The beta of the new site can be seen right here!

Before you go there, however, let me explain some things.  First off, it’s not done yet.  Most of the things to fix at this point have to do with updating content and writing explanations.  So, there are some holes!  We’re not worried about that as much as we are about how easy things are to find.  My old site was…well, rough.  Nobody could find anything.  (Except maybe Ookla, but he knows everything anyway.)

So, what we need your help on is feedback regarding FINDING things.  Is this site any easier to navigate?  My brother has put together a kind of scavenger hunt, and has asked for beta testers to see if they can find things.  The link to the survey/hunt is at the top.  I’d suggest opening a new window or tab to look for the things he asks you to find, then write your experiences in the form on the survey as you go.  Also, know that on the survey page itself there are a LOT of typos.  (My brother wrote it, and he’s a code monkey, not an English major.)  Since that page will be taken down before we go live anyway, it’s not a problem.  So, don’t worry about reporting bugs on the ‘report bugs here’ page!

Other than that, have fun, look around, see what you can find and what you think.  Leave us specific feedback on the survey form, or post general impressions on my LJ or forums. 

Thanks a ton! 

Can anyone else confirm this?  I’m a little surprised to see the book going on sale this early.  But, I guess early is better, right?  (Going to make it tough to break any sales records or anything if some bookstores put it out now, but others wait until next month, but whatever.) 

So, if you’ve been waiting for this one (or, if you’re done with Mistborn 2 and now want to see what I’d do with a more lighthearted story) go pick up a copy!  Sample Chapter right here!

In related news, I completely forgot to blog about a book edited by a friend of mine.  Stacy Whitman is a long time pal, and an editor over at Wizard’s of the Coast.  She’s been very excited for the release of Hallowmere, by Tiffany Trent, and I wanted to throw a link and a congratulations their way.  The book came out last week, I believe.  If you like Victorian teen girl fic with a creepy side to it, then this is the book for you!

And, something more lighthearted.  I just HAVE to blog about this one.  If you didn’t know, my wife and I are having our first child this November.  Pemberly has been working furious, like all expectant moms, to get the house ready for the little one.  Last week takes the cake, however, as she came home with a matching nightgown and baby jumper for herself and the kid. 

Matching.  Now, this may not surprise most of you, but that’s not the sort of thing my wife does.  She’s very non-girly.  It was amusing because she showed it to me with an almost guilty air, claiming that it wasn’t her fault that she did something that ‘cute’.  Marketing and hormones contrived together to make her, apparently, buy it against her will. 

Anyway, that’s not your problem.  However, it IS something of a problem for you if you drive all the way to the bookstore and they don’t have any copies in stock!  I would like to know if that happened to any of you last week.  Did anyone who reads the blog here try to find Mistborn 2 and find it either sold out or not being carried by a bookstore you called or visited?  If so, let me know! 

You can post on my LJ (anonymous comments are enabled). 
You can post on my Facebook Wall
You can say something on my forums (where several people have already made this complaint, which is why I thought to ask.)
You can email me.

Let me know your story, and if you were annoyed hat it was tough to find the book.  I will then forward the comments on to my editor who can show them to the Barnes and Noble sales rep.  Don’t make anything up, and please be respectful!  We are happy that Barnes and Noble ordered the copies they did, and I have a number of fans in the organization.  However, we do want some ammunition to show them they’re going to need to order more copies.

In the meantime, if you’re having trouble finding the book, why not try Booksense to find an independent bookseller near you who has copies in stock?  It’s always fun to visit independent bookstores–I think you’ll enjoy the experience.  Also, if you haven’t decided whether to buy the book or not, check out Pixelfish’s review of it!

I’ll do an Amphigory tomorrow, since this book stole all of the space today.

One of the pivotal places I changed the book during drafting, as has been discussed in the annotations, was during the scene where Kelsier first outlines the plan to his crew.  The first draft of the book had much more of a ‘heist’ feel, with Kelsier funding and organizing the plan himself. 

This didn’t end up working.  By midway through the book, I’d pretty much dropped this plot line, and I felt the original ‘give the plan’ chapter was offering false promises.  The book turned into a ‘Let’s raise an army and also rip of the Lord Ruler’ not ‘Let’s scam the Lord Ruler.’  So, I revised heavily. 

