Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Fast Forward

Robert Jordan

At this point the Bolen guy shoos me away. I lurk for a while but people are asking spedly [?] questions [should have printed the FAQ].

I did learn that in addition to the card game and computer game and clothing line there will be a line of museum quality replica weapons. Someone asked excitedly about the SCA and RJ said that these would be real weapons since he didn't like play war [which is understandable]. Then I left.

—Greebs

Someone asked about WOT jewelry. He said there's a company coming out with Great Serpent rings, and Asha'man pins. He mentioned the weapons you can get from Museum Replicas (I think that's who's making the jewelry, too). They supposedly have the Heron Mark Sword, Seanchan Sword, Fain's Dagger, and Perrin's Axe. I can only find the Heron Mark Sword, so maybe the rest are forthcoming.

Someone said that there are rumours that he has played online in some WOT MUDs. He said that he hasn't. A company called ToyVault is supposed to be coming out with some WOT toys. The first one they're going to make is a stuffed Trolloc. Seriously.

—Taimandred is bogus.

—Rand has only one soul, but has two personalities.

—Museam Replicas will be producing the Sword and Dragon pins as well as an approved version of the Great Serpent ring (which apparently goes around the finger twice before biting its own tail).

—Someone has correctly deduced who killed Asmodean, so no one should ever ask him that question again.

Finally, I want to mention something that is cool beyond description. When I was out in Charleston last time, Robert Jordan's cousin (who was as close to him as a brother) walked in. Many of you may know Wilson from his blog posts over at Dragonmount, speaking about Mr. Jordan and the Wheel of Time. Well, he was out at Harriet's this time, and I had the privilege of meeting him. (And we use that phrase like a cliche, but I think case, I mean it sincerely. Meeting Wilson WAS a privilege. He is an engaging, interesting person with genuine sense of nobility about him.) Anyway, near the end of my stay, he told me that he felt I should have something of Mr. Jordan's and told me to go out into the armory and pick out a piece—any piece—that I wanted, and he'd ship it to me.

I'm certain you can imagine just how I felt at getting this honor. If you aren't aware, Mr. Jordan's armory was enormous. He collected the weapons as research for how to write descriptions and usage in his books. They were part of the process, part of what made the Wheel of Time turn out like it did. I think his attention to detail on these kinds of things is part of what made the books so great.

I'm going to wait to post about the sword I chose, since I'm having it cleaned and mounted, and would rather show final pictures of it. However, Wilson has put up some other pieces of the armory on ebay for sale. I wanted to alert you all of this fact, as I think some of you might be interested in the pieces. Also, here's Wilson's blog post about the armory, if you haven't seen it.

Some of you have noticed that Mistborn jewelry is for sale in my store. I'd suggest waiting for a few days before picking up any pieces, however, as we're checking with Badali on some items. I haven't finished writing copy for these either, so there aren't any descriptions, just pictures and prices. (And some of those prices may go down, specifically some of the shipping prices.) I'll start doing write-ups soon.

Peter said if we did enough begging, we could see some Nightblood replicas. Can you give us more details? And exactly HOW much more begging would be necessary (Mi'chelle says keep it below $100...I say below $50, but I suppose if you must go higher, I might be able to compensate...)?

I've had an offer from a swordsmith who was at JordanCon. These would be more expensive replicas, though, as they be hand-made by the swordsmith himself. He does very good work, but the price he mentioned was $200, I believe.

I've put Peter in charge of looking into this and seeing how viable it is. The cost might be too high for the readers to want to buy them. What we'd do is take pre-orders, and then do a limited edition run of maybe ten or twenty swords, hand-made by the swordsmith. If we had ten or so preorders, we'd be able to do it.

There haven't ever, so far as I know, been official Wheel of Time T-shirts. A lot of people have asked where they can get them. Finally we have a place: Ta'veren Tees. I've got a few of the shirts, and they're awesome. (Particularly the Far Dareis Mai one.)

Their press release follows.

OFFICIAL WHEEL OF TIME® T-SHIRTS TO BE SOLD BY TA'VEREN TEES

Fans of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time® series now have a way to wear their love for the WoT on their sleeves—literally.

Ta'veren Tees is the exclusive provider of Wheel of Time® apparel officially licensed by The Bandersnatch Group, Inc. Located at www.taverentees.com, Ta'veren Tees is the first and only to sell T-shirts dedicated to the characters, themes, imagery and sayings found throughout Robert Jordan's epic series.

