Following military service, Jordan enrolled at The Citadel, earning a degree in physics in 1974. For a time, he toiled as a nuclear engineer for the Navy. He became a writer largely out of boredom with the works of authors he read during an extended hospital stay, recuperating from a severe knee injury.
His first book, Warriors of the Altaii , was fantasy. So was his dream of a publisher. A book contract signed by Jordan was rescinded, reputedly due to “excessive demands.” Despite the setback, Jordan determined he would no longer work for anyone else, that he would henceforth write full time.
In a reversal of the path taken earlier by John Jakes, Jordan went from “generational sagas” to the fantastic. However, his first major commercial success came in 1980 with the historical novel The Fallon Blood . Eleven years later, Jordan has published works representative of many fields, including dance and theater criticism.
“I enjoy whatever I’m writing at the moment. Right now what I want to write is fantasy. But I would also like to do plays, horror, mysteries, poetry and maybe some hard science fiction. Fantasy is challenging enough. Day to day, I try to keep things fresh and vital so there’s no danger of self-imitation or self-parody. At the same time, it concerns me occasionally that I might court burnout from staying too long in one world.”
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