Originally, Yeden had been brought in by Kelsier because Kelsier wanted to use the man’s connections to help with his rip-off.  This was always a weak reason to have the rebel leader involved, so I decided that it would all work better if Yeden were the one who hired the crew.  That would give them more direction and allow me a better way to explain things.

Anyway, the section below is the first draft of the ‘Here’s the plan’ scene.  Enjoy.

(p.s.  Have I mentioned the two books I have out for Pre-order right now?  Mistborn 2 and Alcatraz?  I have?  Oh, well then, carry on.)

—Begin excerpt—

“All right,” said the dissatisfied, plain-looking Yeden. “I’ve come to your meeting, Kelsier, though against my better judgement. I’ve waited upon your pleasure of arriving. Now I want to know why I’m here.”

“I would have thought that would be obvious, Yeden,” Kelsier said lightly. “You’re here because of your connection to the Skaa Rebellion.”

“You know what I mean, Kelsier,” Yeden snapped. “I don’t like mingling with thieves and cut-throats, especially smart-mouthed ones. If you think I’m going to participate in one of your jobs. . . .”

Kelsier smiled. “Oh, you’re going to participate, Yeden. But, this isn’t going to just be a regular job. In fact, it’s going to be different from any job any crew has ever tried to pull.”

Kelsier paused, smiling dramatically.

Breeze rolled his eyes. “Kell, you’ve kept this ‘job’ secret from us for eight months now. We know it’s big, we know you’re excited, and we’re all properly annoyed at you for being so secretive. So, why don’t you just go ahead and tell us what it is?”

“All right, gentlemen,” Kelsier said. “It’s really rather simple. We’re going to overthrow the Final Empire.”

Silence. Vin frowned, and the others seemed equally confused.

“Excuse me?” Ham asked.

“You heard me right, Ham,” Kelsier said. “That’s the job I’ve been planning–the destruction of the Final Empire and the death of the Lord Ruler.”

Ham sat back, then shared a glance with Breeze. Both men turned toward Dockson, who nodded solemnly. The room remained quiet for a moment longer, then the silence was broken by the sound of Yeden’s scornful laughter.

“You are a fool and an idiot,” Yeden said. “Overthrow the Final Empire? What do you think my companions and I have been trying to do all our lives? What do you think the Skaa Rebellion as been struggling to achieve for the last thousand years. Now you stroll into the room and say you’re going to do it, just like that? Do you have any idea how foolish you sound?”

Kelsier didn’t flush at the rebuke–he just stood with his arms folded, smiling slightly. “Are you finished?”

Yeden shook his head. “I’ll admit that part of me is impressed that you’ve finally gotten over your selfishness and decided to help your fellow skaa. But this isn’t the way, Kelsier. Come with me, and I’ll show you how to get involved with the rebellion–we could use a man of your resourcefulness. You’ll soon see that resisting the Final Empire is no simple ‘job’ to be accomplished by a bunch of pickpocketing miscreants, but a lifelong struggle.”

Kelsier raised a finger. “You see. This is why the Skaa Rebellion has never succeeded. No vision.”

“No vision?” Yeden sputtered.

“No vision,” Kelsier replied with a nod. “You spurn the thieving crews because of their greed, but for all your high morals–which, by the way, I respect–you never get anything done. You never plan to defeat the Lord Ruler, you simply ‘resist’ him. You hide in woods and in hills, plotting how you’ll someday rise up and lead a glorious war against the Final Empire. . .you just never get there. You have no idea how to develop and execute a proper plan.”

Yeden’s expression grew dark. “And you have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Oh?” Kelsier said lightly. “Tell me, what has your rebellion accomplished lately? You’ve been working on this problem for a thousand years, as you mentioned. Where are your successes and your victories? The Massacre of Tougier three centuries ago, where seven hundred Skaa rebels were slaughtered? The occasional raid of a travelling caravan or kidnapping of a minor noble official? What has the Rebellion accomplished?”

Yeden flushed. “We’re skaa, man! What do you expect of us?”

Kelsier obviously didn’t find this comment very impressive. Vin sat in her corner, watching with a frown. What is your game, Kelsier? His words about overthrowing the Final Empire were obviously a front, but what was he really trying to do? Perhaps he intended to scam the Skaa Rebellion. Vin had heard of the organization–such that it was. Reen had spoken of it with scorn, describing its members as a group of ‘idealistic fools.’ They didn’t sound like the type to have enough money to bother scamming.

