Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Freaks, geeks and nerds, oh my! I must say, I felt right at home.

Yes, it's true. LitN and myself were mere feet from one another without ever realizing it. I suppose I should have posted a profile pic, or better yet, been paying closer attention late Wednesday night when John NB me that he would be in San Diego on Thursday. As it was, I didn't get the NB until I was almost ready to leave on Thurs, and thus missed the opportunity to arrange a meeting. Getting to spend some real-life time with someone that I've come to consider a close friend at Wotmania would have made the Comic-Con that much more memorable, and I can only pledge to make more of an effort to work out such a meeting in the future. Perhaps RJ will do a book signing in So Cal after Knife of Dreams is released.

In any case, it was thrilling to meet RJ in person on Thursday during the autograph session, and I returned to Comic-Con on Friday to witness the Q&A session. I'm a little surprised at how nervous I was in actually asking RJ a few questions. Pounding heart, sweaty palms, a slight shake in the voice, and all that. He's only a guy that writes a few books here and there, right? What's so tough about asking a question or three?

Anyway, on Thursday, I steeled myself enough to ask one question while he signed my hardcover copy of New Spring.

If I can remember correctly, I asked, "When a Warder's bond is passed is the original bond still intact or is it broken?"

Not the best choice of words, I admit, but I was nervous. A problem that would repeat itself, unfortunately, the following day.

Diomedes

aes sedai

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warders

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warder bond

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lan

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moiraine

That's really all I have to report from Thursday. Like LitN, I was busy scanning nearby name tags hoping to see a familiar name. Also like John, my powers of deducing a man's outward appearance from his written words is clearly lacking. I'm sure I saw that hat and sunglasses a few times, but failed to notice his name tag. In any case, there really wasn't much opportunity to eavesdrop on anyone else's questions or comments to RJ, since even the front of the line was too far from RJ's signing table to clearly overhear anything.

Friday, of course, was a different affair. For the "Spotlight" on RJ, we were treated to an extended Q&A session.

pronunciation

RJ entered and immediately rattled off some pronunciations. Those that have been to book signings, or read other accounts of events similar to these, will not be surprised that he ran through Nynaeve, Egwene al'Vere, Siuan Sanche, and Seanchan. I'm personally surprised at how closely Nynaeve is to naive in sound.

pronunciation

After a few pronunciations, RJ described some of the original details about his contract with Tor.

(At this point, let me say that I'm reconstructing RJ's comments to the best of my ability. I did take a few pages of written notes during the session, and the content should be accurate, but I'm forced to paraphrase the information since I don't know shorthand and didn't actually record his exact words.)

RJ had his first contract with Tor in 1984. He expected to write about one book per year, and would need five or six books to complete the story. In fact, it took him four years to write The Eye of the World, and 16 months to write The Great Hunt, and about 15-16 months to write each subsequent book until A Crown of Swords. Up to Lord of Chaos, Tor was trying to publish the books every 12 months. RJ turned in Lord of Chaos in August of 1994 and the book was published in November of that year.

During this period of trying to maintain Tor's once a year publishing schedule, RJ said that Harriet was doing what he called "drive-by editing." That is, RJ would give Harriet chunks of chapters as he finished with them, and she would basically edit them on the fly. Once a book was finished, they would slap it together and send it to Tor for a barebones editing process and publication.

After Lord of Chaos was published, RJ informed Tor that there was no way he would be able to provide them with the next book in time for a November 1995 publication, and Tor told him that he could take two years for the publication if he needed it. About a year after that, his Tor contact (Sorry, I didn't write down that name) came back to RJ and said something to the effect of, "We agreed you'd be done in 16 months, right?" RJ remained adamant about the two years for A Crown of Swords, however.

RJ then talked a little bit about Knife of Dreams, saying that he was done writing at the beginning of April, which apparently means the end of April in author-speak. Which also apparently means in the middle of May in author-speak. That bit was fairly confusing, but I got the impression that he was basically finished in April, but Tor didn't really get the book to begin their editing process until May. Once Tor had the book in hand, they tried to push up the publication date to August, but RJ refused and insisted on the full editorial review and publication in October. RJ then said the result of that fully editorial was to add a single sentence to the book (This was actually quite funny and drew some considerable laughter from us in the audience.)

Wrapping up his initial comments, RJ reiterated that the twelfth book would be the final book. I did write down the following quote: "If I have to make it a 1500 page publication it will be the final book." He then warned us that we might need to wheel this final tome around in a cart.

rj on writing

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how many more books?

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harriet

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knife of dreams

After these initial comments, RJ proceeded to take questions from audience members. I won't actually provide all the questions and answers in this post, since a large number are really questions that have been asked many times before, and many of us are already familiar with the answers.

