Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

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 has signed prints of the A Memory of Light cover painting, that Harriet and I also signed at JordanCon. They look great!

This week's Writing Excuses podcast episode is another microcasting episode where we cover a bunch of questions:

- How do you prepare to write?
- How do you write stories that are important without being heavy-handed?
- Magical realism vs. Fantasy—what's the difference?
- Do you have recommendations or techniques for serving as a beta reader?
- Is it possible to do a serial with short stories and novellas all in the same setting?
- Why do publishers say they want crossed-genre books, but they're not publishing crossed-genre books?
- Picture books and books for beginning readers: can you 'cast on this for us?
- Can you do a 'cast on reading aloud?
- What is the primary thing you've learned from reading Literary Fiction that has informed your Genre Fiction writing?

My YA fantasy The Rithmatist is coming out in two weeks (three weeks in the UK). Tor is doing a Goodreads giveaway of 15 copies of the final book. You can sign up here—but only if you're in the US. For those of you outside the US, I apologize—hopefully there will be something you can participate in soon. And if you missed the announcement of my book tour, you can find the list of tour cities here.

Included on the tour is Phoenix Comicon, and I will bring my convention-exclusive "Firstborn"/"Defending Elysium" hardcover to the con. Also attending will be Shawn Speakman, whose anthology Unfettered will include the story "River of Souls", a deleted sequence from A Memory of Light. Unfettered doesn't come out until June, but there is a four-story preview (including "River of Souls") that will be available at Phoenix Comicon.

Shawn is also auctioning off several signed books, including a signed limited edition of Legion, to benefit Duane Wilkins of the University Book Store in Seattle. Duane is a very cool guy who has supported my career from the very beginning.