it is a valuable tool for improving your writing. The final WARBREAKER annotation is up. Next week my assistant Peter will start…
Signing tonight in West Jordan with Peter Orullian Just a quick reminder that I’ll be signing in West Jordan tonight. I’m going to be driving back from Idaho, so if I end up a tiny bit late that will be why. But I shouldn’t be late. I’ll try to bring some of the Elendel Daily…
Mistborn Adventure Game preorders + Updates Today’s WARBREAKER annotation covers the epilogue. There’s just one annotation left, folks. The WARBREAKER html version is also now completely uploaded. This week’s Writing Excuses podcast has another of our microcasting episodes. Mary, Howard, Dan, and I fielded questions from people on Twitter and answered them briefly. We discussed…
Last chance to vote for the Hugos The deadline to turn in your filled-out ballots for the Hugo Awards is this Sunday night, July 31st, at midnight Pacific time. I’ve talked about this before, but if you weren’t aware and would like to vote for the Hugos, you can still become a registered member of…
THE ALLOY OF LAW Signing Tour THE ALLOY OF LAW, my new Mistborn novel set 341 years after the events of THE HERO OF AGES, is coming out on November 8th. If you haven’t been aware, there are preview chapters up at Tor.com; chapter four just went up today. Below is my U.S. and Canada…
Australia 2012 visit, Signings + Updates I’ve added some events to my events calendar. First up is a joint signing with Peter Orullian (The Unremembered) in West Jordan on August 4th. I also added three conventions I’ll be going to in Australia in April 2012; there will probably be bookstore signings between these events, but…
Q&A Recording, T-Shirts & Updates I had a great time at Polaris in Toronto this past weekend. If you couldn’t be there, you can check out an mp3 of the Q&A session that I did, which @Thesleepingwolf has posted online here. (If you want to download it and can’t figure out which link to use,…
THE ALLOY OF LAW Sample Chapters First a couple of updates. There’s a new Warbreaker annotation up covering chapter 54 (with more about Old Chaps’s background, aside from the usual discussion about the climax), and there’s a new collection of Twitter posts. And the second Writing Excuses podcast episode with Mary Robinette Kowal as an…
My San Diego Comic-Con schedule I’m on my way to the Polaris convention in Toronto right now (the schedule for that is here, with one correction: the Details, Filler, and Plot panel is now Saturday at 11 and the Ethics and the Wheel of Time panel is Sunday at noon). But since Comic-Con starts earlier…
My Toronto Convention Schedule It’s been listed on my events calendar for months, but in case you live near Toronto and weren’t aware, I will be there this weekend for Polaris 25. My schedule is below. Address: Sheraton Parkway Toronto North 600 Highway 7 East Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada L4B 1B2 FRIDAY 06:00 p.m., York…
Updates + Sanderson’s Second Law in The Leading Edge Fantasy Faction did a video interview of me while I was in Europe. The result is over 30 minutes long, and covers topics such as the Way of the Kings, the Alloy of Law, Mistborn as a series, my writing process, The Wheel of Time, and…
THE WAY OF KINGS Wins the David Gemmell Legend Award I’ve put up a new WARBREAKER annotation about chapter 55. Plus there’s also a new Writing Excuses episode up on professional organizations. As our cohost Mary Robinette Kowal is also the vice president of SFWA, she has many useful things to say on the topic.…
France Schedule + Mary Robinette Kowal Joins Writing Excuses The rest of my France schedule is below. But first a couple of updates. Writing Excuses enters its sixth season with an exciting announcement: Mary Robinette Kowal joins Howard Tayler, Dan Wells, and me as our fourth full-time cast member. For the first episode of the…
Signing in Oslo Tomorrow Today my flight out of Strasbourg was delayed, so I missed my connecting flight to Oslo in Amsterdam. The result of that was an eight-hour wait in Amsterdam before the next flight, so I got to hang out with some of the local readers while eating pancakes and fries. If you’re…
I’m going to France, Norway, the UK, and France again This morning my plane took off for the first leg of my European tour. The flight was delayed, but I have a long layover in Cincinnati, so I’ll still get there in time for my connection. Anyway, here is my schedule of events. Les Imaginales,…
Updates + Hugo Voter Packet We’ve got a few more parts of the website working. The percentage bars on the left column are now functional again, and my assistant was able to put up another Twitter posts collection. New annotations and library items will have to wait for later though. There are two new Writing…
Gemmell Award Nominations + Updates The short list of six nominees for the David Gemmell Legend Award is out, and for the second year in a row I have two books on the list. Towers of Midnight and The Way of Kings join Brent Weeks’s The Black Prism, Pierre Pevel’s The Alchemist in the Shadows,…
More of “I Hate Dragons” Thank you all for helping me out with the Delta situation (and for helping my brother win his goofy contest). I wanted to do something nice, so I dredged up the chapters I wrote of “I Hate Dragons” as a writing exercise a few months back. I had originally written…
Anyone out there work for Delta Air Lines? Two big updates for today. The first is related to a tweet I made last night. I’m scheduled to fly to France later this month, and that trip is going to be smack-dab in the middle of working on the last WoT book. I worry that the…
My Penguicon Schedule This weekend I’m a guest of honor at Penguicon, which is a hybrid convention for science fiction/fantasy and open source software. Howard Tayler is the toastmaster, so it should be a lot of fun. If you’re in the Detroit area, consider registering at the door if you haven’t preregistered. Penguicon Troy Marriott…
Writing Excuses Nominated for a Hugo Award First off, there’s a new Warbreaker annotation that covers Vasher sneaking into the God King’s palace. It also talks about why one character doesn’t just kill another character. This week’s Writing Excuses episode, season 5 episode 34, covers story bibles. Dan, Howard, and I talk about different ways…
Stormlight Archive Name Auction Winner, T-Shirts + Updates Last week I talked about the charity auction to get your name in the next Stormlight Archive book. Well, the auction is now over. The winner is Jason Lynn Pittman, and his winning bid was $1,825, which will go to support Utah’s science fiction and fantasy symposium…