I'm fairly surprised that so many questions were reminiscent of questions that have been posed to RJ in the past, but I think it has given me some insight into our little community here on the Wotmania message board, and the reality of RJ's fan base as a whole. The truth is that we represent a fraction of a percentage of a fraction of a percentage of RJ's audience. Most fans probably don't even know that RJ has numerous interviews posted online that could answer their question, and far far more fans are interested in who RJ's favorite character is, or what advice he might give to aspiring authors than they are about the minutiae of the series. The reality is that the vast majority of his fans are simply content to enjoy the story and wait for the next book without spending hours in discussion about plot points or combing though chapters in search of insights to the possible future the story holds.

So, I won't provide every Q&A, partially because I was in line for the microphone for some of them and unable to jot down the responses, as well as distracting myself with keeping calm and running through my head exactly how I would phrase the questions—not that that particularly helped—but also because some of it is information that has been reported before.

I'll start with my own questions, since they were about the only story-based questions in the whole lot.

fandom

First, I tried to ask shannow's question about how the Forsaken compared to each other in their strength of the Power. Being nervous, of course, I managed to flub that as well by saying, "There's a lot of contradictory information in the books about how the Forsaken are ranked in their strength in the Power. Could you rank the Forsaken more explicitly?" (Or something to that effect.)

Diomedes

Robert Jordan

Diomedes

forsaken

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channeler strength

Allowed two questions at the microphone, my second question had to do with "In the Shadow", the prologue of The Great Hunt. I asked if he had particular characters in mind for all the people that he described, and if so, had he provided clues that would allow us to figure out who those characters were.

Diomedes

RJ confirmed on his blog that it was indeed Ingtar.

darkfriends

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the great hunt

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darkfriend social

So, those were my questions, what follows are some of the other questions and answers.

One guy asked whether RJ was disappointed with the "New Spring" novella that appeared in Legends since he expanded it into a stand-alone novel.

RJ said that he wasn't dissatisfied, but that when he originally wrote the novella it was simply too long and had to be cut to fit the anthology. He approached Tor about doing a stand-alone novel, and they agreed, so he was happy to do the full-length novel as it gave him the opportunity to include information that didn't make it into the "New Spring" novella in Legends.

new spring

Another gentlemen asked about a WoT movie.

RJ said that he had a meeting scheduled with Red Eagle that night (Friday night) and the following day (today, Saturday) to discuss that very thing. He hasn't seen any script (perhaps it hasn't even been written yet) and that Red Eagle had an option for The Eye of the World only. He seemed to have a wait and see attitude about the whole thing, and he provided no definitive information about the how or when a movie would be in the offing. It seemed to me that this is still in the very early stages.

wot film

There was a question about how RJ felt about having WoT published in other media, specifically the New Spring comic by the Dabel Brothers and a possible movie.

RJ said he was excited but trepidatious. He described the process by which he was in collaboration with the folks at Dabel Brothers. He understood that certain cuts would need to be made as the story goes from the written medium into others, but wanted to insure that his vision was followed as faithfully as possible.

RJ also indicated that he was confirming even minor details with Dabel Brothers, and one example he used was that the facial bars on a helmet were too thin, and that such bars would be ineffective against a sword swing, that they would crumple and crush the wearer's face, and that the bars were then thickened in the comic book.

new spring

RJ was also asked about the WoT video game that Legend GTI produced a few years ago, and if there would be another video game in the future.

RJ said that Legend GTI approached him about doing a video game, and RJ gave them a list of conditions that he wanted addressed. At one point, representatives from Legend GTI had a meeting with RJ in Charleston, and said we can't do everything that you want us to do, here's what we can do. RJ was not satisfied, and said they basically wanted to repackage their last game with the WoT logo on it. When he threatened to give Legend GTI their money back, something RJ doesn't believe anyone ever does in that business, Legend decided to attempt and meet RJ's criteria. RJ apparently believes that this gave them the impetus to research new software engines for gaming (he mentioned the Quake engine, though I don't know enough about the details of gaming software to fully understand the reference) and they eventually provided the type of game that RJ was looking for.

Some time after the WoT game was published, Legend GTI told RJ they were fairly excited and wanted to do some sequels, or do a modular publication. After some time with no more follow up, RJ got in touch with Legend himself. He was informed that the company had been bought by a French interest that wanted to take Legend GTI in different directions and he never heard back from them. RJ's not even sure if Legend GTI still exists, and that their license for WoT games has expired in any case. He also basically threw out an invitation for anyone that wanted to do a WoT game, so all you software engineer wotmaniacs, get busy!

wot game

RJ was asked a few questions about swords and fighting styles.

Lan and Rand's swords are loosely based on the katana, and another style of sword I had never heard of before (sooba? something like that anyway. SilverWarder might know) and that others were based on medieval European styles. He said that blademasters don't follow one particular historical style of fighting, but that different blademasters have different styles depending on their culture of origin.

