Chicago Q&A + Signing Report

[Blackharp]

Hello everyone!

The event is still going on and I'll make a much more detailed report later on after it ends, but here is the quick and dirty.

272 tickets were given out up to the point of Brandon, Harriet, and Maria coming out to talk.

Instead of a reading, Brandon, Harriet, and Maria

did a Q&A session. Video for this will be linked later (probably tomorrow).

While waiting for your turn to join the signing line, the team did trivia questions from WoT. The prizes were the AMOL Messenger bag, IPhone case, and The Way of Kings. They handed out 5 bags for our group, and 5 for the previous group. So I they keep up the pattern there should have been about 25-30 bags handed out as trivia prizes.

And I am now standing in line waiting for the signing, ticket #145! Video and pictures of the event to be added later.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Cool! Good luck!

[Lamguin]

I was, sadly, not called on to ask a question during the official Q & A, so while getting my books signed, I asked Brandon:

Hoid is regularly around when important events take place. How does he know where to go?

His answer:

He uses Feruchemy. Part of it that will show up in later books.

I also asked:

During book 6 or 7, I forget which, one of the supergirls did a need walk in tel'aran'rhiod to find something to do with The One Power that would help Rand. The end result of this was them discovering The Bowl of the Winds. First, though, she went to the Objects of Power storeroom of the White Tower. What was the thing in the tower?

He passed the question to Maria, who didn't know. I asked if it was The Horn of Valere. He said he wasn't sure, but he always thought it was The Horn.

Apologies if any of this has already been asked and answered elsewhere. Again, I didn't get to ask during the proper Q & A, so I wanted to make sure it was documented.

[Blackharp]

Thanks for adding that in Lamguin! I also have notes and pictures from the event that I will be putting up tomorrow/later today. I'm staying at a friends house and don't have access to my computer. I need to edit out the part from the Q&A video I took where the guy asked about characters dying and name dropped >.<

[Windrunner]

I was, sadly, not called on to ask a question during the official Q & A, so while getting my books signed, I asked Brandon:

Hoid is regularly around when important events take place. How does he know where to go?

His answer:

He uses Feruchemy. Part of it that will show up in later books.

Well holy REDACTED that's exciting. I'd say this is the biggest Hoid reveal since we found out that he has metal he shouldn't have. Pretty awesome hint at a potential god-metal alloy ability? Thank you both, Lamguin and Blackharp!

[Nepene]

I was, sadly, not called on to ask a question during the official Q & A, so while getting my books signed, I asked Brandon:

Hoid is regularly around when important events take place. How does he know where to go?

His answer:

He uses Feruchemy. Part of it that will show up in later books.

Thank you for finding this out.

We suspected he may have this power, but never knew for sure.

I wonder how he knows the future. Perhaps there is an atium alloy that lets you store destiny? It has been stated that the atium alloys have temporal properties and Hoid could easily acquire some atium.

Edit. Gold stores health. Malatium stores your time health. Maybe... an aluminium alloy, your time identity?

Edited January 10, 2013 by Nepene

[Kurkistan]

Yes, Feruchemy is a big reveal. Good work there Lamguin.

It's kind of odd, though, since Hoid would presumably have burned an alloy of Atium and Lerasium to become a Feruchemist. That's all fine and dandy, but it leaves him with at least 4 timely appearances that happened before he could become a Feruchemist (Elantris, TES, first two Mistborn books). Unless he got a spike or raided the Well of Ascension way back the first time it was used?

As for what Feruchemical power he could use, the most likely (known) power is Chromium (luck), since we know from the RPG that it works on a fairly cosmic level. Depending on how exactly Luck functions, he could just be surging massive amounts and throwing darts at a "map" to find out where/when to go next.

On a less theoretical level, it's possible to read "[p]art of it that will show up in later books" as Hoid using Feruchemy in an SA book, since Brandon is usually a bit hesitant to reveal details about books that aren't even on the horizon yet, ala his (way future) planned Cosmere book. So, on the level of pure Awesome, we may see Hoid Hulk-out or float like a butterfly or something else Feruchemically awesome (astounding audiences everywhere on Roshar) relatively soon.

