Mistborn: The Bands of Mourning is the third book in the high fantasy Wax and Wayne series of novels written by American author Brandon Sanderson. It is the sequel to Shadows of Self and the setting of the novel is approximately 300 years after the conclusion of the original Mistborn series.

Conception
The work that eventually turned into the Wax and Wayne trilogy began with a creative writing exercise, not necessarily intended for publication, to help clear Sanderson's head before continuing work on A Memory of Light from The Wheel of Time and the next book in The Stormlight Archive. This work, Mistborn: The Alloy of Law, was published in 2011. On October 29, 2013, Sanderson and Tor Books announced that there would be two more Mistborn novels in the Wax and Wayne timeframe of the Mistborn universe, starting with the publication of Shadows of Self.

Sanderson wrote the first third of Shadows of Self between revisions of A Memory of Light. However, after returning to the book in 2014 Sanderson found it difficult to get back into writing it again. To refresh himself on the world and characters, Sanderson decided to write its sequel Bands of Mourning first and at the end of 2014 he turned both novels in to his publisher.