My JordanCon Schedule + Updates Tomorrow my assistant Peter and I are off to JordanCon in Atlanta. Their full schedule is listed here. My panels are below. Please pay special attention to the details of the Magic draft on Friday night, if you want to participate. There are also a couple of other updates. TOWERS…
Appear in the Sequel to THE WAY OF KINGS Ever since I started announcing on Twitter the names of fans that I was adapting to go into THE GATHERING STORM and TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT, readers have been asking me how to get their names put into the next book. Well, there will be another oppoturnity…
UK Cover Art for THE ALLOY OF LAW If you’re in the UK, Australia, or New Zealand and have been wondering how the cover art of Gollancz’s version of the next Mistborn book will appear, look no further. If you missed the US Tor cover and the cover flap synopsis, head over to Tor.com to…
Name Auction Coming, Music + Updates Want your name to appear as a character in the Stormlight Archive? There’s going to be an auction for just that starting on Wednesday to benefit the Life, the Universe, & Everything (LTUE) symposium. I’ll post more details when the auction begins. This year’s LTUE hosted the recording of…
Dan Wells says, “I don’t want to kill you.” This is just a quick note to say that my Writing Excuses cohost Dan Wells’s final John Cleaver book in the trilogy that began with I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER is out in both hardcover and trade paperback. The title is I DON’T WANT TO…
Tsunami Relief Auctions, Writing & Illustrating for Young Readers Tor has donated a few of my books for auction at Genre for Japan, a charity drive to support the British Red Cross’s Japan Tsunami Appeal. The auctions include a THE WAY OF KINGS audiobook, hardcovers of THE GATHERING STORM and TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT, and a…
Hugo Nomination Deadline TomorrowHugo Nomination Deadline Tomorrow Back in January I posted about nominating and voting for the Hugo Awards. Well, if you’re eligible to nominate (you needed to be a registered Worldcon member by the end of January, or have been a member of last year’s Worldcon), the nomination deadline is tomorrow night. If…
Suvudu Cage Match: Vin vs. Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander Over at Suvudu, Vin is up against Zedd from Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth series. Here’s how I think the match would go down. Vin crouched behind the earthen bank, the scent of burned wood pungent in her nose. A stump smoldered nearby, specks of red flaring…
WARBREAKER Annotation,Tweets, and Writing Excuses Episode on Rewriting Tracy Hickman and Dave Wolverton once again joined Dan and Howard for a podcast episode of Writing Excuses at the recent symposium on Life, the Universe, and Everything in Provo. This time they covered rewriting. The most recent WARBREAKER annotation is almost all about spoilers from chapter…
Vericon Schedule, Signing in Boston Area, ALLOY OF LAW Cover This weekend I’ll be Guest of Honor at Vericon at Harvard University. Other guests include Austin Grossman, Holly Black, Catherine Asaro, Sarah Smith, Ellen Kushner, and Delia Sherman. My schedule is below, and the full schedule is here. All of us will also be signing…
Wheel of Time Shirts There haven’t ever, so far as I know, been official Wheel of Time T-shirts. A lot of people have asked where they can get them. Finally we have a place: Ta’veren Tees. I’ve got a few of the shirts, and they’re awesome. (Particularly the Far Dareis Mai one.) Their press release…
Updates & Tweets This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode covers e-publishing. This one was recorded at Life, the Universe & Everything, and Tracy Hickman and Dave Wolverton/Farland join Howard and Dan. I was at ConDFW that weekend. There’s a new Twitter posts collection up, covering the first half of this month. And the newest WARBREAKER…
Suvudu Cage Matches I blogged briefly yesterday about the Suvudu cage matches. I thought I’d dig into it a little further today, as I consider Monday updates (normally) to be more “Here’s what’s going on” updates. I prefer to move more in-depth posts to other days. So, the Suvudu cage match. First off, I’d like…
Reader Polls + Updates There have been a couple of reader polls lately that my books did well in. SFFWorld polled its forum members for readers’ favorite books of 2010, and THE WAY OF KINGS came out on top, with TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT in second. In addition, Tor.com held a poll to determine the best…
Review of THE WISE MAN’S FEAR First some updates. This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode features Sherrilyn Kenyon talking about how to make your readers fear for your characters. The newest WARBREAKER annotation is on a climactic moment in the Siri/Susebron relationship. And there’s a new batch of Twitter posts up, covering the past month.…
French Interview + Updates While I was at the Utopiales convention I sat down for an interview with the great folks at Elbakin.net. (They’re the same ones who gave MISTBORN an award; see pictures in my convention report.) Well, they’ve now posted the interview in French, and it covers a ton of different topics. (There’s…
Going to Dallas/Fort Worth + Updates I’ll be a guest of honor at ConDFW this weekend. My convention schedule is below. But first some updates. This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode is another of the ones that Dan, Howard, and I recorded at the Superstars Writing Seminar. For this episode, Kevin J. Anderson joins us…
Another Writing Excuses Video & WARBREAKER Annotation We’ve got another Writing Excuses video up for you. This week’s podcast episode covers using holidays in fantasy and science fiction, and Mary Robinette Kowal and Dave Wolverton/David Farland one again join Dan and Howard to discuss the topic. Moses Siregar III of Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing filmed…
Writing Excuses Video + Updates This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode covers film considerations, and Mary Robinette Kowal and Dave Wolverton/David Farland join Dan and Howard to discuss the topic. Appropriately, this episode was also filmed by Moses Siregar III of Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing, and the video is up on YouTube. The most recent…