Edited January 10, 2013 by Kurkistan

[Phantom Monstrosity]

Well holy REDACTED that's exciting. I'd say this is the biggest Hoid reveal since we found out that he has metal he shouldn't have. Pretty awesome hint at a potential god-metal alloy ability? Thank you both, Lamguin and Blackharp!

I guess maybe luck could work... but there's this from the alloy of law Q&A

Question: How does Hoid know where to go when?

Alright, who does not know who Hoid is? If you want to know about Hoid, the 17th Shard, which is the official fansite for my works, has some great information about him. There is a character who showed up in Elantris, who showed up in Mistborn, who showed up in Warbreaker, who showed up in Way of Kings. All with the same name, the same person. So there’s lots of theorizing about it. How does he know? He has his ways! (general groans) So a little bit more? Just a little bit more? He may be capable of a little bit of foreseeing of certain events, not what’s going to happen, but he may need ot be in a certain place in a certain time.

So... I'm not sure if luck quite fits the bill. I'm thinking an alloy of atium and chromium, maybe?

Alternatively, there have been hints that you can use feruchemy to enhance allomancy and do reverse-compounding... maybe you can use it to remove the requirement for a metal entirely (somehow?), or create some sort of bargain-bin atium-like effect?

Edited January 10, 2013 by Phantom Monstrosity

[dyring]

Who sais he used the lerasium he(almost certainly) picked up himself?

We know from the letter he very likely knew Ati and Leras before they picked up shards, and liked both(before Ati got corrupted by his shard). If they were friendly, well, if you ended up becoming a god of sorts, and someone you respected who helped you way back showed up...

Well, Sazed made Spook a mistborn. Why couldent Ati and/or Leras have made their friend Hoid a feruchemist back then? They were still very influenced by their humanity that early, perhaps a small tendency to boast? Look at this cool magic we´we made! way cooler then your lightweaving, here, test it!

Just a possibility.

Edited January 10, 2013 by dyring

[Blackharp]

Right then, report time!

So this book signing was a much needed relief for me. I haven't read any is Sanderson's WoT books, but I own every other book he has done (except for Alcatraz). So when I heard he was coming to Chicago, I was extremely excited!

After finishing the move to my new apartment around 3 PM, I decided to forgoe the unpacking and headed off to Skokie, IL! Took the public transport system to get to the Barnes and Noble and arrived around 5:05. I picked up my copy of AMOL (and ticket #145) and headed down to the Q&A area.

In the area there were about 40-50 folding chairs, with the first few rows being reserved for the first 25 ticket holders. Upon my arrival most of the seats were taken and a decent number of people standing around. I was lucky enough to snag a seat off to the side and one row behind the reserved section. For the next hour people continued to filter in and there was much excitement as Harriet and Maria were spotted up on the balcony level overlooking the Q&A section before they went in back to wait for Brandon.

At 6:32 Brandon entered the store through the main doors and was immediately greeted by applause and cheers. He quickly disappeared to the back of the store after shaking some hands and making a joke.

As of 6:45 there had been around 242 tickets handed out to participants, and then at 7:10, when Brandon came out to the podium with Harriet and Maria there were 271 tickets handed out.

At 7:10 Brandon, Harriet, and Maria were announced and the fun began! We were in for a surprise as Brandon announced that instead of a reading, the three of them were going to do a surprise Q&A session for us instead!

I did my best to record the entire section (sorry if my phone was in anyone's way! I tried to keep it low!), but about 2/3rds of the way through I got a call, followed by multiple texts, which made my phone stop recording. So there were two questions asked that didn't get recorded. My phone also ran out of memory at the very end of the session as well, so the tail end of his last answer gets cut off. Sorry! The links to the video and pictures are all below! Sorry for the shakiness! After a long day of moving boxes my arms were tired!

One of the questions that I didn't get recorded, was for Harriet asking how she picked Brandon to continue her husband's work. And I missed the other question.

After the Q&A session the Barnes &Noble team split everyone up into groups of 100 and then worked their way through each group in amounts of 25. While you waited though the Memory Keepers did a raffle trivia for each group of 100. The prizes were the AMOL messenger bag that had an AMOL iPhone case, and an unsigned paperback TWOK. By the end of the event they had given out 20 of these prize kits.

