Recent entries

    Arcanum Unbounded Chicago signing ()
    #15901 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    I will also be doing another YA series to follow up The Reckoners, for those who like those. This one-- So here's the pitch. I'm actually pitching one of my books! It's great. *laughter*

    It's the story of what happens if you call the Justice League for help and they're all gone solving a bigger problem and you get the intern. *laughter* It's actually about a girl named Emma and she is the coffee girl for the Apocalypse Guard who are-- Like in the Reckoners universe there's people with super powers. The Apocalypse Guard is kind of bigger than that. In the Reckoners books they've discovered the multiverse, the different dimensions-- A very comic book thing. I'd already done something like the Cosmere, so I decided to go with the multiple dimensions theory in this one. Some of them are stable, they're real worlds and things. A lot of them are just shadows. But the stable ones, they find, are all undergoing some big disaster. Or most of them are. It's all kind-- Something is happening that's put all these worlds in crisis. And so they formed the Apocalypse Guard. There's people with superpowers but there's also lots of engineers and scientists. It's not like they sweep in and save the day in a couple minutes, they spend like eight months building this big plan to save these planets. And so they've got a plan, they're going to save a planet, and then something attacks them. Completely unexpectedly. Disaster happens. Emma the coffee girl gets transported to one of these worlds that's about to be destroyed. And she has no powers, they're all off fighting whatever attacked this thing, and she either has to get off this world or put in action their plan, that they've been working on for many months, by herself and one guy that is tech support. *laughter* Yeah, those are our two main characters. One is tech support, over the headphones, trying to talk her through putting the plan together. And she is the coffee girl. And they have to deal with this.

    The world is actually a cool one I came up with a few years ago that's surrounded in an envelope of water, all around it. Based on the idea of the Firmament. So there's land, air, and then water. And the water can't come crashing down, but it's where some old philosophers thought the Flood was. In ancient days, before the Flood, you would have looked up and seen air, the clouds, and then an envelope of water. The Firmament. And I've always thought that idea was really cool, so that's going to happen on the world. They've got to stop the flood that's going to destroy the planet. Or get off of it, or something.

    Arcanum Unbounded San Francisco signing ()
    #15902 Copy

    Questioner

    I have a question about process. When you start writing on a series how much of it do you have mapped out in advance and at what point does something that you're writing make you change direction completely?

    Brandon Sanderson

    What an awesome question. So how much do we have mapped out and how much-- before we start a series in specific-- and how often to we do something that makes us change, to do something else, or whatnot...

    ...See I had an advantage over Jason in that, when I was writing Mistborn I had just gotten married and my wife had a very lucrative job as a middle school English teacher *laughter* and so I quit my job, which was working at the front desk at a hotel and was able to write full time almost from the get-go. You can thank Emily for that. That she believed in the fiction, she took care of me while I did this work. And so I was able to write all of Mistborn before I had to turn in the first book. Just so that I could make sure that I could make these connections.

    These days what I do-- Because I can't do that anymore-- I usually write the first book of a series just-- I write an outline for it and I write the first book without any sort of feeling for the rest of the series. This isn't quite what happened with Stormlight, that's the outlier, but for most things. Like The Reckoners, or the Wax and Wayne books, and stuff like that. Write one book and then with the book in hand and knowing the characters very well I can more accurately feel out what their arcs can be and things like this. Like the problem with being a planner-- I'm very much a planner-- is that if you over-plan your books, your characters feel stale, right? They feel wooden. And so, write that first book, let the characters have a lot of freedom to become who they need to be. And then I outline the rest of the series in great detail, so I can put into the first book any references that I'm going to need for future books in the series. Just so that I can know where things are going. I'll re-write the characters a little bit, so their arcs now match the over-arching arc they will have for the series, and things like this. So most books, it's "Finish the book, then write five pages about each book in the series, and then revise the first book and write the rest of the series."

    With Stormlight I spent a lot of time planning the series. It's the one where I have the most time on. It's a different beast entirely. I went into Stormlight knowing what Dalinar's arc was, knowing what Kaladin's arc was, for the whole series and things like this. But I still did a lot...

