mistborn

For the holidays this year, I thought I’d post a short story for you all. In fact, I’m posting “Defending Elysium,” which I generally regard as the best short story I’ve ever written. Now, that’s not saying a whole lot, as I’m a novelist. That’s the form I’ve practiced, and writing short stories is a very different art. I’m constantly in awe of what great short story writers (like my friend Eric James Stone) can do with just a few pages.

You’ll note that even this “short” story is actually more of a novelette. It even has several different character viewpoints and two or three sub-plots to go along with the main storyline and the main thematic elements. (I can’t compress my thoughts any farther. I guess I’m just a novelist at heart.) Also, note that if you’ve already read “Defending Elysium,” I’ve also added an annotation for you to give an explanation of the history of the story.

Anyway, thank you all for making this such a wonderful year. The tour was amazing, and the response to THE GATHERING STORM was incredible. I’m humbled by your response—including the responses of those who had complaints about the book. (Often legitimate ones.) There weren’t many of those, and the bulk of the ones I read were presented in a thoughtful, non-combative way. You are a classy bunch. Thank you for that.

Tomorrow is the long-celebrated, and often disturbing, Koloss Head-Munching Day. Munch a head and read the short story. Or, if you’re not into that, I believe there are a few other holidays coming up. . . .

Next year, I will be spending a lot of the early months blogging about THE WAY OF KINGS. A lot of people have been asking about it, and Tor has nudged me to begin speaking about it more. There WILL be more info about TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT too, but I’ll probably be holding off on that for a while. I know you’re hungry for more information. I’ll give you what I can, but I’ve been asked to be more secretive about these books than I normally am, and (as I have said before) I feel it is respectful to keep to Harriet’s wishes.

(Progress on TofM is going well, but this is—in many ways—a much BIGGER book than TGS. There are a lot more viewpoints and plots to wrangle, including many people who were not seen in TGS. TGS was very focused by intention and design. TofM is going to feel very different, as we’re going to be expanding the scope a little to include all of the things we need to see to get ready for the Last Battle. That’s making the editing and revision process of what I’ve done go more slowly than I would have liked.)

Merry Christmas! Happy Chanukah! Happy Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa, or New Year! May you get books as presents.

Brandon

karassasou

• 08:19 Curses. The bus was late, causing me to miss my train, and now the next train is also late. #
• 09:40 YESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!! Got an A in my investments class! *happy dance* #
• 10:18 grades have been posted / my studying has paid off / A in investments! #haiku #
• 10:32 My peppermint mocha is decidedly lacking in the peppermint department. :| #

karassasou

• 15:31 Why do I keep feeling like I've got something to do tomorrow? #
• 18:13 Off to CrossFit, then Famous Dave's! Should call mom to have her meet me there... #

karassasou

• 06:38 Got NO sleep last night. Husband and cat snored. Slept on couch, woke up eleventy times during the night. This does not bode well. #
• 06:39 On the other hand, did 100 burpees for time this am. Worm style. Goal: < 20 minutes. Time: 14:13. I am badass. #
• 10:34 Boo. Only got a B in Econ. =( I really thought I'd done well enough on the final to get an A. #
• 12:38 RT this for chance to win $250 @WiseBread bit.ly/4t0sDu #
• 17:46 Final exam in T minus 15 minutes. #

mistborn

Just to let everyone know, if you were planning on taking advantage of the holiday specials—the Mistborn Trilogy Holiday Bundle or the MISTBORN 7-Pack—or wanted to give any other item including the Mistborn Table of Allomantic Metals as a gift this Christmas, tomorrow's the last day to get your order in. Actually, for most items except for the holiday bundles and the poster it's already too late unless you contact Becky to upgrade to faster shipping (and for international fans there's not much that can be done at this time). December 25th is just around the corner, so there's no time to waste! Both holiday bundles will be taken down at 11:59 p.m. Mountain time on Tuesday.

Even if holiday timing doesn't concern you, I'll be out of town for a while after the middle of this week (I'm doing a signing in Logan on Friday and in Idaho Falls on Saturday—stop by if you're in the area!) so I won't be able to sign any later orders for a while.

I do have a couple freebies for everyone that I hope to get up soon—this week if we get some backend issues addressed. Keep checking back!

In the most recent MISTBORN 3 annotations I talk about ***spoilers redacted*** and "Reen" and fantasy clichés.

This week's Writing Excuses podcast with Dan Wells and Howard Tayler talks about writing unreliable narrators. Check it out.

Finally, the news from Stacy Whitman is that Tu Publishing met its kickstarter goal. I'm happy whenever I see the community come together to help out a good cause. That has been demonstrated even more in the last few days, with the much more serious case involving Peter Watts.

karassasou

• 19:02 I have come down with a serious case of the 'blahs' today. Don't really want to do anything. Not even sleep sounds appealing. #
• 20:15 finals tomorrow / not enough studying done / the pressure is on. #haiku #
• 20:16 finals tomorrow / must do well to preserve grade / browsing boards instead. #haiku #
• 20:18 finals tomorrow / do I call in sick to work? / more studying time. #haiku #
• 21:37 Husband just had a brilliant idea: Patrick Stewart needs to preform the Grinch song. #
• 23:26 Ready as I'll ever be I guess. To bed with me. #

karassasou

• 09:21 I'm freezing. #weather #
• 12:43 Got my H1N1 vaccine. Barely felt it. Huge line, but went fairly quickly. #
• 16:59 Dance like the photo's not tagged, love like you've never been unfriended, tweet like nobody's following. RT @Lifeisgood_ #

mistborn

A quick note about upcoming signings. 

