highlights of signing attendies stories
Carolyn Fusinato
Due to the extraordinary amount of people who
attended a signing and were kind enought to relate what
was said, the following information merely highlights
the what was said.
Signing attendies on the signings-
"The Tor representitives were handing out book marks
and postcards with the cover art from tFoH depicted on
them. In any case, by arriving 40 minutes early, I was
number 16, and it took about an hour to get to me. I saw
numbers in the high 60s, so I'm not sure if RJ was going
to make an effort to get through everyone or not. He took
the time to answer questions from each person, signed the
books "For first_name, Best Wishes ... Robert Jordan" on
the flip side of the page with edition information. He
also signed maps and "The Wheel of Time" sampler, which
SF&M was giving out." (ryan...@mindspring.com)
"...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)." (Daniel L. Rouk,
d...@uncecs.edu)
"The signing at The Stars Our Destination was an
overwhelming success by any measure you want to use.
We had about a hundred people show up (this was hard to
determine, really since many people went through the line
multiple times in order to get all of their
books/maps/paraphernalia signed). We sold about 75 copies
of LoC during the day. Everyone who wanted a book signed
was able to get it signed." (Roxanne e, rox...@MCS.COM)
Signing attendies on RJ-
"I'm sure I've captured the spirit of his remarks.
Someone asked RJ, 'Why the pseudonym?' He replied, 'What
makes you think it's a pseudonym?' which the questioner
followed with, 'Well, I've that it is from a number of
people.' RJ finished with, 'Well, yeah, I've heard *all*
sorts of things from all sorts of people.'/Someone asked
him if he was from North or South Carolina (in my
experience, most people from these states *hate* having
their state confused with the other). RJ replied, 'If this
were a more civilized time, I'd invite you to North
Carolina for pistols for two and coffee for one.' My
girlfriend asked him about the "trolloc" horn on his cane.
He said it was a ram's horn." (Greg,
gru...@violet.berkeley.edu)
"Like you, John, I discussed *P and said that I was one
of probably dozens who had sent him one of those free
subscript packets (I have no idea if *P still does it).
Turned out it was a revelation to him..."I was wondering
why I kept getting subscriptions in the mail
occasionally!" And we had a whole discussion on the net,
which boils down to that he wasn't really crazy about
getting onto the nets (Compuserve, *P, etc) because he saw
how addicting it is for a friend of his, but that
occasionally he gets copies of stuff from the various nets
...I even suggested he just peek in without writing, or
use a pseudonym. He just smiled. All in all, a REAL nice
guy." (Kris Quinn, EEEB70B 10/19 11:08 PM)
"RJ was very patient and enthusiastic. He looked different
than the picture mostly due to the dark tint in his
glasses...RJ also mentioned being unable to attend West
Point due to poor vision in his left eye." (John-Mark
Turner, BNFK47A 10/19 11:19 PM)
"Jordan was a nuclear engineer for the Army, doing work
on submarines. From there he entered government service of
some sort, and when he hurt his knee started writting...
The recent freebie first half of The Eye of the World
was the impetus that got his elder brother to read the
books. Apparently his older brother doesn't read much
fantasy, and hadn't read any of Jordans books until he saw
the freebie in the store and picked it up...Jordan reads
voraciously, a book a night. He says if he sat down for
an evenings reading he could probably put away 2 books the
size of LoC easily. When tested in grade school he was
sent to the principle because the teachers were sure he
had cheated. No one could read as fast as he did with as
much comprehension as he had at that age. Jordan recalls
that being called to the principle didn't upset him as
much as not being apologized to afterward. Apparently the
library where he grew up restricted children under 12 to
the kids department. This rankled the young Jordan, who
read all he wanted to from that department in two days. He
thus swiped books from tables and sat in a corner to read
them. His main supply of literature as a kid was through
his older brother. (10 years older)...Jordan uses a 486
running at 66 MHz with lots of bells and whistles to
write...Jordan doesn't like his first book, but is scared
to throw it away because he thinks his luck might be tied
to it. He detailed how he sent it to a publisher and it
was accepted. When he asked for a few minor changes be
made to his contract, they sent a letter dropping him.
Since he now knew he could right, he set about doing so...
There was one ominous hint that Robert Jordan is going to
pull a Tom Sawyer and watch his own funeral. Since we
know that Jordan is only a pen name, this is entirely
possible...He had a large ring on his right hand with some
sort of reddish stone. Is this his Citadel ring?.../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 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.'" (Daniel L.
