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Poland - Warsaw and Krakow events 18/21 March


Extesian

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 I thought I'd start an event thread for the two events in Poland Brandon is doing in a few weeks. First is in Warsaw 18 March at 12pm at the Empik Junior BookstoreUl. Marszałkowska 116 / 122, Warsaw, Poland.

Second in beautiful Krakow at 5pm on the 21 March, at Empik Bonarka Bookstore, Ul. Kamieńskiego 11, Kraków, Poland.

Both have a reading, Q&A and signing and given the wealth of information in recent events there could be some good stuff. Also I'm guessing as there are probably fewer Sharders in Poland (though I know of a few) there may be the chance for more detailed questions.

I'm happy to do transcriptions if anyone is lucky enough to be attending and records either event.  

edit: I've just been informed that the Krakow signing is now at 5pm today (21 March)

Edit - a completed transcript of the Krakow signing is here and the audio kindly supplied by @swieczq is here for anyone who wants to listen to the original. There are some parts where the audio was too unclear to be sure. All the relevant WoBs should be done though a few other questions are briefly summarized and time stamped on case you want to check the audio or update.

Below is also the transcript, spoilered for size. This post will be updated when the Krakow ones are finalized.

Spoiler

Brandon Signing, Krakow, 21 March 2017

Signing line

4 mins

Q: Are you planning to work on any more graphic novels?

A: There will be two more in the series and if people really like it we’ll do others.

 

10 mins

Q:Any chance of any new WoT materials?

A: Not likely (can’t make it out) It's up to Harriet. I'm worried that he wouldn't want us to do anymore

Q:(Can't make it out)

A:And so, I have told her that I don't think I would want to do anymore, but if Harriet came out and said "I really feel we should do the prequels", then they could happen, I think it's very unlikely, but...

Q: The prequels were (?) by Jordan?

A:Yes, he did, he has a little bit about them, not very much but a little bit. He did want them to come out sometime, so it’s possible.

 

 

13 mins

Q:I wanted to ask, is the shardbearer of Odium a human?

A: Not any longer.

Q:Ok, that's... I didn't expect that one

A: But what the answer to your question you really want to know is, was he originally human?

Q:yeah

A:Yes. That's a good question!

 

20 min

#brandonsfavorites
Q: What’s your favourite kind of music?

A: I would say… in the end of the day… epic orchestra.

 

33 mins

Q:What’s the allomantic symbol for the metal that comes from Trell?

A: (Laugh) Ooooh, Isaac knows, but it hasn’t been revealed yet, so you get a RAFO, I don’t have any more cards, but R A F O (probably he has written it), good question!

35 mins

Q: Is Hoid a sliver?

A: A sliver, no he’s not, good question. See, the problem is, “sliver” is really difficult to define, because it has variety of meanings, but I would not call him one. So that’s… It’s arguable, but I would say no.

37mins

Q: What are the skycolors referred to in White Sand?

A: RAFO

41mins

Q:So first, about Trell…He was first mentioned in the first Mistborn book. Did you already know he’ll have a bigger role in the future? (unintelligible, seems to ask about whether he knew the plans for Trell when writing original Mistborn); The guy that asked that question is in or facebook group so I checked it with his post.

A: When I actually was writing Mistborn, no, by the time I’d done revisions and finished the series, then I knew. Mistborn was very exploratory, the first book, once I finished it then I build the outline to fit it, it’s very common to me that I write a first book without an outline and then I build an outline around it.

(unintelligible) Something about Trell’s brother

A: So there’s something very weird happening with Trell, very very weird, that I’m not going to explain quite yet, so that’s a RAFO.

#generalquestions
Q: In Patrick Rothfuss’ the Name of the Wind there’s Sympathy that resembles Awakening. Was that your inspiration?

A: We actually were writing at the same time. We both were interested in the same things… No, no, he wrote his first, but I haven’t read it until I’ve written Warbreaker, but his was first. We were both interested in the same concepts… umm… I think it’s a really great magic system. (...) I wrote Warbreaker in 2006.

Q: Oh, because I checked the release date, and yours was 2009 and his was 2007.

A: Yup, But I wrote in 2006 on my honeymoon, actually. But yeah, his magic is really cool, I like it, it is a good job, I like how it’s hard magic and a soft magic.

 

45 mins

#branodsfavorites
Q:Do you have any pets? 
A: Yes, I have a cat. Though this cat… My son found in a field (?) It was living by itself and my son, who was 3 years old, adopted it. So it’s not MY cat. 
(few minutes later another person asked if he liked cats)
A:Yes, I have a cat, his name is Pinecone.

 

Q:(seems to ask how the metals for mistborn were chosen, random , or was there something behind it)I was thinking, was there (...) random or was something behind it?

A: I wanted the metals that had an alloy, that was commonly used and is easily accessible to people in a pre-industrial society

Q:(?) [there is something about “copper” ?][a](When they go and discover more contents of the periodic table, is there a chance they’ll discover (?...))

A:There is a chance, yes.

...

1 hour –

Q&A

1.03

Ok so this is the first one on White Sand. Why did this text become the basis for a graphic novel and how is the work going on converting White Sand into a graphic novel

So White Sand was the very first book I ever wrote, or at least a bad version of White Sand. I started it in 1994 and it was terrible. But I liked some of the ideas so years later I gave it another try. And it became my 7th or 8th book (White Sand or Dragonsteel). And it was much better but still not quite where I wanted it to be. So I never ended up publishing it. When a comic book company in America came to me and asked if I was interested in doing a comic book, it sprung to mind. Because they wanted to do an adaptation of one of my books except I didn’t want to do one that was already published, I wanted to do something that was new. It was just too long, it needed an edit and I’ve always felt that White Sand was close to being good enough, it was just too long, it needed an edit. Sot the primary process for adapting it with Rick, who is a UK graphic novel writer involved him taking my text and cutting it way down to just the dialogue and the actions. And he did a fantastic job, we’re very pleased with that, but he did most of the work on that.

1.06 – games/movies etc

1.09 – legion as a character

1.12 – questions from audience

(Something about future book for world from Shadows for Silence)

So this is one of my novellas called Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell, I’m planning one novel but we’ll have to fit it into my schedule, I have lots of things to do.

1.17 he wrote a scene involving a Ryshadium horse

1.19 books he recommends are Pratchett, Anne McCaffrey and Name of the Wind, Wheel of time for experienced fantasy readers

If Hoid swallowed duraluminum would anything happen?

Um…yes!

Is that the end of your answer?

Yes that’s the end of my answer.

1.28 –

second signing

1.33

Q: Would tapping connection increase steel sight?

A: No, probably not, there are arrangements that could make that happen but just tapping it, no.

Q: What if a Connector tried to store his connection from the time of birth? Because I understand that’s how spiritual age works.

A: Right, Connection to his time of birth. I’m not sure exactly how he would manage that. Yeah I don’t think that would work, I’m not sure how you would manage it. There are other ways to make, you’re along the right path, but that’s not exactly what, the terminology just isn’t working right there.

Q: By the way Shadows of Self was my favourite.

A: Actually I think the weakest Mistborn book was Alloy of Law but I think Shadows of Self and Bands of Mourning are among the strongest.

...

1.57

Q: I wonder, if original shardholder was (another?...) not from...

A: Not human or...?

Q: Human, but not from Yolen

A: So... no, everybody was from Yolen

Q: Sapience was..?

A: Not all human, but all from Yolen.

 

2:04 
#brandonsfavorites
Q:What’s your favourite game?
A:Probably Dark Souls, I really like those.

 

2.06

Q: Could You tell me something about Cosmere, that we don't know?

A: Oooh boy, that is so hard, people ask this all the time and I get running out of things, hmm... There are shards whose shardpools are not on a planet they currently inhabit. At least one.