For Your Nomination Consideration + Worldcon Deadline Hugo Award nomination season began this month, so I thought I’d let you know what categories my works are eligible in. If you don’t know what the Hugo Awards are or how nominating and voting works, I also talk about that below. If you want to nominate, the…
Updates + Tweets January 17-20 This week’s episode of Writing Excuses is one of those that was recorded during the Superstars Writing Seminar, and it’s on alternate history. I was doing a panel at the time, but Eric Flint and Mary Robinette Kowal were there with Howard and Dan to shed light on the topic.…
Updates + Tweets January 10-17 In this week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode, Dan, Howard, and I go over more dialogue writing exercises. By the way, we recorded seven great episodes at this past weekend’s Superstars Writing Seminar, with guests Sherrilyn Kenyon, Kevin J. Anderson, Eric Flint, David Farland, and Mary Robinette Kowal, so you have…
Updates, Tor.com Q&A, and Tweets January 6-10 In this week’s Writing Excuses episode, we talk about fulfilling promises to your readers, and we give specific examples from our own stories and others’. The most recent WARBREAKER annotation covers Vivenna’s character arc hitting rock bottom. I also talk about how to give your Breath away one…
Wrapping Up My Time Off As I stated in a blog post in the early fall, I took the months of September–December inclusive off from major projects. I do this to give myself some breathing room creatively and work on projects I don’t have a contract for. I also like to do writing exercises, try…
Updates + THE WAY OF KINGS in the UK This week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode with Dan Wells and Howard Tayler is called Offending Your Readers—and specifically covers various ways you might offend your readers and how to avoid it. The most recent WARBREAKER annotation is about chapter 36, which is one of the most…
Superstars Writing Seminar Panel Schedule, January 13-15 Here’s the schedule of panels for the next Superstars Writing Seminar, which will be held in Salt Lake City this coming month. As you can see from the list of topics, this three-day seminar is packed with great stuff, no-nonsense and practical material taught by six bestselling authors.…
Your writing exercises and mine: “I Hate Dragons” For those who are following along, here’s what I did for my writing exercise. I actually managed to make it something of a self-contained story. If you want to read up on the rules, I posted them here. We did some analysis of other people’s writing on…
Interviews, Gemmell Award Nominations, Annotation There are two new interviews with me out there. First is this one at The Fringe, which covers some familiar ground with a few new questions. And then here’s one at Stormblessed, which sheds some new light on details in THE WAY OF KINGS. Both THE WAY OF KINGS and…
Annotations, Writing Excuses, & Superstars Special The most recent WARBREAKER annotation covers Lightsong’s line, “My dear, did you just try to prove the existence of God with your cleavage?” among other topics. You may notice a bit of a slowdown in annotations from this point forward; weeks where only one annotation gets posted will be…
Writing Exercise: Dialogue Hey, all. If you weren’t watching twitter/facebook, I recently suggested a group writing exercise. I’m reposting here for those who watch only the blog. The next paragraphs have the earlier posts, as I originally wrote them. You guys want to do a writing exercise together? I’ve been wanting to do some dialogue…
Writing Excuses Podcast Award Nomination, Worldbuilders Charity Drive Writing Excuses has been nominated for a Podcast Award in the Education category. We’re up against stiff competition from the likes of Radio Lab and Grammar Girl, so if you think we’d be a deserving recipient, go over there and vote. Apparently you can vote once every…
Final holiday shipping deadline Peter here. Brandon’s other assistant Becky wanted me to make one more blog post about signed book shipping. So that books shipped inside the U.S. by Priority Mail may arrive in time for Christmas, all orders must be in by midnight the night of December 12th. Becky will get Brandon to…
Questions, 30% Off Sale, Signings, Awards & Updates Do you have a question for me? Tor.com is soliciting questions for the next three days which they’ll then compile and send my way. I’m also taking questions on Goodreads’s Fantasy Book Club this month. They have one thread for questions about THE WAY OF KINGS and…
Alcatraz Four Release + Michael Whelan Prints One important bit of news is that the fourth Alcatraz book, ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE SHATTERED LENS, was released officially in stores this week. I had reports of it being found on store shelves as early as last week, maybe even the week before. So it’s around. I’m very…
Updates + Writing Seminar In this week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode, Howard Tayler and I are joined by Scott Westerfeld to discuss visual components of novels. And in the most recent WARBREAKER annotations I talk about Vivenna’s plottings with Denth and Susebron’s spelling, among other things. In January I’ll be teaching at the Superstars Writing…
France & Conventions As you may know I spent little over a week in France this month as a guest of the Utopiales convention in Nantes and of my publisher, Orbit France. This was, unequivocally, an awesome experience. Pemberly and I thoroughly enjoyed our time meeting with French fans, and my publisher certainly took good…
Interviews, Superstars Writing Seminar & Updates This past week’s WARBREAKER annotations cover the writing rule that characters who do things are more interesting than those who don’t, who followed Vasher into the palace, naked athletic competitions, and Lightsong’s indolence. In the most recent Writing Excuses episode, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and I are again joined by John…
Order a personalized THE GATHERING STORM + Holiday shipping deadlines 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…
Signing Tuesday in Paris Peter here again, since Brandon is still in France. There’s a new Writing Excuses podcast episode up where Brandon, Dan, and Howard answer five mostly unrelated questions about writing. The questions they answered are listed here. And there’s a new WARBREAKER annotation up covering chapter twenty-five, largely about religion. Brandon will…
Nantes, France Utopiales Convention Schedule + Signing in Paris There’s a new Writing Excuses podcast episode up where John Brown joins Howard, Dan, and me to discuss the creative process. Give it a listen. Tomorrow I’m flying to France to attend the Utopialies science fiction convention in Nantes. My schedule is below. (It seems to…
