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 heard about them, feel free to skip it. If the locations above look interesting to you, read on. 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.

At this very instant Brandon is in Taiwan, with his biggest event on Saturday evening, so if you’re local there, be sure to check it out. Below you’ll find most of Brandon’s convention schedule for 2012. Of note, April will be Brandon’s first visit to Australia. Swancon and Supanova have pooled resources to fly him out, so we hope Australian readers can send them the message that this was a good idea by attending in droves.

There’s also information about this year’s Superstars Writing Seminar in Las Vegas at the bottom of the newsletter.

WHEEL OF TIME PROGRESS

Maybe you just want to know when the final Wheel of Time book is going to come out. Well, Brandon has finished the first draft of A MEMORY OF LIGHT and is in the revision stage. So far the progress bar (top left column on Brandon’s website) is at 40% on the second draft, meaning that he’s revised 144,000 out of 360,000 words. He’s been turning it in in chunks to Harriet and Team Jordan, and they’ve already sent their notes back on the beginning of the book. He plans to finish the second draft later this month, and will almost immediately start working on the third draft according to Harriet and Team Jordan’s editorial directions. This back-and-forth process will continue for several months, however long it needs to take to edit the book to perfection. Because we can’t predict the time that will be required to whip this book into the shape it needs to be in, as befits the final book of the greatest fantasy epic of all time, Tor has not yet scheduled a firm publication date, but we can pretty much say at this point that it won’t be released any earlier than late November. We should have a better idea after a couple more drafts are completed. Please bear with us.

2012 CONVENTION APPEARANCES

For complete details, see the events calendar.

Taipei International Book Exhibition 2012
Dates: February 2-4, 2012
Venue: Taipei World Trade Center
Brandon is a guest of Fantasy Foundation.

Life, the Universe & Everything, Orem, Utah
Dates: February 9-11, 2012
Venue: Sorensen Student Center
Utah Valley University
A highlight of this event will be a live Writing Excuses recording with the whole crew on Saturday.

Doom-Con, Swancon 37, Perth, Australia
Dates: April 5-9, 2012 (Easter weekend)
Venue: Pan Pacific Hotel
Brandon is a Guest of Honor.

Supanova Melbourne 2012, Australia
Dates: April 13-15, 2012
Venue: Melbourne Showgrounds
Brandon is a Guest of Honor.

Supanova Gold Coast 2012, Australia
Dates: April 20-22, 2012
Address: Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre
Brandon is a Guest of Honor.

Note: Due to Brandon’s Australia trip in April, he won’t be making it to JordanCon in Atlanta this year. However, he is sending me in his place (though I’m a poor substitute!), and Harriet and Team Jordan should be there as well, as far as I know.

Superstars Writing Seminar, Las Vegas
Dates: April 30-May 2, 2012
Venue: Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino
Brandon is an instructor alongside Kevin J. Anderson, David Farland, Rebecca Moesta, and Eric Flint, with special guest speakers Kristine Kathryn Rusch & Dean Wesley Smith. See more details at the bottom of this newsletter.
Prices go up April 1, 2012.

BayCon 2012, Santa Clara, CA
Dates: May 25-28, 2012
Venue: Santa Clara Hyatt
Brandon is a Guest of Honor.

Comic-Con International, San Diego
Dates: July 12-15, 2012. Preview night July 11.
Venue: San Diego Convention Center
Brandon is a Special Guest.

LibertyCon 25, Chattanooga
Dates: July 20-22, 2012
Venue: The Chattanooga Choo-Choo
Brandon is a Guest of Honor.

Gen Con Indy 2012
Dates: August 16-19, 2012
Venue: Indiana Convention Center

Bubonicon 44, Albuquerque
Dates: August 24-26, 2012
Venue: Albuquerque Marriott Uptown
Brandon is a Guest of Honor.

Dragon*Con 2012, Atlanta
Dates: August 31-September 3, 2012
Venue: Various hotels in the Peachtree Center area. See their website.

And that’s it for the 2012 conventions we know about so far. There might be a couple more one-day stop-ins with Utah conferences, and we’re waiting to hear back about an invitation to an autumn convention somewhere in Canada, but I don’t know if that one will go through or not.

For this next part of the newsletter, I hope you don’t mind if I just paste the latest info on the writing seminar.

SUPERSTARS WRITING SEMINAR OFFERS FREE PRIZE DRAWING

The Superstars Writing Seminar has just announced a free drawing for prizes in conjunction with the upcoming seminar in Las Vegas, NV, April 30-May 2, 2012. The drawing is open to all interested writers, with no entry fee. First prize: free tuition for the next seminar ($1499 value); second prize: complete set of MP3 audios of both the 2011 and 2010 sessions ($300 value); third prize: complete set of DVDs of the 2010 seminar ($200 value). Sign up to enter at this link.

The Superstars Writing Seminar is unlike most other writing workshops. The sessions are devoted to the intricate nuts-and-bolts of the writing and publishing business, with the focus on teaching serious authors, both aspiring and professionals, how to manage a career.

Superstars is taught by five phenomenally successful writers, all international bestsellers–Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Brandon Sanderson, Eric Flint, and David Farland. About Superstars, Farland says, “Writing isn’t just about art, it’s also a business. Some people excel at art but don’t understand the business at all. At the Superstars Writing Seminars, the business aspects of writing are taught by those who have proven how to handle their careers.”

The three-day curriculum is packed with detailed, practical insider information on the economics of commercial publishing, dealing with editors, pitching to Hollywood, developing your work into an intellectual property, understanding eBook publishing, networking and self-promotion, advances, copyright, productivity, agents, book contracts, and other topics that all serious authors need to know.

Previous guest instructors have included bestselling authors Sherrilyn Kenyon and Tracy Hickman, graphic novelist Howard Tayler, and TV producers Steven L. Sears and Marc Scott Zicree. This year’s guest instructors include well-known authors, editors, and commentators, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith.

Kevin J. Anderson, one of the lead instructors, says, “I can’t tell you how much I wish something like Superstars existed when I was just starting out. We had to learn all this crucial information by ourselves. Now, we present seminar attendees with days packed with all the professional advice we can give. It’s like drinking from a firehose!”

The third Superstars Writing Seminar will be held at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas from April 30-May 2. Previous seminars have been held in Pasadena and Salt Lake City. The contest is currently open and runs through Feb 9. Winners will be announced on Feb 10. Curriculum, testimonials, and sample videos are available on the Superstars website.

That’s pretty much the newsletter for today. There’s one more little note about Subterranean Press taking preorders on the limited edition of Brandon’s new novella “Legion,” but we don’t know yet when in the summer or autumn it’s going to be released, so I’ll leave it at that. You can Google search for more details if you’re interested, or just watch the blog–we’ll post more information in a few months.

If you don’t want to get these newsletters in the future, just ask to be taken off the list. And if you’re on this list and want email reminders when Brandon is signing near your house, email us your city and state if you haven’t done that already.

Best,

Peter Ahlstrom
Assistant to Mr. Sanderson