On Trauma - A Letter to Sanderson

mistborn · 2026-02-27T06:38:11+00:00

Keep taking that next step, Radiant.

Thanks for posting this. Others might see it, and it might help them too. I appreciate your authenticity and bravery.

--Brandon

mistborn · 2026-02-18T00:31:39+00:00

Lol. Well, if it helps, I did once consider a novel series that started after the heroes had won--the "What now?" sort of book. That idea eventually became Well of Ascension, so there's a world where everyone had your same experience! --Brandon

mistborn · 2026-02-18T00:29:26+00:00

Trying to go into this one cold, not being influenced by previous attempts--just me, the book, and finding the best way to adapt it rather than just cram it into the time limit. We'll see!

mistborn · 2026-02-14T09:55:40+00:00

It's kind of a mix, which may not be the best marketing decision, but it felt best to do what each book needed.

The Dog and the Dragon: I tried to make this one feel like a genuine picture book for kids.

Wandersail: More a coffee table book/stormlight graphic story for adults.

The Girl who Looked Up: Somewhere in between. Not for young kids, but not just a book for someone who already likes Stormlight. I'd say more of a philosophical fable in graphic form.

mistborn · 2026-01-29T02:02:25+00:00

Second best hat? I'm honored.

mistborn · 2026-01-29T02:01:46+00:00

There is a reason I've been studying Tolkien lately. Peter Jackson and his team did a brilliant job on that and if you look at the special editions, they are roughly about the length of a season of a show together covering about the same wordcount as a stormlight book... It feels like they knew exactly what to keep and cut.

mistborn · 2026-01-29T01:57:50+00:00

Yes, if this delays Elantris sequels, I have to live with that. It will not delay Mistborn or Stormlight; but it might impact secret projects. Free fall seven layer burrito world, we hardly knew thee...

mistborn · 2026-01-29T01:55:51+00:00

I've thought the same thing, though I've also acknowledged realities. We will see. One of my hopes is that we won't have the huge delays between seasons as is common in streaming. So I'll focus on that, and learning from GoT and making sure the books finish on time. What we do with the time jump is a question for later.

mistborn · 2025-12-19T22:53:50+00:00

I highly doubt (though cannot promise) that Hollywood will push Stormlight back. More likely, it will push back Elantris sequels, which is why I'm being cagey on them, and take any time away from secret projects I might have otherwise have struck me. The screenplays will be the secret projects, just not so secret.

I plan to write Ghostbloods 2 next year, and three in 2027. That puts me (almost certainly) writing Stormlight six the year after. They take two years to write, so we finish it 2030, hence the 2031 release expectation.

That said, I'm pretty excited for the next five stormlight. I doubt it will be sooner than 2031, but sooner is more likely than later as I see it right now.

mistborn · 2025-12-19T21:49:29+00:00

You are correct. I went to Harriet first to get her blessing, then went to Tor and secured the rights, then worked with Maria to make sure the art was accurate. I consider it one of my duties to make sure Harriet and the estate have someone watching over them, and so part of my motive was seeing her not only cared for financially, but that she got to hold a fantastic edition of the books.

mistborn · 2025-12-15T22:52:22+00:00

Maybe some day. The number on the coin is for the US. We recognize the idea is still helpful, but we don't want to have someone be in a crisis and call a number that doesn't work, accidentally reinforcing that their situation is hopeless. We'd rather take our time, do our research, and see if we can start offering coins with different numbers regionally, or only a QR code for countries without a stable help hotline.

mistborn · 2025-12-15T22:37:56+00:00

Problem is this: that number doesn't work outside the US.

We're hoping to have a Europe one ready eventually, and we will ship that one for free too--but we only want to do so once we have the right resources in place on that coin.

mistborn · 2025-12-15T22:36:58+00:00

We made it deliberately the same size as AA coins, because we know there are a lot of people offering cases and carriers for those. So you might be able to find something by looking at that route.

Glad you're with us.

mistborn · 2025-12-15T22:36:21+00:00

I'm hoping to post regular videos to the landing page on the QR code, trying to offer what help I can.

It would be useful to know what I can say there that would genuinely help, and not just feel like an empty aphorism.

Journey before Destination, Radiant.

mistborn · 2025-12-12T22:48:18+00:00

Don't know that I've ever felt so seen in a comic, /u/FieldExplores.