2:07

Q:How do you come up with these brilliant names? 
A: I do the language first, and then I do names hat fit. There’s no science to it, just intuition.

 

2:09

Q:(what it depends on for different orders to get different powers)

A:Which of the orders?

Q: Of the abilities in Roshar

A: Oh, the abilities of the Knights Radiant?

Q: yes

A:So, this depends on which spren (you obtain?). Each spren can give two of the abilities, and they're slightly different for each order.

Q:(If you could choose one, which one would it be?)

A:Probably windrunners, cause I would want to fly.

 

2.22

Q: So did Vivienna become a worldhopper?

A: Keep your eyes open, you might see some more Vivenna in the near future.

2.25

Q: I have a question about Wayne, are his skills of taking another personality,is it his trait, or something magical?

A: It is not magical, he’s just really good at it.

2.26

Q: Do you have any idea when you’ll finish this series?

A: So there’ll be two five-book groups, first five should be out fairly soon. But then there’ll be a break while I write something else and then i’ll come back to the back five, so i’m not sure, but the first five will have their own arc.

2.27

Q: Is next Elantris any closer plans?

A: Not really unfortunately, I just have to get as much stormlight done as I can, before I can do other things. It’s still probably after stormlight five.

2.29

Q: Are You planning to resurrect Kelsier?

A: How far have You read in this book?

Q: I’ve read it all

A: Well, it depends on what you count a cognitive shadow. So resurrect… noo… but…

Q: There was this quote about the kite that was without a string.

A: Yes, he’s looking for a string. He’s indeed looking for a string, so what’s actually going to happen is RAFO.[c]

2.45

Q: Will Dalinar punish Adolin for killing Sadeas?

A: He doesn’t know. Nobody knows… If he knew, he’d probably will.

2.49

Q: Can parshendi bond with honorspren? (unclear follow-up, something about Honor and Cultivation)

A: They (honorspren?) would have to choose, it has never happened before. On Roshar they would say it’s impossible. That doesn’t mean it actually is.

 

Q: If I spoke the words (unclear, probably asked if he would bond with a spren)

A: If you spoke the words it would depend on the spren to choose, but I think so!

Q: Can I try?

*Anna Studniarek giggles*

A: Sure, go for it!

Q: Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination

[AS]: *still giggles* So just waiting for the spren to appear.

BS: *100% serious* Words are accepted.

 

2.56

Q: In mistborn, Ruin could talk to you when you were spiked, and Preservation could hear you. Do other shards have different abilities?

A: It varies, but yes. But that was related to the way they created people.

2.57

Q: Do you plan to kill Shallan and do you think she’s an awful person?

A: I do not think she’s an awful person, because she is a person, who has done the best she can in some very bad situations and we will see what happens, i can’t tell you whether or not she will live.

2.58

Q: Have you ever created a character, that you will then thought is too powerful?

A: No, I never had that problem, I have written my characters in a problems that it was hard to get them out of. But usually i get together my friends and I brainstorm, and so far so good, but no, I have never got into that specific problem yet, cause everybody has a weakness.

 3.00 

#brandonsfavorites

Q: When you play D&D who is the game master?
A: Me.
Q: Always?
A: Almost always. There were times when I haven’t been GM, mostly so I can play some weird wizards. 
Q: So do you spend a lot of the time on sessions? 
A: I did, but I don’t any more because I dont have the time.

3.04

Q:[d] Vasher is Zahel in Stormlight Archive
A: MHM
Q: Will we … Will we find (???) for? (I swear I hear “die for” xD)
A: That’s a RAFO

3.08 (puppies/plushies? We thought about it, but it’s so hard to do)

 

3.18

Q: Will we see the second part of Warbreaker?

A: Some day. I can’t promise when, it will be a side project, but it will happen.

3.24 – question about favourite character, admitted it’s probably Dalinar

3.29

Q: Will we see Lift in Oathbringer?

A: You’ll see some of her but little glimpses, we’ll see more of her from book 6 onwards but a little in Oathbringer and it’s a riot, very fun.

 

3.39

Q: Is it possible to bring Adonalsium together and is it the reason the IRE was on Scadrial?

A: RAFO. There are people who think it is possible and people who think it is impossible. It’s one of the big questions of the series.

After-event Q&A

3.46

Q: You told me when we were interviewing you on Friday, you told us to tell the 17th Shard how the Cosmere ends…

A: And I totally did, right. The answer is it ends well (more discussion and general laughter about Oversleep breaking our minds followed).

Q: Does the titles of the five books from the first archive, do they create a ketek?

A: No. I actually considered it but it’s just too confusing so I actually tossed that out before I even started the first book. But I did consider it. It just was too confusing.

---

Q: Is gravity a physical aspect of your spiritual bond connecting objects to the planet?

A: Gravity, like all laws of physics in the cosmere, works like it does here with an additional aspect in that mass and energy can become investiture. So while you are Connected to the planet gravity is not a manifestation of that. Investiture can override it because energy, mass investiture are all the same thing.

Q: So can Connectors alter it, store it?

A: RAFO. I’m going to RAFO everything like that.

3.47

Q: Did Hoid use the bead of lerasium to rewrite his spiritual DNA in a way to give him something other than allomantic powers?

A: His goal was to become an allomancer.

Q: Yeah and did he use it to create other powers?

A: It could not give powers other than allomancy.

Q: Because it’s lerasium?

A: Yes.

Q: So he did burn it and become a Mistborn?

A: Well you have seen him use allomancy…

Q: It’s creating a lot of confusion.

A: You have actually seen him use allomancy.

[Important discussion about Brandon donating his brain to the science]

3.48

Q: Can spren be pierced by hemalurgic spikes? Will it give some effect?

A: Yes. A spren can be pierced by invested metal…

Q: Could it be spiked?

A: Could a spike be used to give abilities to spren? That’s not going to work really well.

Q: Could you steal from a spren?

A: Yes you could steal the investiture of a spren. Any investiture can be used in a spike if you know what you’re doing. It’s actually not that hard to use one on a spren.

Q: Because I thought you said hemalurgy needs moving blood.

A: It needs, uh, yeah…there are places where spren have more physical form, more tangible form.

Q: The Cognitive Realm?

A: Yeah if you go to the Cognitive Realm on Roshar the spren act differently.

Q: So you could spike in the cognitive realm?

A: Yeah I’ll leave a RAFO with you on that. That’s your fifth one. So there are ways to get any investiture into hemalurgy if you know what you’re doing. But yeah this is not something that would be a common use for hemalurgy. Let’s just say that.

Q: We do not concern ourselves with common uses.

A: Yeah I know you don’t. But yeah hemalurgy, when you’re spiking into somebody you…you’ll see when we get around to it.

Q: I know it’s a RAFO but, are the Ones Above Scadrials?

A: RAFO

Q: I just wanted to make sure.

3.50

Q: Would someone with enough knowledge be able to use Autonomy’s investiture if Taldain’s star could be seen from his world?

A: Ok so I’m on a world and I see Taldain’s star, are you asking if someone could use the investiture? Oh ok I see. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. That’s good! You stumped me. I haven’t gotten that question before. I would say yes, if the light particles are reaching you. I mean technically you could use the light from one of those stars to power a solar sail so…

3.51

Q: Could a feruchemist hide from life sense by storing and which metals?

A: So lifesense on Nalthis, someone storing, what was it, investiture? Could they hide from Lifesense? Um, yeah that would work.

Q: And which metals would they need to store, investiture, connection…

A: That would probably be investiture, that’s theoretically plausible, hiding your entire sense, a little bit easier with a copper cloud, which is how you would normally go about it,[e] but you could make your investiture vanish to the point that…yeah I think that’s theoretically possible.

Q: So life sense works on Connection?

A: Life sense works by sensing…life, so it’s not necessarily just Connection because you can go off-world from Nalthis and still sense the life to which you are not Connected.