The initial store opening features six designs; two for women, two for men and two unisex. More shirts will be rolled out and added to the inventory over the coming months, but don't be fooled by the site name—shirts won't skew only towards the series' three famous ta'veren. Whether you'd like to throw a spear with the Maidens or secretly call yourself a Darkfriend, you will find something to wear on taverentees.com.

"With the first designs, we want to make sure we address the wants and needs of both male and female Wheel of Time® fans. We think that fans will be very happy with the first six shirts and the ones we will release in the near future," said Jeffrey Daniel, co-owner of Ta'veren Tees.

"It is important to us to take the Wheel of Time® world that Robert Jordan beautifully created and show our admiration for the series that we all love," said Sophie Decaudin, Ta'veren Tees co-owner. "This is something that hasn't been done before, there was a need for it, and we are excited to meet that need head on."

By creating these shirts, Daniel, Decaudin and Co-owner Kiley Kellermeyer hope to provide yet another avenue for WoT fans to express the love and devotion they feel towards the amazing world and spell-binding characters Jordan created.

"These designs are not only colorful, but reflect the themes and characters in the Wheel of Time® books," said Harriet Rigney, editor of the series and widow of James Rigney, the author. "They may not be able to stop cold steel, but they are extremely fashionable."

"We also salute Jeffrey, Kiley and Sophie for the design and layout of the Ta'veren Tees website," she continued. "It's a clean, uncluttered format that's easy to navigate and I'm sure the fans of the books will enjoy visiting often."

"Sometimes playful, often insightful, Ta'veren Tees are a welcomed addition to the line of products officially licensed by The Bandersnatch Group," she concluded.

The Dragons & Fairy Tales bookstore has a 30% off sale on all Brandon Sanderson books through December 17th. They have copies of almost all of my books (they sold out of Alcatraz 4, but they do have a bunch of the first three Alcatraz books), and some of them are signed. They will ship. Call them at (801) 789-5014 or stop by the store.

I'll be signing in Murray this weekend and in Bountiful the weekend after that. Details are on my events page. Unfortunately, it looks like the Murray Borders will not get any copies of Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens, but the Bountiful Barnes & Noble already received at least 35 copies. If you plan to come to the Bountiful signing but want to buy the book now, stop by the store and pick it up, then bring it back to the signing. They also have a large number of the previous Alcatraz books and my other titles.

This week on the Writing Excuses podcast, Howard Tayler and I are once again joined by Scott Westerfeld to discuss steampunk. And recent Warbreaker annotations talk about Lightsong trying pottery and Vivenna meeting with the slumlords.

Peter here. Brandon got back from his book tour yesterday, but Pemberly told me that he went right to bed and slept for 15 hours straight. Anyway, the result of this is that Brandon is no longer out flying from state to state or country to country, so unless you're in Utah or Idaho he won't be signing books near you anytime soon. Well, that's why Brandon sells signed books in his store here—so you don't have to come to him!

Since Brandon doesn't want to compete with local bookstores, he only sells hardcovers after they've been out for at least a year. The Gathering Storm has now been out for over a year, so as of today you can start picking it up from Brandon's store. Brandon will be signing books at his house this Saturday, so if you order before then you could have a signed copy of The Gathering Storm in a matter of days. He also might be throwing in a Wheel of Time bumper sticker left over from the tour, like a Tai'shar Malkier or Sly as an Eelfinn sticker, while supplies last. (I'll bug him and make sure something like this happens . . . or if it can't happen, I'll come back and edit this post . . .)

If you want to give the gift of a signed Brandon Sanderson book (or two, or six) this holiday season, now is a very good time to order, especially if you need international shipping. Since Brandon is out of town next weekend for Thanksgiving (he's going to Idaho Falls and will be signing books there), the next chance he'll get to sign books for shipping out will be December 4th, which is also the deadline for international orders if you want them to arrive by December 24th. Plus international shipping can be flaky, so getting your order in right away is a good idea. The deadline for U.S. orders is December 6th, or December 12th if you choose Priority Mail shipping.

All of Brandon's other books (besides The Way of Kings and Towers of Midnight, which you might find here) are available, and there are convenient bundles too. Plus you can grab some Mistborn and Elantris jewelry and the Mistborn Table of Allomantic Metals poster. So check it out.

I should also mention that you can get Mistborn and Stormlight Archive shirts and hoodies at InkWing.com. And Garden Ninja Studios has a few more Vin and Kelsier miniatures left (unfortunately, they sold out of the awesome koloss and inquisitor minis . . . but they also have a special on Schlock Mercenary minis).