Brandon Sanderson Newsletter for November 2010 TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT IS OUT Hi there. It’s Brandon’s assistant Peter writing the newsletter this time. Brandon is currently at a signing in Cincinnati, and any spare minutes he does have he’ll probably spend writing, so it falls to me to write the newsletter. You’re receiving this because you…
Newsletter + Tweets October 28-November 4 Brandon’s assistant Peter here while Brandon is out on tour. Um, TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT has been released! I sent out a newsletter about that and a few other things yesterday. I also talk about the deadline for ordering stuff from Brandon’s store in time for Christmas delivery. You can…
Updates, Interview, & Superstars Writing Seminar First some updates. In the most recent Writing Excuses episode we cover the excuses that keep you from writing. And recent WARBREAKER annotations talk about Vasher infiltrating the palace, Lightsong playing Terachin, and Clod’s identity. TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT comes out in slightly less than one week. Yesterday I went…
TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT Preorders, Tower Guard, Trailer First some housekeeping. The most recent Writing Excuses podcast is on avoiding melodrama. And the most recent WARBREAKER annotations cover Clod and the God King’s secret (a big spoiler if you haven’t read the book!). TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT will be released in fourteen days and seven hours. If you want to order a…
Another Long and Rambling Post™ on Future Books 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.)…
Updates + Video of Fantasy Authors Panel I have a long update coming probably tomorrow on the final Wheel of Time book A MEMORY OF LIGHT, the next Stormlight Archive book, sequels to other books I’ve written, and other projects. But for now just a quick post. The most recent WARBREAKER annotations cover Vivenna reading…
New York Comic Con Schedule I’m heading to the New York Comic Con at the Javits Center this weekend. I’ll only be at two events: a panel and a booth signing. My schedule follows. Hope to see you there! FRIDAY Fantasy Writers Panel 7:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m., Room 1A15 Join authors Joe Abercrombie (Best Served Cold),…
Robert Jordan Memorial Scholarship Winner + Updates Back in June I mentioned the Robert Jordan Memorial Scholarship given out by TarValon.net and awarded based on applicants’ essays on the topic “How I plan to use my studies to become a Servant of All.” Well, the winner of this year’s scholarship has been announced, and it’s…
Tower Guard program + Signed & Numbered TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT 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…
Registering for Worldcon, TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT News, InkWing T-Shirt 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…
TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT Prologue ebook Released + Updates + Orem Library As of midnight last night, the prologue ebook for TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT is now available to buy from the usual ebook stores: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Sony, Kobo, etc. There is also an audiobook version on Audible. Some people have wondered who would…
Guest Blogging, Babel Clash, Interviews, Authorpalooza Tomorrow, and TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT Tour Peter here again. Brandon is back from his tour, but he’s been very active online everywhere except his own website, it seems! First up, last weekend John Scalzi’s Whatever blog featured a guest post essay by Brandon entitled Postmodernism in Fantasy. For people…
The Great Hunt Completed! Peter here again. Today at around 9:00 p.m. in Venice, Italy, intrepid Wheel of Time fan Federico located the final The Great Hunt code’s hiding place . . . and confirmed that the code was no longer there. Maybe someone saw Brandon’s friend Ryan place it on top of this photo…
The Great Hunt Update Hi all, Brandon’s assistant Peter here. He’s off on his tour (Thursday’s stop is in the Chicago area), so he doesn’t have a lot of time to update the blog. He did write one blog post ahead of time, which I’ll post tomorrow probably. And you can keep track of his…
Brandon Sanderson Newsletter for September 2010 THE WAY OF KINGS IS OUT Hello! This is Brandon writing the newsletter this time around. (Sometimes, my assistant Peter does it, sometimes my wife Emily does it.) You’re receiving this because you signed up or sent me fan mail. If you’d prefer not to get emails like this…
THE WAY OF KINGS Is Out It’s out. It’s finally out. I hadn’t expected this day to come for years yet. I had a careful path set up to doing the Stormlight Archive. Writing standalone novels and trilogies for a few more years yet, until I had the reputation both with fans and the publisher…
It’s Here This post originally appeared on Tor.com. I started writing my first novel when I was fifteen years old. I didn’t have a computer; I had an old, electric typewriter. It would remember your file on a disc, but it was really just a printer with an attached bare-bones word processor. (It had a…
Play Magic with Brandon at Dragon*Con Updates Guys, THE WAY OF KINGS comes out tomorrow! Wow. So long spent waiting. Look on Tor.com tomorrow for a cool post about my history working on the book, with pictures of a very early Brandon Sanderson manuscript. Before we do that, though, I want to do some updates…
THE WAY OF KINGS Midnight Release Numbering Policy Change Hi everyone, Brandon’s assistant Peter here, popping in to let you know of a procedural change at the BYU Bookstore for next week’s release of THE WAY OF KINGS. We had some reports from last year’s release party of people who had stood in line for…
Play Magic with Brandon at Dragon*Con I’ll be hitting Dragon*Con this year near the beginning of my tour, and I’m looking forward to finding some time to hang with readers and relax and play some Magic: The Gathering. As always, I play casual—meaning that I do it more for the fun and interaction than the…
TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT Is Done First let me get to some quick updates. I’ve put up a few WARBREAKER annotations: two on chapter five and one on chapter six. Two new podcast episodes of Writing Excuses have also gone up, recorded live at Dragons & Fairy Tales bookstore. In the first one Dan, Howard, and…
