Every year in the United States there’s a popular tournament in which the best college basketball teams compete for the National Championship. The tournament has become known as “March Madness”.

Well, even though the Wheel of Time is not basketball (although Rand and his tall Aiel buddies would make one incredible team!) , there are several tournaments going on right now which feature The Wheel of Time.

• Suvudu’s Cage Match: This tournament features characters from various fantasy novels facing off in a bracketed “cage match”. Rand comes into the tournament as the #5 seed. In the first round of the tournament, he’s facing Locke Lamora, the protagonist from Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastards series. As of this writing, Rand has a substantial vote advantage, but he probably wouldn’t mind your support to make sure he made it to round two, where he’ll battle either Conan the Barbarian or Harry Dresden. (Did you know Robert Jordan actually wrote several Conan novels as well?)
• Audible.com’s Tournament of Audio Books: A tournament where voters select their favorite audio books. The Gathering Storm is one of the “contestants”. Head over there and vote for it!

Because this news post is rather unusual anyway, here are a few other quick links. Don’t forget to check out our new beta social community site. You can find a WoT haiku contest going on over there where you can win ninja stars. Yes…. Ninja. Stars.

Follow us on Twitter to hear Jennifer Liang and myself “tweet” about random things related to the books and WoT fandom on a daily basis.

And finally, check out this music video from a bank called Neverland. The song is “This Voice Inside“. It’s about Rand: “It mainly speaks of Rand’s unwilling turn into a anti-hero type while constantly trying to battle with the voices inside his head.”

The organizers of JordanCon, the annual Wheel of Time fan convention, released this today.

Pre-registration for JordanCon, the annual convention for fans of the late Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time closes April 3. Guests this year include Guest of Honor Brandon Sanderson, co-author of The Gathering Storm, the most recent Wheel of Time novel; David Wong, author of John Dies at the End and editor of Cracked.com; and Jana G. Oliver, author of the award winning Time Rovers series. Our Toastmaster for the weekend will be Matt Hatch, Benevolent Dictator of the Hard Core Fan Freaks of Theoryland.com. Panelists and other presenters will include Jason Denzel, webmaster of Dragonmount.com; Jennifer Liang, Dragonmount staff, Director of Wheel of Time programing for Dragon*Con and Chair of JordanCon; Linda Taglieri, contributor to The 13th Depository blog; Harriet McDougal, editor of the Wheel of Time series; Jendayi Bellydance of Atlanta; Maria Simmons and Alan Romanczuk, continuity editors for The Wheel of Time, and many more.

Programming highlights this year include our annual “Seanchan Hold’em” charity poker game and silent auction benefiting the Mayo Clinic. Additionally, JordanCon will feature gaming, a full Writer’s Track, a Seanchan Homecoming Ball, costuming, and numerous panels and discussions. Pre-registration is currently $60, and will be $65 at the door. Our host hotel for 2010 is the gorgeous Crowne Plaza Ravinia in Atlanta, Georgia. Rooms are still available at the discounted rate of $105 a night. JordanCon t shirts are available for pre-order through our website. JordanCon will take place April 23-25.

More information, including our progress report, can be found on our website: www.ageoflegends.net

Tor Books has released the cover art for the upcoming ebook release of LORD OF CHAOS, the sixth book in the Wheel of Time series. Each month, beginning this past October, Tor will release the next book in the series in a variety of electronic formats. See below for a full list of links to the released books, as well as a schedule of the upcoming releases.

With each eBook, Tor is including brand new artwork for the “cover”. A different artist has been selected for each one, giving the art team at Tor a chance to provide us fans with a variety of styles.

This month, the artwork is by Greg Manchess. The ebook will be released on March 16th.

(Click image to enlarge)

(Click image to enlarge)

As with the previous covers that were released for the ebooks, Tor Art Director Irene Gallo has done a write up about the process behind creating this image. Be sure to check out the full article. Here’s an excerpt:

We knew we wanted to focus on the Asha’man and the Aiel. In fact, at first we didn’t see any of our core characters. I did, however, request to see some wolves (because, hey, wolves) and once we saw wolves it made sense to add Perrin, and if we’re going to show Perrin we should show Loial as well…. I’m glad we added these characters.