If you didn't know, InkWing is run by Mistborn/Way of Kings interior artist Isaac Stewart, and they do the official T-shirts for my books. They have a contest every month or so that usually involves giving away free shirts, and this month they also have a coupon code. Check out their post here.

There are also official Wheel of Time T-shirts at Ta'veren Tees, and they have a teaser trailer for a new shirt that will be available this month. Check it out too.

Now that the mass market paperback of Towers of Midnight has been released, I've added signed hardcover copies of the book to my online store. I will personalize each copy to your request—you can have me write something like "Music to dazzle" or "Iron to bind" if you like. And of course all of my other books are available as well.

Because I'm going on tour in North America and the UK all November long, the sooner you can get your order in, the better. (If getting a book by December 24th is important to you.) In fact, for international orders, we're setting a deadline of November 1st so I can sign everything before I leave. The U.S. deadline is December 5th. Jewelry orders have different deadlines; see below. Now, if your order comes in too late we will still do what we can, but the likelihood your order will arrive before December 24th goes way down.

Posters & signed books ordering deadline

To US addresses: December 5th by 5:00 p.m. Mountain time
To international addresses: November 1st by 5:00 p.m. Mountain time

Jewelry ordering deadline

To US addresses: December 6th
To international addresses: December 4th

Brandon Sanderson

Isaac Stewart

Brandon Sanderson

Isaac Stewart

Brandon Sanderson

In other news, Ta'veren Tees, the officially licensed Wheel of Time T-shirt company, is giving away a free T-shirt every Friday during August. Just hit "like" on their Facebook page and then watch their wall on Fridays to see if you are a winner.

I also did an interview with SciFi Bulgaria. If you read Bulgarian, check it out.

Can you tell us what the rest of the Feruchemical and Hemalurgic powers are? Since, you know, you won't be writing in the Mistborn world for many years, and those Feruchemical and Hemalurgic Tables might not even come into existence if the Allomantic Metals one doesn't sell. Pretty please?

Chaos2651

Brandon Sanderson

Any idea when you'll be releasing the full table of Allomantic metals and associated phonetics shown in your blog post about vinyl decals?

Very, very soon. It's at the printer right now. Should happen this month, if all things go well. We will start with the limited edition prints on the nice paper with the expensive inks, signed and numbered by myself and Isaac. Poster prints will come eventually too. And, of course, we'll also release in standard desktop sizes for free, for those who can't afford a poster.

Ta'veren Tees has a new T-shirt available for preorder. I think I'll let it speak for itself.

InkWing has a limited number of Mistborn- and Stormlight-themed gamer bags for sale. They're also running another T-shirt giveaway contest.

Several of the stores I've signed at recently have autographed copies of my books that they can ship to you. Forbidden Planet in London, Murder by the Book in Houston, Joseph-Beth in Lexington, UBooks in Seattle, among others. Check my Facebook past events page and give the store nearest you a call. (You don't have to be a Facebook member to see the info.)

And I'll be signing throughout the UK all the rest of this week, so check out my events page to find the signing nearest you.

Many of the booksellers I visited during my recent tour still have signed copies of The Alloy of Law. Check my events calendar to see if I'll be near you anytime soon. If I won't be, give one of the following stores a call. (You can also tell me your city and I'll email you when I'm visiting nearby.)

Mysterious Galaxy
7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. Suite #302
San Diego, CA 92111
(858) 268-4747
Alone among the stores on this list, Mysterious Galaxy has signed copies of a lot of my other books, not just The Alloy of Law, and will ship worldwide. Give them a call.

Murder by the Book, Houston
2342 Bissonnet
Houston, TX 77005
(713) 524-8597
(888) 424-2842
Murder by the Book's copies of The Alloy of Law are signed not only by me but also by interior artist Ben McSweeney, who illustrated the book's newspaper broadsheet.

Chapters Metrotown
Metropolis, Metrotown 4700 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC V5H 4M1, Canada
(604) 431-0463
This Chapters will have your cheapest shipping option for delivery anywhere in Canada.

Forbidden Planet
179 Shaftesbury Avenue
WC2H 8JR London, United Kingdom
0207 420 3666
Forbidden Planet will also ship worldwide, but they're probably your best bet for getting a signed copy of The Alloy of Law in Europe. Their copies are all the UK edition of of the book. They also have some signed The Way of Kings split paperbacks: Part 1, Part 2.