Last Chance for THE WAY OF KINGS Numbered Copies [UPDATE: Sam Weller’s is reportedly sold out already. If we make other arrangements, I’ll mention it on Twitter and Facebook. Original post follows.] THE WAY OF KINGS comes out in less than 11 days, about 246 hours from now. At the release day events—the midnight BYU…
Writing for Charity + Updates On August 21st there will be a writing workshop in South Sandy, Utah whose purpose is to raise money to donate to schoolchildren. Specifically, they hope to donate a book to every child “in at least ten of the lowest socioeconomic populated schools in the state”—at least 6,000 books total.…
Signed Book Shipping Delays This post isn’t about the signed & numbered copies of THE WAY OF KINGS from Sam Weller’s, which will go out on schedule. Not surprisingly the demand is not quite as high as it was for THE GATHERING STORM, so if you haven’t ordered yet, you still have a good chance…
THE WAY OF KINGS Preview Chapters & Contests + Updates THE WAY OF KINGS will be released in less than one month. So it’s time for some more preview chapters, right? As of today, you can read chapters nine and eleven over at Tor.com (registration required). “Wait!” you may say. “What happened to chapters seven,…
Signing in Eagle Mountain with the Writing Excuses crew This Saturday (July 31st) Howard Tayler, Dan Wells, and I will be appearing at the Dragons & Fairy Tales bookstore in Eagle Mountain, UT from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. We’ll be recording at least two episodes of our Writing Excuses podcast live in the store, and…
Updates, Tightening Language, and Suvudu Interview At Comic-Con this past weekend I did an interview with Shawn Speakman of Suvudu where I talk about THE WAY OF KINGS among other things. Check it out. In the most recent WARBREAKER annotations I talk about Ramblemen, Idris’s drabness, Mab the cook, and Dedelin’s decision, Siri’s departure and…
My Comic-Con Schedule I’m flying out tomorrow for Comic-Con, so it’s time to post my schedule. There’s also an off-site signing for fans not attending the con. Comic-Con International, San Diego San Diego Convention Center, 111 W. Harbor Dr., San Diego, CA 92101 THURSDAY July 22nd 1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m., Room 24ABC Panel: “Once Upon a…
ARCs of THE WAY OF KINGS for Reviewers, Booksellers, and Librarians First the regular updates. In this week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode, Dan, Howard, and I talk about how writing a story from the end rather than the beginning is very often a good idea. And then we attempt to brainstorm a great ending on…
ELANTRIS Back in Stock + Sanderson 5-Pack Sale On the heels of signed copies of WARBREAKER coming to my online store a couple of weeks ago, signed copies of ELANTRIS are now finally back in stock. I think it’s been over a year—maybe over two—since we ran out of copies and had to pull it…
Ordering signed & numbered copies of THE WAY OF KINGS I’ve written up a long post about the events surrounding the release of THE WAY OF KINGS, including how to get signed and numbered copies even if you can’t come to a signing. It’s so long that I’ve put it on its own page.
Updates + More THE WAY OF KINGS Previews The most recent Writing Excuses podcast episodes feature the return of Howard Tayler after his hiatus from the episodes recorded at CONduit. First up we discuss avoiding stilted dialogue. Then we talk about major overhauls to broken stories. WARBREAKER annotations are going up, with entries added for…
THE WAY OF KINGS Tour Details Here’s the list of all my signings for the upcoming tour. There are still a few details to be added, such as the events surrounding Dragon*Con and the details of the Sam Weller’s signing-by-mail, but they will be posted eventually. For the latest information on my appearances, check out…
June Is (was) Audiobook Month 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…
Updates, THE WAY OF KINGS ARC Giveaway, Tour In the most recent Writing Excuses podcast episode, Dan and I are joined once more by James Dashner and Julie Wright to talk about “mating plumage”: book covers, titles, and first lines. Again, this episode was recorded at CONduit with the help of Dungeon Crawlers Radio. The…
Special prices on signed WARBREAKER & Mistborn trilogy, plus Grammar Girl Giveaway & Updates As many of you know, I offer on my website signed hardcovers of books that have been out for a year or so, since by that time the paperback is available and the hardcover is more difficult to find in stores.…
Breaking into the YA Market & MISTBORN 3 Annotations In this week’s Writing Excuses podcast, Dan and I were joined at CONduit by Robison Wells (who happens to be Dan’s brother) and Janci Patterson (who happens to be an alpha reader of mine as well as a former student). Both have recently signed YA book…
Preview THE WAY OF KINGS on Tor.com Today Tor.com has put up the first of several previews for THE WAY OF KINGS. Since the book won’t be in stores until August 31, you can guess there will be more goodies in the coming months. Stay tuned. The preview chapters will eventually make their way to…
The Way of Kings: An Introduction This post originally appeared on Tor.com. I’ve been asked to introduce The Way Of Kings to you. And I have no idea how to start. This is an odd position for me. Before, I’ve found it easy to explain my novels. Each one was built around one or two…
Robert Jordan Memorial Scholarship applications, updates The folks over at TarValon.net let me know that applications for next school year’s scholarship are now being accepted. It’s a $500 scholarship open to all undergraduate students attending an accredited college or university, and the recipient is chosen based on their essay on the topic “How I plan…
Last chance to vote for the David Gemmell Legend Award 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…
Play Magic with Brandon at CONduit! All. The Magic draft at Jordancon was a blast, so I figured I’d try to get something rolling for CONduit this year. (It’s the science fiction convention up in Salt Lake.) A lot of people have written me wanting a chance to hang out with me and play. Well,…
Superstars Writing Seminar sessions now available A couple of months ago I was one of the presenters at the Superstars writing seminar in Pasadena with Eric Flint, David Farland, Kevin J. Anderson, and Rebecca Moesta. Several people who didn’t get the chance to attend have asked about getting their hands on copies of the sessions…
