Calamity & The Bands of Mourning in Semi-final + New Writing Excuses Episode
Adam here.
Brandon is not human. I haven’t ascertained exactly what he is. He could be a robot, which is a common theory posed by many of his readers due to his prodigious production rate. Maybe he’s an alien or some other unknown quantity, but he is most assuredly not of the human variety. This couldn’t have been made any plainer to me than it has over these last several weeks while following him around Europe.
Brandon had some type of interaction or event with his readers almost every day, many of which were signings that lasted several hours. He had meetings with publishers, and he somehow managed to continue his work on the book he’s writing. (Oh, and did I mention that there was an eight-hour time difference?) I felt constantly worn out and am still trying to recover. (I woke up at 3:00 am this morning, so that’s not going very well.) Brandon mentioned in passing a few times that he may have been fatigued. I am fairly certain that he just needed to go plug himself in to recharge his internal battery. I felt exhausted after three weeks and he spends almost half of his year traveling!
All teasing aside, this trip gave me a greater understanding of the strain Brandon puts himself under. I know why he does it. He loves and appreciates every single one of his readers and would feel negligent if he missed out on an opportunity to show that to you. I know he was grateful for your patience as you waited in line, often for many hours, to get your books signed or snag a photo with him. I will be posting pictures of some of the people Brandon met, some exceptional fan art, and maybe some cosplayers on Brandon’s social media over the next several weeks. I hope you all enjoy them as much as I did!
Calamity and The Bands of Mourning have both been voted into the Semi-Final round in the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards, so thank you for your voting thus far! If you’d like to vote again, you can find Calamity in Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction, and The Bands of Mourning in Fantasy.
The Humble Bundle fantasy/sf RPG ebook bundle, that features three of Crafty Games’ Mistborn Adventure Game books, expires in just over five days. So if you’ve been curious to give them a try, now is a fantastic time.
Brandon has done quite a few interviews of late, two of which are now live. The first was with Hank Garner on the Author Stories Podcast, where they discussedBrandon’s first introduction into fantasy by his eighth grade teacher, how his two year missionary journey to Korea informed his later writing, and why fantasy resonates with people in emotionally powerful ways. The second was recorded a few weeks ago in Paris by Le Point Pop (you can see a small snippet below) and also translated to French for any of Brandon’s readers who can read French –or who are as clever as I am and can push the translate button at the top of the page.
Brandon Sanderson, l’auteur fantastique bientôt… by le-point-pop
In this week’s new Writing Excuses episode, Elemental Issue, with Desiree Burch, we focus on November’s elemental genre: Issue. We were joined by actor, writer, and comedian Desiree Burch. The Elemental Issue is similar to the Elemental Idea, but explores a point of social conflict, like racism, teen pregnancy, or corporate greed. Authors writing Elemental Issue stories raise questions for the readers. We talk about how to go about writing these without sounding preachy, and without writing polemics.
Last week, in chapter three reread for Warbreaker, we leave the Idrians in their respective muddles, and go to meet Lightsong in the Court of Gods. This week, in chapters four and five, Siri arrives in Hallandren, evoking consternation, frustration, and interest on the part of our POV characters.
I will be updating the twitter feed for November on Monday, but if you aren’t caught up with October’s feed, you can see it here.