Now then, on to the signing! The lines moved extremely quickly as te first time through it was ONLY signatures and no personalizations. If you wanted something personalized you had to get back into the end of the line after your first go-through. The entire first line had about 300 tickets/people in total, and Brandon, Harriet, and Maria blew through them in about an hour-hour and a half.

Harriet and Maria then ended up leaving early (around 9:45) while Brandon stayed to do personalizations. I was lucky enough to snag one of the B&N Special Event posters and got all three of them to sign it before they left though!

I had 4 books that I needed signed: AMOL, TWOK, Misborn, and the Mistborn RPG. I was extremely excited because Sanderson commented that I was the only Mistborn RPG that he has signed so far on this tour. Made my night! He also added a very special personalization to my RPG book (see pictures below).

As for questions I asked him:

Q: In Mistborn, why is it that an allowancer either has just one metal, or is Mistborn and has ALL? Why aren't there any that have just two, or three?

A: Originally he had planned so that people would only have one metal, period. No mistborns. And then as he went along with the writing he liked this idea, but he really wanted to make some more powerful allomancers, which is why he created the Mistborn. He did say though that if you are playing the RPG, you are more than welcome to have an allomancer that can burn two metals without Hemalurgy.

Q2: When will the will the Alloy of Law gaming supplemental be released?

A2: The supplemental was originally slotted to be released this spring/summer but crafty games is a little behind schedule on it. Just keep your eyes open for more news on the websites!

And now for the promised pictures and videos!

Enjoy! And if you have any questions, just ask!

~ Ted Pick a.k.a Blackharp

[Blackharp]

Videos:

Part One:

Part Two:

[Blackharp]

Videos:

Part Three:

Pictures:

https://m.facebook.com/?refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F&_rdr#!/Tpickjr?v=photos&cps&album=a.567740408196.2023650.168500102&ref=bookmark&__user=0

[dyring]

Great job:)

One little thing thou.. could you perhaps write out that personalization you spoke of... since if you like me havent fallen into the hellish addiction of facebook you cant watch them pics.;/

[Kurkistan]

Great job:)

One little thing thou.. could you perhaps write out that personalization you spoke of... since if you like me havent fallen into the hellish addiction of facebook you cant watch them pics.;/

"The owner of this book may have a two metal Allomancer!"

[Windrunner]

Yeah I strongly think it's not chromium he's using, luck and this precognition seem very separate to me.

[Blackharp]

The personalization for my book is what Kurkistan said. I posted a couple of non-Facebook links in my topic in the Mistborn board.

Sorry for the Facebook link for you non-Facebook people! I'll try to get all of the pictures up on an image hosting site wen I get home tonight and have access to my computer.

[Nepene]

Yes, Feruchemy is a big reveal. Good work there Lamguin.

It's kind of odd, though, since Hoid would presumably have burned an alloy of Atium and Lerasium to become a Feruchemist. That's all fine and dandy, but it leaves him with at least 4 timely appearances that happened before he could become a Feruchemist (Elantris, TES, first two Mistborn books). Unless he got a spike or raided the Well of Ascension way back the first time it was used?

As for what Feruchemical power he could use, the most likely (known) power is Chromium (luck), since we know from the RPG that it works on a fairly cosmic level. Depending on how exactly Luck functions, he could just be surging massive amounts and throwing darts at a "map" to find out where/when to go next.

There is the Worldbringers, the Terris group that was maybe founded by Hoid like the Worldsingers in Roshar. He may have caught some feruchemy from shardic radiation back then. He could just be using the lerasium for its feruchemical properties which presumably would be immense and powerful given that it is a god metal.

Yeah, maybe Chromium.

[Voidus]

I have this feeling that Investiture is involved somehow, I'd say he supercharged an Atium burn but then he'd need Allomancy as well.

[Phantom Monstrosity]

I have this feeling that Investiture is involved somehow, I'd say he supercharged an Atium burn but then he'd need Allomancy as well.

The problem is, the quote from the alloy of law signing implies that it's a lot more vague than the type of future seeing atium provides.

[Terez]

I put both of these reports in the database, and I also transcribed the Q&A from my friend Marie's recording.

Blackharp's report

Lamguin's report

Q&A transcript