He told a nice (but longish) anecdote about how Harriet and Jim met in a Charleston bookstore after she had left Manhattan (and her position as Tor’s editorial director) to return to the house she had just inherited from her mother, while he was writing the Fallon books and planning WOT. He gave her his Fallon manuscripts (which she ended up buying and publishing through her own house), she became his friend/advisor about his Fantasy project. Eventually they fell in love, and she introduced him to Tom Doherty, who hired him for the Conan books. In the late 80s, Harriet and Jordan came to New York to pitch WOT to Tom Doherty together. At the time, Jordan wanted to do a trilogy. Book one’s original outline, the one they pitched, ended with Rand taking Callandor in Tear. Doherty, who knew a bit Jordan’s style by then, was adamant to have him sign a six books contract instead. He doubted it would be a trilogy, and if it did after all the contract would be for Jordan’s post WOT books instead. As RJ wrote book one starting with its middle act (he usually worked out of order like this, according to BS’d educated guess from the spotty nature of the A Memory of Light manuscript and what Harriet told him—he was the kind of writer who worked on the scenes that inspired him when they inspired him, then filled the gaps) he realised it was too much for one book and that’s how it ended up as The Eye of the World , The Great Hunt , and The Dragon Reborn .
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