Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Well, I meant to post this several days ago, but my ISP was down. This will probably reiterate much of what Joel Gilmore said, but I may recall something he missed. If I can get a copy of the full transcript, I will try and post a copy up on a webpage.

Firstly, RJ explained that if person A were to balefire person B, and person C was to balefire person A, if that balefire was strong enough, person B would never have been balefired. This seems like common sense.

balefire

I asked about what happens to, and where the souls of the Forsaken go between being killed and resurrected by the Dark One, and RJ was evasive, saying that he wasn't going to go that deeply into the theology of the WoT with us (at the signing, or the whole series?). All he would say is that the transition from death to resurrection is almost instantaneous.

See the note on Joel Gilmore's account of the same question.

forsaken

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transmigration

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rebirth

RJ confirmed that a WoT (or, more correctly, a The Eye of the World) miniseries has been signed, and the creator of the Merlin miniseries is at the helm, but there are no other details as of yet.

wot film

RJ confirmed that Ishamael's strange gateway at the start of The Eye of the World was due to his use of the True Power.

true power

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ishamael

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gateways

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traveling

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the eye of the world

There is a collectible WoT card game, a la "Magic: The Gathering" on the way. He considers all proper approaches for WoT merchandise, mainly because he enjoys playing around with it. This means that there may be WoT jewelry and the like in the future, if the right people approach RJ about it.

wot game

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merchandise

He listed his favourite seven authors (Joel Gilmore has all of them on his tape) but all I can remember at the moment are Twain and Dickens. RJ is a writeaholic when he gets going, and often skips lunch and writes all day. He enjoys writing in his garden, and this keeps him away from Harriet when he is in writing mode.

rj on writing

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rj on reading

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harriet

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rj's routine

I had my 1990 Tor hardback version of The Eye of the World signed, but I was chagrined to realise that other people were getting two or three books signed. Oh well.

Finally, I would like to say that RJ seemed like a very polite and patient man, who was generous with his time. We probably annoyed the hell out of him asking him questions after the talk, and even though half the answers were RAFO, he made an attempt to answer each sensible one.

Harriet sat next to him during the signing, and seemed to me to be a very polite and forthcoming person. I can believe she is the model for the better qualities in RJ's female characters, but I had no inkling of the darker ones, but it was clear that in many matters RJ defers to her and respects her judgement.

RJ and Harriet had just returned from New Zealand (RJ had been fishing) and their schedule seemed pretty hectic. Next stop for them was Lizard Island, and I assured Harriet that they would have the time of their lives there.

Apart from the drunk idiot sitting a couple of seats down from Joel and I during RJ's talk, everything went very well and I think everyone had a very good evening.

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Willum

fandom

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harriet

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rj the man