Birmingham AMoL signing - Feb 22, 2013

[Caramoore]

The signing in Birmingham started out for the Memory Keepers with 6 of the 7 of us meeting at a local restaurant for a quick bite to maintain our strength because we knew that it was going to be a busy night.  We went into the Books-a-Million around 6pm to get organized for Brandon and Harriet’s arrival. Since it was raining and there are two entrances we staked out both.  As luck would have it, I stepped outside just as Brandon and Harriet were dropped off by their driver. 

We got to meet with Brandon and Harriet in a back room to get our books signed and do a quick Q&A session. It was an amazing experience!
Jennifer and Jimmy Liang (JordanCon and DragonMount) along with Jeffery and Kiley Daniels (Ta’veren Tees) came to enjoy the last AMoL signing of the tour with us! Then it was time to go into the store and meet the crowd.

Brandon and Harriet talked to the crowd then took questions and Harriet did a reading from AMoL before starting the signing. Along with the estimated 300 people there was a couple there that had brought their son Rand (cool name!) to meet Brandon and Harriet as well as one lady who had driven all
the way from Kansas City and several from Nashville, southern Mississippi, and Atlanta just to be at the last book store signing! How cool is that!

A couple of people brought gifts for Brandon. One who was a B-1 bomber pilot brought an arming pin to a B-1 bomb that he had dropped and another person brought a FBI patch, hat, and ink pen shaped like a bullet. There were even a few people there in costume and they looked amazing!

TOR had sent a lot of swag that we were able to hand out. Black shoulder bags and iPhone cases with the WoT and AMoL logos on them and a box
full of The Way of Kings paper backs. Which was a good thing for some because the book store ran out of a most of Brandon’s books that night.

After everyone had been through once and had their books signed Harriet left because it was getting late but Brandon hung around to personalize books for fans and answer more questions.

It was a great night and we met a lot great people. Brandon and Harriet were great and it was an experience all of us Memory keepers will never forget! I know I'm leaving out a lot, but hopefully the others will post their experiance here as well.

 

[alMordre]

Here's my two cents' worth:

 

 

[J.Dauro]

Here are transcripts for all the Q&A from the Birmingham Signing. These are broken into three pieces, The General Q&A with the crowd, the specific questions asked of Brandon at the signing table, and the Memory Keeper private Q&A. 

 

many of these questions are repeats from other signings. But I wanted to post them all.

 

This post is part 1.

 

 

Audience Q&A
===========================================================================================================
Question: There are 32,000 plus pages of notes/documentation from Robert Jordan. Will that ever see the light of day?
A: Some of it will appear in the Encyclopedia. Team Jordan figures another 10-12 months work to complete the initial work. Then probably a year for Tor to commission the illustrations and produce the book.

Harriet: We are often asked about the Movie rights. Universal is working on a script. I have not seen it.

Question: If you could create your own weave that we haven’t seen yet, what would it be?
Brandon: I sure would like some more time to write more books.
Harriet: I would like to destroy the Federal Deficit.

Question: Was New Spring originally a novella that was expanded, or was it planned as a novel that was released in several parts?
Harriet: It started as a novella for the collection called Legends. And then Tom Doherty said, “Well you can expand that into a novel, that won’t take any time at all.” I said, “Tom, that’s not really a good idea.” He didn’t listen to me.

Question: If you could associate yourself with a particular character, who would it be?
Brandon: I’ve always felt the most like Perrin.
Question: Are you good with women?
Comment: Only one.
Harriet: No.

Question: How much of the story in the last three books were things Brandon had to do, and how much was laid out by Robert Jordan?
Brandon: It’s really hard at this point for me to even sometimes remember, because I’ve been working on it for five years now. But, a lot of the big touchstone moments, he had mentioned in his notes. Now, when I mention the notes, we have the 32,000 pages, that is obviously too much to work with. And most of that was notes for previous novels. The assistants came up with 200 pages for me, that were focused on this book. That became the core of what I worked with to make these three novels, or this book, because it’s still kind of one book in my head.
And of those 200 pages, there were about a hundred pages of actual written material that he’d done. And about a hundred pages of Q & A’s with his assistants regarding scenes that needed to be written, or where characters needed to end up and things like that.
I would say in a given scene, there’s me and there’s Robert Jordan in basically everything. But, if you want something a little more specific, in Gathering Storm, Egwene’s plot line, he had a lot done for. For Rand’s plot line it was more me. For Towers of Midnight Mat’s plot line he’d done a lot on, Perrin’s plot line was more me. And for the last book, the beginning and the end, he’d done a lot of work on, and the middle was more me.

