Theoryland Resources
WoT Interview Search
Search the most comprehensive database of interviews and book signings from Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson and the rest of Team Jordan.
Wheel of Time News
An Hour With Harriet
2012-04-30: I had the great pleasure of speaking with Harriet McDougal Rigney about her life. She's an amazing talent and person and it will take you less than an hour to agree.
The Bell Tolls
2012-04-24: Some thoughts I had during JordanCon4 and the upcoming conclusion of "The Wheel of Time."
Theoryland Community
Members: 7653
Logged In (0):
Newest Members:johnroserking, petermorris, johnadanbvv, AndrewHB, jofwu, Salemcat1, Dhakatimesnews, amazingz, Sasooner, Hasib123,
Theoryland Tweets
WoT Interview Database
Home | Interview Database
Interviews: TGS Signing Report - Tiffany Franklin
Summary:
Entries
13
Date
Nov 13th, 2009
Type
Paraphrased
Location
Norcross, GA
TourCon
The Gathering Storm Book Tour
Bookstore
Norcross Cultural Arts Center
Reporter
Tiffany Franklin
Links
-
1
Question
Who killed Asmodean?Brandon Sanderson
Harriet, you want to do the honors?Harriet McDougal Rigney
You want to live?Brandon Sanderson
We have our first RAFO of the night. I know, Harriet knows, and he told us to put it in the book somewhere.Tags
-
2
Question
Were you a part of any of the WoT online communities?Brandon Sanderson
"Usenet for RJ my first day on the internet. I was a member of Dragonmount and Wotmania, but never posted." He'd go to Dragonmount to check blogs. He'd drop by Wotmania, but they were kinda mean (aggressive about their viewpoints).Tags
-
3
Question
Why a pseudonym? Why not his real name?Harriet McDougal Rigney
He wanted to write everything there was when he was beginning. In the first place, he said he wanted to save his real name for his history of South Carolina. Then his Vietnam novel.
In youth he loved Louis L'Amour's Westerns. He bought a new Louis L'Amour book one time and when he read it, it wasn't a Western, it was a mystery! So, he thought he'd have a name for every genre to keep this from happening to his fans. "Robert Jordan" had nothing to do with For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Reference to a post from a Dragonmounter: The post was from a woman who started reading the series 12 years ago. She had small children, not enough money for drugs or alcohol. A friend gave her The Eye of the World. And it worked! Now her son is reading them and when he picked up The Gathering Storm answered the question of why he didn't use his own name: "Why of course he did! He's a superhero! You don't think Batman's real name is Batman, do you?"
Tags
, -
4
Tiffany Franklin
I can't tell you the question, but I think the answer was insightful, so I'm editing out the spoilers to give you this:Brandon Sanderson
You'll notice that the prologues fulfill a purpose. Most of the prologues are written likean epilogue to the book before. [This Prologue] was more of an epilogue to the [end of] Knife of Dreams. Brandon believes that RJ liked giving his fans something to talk about and then answer it in the prologue of the next book. Brandon: "I can't speak for what Robert Jordan was thinking."Harriet McDougal Rigney
To which Harriet responded, "Even Robert Jordan couldn't speak for what Robert Jordan was thinking."Tags
-
5
Question
How's Towers of Midnight coming?Brandon Sanderson
Towers of Midnight is 70% done.Harriet McDougal Rigney
Harriet's answer: "If I can quote Robert Jordan, I can assure you without fear of contradiction, that Towers of Midnight will be on the shelves very shortly after Brandon finishes writing it."Brandon Sanderson
"This is a very, very...there's a lot of work involved. People assume that when I was given the outline, I was given a point by point outline. RJ wasn't like that. He wouldn't show it to Harriet until he'd done twelve drafts. We got this in a state of incompleteness. The creative process isn't as neat and orderly. Things were in dozens of files."Harriet McDougal Rigney
Brandon would say "what order do you want it in?" and I would say "Brandon, you're the writer. It's foolish for the editor to take over the part of the writer. And vice versa."Brandon Sanderson
He dictated some and the assistants transferred it into notes, scoured their memory for anything he'd said and put that in the notes. And then all the files... "this was all handed to me and told 'ok, let's write a book.'"Tags
, , , , -
6
Question
Was it difficult for you to find any of the characters' voices?Brandon Sanderson
Aviendha—the Aiel way of thinking is so different and I think like Two Rivers folk. It was easy to write the Two Rivers. And when I started writing Aviendha, I was writing like a Two Rivers-er.Tags
, , -
7
Question
I am struck by how alike this is to Tolkien. Have you ever talked to Chris Tolkien (since he took over for his father using his notes)?Brandon Sanderson
No, but I'd like to.
We're in a little better shape. Jim actually finished scenes. We have a lot more to work with. He wrote the end himself! He left landmarks to follow from here to the end. Not specific details, just "strong stuff" to get us to the end.
"There are no characters that we don't know how they end up."
Tags
, , , , -
8
Tiffany Franklin
Some other little tidbits you might be interested in: -
9
Brandon Sanderson
Aviendha is Brandon's favorite female of the series.Tags
-
10
Brandon Sanderson
Brandon's favorite color is maroon. Green shirt says so!Tags
-
11
Brandon Sanderson
He's planning another stand-alone story about a world where virus and germs have evolved and possess magic powers. So if you catch a cold you can fly, when you get over it, you can't any more.Tags
, -
12
Brandon Sanderson
He really likes carrot cake, and he likes Key lime pie, too. "And you know, a good brownie, with ice cream and... that's really good, too."Tags
, -
13
Brandon Sanderson
For NaNoWriMo, he participated for four years, but couldn't "win" since he never wrote anything FOR NaNo. He just continued with what he was already writing. It usually came out to another 70 or 80 thousand words, though!Tags