Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

AZRAL HANAN

BRANDON SANDERSON

Azral Hanan

RJ said the soul is immortal. But Hopper says dying in the Wolf Dream is likely permanent. Is Hopper wrong?

Brandon Sanderson

RAFO, for now. Ask again after the last book is out.

BRANDON SANDERSON

TEREZ

BRANDON SANDERSON

BRANDON SANDERSON

BRANDON SANDERSON (5 JANUARY)

BRANDON SANDERSON

BRANDON SANDERSON

TEREZ

BRANDON SANDERSON

TEREZ

TEREZ

FOOTNOTE—TEREZ

Regarding the Dragon and the Dragon Reborn (and Graendal's thoughts about Ishamael's musings):

"Is this soul born in any other Age, or only at the advent and (theoretically, of course) the closing of the Third Age, as the Dragon/the Dragon Reborn?"

Pam Basham

Regarding That Whole Thing About the Horn—Hawkwing vs. Moiraine

Question: Hawkwing says they follow the banner and the Dragon. Moiraine says the Heroes will follow whoever winds the Horn. Was Moiraine wrong?

Pam Basham

Robert Jordan

Pam Basham

Robert Jordan

Pam Basham

Jordan said "Yes" then maybe a few more words and only then did I remember to actually put the recorder on again. If I remember correctly Avaeus taped those first few words on his digital camera however, so I'll see if I can add those exact words here.

(transcription) ...it would have to be. Err, in the differences between the same Age in different turnings of the Wheel, are that.. as for an analogy: imagine two tapestries hanging on a wall, and you look at them from the back of the room to the front of the store. And to look at them, they look identical to you. But as you get closer, you begin to see differences. And if you get close enough, they don't look anything at all alike. That is the difference between the Ages. Between the Age in one Turning and the Age in another. So it's quite possible that someone other than Rand could be the reborn soul of the Dragon Reborn. [And that's the phrase that ended my jubilation.]

Aan'allein

Robert Jordan

Aan'allein

Robert Jordan

Aan'allein

FOOTNOTE—JASON DENZEL

—Taimandred is bogus.

—Rand has only one soul, but has two personalities.

—Museam Replicas will be producing the Sword and Dragon pins as well as an approved version of the Great Serpent ring (which apparently goes around the finger twice before biting its own tail).

—Someone has correctly deduced who killed Asmodean, so no one should ever ask him that question again.

Question

Robert Jordan

Alan Romanczuk

Brandon then said (quite excitingly IMO) that it actually went further than that, and if perhaps Rand had died whether someone else would have taken over that role.

ZOMBIE SAMMAEL

If that had happened, would that person be called Dragon?

BRANDON SANDERSON

I'll give you this: there was no chance of Demandred ever being Dragon.

ZOMBIE SAMMAEL

Ah, that's a bit similar to the answer you gave before. But if not Demandred, somebody else?

BRANDON SANDERSON

Maybe.

Female Dragon..NO when a female hero is needed she is one of the ones bound to the Wheel. Jordan did mention a name but I didn't hear it. But he did say the Dragon is never female.

Let's try and clear some of this up... I can't remember the exact question, but from what I read in this thread, it doesn't matter (I haven't read the Female Dragon thread). RJ said that, no, it is not possible to have a female Dragon. If the wheel needs a female Dragon, then it would weave in *insert female Dragon name here*. Probably because of the blank faces he was getting he then added, you can find her in the scene where Mat blows the Horn...

He also said that a soul ready to be reborn cannot change gender, therefor the Dragon is ALWAYS male.

The Dragon is one with the land...so the answer is yes.

Matt Hatch

He went on to say that it says the Dragon, not the Dragon Reborn, making the point that it most definitely applied to Lews Therin. (I riffed off a second related question from Luckers which was: Did he have the same extra abilities?) Instead I asked:

Question

Considering what you mentioned regarding Lews Therin's ability to sense the lack of inhabitants within miles of the spot he was at in the Prologue, is this ability something that comes from being the Dragon, being ta'veren, or a Talent?

Brandon Sanderson

(paraphrased) It's not a Talent, but I won't say whether it is a factor of being the Dragon or something about being ta'veren.

Matt Hatch

Luckers, I asked this question because the way Brandon answered the first it seemed apparent to me that the Dragon is Lews Therin is Rand, as far as 'one with the land' and abilities. My interest then became that specific ability he noted in Lews Therin during the re-read.)

I debated writing this because you seem like a genuinely nice guy who cares about his fans, and I don't want to hurt your feelings. If you find it difficult to read criticism, please don't read any further.