I will eventually add this book to my website store as well, but I won't do that until it has been on the shelf for about a year and the mass market paperback has been released already. Please support your local bookseller.

One attendee (worked for a publishing company, used to work for Tor) had an advance reader edition of The Great Hunt—he'd never even opened it, was going to let RJ be the first. Also saw the leather bound editions of The Fires of Heaven and The Dragon Reborn—something like only 100 and 150 copies printed. They were asking around $200/each. My only problem with these books is that apparently they haven't done limited editions of the first three books (maybe they will?), but I couldn't justify the money for a partial limited edition series.

NBC bought an option to do a miniseries based on the first book, but Jordan said odds are against a television movie, at least for now.

"I've been told the key people involved in getting that contract together have left NBC," he said. "That means it's highly unlikely the option will be exercised."

He finds this amusing in light of an apparent resurgence in sword-and-sorcery epics. A "Lord of the Rings" film is now being made in New Zealand, and a "Dungeons and Dragons" movie is set to open December 8.

Still, such things "are all peripheral, anyway," said Jordan. "The books are what's important to me."

Every year for the past several years, Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear author (and good buddy of mine) Patrick Rothfuss has run a charity drive where he matches at 50% donations to Heifer International through his Worldbuilders team page. Everyone who enters the general drawing gets a chance at a huge number of prizes. There are also individual auctions on several of the most desirable items. Pat explains it best.

I've donated various books to the prize pool before, and this year I and Badali Jewelry have teamed up to donate a special Wheel of Time package to the auctions. My contribution is from among my personal leatherbound copies of The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight. With each Wheel of Time book that is released, Tor puts out a limited edition of 126 signed copies, 100 of them numbered for commercial release, and 26 of them lettered for publisher and author use. I received copies B and S of both books, and I'm donating the matched set of S copies.

Please see Pat's description below. The auction itself is here, and you can see the other auction items here. And remember, for every 10 dollars you donate on the Worldbuilders Team Page, you get a chance to win a book from the general prize pool.

AUCTION: signed, leather-bound copies of The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson with Wheel of Time jewelry.

These gorgeous gold-lettered books are leather-bound and designated "S" out of 26 lettered copies. The books come in their own matching leather slipcase, feature a facsimile of Robert Jordan's signature, and are signed by Brandon Sanderson.

In addition to these stunning best-selling books, this auction includes three lovely pieces of jewelry inspired by Jordan's series: an Asha'man Dragon Pin, a Dedicated Sword Pin, and a Great Serpent Ring.

We are very grateful to Brandon Sanderson for his donation of these rare books, and to the folks at Badali for making things even sweeter with the addition of the jewelry.

To see more pictures of these gorgeous books, or to place a bid on the auction, click here.

...I gotta be honest, the cover for The Eye of the World was what got me into the books in the first place.

What really sucks is that I found out that the larger than normal paperback I have been rereading all this time was the first issue for The Eye of the World. I thought there was a hardcover version. So all this time I have been beating the crap out of a rare first edition. Boy do I feel special.... kinda like the time I found out my sister traded all my first run Uncanny X-Mens for my cousin's ... er "collection" of Archie comics.... kinda like the time... gah...

KAFMERCHANT (@257)

Hi All,

Been lurking since The Beginning. Although I haven't had the time or the mental capacity/creativity, most days, to contribute in any significant fashion. Although hopefully I can find some more time in the future to do more than Lurk....

However, to all the new posters, regulars and alumni—I'm appreciative of the hours and hours of entertainment you've provided; Kudos to all!

Just a heads up to Sub, that the first printing of the oversize paperback isn't overly valuable (50-150 $) pending condition, and they show up on ebay on a regular basis—but still something worth looking after carefully.

If I've managed this properly—my avatar will have a picture of what I believe is the first bound version of The Eye of the World that I rescued from ebay a couple of years ago (maybe tnh can/will comment). Read the red fine print, if/when you can ... it's really cool.

Edited: for coherency. Deleted a sentence as my avatar showed up as planned. And add—you can't see it well in the picture/avatar, but there is printing along the top of book that reads "Harriet's marked up copy"—no trolling. This book contains some hand written edits by Mrs. Jordan (and someone else whom I have yet to identify although there is a fairly obvious choice), and includes a 3-page letter to tnh from Mrs. Jordan. As I understand it, the advance reading copy was created from this version, as were the final hardcover (yes Sub there was a limited hardcover printing) and oversize softcover both originally printed in February 1990.