Wheel of Time eBook News and release schedule
Tor Books plans to re-release each one of the Wheel of Time novels as ebooks according to the schedule below. Each will have new cover art, specially commissioned for the eBook format. Each will feature a different artist.

• The Eye of the World: DM News | Tor.com feature | Buy from Amazon
• The Great Hunt: DM News | Tor.com Feature | Buy from Amazon
• The Dragon Reborn: DM News | Tor.com Feature | Buy from Amazon
• The Shadow Rising: Tor.com Feature

| DM news

• The Fires of Heaven:DM News | Tor.com feature
• Lord of Chaos: DM News | Tor.com feature
• A Crown of Swords – 04/20/10
• The Path of Daggers – 05/18/10
• Winter’s Heart – 06/22/10
• Crossroads of Twilight – 07/20/10
• Knife of Dreams – 08/24/10
• New Spring – 09/28/10
• The Gathering Storm – 11/2/10
• From Two Rivers – 11/16/10
• To The Blight – 11/16/10
• The Hunt Begins – 11/16/10
• New Threads in the Pattern- 11/16/10

So what do you think of this new image? Leave your comments below. Remember, we’ll have a more detailed report on the overall future of the Wheel of Time print-edition covers at a later time.

Dragonmount is excited to announce the opening of its new beta-version community site.

http://community.dragonmount.com is an experiment in mixing a light-weight forum with elements of live chat and social networking. You can use your existing Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, or Yahoo ID’s (not to mention your DMail account!) to login.

This is a live beta, meaning we’ll be working on things as we go. There’s a place for you to leave feedback, and we’d love to hear from you.

Hope to see you there!

Red Eagle Games, the company that currently holds the video game and movie rights to the Wheel of Time, announced this evening that they have entered into a partnership with Obsidian Entertainment with the intent of producing high-end electronic role-paying games.

Here’s the full press release:

RED EAGLE GAMES SELECTS OBSIDIAN ENTERTAINMENT AS GAME DEVELOPMENT PARTNER

Noted RPG Developer to Assist Red Eagle Games in Building Video Games Based on Robert Jordan’s Fantasy Series “The Wheel of Time”

Malibu and Irvine Calif. – February 12, 2010 – Red Eagle Games and Obsidian Entertainment today announced they have entered into a services agreement which provides a comprehensive framework for Obsidian Entertainment to work closely with Red Eagle Games’ in-house development team to create new video games for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 based on Robert Jordan’s best-selling fantasy series, The Wheel of Time.

“The development team at Obsidian Entertainment has demonstrated time and again that they can successfully blend storytelling with technology to craft a superior RPG game experience,” said Rick Selvage, Chief Executive Officer of Red Eagle Games. “Obsidian Entertainment is the ideal development partner to help Red Eagle Games take Jordan’s beloved characters from the printed page to exciting new forms of interactive media.“

“Obsidian Entertainment is thrilled with this opportunity to work with Red Eagle Games in developing games based upon The Wheel of Time series,” said Feargus Urquhart, Chief Executive Officer of Obsidian Entertainment. “The Wheel of Time is a rich universe that lends itself to incredible gaming possibilities.”

Red Eagle Games was formed in 2006, and the Company plans to publish a line of video games on all major platforms, including consoles, personal computers, handheld systems and wireless devices. The Company’s Wheel of Time games will be available through retail channels around the world by the Company’s distribution partner, Electronic Arts. Red Eagle Games’ principals Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon are also producing a live-action motion picture based upon The Wheel of Time for Universal Pictures through their production company, Red Eagle Entertainment.

“Although Red Eagle Games is both a game producer and publisher, as a new company, we quickly recognized that we could benefit from supplementing small in-house creative and technical teams with a proven third party developer,” said Larry Mondragon, Chief Operating Officer of Red Eagle Games. “Our alliance with Obsidian Entertainment is a perfect fit and will greatly improve the quality, cost and time-to-market for the first-generation of our Wheel of Time games.”

“The Wheel of Time is one of the greatest and well-received fantasy series of all time,” said Chris Avellone, Chief Creative Officer of Obsidian Entertainment. “Games set in Robert Jordan’s universe have the chance to deliver on the epic storylines and the complex characters that the series is known for – and this is one of Obsidian’s strengths. It’s a natural fit.”