Edit - here's the q&a from Warsaw

Spoiler

Q: How is it, that man who created character who posses not only his own personality but many others, how did he create that personalities? How many aspects, author of this character with many aspects, has himself?

A: Ooh! Good question! So, Legion is a lot of fun and it's very weird. What happened is I really do think as a writer, I have all these weird voices in my head who are telling me to do different things.

One day I was talking to a friend of mine who writes a lot of psychological horror and I was talking about schizophrenia and I said "Hey, what if all those voices helped you out instead of drove you crazy?" and he said "This doesn't sound like a horror story. That sounds like a fantasy story, you should write that." So I did.

 

Q: When did you have most fun writing Legion? Was it when you created new characters, aspects, or creating new fabular twists or maybe some crazy paradoxes like hallucination with its own hallucinations?

A: Right, so the most fun for Legion... I don't know if I can say specifically what was the most fun, there were a lot of things which I'll go into. One thing that was really fun to me was this idea of coming up with a detective who was themselves more of a middle manager than a hero. A lot of detectives or people are these action stars, these Tom Cruise types and I instead wanted this guy to just be a manager who kept all these other crazy hallucinations targeted on the right thing. But I also wanted the Legion stories to have some sort of science fiction element to them. Because I always point out: "Why not have some sci fi or fantasy?" They always make a story better to me. So I’d say the idea that first made me want to write the Legion story was the idea of camera that can take pictures in the past.

 

Q: What would happen if an Allomancer burned Awakened metal? (laughter)

A: [(laughs) We start right with the really hard ones. It would be very difficult to do and other than that it's going to depend on who the Breaths are keyed to with Identity. I feel so sorry for Anna, you're gonna have to translate some very difficult things.

 

Q: In Emperor’s Soul Forgery lets one to change his own soul and basically create new past for himself, become another person. Does on Scadrial burning gold in controlled way would produce similar effect?

A: Heh, wow, you guys are good. So they are similar but different. I would say that no, gold is not gonna do this exact thing, they're working from the same fundamental roots but gold is a lot more bounded in way what it can accomplish .

 

Q: If Hemalurgy can be used to transfer Investiture regardless of the planet, is someone gathering pieces of different Investitures the way Hoid for example got lerasium bead.

A:  Yes. 
So let me say on this, there might be some people here who are hearing this questions and going "whaaaaat?". So for those who don't know, all of my epic fantasy books are connected, you do not need to know any of this stuff to enjoy the books but if you are super nerd like we are, you can dig very deeply into the Cosmere which is the shared universe and there is a lot to learn, don't feel overwhelmed, you can just ignore it if you want.

 

Q: If someone not from Roshar spoke Immortal Words, for example a kandra, can he become a Knight?

A: So becoming a Knight Radiant is up the spren, right. [SPOILERS!] Saying the Ideals, swearing the Oaths, this are all things you have to do to convince a piece of sapient Investiture that you deserve it and that's the main thing.

Q: And kandra?

A: So the kandra would have to lots of fast talking and there are a few more difficulties involved but this is theoretically possible. For instance taking some pieces of Investiture offworld are difficult.

 

Q: Can an Allomancer burn metal which wasn’t created on Scadrial?

A: Yes.

 

Q: Do Cognitive Shadows not from Threnody must be afraid of silver too?

A: RAFO.

So for those who don’t know, Robert Jordan had this phrase he liked to use, and I felt bad telling people that so I printed off cards I could give them. Makes me feel a little bit better.

 

Q:Can you use Allomancy in Cognitive Realm?

A: Yes, you can.

 

Oversleep: Ok so if we spiked a Listener with a Feruchemical Nicrosil, could he store the spren and loose their form and then bond another spren and then switch them?

A: RAFO. In part because I don't wanna give spoilers for Oathbringer and this answer could spoil some little bits.

Just let me point out, you don't have to ask questions like this. It's OK ask to questions like this, but you don't have to.

 

Q: With genre becoming more mainstream with Game of Throne or American Gods which of your series (including Wheel of Time) would you like to see converted to cinema screen?

A: Its good question, I’m glad you asked it; a lot of people wonder the answer for this one, it will prevent me from answering it 7 or 70 times going through this line. As the basis for the question we sold the rights to almost everything. Holywood is very good at buying properties and very bad at actually doing anything with them. I sold Mistborn for the first time in like 2006. We are now on third company who had bought rights to Mistborn , but if I could pick anything I would have The Stormlight done as Netflix Original Series. So if your uncles are the Duffer brothers, have them call me. I should say that The Stormlight is currently in development as feature film, the screenplay has been turn in and it’s like yuuuge. So we will see if it can be cut down to feature length, if it can't we will explore tv series [???], but people who bought it want to try to make feature film.

 

Q: Are there in Cosmere any gas giants inhabited by people or others sentient beings?

A: Actually on the gas giants? (Yes or in their atmosphere) In actually atmosphere of gas giants? I do not have any currently planned. There are gas giants with satellites.

 

Q: How was it to do Wheel of Time, to finish such a giant?

A: It was scary. For those who don’t know the story, I did not apply to finish the Wheel of Time, I got phone call out of the blue one day from Robert Jordan's widow and what she said was exactly, I got her on the phone and she said  "I was wondering if you will be willing to finish my husband series". I was not expecting this at all so I replied "arrrgggahhhhh" , no seriously, I could barely speak, that night I wrote her email that said "Dear Harriet I promise I'm not an idiot". I was just so surprised, but I was also extremely honored. She asked me because she knew that I’ve read all the books since I was young man and I had this moment when I realized, if I screw this up it is a big deal! but if I turn it down and someone else screws it up, it’s a bigger deal, so I said yes because I figured that if he couldn’t do it I at last wanted it in hands of someone I knew, cared .

 

Q: Is Khriss on Roshar during Stormlight Archive?

A: Khriss is aaaa, RAFO.

Q: I follow up: does it mean she is is Shadesmar?

A: There is some trickiness in answering that.

 

Q: Ok so I didn’t read all yours books but judging by books I've read that married couple is particularly important to you, is it true?

A: Yes I would say. It is in part because I think that stories ignore family a little too much. . Too often I feel that stories that I read either ignore the family by making someone just an orphan with no family or ending the story when the hard stuff starts, such as being a couple.

Q: What that has to do with Legion?

A: Oh Stephen Leeds has a very, very large family, he just makes most of them up.

 

Q: So, I wanted to ask you what did you have for breakfast, but I guess my real question is if you have chance to see anything in Poland and how are you enjoying it so far?

A: So I ate breakfast at my hotel, I can't pronounce any of the food I ate, I'm being serious, yesterday I did an interview where for fun they had the American try to pronounce Polish words in my case the titles of my books and they filmed it. And it was really, really hard. You have letters I'm not convinced are actually letters but it was very tasty :) So far I have seen of Poland a room where I did interview for about 10 hours and nice serbian restaurant. But my guide is taking me around today to Old Town so today I will so some actually Poland. I should mention that I called my wife yesterday and she said "How is the weather?" and I said "I'm in Poland!" :)

 

Q:  Thank you for finishing The Wheel of Time. How do you think it influenced your writing style, did you adjusted your writing style through Wheel of Time to original writing style of Robert Jordan.

A: What an excellent question. So when I first started working on Wheel of Time, I tried to imitate his voice exactly, and it came off like parody. So instead I back off on trying to imitate every word and instead I tried to match the character voices as best as I could and this ended up working a lot better. I often say that it’s like the same actors but new director. It had huge effect on my writing as well I had to lift heavy weights so to speak and I feel like I came out of The Wheel of Time being much better at juggling a lot of different smaller viewpoints and combining them into the whole

 

Q:  Did you always wanted to be a writer?