    Arcanum Unbounded Chicago signing ()
    #15903 Copy

    Questioner

    Any new Alcatraz books coming up?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Any new Alcatraz books coming up? So, for those who haven't read my really goofy middle-grade series, if you like it in this speech when I've been goofy, that's what's in-- what those books are basically all. *laughter* It's basically Professor Sanderson riffing for a bunch of pages. I write them as escapes from things in the Cosmere which are-- I take very seriously, right? They-- To the point that I try not to make them self-important but they got to take themselves seriously. Even if the characters can laugh at situations, the situation itself must not be ridiculous. And so to blow off steam I write these books about people who have really dumb magic talents. Like "arriving late to appointments" is a superpower. Which I chose because I do it all the time.

    And I had this evil plan with the Alcatraz books. That I was going to tell everyone it was a five book series. And then end the fifth book on a huge, huge down note, and then be like "It's the end!" Except have in the back-- It was supposed to be a card, a little, printed card, but we realized that would get lost when you check it out from libraries and things. So we just made it a folded-up page [marked] "Don't read it first". There's a character who says "Okay since the main character, this Alcatraz, is not going to write the last book and show that he's actually a hero, I will write it." So we're going to change character voices, dramatically, to someone else and write one last book, that is not a big downer.

    This is because when I wrote the first book-- You know how I did that outline thing I talked about? I wrote the first book of Alcatraz and it was this whole-- this story about this hero who claims he's not a hero, he's actually a big failure and he's writing an expose on himself to get people to stop worshipping him for all the cool things he supposedly did. And it's very ridiculous and funny, but I wrote this book and I'm like "Okay great. Either we have to have the ending everyone's expecting, which is 'He's really not that bad a guy, he's just been playing with you the whole time.' which feels like too cheap and easy or it has to be a really downer of an ending like he promised." The first paragraph starts with him about to be sacrificed. And that scene is on the cover of the fifth book, 'cause it's a flashback when he talks about it. So I came up with this dual-nature. The editors were kind of baffled by it, "We tell them it's a five book series but then we have one more book. So we can have both, a real downer of an ending and not a real downer of an ending?" And so the sixth book I will write some time this year.

    Arcanum Unbounded San Francisco signing ()
    #15904 Copy

    Questioner

    Alright, who would win in a fight: Rand al'Thor or Vin?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Who would win in a fight, Rand al'Thor or Vin. I'm going to go with the person who's a pseudo-diety and held the powers of creation. Which is gonna be-- Yeah. I'm gunna say Rand on that one, pretty safely. With the caveat of "You have to pick when". If Vin where able to get to Rand while he's still on a farm, I think she'll do a better job than the Trollocs did. If you replace Narg with Vin, Rand is in trouble. If at the ends of their respective series, I still think Rand would win, even when Vin is at her most powerful., because he is able to bend reality. But I don't know, Jason?

    Jason Denzel

    Oh I definitely agree, but I'm a little bit biased here. But yeah it really does depend on the time. Like if you take Vin at the last few pages of Mistborn, I don't know because she's--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, certain spoiler-rific things happen there. So she could give him a fight at that point, but I'm going to side with Rand on this. I'm going to side with Rand versus any character in most pieces of fiction.

    Arcanum Unbounded San Francisco signing ()
    #15906 Copy

    Questioner

    On the nature of shardblades, to an extent, can a live blade be split without harming it's source, so to speak?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Can a live blade split? What do you mean, split?

    Questioner

    Make itself into two weapons.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh, can a blade be forged into two weapons. A shardblade.

    Questioner

    Does it absolutely need a connection, or can it become two?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So, shardblades becoming two shardblades would require slicing in half a soul, which would not be very fun for the spren. Okay?

    Questioner

    So it's possible. *laughter*

    Brandon Sanderson

    So it's technically possible to take hydrogen and to turn it into plutonium with our current technology. It would cost more money than, like, the budget of NASA to do it for, y'know, one atom. So there are things that are possible, but-- Yes it is possible. This is not something that would be easy or very useful to do.

