New Stories! New Stories Everywhere!

7/1/2016

If you're signed up for the mailing list, the new story is going out right now! It's actually a deleted scene from Of Darkness and Dawn, showing a historical interaction between the ancient Consultant's Guild and the Great Elders.

I've been saving it for a while, because I couldn't figure out where to use it in the books. Hope you enjoy it!

In other news,

...coming soon.

57 Comments

Aaron

7/1/2016 05:43:26 pm

I'm so excited! I need other authors like Sanderson and Rothfuss to take notes from you on how to put out quality books so quickly!

Will link

7/1/2016 06:07:33 pm

The funny thing about that is, Sanderson actually does put out books this quickly. It's uncanny. And Rothfuss takes a lot of time, but he polishes every word.

ken mercer

7/2/2016 05:24:52 am

Sanderson and Rothfuss are excellent. You are as good a world builder if not better. Your different forms magic/power and how it creates a whole culture in every series impresses me. I have read everything you have written and buy your books as soon as they are released.

This one humbly has become your book buying zealot. Gratitude

patrick

7/2/2016 06:40:32 pm

Your work actually does remind me somewhat of Sanderson. You create unique magic systems for your novels. Both of your magic systems are always interesting and seem logical. Both of your stories tend to do a wonderful job of tying together loose ends.

The main difference, and this is totally just my opinion, is that when I read Sanderson I usually get the sense that he knew everything that was going to happen in his books from the beginning. I fell in love with his writing at the end of the first Mistborn trilogy, when hints from even the first book tied into the ending.

When I read stuff from you I feel like I'm reading the story of a truly gifted dungeon master. The story is well crafted, entertaining, and even if you don't have every detail plotted out from the beginning everything will blend together into a beautiful whole by the end. With your writing I sometimes get the sense that your characters surprised you, but never in such a way that it doesn't make sense in the world. I could be completely off base with my assessment though.

Overall I have to say that you are one of my favorite authors tied pretty evenly with Sanderson, Jim Butcher, and Rachel Aaron.

Will link

7/3/2016 09:13:27 am

That's frighteningly accurate, Patrick.

As we speak, I'm using Microscope--a pen-and-paper RPG--to delve into the history of this region in Cradle. I use DM tools to set up my books all the time.

I don't entirely fly by the seat of my pants, I always have a place where the plot is going and a few things decided along the way, but the only part of the planning process I find truly rewarding is planning out the world and the magic system. Often, with me, I've fleshed out the magic, the monsters, and the world much more thoroughly than I have the plot.

So when I'm running through the first draft, I basically give my characters personalities and goals and then I set them loose. They have to get to a set point, but how they get there is up to them. Sometimes I get to a scene I've planned for a long time, and I realize Character A would never climb up the cliff because she's afraid of heights, which I forgot to account for in my outline. So now I have to either figure out a reason for her to climb up there anyway, or a different method to get her up the mountain.

It's more fun for me that way. I get to include whatever's in my plan, but I still have room for surprises and exploration as the story unfolds.

Freudian Slip

7/7/2016 08:48:18 am

You know, Patrick, that's actually kinda funny and seriously spot on! Just a couple of days ago I was watching one of Sanderson's BYU-lectures (they're on YouTube if you wanna see) about the difference between outline-writers and discovery-writers, and what you're describing is pretty much what you're saying here. Sanderson says that he's a definite outline-writer, and from what Will replied to you, he's definitely more of a discovery-writer. :D It aaaaall makes sense!

Scott

7/1/2016 06:27:29 pm

Iiiiiinteresting historical scene. I really enjoyed the final thoughts! Would you care to share how long the Consultant's Guild kept making themselves available to those clients?

Will link

7/1/2016 09:22:46 pm

They predate the Empire, so when the Emperor finally convinced them to join the cause, they stopped lending their support to the other side.

Scott

7/2/2016 09:16:12 am

Neat!

He does seem like quite the convincing fellow.

Will link

7/3/2016 09:15:11 am

He's a very persuasive guy, but the Emperor would tell you that not even he can convince everyone every time.

Jeremiah

7/1/2016 06:46:29 pm

I love kelarac's "representative". Illustrates his nature

Jeremiah

7/1/2016 06:47:34 pm

And please sir comma I want some more. I hate voice typing

Will link

7/1/2016 09:23:14 pm

No, that was better. Sir Comma is my birth name.

Sancus

7/1/2016 06:48:21 pm

By soon you mean tomorrow, right? I mean it is my birthday and all, perfect timing!

Will link

7/1/2016 09:26:47 pm

(;￣Д￣)

Kevin

7/1/2016 06:56:29 pm

Kelarac is spectacular every time you show him to us... Or even mention him in passing as it turns out, thanks for sharing to keep us starving readers going between releases.

Will link

7/1/2016 09:27:21 pm

I was actually going to do a Cradle story this month, but I felt like I owed you SOMETHING Elder Empire-related.

Aldric

7/1/2016 08:50:53 pm

Just please tell me that you don't subscribe to Blizzard's version of Soon™...