Provo Children’s Book Festival There’s an appearance today that I forgot to mention on the blog or website. The Provo Children’s Book Festival is happening at the Provo Library. It’s a great event, with lots of authors and fun. I believe there’s a free book being given to every child who comes. > Of course,…
Catching Up on Updates Brandon’s assistant Peter here. He’s hard at work on TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT, which you know if you’ve been following on Twitter or Facebook. And I’ve been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work for the WAY OF KINGS release (the book is being composited as we speak and is due back from…
Play Magic with Brandon at Jordancon! First off, I hope many of you are planning to attend JordanCon in Atlanta this weekend. (Details here—you can still pick up a badge at the door.) This is a great convention, perhaps my favorite of those I attended last year. It’s warm and inviting, not too big but…
Signing Tonight in Lincoln NE + Convention Tomorrow Brandon’s assistant here. He’s currently on a plane somewhere over Nebraska, 25 minutes after he was supposed to land in Omaha. He’s scheduled to sign tonight at the Nebraska Bookstore in Lincoln at 6:00 p.m., but he’s going to be late. Don’t expect him there before 6:45.…
Gemmell Voting,Wheel of Time Article,Audible Tournament Winner+Updates 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…
Suvudu Cage Match: How It REALLY Went Down So, from what I’ve heard, Rand won the Suvudu cage match. This leaves me with mixed feelings. On one hand, I am pleased and proud. On the other hand, George R. R. Martin’s write-up of how he thought things would go was simply epic. In his version,…
Gemmel Nominations, Audible Tournament, Suvudu Cage Match + Updates Though there’s a lot of ground to cover, this post is going to have to be quick due to my WAY OF KINGS deadline coming up on April 8th. First off, the latest Writing Excuses podcast covers juggling multiple viewpoints. And the most recent MISTBORN 3…
Want to break in? Come to Minicon. A heads up to aspiring writers. If you live in the Twin Cities area, you should really be considering coming to Minicon. I spent hundreds of dollars when I was trying to break in going to conventions, trying to meet editors. Well here, you have a Tor editor…
Signing Thursday & Convention in Minneapolis Starting tomorrow, I’m going to have a busy weekend in Minneapolis. On Thursday night I’m signing at Dreamhaven Books, and then Friday to Sunday I’m Author Guest of Honor at Minicon. WARBREAKER cover artist Dan Dos Santos is the Artist Guest of Honor, and my Tor editor Moshe Feder…
KINGS Preview inWARBREAKER Paperback Out Today+I AM NOT A SERIALKILLER The WARBREAKER paperback is officially out today, though some readers picked it up in places like Walmart starting last week. More on WARBREAKER below, but if you’ve read the book already there’s an additional reason to be excited about this release: the prologue to my…
KINGS final draft, THE GATHERING STORM in Audible’s tournament+Updates I mentioned on Twitter and Facebook that THE GATHERING STORM needed votes in Audible’s 2010 tournament. Last I heard, it was beating THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE by four tenths of a percent. Voting ends today sometime—actually it may be over by the time you…
Signing Tonight in LA, ALCATRAZ Audiobook Sale + Updates I’m signing tonight at the Woodland Hills Barnes & Noble on Topanga Canyon at 7:00. Details are on my events page. See you there! A reader of mine, Chuck Doyle, mentioned on my Facebook page the other day that Audible is selling my middle-grade fantasy ALCATRAZ…
Signing in Los Angeles on Monday This is just a quick update to let you know I’ll be signing in the Los Angeles area on Monday. If you’re on the mailing list and told me you live near there, I’ve already sent an email. If you’d like reminders about signings in the future, contact me…
Thoughts on THE WAY OF KINGS If you missed it, Tor posted the cover to THE WAY OF KINGS a little while ago. This, along with some of the marketing copy that Tor has posted on Amazon and the like, has people talking about the book. So far, I’ve been rather quiet about KINGS, mostly…
New Writing Excuses Episode, Hero of Ages Annotations I’ll be posting another of my long, rambling blog entries later this week, but for today I’ve just got the standard Monday updates. In this week’s Writing Excuses podcast episode, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and I are joined once again by Jessica Day George to discuss writing…
ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS Reader Mail Alcatraz let me know about the following library infiltration report. We led a successful infiltration of our local library on Saturday, March 6, 2010 and wanted to share this good news with you. Our team consists of seven fifth-grade students, one seventh-grade assistant coach and two grownups—NO, strike…
Michael Whelan Covers + Updates I’ve posted my thoughts on getting a Michael Whelan cover. They say you can’t judge a book by its cover. I’ve always wondered who “They” are, and if—by chance—they’ve never heard of Michael Whelan. Because my experience in life has been very different. Head over to Tor.com to read the…
Michael Whelan, an appreciation This post originally appeared on Tor.com. Michael Whelan, The Way of Kings They say you can’t judge a book by its cover. I’ve always wondered who “They” are, and if—by chance—they’ve never heard of Michael Whelan. Because my experience in life has been very different. It’s been almost twenty years now…
A Final Plug for the Superstars of Writing Seminar I thought I’d do one final plug for the Superstars of Writing seminar I’ve been invited to attend. The time is getting near—it’s about three weeks away—and if there are those of you who are thinking of attending, you’ll probably want to get flights pretty soon.…
THE WAY OF KINGS cover by Michael Whelan, I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER book trailer, Fan Sites + Updates Tor.com has released Michael Whelan’s cover art for THE WAY OF KINGS. They also have sketches and design commentary from Whelan himself. Go check it out. I think the cover is awesome—for more from me…
Some Long-Awaited Updates Time to sit down and talk about some things. I hope this doesn’t get too rambly for you, but I’ve been getting a lot of questions about TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT and THE WAY OF KINGS, so I thought I’d give you some updates regarding what’s been happening over here at Dragonsteel Entertainment…
