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Search 1165 Signings, Interviews, etc. (13808 Entries)

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Interviews: Steelheart Release Party

Summary:

Entries

34

Date

Sep 24th, 2013

Type

Verbatim

Location

Orem, UT

Links

Google Docs

  • 1

    Question

    Your Korean phrase in Alcatraz, what was that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    "I don't speak Korean" is what I believe it says.

    Tags

  • 2

    Question

    You know Hoid's Letter, that is in The Way of Kings, it is given to a dragon right?

    Brandon Sanderson

    He calls himself an old reptile.

    Question

    Is he immortal?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Functionally, meaning he doesn't age but can be killed.

    Question

    And it is a he and not a she?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It is a he.

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  • 3

    Question

    Are you going to do a new pin for Words of Radiance?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Oh yah, I should do something like that. I wasn't thinking I should do one, but I really should.

    Tags

  • 4

    Question

    A shardblade, what it does is cut off healing and control of an arm or whatever...

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Question

    So like if an arm got badly wounded and was bleeding out and needed to be amputated. If you went through it with a shardblade first, would that damage you in other ways?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No it wouldn't. What it does is sever the soul of the arm.

    Question

    I know like in Mistborn, if you take bits of soul out of people it messes them up.

    Brandon Sanderson

    It does.

    Question

    if you do it with shardblades...

    Brandon Sanderson

    It leaves a wound...

    Tags

  • 5

    Question

    What color is your toothbrush?

    Brandon Sanderson

    White with blue toothbrush head thing.

    Footnote

    [transcriber]: really couldn't resist adding this

  • 6

    Question

    Who is your favorite Doctor?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Big scarf doctor.

    Footnote

    [Transcriber's note: Probably the Fourth Doctor then? Played by Tom Baker]

  • 7

    Question

    Are Kaladin and Szeth going to fight in Words of Radiance?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Well, they are both on the cover, if you have not seen it, Kaladin is on the front and Szeth is on the back and they look very antagonistically towards each other. Plus Kaladin has been hired to protect Dalinar and Szeth has been sent to kill him. So it is a reasonable expectation that they will run into each other in the second book.

  • 8

    Question

    What is the name/Intent of Bavadin's Shard?

    Brandon Sanderson

    *nervous chuckle* I have not revealed that yet and I don't think I want to quite yet.

    Tags

  • 9

    Question

    In Rithmatist, how can you tell if a circle is two-starred, four-starred, or nine-starred?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It's by where you start crossing the lines, where you cross the circle will determine how many, and what points it is. For example if you draw a line here, there are only a certain number of places where you can draw another line that will fit. It's just by where you start your first line intersecting it.

    Tags

  • 10

    Question

    Which hand is the safe hand?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It is the left hand.

    Tags

  • 11

    Question

    When we get to the interlude in The Way of Kings, where we see the Shinovar merchant, he talks about his guards being different from Truthless. What makes the distinction?

    Brandon Sanderson

    You will find that out in Book 3 which has Szeth's flashback sequences and show him becoming Truthless.

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  • 12

    Question

    At the end of The Way of Kings, it was probably clear enough but I didn't understand it, with Wit, was it the actual Herald or was it someone else.

    Brandon Sanderson

    The Herald is the one that collapsed on the ground all shaggy haired with a shardblade. He claimed to be Talenel, who is the one they were talking about in the Prelude, whether or not he actually is is yet to be seen.

    Question

    Did he just collapse or did he form out of the air?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No, he walked up and fell down.

  • 13

    Question

    My husband wants to know if you are having any gunsmiths make a Vindicator.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Not yet, are you a gunsmith?

    Questioner

    No, just an enthusiast.

  • 14

    Question

    The last book was split into three for the Wheel of Time, how much of that was yours and how much Jordan's?

    Brandon Sanderson

    He left about a hundred written pages and another hundred pages of notes specifically for the last book. It really depends on the given scene. In The Gathering Storm, if it was [Egwene] it was either written by him or from his notes and if it was Rand it was mostly me. In Towers of Midnight, if it was Mat it was probably from his notes or written by him, he wrote the entire Tower of Ghenjei sequence. But if it was Perrin it was me. He had nothing on him except leaving Malden and being in the Last Battle, so I had to fill in everything in between. In the final book, meeting at the Fields of Merrilor was him and the very last chapter, which became the epilogue, was him and a lot of the rest was me.

    Tags

  • 15

    Question

    Are you going to do a midnight thing for Word of Radiance?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. We decided that since this [Steelheart] was a teen book we would do it at a reasonable hour instead of midnight, but all bets are off for Words of Radiance. It will be one of those midnight abominations where I'm there till six am.

  • 16

    Question

    Are you an Eagle Scout?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, I am.

  • 17

    Question

    Does Roshone get his comeuppance?

    Brandon Sanderson

    More of what happened with Roshone is in the second book. He will at least be mentioned and you will find out more.

  • 18

    Question

    Why is The Rithmatist in our world but not in our world?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I wanted to do something a little more whimsical when I wrote it. Something that I didn't require myself to—I just wanted something purely imaginative. And I said, if I weren't bound by anything where would I go? And I designed this really strange alternate version of our world, without forcing myself to have explanations or rationale. That's just a different process than other books I write.

    Tags

  • 19

    Question

    When are we going to see a Mistborn movie? I thought it was just around the corner?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I think it would make a great movie. There are a lot of people in Hollywood who think it would make a great movie but they aren't the people with the money. Convincing the people with the money is a little harder.

