Where's Waldo? Keeping Up with Brandon Sanderson
Written By: Aratouial
It’s said that if you want something done, give it to a busy person.
Harriet Rigney chose well.
Keeping up with everything Brandon Sanderson has on his plate is a bit like your high school chemistry teacher refereeing a dodge-ball game. Entertaining, but nigh impossible.
In his non-Wheel of Time endeavors, Sanderson has finished his manuscript for the opening of The Stormlight Archive, which is due to be released August 17. Rumored that when completed it will be ten volumes long, the first book is titled The Way of Kings and is roughly double the length of Elantris and Mistborn. TOR has purchased four of the books, but Sanderson indicated that it would be longer than that on his official blog. He has been working on it for almost fifteen years, and has developed what sounds to be a lush back-story rich in history, culture, detail, and scope. He revealed a little of what he has planned at the Barnes & Noble forums, a recap of which can be found at A Dribble of Ink.
On January 19, he and his wife (dubbed “The Queen,”) welcomed a son into the world, Dallin Matthew. He’s also been keeping busy with his book tour and signings as well as appearing at conventions. This past weekend at JordanCon, he played Magic with fans, and plans to put in another appearance at CONduit XX in Salt Lake City on May 28. He’s continuing to hone old projects, updating annotations and full chapters. Isaac Stewart created a Table of Allomantic Metals ($9.99), with wallpapers to come soon. Maintaining an active online presence, he updates his blog regularly-- which is mirrored on facebook and twitter. Always supportive of aspiring writers, he is one-third of the trio over at Writing Excuses.
Wheel of Time has witnessed an uprising on the great WWW, with Rand al’Thor winning the cage match at Suvudu, which gave Sanderson a unique opportunity. He single-handedly resurrected the contestants and then defeated them all—again—with his brilliant wit. The pen is mightier than the sword, after all. The Gathering Storm took on all comers in a battle of audiobook proportions, and was declared “Champion of the Audiobook” at audible.com. Towers of Midnight is tentatively scheduled for release in November, which Sanderson affirms is still a realistic goal.
And now for the rumor mongering!
Paloppa Pictures (who was partly behind the new film Letters to God) has purchased the option on film rights to Mistborn, and has a tentative 2011 release date over at imdb.com. It’s still in the script writing stage, but both Paloppa and Sanderson seemed enthused when this was announced in January. After that announcement, it has fallen off the radar.
On the Wheel of Time end of the spectrum, things are looking up. The graphic novel releases continue to do well, and although NBC bought the rights to a miniseries quite a while back, the movie rights have been claimed by Red Eagle Entertainment, who has joined with Universal Pictures. There’s no official word on that end, though.
What is exciting is the February 15 announcement that Obsidian Entertainment has joined with Red Eagle Games to create Wheel of Time games for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. EA has agreed to distribute; Chris Morgan (Fast and the Furious, Wanted) has been chosen for Story Director, and Patrick Tatopoulos (I Robot, Independence Day, Underworld, Pitch Black, I am Legend, among others) is the Art Director. Obsidian Games created Neverwinter Nights, Fallout, and Knights of the Old Republic. According to Obsidian’s website, they are working on an “exciting, unannounced” project.
Addendum: the deadline for Towers of Midnight is August 17.
