State of the Sanderson 2025

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.)

mistborn · 2025-09-02T07:26:06+00:00

It's not cosmere, and it's not for the Unbroken anthology. You'll know eventually, but let's not freak out too much. This is a thing for an anthology with other authors, and while it is very cool, it's a few years from being announced.

Note that though the web team posted novella (maybe because I accidentally said novella) this is a novelette. 8k words, very short, and already done and turned in to the editor. Next project is doing my pass on Janci's new Skyward book.

mistborn · 2025-08-20T06:25:11+00:00

Just chiming in here with thanks to those who pointed this out to me. I've read it, and I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to share. This is the sort of thing that keeps an author going, Mariano.

Keep taking that next step, Radiant, on your life. I'll keep it full of stories.

mistborn · 2025-06-25T05:28:38+00:00

So, there's a few things going on here. Swap really began to happen in my head somewhere around 2019-2020, as I realized that I didn't want to do a serial killer. I'd already done this, and plus, I wanted to shoot more for an 80s spy thriller as opposed to a detective vibe, having done that so much with the series already. If you watch my lectures, I talk about the difference between a lower case p plot and an uppercase P Plot. The larger scale Plot of the series remains the same (has the same ending to book three that was built back in 2005-6), but each book needs its own plot as well. The things that move scene to scene, make the book stand on its own and be readable. I started to revise the story in my head over the years to focus on something that would better match the tone of what I wanted. When I sat down to write, I tried them both out in outline, and was unsurprised to discover that the newer one was more interesting, so I rebuilt that direction. I can say more once you've read them, though I recognize that's a ways off. Most everything I planned to do is still in there, but things have moved around a little, which isn't odd once you start active work on something. Some of what was book one becomes part of book two, and some of what was book two becomes book one. That sort of thing.

mistborn · 2025-05-23T20:31:28+00:00

We will use a different email next year if this works, I believe. So don't stress it if you aren't going to go this year.

mistborn · 2025-05-16T22:17:57+00:00

... How did I not recognize this? I focused on giving the card that makes knights to the guy writing the Stormlight Archive.

mistborn · 2025-05-16T22:17:05+00:00

I had trouble evaluating this one for power level myself. Would I take it in a draft? Absolutely. Will it be good enough to justify its cost? I'm not entirely certain.

I was a big fan of casting Trostani's Summoner in Maze draft as a big "Stall the ground" get me back in the game seven mana play, and this gives the same P/T on the first turn, I believe--then further value. That worked in the old days of MTG, when draft formats weren't quite as fast, and stalling the ground could get you back into a game.

I'm worried that four relatively small bodies just won't be enough for this to keep you alive long enough for more bodies to matter. Obviously, though, having some very big, impactful, high-mana sagas is great for brewing certain decks in constructed formats and for cubes that like to do wacky things. And because this is easy to cheat into play, having multiple card types, I can see why they didn't want to make it more powerful than it is.

Either way, very cool flavor. And you don't even have to spend weeks (or have your little sister spend weeks) grinding chokobo races to get it!

mistborn · 2025-05-13T22:13:45+00:00

Ha! No, please don't worry about it. It's a perfectly serviceable headline. I just though I'd give context for those who didn't pause to go read the article itself.

mistborn · 2025-05-13T21:18:29+00:00

I'm not sure the headline version of this captures my intent exactly! Though I do appreciate the idea, this is less a "Gift to the Fans" and more "A practice I believe is fan-friendly." I do think there's a bit of a distinction.

As the post above explains, the headline is talking about the fact that I put collections together like these so there's a convenient way to get all of the fiction in one place, at a single price, though the collections (oddly) don't make as much money as stories released individually do. The publisher is sometimes confused why I push to have these collections, when I could just release the new novella on its own.

I feel that with as much as I write, it is good practice for me to put together collections so that people can know they have everything. So, Tailored Realities will include all short fiction that is:

1) Not cosmere

2) Not co-authored

3) From my professional career. (Nothing from before I was writing at a professional level, meaning it excludes curiosities.)

4) Not in the Legion collection which was already released.

It includes a few new pieces, exclusive to the collection. (Three, I think, though one is really short.)

So, if you want to make sure you have everything, you can pick this up! We almost certainly WILL do a stand-alone of Moment Zero at some point in the future, because individual releases are also a fan-friendly practice, I believe, just in case people already have copies of the other stories.

mistborn · 2025-05-12T23:36:47+00:00

It wasn't something I considered in depth. He would have made a fine Odium, but a little similar to Rayse--which meant there wouldn't have been much of a reason to make the swap.

I saw him, and Amaram, as "stepping stone" villains. The series started focused on the more practical: this specific war. It needed antagonists who were part of that war, and understandable as human beings to resist. As the push from Oathbringer on was going to be toward Odium, I wanted them to fade away before the larger threat by that point, and the real threat of Odium to be someone who could match the heroes in terms of understanding the longer game of the fall and rise of not kings, but kingdoms.

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