Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

All right, let's see...

San Diego signing, Mysterious Galaxy bookstore, Feb. 6.
Both Brandon and Harriet attended.

My mom and I got there fairly early (just after 5:30 PM), and there were already a large number of people there—I'll say around 50—and chairs were quickly disappearing, but we snagged a couple. Freelancer was already there, of course (being a Memory Keeper), and after I waved him over and we started chatting, s'rEDIT, who was sitting right behind us, introduced herself, and we talked for a long while.

Around 6 PM or so, Free announced that he had some wonderful crossword puzzles for us (courtesy of Wetlandernw) to pass the time, and they certainly did. (Of the 79 clues, I was able to answer 64 of them correctly, though I did misspell several (i.e., wrong vowel). The other 15 I was unable to answer, and researched them when we got home. Thanks, Wetlander!)

I first noticed Brandon and Harriet in the store at around 6:30 (though they must have arrived earlier, because Free claims to have had a private Q&A session, which I will leave to him to disclose). At 7 PM Brandon and Harriet were introduced, and Brandon went over how the night was going to proceed. The Memory Keepers then got set up for the Q&A (Free had a video camera, and many had voice recorders).

Sometime during the shuffle (or possibly before 7PM? I can't recall), Harriet noted the photo of RJ that is on the wall behind the counter. She remembered that it was taken at Mysterious Galaxy during RJ's last tour (for Knife of Dreams, in 2005), and asked us if anyone knew who took the photo—at which point Mom and I both put our hands up, and told her. Our good friend Jeanne (who lived near us until she moved to the Bay Area) took this photo at the bookstore during the 2005 signing; it now adorns RJ's Wikipedia page, and she made the letter-size print for the MG store. In gratitude (for Harriet is very appreciative of the photo), she gave us a DVD of photos from that signing, including the one linked above, to send to Jeanne. It was a touching moment for us.

The Q&A went splendidly; as there were to be no spoilers for the book, most of the questions were the usual kind, like asking Brandon and Harriet how Brandon was selected, and how he thought about it; what the most difficult character was for him to write; what his favorite of Rand's three girls was; that sort of thing. And most of those were fairly long-winded answers, with plenty of good humor mixed in from both of them. One daring fellow asked Brandon (tongue-in- cheek, undoubtedly) who killed Asmodean; Harriet insisted on answering, and him (loosely paraphrased) that it was an exercise in being able to read the Glossary, and we all laughed. One question was asked about the "River of Souls" story in the Unfettered anthology; this was the first I'd heard of it being a deleted scene from A Memory of Light, so that was kind of neat. A question was asked about one of Brandon's other books (one which I haven't read, so it didn't make any sense to me).

It wasn't until about 7:45 or so that he finally called an end to the Q&A, and had Harriet do a very short reading from the book, which I will probably never forget, because the paragraph she read was the one used in each of the 14 volumes of TWoT: the wind scene. When she got to "There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time", she paused, and let us recite with her, "But it was a beginning."

Mom and I were second in the signing line, so we had plenty of time to get a group photo:

Sorry for the poor image quality; it was taken with my iPod touch, as I had neglected to bring a better camera. (And, indeed, I forgot to take any more pictures of anyone that night, which I regret a little.)

After we got our books signed, we went to get some fresh air, stretch our legs (imagine standing up after sitting on a hard folding chair for two hours, and you'll know what it felt like getting up), and get some dinner at the McDonald's. s'rEDIT was also there (her number was far enough in the line that she could wait a while), and we talked with her for almost an hour, and with another group from the signing (several of whom were sporting very nice outfits, including a Blue Aes Sedai and an Asha'man).

After dinner, we walked back to the bookstore and had another chat with Free out front. Mom and I elected not to stay for personalizations or additional questions; it was late and she was tired, so we said good-bye and left.

So... that turned out rather wordy, didn't it! Shame on me. Looking forward to Free's report.

Bzzz™.