Rouk, d...@uncecs.edu)
"Robert Jordan does not plan to do a signing tour next
fall. He has been invited to be GOH at the Swedish
National Convention next year, and will accept as soon as
he gets home and can write a letter (i.e. in a couple of
weeks)./He is a *big* person, probably about 6'4" and
broad. He smokes a *huge* pipe and carries a cane (I did
not see him walk enough to be able to tell if he uses it
or not, as the limo was able to pull up just outside the
store). He looks pretty much like his pictures, but he's
bigger. I suspect he would empathize a lot with the
Ogier, with finding everything everywhere not quite big
enough." (Roxanne e, rox...@MCS.COM)
"...he went to the Citadel and served a single term in the
military./When he started writing he imagined living on
the French River, working 2-3 hours in the morning, and
spending the day on the beach with _a blond, a brunette,
and a redhead. _ Sound familiar?/He sees some correlation
between Randland's "magic" (a term he frowns on) and
quantum physics, but he says it is not deliberate. He
disbelieves 95-99 % of modern physics but says it will be
50 years before it is put in the same file as phlogiston.
He writes on a PC but has some files on an Apple III.
He writes Elizabethan sonnets to his wife but will not
publish them. Someone in the audience supported him in
this quoting Heinlan that 'a poet who reads his work in
public may have other nasty habits.' Jordan said he never
reads any of his work." (TISB, del...@aol.com (Delemin))
Signing attendies on RJ on Shannon Faulkner-
"...Shannon Faulkner and The Citadel...he feels she should
not be allowed to attend the Citadel because she lied on
her application by not revealing her gender. He also
feels that single sex education is beneficial for both men
and women. He said men tend to be more successful in a
competitive environment while women tend to excel in
cooperative environments (e.g. studies have shown that
girls that go to all girl colleges have less math fear,
stress, etc. than co-eds. He also mentioned that he
personally feels that the physical standards suffer at
military institutions when women attend. He talked about
himself being shot down in a helicopter and having to run
25 miles literally and anyone who would have been unable
to do that would not have survived." (John-Mark Turner,
BNFK47A 10/19 8:20 PM)
"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."
(Daniel L. Rouk, d...@uncecs.edu)
Signing attendies on RJ on WoT-
"RJ gave a little height information that slightly
contradicts some previous info supposedly gleaned from a
signings encounter. Rand is, of course, about 6'6".
Moiraine, however, is actually as tall as 5'3", and Egwene
and Nynaeve are both about 5'5". Oh, and he said Moiraine
'was' 5'3", if anyone wants to read anything into that. RJ
also said that if anyone asked him how much anybody
weighed, he'd throw up his hands in exasperation. I
definitely got the impression that he cares nothing for
the detailed heights and such, but instead goes completely
from the mental pictures he's got in his head." (Greg,
gru...@violet.berkeley.edu)
"He said he writes as the ideas come and he has no clue as
to how long the series will be! So that throws out 8, 10,
or 16 books out the window. He also gave hights for the
characters. As for Rand being unusually tall, how about
6'6". Ahvienda is 5'10". You can deduce from there."
(Jennifer Cross, NKHW38B 10/19 10:56 PM)
"One thing I did catch, Robert Jordan claims to have
enough notes to write books based on WoT for the rest of
his life. That's not a quote, but he mentioned something
to that effect." (ryan...@mindspring.com)
"Jordan confirmed that this book is really much as people
have said, the first part of a two part story...Robert
Jordan won't ever write about these characters again once
the series is complete. He may write a series based on
the NEXT age though...'Originally, when I[RJ] 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'...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....On why the
combat scenes are not more involved: Because in combat
things never really are clear. Also they are not really
important." (Daniel L. Rouk, d...@uncecs.edu)
"I asked him what we had picked up on that he thought we
wouldn't, and he wouldn't tell me. Did say that the two
ways of looking at teh Rand/LTT thing (LTT causing Rand's
madness/LTT a manifestation of Rand's madness) was
intentional. Wouldn't tell me which one it was though...."
(Dennis -I think)
"At one point, RJ raised his voice to scold his wife, 'No!
No hints! They can figure it out!' She was grinning,
apparently not chagrined at all. But she did stop saying
any more at that point. This leads me to believe that Mr.
Jordan enjoys *immensely* weaving the puzzle, as much as
writing the book/He repeatedly reassured us that we have
all the clues we need to figure out who killed Asmodean.