    Arcanum Unbounded San Francisco signing ()
    #15907 Copy

    Questioner

    I was just wondering, is Joel going to become a Rithmatist?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Is Joel going to become a Rithmatist. You get a card too! *laughter* For those who don't know The Rithmatist, my Young Adult book, the pitch for it, to myself, was "A Muggle at Hogwarts". It is the story of the son of the cleaning lady, who gets free tuition to the magic school, but doesn't-- has no talent-- He just doesn't have the ability himself. So he gets to go to this school, but can't use the magic. So you will have to see what happens in future books, and how it plays out.

    Arcanum Unbounded Chicago signing ()
    #15909 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    So I can turn this into a general question because it's very-- people find it very interesting. How do I plot a series?

    What I usually do is I have independent ideas that are spinning around in my head and they start sticking together. An idea by itself, such as "Hey what if the hero prophesied to save the world failed?" that's a cool seed but it's not a story yet. But when you smash that into "Gang of thieves want to pull off a heist. They're gunna rob the dark lord" those two ideas make something cooler. The sum of the parts, for me, is greater than the individual pieces. And ideas come from this, you start with random characters, and plot ideas, and setting ideas, and magic-- Allomancy was developed for a separate book, that I wrote and was terrible, and then it laid in my notes file until I started needing a magic system a bunch of thieves could use that could complement them and each thief could have a different power. And I pulled Allomancy and redesigned it to go in this book. All of these thing happen, often independently.

    I then build an outline. I'm an outliner. I build an outline. I then do character sketches, which are short in-viewpoint or first-person dialogue/viewpoint things of the character just living their life. It doesn't go into the book. Usually. But it gives me a feel for who the character is, because it's very hard to outline a character. If you do then they start to feel rigid. And so I do this-- try to discover the character, and then I go back and rebuild my outline, then I write my book. And then I outline the next books in the series. Usually.

    So Reckoners is a good example of this. I built the first book, wrote the whole book, had no ideas for sequels when I wrote the first book. Then once it was done I sat down with my team, they read it, and I said "Alright, here's the feel I want for this. We-- For instance I want illusionist powers that are very different from what Shallan does. I want to have this and this and this. Let's design sequels, and then I'll go back and re-write the first one to match, with the new outline for the sequels. I release the first book and then I write the sequels." That is kind of the basic process for designing a story for me.

    Arcanum Unbounded Chicago signing ()
    #15911 Copy

    Questioner

    Did you come up with Prof's powers *audio obscured* did you come up with them prior to setting up the context to the story or after--

    Brandon Sanderson

    That one was prior. That's the only power for the entire series that I came up with before, and it's part of why I wanted to write it. In fact there is a certain scene, with the ceiling opening up and someone landing and being very superhero-ish for a little bit of time. That was the first scene I came up with for that book after-- even before the prologue I think. So yeah-- Every other thing I did in that I developed.

    ...Those powers were the thing I wanted most in that book. The second thing was the idea in the prologue-- If you haven't read this book there's a supervillian doing awful things and then a superman-analogue floats down from the ceiling and then says, basically, "Hey good job, wanna join my team?" That's the scene I wanted to kick off the book, and it's this idea that there are no heroes. There are only villians. And so what do you do if you have to bring down an evil superbeing and you have no powers yourself.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #15912 Copy

    Questioner

    So for most of your planets do you just assume that gravity is 9.8 m/s, and do you have a reason for that, or--

    Brandon Sanderson

    It just depends on the planet. Like Roshar… it's 0.7 Earth gravity on Roshar.

    Questioner

    Oh really?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, otherwise they couldn't lift those bridges, and you couldn't have the-- Even with the help of the spren, you couldn't have the giant beasties. So it's a high-oxygen, low-gravity environment. So fire acts a little differently on Roshar than it does on other planets. People are taller, like if you put a Rosharan next to someone else the low-gravity would have had that effect.

