Hello Internet, I am Steve. Welcome to RAFO! Now, who is Brandon Sanderson?
You probably know him as your favorite author of the Mistborn Trilogy, Elantris, Warbreaker,
The Way of Kings, The Stormlight Archive, The Reckoners series, or the last few books
of the Wheel of Time. But, after digging through a lot of Reddit AMA's, Word of Brandon archives,
and a whole bunch of interviews, here are Ten Things you didn't know about Brandon Sanderson.
Number 1! He's written forty-five published works in
the past 14 years. That means we get about three and a bit published
things from Brandon Sanderson every single year. It's amazing!
Totals over fifteen thousand pages, and each page averages about three hundred words. So
if you took all of the words you speak during a full year, and replaced them with words
from Brandon Sanderson's novels, it would take you basically that entire year to get
through everything he's written. Number 2!
He's won A LOT of awards. He's had seven number one New York Times Bestselling books, had
multiple other books that have been on the New York Times Bestseller list. He's won awards
for Best Epic Fantasy Novel, Best Speculative Fiction Novel, Best Novel of the Year, the
coveted Reddit "Golden Stabby" award, (He got the first one, because he's that awesome!)
and the HUGO AWARD. *glory sounds* The first award he won was actually in high
school. He submitted a short story to a writing contest and took first place! You can actually
read that story on his website. Number 3!
He didn't like reading as a kid! That's right. Brandon Winn Sanderson, born December 19th,
1975 in Lincoln, Nebraska. Young Brandon Sanderson did not like to read
until the fourth grade! I can only assume he spent his time eating blackberries instead.
When his teacher, MRS. READER, introduced him to Dragonsbane, by Barbara Hambly. Check
out that cover. Right? I'd get sucked in too. He started his first novel at fifteen years
old, but was so embarrassed by it, he hid it behind a painting in his bedroom so his
family wouldn't find it. Number 4!
Brandon Sanderson is a Mormon (sing song) "I belong to the church of Jesus
Christ..." Moved to Provo, went to BYU, almost wasn't
a writer - he was a biochem major his first year of college, served a mission for the
LDS church in Korea. When he was on his mission he realized he really missed writing, but
didn't miss chemistry. At all. So coming home, changed his major to English and continued
to write. While he was at BYU, he was roommates with
another famous Mormon: Ken Jennings! Who won Jeopardy like eighty-seven times in a row!
Number 5! Before he was a writer he had tons of different
jobs: paper route when he was twelve years old, road-side corn seller in Idaho, tie-selling
kiosk in the mall, camera photo assistant on picture trips down to Southern Utah, and
Editor-in-Chief of the University Sci-Fi magazine. Now he currently actually teaches at BYU,
Creative Writing classes, one class every year.
Number 6! He wrote thirteen books before he sold his
first one. Most of those first books were written when he was a hotel night-clerk, where
the only instruction for his job was "Don't fall asleep." So he wrote instead. Thirteen
books! And Elantris, his first published book, was number six. Elantris sat on an editors
desk for a year and a half before they got the gumption to actually read it because it
was so thick. Three chapters in, they called him immediately. Funny thing: by that point,
Brandon had changed his phone number, his email address because he was on AOL, his address.
All of his contact information was different from what he originally gave to the editor
when he submitted the manuscript. The editor had to track him down through his
BYU student account to find how to actually get a hold of him, so he could say that he
wanted to buy a book. Of those twelve unpublished novels, you can
actually read entirely four of them. White Sand, which is now being turned into a graphic
novel, Mistborn Prime, which is basically what Mistborn was based off of, Aether of
Night, the only canon thing is the magic system but learning about the magic system in this
one is awesome, and Dragonsteel, his masters thesis. The only way you can read it is by
going to Brigham Young University and checking it out at the library.
There are also selections from others: Mythwalker, you can read chapters of online, Way of Kings
Prime, which was his first attempt at the Way of Kings story, and Liar of Partinel,
which is Hoid's origin story, there are chapters online as well.
Number 8! He finished Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time
series because of a eulogy. He wrote a eulogy for Robert Jordan, someone gave a copy of
that eulogy to Robert Jordan's widow, Harriet McDougal. She read that and said "This guy
gets it," hired him to finish the Wheel of Time. After he had published two books! Elantris
and the first Mistborn. Then he gets one of the greatest fantasy series of our time to
finish. Number 9!
Brandon Sanderson is a normal person. On July 7th, 2006 he married a fellow English
student: Emily Bushman. Because who could resist this:
Everyone in the wedding party got swords. He lives in American Fork, Utah with his wife
and three kids: Limeboy, Meatloaf, and Melvin. Number 10!
According to a recent Q & A, Brandon Sanderson is RETIRED!
Don't worry, that's not what it means. "At the end of the Wheel of Time, we paid
off my house, we put enough in savings for the kids and for umm for whatever we would
need to pay for the rest of our lives and I retired. I retired like four years ago.
Retired for me means I get to write extra books, so thank you guys for that!"
And now some extra tidbits, what are Brandon Sanderson's favorite things? Favorite...
Author: Terry Pratchett Time to write: midnight to four am
Cookie: Oatmeal with butterscotch Webcomic: Dr McNinja
Beverage: Ice water Tabletop RPG: West End's old Star Wars
Citrus Fruit: Mandarin oranges Pizza topping: double pepperoni
Dogs: Huskies and Collies Non Sci-fi book: Les Mis
Non Sci-fi author: Victor Hugo Word: Inchoate. In-cho-ate? In-cho-atay?
Soup: really good chicken noodle Food: Mac and cheese
Videogame: Dark Souls, or Bloodborne Social Activity: playing Magic: The Gathering
Thank you so much for watching! Huge shoutout to Brandon Sanderson himself for providing
some of the childhood photos. Comment below what your favorite Sander-fact
was, and be sure to subscribe so you're notified for next weeks video.
If you want to learn more about Brandon Sanderson, I'll put some links in the description so
you can Read And Find Out.