To be honest, I am hoping that you won't write the outriggers/prequels because it seems to me like your heart's just not in it anymore. In 2011 you announced that you needed time off to reread the entire series before starting work on A Memory of Light since you'd forgotten too much and this had led to continuity issues in Towers of Midnight. But according to your own website, you only reread a third of the series, then went on to work on Alloy of Law, Legion, The Emperor's Soul, The Rithmatist... As someone who enjoyed Way of Kings a great deal, I'm glad that you've continued to work on your own books, but the fact that you abandoned the reread does make me worry about the quality of A Memory of Light. If you cannot give WoT as much time and attention as it needs, it's better to let it go.

Another big issue for me is the characterization. You're great at writing Perrin and also did a good job with Rand and the girls for the most part. Others felt off, and that unfortunately includes the main characters the outriggers and prequels would focus on. I'll leave out Mat since that's been discussed to death already, but Lan and Moiraine's scenes in Towers of Midnight were a huge disappointment for me. Lan has always been a favorite of mine, but here he came off as a whiny combination of Gawyn and Perrin. He's a grown man in his late 40s, not a sulky teenager.

Then there's Moiraine, now ready to give up all her power if only Thom tells her to. Yes, her captivity undoubtedly changed her, but at her core, she is someone who was ready to sacrifice everyone and everything to win the Last Battle, including herself. So it didn't seem right for Moiraine to offer to give up an important tool like the angreal.

""Egwene, I know what you feel for Rand, but you must realize by now that nothing can come of it. He belongs to the Pattern, and to history."—Moiraine, The Shadow Rising

For an instant she regretted sending Thom away. She did not like having to waste her time with these petty affairs. But he had too much influence with Rand; the boy had to depend on her counsel. Hers, and hers alone.—Moiraine, The Shadow Rising

That had been one of Moiraine's more succinct bits of advice. Never let them see you weaken.—Rand, Lord of Chaos

I happen to like Moiraine a lot, but there's no denying she was partly responsible for Rand thinking he needed to be hard. Yet in Towers of Midnight you have Rand speak of how caring she was; even Mat and Nynaeve sing her praises. You seem to be trying to retcon Moiraine into a saintly figure she never was. All WoT characters have major flaws; Moiraine's was that she treated people as chess pieces that sometimes needed to be sacrificed for the greater good. In The Shadow Rising she intentionally tried to separate Rand from his friends so she could be the only person influencing him. It wasn't until Rhuidean that she discovered firsthand what it felt like to be the person forced to make the ultimate sacrifice, and she finally became the advisor Rand needed. But even then she was still manipulating him and encouraging him to be hard, so obviously she hadn't changed completely. To ignore her flaws and mistakes is to do the character a disservice and hides her growth in The Fires of Heaven.

This is getting long, so I'll wrap it up here. I hope this made sense and that I didn't hurt your feelings. I still think you're a very talented writer and look forward to reading both A Memory of Light and the next Stormlight book.

Well, thanks for the thoughts. I will take the comments for what they are worth, and appreciate your sincerity.

By way of correction, I do want to point out that Alloy of Law, Legion, and The Rithmatist were all written BEFORE I started work on A Memory of Light. The only thing I've written during A Memory of Light was The Emperor's Soul, which is a short work I wrote on the flight home from Taiwan earlier in the year. I have always stopped my main projects for side ones. It is part of what keeps me fresh. Alcatraz was in the middle of Mistborn, Rithmatist in the middle of Liar of Partinel (which I decided not to publish; it was the last book I wrote before the WoT came my way.) Legion was during Towers of Midnight. Emperor's Soul during A Memory of Light.

My heart is completely in it—that I can assure you. I stopped the re-read because I was just too eager to be working on the book, and I'd already re-read (the last year) books 9-11 in working to get Perrin and Mat down for Towers of Midnight. But your complaint is valid. I did not re-read 6-8, except for spot reading. I kept telling myself I needed to get to them, but I was too deeply into the writing by that point.

As for where I misfired on characterization, I apologize. In some cases, I don't see them the same way as you do. In other cases, I am doing a worse job than RJ would have, and the failings are mine. I don't want to diminish your opinion, as it is valid. I certainly have struggled with some characters more than others.

Though, for the scene with Moiraine and Thom you quote above...I, uh, didn't write that scene, my friend. That one was RJ in its entirety, and was one of the most complete scenes he left behind.

ashan_darei

Brandon, thank you for the thoughtful response. I understand that it's very difficult for most authors to read criticism (let alone reply to it), so I appreciate that you took the time to read and reply.

