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An Hour With Harriet

2012-04-30: I had the great pleasure of speaking with Harriet McDougal Rigney about her life. She's an amazing talent and person and it will take you less than an hour to agree.

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The Bell Tolls

2012-04-24: Some thoughts I had during JordanCon4 and the upcoming conclusion of "The Wheel of Time."

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Your search for the tag 'fishing' yielded 21 results

  • 1

    Interview: Jul, 2002

    Question

    How does your knowledge of physics influence your idea of channeling and the Talents involved in the books, such as Traveling, Skimming, etc? Do you have other hobbies or talents that influence your writing?

    Robert Jordan

    My knowledge of physics influenced channeling to the extent that I have attempted to treat channeling as if it were a form of science and engineering rather than magic. You might say that the Laws of Thermodynamics apply in altered form. I expect that my reading in history has influenced the books more than my knowledge of physics or engineering. I have not tried to copy any actual historical culture or period, but a knowledge of the way things actually were done at various times has helped shape my vision of the world of The Wheel, as has the study of cultures meeting that are strange to one another, and cultures undergoing change, willingly or, as is more often the case, unwillingly. I used to spend summers working on my grandfather’s farm, a very old-fashioned set-up even then, so I have some feel for country life, and I like to hunt and fish, and spent a good part of my growing up in the woods or on the water, so I have a fair feel for the outdoors and the forests, which also helps. And of course, I can use a little of my Vietnam experience. Not for setting out the actual battles, but because I know firsthand the confusion of battle and what it is like to try to maintain some semblance or order while all around you random events are pushing everything toward chaos.

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  • 2

    Interview: Oct, 1994

    Sense of Wonder

    Is there any way for readers to contact you to talk about The Wheel of Time?

    Robert Jordan

    Well readers can always contact me through Tor Books. Just address letters to Robert Jordan, c/o Tor Books, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Do put my name on the envelope. If it just says Tor Books it takes longer to get to me, because people open it to see what it is and sometimes the envelope gets lost and I get a letter which has no return address.

    Also, Tor is talking about a tour, starting mid-October, something like eleven cities in fourteen days. There's been talk of new York and Atlanta. Boston, Chicago and Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Denver, and more...but the actual itinerary isn't firm yet. As for conventions, I've accepted an invitation to a literary convention in Bath, England, next February, because the organizer is an old friend. It's not a science fiction convention, per se, although the organizers say they hope to have me on a panel with David Eddings and Terry Brooks and a couple of other people. Beyond that, I plan to go to the World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow next summer, though in truth I'm largely planning to go to that because I can catch the tail end of the salmon fishing afterward.

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  • 3

    Interview: Oct, 1994

    Sense of Wonder

    That brings us to your interests outside of writing fantasy. Could you tell us about them?

    Robert Jordan

    I like to hunt and fish, primarily fly fishing, though I'm not a absolute purist. If the fly fishing isn't going well, I don't have any objection to spin casting. I like to play poker and shoot pool, and play Go. Well, I like to try to play Go. I also collect antique weapons, swords and old muskets and that sort of things and also Asian and African art. Of course, writing is what takes up most of my time. I hope people are enjoying The Wheel of Time.

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  • 4

    Interview: Nov 1st, 1994

    Robert Jordan

    I know the last scene of the last book, I've known it from the beginning, I just have to get there.

    Fast Forward

    Well, let's talk about getting there. Let's talk about the process. Let's take a look at Lord of Chaos from the moment you start it.

    Robert Jordan

    All right.

    Fast Forward

    Because you are walking toward a final scene, and because you aren't sure how long it's going to take to get there, in terms of the events that are going to happen, the people that we are going to meet—let's talk about how you wrote Lord of Chaos, and the discipline you placed upon yourself to generate this 700 page book. How did you go about putting this last novel together?

    Robert Jordan

    Well, first off, along with knowing what the last scene is, there are certain events that I know I want to happen. Certain things that I want to happen, both in relationships between people, and in the world, if you will. I picked out some of those events to see if I could fit them in from the position everyone was in, the position the world was in at the end of the last book. I then began to roughly sketch out how I would get from one of those to the next. And then I sat down and began writing, in the beginning eight hours a day, five or six days a week. And—I do my rewriting while I am doing the writing. When I hit the end, I only allow myself to give a final polish. I keep going back while I am writing and rewriting the previous stuff. By the end of the book I was doing twelve to fourteen hours a day, seven days a week. I did that for the last five months of Lord of Chaos, except that I did take one week off to go fly fishing with some brothers and cousins and nephews up in the Big Horn and Yellowstone. It was terrific. It kept my brain from melting.

    Fast Forward

    The more intense schedule—was this a more difficult book to write and get to the end of, in terms of the amount of time you had to spend than some of the others in the series?

