Baffled Editor

I got an call from my editor, sounding quite befuddled, last week.  You see, we've been in negotiations for THE WAY OF KINGS, and it appears Tom (CEO of TOR) discovered the fake WAY OF KINGS Amazon page and was completely dumbfounded at how it got there.  They were very amused at the explanation (that it's been there for years, ever since Amazon somehow got wind that I had signed my original contract with Tor to include it.  They never deleted the entry after I pulled the project in favor of MISTBORN.)  Somebody needs to make sure to archive all of those reviews--I'm going to try to preserve this page once THE WAY OF KINGS really comes out.  (Perhaps we can tell Amazon that this is the 'unabridged edition' or something so they'll leave the page.)  But I can't promise anything.

Anyway, on a more serious note, negotiations for KINGS are essentially done (though there is still some discussion of audio rights) so we should have an official announcement floating around here fairly soon.  Four books to start.  We'll see where the series goes.  I still intend to end up alternating two KINGS books (the series is probably going to be called THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE, though my editor isn't sold on that yet) with other projects, like WARBREAKER 2 or another book in the ELANTRIS world.  Perhaps I'll finally get to write THE SILENCE DIVINE, which I've been toying with for years, but haven't had the time to write.  Anyway, I'll now owe Tor three of those 'stand alone' style books and four Way of Kings books.  And that's all, of course, secondary to the work on the Wheel of Time.  (I'm currently tweaking the outline for the second chunk of the three.)  Needless to say, I'll be busy.

However, it's not the kind of business that you have to worry about.  I LIKE doing this.  Quite a bit.  I do make sure to take plenty of time for my family (generally, 5-7 is family time, with an occasional movie or other event during the week as well.)  I did drop out of my role-playing group and my writing groups in order to get more time for The Wheel of Time these last few months, but I intend to ease back into some of that this summer.  (Role playing every other week, doing only one writing group instead of two.)  But remember this any time any of us authors try to impress you with how much time we've been spending--we do it to ourselves, and we really enjoy it.  Now, I don't really look forward to the weeks when I spend sixty or seventy+ hours editing.  Those...well, those aren't much fun.  But most of the time, the fifty or sixty hours a week spent writing are quite fun.  As my wife says, writing is my job AND my hobby.  I would generally rather be working on one of my books as opposed to sitting in front of the television. 

In general--except during crazy months like March/April this year--my rule of thumb is that I do a normal eight hour day, and then can call it quits if other things are happening.  If nothing pressing is going on (there aren't any dinners, family events, or Pemberly time that needs doing) then I can go back to work after dinner and after Limebaby is in bed.  It works for me.  I am aware of the danger of creative types burning themselves out, however, and I'll keep an eye on it.  Thanks to those of you who have emailed me with concern, however.  I'll be careful. 

I feel the need to give a couple of huzzah moments to writing buddies.  Pat has turned in the sequel to THE NAME OF THE WIND.  That, AND he's going to be a father in the coming months.  So a hearty congrats to him for general awesomeness. Now I just have to figure out how to get Pat and DAW to give me an ARC of that monster of a manuscript.

Also, Toby Buckell just hit the three year mark doing this full time.  Nice work!  May the next thirty go even better for you, sir.  (And if you haven't tried his work, you're missing out.)