    Questioner

    Oh, I didn't even know that.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Generally you should assume when I'm using numbers they're in-world numbers. So, for instance, a Rosharan foot is actually larger than a foot in another-- Stuff like that. I have to do some jockeying of these things to not be completely off-putting and confusing to people who are not expecting-- to the casual reader, but like days. A Rosharan year is 500 days, but they're twenty hour days, I made an hour basically our hour just to keep it from being too crazy for people. But that means when it says Kaladin's 18 he's really actually like 20 years old and a little over, or something like that, I forget the numbers. Everyone's a little bit older than they sound but it works just for the average reader.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #15913 Copy

    Questioner

    Could you use steel or iron to Push or Pull off Shardblades or Shardplate?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Anything that's Invested resists, the more Invested it is the more it resists.

    Questioner

    Okay, so you could technically--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Questioner

    --if it was not charged?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Well-- Certain objects just have more Investiture and are more purely of the Investiture. A Shardblade's going to be really hard, but it's possible, it's just going to be really, really hard. Even more hard than an absolutely full Feruchemical metalmind because the Shardblade is being created directly out of the Investiture, it's basically all Investiture, it's not a metal that is Invested. It's going to be real hard.

    Arcanum Unbounded San Francisco signing ()
    #15914 Copy

    Questioner 1

    What is, specifically, with regards to media that's based on novels, like television based on writing like Game of Thrones-- or something based on your works. What is the talos of that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So what is the talos of media based on books. I actually think I can answer this. Because my whole, kind of, thought process that led me through this was that-- the idea of "art as springboard for more art", right? That is-- That is really what I think the purpose of art is. It's to inspire people and make them create more art. I am a writer because I read great books by Anne McCaffrey and Robert Jordan and Barbara Hambly. And they springboarded me into perpetuating this. And so I think that the talos of the films is to be a new piece with some seeds of inspiration from the old piece. I don't think that a film should be a one-to-one recreation. You can see this in the Harry Potter films, right? I think the best ones are the ones they adapted. The third movie is the first one where they really had to take some liberties to fit it into a film, and it's a stronger film the the previous two were. The previous two were scene-by-scene reproductions, so they were very faithful, they just made worse films than when the director said "I'm kind of going to do my own thing". And I think that it makes for a stronger film. I think that the Peter Jackson movies, you can-- It's okay to dislike his interpretation of The Lord of the Rings, but you can't deny that he did something cool taking The Lord of the Rings as a script-work. And I know that, like, Christopher Tolkien doesn't like what he did. I like what he did because I'm accepting that this is a different piece of art from the books. This is not simply the books translated into film, this is the books taken to a different medium into a transformative, different work. So there you go. There's my philosophy...

    Questioner 2

    ...The talos of art can also be a very active thing, like, for example, it can result in the sail or a boat, or attendants at a service or something like that. It can be a thing to produce behavior. So that's a very concrete thing. In a way very measurable, demonstrable thing that art can do.

    Brandon Sanderson

    And I do think the hard thing about talking about art is, is you can't boil it down to one thing. Because each individual piece of art could be created with a different talos, right? And in fact, each individual piece of art can have a different talos to the different people. This is where talos breaks down. Where that chair I described, that you can't sit on but is a magnificent work of art-- It's okay to have a chair whose talos is not for people to sit on it. I think. It's where this idea breaks down, but it's a fun one to talk about.

    Arcanum Unbounded Chicago signing ()
    #15916 Copy

    Argent

    There's a scene in... Way of Kings, where Syl appears full-sized, like a human. It’s the only time she does that, why is that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That was a very special moment. And there’s was some matters of Connection going on. In the Cognitive Realm she's full-sized, when she's there, and so this is echoing that. So that when, later on, if you were to see her in Shadesmar, and if you're like "Oh she's human sized!" Well--

    Argent

    That's how she would appear.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, you should know.

    Arcanum Unbounded San Francisco signing ()
    #15917 Copy

    Questioner

    What was your favorite scene to write ever, and why?

    Brandon Sanderson

    What was my favorite scene to write--

    Questioner

    The one you enjoyed writing the most.

