Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

I'd just like to stop and thank everyone for making this year such an awesome one. Despite the tough economic times, I ended up with a New York Times bestselling novel, and that still kind of blows my mind. You can actually see that they've put it on the paperback cover of Mistborn: The Hero of Ages. (Or, at least, you'd be able to see it if it weren't so small. The fine folks at Tor haven't sent me an official image of this yet, so I had to steal this one from Amazon.)

And, since I'm in a picture posting mood, you may be curious to see these below. You see, Drew delivered my copies of the Mistborn minis the other day. And, of course, Pemberly promptly took them and had them invade the snow village she has up on the top of our cabinets. This is why it's great to be married to a gal like her.

As a reminder, Drew sells the minis alone or in sets. They are of pewter, and come either with a display patina or hand painted. My personal favorites are the painted koloss or the pewter patina finished Vin. (And, she should probably be on TOP of the library in the photos above . . . ) Grab yourself a set with holiday money so that next year, you can invade your friends and family's snow villages with your own Mistborn or Koloss infiltrators. ;)

In other news, progress on the Wheel of Time continues at a good clip. It's been a surreal, incredible year working on one of my favorite book series of all time. It still feels odd to think of myself as a fifteen year old boy, reading the beginning of Rand's story and wondering how it would end. And now I get to write that ending, or at least part of it. You may have noticed that I hit my 400,000 word goal for A Memory of Light. So, for you Wheel of Time fans, here is an updated relative lengths chart. Think of it as my Christmas present to you. A Memory of Light is now officially the longest book in the Wheel of Time Series.

A Memory of Light Relative Length Chart: 12/24/2008

Alcatraz/Evil Librarians 60,400
New Spring 121,815
Elantris 202,765
The Final Empire 214,752
The Path of Daggers 226,687
Warbreaker 236,301
Winter's Heart 238,789
Hero of Ages 244,201
The Dragon Reborn 251,392
The Well of Ascension 252,739
The Great Hunt 267,078
Crossroads of Twilight 271,632
A Crown of Swords 295,028
The Eye of the World 305,902
Knife of Dreams 315,163
The Fires of Heaven 354,109
Lord of Chaos 389,264
The Shadow Rising 393,823
—A MEMORY OF LIGHT 408k So Far!—

Looks like that chart needs some more goals on it, eh? How about this:

Alcatraz/Evil Librarians 60,400
New Spring 121,815
Elantris 202,765
The Final Empire 214,752
The Path of Daggers 226,687
Warbreaker 236,301
Winter's Heart 238,789
Hero of Ages 244,201
The Dragon Reborn 251,392
The Well of Ascension 252,739
The Great Hunt 267,078
Crossroads of Twilight 271,632
A Crown of Swords 295,028
The Eye of the World 305,902
Knife of Dreams 315,163
The Fires of Heaven 354,109
Lord of Chaos 389,264
The Shadow Rising 393,823
—A MEMORY OF LIGHT 408k So Far!—
The Stand: 464,218
Lord of the Rings: 470,000
Les Miserables (French): 513,000
War and Peace (English): 560,000
Ten copies of Alcatraz: 604,000
Atlas Shrugged: 645,000
Entire Mistborn Trilogy: 711,692

We're going to have to face facts, though. The longer the book grows, the greater the chances of it being split. The choice isn't mine on this one, I'm afraid. I feel I need to write the book at the length it deserves to be, even if that leaves it needing to be divided up by Tor and published in sections. We're nearing the time where we'll have to turn something in if we want it out by November, and while we'd like this to be one book, it might make more sense for all parties to give you some now, rather than make you wait another year to get the whole thing. (Though Orbit in the UK has decided, inexplicably, to make a new Amazon posting for A Memory of Light. Uh, that's very optimistic, folks. But we haven't even turned anything in to Tor yet. How do you know the page count? How do you even know what the title will be? If the book gets split, Harriet will have to decide what to call it. it could be A Memory of Light part one, or it could just have its own title, with A Memory of Light going to the final book after the split. The UK publisher for the WoT seems to know the answers already. There's only one conclusion I can draw from this. Orbit UK is populated with TIME TRAVELERS.)

Merry Christmas, or whatever holiday you happen to prefer to celebrate this season!