In the summer of 1996, my best friend Dani and I were on a camping trip when she handed me a paperback copy of The Eye of The World . She was living in Oregon, I was living in California and we were 16. We got to see each other roughly once a year and kept in contact via letters (the mailed kind) and pricey long distance phone calls. We didn’t get to do much “together” given the distance, but The Eye of the World changed that. We spent the next sixteen and a half years reading those books together. There were literally HOURS of phone calls discussing prophecies, foreshadowings and of course theories such as who killed Asmodean and where Moiraine was.
When the release date for A Memory of Light was announced I told my husband that all I wanted for Christmas was an airplane ticket so that Dani and I could both go to the final book signing. Since we had started the series together, it seemed fitting to end it together.
When the announcement came from Dragonmount about the opportunity to be Memory Keepers, I nominated Dani and myself, hoping against hope that we would be able to add some wonderful memories to our WoT journey. I was shocked and thrilled when we were chosen, so I flew up to Portland to be a part of the magic.
And magical it was.
Powell’s at Cedar Hills Crossing was enchanting. It was a HUGE bookstore that felt intimate and friendly. The staff was incredibly friendly and helpful, especially Renee and Peter, who interacted most with Memory Keepers and fans. They were full of enthusiasm, patience and joy and helped make sure the whole event ran smoothly.
We arrived at about 5:00 pm. We met Andy (First Among Equals), the bookstore staff and the other Memory Keepers. The first hour was spent handing out tickets for the signing, collecting raffle tickets, answering questions and directing fans to their seats.
Brandon and Harriet arrived at 6pm. We were escorted to the back stock room and spent a few minutes chatting with Brandon and Harriet. They were the sweetest, most generous people you could hope to meet. Author Brent Weeks popped back to say hi while we were chatting so that was a nice little bonus!
At 7:00 pm, Brandon and Harriet walked out to meet the crowd of over 450 people. After brief introductions Brandon opened the floor to questions. Brandon and Harriet answered every question with good humor and charm. There were a lot of great stories told. For those of you interested in the details, skip below for the Q&A report.
Then it was time for the signing to begin. Because of Harriet’s desire to return to the hotel at a decent time it was decided that the line would be signatures first then personalizations from Brandon after a second time through the line.
The Memory Keepers got to work organizing the queue of people, running the raffle and handing out prizes. Tor generously sent over 20 messenger bags, 20 paperback Way of Kings novels and 20 iPhone cases.
The line was long but for the most part people were happy to be there. People chatted with each other and with us, the Memory Keepers. I felt at home, like I was amongst “My People.” We were all fans of the fantasy genre, specifically WoT. We shared a special camaraderie which was clearly evident as the hours of waiting stretched on.
I was tasked with sitting between Brandon and Harriet during the signing to assist in any way needed. This meant that I got to overhear a lot of great conversations! Fans continually expressed their gratitude to Brandon and Harriet for their hard work in giving us “The End”. There were also a lot of touching expressions of sympathy to Harriet, and more than one person shared a heartwarming tale with her of how WoT had touched and changed their lives. Harriet was charming and gracious to all. She is truly an amazing woman. No wonder so many great WoT characters are based on her! The line stretched on well in to the night. The last book was signed after midnight. Brandon was kind and generous to each and every fan who came through. He answered as many questions as he could, laughed when he RAFO’d people, shook hands, took endless pictures and wrote more than a few silly personalizations.
I am so grateful to Brandon, Harriet and Dragonmount for the chance to not only share in this night, but to be able to be there with my dearest friend. It was something neither of us will ever forget! Thank you to the other Memory Keepers and Powell’s for their hard work in making the event run so smoothly and thank you to the other fans for giving me a place to belong. This may be “The End” of The Wheel of Time, but it certainly wasn’t the end of the fandom or friendships brought together by this amazing series.
Thanks to Dani for being note taker during the Q&A, and thanks to Terez and Marie Curie from Theoryland for doing a full transcript of the audio recording (available here ). What follows below is a detailed summary using notes from the transcript. The general Q&A is spoiler free but I added a few interesting, spoiler filled tidbits from the signing table at the end.
Here is the transcript of the Portland Q&A. Thanks to Marie Curie for doing a little more than half of it, and to Anna Hornbostel for the audio, which she kindly assured me she would procure weeks in advance when I was whining on Twitter about a lack of such for certain January tour stops.
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