Take enough time to make sure it's right... just remember sleep is overrated :)

Will link

7/1/2016 09:27:50 pm

I subscribe to Riot's interpretation, in which "Soon" means "NEVER."

James

7/6/2016 05:38:34 am

Stop playing league and pump out those books, what do you think I'm paying you for "shakes fist angrily"

david

7/2/2016 02:05:31 am

Good short story i enjoyed it. Yet i must ask when is “coming soon” will soulsmith only be released after the elder empire books and TGT or before

Will link

7/2/2016 09:15:56 am

News on that front will be coming...soon.

david

7/2/2016 12:42:10 pm

You have got to stop stringing me along i cant take it i need books and i need them now

Will link

7/2/2016 02:33:29 pm

The scarcity of news can indeed be frustrating, but I am writing books as fast as it is physically possible for me to do so. I am only a man!

John

7/2/2016 03:24:43 pm

As fast as "physically possible"? If you can physically type at 60 words per minute, it should take less than 60 hours for you to knock out 200,000 words. So, it should be physically possible to finish in a couple weeks.

As fast as mentally possible, that would be another thing entirely...

Will link

7/2/2016 05:07:39 pm

Are you implying that thinking is not a physical process?

SEMANTICS!

John

7/2/2016 07:38:28 pm

Are you implying that you can finish in a couple weeks?

Will link

7/3/2016 09:07:56 am

No. HA!

Jason

7/2/2016 12:43:10 pm

I know you said the Cradle series has room to grow and no planned ending points right now. Do you have any idea on how many books will make up the series when all is said and done?

Will link

7/2/2016 02:32:44 pm

No, because it has room to grow and no planned ending point.

However, I suppose I can give you some idea of what I'm thinking, though NO ONE SHOULD HOLD ME TO THIS. Let me emphasize that this is an estimate based on pure speculation. If anyone holds me to this, I will come to [your town] and eat your face.

I sat down the other day and counted the minimum number of books I could use to tell the story I'm telling. I currently believe it would take 8 books roughly the size of Unsouled.

However, if I get a chance to do it the way I want to do it, Cradle will end up being 10+ books long. Those are my current plans, but my plans often change with time. It could end up being five books or two hundred. I commit to nothing! Do you hear me, Internet? Nothing!

Jason

7/3/2016 12:12:39 pm

That's good to know. It's difficult for me to get into a series when it seems like there isn't a story arc with an ending at some point, so it's good to know that it will eventually have a completion point. I don't mind longer series (Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time and Brandon Sanderson Stormlight Archive come to mind to mind) when they're well written and all of your novels have been so far.

Will link

7/5/2016 07:56:20 pm

It's not as focused or pared down as the rest of my stories; I'm trying to give this one time to expand and breathe as necessary. But I do have a storyline, and it will have an ending. It'll just be a while from now.

This won't be like a Western "series" where the cowboy wanders from town to town solving unconnected crimes and mysteries.

Kartik

7/2/2016 09:46:28 pm

YES YES!! I loved the first book as much as House of Blades! I couldn't enjoy the Elder Emipre series much, sad to say but this series has me hooked. I took Sunday off from the real world and finished it in one sitting. Thank you Will for doing what you do.

Will link

7/3/2016 10:37:09 am

Awesome, Kartik! Glad you enjoyed it, and I'm currently working on Book 2!

Jim

7/3/2016 10:16:02 am

Is there some way of getting all of the past short stories?

Will link

7/3/2016 10:36:31 am

Sure is! You can email me at will@willwight.com (or use any of the contact links around the site) and let me know which ones you have. I'll send you the rest!

Matti

7/3/2016 01:50:20 pm

"Soon" can mean anything from a day to a year. What kind of time frame are we talking about?

Will link

7/5/2016 07:58:19 pm

Sometime between a day and a year.

I DO have a timeframe in mind, and it's not a long one, but I'm no longer going to mention a schedule until I'm completely committed to it. Not even in a comment.

I've learned my lesson. I used to say "I think it'll take this long!" and when it took longer, I was mailed packages filled with angry badgers every day.

James Shaw

7/6/2016 05:41:56 am

I'm glad the badgers made it. I just felt it was that extra touch that shows how I really feel about delays, how are they going is gregory still behaving?

Matti

7/6/2016 06:15:32 am

Fair enough.

kaden

7/6/2016 02:26:24 pm

note to self: buy more badgers off amazon

On the other hand I am really enjoying your books and hope that elder empire part three turns out good and also book two of unspoiled. Keep up the your amazing work!

Will link

7/7/2016 12:39:51 pm

Is Gregory the big one with the old bloodstains on his fur? He hasn't let me leave my apartment in days. Please send help.

Jim

7/6/2016 04:04:24 am

Is this the next book you're releasing, or is there another (Traveler's gate) that's coming out first?

Will link

7/7/2016 12:38:38 pm

I haven't officially announced this yet, but Soulsmith is the book I'm currently writing!

Jeremiah

7/7/2016 07:09:28 pm

Umm.. Shera and Calder?

