Grim Oak Press announced today that it will be publishing Unfettered, an anthology of short fiction from an amazing collection of fantasy writers. One of the included short stories is River of Souls, a short story based in the Wheel of Time world. It's listed as being written by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson.



The anthology will be available in Spring, 2013, after A Memory of Light is released. Proceeds from the book will benefit Shawn Speakman, a notable member of the fantasy community, who has been struggling to pay the overwhelming costs of his medical bills. About twenty-four well-known authors are contributing their talents to help him out. From the Grim Oak Press website:

Lacking health insurance and diagnosed with Hogdkin’s lymphoma in 2011, Shawn quickly accrued a massive medical debt that he did not have the ability to pay. That’s when

New York Times

best-selling author Terry Brooks offered to donate a short story Shawn could sell toward alleviating those bills—and suggested Shawn ask the same of his other friends.

Brandon has confirmed that "River of Souls" will provide deeper background and motives for a character we already know. THe short story will consist of several scenes that were written for AMOL, but cut for various reasons including pacing, and the fact that Harriet felt they weren't appropriate to be included in the full novel. Here's a video of Brandon talking about River of Souls:

This will likely be one of the last times we get new WoT material. After AMOL and this short story, the only planned book to be released containing WoT material is the Encyclopedia, which is currently being developed by Team Jordan. Both Harriet and Brandon have repeatedly said that there will be no stories set in the WoT universe after the encyclopedia is released.



The print copies of the Unfettered anthology are now available for pre-order. More information will come later regarding the eBook editions.