Date: 2010-11-06
Type: Paraphrased
Location: Bailey’s Crossroads, VA
Reporter: Robert Mee
So here is the report from the Bailey’s Crossroads signing. As Leanne and Bayle have mentioned, there were not a lot of questions being asked in line (I was front row)…which was disappointing to me. I’ll run through the notes I took and then the questions.
They opened with Harriet reading the Lan chunk of the prologue. With her pronunciation, al’Lan sounded like Allan. No pause for the apostrophe.
Moving into the Q&A, there were a lot of general questions about the series and other things.
They are focusing on finishing WoT first before considering the other outrigger/prequel novels.
Harriet was asked to pronounce the Forsaken names. I had my BWB with me, which she borrowed so she didn’t forget anyone. She also joked as she said Moghedien’s name that Jim had said all of the Forsaken women were different sides of her, and that Moghedien was probably from when she had to remind Jim that he hadn’t taken out the garbage. Even New York Times best-selling authors need to do housework apparently.
A Memory of Light may be ready in time for DragonCon, but Brandon isn’t going to promise anything. He has to reread the series (again) before getting to work on it.
Someone asked about why audiobooks are so expensive, and Brandon made it clear that it was an issue of production costs…which makes sense. Harriet is not a fan of eBooks, which is why it’s taken so long for the books to be converted over to that format.
Now onto the questions. I was able to ask two of Brandon, and his answers are below.
Rand destroyed Aginor—Brandon is 90% sure of this fact.
Taim may not be a standard Third Ager. Brandon wouldn’t say any further because he has about five chapters revolving around the Black Tower to write for the beginning of the next book and he didn’t want to spoil, so it was half a RAFO.
Specific questions?
I just asked if Taim was a “standard” Third Ager. He pondered it for a minute or so before explaining that he had a few more chapters to write about what was happening at the Black Tower, so he didn’t want to give too much away.
Someone else (two different people, actually) asked about Nakomi.
Brandon RAFO’d, but then said that there were some very interesting theories out there, and that some hard core fan freaks may have had some that were more accurate than others he’d seen. I don’t know if he’s referring to Theoryland specifically or just the OCD fan community in general.
The Tower Guard did a great job, and had trivia questions for the signing line. Who, when asked about Mat’s lovers who have died (and the cause of their deaths) remembers Melindhra but forgets Tylin? This Theorylander does… I felt like such an idiot. But the person behind me didn’t get ji’e’toh , so it evens out. I have a picture with myself and Brandon after the signing…I’ll post it once I get it out of my email and onto my computer!
Just a tag on. Someone asked about Rand’s new/old sword… the one he’s carrying now.
Brandon said it had definitely been seen before, and not in a tapestry. Brandon also DEFINITIVELY stated that we saw it in The Great Hunt . I have a very good feeling that the sword being Justice (which we saw in Artur Hawkwing’s hands at Falme) is the right “looney theory” for this one.
It was confirmed by Brandon in an email that the sword is Justice.
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