    Robert Jordan

    No, not really. They're ALL like that. The only difficulty this time was that I perhaps went to the seven day a week and fourteen hour day a little sooner that I would normally. Partly that's because each of these books takes MORE than a year to write. The publisher likes to publish them once a year, though. With the result that with each book I've slipped a little bit more beyond the deadline, and I DON'T LIKE being beyond the deadline. So the further beyond the deadline I get, the more I want to put the pedal to the floor and get done.

    Fast Forward

    Does having to put that much time in per day affect your focus, your ability to work? I mean, do you ever get the feeling when you turn something in that if you had another month to do it you could have put more of a "shine" on it, or are you satisfied with the product when it is turned in?

    Robert Jordan

    I'm satisfied and I'm not satisfied. It doesn't have anything to do with the time. The effect of the time is that I have to work to disengage my mind so that I can go to sleep. I have to read somebody else who will engage my thoughts. Charles Dickens is always great for that. If I don't do that, I will lie there all night thinking about what I'm writing, sure that I will go to sleep in just a few minutes now, and then it gets light outside, and I haven't been to sleep yet. What happens is that I get this DESIRE to keep writing. Once upon a time, before I was married, I used to write for thirty hours at a stretch.

    Fast Forward

    Good Lord.

    Robert Jordan

    And then I would sleep for nine or ten. I didn't do this all year round, it was just when I was working on a book. When I get going, I want to keep going. And about the other thing, I ALWAYS think I can make the book better. I'd probably spend five, six, ten years on a book if I was left to myself, trying to polish each phrase. So it's just as well I do have deadlines to bring me into the real world.

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  • 5

    Interview: Nov 1st, 1994

    Fast Forward

    We had talked, a little bit, about your schedule and how much time you've had to put into the writing, especially the latter part of a cycle of completing a book. Do you have to think very carefully about taking time away from the writing in order to maintain the schedule you keep? I know there has been incredible interest in your book tour, which you are currently on. As a matter of fact, the reason you are here in Washington, D.C. is because the fans of Robert Jordan and The Wheel of Time in this area pitched such a fit...

    Robert Jordan

    They burned a couple of embassies, I heard.

    Fast Forward

    ...on the Internet, that TOR added this to your already extensive tour schedule. Which allows you to be here, so we appreciate that very much—thank you folks, for doing that. But does it make it difficult for you to do the other things you want to do in your life? Do you find yourself calculating more what it's costing you away from the book?

    Robert Jordan

    Yes. My vacations are almost inevitably now a few DAYS tacked on to the end of a business trip. The fishing trip was an aberration of wild dimensions. I stuck with that despite various people saying, "Can you really do that, can you really take the time out?" I said, "I plan to get my brothers and cousins and nephews together. We're going to fly fish, we're going to fly fish, I don't CARE, we're going to FLY FISH, and catch some trout." But generally I have to think about things like that. I don't go to conventions very much anymore, I used to go to a lot of them, I don't have the time.

    Fast Forward

    And that's why, of course, your time is so valuable when you are available to people around here. Well, WE'RE out of time, as a matter of fact. Mr. Jordan, thank you for being here. Tad Williams, when he was on this show, basically called his Dragonbone Chair Trilogy the "story that ate my life", which it seems like The Wheel of Time, based on our discussion, is at least nibbling on the edges of this portion of your life. Which for our sakes, in terms of finding out what the end of the story will be, we hope won't be TOO much longer. And for your sake too, so that you can afford to take a couple of months to go fly fishing with your family.

    Robert Jordan

    It would be nice, but if a book is worth doing, if it's worth wrestling down, it's always going to eat your life.

    Fast Forward

    And on that note we say thank you very much.

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  • 6

    Interview: Apr 3rd, 1995

    Robert Jordan

    Yes, there were a couple signings (well one, anyway) with 30 or 40 fans, and I am ashamed to say it was a blessing. I can remember when 30-40 fans made me grin with pleasure, but after signings with 200-300 people, each with 3 or 4 books, and a tight schedule to get to the next signing, 30 or 40 seemed like a rest.

    New York decides where I go on tour, as I think I've told you. Sometimes they make odd choices; they once planned to send me to Phoenix so I could visit my brother, only he lives in Tucson, he couldn't dump the classes he teaches to come to Phoenix, and we had just seen each other on a fishing trip a few weeks before anyway. It is possible for fans to get places added. (Within reason, anyway; I was told if I had gone to all the stores that wanted me on the last tour, I'd have been out for six months!) Anyway, both Washington, D.C. and Toronto were added to the last tour because of fan complaints about being excluded. They made enough noise, apparently, that Tor decided I should go.

    I think I got the December and February Chronicles. I think I did. My wife sometimes wonders how I can keep the plots straight when I can't remember which day to put out the garbage. I tell her it's an acquired skill, but I don't say which bit is the skill.