Question: If you each could live in any land of the Wheel of Time, what would that land be?
Brandon: I would say for me, oh it’s probably just going to be Andor. Because that’s simple and normal and fewer people are trying to kill me there.
Harriet: I think I second the vote.

Question: There was a PC Wheel of Time game in the late 90’s (of which quality we will not speak.) Is there a chance of future video games in the Wheel of Time World?
Harriet: Yes, those rights are with Manetheren, and I don’t know how they are coming along with the development, but it is in development.

Question: What about the Mistborn video game?
Brandon: We put it off until 2014, because of the new console generation. We had planned for it to come out right when the buzz was saying the new consoles were going to launch. And that felt like a bad idea to us. The Mistborn film is also in the works, but it is very early and it is not nearly as far along as the Wheel of Time film is. So if anyone’s father is J. J. Abrams, have him call me.

Question: In the last book we see a lot less of [character] than in previous books. Is there a particular reason for that?
Brandon: I did everything that Robert Jordan instructed me to do with [character], and that is what I felt was appropriate, rather than adding a lot.

Question: Who was Hinderstap?
Brandon: Hinderstap was me, that was one of my additions. Entered in because Harriet actually said, we need things to be scarier, it’s the end of the world. Come up with some really cool bubbles of evil, Brandon. And here are some examples of things that Robert Jordan came up with. Be freaky. And I did my best.

Question: Do you have any advice for up and coming authors?
Brandon: I have a lot of it. The number one piece though is just to keep at it and practice.
However, if you want a lot of advice, I’ve got two resources for you. I do a podcast called Writing Excuses. And I have all of my University lectures posted online at a website called Write about Dragons. One of my grad students recorded them and put them all up.
If you’ve already seen those, then you already have all of my advice. Why are you asking? Keep at it, just keep at it. BICHOK Butt in chair, hands on keyboard.

Question: Do you ever see yourself creating a series of books of this level?
Brandon: I don’t know that I see anyone ever creating another series of books on this level, what he did. But I do have lots of stories that I want to tell, and I can hope.
Harriet: And I would recommend that you pay attention to a book of Brandon’s called The Way of Kings.

Question: Are there any characters in Wheel of Time that you could see having their own series?
Brandon: Yes, because Robert Jordan was going to write a series about them. We call them the Outriggers. You can Google what the Outriggers were going to be about. However Harriet can tell you the future of this series.
Harriet: They won’t happen. Well, the reason is, he left only two sentences. And you can’t build a trilogy from two sentences. It would be purely the work of someone else. And Robert Jordan had a horror of that happening. He didn’t want it, so it won’t happen. I mean, he would have loved to write them, but he didn’t want another person, even Brandon, turned loose in his universe. So it’s not going to happen.
Brandon: Yeah, we have to be really respectful of what Robert Jordan wanted, plus there’s just the “stop while you’re ahead” sort of mentality, that comes to a really great ending that he himself wrote. So adding anything else would just be a bad idea. So yes, I could imagine stories about lots of people, and if he were here instead of me, I would be in line begging him to write them. But we can’t have them, so you’ll have to imagine them yourself.

Question: (Could you see a) crossover novel with the Wheel of Time and any other fantasy series?
Brandon: The Wheel of Time already crosses over with every fantasy series because the Wheel of Time contains the multiverse philosophy, that all other worlds are shadows of the Wheel of Time world. So they’re already there. Otherwise I just wouldn’t want to see anything like that happen, it just wouldn’t feel right to me. But that’s an amusing question, thank you for it.

Question: What created the Black Wind in the Ways?
Harriet: I have no idea.
Brandon: I believe Robert Jordan may have answered some questions about this at certain times, so if you look at the fan archives of questions, people have asked a lot of questions about this one, you may be able to get some clues there.