Updates, Audies, Vote for the David Gemmell Legend Award! In the most recent MISTBORN 3 annotations, I discuss Vin’s defense before Yomen and what happened to Janarle. And in this week’s Writing Excuses podcast, Dan, Howard, James Dashner, and I take questions from the crowd at LTU&E, covering a variety of topics. Check it out.…
Brandon Sanderson Newsletter for February 2010 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.…
Photoshop Contest Winners, Wheel of Time Games, & Updates I’ve got the Photoshop contest winners below, but first the weekly updates. In the most recent MISTBORN 3 annotations I discuss TenSoon’s visit to Urteau and Vin attacking without using Allomancy. This past weekend was BYU’s science fiction/fantasy symposium, Life, the Universe & Everything. This was…
Updates + Life, the Universe & Everything Schedule This week I’ll be the guest of honor at Life, the Universe & Everything, BYU’s annual symposium on science fiction and fantasy. It’s basically a convention with a fancier name (but there will be a few research papers presented), though most conventions aren’t free like LTUE is.…
Photoshop Contest – Win a New Tor Book By now you’re probably very familiar with the whole AmazonFail deal that has been going on. Today, Scalzi made a shout-out for author support. I think that was a fine thing to do. Most of the authors involved don’t care so much about ebook pricing either way.…
Amazonfail 2010, Mythmaker Interview, Updates The big story over the weekend was that Amazon temporarily stopped selling all Macmillan books, which includes all my books from Tor, to protest Macmillan’s new ebook terms. There’s not a lot I have to add to this discussion, except to say that Tor’s publicity department thought the illustration accompanying…
Writing Excuses on MP3 CD + Updates This week’s Writing Excuses podcast is about How to Manage Your Influences—in other words, how to avoid letting other people’s work creep into your own. And if you enjoy listening to me, Howard, and Dan talk about writing, or want to catch up on our previous episodes, seasons…
California real estate/bankruptcy lawyer needed This is a shout-out for help for a friend of mine. A lot of people read my blog, so sometimes I turn to it as a last resort to solve a problem. Anyway, a friend of mine got caught in the housing bubble over a year ago and needs a…
Superstars Writing Seminar in March I’ve been invited to teach at the upcoming Superstars Writing Seminar also featuring bestselling writers Kevin J. Anderson, David Farland, Rebecca Moesta, and Eric Flint, March 19th through 21st in Pasadena, CA. So many people ask me for writing advice and help with their work that I decided to say…
Writing Excuses, Annotation, GoodReads Just a quick and dirty update for today. In this week’s Writing Excuses podcast, the second episode of our new season, Dan, Howard, and I talk about heroism. And in the most recent MISTBORN 3 annotation I talk about eliminating metals. I really am taking questions over at GoodReads. I have…
Today’s Signing As I posted earlier in the week, I’ll be doing a signing in Eagle Mountain today. The store is called Dragons and Fairy Tales Books and Games. It’s a fairly new independent bookstore. I have a fondness for little independent bookstores. I bought EYE OF THE WORLD from one all those years ago,…
Signing in Eagle Mountain + Updates This Saturday I will be signing at a recently opened independent bookstore in Eagle Mountain, Utah called Dragons & Fairy Tales Books and Games. It’s not listed on my events page yet, but there is an event listing on Facebook. Since the store is located in such a new…
Mistborn Movie News I’m holding off on my regular Monday update until tomorrow in order to talk about the Mistborn movie deal press release that went out today and has popped up on a few genre news sites. When it comes to optioning my adult fantasy novels for the big screen, I’ve occasionally gotten nibbles…
Hugo nomination season, GoodReads Q&A, Pat Rothfuss’s Worldbuilders charity drive, Updates This year’s World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) will be held in Melbourne, Australia from September 2nd through September 6th. Unfortunately, I won’t be in attendance since I’ll be going to Dragon*Con in Atlanta that same weekend. However, every year the members of Worldcon vote…
DONE Housekeeping first. Remember that I’ll be doing on-line appearances tomorrow, where I’ll be answering questions. The one on Twitter will probably be way busy, so that should be interesting. I’m getting to the odd state in my career where there will probably be far more questions than I have time to answer, but I’ll…
Another Long-Winded Explanation of Various Things A few quick items. Hero of Ages has won the Romantic Times editor’s choice award. Huzzah! I wasn’t certain if I could announce this, but it looks like the magazine has shipped, so I think I can say it now. I’m deeply honored. The Romantic Times has done a…
Splitting A MEMORY OF LIGHT All right, now that the press release is out, let’s talk about some things. I like to be transparent with my readers, whenever possible, and I feel it’s time to let you in more fully on what has been happening this last year. Pull up a chair. Get some hot…
My Sword First off, I’ve been getting a lot of email regarding the sword that Wilson gave me out of Robert Jordan’s collection. For Christmas, I asked my wife to have it cleaned and mounted, and so I wanted to wait until then to post pictures. That’s not all finished yet, but I figured I’ve…
Do You Want to Appear in A Memory of Light? It has become a tradition for me to auction off naming rights to one of the characters in each of my novels. In the past, I’ve done this locally, with a church group. People would ‘bid’ cans of food that they would donate to the…
Amphigory! All right, there has been way too much highbrow political mumbo jumbo being posted on this website recently. It’s time we get back to our roots. And, what are those roots? Stupid puns, of course! Last week commemorated the passing of a certain political figure in American history, and so I just couldn’t help…
Amphigory + What I’m Working On Okay, so I’m off by a few hours. Sorry about that. I wanted to get this posted on Tuesday, but it will have to be a wee-hours Wednesday post. Scroll down for pun stupidity. Since It’s so late, I’m going to hold off on those annotations (since I have…
EUOLogy: Goodbye Mr. Jordan Cross posted from the EUOLogy section of my website: My career, like many young fantasy authors, has been deeply influenced by Robert Jordan, and I find his passing a to be a tragedy for the entire community. I still remember the first time I saw EYE OF THE WORLD on bookshelves.…