This weekend I'll be doing my last two signings in the Provo/SLC area.  That means if you want gifts signed, then you'll want to come catch me today or tomorrow.  The signing today (Friday) is at the Waldenbooks at the Provo Towne Centre Mall.  This will be my last signing at this store, as it will be closing in January, which is very sad for me.  Some of my best signings were at the store (including the release parties for Mistborn one and Mistborn two.)  One of the former employees, Bookstore Guy Steve Diamond, is still a good friend.  (Which reminds me, he sent an email earlier in the week and I forgot to reply...)

My first really 'Big' signing happened at this store four years ago, when I sold a whopping 70 copies of Elantris.  (Coincidentally, this was the weekend after I met Pemberly for the first time.  We went on a blind date, and I was smitten.  I spent the entire signing hoping she'd come and see that I really was a big deal as a writer--though, of course, I wasn't really.  She never showed up.  I still tease her about that.)

Anyway, come say goodbye to the store and pick up some books for yourself or for gifts.  I'll be there from 6-8:30 or so.  (It says 9 on my events page, but we'll play it by ear.  Most of the signings start to wind down after two hours or so.)  If you want to come when you're sure I'll be there, come before 8:30.

Tomorrow, I'll be at the Sugarhouse Barnes and Noble.  This store has an interesting story because once upon a time, the store was too exclusive for me to do a signing at.  (I went in and asked, and they kind of turned their nose down at me for being a genre fiction writer, and told me I could sign at one of the other stores--but this was the "Big" events store.)  Well, lo and behold, several years later a friend of mine from another B&N who was a big SF/F reader got promoted to be manager of this store.  Feels like some very cool karma there.  Now they have LOTS of sf/f writers in for signings. 

The Sugarhouse signing is from 1-4, and Isaac Stewart (who did the maps and symbols for the Mistborn books) will be coming to sign your Mistborn books.  He will also be bringing concept art for THE WAY OF KINGS.  I'm very excited about the work he's doing, so if you want your first peek at what the artwork for the interior of KINGS will look like (the writing system, symbols, chapter glyphs, maps) then come have a look at what Isaac has brought.  We'll probably stop the signing at around 2:00 and do a presentation about KINGS and maybe I'll do a reading.  Good times.

Next weekend I'll be in Logan and then, for my final signing of the year, Idaho Falls. 

karassasou

• 09:29 Student's hard drive died. Am copying data over. Amazing how much porn some of these people keep on their laptops. #
• 09:55 I have the opportunity to get the H1N1 vaccine. Should I? #
• 11:19 Woot! Won a copy of Quicken Deluxe 2010 from @FMFblog (free money finance)! #
• 19:37 I am wrapped up like a burrito from armpit to ankle in a down throw, with a hot pad on my back, slippers on my feet, and I'm still cold! #

karassasou

• 10:19 Damage from last night's WOD: sore wrists, sore trapezium, a bit of missing skin on thumb. No ill effects from that weird side muscle spasm. #

karassasou

• 12:16 I have no window where I work, so I pulled up a streaming web cam on my 2nd monitor that looks out over Times Square. Want to visit NYC now. #
• 21:16 Losing my mind. Lost a glove twice this week (and found it a day later). Tonight, I left my water bottle at crossfit. #

karassasou

• 20:11 Time for the Econ exam. Despite studying, I feel totally under-prepared. *whimper* #
• 21:12 Exam wasn't as bad as I'd feared. Thanks for the happy thoughts everyone! #
• 22:22 As a reward for doing well (I hope, ok let's just call it a reward for being done) on the final, I bought myself some awesome nail polish #
• 22:47 Nail polish of supreme awesomeness: yfrog.com/3glshsj #

mistborn

The most recent MISTBORN 3 annotation talks about how the Lord Ruler needed to practice when he held the power. And the most recent Writing Excuses podcast discusses world-building gender roles.

A good friend of mine, Stacy Whitman, a former editor at Mirrorstone Books and a past Writing Excuses guest, is getting ready to launch a small press named Tu Publishing that will focus on multicultural fantasy and science fiction. To get the company started, Stacy has set up a fundraiser through Kickstarter. It's the type of fundraising drive where you pledge donations that kick in after the drive meets its goal. Stacy has set up rewards you can get for various pledge levels, such as advanced reader's copies of forthcoming books.

Friends of Stacy have also donated a lot of great stuff for a fundraising auction on LiveJournal. One of the items is a Mistborn mini from Garden Ninja Studios that will get a unique paint job. That auction ends early on Wednesday, and some of the others end Tuesday night. Check it out! Stacy is a great editor with excellent taste in books (she keeps bugging me to revise Scribbler). I hope she can get Tu off the ground!

karassasou

• 08:59 My shoulders are really starting to feel that Lumberjack WOD from yesterday. #

karassasou

• 16:04 Day 4 of having Dancing Queen stuck in my head. This is what I get for going through the archives of Ph.D. comics. is.gd/5dq6j #

mistborn

Today we've added two items to the store—the long-awaited Mistborn Table of Allomantic Metals cheap poster print, and a special item for ten days only: a steeply discounted $69.95 package of seven signed copies of MISTBORN: THE FINAL EMPIRE in hardcover that you can give as gifts this holiday season. Check it out!

karassasou

• 16:39 I want to be in the places in my screensaver. Not here. #