Tower Guard program + Signed & Numbered TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT

The book's release is getting closer, folks. Are you excited yet?

Dragonmount has announced the Tower Guard program for the upcoming book tour, similar to the Storm Leaders program from last year. Basically, this is an opportunity for a few hardcore fans in each city to spend some personal time with Harriet and me, in exchange for helping out at the signing. I had a great time with the Storm Leaders last year, and I look forward to it again this year. If you're interested in the opportunity, Dragonmount's application is right here.

I've also put up a page explaining how to get signed & numbered copies of TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT. For those who can't attend a signing during the tour, pay close attention to the section on the Sam Weller's signing by mail. There's an important addition to that this time: For no additional shipping cost, you can buy another book to be delivered in the same box, such as a second copy of TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT, or a copy of THE GATHERING STORM or THE WAY OF KINGS. (Only TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT will be numbered, but I'll sign and personalize the other books too.)

On the same page, details on the numbering system for the midnight release are there too. If you went to the THE WAY OF KINGS release it will work pretty much the same way, but there are a few changes from how it worked at last year's THE GATHERING STORM release. Plus they have some cool things planned for the release party. Check it out.

Registering for Worldcon, TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT News, InkWing T-Shirt + Updates

The World Science Fiction Convention, Worldcon for short, is held in a different city throughout the world each year. Next year it will be in Reno, Nevada, from August 17th through 21st. Hundreds of professionals in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror field congregate along with a few thousand fans. I'll be going, and will likely be on a few panels talking about the craft of writing and related topics.

This is also the convention where the Hugo Awards are voted on by the members. When I was a teenager first getting into fantasy and science fiction, I soon learned that "Hugo Award Winner!" emblazoned on the cover of a paperback meant it was going to be a good book. If you've ever wanted to vote for a Hugo, all you have to do is preregister early enough to get a voting ballot (sometime next spring, though to nominate you need to be a member by January). The convention in 2011 votes for books that came out in 2010, as well as for awards such as best editor, best dramatic presentation, and best fan artist.

Anyway, the cost for registration goes up this Friday and will go up again in March. So if you're interested in going, now is the time to register. I hope to see a lot of fans there.

In other news, I've posted a couple more annotations for WARBREAKER. First I talk about the God King's arrival at the Court of Gods. Then I discuss the life-sense aspect of the magic system.

We've got two new things up for you on the Writing Excuses podcast site. First is the newest episode on creating suspense. Next Dan, Howard, and I recorded an acceptance speech for our Parsec Award. Once again we missed the awards ceremony, though Dan and I were both there at Dragon*Con . . . (And don't worry about the way I sound; my voice has since recovered.)

There's been some Wheel of Time news I haven't mentioned here. First, two early reviews of TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT have gone up, from Leigh Butler on Tor.com and Jason on Dragonmount. And today I received proof covers from Tor. The book comes out in a mere 34 days. Are you ready? My tour schedule is on my site, along with a few conventions I'll be attending later. Oh, and the paperback and ebook versions of THE GATHERING STORM came out today.

Finally, InkWing Arts, the store started by Mistborn and Stormlight Archive artist Isaac Stewart for merchandise based on those series, is having a drawing for a free T-shirt. If you saw me on the THE WAY OF KINGS tour you may have seen me in one of the T-shirts or received an Epic Bookmark. Anyway, it's all pretty cool stuff and Isaac's designs are great. Check it out.

TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT Prologue ebook Released + Updates + Orem Library

As of midnight last night, the prologue ebook for TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT is now available to buy from the usual ebook stores: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Sony, Kobo, etc. There is also an audiobook version on Audible.

Some people have wondered who would want to buy just the prologue six weeks early when it doesn't include anything you won't get when the full book comes out on November 2nd. This is something that's really only for the hardcore fans who just can't wait any longer. Most people will wait and that's perfectly okay. But for those who don't want to wait, or who can't stand to avoid the spoiler discussion threads on Tor.com, Dragonmount, and Theoryland, the prologue is out there for you. How long is it? It's not the longest prologue in the Wheel of Time by any means, but there are six different points of view and the audio version clocks in at just under two hours. It's a bit longer than the prologue from THE GATHERING STORM.

There will be free previews too. Chapter 8 was revealed here via the recent great hunt. And I've heard Tor.com will put up the first two chapters as they did last year. But in any case, the book release is only six weeks away. We're in the home stretch.

In other news, the most recent WARBREAKER annotations cover Lightsong hearing petitions, Denth talking to Vivenna about Breath, the relationship between Lightsong and Blushweaver, and converging viewpoints in the Court of Gods.