I'd like to stress that I wholeheartedly agree with Neil Gaiman's "GRRM is not your bitch" post and hope it didn't come across like I thought you shouldn't be working on anything besides WoT. Side projects are very much a good thing (happy and creative authors→better books), and I am personally excited about your upcoming books. It was mainly the fact that you seemed to have given up on the reread that felt like a reason for concern since you had previously said you needed to refresh your memory to avoid a repeat of Towers of Midnight's continuity errors. It also made me worry that you had gotten weary of working on A Memory of Light, which would have been understandable given that it's a very time-consuming and demanding project that you've already spent 4-5 years on. I'm glad to hear this is not the case.

"In some cases, I don't see them the same way as you do."

That's not something I object to since we all have different perceptions of the characters. In most cases I understand where you are coming from even if your interpretation differs somewhat from mine. Unlike me, you also have access to all sorts of character notes and spoilers about their futures.

However, in some cases it felt like your personal love or dislike of certain characters also played a strong role. To put it bluntly, it's easy to tell that Perrin, Egwene and Moiraine are your favorites since they've received a disproportionate amount of PoVs or praise from other characters, Egwene in particular (how many scenes do we need where people talk about how brilliant, clever and talented Egwene is?). I don't know how much you follow other WoT boards, but there's been a lot of debate in fandom as to whether Egwene has become too much of a Mary Sue-type character who easily defeats supposedly shrewd political opponents and is constantly praised by other characters, often at the expense of people like Siuan. It's impossible for a writer to remain completely objective, and your background as a fan is on the whole one of your biggest strengths, but sometimes things like that can feel jarring. I would not want to see the same happen to a complex, flawed and interesting character like Moiraine.

"Though, for the scene with Moiraine and Thom you quote above...I, uh, didn't write that scene, my friend. That one was RJ in its entirety, and was one of the most complete scenes he left behind."

I have to admit, this comes as a surprise to me, partly because of Moiraine's seemingly uncharacteristic offer to surrender almost all her power for Thom's sake and partly because she used contractions in this scene (in the New Spring graphic novel, there's a note from Jordan informing the comic writers that Moiraine never uses contractions). She and Thom seemed to have a mutual respect and attraction in the early books, but spent very little time together, so I would not have expected any full-blown love or a marriage proposal at this point. It just seemed very strange for Moiraine to be willing to sacrifice her only chance at regaining her strength when she's barely even thought about Thom in her PoVs before. But since Jordan wrote that scene, there's nothing to do but accept that it's where he wanted to take the characters.

Brandon Sanderson

Re: Contractions Interesting story here. Harriet and Team Jordan worried about my use of contractions in places that RJ did not. It seemed very striking to them. Their first instinct was to go through and change it, after the fact, in order to match RJ's style.

Harriet didn't like how that looked. She felt that my style needed to be blended with RJ's, rather than taking my style and forcing it to fit into something else. So it was decided that one of her tasks, as editor, would be to blend the writing after it was put together. She'd go through and make scenes feel right together, and would blend the two styles like a painter blending paint.

So, she takes away contractions from me where she feels they need to go and she actually adds them to RJ's writing where she thinks it needs to be blended. I was curious if that was the case here, so I went back to the original notes.

And it turns out RJ wrote the scene with contractions. Most likely, he was planning to trim them out with editing. Remember, even the most complete scenes we have from him are first drafts. In fact, in some of them, the tense is wrong. (Much of this Moiraine/Thom/Mat scene is in present tense. )

An example from the notes is:

He puts the angreal on her wrist, and says 'I'll marry you now.'

In revision, this line turned into:

He put the bracelet back on her wrist. "I'll marry you now, if you wish it."

Anyway, I don't want to spend too much time defending myself, because that's not the point of your post. Really, the most important thing for me to say is that I understand. I'll do my best, and criticism like this is important to me. (Particularly on the Wheel of Time books, where I feel that listening to fan direction is important for gauging how well I'm doing on the characters.) It was fan criticism that brought me around to finally seeing what I was doing wrong with Mat, and (hopefully) making some strides toward writing him more accurate to himself.

Brandon Sanderson to Launch NW YA New Fantasy Series titled STEELHEART.

Thanks, all, for the good wishes on this.

I first started talking about Steelheart a number of years ago. (Five, maybe six?) It was one of the projects I'd been planning to do in 2007 when the Wheel of Time came along and kind of distracted me.

Unable to work on it for years, I instead did up a proposal and started shopping it in Hollywood. I got interest, but everyone said "We'd be more comfortable if the book were done." So, over the years, I slowly pieced together an outline in my spare time and did chapters when I could. (I think a reading I did of the prologue of this last year is floating around on-line somewhere.)

