Comic-con 2010 and Borders reading/signing in San Diego

[TheBeerPatriot]

I only got to yesterday's session of Comic-con due to work.  It was my first time there and was only able to stay for a couple of hours, but really enjoyed it! Aside from the proliferation of comics (duh), I bumped into Christopher Paolini (author of Eragon) playing a Star Wars game (not sure which one).  Aside from kicking ass at that game, I chatted with him for a few minutes and got Eragon signed.  On Thursday, Paolini was on a discussion panel titled "Once Upon a Time": Epic Fantasy, Bigger than Life Heroes/Heroines.  He was on the panel along with Brandon, Lynn Flewelling, Patrick Rothfuss, Brent Weeks and Tad Williams! I'm bummed I wasn't able to get out of work for that panel, but hopefully they'll be doing that panel again next year (and I will attend this time).  By all accounts, it was an outstanding discussion panel, followed by an extended signing period.

 

I was fortunate to get to a reading/signing session at Borders in the San Diego Gaslamp yesterday afternoon.  It was attended by Patrick Rothfuss, Brent Weeks and Brandon Sanderson.  All three authors read an approximate 1000-word excerpt of each other's forthcoming work.  The writing author would present the excerpt, and then would be read by another author.  Brent presented his forthcoming excerpt from Black Prism (comes out on 8/24), and Brandon then read the piece.  Brandon then introduced his excerpt from Way of Kings, which was then read by Patrick.  Patrick started with a disclaimer to Brandon that he  absolved himself of any possible mispronounciations that might happen with all of the names used in that excerpt.  Patrick then introduced his section from Wise Man's Fear (due out March 2011, I believe), and then read by Brent.  I found this reading to be the best one of the three-Brent did a great job reading the excerpt, and Patrick's scene was pretty funny.  I know I'm not providing many details right now, but will provide some later from each of the three scenes.  Bottom line though, this was a very enjoyable reading session, followed by a short Q & A.  The Q & A's were fairly generic, in terms of questions about how each of the authors created magic systems, how did they get published, etc.

 

I then went to Brandon's line first to get signed, since he had to catch a plane right after the signing.  I was in line for about 45 minutes, when one of the handlers gave Brandon a 5 minute warning to wrap up so he could catch his plane.  I was 2nd in line at that point-I had brought Gathering Storm, Elantris, and the first 2 Mistborn books to be signed.  But I didn't want to take up too much time, so I put the Mistborn books back in my bag.  When I got up to Brandon and presented TGS and Elantris, he asked if I had put other books back in my bag that he would have signed.  I said yes, and he then said to bring them out, he'd be happy to sign them. 

 

Not to fawn over the guy of course, but I think this illustrates what a  generous and giving artist he is.  Brandon went out of his way to tell his handlers that he'd rather miss his flight than having missed books to sign.  I certainly appreciated it and he signed it, but made sure I didn't take up too much of his time so he wouldn't miss the flight. ;) I snapped a  couple of pics with him, and asked him quickly about the discussion panel on Thursday and mentioned I had just ran into Christopher Paolini at the con.  He said it was a great panel, and hopes to do it again for sure next year.

 

Again, I'm sorry I'm lacking details on the three scenes that were read, but I'll edit this again shortly with more details.  I'm looking forward to Way of Kings signing here in San Diego in September.  Anyone else planning to attend that signing on 9/10?

[JenniferL]

I put this on Twitter for you. =)

[Luckers]

Awesome!

[TheBeerPatriot]

I put this on Twitter for you. =)

Great, thanks! I've been meaning to get a Twitter account, I'll do it soon.

[JenniferL]

When you do get on Twitter, if there's anything you think every WoT fan EVER needs to know about, make sure you @dragonmount so Jason or I will see it. Both of us will put up anything we find that we think WoT fans will like, but if you want to make sure we see it, do that.