Brandon SANDERSON - Mistborn - Secret History

In the end, I decided the greater problem would have been not writing the story – precisely because of the hole in the Mistborn books Kelsier left. There were too many questions that couldn’t be answered without this story.

Anyway, thanks as always for following along with me on this journey. And, for those who haven’t read them, I’d like to take a moment here to recommend the Wax and Wayne books (Era Two of Mistborn, beginning with The Alloy of Law ). If you enjoyed this story, I think you’ll like what you find. The Wax and Wayne books take what was in the original trilogy and build upon it, expanding the lore of Scadrial in some very interesting directions.

Beyond that, if you watch closely during the Wax and Wayne books, you might figure out what Kelsier is up to during that time.

Because he’s not done yet. Not even close.

So, Idropped this one on my team like a strike from a stealth bomber. They were already busy with the art and proofreading for the books we’re doing this spring, and then I popped up with another surprise novella and asked if it could possibly be ready in time to be released alongside The Bands of Mourning .

Even though they’re used to me doing things like this by now, their turnaround on Mistborn: Secret History was incredible. More than for almost any other story, they deserve praise for their excellent work on this one.

The incredulous Peter Ahlstrom in particular acted both in his normal roles, as well as being the primary editor, copyeditor, and proofreader for the book. He only rolled his eyes at me once in a while as I talked about this latest crazy story I wanted to publish, and he gave some particularly excellent advice on how to improve the story. If you see him around, make sure to thank him. As I type this, he’s spending his entire Saturday pushing to get this book ready for publication next week.

Karen Ahlstrom did an excellent continuity edit for us, as well as building a timeline. She caught a lot of the big errors I’d made, which would have had many of you scratching your heads.

Isaać Stewart was art director for this book – he did the cover design, and as always is the creator of the awesome Allomantic symbols you see spread throughout the book. Miranda Meeks did our wonderful cover; I’m happy to finally get Kelsier on the cover of a Mistborn story.

Writing group for this book was Emily Sanderson, Karen & Peter Ahlstrom, Darci & Eric James Stone, Alan Layton, Ben “Seriously, Brandon?” Olsen, Kathleen Dorsey Sanderson, Kaylynn ZoBell, Isaac & Ethan Skarstedt, and Isaać Stewart.

Our alpha, beta, and gamma readers were Nikki Ramsay, Mark Lindberg, Lyndsey Luther, Alice Arneson, Kristina Kugler, Megan Kanne, Karen Ahlstrom, Josh Walker, Mi’chelle Walker, Ian McNatt, David Behrens, Matt Wiens, Eric Lake, Bob Kluttz, Kelly Neumann, Jakob Remick, and Gary Singer.

Without these people catching all my silly mistakes, this book would have been a travesty of continuity. Many thanks to you all.

Finally, thanks to Joel, Dallin, Oliver, and Emily. For putting up with me all these years.

Brandon Sanderson

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this story are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.