How did Harriet decide on Brandon, what specific works?
The first work was the eulogy for RJ that Brandon posted on his website. A friend was staying with after Jordan’s death, and she put a printout of this in front of me and said, “I think you need to read this.” And I certainly did and I thought, golly, this is exactly the attitude and the heart of a writer that I would like to see finish the series. This would just be wonderful. And then I called the publisher of Tor, I’ve worked with him, I was the original Editorial Director at Tor, and I’ve worked with the publisher for some, umm, more years than you all have been alive. Although perhaps if we added you all together . . .
Anyway, I know him well and I said, “Tom, tell me about this guy, Brandon Sanderson.” And he’s a publisher, so he said, “Well, his sales numbers . . .”, I mean, he had two books out at this point, Elantris and the first Mistborn, he’s a publisher, so he’s rattling off numbers, which were not at all what I was interested in. I said, “Well, can you send me one of the books?” He said, “Okay.”
It’s conventional wisdom in the industry that a first novel has training wheels, if you really want to see what a writer can do, read the second novel. So he sent me Mistborn . And I read 47 pages. Remember I’ve been doing this for many years. And I fell asleep. (Laughter) Not Brandon’s fault. But when I woke up, everything in the world was clear. His world . . . and that’s a challenge, to get that stuff done in so few pages. The world was clear, the characters, the conflict, what they ate . . . He can do this thing.
So I called Tom, and told him what I thought and he said, “You haven’t read the whole book yet, have you?” Cause he’s also worked with me for more years than you’ve been alive. And I said, “Well, no.” And he said, “Shouldn’t you finish it? It’s a very important decision.” And I said, “If I were hiring him to write a Sanderson novel, of course. But I’m not. I’m hiring him to write a Jordan.” So that’s, that’s . . . And then I did, what is it, right brain things or left brain, I always get them mixed-up. But the sensible things. Asked advice of some, an editor in New York who I trust, and his, the British publisher of the series, and like that. And sort of stewed around about it for, gosh, six weeks, a month, yep.
And then I called, and got, and thought, Provo, Utah, that must be about as big as a minute. I was wrong. I thought, I’ll just call information, so I did, and got the number for Brandon Sanderson. And a woman answered the phone. And I said, “Hello, is this Mrs. Sanderson?” And she said, “Yes.” And I said, I rattled off, “Hello, I’m Robert Jordan’s widow. I’d like to talk to him about finishing Jordan’s series, the Wheel of Time.” And she said, “I have no idea what you are talking about.” And it turns out that Provo, Utah, far from being a tiny place, has two Brandon Sandersons. {Laughter) So with the next try, I got him. I got his voicemail, actually. Anyway, that’s pretty much the story.
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