Date: 1999-08-30
Type: Paraphrased
Location: North Sydney, NSW
Reporter: Paul Colquhoun
I have just returned home from a talk/booksigning here in Sydney.
There is a verbatim transcript of this Q&A here .
RJ did say that the rights to a mini-series of the The Eye of the World has been sold, and that the scriptwriter from Merlin was involved. He also said there was no guarantee that anything would come of this.
Other observations/comments.
He does not plan to write any further books set in Randland after this series finishes, unless he has a flash of inspiration. RJ strongly implied that he didn’t think this was likely, as it would need to be something very special/compelling. He has extensive notes on all the people/places on computer, but keeps all the plot lines in his head. He commented that he didn’t think he could add any more plot threads without losing track! (Personally I find it hard enough to keep track while reading, let alone writing!). I asked him if he had considered publishing the notes after the series had finished. He said it would amount to something like an encyclopaedia, and that he didn’t think there would be much interest… I tried to let him know that there were many fans who would lap it up. We may need to bring this up again later, if it hasn’t already been done. Can we get his publishers to suggest it to him?
RJ was obviously being careful to limit his answers to material in the already published books. He paused several times before answering, and was very non-committal in places (RAFO).
In answer to a question about the absence of Mat from the last book, RJ pointed out that Mat had just had a wall dropped on him and deserved some time off to rest and recover. At least one person in the front row was taping the Q&A session on a dictaphone, so there may be a transcript somewhere. I lost track of them during the signing afterwards, so I couldn’t ask them if they were planning to put it on the net.
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