    Brandon Sanderson

    The one I enjoyed writing the most? The one I enjoyed writing the most did not end up in the books. I was writing The Wheel of Time, and I was writing a scene where a certain character's on the slopes of Dragonmount, and I chuckled to myself and then wrote a scene where this character destroyed the world. *laughter* It was awesome. And then I wrote "The End" and I laughed. And then I took a screenshot of it . And then I deleted it, and I wrote the scene.

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #15919 Copy

    Questioner

    Is there a comparable way-- like you can become a Misting by burning an alloy of lerasium and some other metal--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Questioner

    Is there a comparable way of becoming a Ferring?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Uh… *carefully* Comparable within certain limits of the definition of that word, then yes.

    Questioner

    Just meaning, is there some in-world way--

    Brandon Sanderson

    There is some in-world procedure yes.

    Arcanum Unbounded San Francisco signing ()
    #15920 Copy

    Questioner

    So your Mistborn leatherbounds went out tonight.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. Mistborn leatherbound is coming out.

    Questioner

    Are there any other plans? When would the next edition be coming out?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, let me talk about these a bit. So, I love the leatherbounds that were released for The Wheel of Time, but they were very limited print-run, and they were very expensive. They were 250 bucks. And so I don't have many of those. I have the ones that I had published, but when I was a kid getting them I would just... drool over these things. When I was a college student. So I went to Tor and said "Would you do leatherbounds of my books?" and they're like "They're just so hard to distributed. Not a lot of bookstores want to carry them?" and I said "Well do you mind if I do one?" for Elantris last year. And we did a leatherbound for $100, which had-- We tried to pull out everything we could do to make something awesome. So these have 24 full-color pages, with all of the different covers from the different foreign editions around the world, some fan art we really like, new color versions of some of the maps, and stuff like that. And so we print those and we did Elantris last year and people really liked it, so we did Mistborn. The fun thing is, some bookstores told me "Yes, we want to have those. No, it's not a pain to carry them..."

    But the question is, what are we doing next. So we will do these one a year. They're a lot of effort to put together. We have to contact some twenty different illustrators and buy rights to the covers to include in it. Peter goes through and does a really detailed copy-edit, fixing typos and trying to do stuff like that, making sure that-- Like in Elantris I had said something that-- people traveled a distance that was impossible to travel in the time given, so we tweak things like that. And so it takes a while. We'll do Mistborn 2 next year, then Mistborn 3, and then we'll see where we are. And they should match very nicely on the shelf...

    Arcanum Unbounded Chicago signing ()
    #15921 Copy

    Questioner

    Does the Shard of Ambition have anything to do with the Bondsmith?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Shard of Ambition have anything to do with the Bondsmith, no, good question. Oh! I see what you guys are getting at. Who's the third Bondsmith... So, uhh, this is a RAFO. I will eventually start talking about the third Bondsmith. I'm gonna RAFO all questions about it for a while though. So just warning you guys.

    Arcanum Unbounded San Francisco signing ()
    #15922 Copy

    Questioner

    I can't take credit for this, because it is a friend's question, but he has this little theory that your more quiet and reserved characters end up being super important or just interesting characters somehow and he has this theory that Dabbid from Kings is like a worldhopper that just went there and like "I'm just going to stay quiet and watch what's going on."

    Brandon Sanderson

    The question is: Is Dabbid from The Way of Kings, who you may not quite remember, he is the bridgeman who is very quiet and displays some very strong signs of PTSD, and things like this, even though he was healed. Is it-- Yeah, what's going on with him. And that is definitely a RAFO. But it's not a RAFO-- Like sometimes Read And Find Out means "I'm going to reveal it eventually", sometimes it means "I don't want to crush any fans' theories" and I won't tell you which one it is until the end of the series...

    Bands of Mourning release party ()
    #15923 Copy

    Questioner

    If you were a Twinborn with both steel, would you be able to move faster than people could use atium to see what you were going to do?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So you couldn't move faster than their atium, but you could move potentially faster than their mind's ability to process what they're seeing. You might be able to-- but the atium does lend a certain ability of natural reaction, but you are still limited by your muscles, and things like that. So I think you could probably beat atium that way. That would be a valid way.

