I sent out a newsletter over the last couple of weeks, which you can see here. If you want to be on the mailing list (I send maybe three or four of these per year), sign up here. And if you want me to email you when I’m signing near where you live, be sure to tell me your city.

One of the things I mentioned in the newsletter is that my young adult book THE RITHMATIST is coming out next year. You may remember that I finished the first draft of this book (formerly known as SCRIBBLER) way back in April 2007. Due to being a bit busy over the past five years I was never able to revise it to my satisfaction, but I’ve now had the chance, and Tor Teen will be releasing it next summer.

It’s a fantasy/steampunk/mystery about a boy who gets free tuition to a magic school because his mom is the cleaning lady—yet he has no magical talents himself. I’ll post more on it as next summer approaches.

Tor.com has posted the cover art, and my editor Susan Chang gives her thoughts about the book here. Look forward to it!

I’m now seven percent through writing the sequel to THE WAY OF KINGS, and I’ve finished the first sequence. You can track my progress in the sidebar on my website, and I often talk about it on Facebook and Twitter. My goal is to finish the first draft by April 2013, and if I can pull that off, I’ll try to get the book released by Christmas 2013. I should know better in April whether that is possible.

Something else you’ve already seen if you follow me on the social media sites is this “dance review” of THE WAY OF KINGS:

Two new Writing Excuses podcast episodes have been released. First up is a live episode recorded at Gen Con Indy that features Shanna Germain talking with Mary, Howard, and me about writing love scenes. Next comes an episode on killing characters.

The episodes that we recorded in February at Life, the Universe & Everything have already aired on the podcast, but they were also filmed by a good friend of mine, Earl Cahill. If you’ve wondered what our live episodes look like, you can see them here:

Finally, a summary of some recent Wheel of Time news. The book comes out January 8th, but Dragonmount’s Jason Denzel has read it and has written a response to the book in the form of a letter to Robert Jordan. (There are no spoilers.) Also, as has been done in years past, the prologue has been released as an ebook. It’s available from Tor in this list of countries, and the UK publisher Orbit will release it in the other countries next week.

I’m still not a fan of charging people multiple times for the same content, but a prologue ebook has been established practice for the Wheel of Time for over a decade, and many readers feel the length of the prologue makes it worth the money. Still, this is something that’s really only for the hardcore fans who just can’t wait any longer. Most people will wait and that’s perfectly okay. There will be free previews too; the first scene of the prologue is available here, and there are excerpts from chapter one and chapter eleven. Tor.com will release the whole first chapter sometime in the next few months, followed probably by an audiobook preview of chapter two. The wait is almost over, folks!