Obsidian Entertainment was established in 2003 by a group of experienced industry veterans. With the company’s first title, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords for Lucas Arts (2004, Xbox & PC), Obsidian quickly established itself as a top-tier developer of critically-acclaimed role playing games featuring strong characters, richly conceived visuals and storylines and teeming with action and adventure. Obsidian subsequently developed the Neverwinter Nights 2 game series for Atari, based upon the popular Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Titles in this series included Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006, PC and Mac/OS X), Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer (2007, PC), and Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir (2008, PC). Obsidian is currently completing two major games for planned release during 2010, Alpha Protocol (PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, to be published by Sega) and a much-anticipated sequel in the Fallout series, Fallout: New Vegas (PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3).

The details of Jordan’s meticulously crafted series have captivated readers since 1990, when The Eye of the World, the first book in the series, was published. Eleven additional books, including one prequel, have since been added to the series and have consistently appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List with the last five of his novels in the series debuting at No. 1. Jordan passed away in 2007 at the age of 58, but his publisher, Tor Books, subsequently announced that a final trilogy of novels will bring his epic series to its long-awaited climax. The most recent installment in the series, entitled The Gathering Storm, was published in October of 2009 by Tor Books. The last three novels are being penned by fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson using notes, audio recordings and draft materials left with Jordan’s wife and editor, Harriet Rigney.

Jordan’s wildly popular books have been translated into 24 languages, and have sold about 44 million copies worldwide. According to Tor Books, the publisher of The Wheel of Time novels, there are about 65,000 The Wheel of Time fan Web sites as a part of a vast global on-line fan community.

About Red Eagle Games
Based in Southern California, Red Eagle Games is an independent video game company undertaking the transformation of Jordan’s literary masterpiece “The Wheel of Time” into high-quality interactive gaming products for the personal computer, game consoles, mobile and wireless devices, and online play. Red Eagle Games’ Web site is located at www.red-eagle-games.com.

About Obsidian Entertainment
Obsidian Entertainment is an entertainment software development company passionately dedicated to making high quality, next-generation Role-Playing Games for PC and console systems. Based in Irvine, California, Obsidian Entertainment’s Web site is located at www.obsidian.net.

Commentary
This is probably a really good move for both Red Eagle and Obsidian. Red Eagle has an extremely valuable intellectual property (WoT), and needs a developer. Obsidian Entertainment is a well-respected developer of RPG’s and likely jumped at an opportunity to get involved with such a great franchise. Only time will tell with how this goes, but this is certainly in the right direction if we hope to get some high-quality WoT video games in the coming years.

Update, 2/12/2010
Larry Mondragon from Red Eagle clarified that Obsidian will be doing much of the actual programming and development, but that Red Eagle will be leading the creative efforts. From Larry’s quote in the comments:

I would also like to make one additional clarification. We are not licensing our WOT development rights and stepping back from the process of building these video games. Quite to the contrary, Red Eagle Games will have an internal development team of its own. However, rather than staffing up a 200 person studio from scratch, we decided some time ago that for our first games it would be far more prudent to hire a small in-house team (e.g. positions such as Art Director, Game Designer, Story Writer, Software Architect, Quality Assurance Director, etc.) and rely on a third party developer to provide the majority of developers and their associated overhead and infrastructure. In this way, we will be providing technical and creative direction to our external developer.

So what do you think?

Although this isn’t directly related to The Wheel of Time, I wanted this call to go out as many people as possible to take advantage of the wide diversity of fan skill sets out there.