JD

How the devil did that production copy wind up on eBay? With, for all love, my correspondence with Harriet still tucked inside? (Is that the letter where we were going back and forth about Nancy Weisenfeld's copyedit, and Jim Rigney's preferred style of ellipses? It's been a long time.)

Did the person who sold it say anything about it?

I'd love to see large high-resolution photos of all those materials, including samples of the interior markup, and all three pages of the letter. I can recognize the handwriting of most of the people that could have marked up the pages, so there's a good chance that I can either identify the person or rule out some possibilities.

I'd very much prefer that you mail me pictures of the letter, rather than posting them somewhere. My email address is on the front page of my weblog, Making Light.

Onward.

What you have there isn't the first bound edition. It's either a bound galley or a bound manuscript copy—I should remember which, but I don't. Tom Doherty did so much fiddling with the marketing and format of that book that it spent close to a year in production, rather than the normal nine months, and at times drove our department to distraction.

If it's typeset, it's a bound galley. If it's reproduced from the manuscript pages, it's a bound manuscript. Both can be referred to as "advance copies."

Anyway, the advance copies with the plain light-blue cover were superseded by the massive printing of ARCs with the four-color Darryl Sweet cover. An ARC (Advance Reading Copy) is basically a bound galley with a four-color cover that's usually an early version of the cover that will appear on the book. The Tor booth at the ABA that year had so many copies of it that they could have built Vauban-style fortifications out of them. Printing such a large and lavish ARC in such quantities was a gamble for Tor, which back then was a smaller and poorer company.

Is the thing you're referring to as "the first printing of the oversize paperback" the ARC? Check and see whether it has a price printed anywhere on the cover. If not, it's an ARC. IIRC, the ARC also featured the interim state of the cover in which the author of one of the cover quotes was erroneously identified as "Gordon R. R. Dickson."

KAFMERCHANT (@306)

Thanks for the info, greatly appreciated!

I will email pictures in the next 24 hours along with what history I know or have deduced. I agree with you that the letter shouldn't be made public without necessary approvals. The "discussion" you mentioned sounds...interesting...but the contents of this letter are more mundane and simply include info on book formatting, layout and listing of the chapter icons (I've scanned a copy of it too).

While not clear in my avatar, the book looks grey in real life (although if there was a light blue one, that would be interesting as well). I acquired a second one, without markups, that is identical to that pictured, and it is grey as well.

I know the ARC well, as at one point I had five of the things from various bundled purchases I made (the exterior cover of the ARC is the same artwork that is now found on the inside flap, and the inside cover of the ARC is the same artwork that now appears on the current cover). I just picked up one of the ARCs and on the back has a quote attributed to George R Dickson—is that what you were referring to? (Been so long since I'd picked it up that I'd completely forgot that I had the matching bookmark, and postcard inside, a pleasant surprise). I've since donated one to Jason Denzel and one to Jennifer Liang, for helping make a waking nightmare of a trip to the Gathering Storm signing in Charleston end on an awesome note.

In referring to the "oversize paperback"—it is a softcover book with the dimensions of approximately 6" x 9" (matching the size of the arc as well as the other proofs/galleys/bound manuscripts that I have). On this version, the exterior artwork and inside flap match what is currently on shelves everywhere. There are prices (both Canadian and US, etc) and ISBN # listing.

From your perspective—is there a difference between a galley, bound manuscript, or proof? Just curious, as I have various versions of almost all those written by RJ (have never seen a proof/galley/manuscript for Crown of Swords despite hours and hours of searching).

Teresa Nielsen Hayden (@311)

Okay, this is funny. I've been able to confirm that what Kafmerchant has is a one-of-a-kind artifact from the production of the first edition of The Eye of the World. The line written in red ink at the top edge of the cover that says "Harriet's marked-up copy" is in my handwriting.

Question for those in the know: is the written content in the WoT ARCs or galley copies any different from the retail version? Any changed lines or new/missing parts?

I own a few ARCs of other books, and they don't seem any different from the retail version (as far as I can tell), but reviewers were asked to make sure any quoted text matched with the final version.

Kafmerchant (@323)

For the various versions that I have of this series, the results are all over the place; here are few examples:

A lot of the pre-publication versions I have such as The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn, The Fires of Heaven, Winter's Heart and Knife of Dreams have no obvious noticeable differences from the retail versions (although I haven't read through each in great detail so as to not damage them).

The galley for The Shadow Rising has a prologue of approximately 1.5 pages that was integrated into the first chapter of the finished book.