Question: If you have a favorite book from the series, what would it be and why?
Brandon: I do have a favorite book, one of the nice things is, I can answer as a fan, because I was a fan for many years before I took this over. As the writer you don’t answer these sorts of things very easily. But I was part of a lot of the discussions where we argued about the best books, and which characters annoyed us, which characters we loved. My favorite book is book four, because of two specific events, yeah. I really love Rand’s trip through the Glass Columns, I think it’s my favorite sequence in the series. But also, the siege of the Two Rivers is one of my favorites. How about you, Harriet?
Harriet: I love the trip through the Columns too. I was just blown away by it once again. I said, “Honey, you’ve done it again.” But I’m very fond of A Memory of Light, too.
All: Awww.

Question: This is the last stop of the tour for Memory of Light. How do you feel?
Brandon: How do we feel? The last hurrah, the last stop on the Memory of Light tour. It’s really kind of, honestly, a weird experience for me, because after today, I basically set down, you know, the mantle, right, that was handed to me five years ago. This is my last official event involved in the Wheel of Time. Now I will be involved for the rest of my life. I will go to JordanCon every year, which is only over in Atlanta, so you should all go. I just drove there today, from Atlanta, I know how easy a drive it is. I will be going to JordanCon, I will always be willing to sign these books, and talk about the Wheel of Time, but after today I take a big step toward fan, and away from author. And so it’s a really… It’s the culmination of a bittersweet experience, it has been five years of bitter-sweetness. It started with reading his last scene, that he’d written, and it comes up to here. Where after five years of a lot of hard work, I put down that burden and, I move on to other things, which is really, really sad. You know, it’s kind of weird, because every other series that I put down, there’s been that voice in the back of my head that said, well you could return to this, if you want to. In this one I can’t. That’s been made off limits to me by myself from the beginning. You know, Harriet and I, on one of the very first times in Charleston, we had this conversation about the other books and we both were very adamant about the idea of them not happening. And so, it’s not, you know, it’s not Harriet saying, no, it’s me saying no too. I would not do these if the opportunity were even offered. And so, it’s strange, because these characters I can never do more with. Everyone else I can. So it’s a final farewell to Robert Jordan, and it’s sad, but it’s also awesome because the last book has been well received. I think it turned out very well. And the experience has been amazing.

Question: When is the next WOK book coming out?
Brandon: Tor has it scheduled for November, we’ll see if I manage that or not. But November until told otherwise.

Question: How hard was it for you to separate the fan from the writer?
Brandon: This was something I’d never had to do before, and it was somewhat hard at the beginning. Basically, I wanted to stay away from letting the fan control too much, because you couldn’t have that. Otherwise Narg would do a cameo every other chapter and things like that. And yet, you know, I am a fan and I can’t separate completely the fact there are things I wanted to see. I wanted to see a reunion between Rand and Tam. There are things that I wanted these last books to provide, and I had to listen to the fan when working on the outline and saying, Is there an opportunity for this, what did he instruct me to do, what places are there things that I know as a fan I wanted for years, and which ones are appropriate to put in. And so I didn’t completely separate, but it was something that I had to be aware of.

Question: Could you comment on the Aiel Wise woman that Aviendha met in TOM?
Brandon: I can give a comment, which is No Comment. That’s one question that I am not answering because there are certain things in there that I don’t think its… I just don’t want to answer that one so, I can’t comment on that one. Sorry.

Question: Having been so involved in these books over the last five years, and as an author with your own projects in the works, how hard is it to separate the heart and soul of Robert Jordan and the Wheel of Time from your own stuff?
Brandon: You know, this is something you just learn as a writer. To juggle projects. And writing is my passion, and I don’t usually have trouble mixing up projects. Now that said, I do sometimes get influenced by certain projects, or end up repeating myself, and that’s something you have to really watch out for as a writer. Where you’ve got to be careful not to let the same themes and ideas make you do the same thing over and over again. But that’s a different question. Separating myself from the Wheel of Time was not as hard as you might think, because it’s something I had to learn to do when I first started writing. Because the Wheel of Time was a dominant force in my writing from the beginning, I had to say let’s write something that doesn’t just copy the Wheel of Time. And I think every writer learns to separate themselves from their influences. Our first stories are usually derivative. And we learn over time, hey here’s how to express my own voice. My first novel, the first one I finished, I went back to it years later, just a couple of years ago. I went back and I dug it out and looked at it. And it started with the wind scene, it started with an omniscient view of the wind blowing across something. I’m like, Oh I’ve totally lifted that from RJ. But, you know, that’s okay on your first novel. It’s something you learn.