About
Dragonmount.com is currently in the early stages of a major site overhaul. For nearly 12 years we have existed by using our own homebrewed HTML and design. While the site has never been unpleasant to visit (I hope!), it could use the touch of a professional designer with experience in crafting dynamic web site experiences. Therefore, we are inviting professional web designers to submit quotes for this job. A list of the requested services is as follows:

• Design a clean, consistent, and familiar look-and-feel for the entire web site based on flexible guidelines
• Develop PHP templates for each section of our website to be consistent with this new look
• Develop matching themes (with artwork) for multiple web applications such as Wordpress, MyBB, Coppermine, ZenCart, Amazon aStore, as well as possibly Drupal, MediaWiki, and a unique third-party application still in development
• Work with specific artists we’ve chosen to incorporate various WoT-themed art into the design
• Develop and help implement a mobile version of the website

About our site
Dragonmount.com is self-hosted on a collection of dedicated Linux servers. We have a volunteer staff which maintains these servers and will continue to do so. While we can (and will) apply routine updates and patches to software applications, we would prefer if the vendor we select (you) would be available to do semi-annual upgrades or future feature enhancements.

Deadlines
The deadline for quotes is February 28th. We would like to have the new site implemented and live to the public by Fall of this year (September / October timeframe) at the latest.

Budget
Negotiable. Please include a quote for both the site redesign, as well as potential semi-annual updates. Email webmaster@dragonmount.com for ball-park figures on our budget.

Tor Books has released the cover art for the upcoming ebook release of THE FIRES OF HEAVEN, the fifth book in the Wheel of Time series. Each month, beginning this past October, Tor will release the next book in the series in a variety of electronic formats. See below for a full list of links to the released books, as well as a schedule of the upcoming releases.

With each eBook, Tor is including brand new artwork for the “cover”. A different artist has been selected for each one, giving the art team at Tor a chance to provide us fans with a variety of styles.

This month, the artwork is by Dan Dos Santos. The ebook will be released on February 16th.

Click to enlarge

As with the previous covers that were released for the ebooks, Tor Art Director Irene Gallo has done a write up about the process behind creating this image. Be sure to check out the full article. Here’s an excerpt:

The trick, it turned out, was showing a lead character in an atypical moment: a fight scene. Dan’s answer was to go beyond the actual fight and into Moiraine’s thoughts prior the sequence — where she envisions placing several key elements into play that aid other characters in their journey.

Wheel of Time eBook News and release schedule
Tor Books plans to re-release each one of the Wheel of Time novels as ebooks according to the schedule below. Each will have new cover art, specially commissioned for the eBook format. Each will feature a different artist.

• The Eye of the World: DM News | Tor.com feature | Buy from Amazon
• The Great Hunt: DM News | Tor.com Feature | Buy from Amazon
• The Dragon Reborn: DM News | Tor.com Feature | Buy from Amazon
• The Shadow Rising: Tor.com Feature

| DM news

• The Fires of Heaven:DM News | Tor.com feature
• Lord of Chaos – 03/16/10
• A Crown of Swords – 04/20/10
• The Path of Daggers – 05/18/10
• Winter’s Heart – 06/22/10
• Crossroads of Twilight – 07/20/10
• Knife of Dreams – 08/24/10
• New Spring – 09/28/10
• The Gathering Storm – 11/2/10
• From Two Rivers – 11/16/10
• To The Blight – 11/16/10
• The Hunt Begins – 11/16/10
• New Threads in the Pattern- 11/16/10

So what do you think of this new image? Leave your comments below. Remember, we’ll have a more detailed report on the overall future of the Wheel of Time print-edition covers at a later time.

A beautiful new video interview has been posted online by Mythmaker Films, a production company based in southern California.

You can view it below, or click over to this link to see it in full High Definition.

This video was created while Brandon was on tour for The Gathering Storm. One of the Storm Leader for the Los Angeles book signing event, Tess Ortbals, works with Mythmakers and took the time to gather her troops to make this awesome video. Thanks, guys!

In a strategic business move that has the whole publishing industry (not to mention the blogosphere and Twitter) on fire, Amazon.com intentionally de-listed all print and electronic books published by Macmillan, one of the country’s six largest book publishers. Tor Books, who publishes The Wheel of Time in the United States, is an imprint of Macmillan, which means that all of their books (including WoT) were taken offline.

The reason for the delisting is due to an on-going feud between Amazon and some publishers over eBook pricing. Amazon has always pushed for a strict $9.99 price cap on new releases, while publishers like Macmillan have been asking for more pricing flexibility. Now that Apple has announced its new iPad product– which will be a direct competitor to Amazon’s Kindle–, and also stated that they will allow publishers to set their own prices, Macmillan requested to Amazon that they do the same. Amazon’s response was to simply remove all of Macmillan’s books from their store, both print and electronic versions. (Third parties could still sell the print versions).