The advance version (2-book set) for Lord of Chaos has line edits, handwritten notes including some chapter titles written in and notes of what icon is to be used for certain chapters.

For The Path of Daggers, the book I have is labeled as an advance uncorrected bound manuscript that includes tons of changes: many, many line edits, actual chapter revision numbers, and in one spot, a chapter was moved to a different sequence in the book, and that's just what I noticed scanning through it quickly a few years ago.

My intention always has been, if/whenever I get the time to do a detailed review of each book, but that maybe just a pipe dream as I own a small business that consumes my life.

I started discussing some of this with Bob Kluttz of Encyclopaedia-Wot a few years ago in order to try get some info posted on-line, but I don't have the time to do the work nor the space or skills to post the info.

Hope this helps a little.

JD

InkWing announced the results of their Bridge Four T-shirt contest that I talked about last week. Designs #1 and #3B had the most votes, so both of those are now available for preorder.

There's also some Wheel of Time T-shirt news. Ta'veren Tees has a new Aiel by Jeremy shirt available for preorder:

The Aiel illustration was created by WoT comic book artist Jeremy Saliba. Anyone who preorders this shirt is entered to win one of three signed pieces of art by Jeremy (see here for details):

Also, March marks Ta'veren Tees' one-year anniversary, so they're having a customer-appreciation month. There's a monthlong clearance sale on several of their older tees, as well as a chance for people to win free shirts. Each Friday in March they'll make a Free Shirt Friday post on their Facebook page; "like" them on Facebook and comment on that post to be entered to win.

Jeff, do you have a comment on that? 'Where do you think the fandom's gonna go?' You do run a business based on that.

Jeffrey Daniel

Yeah, well, with our business, it really goes where the fandom wants it to go, you know...what do you guys want to see? We do t-shirts now, we have a license for novelty items. Of course, we're gonna be doing playing cards soon; those will be coming out some time soon, whenever Ariel finishes a couple of revisions on those. But we're here to provide you with whatever Wheel of Time items you want to see and buy from us, so if you have any suggestions, just send them to us, contact@taverentees.com, and the more people that ask for something, the more likely we are to make it. So with that regards, I know A Memory of Light will be coming out in January; we are planning to do a Memory of Light shirt probably in the November-December time frame, so you can look for that around then. But yeah, it's basically up to the fandom. That's one of our missions statements: we're here to service whatever merchandising needs you need.

Jennifer Liang

And it is really nice, 'cause I've been in the Wheel of Time fandom since like 1998, and we had to make this stuff ourselves, with like gel paints and markers on our own t-shirts, and Kiley knows, 'cause she was the one that started making all the tees at the first JordanCon, so it's really nice to be able to just pull out a credit card and order something from a website instead of scouring the internet for something that looks sort of like a Wheel of Time thing. Like, my Great Serpent ring is not the officially licensed one because I've had it since before there was an officially licensed one, and it was just a random snake ring I saw on a sterling silver jeweler's table, and I'm like, "I'm buying this right now!" and he didn't understand why I was so excited.

Joe O'Hara

You want to mention what you said last night, Jeff, about the banners? That's exciting.

Jeffrey Daniel

Yeah, that's something that we want to do in the future. If you guys went to the room party last night and you saw the banners that were hanging around the rooms...

Jennifer Liang

Yeah, somebody had to make those for me.

Jeffrey Daniel

Yeah, and that's something that we're looking at doing in the future too, is making the banners.

What do you think the chances are for a limited edition hardcover sort of boxset thing coming out?

theamazingape

Ta'veren Tees will also make an appearance at the convention dealers' room. Unfortunately, they won't have these Servants of All shirts:

but you can preorder them at the con or at this link, and 10% of the preorder sales will go to support the Waygate Foundation. Ta'veren Tees' booth will be selling other Wheel of Time shirts and a Mistborn and The Way of Kings shirt from Inkwing. They'll also have free Mistborn and WoT tattoos, bookmarks, and badge ribbons at the table as well. They're sharing the Planet Comics booth at A23–A26 in the International Ballroom.

Now for the biggest announcement today. As you know, A Memory of Light will be released in hardcover on January 8th, 2013. I will be touring to support its release, but they're still deciding whether the first release event will be in Provo or Charleston. As soon as it's announced, I will let you know.