Question: Having worked on this project after somebody else, how will this affect your future writing style?
Brandon: Well, I think I gained a lot of insight, working on this project, and that has changed my writing style. I don’t think that necessarily, the work on it normally has, because I, like I said, studied the Wheel of Time, and learned about managing influences early in my career. And yet, working on this, being able to see the things RJ did, and gaining a better admiration of some of the things that he managed to pull off. His level of subtlety and foreshadowing for example, really made me say wow, I can see what he’s doing and I can see it even better, and it’s challenged me to be a better writer. So, I think, as to be better at working with multiple viewpoints, lots of different characters

Question: How did Harriet decide on Brandon, what specific works?
Harriet: The first work was the eulogy for RJ that Brandon posted on his website. A friend was staying with after Jordan’s death, and she put a printout of this in front of me and said, “I think you need to read this.” And I certainly did and I thought, golly, this is exactly the attitude and the heart of a writer that I would like to see finish the series. This would just be wonderful. And then I called the publisher of Tor, I’ve worked with him, I was the original Editorial Director at Tor, and I’ve worked with the publisher for some, umm, more years than you all have been alive. Although perhaps if we added you all together… Anyway, I know him well and I said, “Tom, tell me about this guy, Brandon Sanderson.” And he’s a publisher, so he said, “Well, his sales numbers…”, I mean, he had two books out at this point, Elantris and the first Mistborn, he’s a publisher, so he’s rattling off numbers, which were not at all what I was interested in. I said, “Well, can you send me one of the books?” He said, “Okay.”
It’s conventional wisdom in the industry that a first novel has training wheels, if you really want to see what a writer can do, read the second novel. So he sent me Mistborn. And I read 47 pages. Remember I’ve been doing this for many years. And I fell asleep. (Laughter) Not Brandon’s fault. But when I woke up, everything in the world was clear. His world… and that’s a challenge, to get that stuff done in so few pages. The world was clear, the characters, the conflict, what they ate… He can do this thing. So I called Tom, and told him what I thought and he said, “You haven’t read the whole book yet, have you?” Cause he’s also worked with me for more years than you’ve been alive. And I said, “Well, no.” And he said, “Shouldn’t you finish it. It’s a very important decision.” And I said, “If I were hiring him to write a Sanderson novel, of course. But I’m not. I’m hiring him to write a Jordan.” So that’s, that’s…
And then I did, what is it, right brain things or left brain, I always get them mixed-up. But the sensible things. Asked advice of some, an editor in New York who I trust, and his, the British publisher of the series, and like that. And sort of stewed around about it for, gosh, six weeks, a month, yep. And then I called, and got, and thought, Provo, Utah, that must be about as big as a minute. I was wrong. I thought, I’ll just call information, so I did, and got the number for Brandon Sanderson. And a woman answered the phone. And I said, “Hello, is this Mrs. Sanderson?” And she said, “Yes.” And I said, I rattled off, “Hello, I’m Robert Jordan’s widow. I’d like to talk to him about finishing Jordan’s series, the Wheel of Time.” And she said, “I have no idea what you are talking about.” And it turns out that Provo, Utah, far from being a tiny place, has two Brandon Sandersons. {Laughter) So with the next try, I got him. I got his voicemail, actually. Anyway, that’s pretty much the story.