    Arcanum Unbounded San Francisco signing ()
    #15924 Copy

    Questioner

    I really enjoy the Graphic Audio versions of your novels. I really like the Way of Kings and the Words of Radiance. I'm wondering, how long after Oathbringer comes out would Graphic Audio be able to get their hands on it?

    Brandon Sanderson

    So the question is about the Graphic Audio. So for those who don't know, we do two editions in audio of most of my books. We do a straight-read edition, which is one, or two, narrators that just read the whole book and they'll do voices and things but it's a traditional audio book. The Graphic Audio instead does a slightly abridged version, where the abridgement is only taking out the he-saids and she-saids and things like this, and replacing it with a full cast to do the dialogue instead. So it's like one step toward a radio drama, or something like that. It's not fully there but they do add in a few sound effects and do the full cast audio. So they're fun sort of ways you can read the book. They're not abridged in that there are no scenes taken out, but they do cut out a word here and there.

    And usually what happens is we do the straight edition first and eventually do a Graphic Audio edition because they take longer to get the full cast together-- to make the proper abridgements and things like that. I can't-- I have no idea how long it will take them, but I can ask. I actually haven't gotten this question, because we only just started doing dual editions. We started by doing some of them Graphic Audio, some of them not, and then figuring out what fans liked. And it turns out that what fans like is having both. So then we started Mistborn and caught Mistborn up, and then are doing the Stormlight books as well. So I'm hoping we will get to the point where we can do them simultaneously in both editions, but I can't promise that that will happen.

    Arcanum Unbounded San Francisco signing ()
    #15925 Copy

    Questioner

    What does RAFO mean?

    Brandon Sanderson

    ...Okay. RAFO. RAFO-- Jason do you want to explain what RAFO is?

    Jason Denzel

    Clearly you've not read The Wheel of Time. *laughter* RAFO is an acronym that says-- that stands for Read And Find Out. It's a term that-- I don't know if he coined it but he certainly popularized it in our genre-- Robert Jordan came up with it. And really it was because at every signing, like this or anything else, there were two or three questions that he fielded-- He would even say "Please do not ask the following questions" and he would still get two or three people asking him those very questions. Does anyone know what they are? There are Wheel of Time fans here, right? "Who killed Asmodean?" and everything else. So what he would do is tell them-- he would just say "Read And Find Out" and so that, online, turned into "RAFO". And Brandon took it and-- Actually I think Maria took it to the next step and she--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Actually I asked for it.

    Jason Denzel

    Okay, so Brandon asked her to make RAFO cards, so instead of just saying it he would start handing them out. And if you actually get one of those cards-- you have to earn them-- on the back of the card it explains what the acronym means and why you received it.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, I felt really bad saying RAFO to people, right? Like I am a-- I have the attitude that I very much want people to be happy and I don't want to tell them "No I won't answer". So instead I had them print the cards so I could at least give them something? And now fans trophy hunt for those.
    Arched Doorway Interview ()
    #15926 Copy

    Rebecca Lovatt

    Fair, and silly question. If you were a Magic card which one would you be?

    Brandon Sanderson

    If I were a Magic card which one would I be? Uhm...I don't know. I would be blue-white or mono white.

    Rebecca Lovatt

    Why?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The personality I have is probably blue-white. Meaning that I am pretty straight-arrow Mormon; it's going to be hard for anyone who is straight-arrow Mormon to be anything but white. You mix that with the fact that I'm a writer for my profession; the storyteller is very blue--it could be red or blue, but I'm not very impulsive. So I'm going to say something blue-white. I would have to look and decide what card I am blue-white, but I'm definitely blue-white.

    Rebecca Lovatt

    All right, thank you! It was a pleasure chatting with you again. I hope you enjoy the rest of the convention.

    Arched Doorway Interview ()
    #15927 Copy

    Rebecca Lovatt

    Switching topics, your battle scenes are completely epic. Do you have to do a lot of research learning different battle stances and techniques?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I've done a lot of that in my life up to this point, so I draw on that. I write the scene and then I go to the experts. I read through sources and try to look for where I've done it wrong. I can usually do it right enough on the first write because of my experience, so that the first write is not fundamentally flawed, it's only flawed in little places.

