Date: 1994-10-26
Type: Paraphrased
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Reporter: Greg
I just got back from the RJ signing at Future Fantasy in Palo Alto. I’m not one of the regular net Darkfriends but I’ve enjoyed other people’s summaries of the RJ signings, so I thought I’d add my own to the collection.
I can’t vouch for all of the precise details below, but 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.
About the time the line was getting fairly long and the people a little restless, someone told RJ that he’d love to have a new WoT book out in February, then another in March, then another in April… RJ asked the crowd (aka “the lynch mob”) to turn on this guy.
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.
I couldn’t resist telling him that I really dislike the cover to Lord of Chaos because I’ve had three people who know nothing about WoT see me reading the book and think I’m reading a cheesy romance novel because of that terrible picture of Rand.
RJ replied that they probably thought I was reading soft porn, and that some of those cheesy romance novels I was talking about are some of the best soft porn he knows of. Later someone asked to have his picture taken with RJ and he replied, “What kind of picture are we talking about? I’ll only do it if I get to keep my clothes on.” Oh, and RJ said that the woman on the cover of Lord of Chaos is an Aes Sedai of the Red Ajah, but he doesn’t know which Aes Sedai because it was changed a number of times.
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.
RJ also told someone that about 25% of what had been figured out on the net was correct, about 25% was on the right track, and the rest was wrong.
I had trouble hearing these figures, so maybe someone can correct me if I’ve made any small errors with them. I wonder how RJ would come up with such figures, anyway? No doubt most of the “looney theories” are wrong, but I have trouble believing that the FAQ (which we pretty much know RJ has read) is 50% wrong. Then again, the FAQ does give bunch of “reasons for” and “reasons against” for certain ideas—maybe that’s what he means! Who knows?
Finally, I got a signed poster-map of Randland. Cool.
Well, that’s all I can remember now. Maybe someone else will add a few things.
Greg
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