Question: Mr. Sanderson, I noticed that Utah seems to be producing a lot of writers lately, You, Dan Wells, and Larry Correia come to mind offhand. Do you have any insight as to why Utah has been producing a lot of Science Fiction and Fantasy writers?
Brandon: You know, a lot of people ask this. I think it has to do with the fact that once a community gets started, they lift each other up. For instance, I gave Dan the contact info for my editor. Larry Correa, when he was publishing, got some help from some people locally. And what happens is you see people kind of helping each other out. It started with Orson Scott Card, way back when. And that started a class at Brigham Young University, it was How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, which I took. And it’s not that there’s any sort of inside club or thing, it’s just that, you see people being successful. It becomes more possible for you. And, like for instance, I took this class, it was taught by Dave Farland, who writes the Runelords, which is a Fantasy series. It’s quite good. And I was able to say, How do you do this thing, how do you get published? He’s like, Oh, here’s some advice. Go forth and meet editors and things. So, I think it has to do with this idea. if you go back, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were in the same writing group. It just starts a sort of community thing, where it becomes a viable, possible thing. Like, I grew up in Nebraska. I didn’t know any writers in Nebraska. I didn’t know anyone who was a published Science Fiction / Fantasy writer. There weren’t conventions in Lincoln, and things like that. But when I moved to Utah suddenly there’s a bunch of writing conventions. You’ve got a ton of them around here too. And things like that. That sort of community is just really helpful for helping writers along. I think that’s got a lot to do with it.
 

[J.Dauro]

Here is part 2 of the Q&A, the questions asked of Brandon at the signing table. This does contain spoilers.

 

Individual Questions asked while Brandon was signing books
===========================================================================================================

Question: Why did you have to kill Vin and Eland?
Brandon: They demanded that they be allowed to take the chance they did. And I just let them take the chance. I didn’t kill them, I just let them take the chance, that they demanded that I let them take. That’s kind of a copout answer, I’m sorry, but that’s what it feels like to me. And if I always make it so that there are no consequences, then the books have no heart.

Question: When is the next Mistborn book coming out?
Brandon: 2014

Question: Who started the book signing war between you and Patrick Rothfuss?
Brandon: The fan. They’re the one who asked him to write something. Then they asked me to write something, so last night someone asked me to write something else back to him, so I wrote, Pat Rothfuss is a very classy dude.

Question: Mat asked Hawkwing to go talk to Tuon, but it’s never actually said whether he did or not?
Brandon: He did.

Question: When rand lights the pipe at the end, is he directly influencing the Pattern?
Brandon: RJ didn’t tell us. He wrote that scene himself, and he didn’t say what it meant. I think that’s what it is, but I can’t say for sure, because RJ didn’t tell me.

Question: How come Lan couldn’t tell that Moiraine was alive, and with the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn? Because he felt the severing of the bond?
Brandon: He did not have the bond anymore. Since the bond was severed, he couldn’t feel her anymore.
Question: But why would the bond be severed, she was still alive?
Brandon: RJ says it is because she went to another dimension, and when that slice happened, it cut the bond. The bond couldn’t function across the dimension there without some sort of connection there, without some sort of opening portal or something like that.

Question: The chick (unintelligible)
Brandon: She is Nakomi, and it is left to your imagination and wondering who she might be.

Question: How do you meet these peole who read books and provide critical comments?
Brandon: Most of my Alphas and Betas are my friends from college or my family.

Question: So what do you read? You are a writer, what do you read?
Brandon: I read Terry Pratchett. Whenever I can find a chance to do so, I love his works. And I like to read books by new writers, to see what’s going on in the field, and see what people are doing.

Question: Did you ever conceive of breaking the “Last Battle” chapter into sections?
Brandon: No, I felt like I wanted you to feel like the characters felt. And that you couldn’t just put your sword down and go. That was my goal.

Question: Can the anti-balefire weave restore threads to the pattern?
Brandon: Yes, it repairs threads to the pattern. The threads may not be exactly the same, but it does repair them.

Question: So does that mean Hopper could the next time in this cycle?
Brandon: I can’t speak for Hopper, other than, I have hope.

Question: If you were to choose (to be) a Feruchemist or a Allomancer, which would you choose?
Brandon: I would choose Allomancy, because I would want to have Steel Pushing, that’s my favorite of the powers.

Question: Is that why you gave Waxillium Steel Pushing?
Brandon: Yes.

Question: Is there going to be any more Mistborn books?
Brandon: Yes, there will. 2014 there will be a sequel to Alloy of Law.

Question: Is that really the end of it? Absolutely?
Brandon: Yes, that is the end. He didn’t leave anything more.