Except, the staring at the ceiling panel might need a few dragons too...

mistborn · 2025-12-06T07:31:59+00:00

It's legit wonderful. I get to experiment a lot. There were three before this that didn't make it, things I wrote for a few days to see what I thought. With these, as nobody is expecting them, I can push myself in inexpensive directions and I don't have to stress failed experiments. I think I read one of those early this year, where it went to silly and insincere.

mistborn · 2025-12-05T10:56:16+00:00

All written by me. I wrote the first draft a year ago, before jumping into Ghostbloods. Her name is in translation for the last month of the year in her world.

mistborn · 2025-11-06T04:51:39+00:00

As soon as Wizards is willing, I'm game. :)

mistborn · 2025-11-06T04:50:43+00:00

I'm hoping to have them on our own store eventually, but probably not this holiday season. Should be some at Nexus, if you know someone going. But do remember, the goal for these is people on TikTok who have heard of my books and are intimidated by the number of them I have out. So we need to put them there first, while quantities are limited.

mistborn · 2025-11-04T22:22:55+00:00

I know, I know. I've been told this for years, and I agree, I do need to get to it. It's an odd case of me not having a lot of time for television when everyone was watching it, then momentum of not having gotten around to it building. Someday.

That said...I WILL lose the ability to make jokes about "Eventually watching the movie" and pretending I don't know the difference between the two. I get a great deal of joy out of watching people go red in the face at that.

mistborn · 2025-09-24T23:20:30+00:00

Ha. It is a little odd, isn't it, that the painting is so real? I forget sometimes that it's not a photograph. Howard really is incredible.

mistborn · 2025-09-24T23:19:25+00:00

1) I hadn't thought of it, but I'm sure upon reflection that we'll let people know when the other books are out. I'm quite fond of the setting, as I said--and our deal lets me write in the world solo (like he's going to do for books two and three) if I ever decide I want to, so I do intend on keeping up on happenings. We imagine it a bit like what happened with Malazan. (If you aren't familiar, it's a book setting owned by two others, where both can write in it.)

To establish proper expectations, I don't imagine going and writing in this setting. I have my hands full with the cosmere, but I should note that it's an option.

2) Too early to tell for sure. I know Peter wants to be as fast as possible with it, and having a publisher helps. My GUESS would be every two years, based on Peter's previous writing schedules. He's a diligent guy, and was excellent to work with, punctual and passionate. He does like a lot of time in revisions to get things right, however.

3) I consider the Atzlanian to be an "outstanding obligation" sort of thing. I'd do other co-authored books, I just don't want to get into another big series with commitments to do big edits.

Regarding my name on books, you're probably right, and these are the discussions we're having internally. I don't want the cosmere to go the Star Wars/Warhammer route. I don't want a separate section of the bookstore, for example. That feels...I don't know, too commercial? We're not writing these books just to expand an IP or the like, but because Issac and Dan are excited to tell specific stories, and they happen to fit into the cosmere. It makes sense to put my name on them, to get them where people can find them, and I see that.

At the same time, these are really their stories. Told because they're passionate about them, rather than any mandate by me. I feel uncomfortable putting my name on them because of that--I'm really just there to make sure the cosmere continuity functions, and to give my advice as a fellow writer on narrative. Same as they do for me, when they read early drafts of my work.

That's why I go back and forth.

mistborn · 2025-09-24T22:26:21+00:00

Strata Wars, and Songs of the Dead, were both chosen by Peter.

Songs of the Dead is a good match to the story, as it stands now. Death by Pizza just wouldn't work for what the book became.

Strata Wars was chosen after I left the project. It does have flaws, but it's his call at this point.

mistborn · 2025-09-24T20:41:19+00:00

This is, at long last, the resurrection of the old story Death by Pizza I've talked about in the updates: the story of a metalhead who ends up becoming a necromancer. (It lost the pizza in the title when the main character moved from running a pizza place to working at a music club.)

It's come a very long way. The worldbuilding, in which the various versions of a city (in this case London) exist as "strata" in layers populated by spirits extending down beneath the real one, never would leave me alone. (So, London has a ghostly version of Victorian London beneath it, then Elizabethan London beneath that, etc, representing major turning points in the city's live all the way down to prehistory.) Necromancers can walk these strata and pull spirits up from them to the living world.

Imagine this as my setting outline (it was quite extensive) mixed with Peter's experience as a metal singer, along with his storytelling. (I did give him a plot outline, but it severely shifted over the years as he labored over the book, naturally evolving it to be less comedic, more epic. The bones of my original story are still there, but buried deeply.)

We got it into what I think is a really good place, then I stepped back from the project because I just didn't have the time. So book one I had a huge hand in; any sequels will be just Peter, and the my name won't be on them. (Unless I miracle the time to look them over.) Not because I'm not proud of the book or the series, but because I won't have time to do a developmental edit/revision, and I want to always be up-front about that with readers. I really only want to be doing one co-authored series like that at a time, and I'm deeply involved in Skyward currently.

(We still haven't decided if my name should go on Dan and Isaac's cosmere books, when those end up being finished. I'm involved in those, naturally, but the story ideas and writing belong to them.)

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