Kelsier turned from Yeden, instead regarding the table with Breeze and Ham. “You have objections?”

The two men shared a look. Finally Breeze spoke. “Lord Ruler knows I don’t often find reason to agree with Yeden or his ilk, Kell, but I do question your reasoning. Why us? Why now?”

“Who better than us?” Kelsier said. “Previous attempts to overthrow the Lord Ruler have failed because they lacked proper organization and planning. We’re thieves, gentlemen–and we’re extraordinarily good ones. We know how to do the impossible; we can rob the unrobbable and fool the unfoolable. We know how to take an incredibly large task and break it down to manageable pieces, then deal with each of those pieces. We know how to get what we want, and these things make us perfect for this particular task.”

Breeze frowned.

Kelsier stood up, stepping away from the bar and walking toward the group. “Think about it,” he said. “The Skaa Rebellion can’t hope to overthrow the government. The Lord Ruler is just too powerful; he has too many agents. He can keep a careful watch on even the extremities of his empire. The rebellion fails because it’s too big. Any time one of its many pieces begins to gain any momentum, the Steel Priesthood inevitably crushes it.

“That’s not the way to defeat the Final Empire, gentlemen. It’s too unwieldy, too easily countered. But, a small team–specialized and highly skilled–has a hope. We can work without great risk of exposure. We know how to avoid the Steel Priesthood’s tendrils. We understand how the High Nobility thinks, and how to exploit its members. We can do this!”

He paused beside Breeze and Ham’s table.

“I don’t know, Kell,” Ham said. “I’m not that I’m disagreeing with your motives. It’s just that. . .well, this seems a bit foolhardy.”

Kelsier smiled. “I know it does. But you’re going to go along with it anyway, aren’t you?”

Ham paused, then nodded. “You know I’ll join your crew no matter what the job. This sounds crazy, but so do most of your plans. Just. . .just tell me. Are you serious?”

Kelsier nodded. For some reason, Vin was almost tempted to believe him.

Ham sighed. “All right, then. I’m in.”

“Breeze?” Kelsier asked.

The well-dressed man shook his head. “I’m not sure, Kell. This is a bit extreme, even for you.”

“We need you, Breeze,” Kell said. “No one can Push a crowd like you can.”

“Well, that much is true,” Breeze said. “But, even still. . . . Overthrowing the Final Empire, Kell?”

Kelsier smiled, then he set something on the table. Vin had to move a little to the side to see the object–it was the cup of wine she had poured for Breeze. She hadn’t even noticed that Kelsier had grabbed it off of the bar.

“Think of the challenge, Breeze,” Kelsier said.

Breeze glanced at the cup, then looked up at Kelsier. Finally, he laughed, reaching for the wine. “Fine. I’m in.”

“It’s impossible,” a gruff voice said from the back of the room. Clubs sat with folded arms, regarding Kelsier with a scowl. “What are you really planning, Kelsier?”

“I’m being honest,” Kelsier replied. “I plan to overthrow the Final Empire.”

“Where’s the money in that?” Clubs demanded.

“This isn’t about money, Clubs,” Kelsier said. “But, I’m not simply depending on your altruism. Dockson and I will be funding this project–we’ll pay you a fair reward for your services.”

Clubs snorted loudly. Then he stood, his chair toppling backward onto the floor behind him. “No reward would be enough. The Lord Ruler tried to have you killed once–I see that you won’t be satisfied until he gets it right.” With that, the older man turned and stalked in a limping gait from the room, slamming the door behind him.

Here’s a new piece of fiction for you: Scribbler Chapter Three

This will be the last Scribbler chapter I will post until I do the revision sometime this summer.  I’m planning to rework these chapters a lot, so I’ll show you the new ones when I have them finished. 

I’ll find something new to throw up next week–though it will probably late.  Chances are good that I’ll leave on Saturday and stay in California Sunday through Tuesday, meaning I will miss posting on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  There should be a new annotation tomorrow, however.

And, to apologize for being late with this, here’s an ultra cool link for the week:  Print off and make your own paper sci-fi creations!

Hum.  Clues.  Let’s see.  Would you say that those numbers are a little on the large size?  And, you should be aware that this is playing off a certain movie series’s titles….

No, I haven’t actually seen the third movie yet.  I’ve been tempted, but the honest truth is that I’m feeling rather blah about it.  Spider-man three was fun, but nowhere near as good as the second.  Shrek three was okay, but again, not as good as the second.  Pirates two is ALREADY worse than the first.  So, that leaves me thinking that three will be another slight disappointment. 