Question: Did you know from a young age that you wanted to be an author?
Brandon: I did not, I was a teenager when I discovered fantasy novels, and I decided I wanted to do it then

Question: Did you ever fail an English class?
Brandon: I did not fail an English class, but I did fail Handwriting. All through Elementary School I got unsatisfactory marks.

Question: Will you be finishing the Alcatraz series?
Brandon: I will soon be finishing the series. I had to buy the rights back. I didn’t like how the Publisher was treating the series. I got the rights back on January 1st. It’s been a bit of a break, but I will finish it.

Qusetion: Are you thinking about anything else in the Elantris world? Or Warbreaker?
Brandon: Yes, Elantris will be more soon than Warbreaker. Warbreaker will be a ways off. You may want to find Emperor’s Soul, it’s in the Elantris World.


Question: What was the hardest thing for you to overcome as a starting writer?
Brandon: As a starting writer I would say the hardest thing for me was learning to revise. I just hated revision. I had to learn to do it, and do it well.

Brandon: You were the person with the Moiraine question. RJ wrote in his notes that main purpose of Moiraine is to prevent a war between Rand and Egwene. And then she was to go with him into the Pit of Doom, but in the Pit of Doom there was nothing for her to do. And I felt bad about that, but that’s what he instructed. It was hard to come up with stuff for everyone to have a part and a role. But I did what he instructed. It was a good question, people wondered. She did have an important role to play.

Question: Who was the hardest character for you to personify?
Brandon: It was Mat. He’s the most complex of the WOT characters, so getting him right was a real challenge.

Question: The character Daruo, Deathwatch Guard in the scene where Mat and Tuon re-unite. Please tell me that could he be an Ogier?
Brandon: Yes, if you want him to be.

Question: Egwene, was that your idea or Robert Jordan’s?
Brandon: I haven’t been telling people about that one specifically. Almost all the deaths in the book were RJ’s instructions, but I did choose a few of them. So, it could been either one of us.

Question: Dalinar and Lan, who wins in a swordfight? Both full Shardbearers.
Brandon: Both full Shardbearers. Lan probably wins, I would guess. Lan is more pure swordsman than Dalinar. Dalinar spent a lot of time on things like battlefield tactics.

Question: In at least two of the books that I know of, a god is either dead or attacked in some form or fashion. Is there any reason for that?
Brandon: Yes, there is an ongoing theme there, and it’s primarily because there is an overarching story behind the story. The books are all in the same universe. And there is a character that’s the same in all of the books. In WOK it’s Wit. He’s actually in all of them.

Question: Was it your idea for the dead mule in the last book, or was it Robert Jordan’s?
Brandon: That was his idea.
Question: Well he had one set of dead mules, I didn’t know it you wanted to add yours, and become a Southern Writer too?
Brandon: Well I can be a partial one.


Question: In book 6 or 7 when Moiraine gets thrown through the portal, was it RJ’s plan to bring her back in Towers of Midnight?
Brandon: Yes, he actually wrote most of the scene’s that take place in the Tower of Ghenjei and afterwards.

Question: Who is writing the movie script for Eye of the World?
Brandon: It’s being written in house at Universal.

Question: The last book had a lot of military action in it. Did you have to do a lot of research for that?
Brandon: Yes we did. And I relied a lot on some experts that we know to give me a lot of help on that.

Question: Demondred, when he does the coming out scene with the big reveal. Was that you or Robert Jordan?
Brandon: That was me.

Question: What up and coming fantasy writer would you read?
Brandon: I really like Brent Weeks, but you probably already know about Brent. If you haven’t read the Lightbringer books, they’re wonderful. I like Brian McClellan, who has a new book coming out this year, it’s his first. I would suggest that you keep an eye on him.

Question: Are you and Harriet going to do any more editorial collaborations?
Brandon: No, she is retiring. She really needs to be allowed to rest and relax.

Question: What’s on your reading list?
Brandon: Right now I am in the middle of Mary Robinette Kowal’s new book. She sent me her latest unpublished one. Before that I read a Pratchett.

Question: What happens next? Somebody please tell me.
Brandon: Well I can tell you a few things actually. The sequel trilogy that he was writing, he left us two sentences. One is, Mat is dicing in a gutter somewhere. And the other is Perrin is on a boat traveling to Seanchen thinking about how he’s got to go kill a friend.