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  • 7

    Interview: Jun 16th, 1995

    Robert Jordan

    His impression of Sweden was: "Very nice, but a little cold for the season" (the temperature in Stockholm sunk 10°C during the weekend compared with the previous week).

    The biggest fish he has ever caught was a 12", 980 lbs tigershark, even though he had some help. He claimed he had on one occasion caught a tigershark bigger than the boat, but let it go. The audience saw with suspicion at this statement.

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  • 8

    Interview: Oct 18th, 1996

    AOL Chat (Verbatim)

    Question

    Considering that schedule, do you spend every waking minute on your books or do you do other things in between that prepare you to write?

    Robert Jordan

    I do other things. I fish, although not nearly as often as I should, just for relaxation purposes, and of course I read. Actually, I have to read. If I don't read someone else before going to bed, I will lie there awake all night thinking about my own work and what I want to do next.

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  • 9

    Interview: Jun 28th, 1997

    Bondoso

    What other things keep you busy apart from working a lot on The Wheel of Time?

    Robert Jordan

    Hmm. Trying to finish the books would be enough for any sane person. I occasionally find time to go fishing, although not so far this year. I find time to read a little bit. Less than one book a day now. And I don't really have a great deal of time for anything else. When I'm doing anything else, I feel I should be writing. It's a sickness. [smiles]

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  • 10

    Interview: Oct 25th, 1998

    Robert Jordan

    He said the book-signing tour will run through November 22nd. He'll spend two days fishing in Canada, and then return home to Charleston for Thanksgiving. (He said he finds being on tour exhausting, and always spends the following several days doing nothing at all.) After Thanksgiving, he'll start in on the next volume.

    Someone mentioned the Internet-based rumors about him suffering from heart attacks / other forms of poor health. I couldn't tell from his expression whether RJ was amused or annoyed: Probably both equally. He replied that he's in good health with a resting heart rate of 71 beats per minute and good cholesterol.

    He told quite a few people that the series would be requiring a minimum of three more volumes, perhaps more—and pointed out that he'd had to find time to work on "New Spring" and the Guide, in addition to The Path of Daggers. He also pointed out that, so far, the books have always been published within a month of completion, which he called "instantaneous for the publishing world". He stressed that he wants to reach the end (the final scene that he worked out 15 years ago), and would like to be "as compact as possible". (He said "Don't laugh.")

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  • 11

    Interview: Nov 11th, 1998

    Tijamilism

    Robert... When do you ever get a break? time for yourself? And how do you spend that time?

    Robert Jordan

    Generally, I work 10-12 hrs a day, 7 days a week...sometimes my wife will say to me, you're working too hard, go fishing, and sometimes I will. And sometimes she will say to me, I want you to see something on the porch, and when I go downstairs, there's a fishing guide waiting, and she tells me to go away and fish. That's about it except for the occasional stops to fish when I'm traveling, there's too much to write and not enough years. She's a wonderful person, the empress of the known universe!

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  • 12

    Interview: Mar, 2000

    Question

    Did you enjoy your time in New Zealand and will you be back?

    Robert Jordan

    I enjoyed my visit to New Zealand tremendously, and I certainly hope to return. New Zealand is the most beautiful country I’ve ever seen, and on top of that, I hope to return at the right time of year to do some serious trout fishing.

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  • 13

    Interview: Mar, 2000

    Question

    What does the future hold for you?

    Robert Jordan

    Well, I’d like to catch a thousand-pound black marlin, a thirty-pound brown trout, and a sixty-pound Atlantic salmon. I’d like to shoot a twenty-four point whitetail and a perfect round in sporting clays. I’d like to get another royal Flush in poker—I got one, once—finally learn how to play go beyond the basics. I’d like to learn to sky dive, and.... Oh. More writing, certainly, for as long as I can find a way to put words on paper. I used to keep notebooks of story ideas, until I realized that I wold need three or four lifetimes to write just the ideas already had. I would like to do different sorts of writing, too. History, stage-plays. I’ve been noodling around lately with the idea of musical composition, too, something I haven’t touched in many years. Given the way medicine advances, I might have lived little more than half my life so far, which means I have a few decades remaining. Not enough to do everything I want to do, but I think I can fill them up.

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  • 14

    Interview: Oct 21st, 2005

    Shannan Lieb

    Following the Q&A, they started with the signing. My goal was to get a picture with myself, my parents and both RJ and Harriet. I knew from Dragon*Con that Harriet isn't a big fan of having her picture taken, even though I think she is extremely photogenic. As they started to call the numbers around 80, I went to try to find Harriet as she was wandering through the store.

    Harriet McDougal Rigney

    Eventually I found her looking at some of the cards, and asked her if she would mind taking a photo with myself and my family. She was very nice and said that she would. We wandered around a bit more, with my mother joining us, before they called our numbers, and Harriet showed us some of the books she'd been looking at. She said she really liked Books & Co. and said that she thought it was one of the nicer stops on the tour.

    They called our number and we met up with my father at the stage, and I introduced him and Harriet. We talked for a few minutes while we were waiting, about her getting to see her godson on their New York/New Jersey stop, and that I'd heard they were going to get to go to Alaska for a tour stop in 2006. She said that they had tried to combine the Alaska stop into the tour this year, but there was no way to do it without significantly modifying the tour that was already set up. So, RJ asked the tour manager "when are the salmon running?" and that decided when they would make it up to Anchorage.

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  • 15

    Interview: Oct 22nd, 2005

    Allentrace

    After several minutes of questions RJ moved to signing books, with groups of 25 at a time being called into line. All during the time I was waiting for my turn I watched RJ's interaction with the people whose books he was signing, and I can say without hesitation he was one of the nicest authors I have ever met. He never seemed bored by questions the individuals asked (even repetitive ones) as they were getting their books signed and always seemed enthused to answer them. When it came my time I was only too happy to have him shake my hand and take a picture of him signing my books. As I mentioned I would be attending the Anchorage, AK signing, he said that he was happy to be able to go and meet his AK fans and to get some salmon fishing done. It was a great day and I was happy to find that one of my favorite authors is also such a nice man.

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  • 16

    Interview: Jul 6th, 2006

    Robert Jordan

    For Kristin, who wanted to know what sort of fish I fish for, it depends on the time of year and what's biting, really. We can go off-shore and fish for blue marlin, sailfish, king mackerel, dolphin, swordfish, albacore, and several kinds of tuna, including occasionally one of the giant blues, or stay inshore and go after tarpon, redfish, jack crevalle, or sea trout (weakfish, technically, not steelhead) and if nothing else is biting, ladyfish, which is called the poor man's tarpon. They are fairly small—I think the world record is around five pounds—but they make spectacular leaps and runs and are very good sport on ultralight tackle. There are many other inshore fish, of course, ranging from croaker to hammerheads, but I don't fish for them, just as I don't fish for barracuda. They're something you catch by accident.

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  • 17

    Interview: Jul 14th, 2006

    Robert Jordan

    For Teri, the dolphin I wrote about is a fish, not a mammal. In Latin America it is called dorado, while in Hawaii (and in restaurants) it's called mahi-mahi. Just so nobody will think they're serving Flipper. Terribly wasteful creatures, dolphins. The mammals, I mean. Many times I've seen a dolphin herd redfish or sea trout into shallow water, then, with a swoop of the tail, send the lot of them up onto a mud flat. The dolphin will then semi-beach itself, eat what it wants, and swim off leaving the rest of the fish, the majority of them, lying on the mud. Intelligent? Maybe. But not ecologically minded. Not at all.

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  • 18

    Interview: 2001

    Rochelle O'Gorman

    Fantasy writer Robert Jordan recently published Winter's Heart, his ninth book in the Wheel of Time series. The Publishing Mills (in a joint effort with Books On Tape) released an unabridged audiobook version read by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading. Though Books on Tape has released his books in their entirety for the rental and library markets, his novels have only been available in an abridged format for the retail market.

    A highly decorated war hero, Jordan served two tours of duty in Vietnam. He is married to Tor Books executive editor Harriet McDougal. The couple lives in Charleston, South Carolina.

    Jordan said he works hard to complete his massive books, writing eight hours a day, six or seven days a week. An eclectic reader, he said he likes to relax by fly-fishing. The author spoke to Rochelle O'Gorman at the beginning of December, while he was on book tour.

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  • 19

    Interview: Dec 5th, 2000

    Robert Jordan

    Another question followed about the number of books. Same answer.

    He said that he writes about 8 hours a day 6 days a week when he is not on tour. He said something about when he was fishing, unless he was fly-fishing or was on the boat really having to work at it, he felt like he should be home writing.

    He then answered a question about living in Charleston; about how it was his favorite place to live out of the half dozen or so cities he felt that he would like to live in.

    He said that for this book it took two months from the time he handed in the final manuscript until he went on tour.

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  • 20

    Interview: May 15th, 2003

    Dario Olivero

    You are an extraordinarily prolific writer and have recently surpassed the standing of a giant like Stephen King. Do you work as much as him and so methodically as to touch upon obsession?

    Robert Jordan

    My method is very simple: I read the newspaper at breakfast, I go to my desk, replying to e-mails to which I must answer and ignore the rest. I begin to write and go on for seven or eight hours. If I remember lunch, otherwise straight through. Seven days a week. But I must say that if I want to go fishing, I drop everything and go.

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