Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

Well! We saw Robert Jordan Friday night—and a great night it was too! The official start time was 7pm and he was brought up to the podium just about 5minutes after that. We enjoyed 20-25 minutes of questions and banter, then he signed books for the rest of the evening. I don't think that RJ revealed any new plot twists or details about the Wheel of Time storyline but he did make a memorable evening for myself, my two sons (Alex and Erik—both avid fans), and over 100 other people...

My sons and I knew that this would probably be a once in a lifetime chance for us to meet the great man. We had found out by phone that his 7-8pm appearance would be preceded by a 6pm "handing out of numbers" to build the queue for later questions. With that and our three schedules in mind we decided the best we could do was arrive at 4pm to get in "the line to form the line"... AS IT TURNED OUT, that made us #1,2,3 in line! WE were all really excited at that and found out that not only did that get us in the top ten to have our books signed but it got us in the first row of assigned seats just in front of the podium. Ahhh, heaven! I found out that he didn't mind video cameras so setup my tripod off to the side and got some great footage of him answering questions, etc. We have a few good pics that I have included. The fellow dressed as an Asha'man had both the dragon and the sword pins, BTW.

From what I have read he followed what seems to be the standard evening of the greeting, followed by a pronounceable guide from him—names and the like. Then he opened the floor to questions. He responded to all questions with candor and seriousness but also enjoyed the tangential, question-spawned stories.

One of my favorite parts of the evening was when a question pointed him at who he felt he most resembled and someone in the audience suggested Loial because "he was a big teddy-bear" (yes, you may surmise this was posed by a woman...). He laughed at that and said that an old girlfriend used to call him a "teddy-bear but knew that he wasn't because she had seen the shadow of the man walking next to her and it more resembled a grizzly-bear..." He enjoyed the memory...

Never said who he felt closest to but did say, again, that it depended on who he was writing that day... He said he hated it when he came into her room and his wife would say, "You've been writing Padan Fain today!" Needless to say, he implied he wasn't popular on those days!

I was also pleased to hear him say that Lan had been modeled after his father. If only we could all be that type of father!

rj on writing

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rj on life

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characterization

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harriet

When the book signing time came I gave him two pens from my campground. He asked if I wanted my books signed with them and I mumbled something about "no, just in case you run out of ink" and completely forgot to invite him to come camp for free should he ever be back in Ohio and feel the need for some adventure (my park is 10 minutes from Kings Island—a roller coaster paradise). After that I was spun out by the crowd, watched for a bit, and then we left.

So went our meeting with Mr. Jordan in Dayton, Ohio's Books and Company store...