Two more episodes of the Writing Excuses podcast with Dan Wells and Howard Tayler have gone up. In the first one we're joined by Bree Despain to talk about character quirks. In the second, we again talk with Bree about writing in first person. Check it out.

Finally, I'm leaving in a few minutes to head to the Orem Library to speak at their Orem Reads kickoff. Details are on their site.

Guest Blogging, Babel Clash, Interviews, Authorpalooza Tomorrow, and TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT Tour

Peter here again. Brandon is back from his tour, but he's been very active online everywhere except his own website, it seems! First up, last weekend John Scalzi's Whatever blog featured a guest post essay by Brandon entitled Postmodernism in Fantasy. For people confused about what that might cover, let me say it involves a Jewel music video. (Okay, I know that doens't help. Just go read it.)

To follow that up, Brandon is joined by hit fantasy writer Brent Weeks over on the Babel Clash blog for this week (and I think next week too), posting back and forth at each other. Brent played off Brandon's Whatever essay and they went from there, talking about foreshadowing, deus ex machina, and other writing concepts. Go read them.

Three different interviews mostly about THE WAY OF KINGS have gone up recently, from seven prominent review bloggers who pooled questions in three separate groups and submitted them to Tor. I asked Brandon these questions right before his tour started, and his recorded answers took eighty minutes of audio. So they're pretty detailed and interesting. Check all of them out.

• Pat's Fantasy Hotlist
• Grasping for the Wind
• Stomping on Yeti
• Mad Hatter's Bookshelf & Book Review

Tomorrow Brandon will be appearing at the Orem Barnes & Noble Authorpalooza, with over 40 other local authors including people like (um, I can't find a comprehensive list, so I won't guarantee this): Dan Wells, Brandon Mull, Shannon Hale, Jessica Day George, James Dashner, etc. The address is on Brandon's events page. It's at 1:00, so if you're nearby, grab all your books and head down there.

And if you look at that events page you'll notice that the book tour for TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT has been arranged, and Harriet McDougal will be accompanying Brandon in every city this time around. It's going to be a shorter tour; Brandon has spent over half a month on tour already and needs a bit of a break. He does plan a much longer tour when A MEMORY OF LIGHT comes out; Brandon has some ideas about how to make that the best tour ever for the fans. But that's a long way off; Brandon still has to write the book! In any case, for those who will ask, yes, there will be a "Storm Leader"-type program for the TOWERS tour; keep your eyes peeled on Dragonmount for details on the Tower Guards program.

The Great Hunt Update

Hi all, Brandon's assistant Peter here. He's off on his tour (Thursday's stop is in the Chicago area), so he doesn't have a lot of time to update the blog. He did write one blog post ahead of time, which I'll post tomorrow probably. And you can keep track of his progress on Twitter and Facebook.

Brandon wanted me to give everyone an update on the promotion for TOWERS OF MIDNIGHT that Brandon & Tor are doing in conjunction with the THE WAY OF KINGS tour. (The book, by the way, was just announced today as having hit #7 on the New York Times bestseller list to be released in ten days or so. Congrats, Brandon!) This promotion is being called The Great Hunt; Brandon is dropping clues in every stop on his tour that will slowly reveal more of the encrypted text found here. As I write this, 17 clues have been found or guessed outright. Brandon wanted me to list the clues and who found them, but . . . why should I duplicate effort? ;) Terez from Theoryland is already doing a great job at exactly that. So I suggest you pop over to this page if you want a roundup of all clues currently found or guessed. Brandon also adds more information more or less daily on Twitter and Facebook.

There are a few other updates for me to get to. WARBREAKER annotations have been continuing. (Brandon wrote these before the book was even published, and I have a number of them queued for release every Tuesday and Thursday.) The newest annotations cover a lot of stuff in chapters seven, eight, nine, ten, and eleven such as Siri meeting the God King, Blushweaver's character origin, Vivenna's viewpoints, and Parlin.

Two more Writing Excuses podcast episodes went up. Brandon, Dan, and Howard first answer audience questions on a number of writing-related topics, and then talk about the third-person limited viewpoint. On another note, the podcast has once again won a Parsec award, presented this past weekend at Dragon*Con. Last year when it won, none of the three hosts were at Dragon*Con, but this year two of them were there (Howard was at Worldcon losing the Hugo award again) and they still couldn't attend the ceremony—Brandon and Dan were both signing books at the Decatur Book Festival during that timeslot. Oops. I assume that the three will make some kind of official acceptance speech eventually, as they did last year. Thanks everyone for listening, and they hope you find the podcast helpful and not boring!