    I do a lot of reading of tactics and things like The Art of War, which was a very big help. A great place to get this type of thing is from good historical novels, but there are some good pop culture books as well. There's one I'm going to look up and email you about because I always forget the author, that you can read to give you an idea how different cultures have approached war.

    It's sitting on my shelf--I can picture the cover, but now the name escapes me. Guns, Germs, and Steel is a famous one that is very good, but there is a better one on the history of warfare. I'll have to send the name of that to you later. [Confirmed later: it is A History of Warfare by John Keegan.]

    Anyway, the pop science, pop history books I look at are more accessible than straight history books. They're written to be readable, for a mass audience, and they give me just enough to write the basics, and then I can polish the edges by going to an expert.

    Rebecca Lovatt

    Not one where you have to read through the dry crusty pages.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, and really what you are looking for is the concepts. How different cultures fund a war, how they treat a war, and then you really only need some basic tactics. What are the different types, why would people use cavalry and what was the importance of cavalry. You get that from reading the history of warfare. I remember when I read how important the stirrup was as an invention, being able to fire bows from horseback, and why that changed warfare.

    Suddenly I could construct a battlefield where I could say oh, okay, now that I understand why the stirrup is important, I see why this unit is important, why having a cavalry is important. I can now have them enter my battlefield in a way that undermines what someone else is trying to do, because I know the importance of the stirrup. Learning just a few fundamentals like that is essential. What the difference was between the way the Romans approached war and the way a medieval army approached war, and why the introduction of peasant warriors was so important, and things like that.

    Rebecca Lovatt

    As well as the importance of stirrups, and how they can support the huge magical armor.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I still needed magical horses for that armor, but it's nice that I can have magically enhanced armor and make it all work together. The other big thing people have to remember about Roshar is it's point-seven gee, which helps a lot with things like this. 70% Earth gravity.

    Rebecca Lovatt

    Yeah, I feel like it might be a big more difficult with our gravity.

    Brandon Sanderson

    It would be definitely more difficult. In fact when they get off the planet it's going to be a different experience for them, going to something like Scadrial where they have Earth gravity.

    Rebecca Lovatt

    So is that something we are going to be seeing?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Eventually, but not for a while.

    Rebecca Lovatt

    Because I was thinking when the Cosmere starts concluding, just multi-Cosmere world battles kind of things...or?

    Brandon Sanderson

    These are in the works.

    Rebecca Lovatt

    No worming out information by coming up with theories on the spot?

    Brandon Sanderson

    You may come up with all the theories you want, but I'm not giving you any information.

    Arched Doorway Interview ()
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    Rebecca Lovatt

    You've done a lot of books; you've been writing for a long time. At this point in your career does it feel like more like a work job than play?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No. Telling the story still gives me the same feeling. You have to remember that by the time I broke in, I'd been doing this for ten years already. I've been doing it another ten now, so the breaking-in point was only the halfway point so far in my career. I still do what I used to do, which is jump to wacky new stories as they occur to me.

    I think when you should start to worry is when I stop doing that--when I stop coming up with some weird thing that I have to do instead of writing the next book, or when I decide I'm going to write two Mistborn books because I have some great idea for the second one. When I stop doing things like that, worry. So if you start getting Stormlight books only--as you all want--that's when we are actually in trouble.

    Rebecca Lovatt

    Or if you go to a convention and don't play Magic.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah, if I don't play Magic, that would be bad!

    Rebecca Lovatt

    I think everyone would just be truly concerned.

    Brandon Sanderson

    That is my reward for coming and doing publicity and things like that at the convention: I get to go play Magic.

    Rebecca Lovatt

    I remember when you were at Polaris, we left a bunch of Magic cards on your hotel bed as your welcoming gift.

    Brandon Sanderson

    That was one of the best gifts I've ever received.

    Rebecca Lovatt

    I'm glad you liked it.

    Arched Doorway Interview ()
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    Rebecca Lovatt

    Anyway, your first published book Elantris came out 10 years ago next month. You've had quite a journey since then; you've published 15 novels and half a dozen novellas. What's been the most surprising or interesting thing you've learned along the way? I'm going to exclude anything pertaining to The Wheel of Time.

