Poland - Warsaw and Krakow events 18/21 March

[Oversleep]

11 minutes ago, maxal said:

While I do agree the chasm novella most certainly count as Shalladin moments, I doubt Shallan working with Kaladin as a partner would count. Thus, when Brandon says there will be Shalladin moments, I do expect something with a given romantic angle.

I meant that given their sort-of mutual interest in each other such situations will probably include some romantic angle to them; and that's what I'd count as Shaladin.

11 minutes ago, maxal said:

Mind, it might not mean it will pan out into a relationship, it might be just too teenagers trying to see if there is a spark, but it certainly does seem to go into this direction.

I agree.

Anyway, I am not really a shipper so I don't really care who ends up with who. I only expect the process leading there to be interesting and engaging (yeah, I'm all for journey before destination). I also enjoy the heartbreaking and soulwrenching moments very much (Shadows of Self is my favorite Mistborn for exactly this reason). So I'd be pretty much happy with any conclusion to the relationship stuff (unless it's not consistent or poorly done but Brandon being Brandon I am not afraid of that).

Edited April 5, 2017 by Oversleep

[AeonaRin]

I seriously ship Adoladin  they are better suited than either of them with Shallan! But I'm unfortunately fairly sure Kaladin is straight  

[maxal]

1 hour ago, Oversleep said:

Anyway, I am not really a shipper so I don't really care who ends up with who. I only expect the process leading there to be interesting and engaging (yeah, I'm all for journey before destination). I also enjoy the heartbreaking and soulwrenching moments very much (Shadows of Self is my favorite Mistborn for exactly this reason). So I'd be pretty much happy with any conclusion to the relationship stuff (unless it's not consistent or poorly done but Brandon being Brandon I am not afraid of that).

Hmmmm relationships aren't Brandon greatest skill. I hope he does this one right, but unfortunately, I do care whom Shallan ends up with because I find one option more interesting than the other.

15 minutes ago, strumienpola said:

I seriously ship Adoladin  they are better suited than either of them with Shallan! But I'm unfortunately fairly sure Kaladin is straight  

Adolin is most definitely straight, so that pretty much kills it.

[Djarskublar]

On the subject of the pool that isn't on the same planet, the first thing that made me think of was Threnody. Ambition Invests, Odium comes and hacks off chunks of him, Ambition runs off and gets killed. Those chunks stick around and keep the shardpool going. That seems pretty straightforward to me.

I always assumed that the Eye of Patji was natural, and just kinda leftover free Investiture from pre-Shattering. This casts doubt on that, but I don't think First of the Sun has ever had a Shard.

[+Extesian]

15 minutes ago, Djarskublar said:

On the subject of the pool that isn't on the same planet, the first thing that made me think of was Threnody. Ambition Invests, Odium comes and hacks off chunks of him, Ambition runs off and gets killed. Those chunks stick around and keep the shardpool going. That seems pretty straightforward to me.

I always assumed that the Eye of Patji was natural, and just kinda leftover free Investiture from pre-Shattering. This casts doubt on that, but I don't think First of the Sun has ever had a Shard.

Yeah I always thought Threnody was the likely one here. And I agree that First of the Sun is almost definitely not Shard-based. There are a couple of pretty firm WoBs on it (though not definitive).

Quote

QUESTION

Does First of the Sun have a Shard or a Splinter?

BRANDON SANDERSON

First of the Sun does not have a Shard. First of the Sun is one of these planets that was created, in the cosmere I’m considering a low magic planet, not under the direct influence of any Shard.

Quote

QUESTION

What differentiates a minor Shardworld like First of the Sun?

BRANDON SANDERSON

The amount of Investiture, and whether there is actually a Shard in presence.

QUESTION

I'm assuming there is not one there?

BRANDON SANDERSON

There is not one there.

QUESTION

So it's like a Splintered one from something else?

BRANDON SANDERSON

No what you'll find is that the worlds were all created with a level of-- a little bit of sort of ambient magic. What you'll find in worlds like that is things like, Shadows for Silence and things like this, the magic, it's not necessarily "people with magic" it's you can interact with nature...

QUESTION

So there is inherent investiture...

