Search the most comprehensive database of interviews and book signings from Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson and the rest of Team Jordan.
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.
2012-04-24: Some thoughts I had during JordanCon4 and the upcoming conclusion of "The Wheel of Time."
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Mar 21st, 2014
Verbatim
Collegeville, PA
Words of Radiance Book Tour
Towne Book Center & Café
EHyde
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I was inspired by just how imaginative it was. I had never read a fantasy book before and I loved the idea of another world that was so similar and yet so different from our own.
When you read that one book, was that where your inspiration started, or were you always—
I was always telling stories, but I didn't find fantasy, and myself in fantasy, until I read that book.
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They don't surprise me very often, I'm usually aware of it long before it would actually become an issue and I've rebuilt the outline by then.
So you're not ever in the process of writing and they—
They don't do that. I cast people in my role, like not real people but I try a character out, and if they fit the role I keep going with them and if they don't then I throw that chapter away and I cast someone else. I rarely have someone go complete crazy off what I was expecting, if they do, it means they were probably the wrong character for that role.
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It depends on if you're speaking culturally or actually magically.
Magically, I guess.
Because he would claim to you that he did it all with strength of mind and no magical influence other than enhanced mind. That's what he would tell you. And so in that case it would not be—culturally they'd look very weirdly at it, but spiritually he would say it's not of the Voidbringers.
Right. He would say that.
Uh-huh.
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It's a cool thing, it's also a very dangerous thing.
Well [the Stormfather] controls the highstorms ... follow-up question: if he dies, does that affect the spren?
Dying, as long as the oaths are not broken, does not affect the spren in a very terrible way. There are effects.
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Yes. You eventually know his real name, but it depends on what you define as real.
So also, regarding the magic systems and stuff, I hear you have another book that's unpublished and that you can send it to people.
Yes, just drop an email, say that you want a copy of White Sand. It's okay. It's not great.
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No.
Because I know Braize is the third one, I've heard that, is that true?
I'm staying closed-lipped about a lot of this.
Can you tell me which is the most massive moon [of Roshar]? Not the biggest, but the most massive.
I think the biggest is the most massive. All three moons are much closer than our moon is.
And so is that Nomon?
Yes.
How big is Nomon on the night sky, like compared to our moon?
Larger than our moon, but not dominating of the sky. [...] I do believe Nomon is bigger, but I had to have Peter run those calculations, so he may come back and say no Brandon, that's not possible, but I do believe it's bigger than our moon in the sky. You're supposed to be able to see moderately well by Nomon.
So, one more time.
So, we have figured all this out. It's in the wiki--so me just saying--it's not in the wiki that you can find. I would need to go compare this. All the calculations on things like this--this is stuff where I sat down with Peter, who knows much more astronomy than me and said "here's what I want" and he's like "well it has to be this" and I put that in.
I believe they do but I'm not 100% sure.
We had to fudge that because as you said, if there were any it'd be all the time.
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Most of them are plant-based. I think I've mentioned one of the plants.
They have silk though, right?
Yes. It's called sea-silk, they grow it in the water. It comes from the coasts.
So they don't have anything like our silk, then?
If you looked at it, you would call it silk, but it is being produced in a very different way.
Our silk comes from insect cocoons, and they have a lot of that there, but they don't use it for fiber at all?
Insect cocoons on Roshar are either, they melt in water from the highstorm cycle, or they have stone in them, so they don't work really well for textiles. There are certain rockbuds you can shred the inside of the shell to get a textile, there's sea silk that grows out in the ocean, and there are other plants of a similar nature.
I was also wondering about the Steel Alphabet in the Mistborn books, each letter aesthetically looks like it's built from a cuff, a spike, and a bead, and was that intentional to reflect the magic systems?
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Vasher misses Nightblood and feels responsible for him.
How many worldhoppers have we seen?
Oh, I haven't kept track, you've seen quite a few. There's one from Mistborn, did you catch him? I don't think people have really picked out the Terriswoman yet, who makes her way into them, but they're mostly not supposed to be noticeable yet, until you get to know them as characters and you look back and be like "oh that was that person."
Is it the Terriswoman I think it is?
I don't know which Terriswoman you think it is.
Tindwyl?
No.
Speaking of the Terriswoman, is she the nurse in Warbreaker?
< Pauses; gleefully says > RAAAAAAFO!
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It definitely wouldn't be pleasant.
