Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

The signing at The Stars Our Destination was an overwhelming success by any measure you want to use.

We had about a hundred people show up (this was hard to determine, really since many people went through the line multiple times in order to get all of their books/maps/paraphernalia signed). We sold about 75 copies of Lord of Chaos during the day. Everyone who wanted a book signed was able to get it signed.

We found a couple of the maps in our basement, and the representative from Tor had about 15 that had been rattling around in her trunk, which we gave out as door prizes. We used 10-sided dice as random number generators, and your line number as your lottery ticket. It was a lot of fun and broke the tension of standing in line, not to mention equitably distributing the maps, of which there obviously were not enough to go around.

I was busy (obviously!), but did overhear a couple of things:

fandom

At one point, RJ raised his voice to scold his wife, "No! No hints! They can figure it out!" She was grinning, apparently not chagrined at all. But she did stop saying any more at that point. This leads me to believe that Mr. Jordan enjoys immensely weaving the puzzle, as much as writing the book.

He repeatedly reassured us that we have all the clues we need to figure out who killed Asmodean.

rj on writing

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asmodean

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harriet

Now for the major announcement (and they specifically said we could blab):

Jody Lynn Nye, Todd Cameron Hamilton, et. al., are hard at work on a compendium, "Guide to the Wheel of Time." They have already produced the well-regarded books, "Guide to Pern" and "Guide to Xanth." Todd was at the signing but left early; Jody's husband (Bill Fawcett) arrived quite late and stayed after (which is where we learned this little tidbit).

The Guide to the Wheel of Time is scheduled to be released with the paperback of Lord of Chaos sometime next fall. We will of course have it!

bwb

Robert Jordan does not plan to do a signing tour next fall. He has been invited to be Guest of Honor at the Swedish National Convention next year, and will accept as soon as he gets home and can write a letter (i.e., in a couple of weeks).

He is a big person, probably about 6'4" and broad. He smokes a huge pipe and carries a cane (I did not see him walk enough to be able to tell if he uses it or not, as the limo was able to pull up just outside the store). He looks pretty much like his pictures, but he's bigger. I suspect he would empathize a lot with the Ogier, with finding everything everywhere not quite big enough. We gave him a store sweatshirt, size XXL, which he greatly appreciated.

— Roxanne e

rj the man