I realize that not everyone can make it to one of my signings. It's unfair if you live in Germany but want a numbered copy. Therefore, I've started doing virtual booksignings with Weller Book Works (formerly known as Sam Weller's)—a wonderful independent bookseller in Salt Lake City that has been a supporter of my books since I was a nobody—alongside the standard signings I do there. Update: SOLD OUT, sorry! If you emailed and haven't heard back yet, you should still get a book. Don't worry.

I will be going in to Weller's sometime right before Christmas to sign, number, and personalize 700 copies of A Memory of Light. Weller's will then ship them out; they will try to time the shipping so the book arrives at your door on January 8th. However, they're not allowed to deliver before that date, so they can't cut things too close, and some books may arrive after the 8th. If that's the case, though, they'll try to keep the delay as short as possible. International orders will be shipped first, since those have the longest transit time. Due to the size of this book, Weller's will be shipping each book in a Priority Mail medium flat-rate box, which unfortunately drives the price up. But the book itself has a discount of 20% for preorders by December 7th, which helps offset that. Shipping will be $12.00 in-country, $34 to Mexico and Canada, and $49 to other international. If your order is shipped inside Utah, there will also be sales tax. (Note that Weller's cannot track packages internationally. They've tried.) I'm really very sorry that the shipping cost is so high, but books this big just won't fit into cheaper envelopes. On the plus side, the box can fit TWO books, so if you buy two to ship to the same address there is no increased shipping charge.

When you call Weller's, please be certain to tell them (even if they don't ask) specifically how you want the book personalized. If you don't tell them specifically, they will have it signed but not personalized. Simply telling them your name is not enough. You have to tell them "I want it personalized to John" (for example). If you don't want it personalized, tell them "Signature Only" just in case.

About the numbering: If you get a book from one of the two release events (Weller's or the BYU-or-Charleston midnight release), I'll number your copy. These numbers are less about being limited editions and more about getting a special add-on, an indication that you made it to one of the initial events. The numbers will trade off in blocks of 100, so books through Weller's will receive numbers 101—200, 301—400, 501—600, etc. Note that if the midnight release ends up in Charleston, I will definitely still sign books in Utah sometime during the tour, without numbering.

Details:
Weller Book Works A Memory of Light signing-by-mail (SOLD OUT!)
Order by phone or by email:
Phone: (801) 328-2586 or (800) 333-7269
Email: books@wellerbookworks.com
Preorder deadline: SOLD OUT!
Note: You may pay by credit card (on phone orders) or PayPal only.

Some of you want to know how to get signed copies of my other books. If a book has been out for a year, I sell signed hardcovers in my store. (The Alloy of Law isn't up there yet, but it will go up next week.) Many readers like buying signed copies to give as Christmas gifts, so here's the skinny on the holiday shipping deadlines this year. My assistant Becky says that all international orders need to be in by November 12th at 5 p.m. MST, and all domestic orders need to be in by December 5th at 5 p.m. MST. I will still sign book orders that come in after those dates, but the likelihood of a delivery by December 24th goes way down.

Macmillan Audio is running a little promotion for the A Memory of Light audiobook on CD (sorry, US residents only). This image pretty much says it all:

Looks cool! For more details, see this link.

InkWing, which does my Mistborn and Stormlight Archive T-shirts, has another contest where they're giving away a free shirt. See the details here.

If you've been following me on Twitter or Facebook, over the weekend you saw me post about trading books for Magic cards to fill out my cube. I've now received a bunch of cards and am getting ready to send out a bunch of books. Only super rare cards are left on my list, but you can see it here. My assistant Peter also uploaded another Twitter posts archive.

I believe you create merchandise for The Way of Kings and Mistborn. How's that going? Do you ever see people wearing your stuff out in the wild?

InkWing Arts (link here) is the business my wife Kara and I have put together to showcase the artwork I've created for Brandon's worlds. Right now we primarily sell bookmarks and t-shirts, but watch in the future as we add patches, art prints, and games. The goal there is to make cool things based on cool worlds. It's been a lot of fun to interact with fans in this way.

I mostly see the shirts at Brandon's signing events. But my eleven year old son came to me the other day and said he saw someone wearing one our shirts at the grocery store. He thought that was pretty cool. So did I!

I'm sitting here on a plane, flying to Minneapolis after signing 1280(!) books last night at the midnight release of A Memory of Light. That marks it as my largest signing ever, though a whole lot of readers (understandably) grabbed their pre-signed books and ran off to read them, rather than waiting for a personalization.

