The folks over at TarValon.net let me know that applications for next school year’s scholarship are now being accepted. It’s a $500 scholarship open to all undergraduate students attending an accredited college or university, and the recipient is chosen based on their essay on the topic “How I plan to use my studies to become a Servant of All.” If you’re interested in applying, please visit TarValon.net.

Dan Wells and I recorded five episodes of the Writing Excuses at the recent CONduit convention, with the help of our friends at Dungeon Crawlers Radio (since Producer Jordo was elsewhere and we are by no means audio recording experts). Howard Tayler was away at a different convention, so instead we were joined by a rotating crew of luminaries. First up were L.E. Modesitt (of the Saga of Recluce and many others) and Dan’s brother Robison Wells (whose book VARIANT comes out from Harper Teen in 2011). We recorded one episode on writing practical fantasy and then recorded a Q&A episode where we covered military SF, action sequences, foil characters, time scheduling, and dialogue. Check them out.

We’re closing in on the end of the MISTBORN 3 annotations. Up first are the chapter 80 annotations that discuss Demoux’s love life and testing the Mistfallen and the aftermath of the kandra Resolution. Then comes the huge climax chapter—and if you haven’t read THE HERO OF AGES, please don’t read these annotations, since they’re full of spoilers! This one’s a four-parter, and the first two parts cover prophecy and and Human plus the trope of using the ultimate hidden weapon. I hope you’ve enjoyed the last few years of Mistborn annotations, because they’re almost done with. In three weeks they’ll all be up, and then my assistant Peter will start queuing the WARBREAKER annotations.