More badgers coming your way

Will link

7/8/2016 05:03:07 am

Like a lot of people, I'm sure, I have this daydream that I can divide into multiple copies and work as a team with myself.

But until that's possible, I can only write one story at once.

Jeremiah

7/9/2016 04:36:54 am

I torment you in this way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL6CDFn2i3I

Will link

7/9/2016 07:57:56 pm

When the physical delivery of badgers fails, you turn digital.

Well played, Jeremiah.

Mike

7/7/2016 12:22:55 pm

How do we get the story if we just signed up for the mailing list? Can't wait for more Elder Empire!

Will link

7/7/2016 12:38:58 pm

http://www.willwight.com/faqs.html

TL;DR - Send me an email!

Chris N

7/9/2016 06:34:32 am

I must say, I'm loving this new series! I was a bit disappointed at first that you weren't doing another Traveler's Gate series but I decided to go ahead and read this one as a present to myself for finishing a big project. I've read it twice in less than a week! Loving the fact that it might be up to 10 novels

A couple of questions:
--obvious enormous amount of Eastern philosophical (martial arts/qi gong) influence. What are you using as source material to influence that?
--Do you plan to keep the Eastern cultural feeling within the novels or eventually move out of that?
--Are you purposefully trying to make the philosophical influences a bigger part of the story than previous novels, and how much will that be a part of the story?

On a side note, I grew up doing Asian martial arts and it's had me thinking about my own practice in a new light. The discussion of the path and such has gotten me very motivated!

Keep up the good work, looking forward to the next novel...

Thanks,
-Chris

Will link

7/9/2016 08:05:05 pm

Thanks for giving it a shot, Chris, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

1.) Online translated wuxia and xianxia novels are where the inspiration comes from. I've loved the genre for a while now, and I wanted to write one for fun. As for the material directly, I'm drawing on mostly Chinese martial arts mythology, as well as a little bit of Korean and Japanese. The names, of course, are just made up.

2.) Not every culture in Cradle is going to be East Asian in influence, but many of them will be. Once the scope moves past Cradle, into the realm of the Abidan, then we will have mostly left Earth-inspired cultures behind.

3.) I'm not really sure how to answer a question about philosophical influences. On some level, there's a philosophy that influences anything I write. How big of a part that plays in the story depends on your perspective, I guess.

This series delves a tiny bit more into the philosophy of magic (er, madra) as opposed to the hard-and-fast mechanical magic of the Traveler's series, but not by much. I'm never going to be Brandon Sanderson, diving into a thoughtful religious discussion about the metaphysical implications of magic. I just don't find that fun to write.

But it will be somewhat more thoughtful, in a way. Inasmuch as you can be thoughtful while hacking apart crowds of monsters.

Keep up the Path, Chris! If at any point you find that you are absorbing energy from the world around you, please seek guidance immediately.

Chris N

7/12/2016 01:09:34 pm

Yeah, I was wondering if you were basing it on xianxia/wuxia novels. Have you read the Chronicales of Tao?
https://www.amazon.com/Chronicles-Tao-Secret-Taoist-Master/dp/0062502190

Very good book, based on an actual person but written in the xianxia style. Much of the Taoist philosophy and techniques are based on real ones though. Not sure if you've read any actual Qigong books on the real technques, but there's some great books from Dr. Yang Jwing Ming (an amazing martial artist but also has a PhD in engineering so really understands Western Science):
https://www.amazon.com/Root-Chinese-Qigong-Longevity-Enlightenment/dp/1886969507/
https://www.amazon.com/Qigong-Secret-Youth-Changing-Classics/dp/1886969841/

Obviously I wouldn't suggest practicing these techniques without an instructor but might make good reference for more advanced techniques you describe in your series...

As far as absorbing energy from the world... what?! you didn't realize that everything in the xianxia novels was true?!! ;-)

Bill

7/13/2016 12:21:28 pm

Man..... 2013 feels so long ago. Who knew posting this review I'd be such a big fan of your work 3 years later. Will....well done!

4.0 out of 5 stars A new idea!!!, August 3, 2013
By -----
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This review is from: House of Blades (The Traveler's Gate Trilogy Book 1) (Kindle Edition)
4 Stars for having an original idea(s)in Epic Fantasy.

I could quibble here or there but I won't. I really enjoyed the book and can't wait until the next one.

Will link

7/13/2016 01:45:07 pm

Thanks for leaving a review, Bill! If there's one thing I enjoy about the process of writing stories, it's coming up with fun new ideas.

Bill

7/13/2016 03:35:38 pm

Will-

That was a review from 3 years ago, your first book, just after launch. I think you might have been sub 1000 books sold then :)

A new one would be SO much more.

B

Will link

7/13/2016 03:56:57 pm

Oh, I know. I remember getting the review for the first time.

I said out loud, "You know, I appreciate that this guy didn't quibble." True story. It stuck in my head because of the word "quibble."

Thanks for sticking with me, Bill!

In which we ramble on.
And by we, I mean me.