Oh, just a warning.  I’ll be out of town for a few days next week.  My wife is in California camping on the beach, and I’ll be joining her.  It will probably mean a few day outage on my blogs, as I won’t have much in the way of Internet access.  I might find a way to post via my phone, but if I do that, it will only be on my main blog.  The mirror blogs (Livejournal, Blogger, Facebook, etc.) won’t be as likely to get updated. 

In case you’re wondering, we ARE still working on a new site design for bs.com.  We’ve actually purchased evillibrarians.com (though I now think we should have grabbed .org on that one.)  Right now it just points here.  I’m going to have to be doing some work for that one soon.

Here’s a new annotation:  Chapter Thirty-Seven Part Two

We’re almost done with the Mistborn annotations, which is good, since the paperback is almost out.  (It’s arriving in July.)

And, since I haven’t done one in a while, here is an:

Idea of the Day:  Write a story about an odd kind of racism/bigotry.

Try for something odd here–a few steps beyond the standard.  Sure, we’ve read about racism against humans by aliens (or vice versa.)  However, have you ever heard of an institutional prejudice against anyone who has lost one or more of their fingers in an accident?  Or, prejudice against people who were born on the wrong day?  Try for something odd. 

So, I’ll be releasing a few chapters of Scribbler over the next few weeks.  I won’t be releasing the entire book–this one doesn’t have a home yet, and we’ll be shopping it to publishers later this year.  I can’t post much of it (or even send out copies the book to many people) for fear of interfering with that.  But, I can put up two or three chapters for you to look at.

This book was something of an experiment for me.  I wanted to try an actual Young Adult book (my Alcatraz novels are technically middle grade.)  I had a great idea for a magic system and plot, and so eventually I broke down and wrote this chapter.  Once I had it done, I knew I had to finish the book.

So, here you go–enjoy reading it.  Some enterprising people on my forums have already noticed that I uploaded this a few weeks back.  I’m going to have to keep an eye on thinks like that. 

All right, here we go!  Warbreaker the complete novel.

Those of you who have been following along are aware of this project.  For the rest of you, this is a complete novel I’ve been releasing chapter-by-chapter as an ebook.  The novel will be out in print sometime in 2009, which means I’m probably releasing this WAY too early to be effective publicity for the the book itself.

Still, I loved the process of letting readers see draftwork as I wrote the novel.  I intend to post full copies of the earlier version with comparisons that readers can use to see just what I changed.  As I edit the draft for my editor and agent, I’ll post the new ones.  Those who want to follow along can see what changes get made as a book approaches print form.  Then, hopefully, they’ll buy the actual book when it comes out!

This is also, however, a thank-you for all of those who read my books and take the time to visit my website. 

Now that it’s finished, I’d like to think about doing an html version that people can read, perhaps with annotations alongside or something like that.  We’ll also likely be podcasting this thing in audio version once CtlZed gets done reading it. 

If I could make a request.  Those of you out there who do fan art, it would be very nice to have some illustrations to use alongside Warbreaker posts and the like.  If you have an inclination toward doing such things, I’d be sure to put the art to good use. 

Well, I’m getting close to being done with my reader mail inbox!  It will be very nice to have that thing cleaned out, totally and completely.  Then I can start on my regular inbox.  Hopefully, by next Wednesday, everything will be done. 

Now that I’m done with my class, maybe I will have enough time to blog more story prompts.  Here’s one for today:

Idea of the Day:  Write a story form the viewpoint of an inanimate object that people wouldn’t normally write a story about.

With this, I’m thinking of a magic item.  Something that normally wouldn’t be magical.  I’ve been tempted to start blogging from the viewpoint of an enchanted bookmark, granted intelligence by the Evil Librarians, which is where this idea came from.

The trick with doing a story in this style would be active participation by the narrator.  If you have an object doing the talking, then the story will feel distant since the object is an observer.  The challenge, then, is to not only make the reader care about something normally inanimate, but also make the other characters likable and not undermine the book’s sense of tension.  (Usually, having an inactive protagonist is one of the most unpleasant of storytelling methods.)

Still, this is a time tested way of looking at a story in a new way.  I’m sure people will post stories done in this manner.  If you can make it feel original and active, then it could be a very nice hook into a story.