Now for the major announcement (and they specifically said
we could blab): Jody Lynn Nye, Todd Cameron Hamilton, et.
al., are hard at work on a compendium, "Guide to the Wheel
of Time." They have already produced the well-regarded
books, "Guide to Pern" and "Guide to Xanth." Todd was at
the signing but left early; Jody's husband (Bill Fawcett)
arrived quite late and stayed after (which is where we
learned this little tidbit). _The Guide to the Wheel of
Time_ is scheduled to be released with the paperback of
_Lord of Chaos_ sometime next fall..." (Roxanne e,
rox...@MCS.COM)
"However he made repeated references to being worn out and
overworked by LoC. 'If I work that hard on this one I'll
die.' He commented several times. Apparently he worked
12-14 hours a day, 7 days a week. In August (he usually
finishes in May) the folks at Tor sequestered him in a
hotel in New York City, where he finished the books in two
weeks. He said he would try to get the book out on time
but he figured we would rather have him finish a book late
than finish his life early./When a latecomer asked when he
intended to "pop out next one", Jordan responded by
telling him that he once sat at a table with G. Gordon
Liddy, who explained how to kill someone with chopsticks.
Having found this fascinating dinner conversation, Jordan
was willing to bet he could reproduce the effect with a
pen./.../He kept open the possibility of doing
a book set in the Fourth Age after the events of WoT had
become myth, but refused to do a prequel or sequel. When
asked about doing a series on the AoL, he said that before
the bore the AoL was too dull, and by the end of WoT we
will know enough about the AoL after the bore that a book
about it would have nothing new.../When asked about Role
Playing Games he said he was in contact with Wizards of
the Coast (makers of the popular Magic card game. Are we
in for Daes Dae'mar: the Deckmaster Game of Games?), and he
was approached with an offer for an AD&D module./Jordan
said he didn't give Randland a name because he always
found it unrealistic for a fantasy world to have a name.
After all, we don't have a real name for our world. He
also said he always left something unresolved at the end
of each book. He says we never have everything wrapped up
in our lives, so why should his characters? He considered
leaving a hook at the end of the last book and never
resolving it." (TISB, del...@aol.com (Delemin))
"Overheard early during the signing: the history of the
da'shain Aiel is based on the history of the Cheyenne
Indians during their several-generation migration from
east of the Great Lakes to the Rocky Mountains -- a period
in which every man's hand was raised against them. (Don
Harlow, do...@netcom.com)
"Where did Artur Hawkwing start out?...he said that one
could figure it out given a careful reading of the books.
When I asked about the hemisphere of the Seanchan
continent, RJ said that it had parts in both the northern
and southern hemispheres, but that Rand and Aviendha
Travelled to a part in the southern hemisphere...RJ said
there is no connection whatsoever between the Gholam
(Aginor's monster), and the Gho'hlem (a tribe of
Trollocs). He also refused to state Beldeine's ajah,
saying something to the effect of "Wait and find out.
It's not really very important, anyway." (Justin Howell,
jhho...@cco.caltech.edu)
Signing attendies on RJ on WoT's length-
"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." (Daniel L. Rouk, d...@uncecs.edu)
"I also asked RJ what Tor thought about the length of his
series in terms of the number of books in it. RJ said that
Tor has told him to write as many books as he wants/needs
to, and that Tor has never asked him to 'stretch' the
series out into more (money-making) books. He also said
that even if Tor pressured him, he wouldn't do it." (Greg,
gru...@violet.berkeley.edu)
"Not only did he decline to set the number of future
WoT books, but he denied ever setting a number and says he
never planned it to be only a trilogy. But he seemed to
indicate he was planning 9-10 Books total. When faced with
the prospect of about 12 books, his wife threatened to
divorce him and his editor began to make jokes about the
Irish Mafia. (Apparently they don't break your kneecaps,
they take out your anklebones, 'It must be a cultural
thing' said Jordan.)" (TISB, del...@aol.com (Delemin))
Signing attendies on RJ "Shipwreck"-
"After WoT, Jordan will work on a book tentatively called
"Shipwreck". As mentioned by previous posters, it is about
people from a mix of Elizabethan England and Renaissance
Italy, coming to a "Seanchanlike" land. At the signing he
expanding on this, saying the homeland had no countries
larger than England, but a unified Church with a Father,
a Mother, and a Daughter and intercessor for humanity.
Heretics from the South, who claim the Daughter had a
human parent, are tolerated. In "Pseudo-Seanchan" there
are several large empires but the religion is fragmented."
(TISB, del...@aol.com (Delemin))
Signing attendies on RJ on WoT translations-
"He expressed several views about various translations of
WoT. He heard the Swedish translation was very good, and
the Dutch translators had an extensive correspondence with
him. He said the only translation he read was the
beginning of the German translation, but he hated the
covers, he mentioned one as featuring a rear view woman,
wearing only a strand of pearls, raising her hand to stop
a band of armored horsemen. His favorite covers were on
the Spanish editions." (TISB, del...@aol.com (Delemin))