The Robert Jordan Report: 1st Signing (No spoilers)
Daniel Rouk
and Science Fiction Bookstore in Atlanta. It was lots of fun!
I arrived about 10 after 6 and was given a post card showing the
cover scene from Fires of Heaven, with a handwriten number on it. (46)
Those earlier than I were awarded with poster sized versions of
the Randland map (new color one). I'll get one tommorrow or die
trying!
The only net personality I knew was Erica. She took notes so will
have much more info when she posts tonight. The bookstore was packed
with probably about 100 people. I left just after my book was signed.
This took about 2 hours to get to my number as many people had several
copies of each of the series to sign. Nobody seemed to mind.
There are LOTS of internet lurkers out there in the world though.
Too bad more of them don't post, but the ones I talked too mentioned
the volume as too heavy.
Jordan looks pretty much like the sketch, except add glasses.
He was sitting in a nice comfortable chair calmly answering everyone's
questions. Erica did rile him a little with one though. :-) He had a
large ring on his right hand with some sort of reddish stone. Is this
his Citadel ring? I don't know what one looks like, and didn't think
to look when he actually signed my book.
Now to the questions people asked and the answers. I hovered pretty close
to the signing table to get as much in as I could...
No Jordan quotes are exact... I didn't write anything down or have a tape
of it. (sorry)
Robert Jordan began writing after a pretty severe (The description grossed
Erica out) knee injury kept him idle. He was in the government service
at the time, and after using the time to write his first book, his boss
thought he was faking the injury simply to write. Jordan was upset because
his bosses boss believed that, and put in a resignation with 2 weeks notice.
Upset that he was leaving, his boss asked him to stay, mentioning that he
was needed on current projects. Jordan had cleaned up his desk and finished
those however. The boss mentioned that he was needed on future projects.
Jordan mentioned that he had submitted his resignation. The boss mentioned
that if he quit Jordan would never be able to work in the government again.
Jordan asked if he could have that in writing.
He says his wife disbelieves this ever happened, but Jordan swears its true!
Jordan answered any spoilers about the story pretty much as follows. First
question where this occured is below:
Q. What about Jain Farstrider? Will we see him again?
J. If, by the end of the last page of the last book you haven't read any
more about him, then I guess there was nothing more to say.
He mentioned that he isn't going to offer any windows into the story other
than the text. If its not readily apparent, then he isn't going to
illuminate it further. Thus no mind shattering revelations about the plot
here!
A few statements by Jordan:
J. " Originally, when I began thinking about the story, Tam and Rand were
the same character. The main character was to be a soldier who had gone
out to war and returned to a small village."
He mentioned height of all the characters. Erica wrote those down. Basically
repeated PNH's account of why colors of cover are always different.
The Old Tongue is a mix of Gaelic, Russian, Spanish, Japaneese. A lot of
different sources that are not traditionally used to make up fake languages.
He has only a few phrases and a few small guides on usage written down.
All the female characters are based on his wife. I asked if she pulls her
hair, and Jordan responded: "She pulls mine"
Erica asked the title of the next book. Jordan doesn't know yet. He is
still writing it. I asked how far along he is. Jordan said he didn't
really know, as he is constantly writing and cutting parts. He writes
from the beginning of the story to the end, and then cuts and edits large
chunks, pulling together threads. He doesn't even think about a working
title, but lets the story determine it.
He says there will be at least 3 more books, maybe 4.
Jordan knows the very last part of the final book, but doesn't know how
long it will be till he'll put it in.
One humorous story mentions the quote saying he will continue writing
until the day the nails are put into his coffin. One elderly lady
apparently told him that she was a lot closer to that than he was so he
had better hurry up.
Jordan knows about the internet groups, and even mentioned the recent
split of the rawsfr-j from its parent group and said that is happening
on a lot of other computer boards.
Jordan quoted the FAQ! Erica said the relevant part was from Novak,
about Bela being a darkfriend and attending the social. "The cloaked
figure of indeterminate sex"
Erica asked Jordan about Shannon Faulkner (sp?), the female attempting
to get into the Citadel. Jordan immediately said "She's a liar" and
explained how she misrepresented herself on her application. The Citadel
has an honor code that views lying as a very serious offense. He thinks
the military is one role where men are physically more able to do the
job, and if one can't meet the same requirements then they shouldn't
be accepted. He frowned on the practice of West Point no longer having
women march in combat boots. He mentioned that in Vietnam he had to
run for 20 some miles, and if he hadn't been able to make it he wouldn't
be here today. He says some fields though women would naturally replace
men if tradition didn't keep men involved, such as law.
On why the combat scenes are not more involved: Because in combat things
never really are clear. Also they are not really important.
Well, thats all I can really think of at the moment... I'm sure Erica will
have some to say too, or more details on the above. I'll add more after
tommorrow's signing at Oxford Books!
May the wheel keep turning!
Danny Rouk
d...@uncecs.edu
Bill Garrett
: A few statements by Jordan:
: [...]
: All the female characters are based on his wife.
The poor, poor man.
--
Bill Garrett "What sane person could live in this world
gar...@cs.unc.edu and not be crazy?" -- Ursula K. LeGuin