Ok, I have this steel allergy, I got it last year, and I work in a steel plant.
It would not be pleasant, but I would have the instinct that fewer people on Scadrial would have that allergy, because of the Investiture during their creation. But, it could totally happen.
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I play draft the most right now, particularly cube draft, but any sort of draft I can be a part of I love. [...] And you know, any time I can play I enjoy it, but if there's a set that I can draft some sort of screwy combo deck like spider spawning or swarm or something, then that's the sort of set I love. Or some sort of screwy five color deck.
I play a lot of commander.
Every time I play commander I get stomped. I haven't quite figured out how to make a commander deck that doesn't get stomped. But of course I think that the format's all about everyone getting stomped so, it makes sense.
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There's a similarity, but they are also very different.
Yeah, I noticed they do seem like advanced fabrials, because Adolin just keeps going on and on about how they're all interchangeable and how they all feel comfortable after a while, and it doesn't have the same kind of thing with the Shardblades.
No, it doesn't. Though a Shardblade, used for a long time, will change shape slightly.
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Uh ... yes.
Does each specific order have their own spren that they would bond?
Yes. Each order has a spren that is distinctive. All Windrunners come from wind— from honorspren.
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... RAFO! Why would you say that Nohadon's still alive?
I know he's still alive.
Why would you say he's still alive?
It's the perfect trick, that you're gonna bring back Nohadon. Um. It's my feeling about things.
Um ...
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Hehehe, good question!
Has she already popped up?
She has not already popped up.
So she's not a Radiant. Or is she?
You have not seen her on screen yet, other than in her story.
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We're working on a graphic novel of it right now.
Who's gonna do the art?
We have four or five people who have sent us pitches, and we are looking through them to decide who we want to use.
Can you put me in one of your novels? I'm a three-fingered Irishman who speaks four languages.
Okay, write me an email that says "I'm a three-fingered Irishman who speaks four languages," we'll see what we can do. [...] Who did you think Hoid was, in White Sand?
Hoid is not a real person, he did not start life as [can't make out].
No, who did you think he was in White Sand?
I don't know yet, I'm not that far.
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It's unlikely that I'll ever do any more Wheel of Time books. I don't think that Robert Jordan would want it to keep going.
What about your Steelheart, how many—?
That is a trilogy. I've finished the second book and turned it in, then one more left to do, and then it'll be done.
Final and kaput? No multiple trilogies?
Hmm ... you know, I could see ... but I have no plans right now to do any more. I have my next YA book that I've already got planned what I'm going to do.
The Rithmatist, how many in that series?
That's also three.
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Know which story?
The story about the pact, why he doesn't remember anything.
Oh. Not very many at all know that he doesn't remember. He's had to fake it.
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I have. I do really like Michael Kramer and Kate Reading, so I listen just to see what their interpretation is. I love that Herdazians are Australian.
Are they on for the rest of the series?
Yes. Well, they said that they will as long as they're free.
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We'll see. We will see. The thing is there's a beginning, middle, and end to the shattering of Adonalsium and the involvement there. More stories can be told in the Cosmere, but there's a beginning, middle, and end to that. When I finish that, that is the sequence that I wanted to tell.
And you have that outlined out?
I do.
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What way?
Angrier, and my question is, why did you write him that way?
He has always been angry. In the first book, he is focused on saving his men and now that his men are safe, all of those emotions—if you go look at him from the first nine chapters of Way of Kings, he's that way there, it's when he becomes focused on saving his men he has something to drive him and it kind of subsumes these things, but once they're safe all these things he hasn't dealt with came back out.
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Ah ...
So I've been in contact a little bit with [something], I own a RP gamer, and they went radio silence on me.
Um, yeah. I had dinner with Matt Scott like two weeks ago, he said it's still in development, but he's like buying a game studio that was working on it, or something? He had farmed it out? I think. So I don't know.
Are you still writing?
I wrote the story for them to use. The idea was I write the story, they build the game, and come back to me for dialogue. So I have got an overarching story for them but I don't write the dialogue till we actually have a game to plug things into. That's still my plan. He's still really interested in buying the Mistborn movie option, and he says that he's working on a mobile game, so he's really awesome ... but I have nothing to tell you right now.
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They did something similar.
Can the Unmade be bonded?
Wow...plausible. Er, possible, I should say.
If you came up with a Radiant-like ideal, for yourself as a writer, what would it be?
