Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

I got a large batch of email about the other email I posted last week. Thank you all for your kindness and your thoughtful responses. I thought I'd share a few selections from some of the emails I got. (I probably have too many of them to respond to individually, by the way, so I apologize in advance if you don't hear from me!)

From a reader in Ohio:

"I just wanted to say that as a reader I like to think that all stories go on, that writers only managed to capture and write down one part of the story. To me the story always continues as is shown in Cornelia Funke's 'Inkspell' book where the author of the book 'Inkheart' ends up in his own story some 20 years after where he left it, and its completely different from the world he had created, the people in the story had continued on; died, had children, got married, became evil, became good, their lives had continued, they hadn't stopped just because the book that their stories were written down in ended."

From a reader in Ontario:

"One of the things that makes Elantris remarkable as a book is that it is capable of being a stand alone. Fantasy is far too reliant on sequels, trilogies, or series in order to a story. Most fantasy novels are daunting enough to new readers since it is fairly common for a fantasy book to break 1000 pages. When you add in 4, 5,or 11, more books the entire series can become very overwhelming. I found Elantris to be a refreshing break from this. Which is important as being an undergraduate student I find my reading time of non-course material almost non existent."

From a reader who didn't mention their location:

"Brandon, in reading your most recent blog I was concerned for the writer, as if he reads the final tome of the Wheel of Time, I am sure there will be stories yet to be told, after all if Rand succeeds the very point is the Wheel continues to turn. I've read many different styles of writing, some writers do try to tie up each and every loose end that they have revealed so that by the end of their story they would need a new catalyst to have any storyline other than "and they lived happily ever after", however I prefer the style where we feel like we are viewing a window on events for a certain time, and after that time is gone and the blinds are pulled on the window, we know events are still going on, that sparks the imagination and makes the characters more believable, as well as having the effect of making us want to know more about that world. Unfortunately however, it seems that the reader prefers the first style, and for that there is nothing you as a writer can do (changing your style is not an option as a writer has a style they are comfortable with, and changing that can be very detrimental to the writing process) and it is too bad that the reader can't see that, and though they will move on to other authors it would have been nice if they were able to move on without malice and venom."

And finally, my personal favorite, a note from a reader in California:

"It's an evil plot to distract you from A Memory of Light. The person is obviously a Darkfriend and could possibly be one of the Forsaken."

Ah! Of course! We finally know what Demandred has been about all of this time! He's been writing angry emails to authors.

(Note, there are a whole lot of other great posts in the responses on my LJ. Remember that you can always respond there if you'd rather do that than email me. EDIT: Let's also not forget those who posted on my forum or on my Facebook and my Blogger mirror blogs. I check all of those locations, folks, and I DID see your responses! Thanks!)

Thank you all for your replies and thank you, as always, for reading.