Editing New Spring (section)

==Background to publication==
"New Spring" was originally published as a novella in the [[speculative fiction]] anthology edited by [[Robert Silverberg]] entitled ''[[Legends (anthology)|Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy]]'', released on 25 August 1998, just before the 1998 publication of ''[[The Path of Daggers]]'' (Book 8 of ''The Wheel of Time''). Jordan later expanded the novella into a standalone novel (though of significantly shorter length than typical ''Wheel of Time'' books), which was then published by Tor Books in January 2004, between the 2003 publication of ''[[Crossroads of Twilight]]'' (Book 10) and the 2005 publication of ''[[Knife of Dreams]]'' (Book 11).

The ''New Spring'' novel was originally conceived of as the first in a trilogy of prequel novels. The second and third were to focus on Tam serving in the Illianer army and finding Rand, and Moiraine and Lan's journeys and discoveries to reach the Two Rivers just before the events of the first novel. Jordan's original plan was to write the trilogy before books 11 and 12 of the main series, but he was disappointed with ''New Spring'''s reception and decided to postpone this until after the main series was completed. However, his [[Robert Jordan#Illness and death|death]] on 16 September 2007—before the completion of the final novel in the series—makes this highly unlikely.<ref>{{Cite web |title=It's finally out (Brandon Sanderson's website) |date=9 January 2013 |url=https://brandonsanderson.com/its-finally-out/ |accessdate=26 May 2017}}</ref>

The first paperback edition of ''New Spring'', released on 13 June 2005, gave readers the first look at ''Knife of Dreams'' (Book 11), as it featured an advance excerpt of part of the [[prologue]] of ''Knife of Dreams''.