A: I hated books when was young! No it’s true, I didn’t like books. In 8th grade I had a teacher whose name was - and this is true - Miss Reader. She assigned me to do a book report and I tried to just read the back of the book and do my book report on that and she caught me and said "No, no, you gotta actually read a book Brandon" and I told her "I hate books" all the books I read are about boys with pet dogs and then the dogs die. Tons of dead dogs all over. And she gave me a fantasy book for the first time. It’s a book called Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly and I read this and I felt absolutely in love and ran back to her and said "People write books about dragons?" and she said "let me introduce you to this place called library" and back then, during the era of dinosaurs when I was young, yeah we had this card catalogs, they listed all the books in library in alphabetical order and just went and picked up next book in line which was Dragon Flight by Anne McCafrey and Annie McCafrey got me super hooked and I read from that point every fantasy book I could find. So when I finally got published I send copy of Elantris to Miss Reader.

Thank you guys so much for coming!

When I was in Portugal for the first time last fall, and I was going to do book signing, the bookstore said “You may not want to do a Q&A, people can be very shy in Portugal, they may not have any questions for you”. And I said “You haven’t met any of my fans, have you? They will have questions

And here's the interview transcript put together by @Oversleep and others!

Spoiler

00:00
DK:  Where the hell in Warbreaker is the Terrisan lady?

<laughter>
BS: Do you have any guesses?
-

BS: Excellent.
DK: The questions we want to ask you… Some of them are weird but we actually managed choose some decent ones and...
BS: Fans can be a little weird.
<laughter>
DK: So, the first question is, so you are finally in Poland.
BS: Yeeeey, finally in Poland.
DK: And you are already know polish culture, maybe a little, you got to meet it and you know inside it's a little bit different that any other culture, actually you get the contact, do you know anything about your position as writer here?
BS: In Poland? All I know is, that the Polish have been the single most persistent at trying to get me to come visit of anyone. I hear more from the polish fans about me coming out than I hear from anyone else. So I knew that I better get here eventually, but that's really all I know about my position in Poland, other than that publisher has some of my favorite covers, like The Mistborn books in particular. Internationally, I think they have some of the best covers. The polish covers are better than the US or the UK covers, which is very, you know usually I like the US best but the polish covers are among of if not single best Mistborn covers.

 

1:42
DK: You are here since yesterday, yes?

BS: Yes.
DK: And how do you find Poland so far?
BS: So far so good. I got in yesterday and I crashed and I got up and I have been doing interviews all day long. Tomorrow actually I will get to see some Poland. It depends if we have rained on or not. If we are rained on we are going to the museum. The Polish Resistance Museum? Uprising, The Polish Uprising Museum, and if not then we are going to go to Downtown, umm, Old Town. So then I will know more Poland. Really the only thing I know, there are few things I know about Poland, one is that you are very persistent about trying to get me here, the other thing is, I was mentioning to my guide that when I was young our local grocer was Polish and we loved to get sausage from him. So how do you say, kiełbasa?
DK: Yes, kiełbasa.
BS: So when I was the kid, we ate polish kiebasa (:D) like once a month or so, my mom would make it and then that grocer went out of business and I never got it again, I was so mad, it was so good.

DK: You should try definitively something like pierogi.
BS: Pierogi? Is that a little dumplings? Yea, he has told me, I’m gonna get dumplings and I’m gonna try your soup too, so apparently there is like the sourdough soup that I’m supposed to try.

3:08
DK: So do you know anything about Polish literature and especially something about fantasy?
BS: Well I know, I can’t say his name (tries to say “Sapkowski”), The Witcher Guy. Everybody knows the Witcher, so I do know at least a little bit of polish literature, I have read some of his work. So I’m a little bit familiar but I wouldn’t say I know it tone more. Like I bet that’s what everyone know. It’s “Oh yea, Poland, The Witcher guy”. 
DK: You should try the game.
BS: Yeah? The Witcher game? I have all three of them, I bought them one in all bundle together so.

3:49
DK: So you said that you liked Polish covers. Is something that you liked the most maybe, we have… <people speaking at once>
BS: I would say that first Mistborn cover is probably favorite of them all.
DK: Yeah, it’s amazing.
BS: But the Wax&Wayne one also, those have really good covers too, so, the whole Mistborn series is great, The Way of Kings is not bad either, but the whole Mistborn series, spectacular covers. We put them in our leather bound. So, I don’t know if you know but I do in English, I do leather bound 10th year anniversary.

4:30
DK: When was the concept of Cosmere, one big Universe that connects all your stories was born? Do you remember the very beginning, the first thought of it?
BS: I can start to talk about this because there is couple of things. I remember being teenager and reading books, and I would always insert my own characters into other writers books. This is the beginnings of Brandon The Writer. So I would read like a Anne McCaffrey book and I would insert my own characters and eventually Hoid started jumping between all books I was reading. And so when I started writing my own books, I started inserting him myself. I blame that, I also blame how Asimov connected Foundation and Robots series, when I read that it kinda blew my mind, and I wanted to do something like that. I knew when I started writing Elantris I was going to do something like this, I wanted to start connecting everything together. I put Hoid into it and stuff like that, but as I’ve gone back through my notes, it was really during the years following that I really designed the Cosmere. Like when I first wrote Elantris I had no idea how I was going connect it all, I just knew I was going to. But like you know Shardpools, I put the pool in and then I’m like “I don’t know what it is”. By the time I got to Mistborn I knew all this stuff and fortunately Mistborn was the first one, the Mistborn I was working on when Elantris sold, so I was able to go back and revise Elantris to make sure it matched everything which was coming for the future. Thought I do have to admit, when I first wrote Elantris a lot of things, I'm like “ Ah this will connect somehow, I’ll put it in, sure”.
DK: And by now, can you say that you already know how Cosmere will end?
BS: I do know how Cosmere will end, yes. I’m an outliner, it could always change, but I have, so you know the core series, Stormlight and Mistborn, and the last book of the Cosmere is the last Mistborn book, which I have an outline for, so we shall see. At least chronologically it’s the last. I don’t know I write a lot and so who knows. Yeah, you know you keeping track of it all, I’m sorry.

 

7:00

DK: Ok, so I’ve got Realmatical questions.
BS: Ok, oh dear.
<laughter>
DK: Simple ones. What happened with the Shard that just drifts in the space, the one that wants to hide and survive?
BS: What about that Shard? They want to hide and survive.

DK: Huh, something more?
BS: I think I will RAFO that for right now.
DK: My first one.
BS: Your first RAFO, you can get a card, are you coming tomorrow?
DK: Oh yeah, I am.
BS: I will give you RAFO card, remind me, ok?
DK: OK.

 

7:34

DK: Another one. In Arcanum Unbounded.
BS: Yes?
DK: Khriss said that Roshar has an unusually high level of oxygen.
BS: Yes.
DK: And where does this oxygen come from?
BS: It’s natural part of their atmosphere. Part of this, there is two answers to this. One answer is - it was created that way because Roshar creation predates Shattering of Adonalsium and a lot of things were set up that way.
The scientific side is, in building the creatures that I was building on Roshar I needed the high oxygen environment, just to make the logistics work and even then I have to like, its high oxygen, low gravity, like 0.7 something Earth gravity. And even then I still have to add magic to get big beasties that I wanted do. Like the greatshells just can not exist square cube law. Even after I tweaked atmosphere and the gravity, the math didn’t work, but fortunately I had the whole spren thing going on. These are both things I was trying do in order to create mega fauna. I’m sorry, is that, did that make sense?