Harriet did a reading, which my good friend Earl filmed (along with the Q&A). I'm sure he plans to post that as soon as the editing is done, and we'll get you a link. I'll be doing many more signings and readings in the coming weeks. (Of special note is the signing in Lexington, where the bookseller wanted me to let you know that he has been able to get Michael Whelan to send prints of the cover of A Memory of Light. See below this post for details.)

You said something about cover art prints of A Memory of Light?

Yes! Brian from Joseph-Beth is one of those booksellers mentioned above. From the start of my career, he's been in my corner, rooting for my books to do well. (And he has probably hand-sold more copies of my books than any person other than myself.) He tends to do awesome things for booksignings. This time, he called up Michael Whelan and asked if he could somehow get prints of the cover to sell.

The result is that we're going to be selling them at that signing, and ONLY that signing. In fact, so far as I know, this is the only place to get prints of the cover painting right now. Mr. Whelan has already signed each one, and I'll be signing them when in Lexington. [Assistant Peter's note: Michael Whelan will also sell them on his own website—we'll put up a link later—at the same price ($95), but getting it from Joseph-Beth will be faster. If you're not going to the signing you can order it here. There may also be a few prints of the The Way of Kings cover painting available at the signing itself.]

Patrick Rothfuss's Worldbuilders charity is auctioning off a signed first edition hardcover of The Gathering Storm. The auction includes dragon and sword pins from Badali Jewelry and a T-shirt of your choice from Ta'veren Tees that will be signed by the members of Team Jordan. Worldbuilders is a great charity and they also have lots of cool stuff you have a chance of getting by donating, so check out Pat's blog posts about it.

Jewelry favorite of RJ, Elise, at book signing. New line coming out tomorrow.

The signing line wrapped around the perimeter of the bookstore which gave fans the chance to peruse Weller Book Works amazing and unique collection of books. Seriously, if you're ever in Salt Lake, go to this store. Brandon, in his remarks, reminded everyone to support bookstores like these; there would be no good place to have book signings without bookstores, and it's a bit difficult to sign books at the web stores. Memory Keeper Brigitte went through the line playing WoT hangman with fans who were waiting. Brandon took his time with each fan answering their unique (or spoilery) questions. One guy, who is a shoe-in for Perrin's body double, asked Brandon to sign his bicep. That happened.

As a special treat for all of us, the fantastic folks from Badali Jewelry were also at the signing, and they brought great serpent rings, WoT character signet rings, a couple foxhead medallions and much more. They sold more than just WoT items; they also sold items inspired by some of Tor's other series. We saw jewelry from Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller series and Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series. They also generously donated an Asha'man dragon pin, which we auctioned off benefiting the Waygate Foundation, and gave us two items to giveaway—Moiraine's headpeice and a Mistborn metal alphabet.

Thanks to Tor Books and Badali Jewelry, the giveaways were really stellar. We paired Memory of Light messenger bags with a WoT trivia booklet and a paperback of Way of Kings or Memory of Light iPhone case. We had so much to share with fans that if we had done it all separately, we wouldn't have gotten through it all! Everyone had raffle tickets, and many people stuck around for the giveaways after their books were signed—which created a nice cluster of excited fans getting to know each other while they waited. We were raffling off every 5 minutes or so, and kept going until 10pm. The bookstore let us take that large book cover poster from the lectern, and we gave that away too with Brandon's signature on it. The fans were thrilled at that one.

Marc, Brigitte, Michael, Brandon, Charlotte, Chris, Deb and Taylor

The evening drew to a close and we Memory Keepers stuck around to visit and help Brandon as he signed and personalized pre-ordered books for the store. We had all wished for a little more time with him (who wouldn't?), so used the time to pester him with more questions in-between books. We had a discussion about the swords of WoT and learned that most blademaster swords in the books were katanas, much to our surprise, as many of us had imagined them being larger weapons.

We all had an amazing time being part of this experience, this moment in WoT history, and it's not an event we'll soon forget. Our sincere thanks to Dragonmount.com for giving us this opportunity!

Signed,

The SLC Memory Keepers

Pat Rothfuss's Worldbuilders charity drive runs until midnight tonight Central time. Today is the last chance to donate this year, with a good chance to win a cool donated book. The latest batch includes a signed leatherbound copy of my novella Legion. By the way, last week's The Gathering Storm auction went for $300. This week's Legion just goes into the general pool of prizes for people who donate $10 on the Heifer International page. (Each additional $10 donation gets you another ticket in the drawing.)

Will there be Wheel of Time unlimited leatherbound editions?

I'm pushing for them. I don't know if it will happen or not.