Date: 2015-01-21
Location: Arizona
Favorite thing Hoid’s done?
RAFO, sorta. A lot of his fave things have happened off screen that we’re not supposed to know about (yet). Wit is his fave role that we’ve seen!
Are the non-cosmere books related?
No, earth is just generally non-cosmere, but they’re not related.
How do you balance writing and family?
he said it’s like a quote he heard where being self employed is like working half days, and you get to pick which 12 hours you work. compartmentalize and budget time (3 hours of writing, then 3 hours of family time, etc.
You say you put limits on magic to make it interesting, do you do the same to characters?
Yes! A lot of characterization comes from conflict in what the characters can’t do.
He’s taken programming classes, and someone wanted to know if he’ll apply that knowledge into magic systems.
Yes, see: Elantris.
Rothfuss and Butcher call him the ‘magic systems guy’.
Sabriel was his inspiration for unique rule based magic systems. Magic and settings are only as good as the characters. If you don’t have good characters, you’re writing a video game.
Favourite version of superman? (Brandon was wearing a superman t-shirt at the signing)
Kingdom Come, overall Lois and Clark as well
Upcoming books!
Perfect State - novella Mistborn novels (2) Calamity Stormlight 3
Some background on Nightblood.
Vasher + Nightblood were written into the Way of Kings Prime, then he wrote Warbreaker before returning to rewrite The Way of Kings.
If the Lord Ruler captured Shai and gave her 100 days to craft a soulstamp that could turn an iron hemalurgic spike into a steel hemalurgic spike, could she do it?
Yes, but she would need a boost of power to do it. Affecting an invested object is hard.
Who are the 3 travelers in The Way of Kings?
We’ve seen 2 of them already. The third will be in the graphic novels that are coming soon.
He was asked a question about creating Steelheart.
It boiled down to being unique with names and powers is hard, he had a hard time finding things that Marvel and DC haven’t done already.
Movies! Can we expect cameos?
Yes! He’s contractually required to appear in all movies that have currently been sold. Of those movies, he named off Legion, Mistborn, The Emperors Soul, and Steelheart.
How does he keep what he’s read and what he’s written out of what he’s writing?
Ehn, you need to be aware but also unique. you have to know what’s going on in your genre and other stories so you can stay unique, practice.
Influences (*currently reading)(sorry if I butcher the spellings)
McCaffrey Robert Jordan Melanie Rawn Les Miserables Asimov Guy Gabriel Kay Andy Weir Naomi Novak Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Terry Prachett
Wheel of Time - Are Mat’s memories from the past his own or other people’s?
Other peoples.
Influences
People sneaking into other classes in the Rithmatist was based off of him doing that.
What was your inspiration for Grandpa Smedry?
His mother, who was always late to things. He’s the inspiration for Alcatraz (he held up his broken phone to us).
The way he got asked to talk about how he came to finishing the Wheel of Time.
He got a voicemail “Hello, I am Robert Jordan’s widow. please give me a call” . RJ had asked her to find someone to finish his books, and after he passed away a friend read Brandon’s eulogy for RJ at the funeral, and the friend told her about his writing, and she read Mistborn then gave him a call. He said it was like winning the lottery but in order to do that your favorite author had to die.
Have you accidentally written any other books?
He tried writing AOL’s sequel but it was hard. It is easier to start new. Practice writing he does a lot to get used to different genres, but he doesn’t really accidentally write things.
Stormlight 3 POV character? Some say Szeth other say its up in the air?
He said he’s not going to canonize it or anything, he’s also looking at Dalinar and Eshonai and going to see who’s backstory fits the flow of the book best.
How do you come up with names?
He takes a culture then breaks down the linguistics of it and its kind of complicated but he uses the rules from one language, then breaks them and makes his own? He said you can do it on a smaller scale, take a list of baby names from one country or language, and break them into their sounds and rearrange them and make a list where none of the new names are like the ones on the list.
Whether the plague on the Purelake has anything to do with the fact that the magic fish form symbiotic bonds with spren?