Question: Is there going to be a sequel to Elantris?
Brandon: Yes, a true sequel is coming. It’s actually going to be about Sarene’s Uncle, and his family.

Question: My favorite character, Elmindreda. How much of that were you fleshing out?
Brandon: Not a ton. Just a little bit. I got to do most of her and Tuon.


Question: Androl is he yours?
Brandon: He is mine. From the beginning, I asked Team Jordan if there was an Asha’man that had a blank slate that I could take over, because I wanted to have a viewpoint in the Black Tower, and I wanted to do some of these things with gateways.

Question: In the WOK, is Assassination a common thing in the Parshendi culture, because it seems odd that they would have a specific custom for what assassins wear?
Brandon: It is something that happened quite a bit more in the past than it does now. But yes, you will find out much more about them. They are now more unified, but they used to be a bunch of different tribes, and they would send assassins into each other’s camps.

Question: What happened to the Tinkers? Why didn’t you give them the song?
Brandon: I didn’t because in his notes Robert Jordan said, and I quote, “The Tinkers never do find their damn song.” He wrote it exactly like that. And it’s because the song has become something more than just a song. It is a way of life. It means peace, kind of Nirvana. And it’s actually basically impossible to find the song, because it means the whole world is at peace. That’s what it means to them now. And because it’s become an ideal rather than a single event, it’s not something you could actually even go to them with the thing that was originally the song and sing, and have them acknowledge that it is the song.

Question: And the decision to exchange the bodies at the end?
Brandon: That was his (Robert Jordan). And it began with the crossing of the balefire streams, way back when, and continued on through the series up to here. He actually wrote those scenes at the end himself.

Question: Did you have any Air Force consultation with the To’raken scenes at all?
Brandon: That was in mind. We had a lot of military experts help us out with these books. I relied on them a lot.

Question: How did you become a writer? What advice (can you give?)
Brandon: Practice, just practice. And don’t stress it too much.

Question: I was told that Talmanes was initially introduced as Mat’s foil character, just for that purpose. Is that true?
Brandon: I don’t know for sure, but I would bet it is. Just seeing the way that Robert Jordan used things like that. I would bet so.

Question: Have you heard the rumors about Bela being the Creator?
Brandon: I have indeed, and I find them very amusing.


Question: Was Robert Jordan’s original draft of that as bloody as the way it came out?
Brandon: A lot of the deaths, he didn’t write any of the actual death scenes, he just indicated who lived and died. I just upped the ante somewhat. I wasn’t going to have the Last battle come, without substantial losses, and so, where he didn’t instruct me, this person lives, I had some measure of, yeah. And so, I did up the body count. I know he was planning to kill off a number of characters, but he also, killing people, and letting them stay dead was not one of Jim’s strong suits. He was very fond of his characters, and I know there were lots that he was planning to kill. I don’t think that he would have killed as many as I, maybe. I don’t know. It’s what we felt the story needed, in talking to Harriet and Team Jordan. Maybe he would have. I did what I thought made the best story.

Question: What about Cadsuane’s being summoned to become Amyrlin?
Brandon: Cadsuane was going to give up the three Oaths, and go live forever. Cadsuane’s fate was not my idea.

[J.Dauro]

And finally here are the Questions asked by the Memory Keepers. Contains spoilers.

 

 

Memory Keeper Q&A
===========================================================================================================

Question: How is Mat's new name pronounced?

Brandon: According to Alan Romanczuk, you do pronounce the "k".

(As Harriet says, any way you say it OK. Check the Glossaries for some help.)

Question: Two words that I find very evocative are Dreadbane and Balescream. What's yours?

Brandon: You can usually guess, that if it's not Old Tongue, it's probably me.

Question: I mean what's your favorite word? What's the word you find most evocative from the series?

Brandon: In the series. Let me see. Hmm. I've always liked the term Heartstone. I would think. That one is very evocative to me.

Question: From Freelancer, Can you speak to how and when a True Power Sa'angreal was created?

Brandon: I believe that such a thing, you'll have to check with Maria to make sure that I'm not saying anything wrong, but I believe that this thing was created as a trap for one of the Forsaken.