What a great question! (writes the answer in asker's book).
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I would say that what Adolin did was less dark, personally. I would say that what Adolin did was something that needed to be done, that no one else was capable of doing.
Will it have any ramifications for him down the line? With how it was handled?
Oh, there are definitely ramifications. How it's handled, there's lots of ramifications. And there are certain characters who would think that what he did is totally, totally, totally wrong.
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That is not the spren. Good question. It is not...the spren is not a spren that is a...for one of the orders.
But it is related to--
I didn't say that. I just said it is not a--it is not a blade. It is not one of those.
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Uh … at what stage in their career?
Not the Slivers.
Okay, so they don't count, the Shards of Adonalsium don't count … does Kelsier have atium?
Yes.
Then … a Mistborn burning atium is really hard to beat in any other way.
So you think that Kelsier would beat Vin?
Oh, Kelsier would beat Vin if he had atium and she didn't. If they both did? Vin has more raw talent, Kelsier has more experience. So if you can pick Vin after she has more experience she will give him a fair fight, otherwise, not.
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They are not in Words of Radiance in person.
Will they be in the next book?
That's a RAFO. But they have not appeared in person in the series yet.
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It would suck the Breath from anybody, and if they were unable to feed it he would feed on their soul.
So they would die.
Yes. Anybody wielding Nightblood, he will suck their soul. For too long, he will eventually, if you draw him, he will suck your soul.
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Breath is definitely like Mist, it is in the form of the air.
And is Stormlight the same?
Stormlight is the same. Good questions!
Would Vasher be able to use Stormlight in the same way that he can get Breath?
That would not be immediately easy, but Stormlight could feed Nightblood.
Which is why Szeth can wield Nightblood?
Eh, you'll have to see if … but yes. That could theoretically happen. You can use most of the magics on most of the planets to fuel the other magics, if you know how to do it, it is not easy.
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No, they have other stuff. It is something grander than that.
He's just one of many priorities?
Yes. They are very worried about what he's going to be doing.
But there's others they're worried about as well?
Yes. [...] So they have a task, they have goals, and they are worried that he is going to be at cross purposes to them, so they are trying to hunt him down.
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Oh, Nazh? Nazh… (he gives a longer name. Sounds like Nazreloft, obviously spelling uncertain)
He's not in the list of …
He appears in one place in that book.
Rock sounds Hawaiian, Hawaiian royalty. Is that a pun on Dwayne Johnson?
[Laughs] No, it's not. That's a coincidence.
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You've seen people using Allomancy in Roshar before.
You said that on Roshar the only reason they have aluminum is that they can Soulcast it, right? I think you said something like that … maybe? I was wondering how that would work, if an Allomancer were to--
Aluminum has some weird properties on all of the magic systems, not just allomancy. It does not have the same effect, but aluminum has some bizarre effects.
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Um, yes, but they're also really creepy.
Are they open to manipulation like other sentient non-human humanoids of Roshar? The Parshendi? Or, similar?
Um, RAFO.
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Honorblades were crafted before Shardblades existed--
So they were crafted.
They were crafted before Shardblades existed, and all Shardblades that exist came about as certain individuals trying to find out how to copy Honorblades.
So would it be fair to say that Honorblades are analagous to fabrials in some sense? Trap spren in a crystal yada yada Stormlight power?
There is an analogy there, that I think would pass the SAT's rigor for analogies.
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It depends on your definition. Is Windrunning its own magic system, or is it a division of a larger magic system? Are the ten different Surges each their own magic system, or are they all the same one?
If you assume the surges are all one.
Well then you would have Surgebinding, and the Old Magic, those are two at least, and there are things that are not explained in those at all, and how do you count creating fabrials? Is that a science and not a magic? Is that its own magic system?
It's a science, because anyone can do it.
So Awakening is not a magic, then? Awakening's a science? Because anyone can Awaken if they get the breath.
That's something that stood out to me, because in all your other magic systems that we've seen so far there has to be some sort of snapping to occur, and that's unique, because- [...] Is there an active magic system on Threnody?
Threnody has a non Shard-based...it depends on what you call a magic system. Do spirits coming back from the dead count as magic? It's science to them, but, it's goofy science.
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They do say that--well let's just say that some books exist in translation over the centuries with the primary text having been lost, or things like this.
But you're not going to say if the translation is guaranteed to be accurate.
I am not going to say that.
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