    Brandon Sanderson

    One of the most interesting things was how fast the fans became experts in the world. Bigger experts than I thought they would become, and faster. But I knew that was going to happen, because I was a Wheel of Time fan and I knew what the fans did for The Wheel of Time. So it was more of a mark of honor to me that they actually doing this for me. I'm surprised to see it happening for my books, though I'm not at all surprised that they can do it.

    I think the biggest surprise is how little time I would have to actually write, after I became a writer. I had more time to write when I had a full-time job than I do now, because then I was working a graveyard shift at a hotel, and I could write overnight. I had a good six hours of writing time every day despite being a full-time student and having a full-time job.

    Now that I'm full-time as a writer, I travel and tour and do interviews. These things are all important, and I enjoy them. But what it means is that I just can't work as much as I used to. I became a storyteller because I love doing the storytelling part. It's like I have to squeeze it between the cracks sometimes, the thing that actually is my job.

    Goodreads: Ask the Author Q&A ()
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    Anderson Tiago

    How do you feel on being read and worshiped as one of the best writers in the world by people that doesn't even speak English?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Humbled, honestly. I don't know if "worshiped" is the right term, and I would hope that most people are focused on the stories, rather than on me. They're what matter. That said, it has been incredible to see the reception my work has received.

    Goodreads: Ask the Author Q&A ()
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    Shauna Mahana

    If you had to pick any one of your characters to be your new best friend (besides your wife) for the rest of your life, who would would it be and what do you imagine would be your weekend "Let's hang out, but I don't want to plan anything, so let's do the 'usual'" ritual?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I think I'd dig hanging out with Sazed. The usual would be, "tell me about a religion you've studied."

    Calamity Houston signing ()
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    Cadmium (paraphrased)

    Who cut Lopen's food for him while he was one-handed?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    *laughs* Well, I'd have to say he doesn't need anyone to cut his food for him, he'd just kind of "grr, arrgh" *pantomimes, stabbing something on table with fork and ripping into it with teeth* Because he's The Lopen right, and he can take care of his food himself. Great question. Very unique.
    Calamity Houston signing ()
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    Cadmium (paraphrased)

    Would a Connection medallion work for sign language?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Yes.

    Cadmium (paraphrased)

    Would it make the person's fingers move or would spoken word be interpreted mentally as the appropriate sign? Would it overcome deafness?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Ehhh... It would translate the communication. I can say that.

    Calamity Houston signing ()
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    Cadmium (Written) (paraphrased)

    Would it actually be possible for a kandra to "become a rusting bunny?".

    Brandon Sanderson (Written) (paraphrased)

    Yes, But it would be tough.

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    They must keep a certain mass to maintain intelligence and a bunny is very small.

    Cadmium (paraphrased)

    But obviously being a Harvey sized bunny is totally doable.

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Yeah... Good movie reference.
    Calamity Houston signing ()
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    Questioner (paraphrased)

    Do you invent ridiculous accents for Wayne just to see if Michael Kramer can do different voices?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    No, it's not just to torture Michael, though Brandon really enjoys hearing how Michael reads the different voices and he's amazed at the various accents, and he listens to all of the audiobooks at least once...

    Calamity Houston signing ()
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    Questioner (paraphrased)

    Something carefully worded about how he isn't opposed to having a major character of Stormlight 6-10 arc be dead before the books started and would he do that in a style like in Mistborn: Secret History.

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Kudos from Brandon on carefully wording it to avoid MB:SH spoilers and the very consistent answer that if Brandon did so, the character would be the focus of the flashback sequences in those books, and then once the flashback is over they'd be dead, so no one is safe for the book until the flashback sequences are over.
    Calamity Houston signing ()
    #15942 Copy

    Questioner (paraphrased)

    I've never actually read any of your books

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    That's okay

    Questioner (paraphrased)

    How would you rate your books versus others?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    I don't pump them up too much or you're sure to be disappointed no matter what. I'd say compared to other books, they're a little bit awesome.