Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

When I was invited to interview Brandon Sanderson, I did what any sensible writer would do—I headed to Wikipedia to read his bio. I knew, of course, that Sanderson had inherited the mantle of the late Robert Jordan, but I did not realise just how small a part of his oeuvre this work was.

Sanderson's output is veritably prodigious. Now in his late thirties, he began gaming when he was in his early teens. However, it was not until he reached university (he was studying science) that he realised he wanted to write. So he switched to the arts stream and wrote several novels during his youthful years. One of these, Elantris, proved to be publishable, and with revision most of the others were, too. So by drawing on this backlist, Sanderson has published no fewer than fourteen novels in the last eight years. Works of his have been translated into 20 languages!

Among the earliest to hit the shelves was The Final Empire, the first novel in the Mistborn series. And here is where the magic really starts.

When Robert Jordan, one of his favourite authors, died in 2007, Sanderson wrote a eulogy on his blog. (You can read it here.) It came to the notice of Harriet McDougal, Jordan's widow. She had promised her late husband that she would ensure the series was finished, and as an editor of note herself, she was in a good position to choose a worthy successor. After being moved by Sanderson's eulogy, she hunted for his work, discovered The Final Empire and knew she'd found a writer worthy of bearing her husband's sceptre.

"The call came out of the blue," says Sanderson. "I felt excited, humbled and honoured all once." It was decided that the projected final volume, A Memory of Light, would be split in three. The first, The Gathering Storm was published in 2009, followed in 2010 by Towers of Midnight. Fans eagerly await the release of A Memory of Light in January 2013.

harriet

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brandon on writing wot

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a memory of light

I remark that Sanderson's style had changed between Mistborn and his latest series, The Stormlight Archive.

Satima Flavell

brandon on writing

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brandon on writing wot

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stormlight archive

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way of kings

Sanderson works best at night. "I get up about noon," he says, "write until five, and then spend a few hours with the family before starting work again about eight o'clock and then I write until the early morning hours. I often don't get to bed before three am." He did try getting up at what most people would consider to be a more normal hour, but after a few weeks his wife capitulated, saying, "This routine is making you miserable. Go back to being a night owl!"

brandon on writing

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brandon on life

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brandon's routine

Sanderson's family comprises his wife and two children, aged two and four. I ask if they had started going to conventions yet. "Not yet," he replies with a smile, "but within a few years they will. I go to a con about every couple of months and my wife comes with me when she can. Like a lot of people, I'm very concerned about the 'greying' of fandom. We need to get children interested in the genre as early as practicable; certainly by the early teens." He went on to say that Stateside conventions are becoming more and more family-friendly. This must encourage the younger fans to attend: not just children, but their parents. At Doomcon 2012 (Swancon 37), where I met Brandon Sanderson, every effort is made to make the event as family-friendly as possible, and I believe this is true of interstate conventions as well. Here in Australia, we usually think of American cons as huge affairs with thousands of attendees, but Brandon Sanderson assures me that this is not always the case. "Most cons in my area are quite small and family-friendly, like Swancon," he says "Some only attract a couple of hundred people."

brandon on life

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fandom

In a panel at Swancon, Sanderson warned fans against the danger of 'putting down' popular works. "I would hate to see our genre become snobbish, like the 'literary' scene. When I was doing my Advanced Degree in English, I was shocked by the literary snobbery I encountered. There has always been room for every taste within the spec-fic world, but now even some SF authors try to tell people that what they write isn't really speculative fiction, in an effort to distance themselves from popular books such as Eragon and Twilight. Don't let that kind of divisiveness happen here or we'll end up like the literary people, divided by snobbery."

brandon on fantasy

You couldn't find anyone less snobbish than Sanderson. Still a keen gamer, he asked the con organisers to set up a tournament for his favourite game, Magic the Gathering. It formed a sizeable part of Swancon's timetable!

magic: the gathering