ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Number-one New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson was born in 1975 in Lincoln, Nebraska. By junior high he had lost interest in the novels suggested to him, and he never cracked a book if he could help it. Then an eighth grade teacher, Mrs. Reeder, gave him Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly.
Brandon was finishing his thirteenth novel when Moshe Feder at Tor Books bought the sixth he had written. In 2005 Brandon held his first published novel, Elantris, in his hands. Tor also published six books in Brandon’s Mistborn series, along with Warbreaker and then The Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, and Oathbringer, the first three in the planned ten-volume series The Stormlight Archive. Five books in his middle-grade Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series were released by Starscape. Brandon was chosen to complete Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series; the final book, A Memory of Light, was released in 2013. That year also marked the releases of YA novels The Rithmatist from Tor and Steelheart from Delacorte—the first book of the Reckoners trilogy, which concluded in 2016 with Calamity.
Currently living in Utah with his wife and children, Brandon teaches creative writing at Brigham Young University. He also hosts the Hugo Award-winning writing advice podcast Writing Excuses with Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Dan Wells.
Brandon’s work has garnered wide critical acclaim and won numerous awards, including the Hugo. The story you are about read was excerpted from his bestselling novel The Way of Kings.
ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR
Brittany Jackson, also known as Bea, is an award-winning freelance illustrator born and raised in the “Motor City” of Detroit, Michigan. Taken by a passion for the arts at a young age, Bea embraced her gift of drawing and learned how to bring her vivid imagination to life in a variety of artistic styles she’s studied throughout the years prior to majoring in illustration at the College for Creative Studies. Bea loves the challenges that arts bring, the thrill that comes with learning something new and the satisfaction of using her gifts to help others visualize their dreams. With a strong sense for concepts and design, Bea has become well recognized for her ability to paint a picture from words, communicating ideas—hers and others—through beautiful narrative illustration.
She is a former grand-prize winner of the Illustrators of the Future Contest. Her artwork was published in L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 24.