DK: Ok, but is there some high level of production of oxygen, so like, there are no trees but it comes from the oceans?
BS: Yeah, yeah , I mean they got a lot, what you got also remember is, most of Earth's oxygen doesn’t come from our trees, I’m mean it does but it comes from the ocean and things like this. I didn’t have any problem  building this into Roshar because, what we’ve got on Roshar, we’ve got, number one, we got highstorms which are actually really good for plant life when it comes to microflora, right? And beyond that you’ve got, you’ve got weather patterns that are very like, it’s rarely freezing on Roshar. Most people on Roshar have never seen snow. And so, I mean I didn’t find it problem making high oxygen environment work, that was the least of my troubles in building Roshar. I mean most of the planet is ocean anyway.
DK: Some people were curious, just about it.
BS: Yeah, were they? I mean, yea, I mean all you have to do is hit, like really you only have to hit a stasis, right you are creating as much as you are using. Like if you start with high oxygen and you create as much as you use, you stay high oxygen. It doesn’t need to actually be creating higher percentage than our world is creating, as far as I understand it.

10:19
DK: Technological progress. So Scadrial is going all the way to cyberpunk.
BS: Yes.
DK: But do you plan to do it on, anywhere else?
BS: Yes, with an asterisk, right. Roshar has very different technological path but they have access to so much more Investiture in easy to use format. Roshar is really heading toward what we call magic punk or things like this mage punk, where you are using a magical power source and things like this. So their technology is gonna go weird but it's gonna go fast once they start figuring things out because they have easy access to Investiture resources.
Scadrial: slower for various reasons and things like that, but it's ahead.
And then there was Taldain, which was really far ahead but then froze when it got, offworld travel was stopped and became isolationist.
So most everybody is kind of heading that direction but, yeah.

11:39
DK: Question about some encyclopedia of Cosmere, so like Silmarillion, something like that.
BS: Yes, yeah, someday maybe. I don’t promise it . We will see.

11:59
DK: Ok, so next topic maybe.

Few months ago we’ve received great news about some of your books which will be adapted into movies. So what do you think, which one is most likely to get adapted first?

BS: I’ve always thought that Mistborn would be the most likely cause it’s the easiest to translate into a film but the people who bought the rights to the Cosmere bought everything but Mistborn cause Mistborn was owned by someone else. And then they bought Mistborn a year later when it became available. So Mistborn is year behind; the others - Emperor’s Soul and Stormlight - have been going the longest. Stormlight is so hard. Right, we’ve just got the screenplay in and the screenplay is like *does a gesture* you know, it’s like four or five hour movie or something like that. And they’re like “we have to cut this down!” “Yes. Yes, we do”. And that is super hard; and Mistborn is a lot easier to adapt. So I still expect we’ll see Mistborn first but who knows.

[13:00]

DK: Who would you like to be the composer, do the music for your movies? Do you have any idea?

BS: I have never been asked that before! Wow! I have no idea. Right, like I listen to a lot of soundtracks and I like them all but I’m not an expert on this. Michael Kamen was always my favourite. He’s passed away. So we resurrect Michael Kamen and have him do it.

DK: A Lifeless?

BS: What’s that? Yeah, yeah, Michael Kamen the Lifeless.

[13:33]

DK: What about cameos? Do you have some ideas in your mind?

BS: Cameos for me? I want to die in a different way in every movie. As payment for killing off characters. And so I want to be like the Redshirt or whatever, the person who gets killed in a  new creative way. That’s my thought.

[13:56]
DK: Would you like to see your stories adapted into video games?
BS: Yes. I’ve tried a couple of times. So far they haven’t worked out. We had someone working on Mistborn for a long time. Video game industry is hard. But… I mean, there’ve been some really great games made from books so I hope to have one someday.

[14:17]

DK: As we know you’re a human typewriter. You can release books faster than we can read it.

BS: Now you say that but I release like a Stormlight book and I start getting fanmail for it the next day. This took me 18 months to write and then you read it in one day so I don’t know if I’d agree with that. But go on.

DK: You certainly have some free time for, let’s say, reading books. And what books do you like to read? You have some favourite authors? Maybe fantasy genre?

BS: Terry Pratchett is my favorite writer. But I like to read widely. I like to read a little bit of everything. Usually people talk about how fast I write; I’m not that fast a writer. I’m just very consistent. I write a little bit every day. And that adds up to certain amount I can do every year. But I write for 8 to 10 hours a day and spend four hours or so with my family and then spend two hours goofing off. So, goofing off can include listening to an audiobook while I do other things or reading a book or playing video game. So I do find time.

[15:25]

DK: Do you think that writing on high level is a matter of talent or is achieved by hard work?

BS: I have no idea. I would like to think that it’s hard work but I do know that talent plays a part in that as well. I would say it’s 10% talent 90% hard work but if you don’t have that 10% talent it can be really hard. So I don’t know. I feel like I started off really bad at this. And wrote a whole bunch of books and got pretty decent but I also know that I do have some natural talents.

[16:06]

DK: We have one more question and it’s: Where the hell in Warbreaker is the Terris lady?

BS: Do you have any guesses?

DK: Nurses. One of them.

BS: Why’d you guess that?

DK: I don’t know.

BS: That’s a pretty good guess.

DK: They’re the only females apart from main characters who are somehow important… so I guess somewhere there because I don’t think she’s like in the fifth plane somewhere in the back of the alley where someone walks by.

BS: That’s a very good guess. I guess you have narrowed down your options. Um, yeah… um...so… I’m just gonna say that’s a ththth... the… he [me] seems… yeah. So, there you go. I’m surprised.

[17:05]

DK: If you were to choose one of your own worlds to live in, which would that be?

BS: It would definitely be… Does it have to be cosmere? (No.) Because then I could go with one of the cool science-fiction ones and I could have, like, you know, live far away from where everyone is having war and live like in as futuristic society. I think that’s kind of cheating; if I had to pick one of the cosmere worlds I would probably pick Scadrial because it’s the closest to having the Internet and instant noodles.
You’re not supposed to be able to guess who the Terris woman is, by the way.

[17:52]
DK: So we will see her some-
BS: Yes, you will see her somewhere else. Yeah, you’re not supposed to be able to guess. So that’s why I’m surprised that… yeah.

[18:06]

DK: Another question: Sentient machines, artificial intelligence. Would they be able to use Investiture? Or not? How would that work?

BS: Define “use Investiture”. There’s a lot of different ways to “use Investiture”.

DK: OK, I don’t mean the medallions but like if I go and peek into Spiritual Realm and I look at the machine, do I see Investiture inside it, the Connections to the Shards and so on?

BS: Chances are good that you will. But I have to add a big asterisk that it’s gonna depend on so many factors. But consciousness in the cosmere is directly tied to the Investiture and creating a machine in many ways cosmere-logically is not that different from creating a child.

DK: Interesting.

BS: Yes. I’ll just leave it there.

[19:27]

DK: I wanted to ask: will there be some other books concerned with the Wheel of Time maybe?

BS: Chances are not good. I feel that Robert Jordan didn’t want there to be more and I’m not the final decision maker on that - Harriet is - but I’ve mentioned to her that I don’t feel it would be right to continue doing WoT books. So I don’t think it’s likely. If she decides that she wants more that’s certainly not my place to say that she can’t or things. But I don’t think I would write anymore just because I feel like he wanted it to be an ending. If he were still around, he would’ve written more. But I don’t think he would want me to.

[20:16]

DK: If you were choosing - If someone messaged you that they wanted you to end a series that was not ended before, because the author died. Some other author, OK? Would you agree once again to end a series that wasn’t ended?

BS: It would depend on the situation. There are very few authors I have read as much as Robert Jordan and that I felt my style was a good match to. I would have to feel like I was a good match and that I was needed and it’s a job that someone else couldn’t do. I don’t know that I could think of any authors that’s the case for right now. But if I could go back in time and rewrite the prequel Star Wars movies for George Lucas I would do it.

DK: What would you improve in the prequels?

BS: Oh… everything? I don’t know if I would be able to fix it because that’s hubris but I sure would’ve liked a stab at it. You know, as many people.

DK: Couldn’t agree more.

