Updates + Life, the Universe & Everything Schedule

This week I'll be the guest of honor at Life, the Universe & Everything, BYU's annual symposium on science fiction and fantasy. It's basically a convention with a fancier name (but there will be a few research papers presented), though most conventions aren't free like LTUE is. My schedule is below. But first, the weekly updates.

The most recent Mistborn 3 annotations cover the rest of chapter 58, the climax to Spook's plot arc: part 2, part 3. And in this week's Writing Excuses podcast, Howard, Dan, and I talk about using role-playing games as storytelling tools. It may not be what you expect (or fear); give it a listen.

Speaking of Writing Excuses, Dan, Howard, and I will be recording live (with Bob Defendi) at the symposium on Saturday. See below.

By the way, we got some pretty awesome entries in last week's Photoshop contest. Maria from Team Jordan and Jason and Jenn from Dragonmount are busy picking their favorites. A gallery of all the entries should be available soon, and I should announce the winners sometime this week. (Also, all my books went back up on Amazon on Friday.)

Brandon's Life, the Universe & Everything Schedule
Provo, Utah, February 11–13, 2010.
Attendance is FREE

THURSDAY, February 11
10:00 AM
Fantasy without Magic
(Paul Genesse, Brandon Sanderson, Robert J. Defendi, Larry Correia)

Noon
Creating a wizard that isn't another Gandalf, Merlin, Dumbledore, etc.
(Brandon Sanderson, Paul Genesse, Dan Willis, Aleta Clegg)

FRIDAY, February 12
9:00 AM
How to become an idea factory: Where do you find ideas? How do you go from an idea to a story?
(Clint Johnson, Larry Correia, James Dashner, Brandon Sanderson, Karen Hoover, Howard Tayler)

10:00 AM
Why Mormons and fantasy? There seems to be an explosion of successful young LDS writers in the fantasy field. What're the ingredients in their Mormon background that make this genre a natural fit?
(Scott Parkin, Laura Bingham, Brandon Sanderson, Lisa Mangum)

5:00 PM
Reading by Brandon Sanderson (subject to change)

SATURDAY, February 13
11:00 AM
Main Address: Brandon Sanderson

1:00 PM
SIGNING: Brandon Mull, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Eric James Stone, Berin Stephens, Jake Black, Roger White, Lisa Mangum, Aleta Clegg, Mette Ivie Harrison, John Brown

4:00 PM
Writing Excuses LIVE
(Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells)