Will is Taking a Break – By NotWill

Hello Cradle fans, local neighborhood Seven-Fold Archmages, and blog post enthusiasts! My name is Sam, I’m Will’s less talented but slightly taller brother, and I’m here hijacking his blog to give you some news: Will is taking a break until the beginning of June.

Normally it would be the man himself writing this post like he did last time, but he was working on more important things, like getting you another novel ASAP, literally up until the minute his break started.

We had to physically pull him away from his laptop. A pack of trained gibbons was heavily involved.

We are in a very fortunate position to be able to give him an extended break like this every once in a while and for that, we have no one to thank but the fans. You have continued to bless my brother for a decade straight and as someone who cares deeply about his mental health and well-being, I am truly grateful.

The last time Will took significant time off (see embedded link above) was because he was already past the point of being burnt out. He was hurting, both physically and emotionally, and it took a real toll on him.

We learned our lesson that in order for him to keep pumping out two books a year while also taking on other projects, we needed to bake in a long break every couple of years to keep his creative juices flowing at a healthy level. I genuinely have no idea how Brandon Sanderson keeps going at the pace he does. Maybe his house is a Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

Will published House of Blades, his first novel, almost eleven years ago. In the grand scheme of things, he’s relatively early in his writing career.

We’re playing the long game here by trying to focus on how best to keep him at the top of his game for the next eleven years, then another eleven years after that, and so on and so forth until his cryogenically frozen head thaws out with an idea for a sequel to Traveler’s Gate.

We truly believe that Will taking time off is best not only for him and our team, but for people who just want more books to read. A mentally healthy author is a good author, as the classic Shakespearean saying goes.

Does this mean that his writing schedule is delayed?
 
No! One of the fantastic things about planning his schedule several years in advance is that it allows us the opportunity to get ahead of the proverbial eight ball. We plan on having two book releases this year while moving our Cradle animation project forward, and still attending scheduled events like DragonCon in August.

More Last Horizon is coming, and I’m happy to report that the most recent version of The Knight is very far along in the writing process. It also features a cameo of a certain fruit-related side character. Rejoice as loud as you comfortably can without bothering people.

Will absolutely loves writing and creating stories for you, the best fan base on the planet. They say that if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. That is objectively false.

I wish there was some way for all of us, regardless of job/circumstance, to take extended breaks away from our work routines. I wholeheartedly believe everyone would be healthier for it. But most of us are not in the position to be able to do that and keep a roof over our heads. We are very, very fortunate and not a day goes by where we don’t realize it and thank the Aether for readers like you giving us this opportunity.

We are dedicated to continuing to pump out quality content on a regular basis and giving back in what ways we can. “Gratitude” simply doesn’t say enough.

SO ON THAT NOTE, I’d like to take advantage of the opportunity to post whatever I want without Will’s input and share a little known fact about his childhood. And by “childhood,” I mean the day of his birth.

Will’s heart stopped for about a minute the day he was born. Technically speaking, he died for a little bit and came back to life. Mom says it was a very stressful minute.

Is this where his inspiration for the beginning of Lindon’s story came from? Who knows!? Maybe! Possibly! Definitely not. But it’s a fun thought!

Now back to working behind-the-scenes to tarnish Will’s reputation while keeping up his streak of at least one blog post a month for the last ten years. Who knows what’ll happen next month? Maybe I’ll post a log of how many times he makes ramen every day.

Spoiler alert: it’s a lot.

-Sam