One of the problems with working on the Wheel of Time is that it's so time-consuming, I basically can't work on any other big project while writing it. I stay creative by changing to new ideas and new concepts whenever I start feeling burned out—I work on them for a short time, then get my groove back and turn to the larger project.

That's why you see all kinds of little projects popping out here and there from me. I can't do Stormlight 2 at the same time as WoT. Two big series are just too much to do at once; one would suffer. Yet, I still need artistic liberation now and then to try something new and refresh myself.

The two novellas I'm releasing this year (Legion, The Emperor's Soul) and the short Mistborn novel last year (Alloy of Law) are things that came out of these side deviations. Steelheart is another. Shouldn't affect Stormlight 2 very much. I always like to have one large project and a handful of smaller ones running at the same time.

It may seem like a lot to have on my plate, but if you add Alloy of Law, Steelheart, and the two novellas together they are combined around half the length of The Way of Kings. (And took about 1/10 the brain space...)

I don't want to make excuses for not doing Stormlight 2, but this might give a little insight as to why you keep seeing all of these other projects popping up.

corwin01

Are any of these stories within the cosmere?

Brandon Sanderson

The Emperor's Soul, a novella, is in the cosmere.

What does the future hold for you?

Keep writing books, keep telling stories. Now that I have finished the Wheel of Time, I can get back to a bunch of these little side stories that I’ve been wanting to do. This year I am releasing two novellas in published form.

Nalini Haynes

Emperor's...

Brandon Sanderson

Emperor’s Soul—you wanted to say Emperor’s New Groove, didn’t you?

Nalini Haynes

NO! What I am visualising is the cover of the book, which kind of looks a bit like pen and ink drawing, it’s gorgeous. I was going to say Emperor’s Ink, getting the artwork and the title confused.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes. Often when I do a big trip, I kind of try to absorb everything from the culture and spit out a novella. That’s what I did in Taiwan. The Emperor’s Soul came from my trip to Taiwan. I actually have one that I’m absorbing that’s built—growing—from Australia. If I can work drop bears into a book and actually make them not silly I am totally going to do it. These novellas are both ones that I did that for: Legion and The Emperor’s Soul. Legion comes out in June, and The Emperor’s Soul in November, I think.

So that’s something I can be releasing since I didn’t have time to write a novel. It’s something I can give the readers, so hopefully people will enjoy those. They are both quite good—I think, if I may say so for myself—as novellas go.

I’m not a great short fiction writer; I’m trying to learn how to be a great short fiction writer. A step toward it is to be a novella writer first. I can use those novel writing skills. So those are coming out. From there, I will write the second Stormlight book, and I will write the sequel to Alloy of Law. After that I will probably just let myself do anything. I will take time off and say, ‘Brandon, you don’t have to write anything specific, just see where you go,’ and I’ll write something crazy. After that I’ll come back and do more of the other stuff I’m supposed to do.

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. They are limiting it to 200 copies, and I'll be signing and numbering them the same day I do my in-store signing there, November 6th. They're also experimenting with cheaper shipping this time around (the book is a trade paperback and much smaller than my usual, which helps), and I hear that the email they sent out to people who ordered previous books says all orders must be done via email to books@wellerbookworks.com. And a note for those of you waiting on ebooks: the ebook will come out toward the beginning of November. Anyone who orders the print version can get a free copy of the ebook (as soon as my assistant Peter makes it) following the routine we used for the Legion ebook.

Here are two more cool pieces of fan art. The second one is a painting that the artist Megan brought to show me at my signing in Idaho Falls. Thanks!

Finally, the blog The Ranting Dragon is having a "cover battle" that I thought was pretty cool. You can vote for which cover art/design you like best, and the top vote-getters will face off against each other for . . . supreme domination or something. The competition is quite stiff, but the ebook cover for The Emperor's Soul (art by Alexander Nanitchkov, design by Isaac Stewart) is in the first round. I love this art and the design, so I'm happy to see it nominated! You can vote for whichever cover you like, and you can also write in other options. For an explanation of the different rounds see here.

On Friday I posted about Hugo Nominations and offered to send The Emperor's Soul to any Hugo voters. Writing Excuses has a list up of all the award-eligible works of the Writing Excuses team. And our first episode of the year is a microcasting episode on these topics:

Why do some authors only ever come out with one or two books?
What's your process for writing fast under artificial deadlines (NaNoWriMo)?
How do you avoid getting bogged down in explanation?
What happened to your Hero of a Thousand Faces episode? (Whoops! See below.)
Are there concerns or pitfalls regarding the use of metaphors and similes in genre fiction?
What are some pitfalls to writing short stories?
How do you write sex scenes? (Note: This particular question resulted in an entire episode back in Season 7. Shanna Germain to the rescue!)
Have any of you included original poems in your work?

My name is Drew McCaffrey; I'm from Fort Collins, Colorado. I've been an absolutely huge fan of the series for eleven years now, and I just recently graduated as a creative writing major, and I'm a writer because of the Wheel of Time. [applause, cheers]

My question is in regards to a debate that I've had with my cousin and a couple of my friends for a while now. Is it possible for a channeler to be tied to the Horn of Valere?

(Brandon passes mic to Maria, laughter) Um, I think I'm gonna have to say, that's a really good question. [laughter] I honestly can't say why not.

Drew McCaffrey

(to his friends) HA! [laughter, applause]

Maria Simons

But! But I would really love to do some research before giving an absolute definitive answer [laughter] and I can't do that right now.

Drew McCaffrey

Would Lews Therin's soul be tied to the Horn?

Brandon Sanderson

Lews Therin! He was.

Maria Simons

Well yeah. [laughter]

Brandon Sanderson

He was recognized.

Maria Simons

That's right. Absolutely.

Brandon Sanderson

He was recognized, but was he tied to the Horn? Do we have confirmation of that happening? [laughter] Or they just know him? See, he's trying to trick us into saying things.

Harriet McDougal

Maria's saying she'll have to look it up and post it.

Drew McCaffrey

Ooh. Agreed. Well, thank you very much, all of you, for being here tonight and...yeah. [laughter, applause]

My name is Adam Simmons, and I'm from Atlanta, Georgia. [hoots] I really hope that I'm not misremembering something. I was trying to look it up on my Kindle, and I couldn't find it, so please God, let me not be wrong. [laughter]

In one of the Forsaken viewpoints in—I think it was Knife of Dreams or something?—one of the Forsaken was thinking about how, had circumstances been different, Demandred could have been named the Dragon. And what I'm wondering is, is "the Dragon" an actual title, or was Lews Therin born to be the Dragon, or was that a mantle he picked up along the way?

(looks at Maria and Harriet) [laughter]

Maria Simons

Not me!

Brandon Sanderson

I can say some things on this, but it's going to be more...it may not be the exact answers you want. I can say things that have been said. For instance, you can look at things like Logain, and how false Dragons were being brought up out of the Pattern, until Rand, and at that moment, everything collapsed. Until...and it was really when Rand channeled for the first time—am I correct?—that everything sort of collapsed. (to Maria) There's some parallels in there. When he what? No, it was when he took Callandor. Yeah, you're right.

Maria Simons

It was the visions in the sky!

Brandon Sanderson

In the sky? Okay. Until Rand took up the mantle—yeah, that's it—and so it's when Rand...and so, you could look at that and make the argument, "Wait a minute; until that moment, until Rand stepped up and was willing to be the Dragon, the Pattern was searching for one." And you can interpret that a lot of different ways, and you could probably make an argument—Theoryland could make an argument for both sides on that. [laughter] And if Rand had not stepped up, was that just the end of the world? Would the world have then been doomed, if Rand as a baby had been killed? That's something that you can theorize on, and you can look at the clues in the books, and Jim did not leave us an answer, so far as I know.

Adam Simmons

Okay, thank you.

We blame people like these, that came up with this, but I do want to—and thank you for your question—I do want to hand...(to Matt) You had a correction on something we said earlier? Do you have it? Okay, Matt's going to correct us from what we were unable to answer, because Robert Jordan apparently gave an answer.

Matt Hatch

So, there was a question about the Dragon soul, and whether that was a title or not—was that your question?—so, he did answer. Someone asked him, because it had to do with...the entirety of the question was, you know, can it change? Could it be a woman, could it be a female? Would it be the same person in a new Turning? And his point, his answer was, it could not be female—that the soul would remain the same gender—and he also said that it would not necessarily be Rand in the next Turning. So in other words, it would still be that same soul, but it would not be—necessarily—the Rand story, the next time around. It might be...whatever. And he talked about it just because, looking at the Pattern as things change in Turnings, little things are going to change, or I guess in this case, maybe it's something bigger. So, I don't know if that answers your question, but that is answered again.

Adam Simmons

The question was really more about Lews Therin as the original Dragon, or as the original Dragon that we know about, and was he born to be the Dragon, or is that something that he kind of grew into?