    Tags

  • 20

    Question

    At the end of the trilogy Sazed communicates with Kelsier so there is something going on with an afterlife. Is it uniform across the cosmere?

    Brandon Sanderson

    What is happening there is not actually technically an afterlife, well it kind of is, it is what we call a cognitive shadow its when your spirit is not moving on yet. So there is a Beyond but there is a—basically it is what we would call in our world a ghost, and there are actually magic systems based around that. Actually the story I have coming out in George R.R. Martin's next anthology is a ghost story involving this same—yes it is cosmere based. Yes, that would be consistent, they don't all have the same mythology regarding it. But it would be consistent, what happened with Kelsier could have happened on any of the planets.

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  • 21

    Question

    Will Hoid be making a reappearance in Words of Radiance?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Question

    I also heard he was part of your unpublished Dragonsteel.

    Brandon Sanderson

    He is.

    Question

    And is that a series you are going to be publishing?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I will eventually rewrite it, it is not up to my current standards. I consider the events that happen in it basically to be canon. With some exceptions, like for instance when I originally wrote Dragonsteel the Shattered Plains were there and Dalinar was there and I split off Way of Kings into its own book. I took half of what had been Dragonsteel and made it into the Stormlight Archive and I split half of it off onto a separate planet. If you were to read it, you can check it out from BYU, half of it will be a less well-written version of the Shattered Plains sequence of Way of Kings and the other half is Hoid's story. And Hoid's story stuff is still kind of canon but the rest...

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  • 22

    Question

    When is the next Rithmatist coming out?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I am working on it but I don't have a specific date.

    Question

    How far are you into it?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I have the outline done. The outline is about half the work for me.

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  • 23

    Question

    Do you spend a lot of time on google when you don't know something? Like distances?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, well I used to. Now I can just write in my manuscript "Peter find the answer to this" and I'll just let it go. He's my assistant so when he does his readthrough afterwards he's like "oh great" and he'll do all the research for me.

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  • 24

    Question

    Have you ever thrown in something into one of your books from one of the other books you've written, like an easter egg?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, well all of my books are connected. There is a character in Mistborn who is in Elantris, who is in Warbreaker, who is also in The Way of Kings. Easter egg things, if you read my middle grade series, the Alcatraz books, there are all kinds of silly things thrown in there just for fun. But there's a continuing character doing cameos in each of the books.

    Question

    is it the same throughout the books?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

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  • 25

    Question

    A lot of people I know think that you are an atheist because you've written a really great atheist, and one that we all like in Jasnah and I'm wondering if you interviewed people or if you got that from philosophy classes.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I spent a suspicious amount of time hanging out on atheist forums. Really I paid attention to threads where they discussed misconceptions about them and things like that and used that to inform creating Jasnah's philosophy on life.

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  • 26

    Question

    Are Inquisitors bald?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Question

    Are they bald by being bald, or do they shave their heads?

    Brandon Sanderson

    They shave their heads. Hemalurgy does not automatically make you bald.

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  • 27

    Question

    In the sample chapter for the sequel it said "Sazed is in charge of hemalurgy now so it is [not] bad anymore."

    Brandon Sanderson

    That is what the book said.

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  • 28

    Question

    What is your prefered writing tool? i.e. mac, word, etc.

    Brandon Sanderson

    I use regular Word. I like some of the tools like the Document Map and auto correct function. Over the years I've built a whole autocorrect library. It makes me feel like I spell things correctly on Word, when I really don't. The other thing I do like is wikidpad software.

  • 29

    Question

    In Warbreaker, how did Denth remember Shashara was his sister if he was Returned?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That is an excellent question and it will be answered. It is a conscious decision of mine, it is something you are supposed to be wondering. In the future books I want to delve into that sort of thing a lot.

  • 30

    Question

    When is the next Alloy of Law book coming out?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Probably Christmastime next year [2014] is the earliest you'll see it. Maybe the following spring.

  • 31

    Question

    In most of your magic systems people have a power or two, with the exception of Elantris are you planning on returning to that or doing a similar system?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I will, I like to do all kinds of different things. The thing about it is that I like having discrete powers that I can really explore. I find that a lot of magic system that have just so many things you can do — it isn't a bad magic system I just like to have one thing and really dig into it. I love reading the Wheel of Time which had a very expansive magic system until you come to my books where you see characters focusing on a few weaves and using them really well.

  • 32

    Question

    If you were a misting which power would you choose?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Coinshot.

  • 33

    Question

    What would you like to be working on? Do you have any ideas bouncing around in your head?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'd like to write — the book I've wanted to write for a long time, I'll probably do it as a novella, about the planet where catching a disease gets you a magical talent. And I'll probably do that as my next novella, next year. So in between projects I'll do that one.

    Footnote

    Referring to The Silence Divine set on Ashyn

    Tags

  • 34

    Question

    Are chasmfiends related to Thunderclasts?

    Brandon Sanderson

    No. Good question though. Thunderclasts actually show up pretty early in the second book. More what thunderclasts are — Dalinar sees one in a flashback in the second book. So you'll get a good explanation of where they come from, but they are more related to the voidbringers where chasmfiends are actually a living part of the ecosystem

    Question

    So what is the purpose of the pupating?

    Brandon Sanderson

    You will find out. Shallan is asking that very question.