In the most recent MISTBORN 3 annotations, I discuss Vin’s defense before Yomen and what happened to Janarle. And in this week’s Writing Excuses podcast, Dan, Howard, James Dashner, and I take questions from the crowd at LTU&E, covering a variety of topics. Check it out.

THE GATHERING STORM was named as one of five nominees for the 2010 Audie awards in the category of science fiction/fantasy audiobook. Kudos to voice performers Michael Kramer and Kate Reading! If you haven’t had a chance to give the Wheel of Time audiobooks a try, I highly recommend them.

Now for this week’s big news (though this is fighting with the Audies as far as how big it is). THE GATHERING STORM is on the long list of titles up for the David Gemmell Legend award (WARBREAKER is also on the list, but I feel that THE GATHERING STORM is more in the spirit of Gemmell’s work, which is part of the award’s criteria). HERO OF AGES made the short list last year and lost to BLOOD OF ELVES, and I was just honored to be nominated–until I found out that the winner gets a freaking battleaxe.

The award itself is in the shape of a Druss-style battleaxe, and it is awesome. If you want to help me and Team Jordan win one of these for THE GATHERING STORM…or rather, if you believe it’s the most deserving of the books that have been nominated, go vote for the David Gemmell Legend Award here. (I won’t feel bad if you vote for something else.)