Question: I think what he is more after, is once we have had the talk about the seed for a Sa'angreal...

Brandon: Uh, huh How did that happen? That I am not talking too much about.

Question: Can you speak to why Leilwen did not try to contact Elayne while she was in Caemlyn?

(pause)

Brandon: I'm trying to remember

Question: When Mat came to Caemlyn, she was with him. Mat saw Elayne, but she didn't.

Brandon: I don't know why she didn't.

Question: From Freelancer again. Moiraine promised Thom to tell the names of the Red Aes Sedai (who gentled) Owyn. Does she ever do that?

Brandon: Yes. It's not onscreen but it does happen.

Question: And is there anybody in that list that we would be interested in?

Brandon: I actually asked that question to Maria, and Maria said no.

Question: OK

Brandon: Really what I said is "Do we want to do this, is this relevant?" She said, "No I don't think this is relevant, and it's not worth jumping through hoops."

Question: OK

Brandon: Because there is nothing there that's going to, yeah.

That was what came of it. Now whether that actually means, is there any name you'd recognize, you might recognize a name, but it wasn't relevant enough to jump through storytelling hoops to get that on screen, to bother with it.

Question: Chris Cottingham asked, Is Nakomi's dealing with the soup for Aviendha the same as Rand and the pipe?

Brandon: What do you mean?

Question: Is it the same power?

Brandon: (Laughs) No, it is not. I'll go ahead and, Wow, you actually managed to get a question out of me about Nakomi. No that is not the same.

Question: Is "Nakomi" from the Old Tongue, and is there a translation?

Brandon: I'll go ahead and RAFO anything else dealing with Nakomi. You did get an answer out of me on one thing, so that's good.

Harriet: Nakomi wandered in from the Song of Hiawatha.

Brandon: There you go.

Question: That's what we thought, yes.


Question: Is the Town, the only human settlement in the Blight?

Brandon: I believe so.

Question: And was the Town the same cluster of building that was seen by Graendal in Tower of Midnight from Moridan's...

Brandon: Yes.

Question: Do we know what Moridin was doing in the Town?

Brandon: Umm, Define we.

Question: Will we know what Moridin was doing in the town?

Brandon: That depends on how good you are at guessing.

Harriet: I think he was building a new Westin Hotel.

Brandon: That's right.

(laughter)

Question: Sounds reasonable to me.

Question: Do we have any estimate on how many Asha'man and Aes Sedai survived? That's a Wetlander.

Brandon: Many. We'll put a lot of that in the Encyclopedia.

Question: Does the Ring of Tamyrlin still exist?

Brandon: I don't believe that it does.

Question: Sam Mickel seems to think that Demandred becomes so obsessed with Rand during the book, and that this appears to have increased from previous books. Would you say that, and if so, why?

Brandon: I would say no, though the immediacy of what is happening makes it manifest, makes it look that way. He has always been ... I mean, the single defining attribute of Demandred is his obsession with Rand, and it is his tragic flaw also.

Question: How can Mat use gateways when he is wearing the Medallion?

Brandon: He doesn't touch any weaves when he goes through.

Question: From Bonnie, did Tam have anything to do with the name of the inn, "Easing the Badger"?

Brandon: (laughs) No.

Harriet: But you could ask if I did.

(laughter)

Question: OK

Harriet: Yes, I did.

Question: In the scene where Mat is going to see Queen Elayne for the first time, there are the details of him handing off the ashandarei, and all this, which I find very amazing. So when you are writing something like that, do you see the scene?

Brandon: I do. I'm there, the question is just what I describe, and what I don't.

Question: Gary Singer asks, Do the Myrddraal channel the True Power to move between shadows?

B; I don't believe so.

J; Do we know anything on how they managed to create the wards on Callandor, and attune them to Rand?

Brandon: I don't.

Question: Then I guess I'll have to ask Maria at JordanCon.

Question: We have Androl has a very interesting past, he has gone a lot of places and done a lot of things. There is one line in there where it says, where he prepares tea for Pevara, he is talking about things that remind him of things, and he says, "Spring water reminds me of Jain." Is that Farstrider?

Brandon: Yes it is.

Question: So now we know a little more about..

MK: He's met everybody. He's gone everywhere.