At this point he went off on a little tangent about Miyamoto Musashi, a reknowned Japanese swordsman that developed a two-sword style of fighting that was revolutionary at the time. He related that Musashi developed his fighting style after fighting in the Philippines against fighters (Dutch? Portuguese? I didn't write their nationality down, but somebody here might know) that were using swords and dirks in a two-handed fighting style. In any case, I think his point was to demonstrate how fighting styles, like other knowledge, disseminates from culture to culture, but is changed and adapted into something unique in each locale.

blademasters

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wot influences

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lan

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rand

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power-wrought weapons

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sword forms

Another question asked about the fighting style of Far Dareis Mai, and the questioner referenced a particular form of martial art that I had never heard of.

RJ responded that the Maidens fight with something that could be considered a cross between Tae Kwan Do and a third style that I had never heard of. It's a style that emphasizes the use of feet, legs and hips over the use of the upper body for obvious reasons. RJ felt that an all-female community of fighters would naturally discover such a style since it focuses on a women's relative strengths and would help them overcome their relative weaknesses.

aiel

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maidens

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gender

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wot influences

RJ was also asked about the replica swords and other artifacts available on the market.

He said that he had worked closely with Museum Replicas to insure that their creations very close to RJ's vision. He rattled off some of their products; Shienaran swords, Fain's dagger, heron-marked swords and Aes Sedai rings. Apparently the Aes Sedai rings are no longer available, because there were too many other companies producing similar rings. He also said that Museum Replicas intends to let the production line lapse after the sell out of their current stock. And the heron-marked sword is not supposed to be an exact copy of Rand's sword (the one he got from Tam) because the intricate style of Tam's hilt would have made it prohibitively expensive. Nor is it meant to be an exact replica of Lan's sword, which is not heron-marked, but is power wrought.

merchandise

Asked how he managed to keep track of all the characters...

RJ replied, "I'm a genius."

Then he talked about his database of characters which now exceeds 1.5 megabytes, apparently, and that he has them filed by which country they were last seen in. When he needs to use a character for a scene, he finds the ones that are in the geographic location that he needs, and then picks the one that will best suit his purposes from that list.

rj's notes

One person asked, rather impertinently I thought, if RJ had ripped off Tolkien's Middle-Earth map when he created his own.

Of course, RJ denied that, and said that after he had handed in The Eye of the World, he was asked to provide a map. "Why do you need a map?" RJ asked, and he was told, "Tom Doherty likes maps." So, RJ slapped a couple pieces of paper together and drew in the mountains, then scattered the countries around, added some cities rivers and other geographical features and sent it off to Tor. Tor revised it a number of times until Elise Mitchell produced the version that became part of The Eye of the World. RJ also stated that if you look at a map of southwestern Saudi Arabia you'll see two mountain ranges that intersect at right angles.

When asked how aware of geography he was while writing, RJ said that he created the city maps whole, but only roughed out the larger ones. The bigger ones were then polished by the people at Tor before being printed in the books. I took it to mean that he wasn't all that concerned with larger geographic features, which might explain some of the geographic discrepencies in the story.

geography

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wot influences

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tolkien

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maps

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tom doherty

One girl asked RJ which Ajah he would be if he were ever, impossibly of course, an Aes Sedai.

This one actually gave him quite a pause, and when he responded he said it would probably have to be the Red Ajah, since he couldn't imagine having an intimate Warder relationship with another man.

favorites

When asked about how he came up with the magic system for WoT, RJ said it began in kind of a strange way.

He had read a book a long time ago, he didn't provide a title or author, where the women of that world were not allowed to use the magic. RJ said that started him thinking about a world where it was the men, not the women, that were forbidden magic. Then he needed a real reason for denying men the use of magic, and that the Source, its division into male and female halves, and the taint on the male half all grew from that original line of speculation. As he was designing the concept, he tried to devise it as a science and engineering concept with the use of the different elements in weaving and such.

one power

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saidin

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saidar

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taint

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physics

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gender

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genesis

Diomedes

prequels

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tam

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moiraine

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lan

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two rivers

One questioner noted that Crossroads of Twilight was far more concerned with politics than action, and asked if the rest of the series would follow those same lines.

RJ assured him that Knife of Dreams would be considerably different, and said, "You'll be sweating by the time you reach the end of it."

crossroads of twilight

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knife of dreams

Finally, one gentleman asked RJ if he felt it was a writer's responsibility to reinvigorate the genre that he's writing in.

Diomedes

rj on writing

Well, that's all I'm going to put in this post. It's not a complete account, and it's not in any particular order. If you actually managed to read this entire thing, I tip my cap to you. I have to say that I have a new respect for RJ after seeing him in person. He's obviously an incredibly smart guy, with a huge knowledge base. He's was also incredibly generous in his responses, and much funnier than I thought he would be. All in all, I had a great time, and if you ever have the opportunity to go see RJ speak in person, I highly recommend doing so.

Diomedes

rj the man