Matt Hatch

It's the soul, the soul is the Dragon.

Adam Simmons

Okay, so he was born to it.

Thanks, Bob. You rock.

An Algorithm

So what kind of prewriting did you do for A Memory of Light @BrandSanderson?

Brandon Sanderson

Lots of practicing character viewpoints. I also make a huge outline, which started on big sheets of butcher paper.

Sandy Stuckless

Is there anything specific process-wise you learned from completing WoT that you will apply to future projects?

Brandon Sanderson

I'm in awe of RJ's subtlety and hope to be able to transfer my understanding of that to my own works.

Avalyn

Did the ending of A Memory of Light influence the end of Emperor's Soul?

Brandon Sanderson

Not intentionally, but it's hard not to be influenced by projects like this.

Brandon Sanderson

For example, I wrote Rithmatist while developing the revision for The Way of Kings, and both ended up with a redhead artist.

Brent Holmes

Did the confrontation between Vin and Ruin in Hero of Ages influence the Rand v Dark One scenes?

Brandon Sanderson

Everything I do influences everything else, so I'd say yes—but in this case, I had RJ guiding me as a greater influence.

Simon Ponder

How does it feel now that the Wheel of Time is over?

Brandon Sanderson

Sad. Awesome, but sad.

Chris from Jax

Is it tough knowing you can't continue the story?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, and no. I feel the ending is the right one. And I can imagine in my head what happens, so for me, that is enough.

He's referenced in The Emperor’s Soul, but he got cut from the book. I actually wrote the scene with him in it, but it didn't fit so we had to cut it.

Rebecca Lovatt

Are we ever going to get his origin story, or learn more about him?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, we definitely will learn more about him. A book that has more of him is Dragonsteel, which I wrote when I was undergraduate as my honors thesis. It's not his origin story, but it's one he's mostly part of. We will find out everything, and get the complete story for him. It will happen eventually.

Rebecca Lovatt

Well, I look forward to reading more about him... He's an interesting character.

What other projects do you have planned or in the works?

My novella Legion just came out from Subterranean Press and I'll do a signing for it at the Missing Volume booth at noon on Saturday; it's a modern-day story about a guy who has something like schizophrenia, but he's a genius. He himself can't do anything special, but all of his hallucinations are experts in their respective fields. People come to him with problems they need solved, and he brings a few of his hallucinations along with him to help solve them.

In November I have another novella, The Emperor's Soul, coming from Tachyon Publications—it's more like my fantasy books, in a world where trained Forgers can change reality, and the main character has to Forge a new soul for the Emperor, who was left brain-dead in an attack.

Next summer I have two YA books coming out: The Rithmatist, which is about fighting with magical chalk drawings, and Steelheart, which takes place in a world where all the superheroes are evil; the main character is a boy who knows the weakness of the Emperor of Chicago and wants to hook up with a team of assassins to hunt him down.

Then my next book that will come out after those is the sequel to The Way of Kings, which I'm working on the outline of right now.

Could you elaborate on some of your recent comments about the difficulty of writing shorter books?

One of Brandon's favorite stories is "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut, and it's only five pages long, but he has struggled with writing shorter works. He's tried, but he has felt bad at it and it's not something he's ever been trained in. He realized that he was trying to write shorter fiction for the wrong reasons—he was doing it for New York and not because he wanted to do it. He feels that his best short work is Emperor's Soul.

He goes on to praise Harriet for her remarkable career, specifically pointing out her role in Ender's Game and Eye of the World, two of the greats in sci-fi/fantasy. Harriet modestly says, "I put my shoes on one foot at a time."

In your novellas Legion and The Emperor's Soul, there was a common theme of a creation of character. Were you making a comment on that as a writer?

The Emperor's Soul was much more so, specifically dealing with the artistic process. That was part of the theme for me. Legion was more "Wow, this idea's awesome." I originally told Dan (from Writing Excuses) that he should write this, it's really quirky. He said, "I got my own ideas—go write it yourself!"

This Sunday night is the deadline for nominating for the Hugo Awards, if you're a Worldcon member. The nomination form is here. As a reminder, I will send a free electronic copy of The Emperor's Soul to Hugo voters considering what to nominate in the novella category. See this post for details.

Are you thinking about anything else in the Elantris world? Or Warbreaker?

Yes, Elantris will be sooner than Warbreaker. Warbreaker will be a ways off. You may want to find Emperor's Soul; it's in the Elantris world.

So while writing two massive books in Memory of Light and Stormlight 2 you found time to write (at least) four novellas? I'm not going to ask how you manage it, I just want to know how you stop your fingers falling off?