BS: I mean, George Lucas has a lots of talents but the stories do not come together very well for him. I was there opening night; you guys are too young to know what it was to go wait in line overnight and go to the Phantom Menace and be like “hmm…” after waiting so long. If I were continuing anyone else’s legacy I would go back in time to rewrite those scripts when George Lucas wasn’t looking.

[21:52]
DK: Speaking about other movies, do you have your favorites?

BS: Favorite films? Picking favorites is always so hard. In recent years I really liked - I don’t know if it’s my favorite - but I really liked Live.Die.Repeat./Edge of Tomorrow.
DK: The book is better.

BS: The book is better? I really liked that, I really liked Lincoln. I mean, that’s not science-fiction, fantasy but I really like that… Classics, The Fifth Element it’s like my go-to guilty pleasure space opera, I really like that. I’ve really like the movie Gattaca… You guys have never seen Gattaca? Gattaca is good movie. That’s an oldie now but it’s great. It’s a science-fiction. What else I’ve really liked? I like Chris Nolan movies, I like them all.
DK: Inception.
BS: Yeah, Inception would be my favorite, I think. Though I really like The Prestige also. But on that one the book is legitimately better. But Prestige turned out very well.

[23:05]

DK: Who do you think is that we’re way too young to understand? Star Wars but I was thinking… What do you think about the target of your readers?

BS: My target audience? I write primarily for myself as the fan of fantasy genre. I trust my instincts as a reader, I read a lot, I read what other people are doing, and my primary audience is what awesome book is nobody writing that I could write. And so I don't know that I have, I focus too much on that, I think madness lies in that direction, so I do appreciate my readers, I do rub my hands thinking “Uuuuuu they are gonna love this part” but at the end of the day I'm just writing the book I want to read.

 

24:15

DK: Few days ago I was in my family home to take some books for tomorrow's signing and my grandma which was reading “The Way of Kings” couldn't let me because she was somewhere in the middle and she was taken by it.

BS: Excellent, happy to hear that. How many, how many of the older generation in Poland read fantasy novels. 
DK: I don't know, my mom does.
BS: Your mom does ? Your mom is probably my age so yeah 
DK: I think it's more the, it seems so a lot of old generation reads fantasy in Poland, its involving all the time. My parents think these are just fairy tales not worth telling.

BS: Like your mom does? That's ok, my parents were very very scared. They wanted a doctor and I changed to write fantasy novels they were very scared for me. They were like  “What are you doing?”. Now, they don't complain at all.
DK: My grandpa was scared at first too when I gave her Mistborn and she likes it the best I think.
BS: Excellent, I'm happy to hear that. Good job spreading the word to your your grandma.

 

25:48
DK: We have this one bizarre question, that actually was really, really weird but we have to know it. 
There was a question about siamese twins. They were born Gold Feruchemists, and they they were split apart, would they like, form together again?
BS: Aaaa nn, it depends on how they view themselves.

DK: That’s the answer to every question like that!
BS: Right, but that’s the whole point of the Cosmere, it's that Spiritual Realm is filtered through Cognitive Realm to the Physical Realm, right? And this lense is going to filter how things work, perception is really important in the Cosmere. That’s where most of these things come from so, yeah that is the answer to everything. But that's the point of the answer to everything, is that there aren't a lot of hard and fast rules when it comes to a lot of these things, with Identity and whatnot is going be filtered through perception. 
DK: So it is technically possible for them if they are seeing each other as one.
BS: Right.
DK: So...
BS: Now the big hard question is, what if one of them views them as one and one of them doesn’t.
DK: Ohh.
BS: Aaaa! Then it depends on who is using magic.
DK: What if both of them are?
BS: Both of them what? Are gold? If both of them are healing and one doesn’t want to and one does, magic’s gonna cancel each other out and nothing will happen.
DK: OK.
BS: Yea I made your question harder and weirder. 
DK: Well it was very logical answer to very unlogical question.
BS: Yes. I had to answer a lot of these. My feeling is that if I can make the fundamental magic principles work then you can answer those questions rationally but really what you would have to do is even I’m not the expert on these things . Like I’m ultimate word in some ways but in another ways the answer be “I don’t know, let’s have a thought experiment and if it ever comes up, try it out and see what happens”. Yeah there you go, there is my best answer to you.

 

28:10
DK: OK, I’ve got another question about AonDor.
BS: OK.
DK: So it’s a lot like functional programing.

BS: Yes.
DK: And my question is: could you write higher level language of programming with that.
BS: Yes.

DK: Ohhh...
BS: Mhhm but only an Elantrian could make it like work, right? Not compile but could execute the function. They would have to type it out and execute. Like if you were just, even if you just gave it to them, they would have to retype it and go, but yes, you could.
DK: Couldn’t you like, is there an Aon for define, definition? So like you could go and define some really long sequence of Aons and then assign it to simple shape. 
BS: Right.

DK: Then draw the simple and would it work?
BS: Right right, object oriented. This is realistically plausible, you would have to write all this stuff and call the function and have this constantly in the state of Kinetic Investiture, but that is reasonable. I mean it’s not so far off from things they actually did with much fewer, much fewer lines of code if you wish in the past. It’s what Elantris itself was, so yes.

DK: Pretty awesome.
 

29:35 
DK: The last one, a bit of off top, Me and Klaudia - we dream about becoming a fantasy writers.

BS: Good.

DK: I'm sure she's wondering to how does it feel when your first book was published? What did you exactly...

BS: Man, that is so hard to define. Right? I am writer, I should be able to do this but it was amazing. Uhm. It's validation for having spent 20 years trying to learn how to do this - uhm, maybe not 20 - 15 years trying to learn how to do this. In the same time theoretically in some way it is also just to release breath, alright, did happened, it worked, but in the end - you write for yourself. I don't know if you guys have heard the story, I told it before, but I had a really downpoint in my writing career, before I got published.

DK: Yes, 400 copies of Elantris.

BS: See, when I was trying to get published, everyone was telling me: you need to be more like George R.R. Martin, right? They really did. They said that… they also told me that my books are too long. So they've told me these two things: you need to be more like George Martin and your books are too long. They were all looking for Joe Abercrombie. That's who they wanted to find, right. They wanted a short brutal books but Joe is a great writer so there's nothing wrong with that but that's not me and I tried doing that - that's what Final Empire Prime and Mistborn Prime - unpublished novels were. I took some of my ideas and I tried to write something more Joe Abercrombie, Joe haven’t been published then, right. So it was like short, sort of grim dark thing.

And they were terrible. They're absolutely terrible. And so I stepped back and I'm like: okay, nobody wants to read what I'm writing, but if I try to write what they said to write it turnes out to be a terrible book. Uhm? Should I just give up? And I thought about that for a while and I eventually came to decision I'm not writing for them, I'm writing for me. That's the point. And if I die at age 90, let's say age 100, give me 10 more years and I have 150 unpublished books in my closet, then I'm a success because I kept writing, because that's what's important. Was enjoying and loving the process and even if I never get published I wanted to be that person and that's when I sat down and wrote the Way of Kings which was my life proverbial flipping the bird at the industry. I said: you said my books are too long and I wrote one twice as long. And you said my books are not George RR Martin enough, I am gonna go in the completely opposite direction - high magic, high fantasy, all the awesome stuff, knights in magical power armor, all of this stuff. And I wrote that book, fully expecting no one will ever publish it, and that's when I got the call from an editor buying Elantris, which I've written 5 years before at that point, and so at that point, it might be 4 years but you know.

But when Elantris came out, I already made the decision that I am a writer, no matter what I don't give up, I write for me. And so in some way it was hugely relieving and thrilling but in some ways the more important decision.....was already made, I was a writer, and I didn't need that validation to be a writer because the only one who says whether or not am I a writer is me. And I get up every day and I do it. 
 

33:38
DK: That might be a really weird question, but how do you feel about killing your characters in books? Are getting sad, or angry, or you are just like you feel it just has to be done and sorry not sorry...