Amazon did the delisting this past Friday afternoon (Jan 29th), likely in the hopes that it would receive less media attention going into the weekend, and also minimize the losses it would have from sales. (The assumption being that people buy more less from them on the weekend?)

As of the time of this article, Amazon has conceded and says it will put Macmillan’s books back online in the near future.

This incident has been discussed by a huge assortment of bloggers and news media. If this is something you would like to comment on here, you are welcome to do so, but you are highly encouraged to “do your homework” and read both sides of the story before forming an opinion. Here are some links that can get you started:

• New York Times article (The Gathering Storm is specifically mentioned)
• Another NYT article, declaring Macmillan the winner of the feud
• A Message from Macmillan CEO John Sargent
• Amazon’s response
• Locus Magazine
• Wired.com
• Engadget
• John Scalzi’s Whatever blog
• Scott Westerfield’s blog
• Tobias Buckell’s blog
• Neth Space

What does this have to do with the Wheel of Time?

Well, quite simply, it means that right now, you cannot buy new copies of any WoT book from Amazon. And you can’t buy the Kindle edition of any of those fancy new eBooks we’ve been reporting about.

Why is everyone so mad at Amazon? Aren’t cheap eBooks the way things should be? Isn’t Macmillan just looking to make more money?

Educate yourself. Read all of the links above.

Finally… place nice with your responses, please.

JordanCon is the only fan run run Wheel of Time convention in the world. 2009 marked the very first one, with appearances by Brandon Sanderson, Harriet McDougal, Wilson Grooms, Tom Doherty and the rest of Team Jordan. Over 250 people attended, and more than $3,000 was raised on behalf of the Mayo Clinic. Programing included discussion panels, performances, and rare chance to listen to an audiotape of Robert Jordan dictating the prologue to what would become THE GATHERING STORM. You can read our complete coverage here.

We have recently passed our 100-day mark until JordanCon II: “The SeanCon Invasion.” As the staff finalizes the details, we’ve prepared a progress report of what is planned so far. We are really excited about how this year’s Con is pulling together; we’ve arranged a solid weekend of guests, programming, events, and charity fundraising.

This year you’ll hear from some returning guests from our inaugural year — including Brandon Sanderson, Harriet McDougal, and Wilson Grooms — as well as some new authors you really need to discover. As we begin expanding JordanCon to encompass the fantasy genre as a whole, we’ve invited our first two non-Wheel of Time authors: David Wong (John Dies at the End) and Jana G. Oliver (Time Rovers series). If you haven’t read any of their books yet, do it — you will be impressed.

We’ve expanded our track set up, and we’re proud to announce an entire track devoted to writers workshops led by our three authors. We’re also introducing a “World of the Wheel” track devoted to all things Wheel of Time, plus bringing back our workshop and forum tracks. Whether you’re interested in costuming, weapons, dance, creative writing, or just discussing books, you’ll find plenty to keep you entertained.

For those of you who attended JordanCon last year, you know how successful our inaugural Con was. We had a great turnout, we sat in awe of Team Jordan, and we had a lot of fun. But one thing that I think stands out is the fact that we raised over $3,000 for amyloidosis research in memory of Robert Jordan. For the size of the crowd and the conditions of the economy, that is a seriously impressive amount. I can’t think of a better way to honor Robert Jordan and his idea of being a “servant of all” than to live out that concept. This year’s JordanCon is bringing back the poker tournament Friday night and the silent auction at Saturday’s ball. I hope you can be a part of these charity events, which will again benefit amyloidosis research at the Mayo Clinic.

We hope you enjoy the progress report — it not only gives an overview of what you’ll experience at JordanCon, but you’ll find details on the hotel, travel, and registration.

We hope to see you in April!

~Padra, Director of Marketing

P.S. — Wilson Grooms just gave us a great plug on his latest post on the Robert Jordan blog. Check it out over at Dragonmount. (Thank you Wilson!)

JordanCon II Progress Report:
http://www.ageoflegends.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/JordanCon-Progress-Report-2010-01-19.pdf