Huzzah! Well, folks, I can safely say that I know ONE reason why the book has been so tough to find for some people. We got numbers for last week today, and they look pretty darn good. Bookscan (the Nielsen ratings for books) lists MISTBORN: WELL OF ASCENSION as the #3 hardback fantasy of the…
It’s Out! + Amphigory Mistborn: The Well of Ascension is out! We’re really keeping our fingers crossed for first week sales on this one, so if you’ve been waiting for it to come out, you should be happy to know that it’s on shelves pretty much everywhere! Some people have even been noting on my…
Update From the Desert + Chapter I’m still down here in Southern Utah, but the hotel has interment access, so I figured it was time to get off my duff and post something. (Well, actually, I’m still sitting on my duff as I post, but you get the idea.) I don’t know if I mentioned,…
Amphigory! Yes, for those who were hoping these were gone, THOU FOOLS! Bad puns are my life-blood. Each time one makes Tage groan, I grow a little bit stronger. Soon I will rule the world. Need a clue? I’m hard at work at the Mistborn 3 rewrite, and–alas–have not had any time to read Harry…
Mistborn Prime All right, as promised, here is the first chapter (actually, the prologue) from Mistborn Prime. That’s my name for the original ‘Mistborn’ book I wrote back in 2001. This isn’t too bad editing wise, but the writing itself isn’t up to my current skill level. So, please don’t hold that against me. However,…
Sanderson’s First Law Introduction I like magic systems. That’s probably evident to those of you who have read my work. A solid, interesting and innovative system of magic in a book is something that really appeals to me. True, characters are what make a story narratively powerful—but magic is a large part of what makes…
Amphigory + Pemberly Moment + ?? 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…
Happy New Year! (Amphigory Included) Did you think I forgot? I have two resolutions. Get back to work, and answer my email. Hopefully, this Amphigory isn’t that tough to figure out. It’s the first of what may be a series of alternate jobs for famous science fiction characters. Be afraid. File name has the solution.…
Copy Edit Done, Very Tired, Birthday Amphigory Happy birthday to me! I’ll try to get a Warbreaker up tomorrow. Might be late in the day. Check the file name for the hint for the picture above, if you need one.
Today’s Post: Amphigory And, I’m off to Spain! I will do my best to update. Until then, Don’t Stop Believin’! Even though we go our Separate Ways, I’ll have Open Arms for the Wheel in the Sky! If you need more clues, look here:
With Thanks to Tage for the Idea…. Hint is in the file name of the original picture. I’ll put it in the optional text too, just in case. Warbreaker Tomorrow.
New Amphigory If you need a hint on one, look here. It should be enough of a clue. As I mentioned yesterday, the webcomic Sheldon–a personal favorite of mine–has a new home. Give the site a visit and poke through the archives.
Look at the Head This is a tough one. Link to the title of the REAL film right here for a hint. Another one is in the image title. Solution is the image title of this image right here:
Amphigory (Sorry it’s late.) I posted this on my other blogs–the livejournal and blogger accounts–but completely forgot to post it on my own website. How silly is that? Here it is. A new Warbreaker chapter will also get posted today. Okay, so it’s only vaguely Halloweenish. But there IS a Vampire in there. I’ve been…
Brad Pit Was Not Here New Amphigory Eleven! If you need a hint, click on the face of Evil Bert: Warbreaker Tomorrow
Hint is in the Image Title… In case you didn’t know, “Amphigory Eleven” is the title of the little visual pun website I’m working on. Eventually, these will all cross post over there as well. But, for now, you get them here. It’s a pun, it’s a puzzle, it’s an image. It may not actually…
Annotation + Various Things 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…
He Thought it was French…. Tuesday Means new Amphigory Eleven! Click the image of Crazy Brandon for a spoiler. Soon, we plan to throw up a website just for these. They’ll still get mirrored over to the blog, so you don’t have to worry about that. However, they’ll also have their own site where you…
There’s No Place Like it! By popular demand, I hereby declare Tuesdays to be Bad Visual Pun day! If you really want to laugh, I’d suggest this comic. As opposed to me, this guy actually has a sense of humor. Warbreaker tomorrow!
How you know you married the right girl (+ Annotation) First off, New Annotation! This is a good one, the first really meaty one for the book, I think. It’s got hidden text and everything. So, enjoy! All right, so Saturday was Pemberly’s birthday. (She, by the way, is a good three months older than…
Japanese Elantris Another pun for which I should be shot, a poem by Brandon Sanderson — The other day I was talking to a friend. We were discussing deserts. He wanted to say that Utah was more like a desert California. Obvious, yet true. He tried calling it more deserty. Desertish. Desert-like. He, of course,…
Signing + Two Bad Puns (For the Price of One.) So, the other day I was in the elevator. And, I wondered. On the Death Star, would it be called the Elle Vader? And then I realized that would only be appropriate for a lift that was restricted to female sith. I’ll be here all…
Brandon Sanderson Newsletter for July 2006 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…
Brandon Sanderson Newsletter for February 2006 —Breaking News: Brandon will be appearing as a guest on the “Wakin’ Up With Rebecca and Kurt” radio show Wednesday, the 22nd at around 8:30 am. The station is AM 820, and should be available in Utah County and Salt Lake.— INTRODUCTION Howdy all! You’re getting this because you…
Brandon Sanderson Newsletter for April 2005 INTRODUCTION Greetings, friends! Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Brandon Sanderson Newsletter. You’re getting this email because you signed up for my mailing list at Brandonsanderson.com. If you want off, just shoot us an email, and we’ll take you off the list. ELANTRIS NEWS It’s out! Yup, after…
Blogging I’m still not used to this blogging thing. The other day, my father told me that he reads these things. That made me pause and wonder if I’d said anything incriminating. . . . (He did chastize me for not mentioning him often enough.) I guess I should get used to the idea of…