BS: It’s kind of like “it has to be done”. it’s more along the lines of: this is what character has been pushing toward and kinda demanding all along, and I will let them do what they feel they need to. I rarely feel like I actually kill off characters, I'm more feel like, characters take risks all the time and I can’t always pull the punches, once in a while I just gonna let them pay the consequences.

 

34:15
DK: Do you think that Oathbringer will be released faster than Winds of Winter?

BS: I guarantee it will be, I have a publication day, now I guess can't guarantee it because George could always just decide it's done and call the publisher and they would probably pick same day as mine and I would be like “oh no”. But I think the chances that I will beat it are pretty good, I just hope that I don't beat the next one too, cause George’s fans really deserve to get it, to get this last two books.

 

34:54

DK: OK another one about programming the AonDor. Could you go lower level like assembler so like you the AonDor would be higher so you go even deeper. [does offscreen visualisation with gestures]

BS: That's gonna be more the RAFO because to go deeper you have to know what's going on with the magic on Sel and I haven’t revealed all of that and things like this. Like why the Aons or various symbols, what’s going on with all of that, I mean I think people are starting to guess it but I haven't really talked about it a lot so you would have to go, to get to that level I would have to give you information I don't wanna talk about right now.

DK: So that's RAFO.

BS: That's a RAFO, your two, well you get one card then I sign it twice.

 

DK: I have seen you are really active on subreddit for the Stormlight Archive?
BS: I'm fairly active, the problem is everytime I post I get like 300 hundred responses and I'm like “I can't respond to all of that I have to write books”.
[36:03]
DK: Do you have your favourite fan theory? You don't have to say if it's untrue or not, but...

BS: Favorite fan theories. Oh wow. I'm always really curious about what two characters people like to ship together 
DK: Shalladin!
BS: That would be pretty interesting, hmm what else, favorite fan theories. I’ve read a bunch of them that I’d just chuckle about, but some of them, I mean it’s mark of pride for me when somebody gets it right. That means that I have done my foreshadowing well. The unfortunate part of that is, when it actually happens in the books there will be whole a lot “I knew it” rather then “Oh I'm so surprised”. It's getting so hard to surprise you people. If I do my job right and I put in the foreshadowing then you will be able to guess things even though sometimes you guess things you are not supposed to guess yet, because there is no foreshadowing. But yeah like there will be big revelations in Oathbringer that I think will blow the average reader’s mind and the people who had been reading closer “oh yea, that, what they don't know that yet?” so.
My favorite fan theories, I can't think of one of the top of my head, I’ve heard some really good ones though.
 

DK: I need to ask, Dalinar lost his wife name. I was talking about it with Klaudia yesterday and I need to ask, is it punishment or it’s was it his wish?
BS: RAFO.
DK: When will it be revealed?
BS: It will be revealed in Oathbringer. You will get flashbacks of Dalinar going, you actually see him visiting Nightwatcher, so.

37:49
DK: How many more secret societies are on Roshar? What, more of them?
BS: There are a few but most of the ones you haven't found about are either in countries you haven't gone to and spend much time with or they are offworld societies that are involved in Roshar. You will know most of them. 

BS: Alright guys, thank you so much. I would love for you to send me an email so I can, one of things I would like to do is doing a little bit more foreign language stuff on my website. We have a Spanish page in the works...
DK: Spanish group I joined a year ago, there are a lot of people passionate, very passionate about Cosmere.
BS: And so I would love to have a little link to your facebook page/bookpage that says here is where you can go if you are Polish.

DK: Can I show you now?
BS: What's that?

DK: I can show it now.
BS: If you can email it to me then I have Adam stick it on our website.

DK: Last question: Are you planning to come back to Poland somewhere soon?
BS: Yea but I don't know when, but I have to come to Warsaw Book Fair, my publisher has made it very clear I need to eventually and you guys do keep bugging me so I'm sure it won't stop now that I'm actually that I’ve actually come. I have been to Spain like 4 times so
Guy off screen: It's closer to States.
BS: Yea it's so much closer. 
DK: We’ll definitely come back with some weird questions 
BS: Ok great. We need direct flight to Warsaw, that's what we need.

Guy off screen: From Salt Lake.
BS:Yeah, not gonna happen. There is direct flight to Paris so I'm in Paris and there’s a direct flight to London, so I end up both in London and Paris all the time
Guy off screen: There is lots of flights from London to Warsaw.
BS: Yeah.

Guy of screen: To any city in Poland

BS: Yeah but if there is no direct flight then I have to change planes.
Guy off screen: Jesus.
BS: It's hard.
Guy of screen: At Heathrow...

BS: Yeah, I know . Actually I changed this time in Amsterdam, that's good airport, so easy to get around.
DK: How many hours did you spent traveling here?
BS: 9 hours.

DK: 9 hours?
BS: Yeah, sorry 9 hours on that flight to Amsterdam, then 2 hours to Warsaw
Guy of screen: Not bad.
BS: Yeah, not that bad. Two hours layover so total  of 13 hours.
I wrote a really bad short story that I don’t think I will ever release. It’s kind of dumb so that still happens to me.

DK: Thank you.  

The End.

 

Edited by Extesian
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I'll attend the Kraków signing, but i'm not sure if i have any decent recorder, i'll have to check.

How does it look like during such events? Are the listeners allowed to leave recording devices on some kind of table near mr. Sanderson?

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I'm definitely going to the Warsaw signing. My phone has a recording app and a pretty decent range on the microphone, so I'm okay with leaving it on the table to record everything. And if there's going to be a moderator present to translate for people who don't speak English well, the problem with the asker being too far away might be alleviated.

I've never been to any meeting with an author, though, so two newbie questions: is there anything I should know? How do those events look like, actually?

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Brilliant, should at least be one person able to record at each event! I've never been lucky enough to go to one myself, I was living in Prague when he was in Australia and now I'm in Australia when he's in Europe :( But I understand they're pretty relaxed and Brandon is usually cool with recordings if you ask. And hopefully some extra questions for people if the attendance isn't as large as in the States? But maybe I'm underestimating his fan base there.

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  • 2 weeks later...

We will probably have something to record the Saturday event but if you have a recorder or something of the sort, please bring it - better safe than sorry and better doubly safe than safe.

I'll be wearing T-Shirt with cosmere symbol if anyone wants to say hi :)

The FB event has 80 people "going" and another 30 "interested" - I don't know how will that translate into real numbers. We made a Google document for the questions so people without their own can pick one. I'll post it tomorrow (today... in 20 hours).

Still no inside info :<

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9 hours ago, Oversleep said:

I'll be wearing T-Shirt with cosmere symbol if anyone wants to say hi :)

I'd be happy to get to know some sharders IRL, but I'll only attend Kraków meeting, is anyone from the forum going there?

It seems that there will be much less people in Kraków - fb says 28 will attend and 16 are interested :wacko:

3 hours ago, Yata said:

There is someone without questions?

I Will be honored to help :rolleyes:

I'll probably take my friend with me, if he'll need help with this, I'll let You know :)

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1 hour ago, Rasarr said:

I'll be in Warsaw, with a phone with a recorder. The person in the sheep-designed Urithiru Knights T-Shirt.

Can someone tell me how many questions we're allowed to ask at the signing line? There is a limit, right?

You can normally ask as many as you can squeeze in while he's signing in your books. I'd recommend you take a bunch, and start with your favourites. He'll stop you when you're out of time (or say "last one" or something like that).

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Oh guys you wouldn't believe what happened during the interview. I managed to ask some juicy questions (I got RAFO'd twice and the event hasn't even started, beat that) and then...

...

