Lincoln native Brandon Sanderson bought his first book from the fantasy series "The Wheel of Time" with money earned from his newspaper route. It fostered plenty of ideas for novels of his own.

"One of my fondest memories is of walking my paper route with headphones plugged in and thinking about the stories that would someday become my novels," he said.

Now, Sanderson is the man behind the wheel of "The Wheel of Time" series, after author Robert Jordan died in 2007. One of Jordan's last wishes was for his wife to find a way to finish the series, and she found that opportunity after reading a tribute blog Sanderson had written about Jordan's influence in his work. After investigating his books and talking with the publishing house -- Tor -- it was decided to have Sanderson continue the series.

Sanderson wrote the 12th book of the series, "The Gathering Storm," which recently has been atop The New York Times bestsellers list for hardcover fiction.

The book had stiff competition; Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" was atop the list before

"The Gathering Storm" took over. Sanderson credits the fans of the series for how they supported the release of the book.

"Of course, I'm ecstatic. But it's not because of me that they went out to get the book," he said. "It's a credit to how good an author Robert Jordan is."

Before starting work on the series, Sanderson, who now lives in Provo, Utah, was writing the popular "Mistborn" trilogy and a series for younger readers, "Alcatraz." But, he said, he had not tackled a project as intense as "The Wheel of Time," let alone taken over a series with as many followers and expectations.

So he was delighted when he learned "The Gathering Storm" had made it to the top of the bestsellers list.

"You know, it feels relieving," Sanderson said. "That's a weird thing to say, but the last three or four "Wheel of Time" books have gotten to No. 1, and I was worrying that it would be during my watch that it wouldn't hit that number."

Sanderson, who graduated from Lincoln East High School in the early '90s, said he was never much of a reader until his eighth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Reader, assigned a book report for the class. Wanting to challenge Sanderson more, Reader asked him to choose a book from the cart in the classroom. He chose "Dragonsbane" by Barbara Hambly and loved it.

"I became a huge fantasy addict, and within one year I wanted to be a writer," Sanderson said. "I took my daydreams and started to write them down."

Sanderson fed his fantasy addiction with regular visits to Cosmic Comics in the Edgewood Plaza shopping center to buy new fantasy novels. Each story he read fueled his drive and filled his head with ideas, he said.

Those ideas have made their way to paper and bookshelves, but first they get thorough vetting, Sanderson said.

"Epic fantasy involves a lot of planning," Sanderson said. "You have to be meticulous in the plotting, down to every detail. I build the story backward - focusing on what I want to have happen in the end - then write it forward, following the outline I had previously plotted."

Sanderson said planning storylines was important because of the need for consistency from one book to the next.

The outlining and planning out, however, were done for him with the "Wheel of Time" series. Sanderson was handed notes - some full scenes written out, and sometimes just a sentence or two that could become four or five chapters of story - from Robert Jordan's wife.

"It worked for me because I'm goal-based in my outlining," Sanderson said. "I was handed a bunch of goals, and I was able to build my own outline from the goals that were given to me."

What's next for Sanderson? He will write two more volumes to finish "The Wheel of Time" series and expects to publish two of his own novels during that time: "Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens," the fourth volume of his young readers series; and "The Way of Kings," the first of 10 novels for his new epic fantasy series, "The Stormlight Archive." He has been planning and writing that series for the past decade, but until working on "The Wheel of Time," he didn't think he was doing it justice.

"Previous to my working on "The Wheel of Time," I wasn't ready. I wasn't pleased with what I wrote," Sanderson said. "I had to stretch and grow so much through the process of writing "The Wheel of Time" that I have grown enough to see myself tackle the series."

Reach Michael Mason-D'Croz at MMason-D'Croz@journalstar.com.