Well, two of these are older. (The ones that are free on my website.) The other two I wrote while traveling, when it's difficult to manage something as in-depth as the WoT/SA.

But the real answer is that if I spend too long editing, and not enough time actually writing, I find myself burrowing down for a week and wanting to write something new. This is where a lot of these side projects come from.

I'm definitely excited for your upcoming books. Are you going to sell signed and numbered copies of Legion and Emperor's Soul? Just got used to having my Sanderson books numbered and signed. a bit spoiled, i know.

Are Legion and Emperor's Soul contained in their own worlds or are they part of the universe of The Stormlight Archive, etc (anywhere with Hoid in it. lol)

The Emperor's Soul is set on Sel, the world of Elantris. It's far off, though, so you have to have your eyes open to catch the clues. Hoid shows up in a deleted scene, and is referenced in the story.

I saw the question asked, but I did not see an answer. I noticed you listed one reason of doing these project yourself is to create nice, collectible print versions. Where/when can we pre-order our copies?

Legion is up for pre-order on the website. I think they have a certain number of signed, numbered editions and then a general edition for cheaper. The Emperor's Soul isn't up for pre-order quite yet. I suspect they'll do it soon. The last one is something I'll be taking to cons this summer. (I'm a guest of SD Comicon, Gencon, and Dragoncon all this year.) I don't know if I'll have it done in time for San Diego, but it should be ready for the others. I will have plenty left over to sell on my website for those who want one. There's no real 'order' for this yet. I'll try to do another post when these are all ready for sale. Right now, the focus is on Legion, which is up for order and coming out soonest.

Well, I don't want to wait until 2013 for the next Stormlight book! However, I will be content reading your side novellas. Is there a way to download them for my kindle?

Yes. The two new ones will have ebook launches at the same time (or soon after) the print editions come out. They'll be on the kindle store.

The older two are on my website for free, though one is on the kindle store already. (Firstborn.) $.99

http://www.amazon.com/Firstborn-A-Tor-Com-Original-ebook/dp/B003V4B4GQ/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1337659781&sr=8-4

I'll see what I can do about getting the other one on Kindle soon.

Hey Brandon

I just want to start out by thanking you for writing such wonderful books, one read-through TWoK made you my favorite author. I cannot wait for Emperor's Soul so I can get some new cosmere information! As a 17th Sharder I have to ask at least two timeline questions.

When is Emperor's Soul set chronologically in relation to Elantris? Because if its around the same time Teod and Arelon might not have to stand alone against the Fjordell Empire.

My other question is also a timeline one. (There are a lot of those tonight haha) I heard you had to move TWoK a little bit due to some plot constraints. So does Warbreaker still fall around the same time as AoL or has that shifted as well?

I understand if you don't have time to answer these, I know authors are busy. Its great to see one such as yourself interacting with your fans. Thanks again for providing me with books that I've speculated for hours about!

Thanks for the kind words! Emperor's Soul is after Elantris, but not too long after. It is before Mistborn.

Second question is that I've moved things so that TWoK is around the same time as AoL, forced by some behind-the-scenes events. Warbreaker now happens before AoL.

The southern continent is where people have discovered how to harness the metallurgic arts in a more mechanical method. (I've hinted several places that this is possible. I've been holding off doing it until we go here.)

Nepene

Ooh, cool, ferugolems? Do you have any hints for us where we should look for these hints of how you can use it in a mechanical fashion? I haven't reread the Mistborn books in a while.

Brandon Sanderson

The hints are things I've said in interviews, not so much in the stories. (Sorry for not being clear about this.)

Chaos2651

About the southern continent, would it be possible for other Scadrians to discover this method of using the Metallic Arts, or is it unique to the southern Scadrians?

Brandon Sanderson

It is technology-based rather than genetics based.

Sure, the story is The Emperor's Soul, and it actually takes place on Sel. (Same planet of Elantris.) The magic system works by using a carefully designed stamp to rewrite the past of an object--creating a 'forgery' of its past, and that changes what it is in the future. Rewrite the past of a beat-up chair so it was owned by someone who cared for it, and suddenly it's polished and maintained. It's not illusion; it's an actual transformation.

It works on the same mechanics of AonDor and its kin, using written characters to access the Dor and channel its power.

Yes.

Question

Okay, and second, Mistborn, the broadsheet hints that there's a continent or whatever on the other side of the Mistborn planet.

Brandon Sanderson

Yes.

Question

Would that also be connected to Allomancy and Feruchemy and all that?