No. Worldhoppers brought a disease to Roshar that they didn’t have before. It’s the common cold. Rosharans’ investiture makes it so they’re usually a healthy bunch so something like the cold is kind of frightening. “Its a plague of the sniffles”.
Renarin’s eye color?
PAFO - Peter And Find Out. He gets to canonize it.
Is Soulcasting blood a valid cure for blood diseases?
Not really, it’s super hard to soulcast people/bodies, you’d have to get it so exact - their blood, healthy blood. It’s very hard - basically you’d probably kill them in the process.
Could a Knight Radiant pass their Nahel bond the way Seons can be passed in Elantris?
Theoretically possible and in fact has happened (!) in previous eras.
Is the Ars Arcanum written by a person we have met yet?
He said some people have met this person. I pushed and he said this person is from an unpublished work.
Do you mind if people ask you all these fiddly Cosmere questions?
He doesn’t mind but warned that sometimes he gets obscure things wrong.
Have we seen the 17th sharders from the Way of Kings interlude before?
You have seen two of them, the third is from an unpublished work that will be coming out soon in graphic novel format.
Will book 3 be Szeth’s book?
He used to think so. Now it might be Dalinar’s. He is going to do the flashbacks for both (and Eshonai) and then decide.
Is it possible for a Seon to abandon someone?
Yes and we might see it in a later book. He avoided answering the follow up about how this could happen.
Could you become a double misting if you took two lerasium/metal alloy beads (I think the example was iron and steel) at the same time?
Yes.
Is Hoid’s sword when he is the King’s Wit an invested object?
No. It is a badge of office as the King’s Wit. Hoid isn’t even that good with a sword.
I missed the question but someone seemed to be berating Brandon in line about how poorly Glys treats Renarin, like it was abusive or something.
Brandon said that that relationship is different, even for a Nahel bond. And we will see a lot more of Renarin in the next book.
What is the relationship between Nightwatcher and Cultivation?
I expected a hard RAFO, but he said Nightwatcher compared to Cultivation is similar to Stormfather compared to Honor.
How long of an in book time break between the two 5 book arcs in Stormlight Archive?
10-15 years (thankfully not nearly that long in our world).
Will there be Kandra in the next Mistborn book?
Yes. I think I heard him say that there was an appearance in Alloy of Law, but I am not certain as it was really loud at that point of the signing.
Why can only women read in Stormlight Archive?
Immediately after the Recreance an old book was used to argue for the idea that only men should be picking up the blades and plate, fighting was a masculine art. Over a period of 20 or so years this became established and some women used the same argument to take back some power by taking literacy for themselves as a feminine art.
He said in the lecture that he took a programming course in college. He was asked if we will ever see a programming language as a magic system?
We already have. Reread Elantris.
I said since Shallan has a unique ability of Memory from her blended surges, is fighting what Kaladin has?
No. His unique ability is “Strength of Squires”.
And Jasnah? (unique surgebinding ability)
RAFO.
Can Vasher use Stormlight to Awaken things?
No, all it does is keep him alive. But he has tried and has not figured out how to awaken things.
This last one I got, was really interesting. I asked about predicting High Storms, because I was thinking of making a Stormwarden manual. I figured if Tolkien started with linguistics because he was a word nerd, then what is a math teacher supposed to do? I asked if knowing the positions/orbits of the moons would be enough to predict the storms.
He said not enough. You need the historical records of storms as well because there is a pattern. You need that pattern and the tides, to correctly predict the timing of the storms. He said it was more than a simple beat. I then turned back and asked, “Are you saying the High Storms are music?” He replied, “I didn’t say they were music. (emphasis on ‘say’). You said that.”
Questioner’s speculation: I figured that was better than a denial or RAFO, so I let it drop. I am strongly reminded of the Listeners and their rhythms.
If you are viewing this on github.io, you can see that this site is open source. Please do not try to improve this page. It is auto-generated by a python script. If you have suggestions for improvements, please start a discussion on the github repo or the Discord.