... then it got weird. See, I started to ask some questions, he answered, I went with follow ups and in the heat of the moment he went "you will see [REDACTED] at the end of the Stormlight but cosmere will end differently, it will be [REDACTED]". Then he realized what he just said. We were sitting there with our jaws literally dropped. Of course he asked us to keep silent about what he revealed and we of course agreed not to say anything... but it's gonna be awesome, I can tell you that.

The rest of the interview is free to be posted, we will get around to that soon.

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27 minutes ago, Oversleep said:

Oh guys you wouldn't believe what happened during the interview. I managed to ask some juicy questions (I got RAFO'd twice and the event hasn't even started, beat that) and then...

...

... then it got weird. See, I started to ask some questions, he answered, I went with follow ups and in the heat of the moment he went "you will see [REDACTED] at the end of the Stormlight but cosmere will end differently, it will be [REDACTED]". Then he realized what he just said. We were sitting there with our jaws literally dropped. Of course he asked us to keep silent about what he revealed and we of course agreed not to say anything... but it's gonna be awesome, I can tell you that.

The rest of the interview is free to be posted, we will get around to that soon.

Im irrationally jeleous.

Any highlights from the questions you can share?

Edited by Blightsong
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6 minutes ago, Oversleep said:

Yeah, irrationaly is the good word. I just got spoiled, the entire series, by the author himself. I'd be angry if that wasn't so awesome.

You responded quickly so you probably didnt catch my edit. Were there any other WoB highlights that you can share briefly?

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45 minutes ago, Blightsong said:

You responded quickly so you probably didnt catch my edit. Were there any other WoB highlights that you can share briefly?

I asked a ton. I can barely remember what I did ask. I was very excited so my memory is hazy.

I got RAFO'd when I asked about the Shard which didn't Invest, the one floating in the space, the one that just wants to hide+survive (I'm not really sure that we know all these things apply to the same Shard).

hm... I asked about technological progress on other worlds than Scadrial:
Taldain was progressing technologically... but then Autonomy did the isolation thing and it stopped.
Roshar is headed towards magicpunk since they've got a ton of Investiture flying around.

I asked about AI/sentient machines in cosmere... but without the recording on hand I don't want to feed you mistruths.

I asked a lot about AonDor - turns out you could write a higher-level programming language with that. I think he said there is a way to make functions (so object oriented programming). I asked about going deeper to access the assembler and he said that there are things we don't know about Sel yet and why magic works that way but my impression was he said he'll dig into it eventually.

I took a shot at the Terriswoman in Warbreaker, he asked what do we think and I said one of the nurses. He didn't confirm but said something like that I shouldn't be able to make that guess and was surprised I did. I think he said that we will eventually figure this out/we'll get to know her.

We asked about films, Brandon said that he'd want to do cameos where he dies every time. Like ultimate Redshirt.

Oh, and he said my shirt was awesome. I agreed.
...
And I may have left my printed list of questions in his room.
 

Edited by Oversleep
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2 minutes ago, Oversleep said:

I took a shot at the Terriswoman in Warbreaker, he asked what do we think and I said one of the nurses. He didn't confirm but said something like that I shouldn't be able to make that guess and was surprised I did. I think he said that we will eventually figure this out/we'll get to know her.

It appears that he's doesn't recall my own suspicions on the matter. Is it unreasonable for us to expect him to remember every answer and RAFO for years running? ... Probably not. :|

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1 hour ago, Oversleep said:

hm... I asked about technological progress on other worlds than Scadrial:
Roshar is headed towards magicpunk since they've got a ton of Investiture flying around.

I asked a lot about AonDor - turns out you could write a higher-level programming language with that. I think he said there is a way to make functions (so object oriented programming). I asked about going deeper to access the assembler and he said that there are things we don't know about Sel yet and why magic works that way but my impression was he said he'll dig into it eventually.

Magicpunk? Not sure if I should feel hopeful or worried.

As for AonDor, this section will be of great interest to me. A lot of my more practical applications (several were based on my guesses about what certain Aons did) would require some aspect of programs like time delays, on/off switches and setting size/space limits to effects. I'll wait for the transcript to see what is fully official, but since you could make a whole programming language from it, I feel many of my ideas could be confirmed by process of experimentation now.

People could probably create an Aonic Subreddit in r/ProgrammingHorror from the trial and error involved in making the language. :D

Edited by The One Who Connects
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So, the signing is still ongoing and it's super fun, but I figured I'll share what I've managed to ask before my memory evaporates.

Q: Is Khriss on Roshar during SA?
A: That's aaaa... RAFO.

Q: On Oathbringer cover, Jasnah seems to be flying, but she never had flying ability before...
A: She doeasn't actually fly in the scene, that's Michael's invention.

Q: Could a Seeker detect a Shardbearer? For example, could Vin detect Adolin's Shardblade?
A: Well, Seekers detect kinetic Investiture, Investiture that's being used, so when the Blade is summoned, you'd get a blip, but otherwise, no.

Q: If you took a Parshendi... If a Parshendi was born beyond Roshar and never visited it, could they sense the Rythms?
A: You mean Rosharan...
Q: I mean, just generally Rythms.
A: Well, Rythms are... it's something that permeates the Cosmere, and just manifests in a different way on Roshar.
Q: Oh, so is it the same thing that Soothers and Rioters are using?
A: Well, now you're straying into RAFO territory...

So... nothing particularly juicy, I suppose. Also, @sheep! Your Urithiru Knights design on my shirt has been noticed and praised!

Edited by Rasarr
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I come bearing more WoBs! The event is over now, and it was absolutely awesome. The public Q&A was great - literally the first question from the audience concerned itself with spiking Parshendi to let them swap between forms quickly :lol: (RAFO on that, because the mechanisms involved might spoil Oathbringer). I've got a recording of the public Q&A - I'll put the link here, and get a transcription file started soon. I have some problems with playing the file from GoogleDrive, so please let me know if you can.

I've stayed until the end and chatted with the fellow Sanderfans, so we shared some answers. I don't remember everything I've heard, but @Oversleep has been standing by the signing table, noting down all the interesting answers from the line, so expect full version soon. What I've got so far is, paraphrased:

Q: What happened to Vivienna?
A: She's looking for Vasher. Keep your eyes wide open when reading Oathbringer.

Q: Will Kaladin and Shallan get together? 
A: There will be Shalladin moments in Oathbringer.

Q: Will we see Hoid in White Sand?
A: Hoid will become more apparent as White Sand goes on.

Q: Can you slatrify sand into other liquids?
A: *thinks a moment* I admit that slatrification is one aspect of Sand Mastery I'm the least fond of, because it doesn't mesh well with the rest of Cosmere magic. The comicbook writers are working with my original script, with very minor changes, but if we ever release White Sand in print - which we might do - I might end up changing it. So - I won't answer that, because I'm not yet sure if slatifying into water is possible. *laughs* You can think of the comic as sort of in-universe story about those characters, then.

Q: Who would you ask to finish the Cosmere if you were unable to?
A: Brian McClellan. He's one of my students and he also writes epic fantasy.

Q: Whatever happened to those changed Parshmen at the end of the Edgedancer?
A: I deliberately left that out, because it will come into play in Oathbringer.

Q: Are there animals in the Cognitive Realm?
A: Yes, but we wouldn't necessarily call them animals.

Q: If a Leecher was holding a Shardbearer and burning aluminum, would the Shardbearer be able to summon their Blade?
A: No.

Q: Why don't Daysiders have darker skin? 
A: It's just how genetics on Taldain have played out. They should be darker-skinned, but there's always some randomness to genetics, so this is just how they played out in this case.

The people who stayed at the end of the signing chatted with Brandon for a moment. He'll apparently appear at Warsaw Book Fair at some point in the near future, and he's not sure yet if he'll go to Helsinki WorldCon, because of his Oathbringer obligation. He'll be in Great Britain as part of his Oathbringer tour.

And the people who stayed by the end got adorable Syl stickers! 

WP_20170318_002.jpg

Edited by Rasarr
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