Brandon Sanderson

Yes, it will be.

So, I gave you a lot of answers. [laughter] To expand upon that, the magic systems for Elantris- the pitch to myself designing the world and magic system was this kind of procedural-based, almost programing-based magic. Where in Elantris, you use these characters to programout a sequence of events that tells the power flowing through what to do.

What Shai is doing in this book is she carves a little seal. And the seal is very much like a little program, and she stamps it on something and uses that stamp to rewrite the history of the object. As long as the seal is there, the object thinks it has this other history. The example you see in the book is you know- an old dirty table that's not been cared for, she can write a seal for its history, she has to figure out what its history was first. And she can write out a seal that basically reprograms that past, so when she stamps it, it thinks it's been cared for all along and suddenly it gains this lacquer, it's beautiful, it's been well-cared for, because in that fake Forgery of the history, that's what happened to it. And that's what her magic does, which is why she's been hired to Forge a copy of the emperor's soul.

[Ooooh]

Yeah, I know I'm evil.

After them.

QUESTION

Like how long after?

BRANDON SANDERSON

I haven't answered that yet.

[Laughter]

A lot of people keep asking. But after them, but not so far after them that the technology level has shifted, which I allow, in my worlds, to happen. And also not so far after that the Emperor's Soul- if you keep your eyes open you will see a Derethi priest in full armor. And so, not so far after that the kingdoms we are familiar with no longer exist. They do exist and the tech level has not shifted dramatically so you can use that to kind of ballpark for yourself, a range. It's certainly not thousands of years later, in other words.

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 Hugo Award for Best Related Work! Our announcement on that is here. And if you missed my announcement of The Emperor's Soul being nominated for Best Novella, it is here. Howard's Schlock Mercenary: Random Access Memorabilia is also nominated for Best Graphic Story. If you want to be able vote for the Hugo Awards, I talk about that in my previous post.

Mary's new book Without A Summer is also out this week. The first two books in the series were excellent, so you're sure to enjoy this one too!

The annual Locus poll is live. Anyone can vote for what you consider to be 2012's best SF novel (among many other categories), but Locus subscribers' votes count double. The deadline is April 15th.

My agent Joshua Bilmes put up a blog post about how The Emperor's Soul went from concept to Hugo nomination in 13 months.

Shai refers to an Unknown God, is this at all related to the rocks that fell from the sky that Shai's ancestors carved?

For her people, there is a relationship. But watch for mentions of the God Beyond in the books. There is more here.

How did The Emperor's Soul e-book experiment work out? (Buy the book, get the e-book for free)

I think it worked wonderfully. I'd like to be able to do it with more of my books. I plan to try to make it work for Words of Radiance.

So, are you planning on doing anything else with Elantris or Warbreaker universes?

I am. I don’t know if you read Emperor’s Soul but it’s in the Elantris universe. It’s set on a different continent, so you have to keep your eyes open to see the connections but the magic systems are working on the same fundamental formula. You will enjoy that one if you liked Elantris and Warbreaker I will get back to eventually.

Is The Emperor's Soul available as an ebook?

I know the paper copy is available from many retailers, but I've pretty much switched to reading books on my laptop or Kindle. Is there a way for me to buy a copy of The Emperor's Soul in a digital format?

Yup, Monday, I believe. The March date is for the UK publisher's ebook release. Until then, you'll be able to get it from me, and once they release theirs I will withdraw mine from the UK store and let them sell it.

Sorry it took a little extra time—we weren't expecting the print book to go live as soon as it did. Do note, however, that (like Legion) I will send you a free ebook if you buy the print edition.

Congratulations to Brandon Sanderson.

Fun fact: winning two Hugos in one night can leave a guy sitting in bed unable to sleep until 5:40 in the morning. Whew. That was quite an experience. Winning for Writing Excuses was unexpected enough, but getting to take home a Hugo in a fiction category...wow. It's something I've dreamed of for a good twenty years.

Thank you all for the kind words. This was an incredible night.

Congratulations Brandon Sanderson on winning the Hugo for The Emperor's Soul and Writing Excuses.

Thanks!

Howard slept with his that night, by the way. (Not even kidding.)

Hehehe, good question!

Question

Has she already popped up?

Brandon Sanderson

She has not already popped up.

Question

So she's not a Radiant. Or is she?

Brandon Sanderson

You have not seen her on screen yet, other than in her story.

It's after

Question

So are you going to write a book that explains what happened to the empire then?

Brandon Sanderson

You will find out more about it eventually, yes. But it's not my main project right now. We'll see how it happens eventually.