Date: 2001-05-01
Type: Paraphrased
Location: Columbus, OH
Reporter: Sorilea
Hey everyone…
WARNING… The following contains answers to questions that you may not want to read. Proceed at you own risk….
Well I got to meet RJ Friday & Saturday at the Marcon Science Fiction Convention in Columbus Ohio. *Sorilea sticks out her tongue to everyone who said that RJ was just a stoggedy old man who wouldn’t talk to me.* He was very charming, and even more important, answered some questions that I thought were very interesting. Some of these were questions that some of you had asked when Dark Asha’man posted a question for non-RAFO questions…
You’ve said before that the blue flashes during the fight with the Myrddraal in Whitebridge were not from Thom’s daggers. What were they from?
RAFO!!!
Wow… I agreed with Ruhira that I really thought we should get an answer to this.
RJ went on to explain that there are three types of ideas that are floating around in his head about the series. Things that he must include, because they are the major turning points for a character, storyline, etc; things he wants to include, because he thinks they give a little more in depth knowledge about a character, etc; and things that would be nice to include. Unfortunately he says that the explanation regarding Thom’s daggers falls into the last category. But, on the chance that he will get to include it, he doesn’t want to give away anything. So hopefully, this means that at some point, we will revisit Whitebridge and find out some more about it, as well as what the flashes were from.
We know who almost all the Forsaken are, except maybe Mesaana and Demandred. Should we be able to work out who they are?
Ummm…Yeah.
Eeks…I hate those answers. Okay everyone…you heard him…time to get those books cracked open again, and let’s figure out who they are!!!
Can you give us an estimate of how many books are left?
“Well, I’d like to do it in three, if I can, but I’m not promising anything”.
He had originally thought that the entire series was going to be only about five books, six at the most (which drew a big laugh from the audience by the way). He said he has always been over-optimistic about how much material he can get in any one book. Which immediately sparked a follow up question by the moderator Friday night: “So based on what you just said, can we really believe you when you say ‘Only about 3 more books’? “ He basically laughed and said that he’d do his best, but again, was not promising anything.
About how much time has elapsed in the course of the books so far?
“Depending on how you look at it, either two or three years.”
The kids left Emond’s Field in the Spring of 998. Winter’s Heart takes place during the winter of 999-1000.
Any chance of another short story like New Spring ?
Definitely a possibility. I have two ideas about other novellas. One would be about how Tam ended up finding the child on the mountainside, and why he decided to return to the Two Rivers. The other would be about how Moiraine and Lan wound up in Emond’s Field just in the nick of time.
Cool I can’t wait ;-)
At one point in the story we see Ishamael talking to Rand, and telling him that they have fought countless times in the past, but this is the final time. Is there anything about his Age that makes it special?
“No…every Age is repeated, there is nothing that makes this age any different from any other turnings of the Wheel. The Wheel is endless.”
This leads me to believe that this will not be the LAST BATTLE ever. It probably just comes about every turning of the Wheel, and since it has been such a long time ago, no one ever remembers it.
RJ explained that that is what a lot of the WOT is about, the source of Legends, and how some legends are based in such a small bit of real history, that no one really knows where they came from. If they are real, or just made up.
I don’t remember how we got on the subject, but at one point he made mention of the whole lesbian issue. Something to the effect of…“Well, you put fifteen-year old girls in a tower filled with almost entirely women, with their hormones raging on overdrive, keep them away from men, because you can’t afford to lose any of them, and what do you think is going to happen?” I think this answers the questions about whether there are really lesbians in Randland, and if they are intentional.
Overall, I really enjoyed meeting him, I got my picture taken with him, I will get it up and provide a link for any one who wishes to see RJ, or me, if you’ve ever been curious of what I look like.
Hope you all enjoy the answers I got, and please feel free to ask me any questions about them.
Sorilea
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