BRANDON SANDERSON

There is inherent investiture in every world created but you are going to see-- You aren't going to find Mistborn on a world like that but what you might find is a way there are magic aspects to the setting. Spren could exist on a world like that but they would be like the minor spren, you wouldn't find Syl, but you would find something like lifespren.

 

[Pagerunner]

17 hours ago, Djarskublar said:

On the subject of the pool that isn't on the same planet, the first thing that made me think of was Threnody. Ambition Invests, Odium comes and hacks off chunks of him, Ambition runs off and gets killed. Those chunks stick around and keep the shardpool going. That seems pretty straightforward to me.

Khriss's comments in the Threnody essay make me think Threnody doesn't have a Shardpool, since worldhopping is hard to do and 'morbid,' if I recall the word correctly.

[Oversleep]

2 minutes ago, Pagerunner said:

Khriss's comments in the Threnody essay make me think Threnody doesn't have a Shardpool, since worldhopping is hard to do and 'morbid,' if I recall the word correctly.

More importantly, she says that

Quote

there is no stable perpendicularity - only very unstable ones that cannot be predicted easily and have a somewhat morbid origin

No "one perpendicularity". Multiple ones.
They cannot be predicted easily - they need to be predicted so they're temporary and they are hard to predict so there is no set pattern.
Somewhat morbid origin - since this is human speaking, I doubt she's refering to ripped off chunks of Ambition or something. My money is on something having to do with the Shades.

[Jazzy Kandra]

5 hours ago, Oversleep said:

More importantly, she says that

No "one perpendicularity". Multiple ones.
They cannot be predicted easily - they need to be predicted so they're temporary and they are hard to predict so there is no set pattern.
Somewhat morbid origin - since this is human speaking, I doubt she's refering to ripped off chunks of Ambition or something. My money is on something having to do with the Shades.

Maybe it has to do with purposefully making a Shade? Since, you know, you can't get much more morbid than killing someone in the Forests to draw the Shades so that you can worldhop out of there...

[The One Who Connects]

35 minutes ago, Kandra-in-disguise said:

Maybe it has to do with purposefully making a Shade? Since, you know, you can't get much more morbid than killing someone in the Forests to draw the Shades so that you can worldhop out of there...

Cannot help but be reminded of Nazh's comment about "sacred rites" in regards to Kelsier just choosing not to pass on.

[Staphylococcus]

On 3/20/2017 at 2:13 AM, strumienpola said:

Oh yeah, my tee, Brandon said "I can't believe you're wearing this shirt"  Next time I'd love to wear a t-shirt with "let me think. RAFO" that was recently posted in sanderson memes  If someone draws Brandon, let me know! 

Sorry, but could you please tell me where to get the "rosharan guide to birdspotting" t-shirt? I need that in my life

Edited April 20, 2017 by Staphylococcus

[AeonaRin]

4 hours ago, Staphylococcus said:

Sorry, but could you please tell me where to get the "rosharan guide to birdspotting" t-shirt? I need that in my life

I just got one in a t-shirt printing house thing. The graphic was from /sanderson memes thread. 

[Staphylococcus]

38 minutes ago, strumienpola said:

I just got one in a t-shirt printing house thing. The graphic was from /sanderson memes thread. 

Oh, okay, thanks!

[The One Who Connects]

So.. is there actually a transcript for the video Oversleep posted on Page 6? Most of the links I saw in this thread were specifically Krakow, and not Warsaw.

Edit: I watched the video, but sourcing WoB's is easier with a transcript

Edited April 21, 2017 by The One Who Connects

[Oversleep]

10 minutes ago, The One Who Connects said:

So.. is there actually a transcript for the video Oversleep posted on Page 6? Most of the links I saw in this thread were specifically Krakow, and not Warsaw.

Edit: I watched the video, but sourcing WoB's is easier with a transcript

Work in progress Soon it should be finished and posted.

[The One Who Connects]

Just now, Oversleep said:

Work in progress Soon it should be finished and posted.

No worries, just felt odd having to source your post on page 1(while listening to the video in the background), rather than a proper WoB.

[Pagerunner]

On 4/20/2017 at 9:07 PM, Oversleep said:

Work in progress Soon it should be finished and posted.

Just checking in, has this transcript been completed yet?

[+Extesian]

22 minutes ago, Pagerunner said:

Just checking in, has this transcript been completed yet?

I helped out with this a while ago and it seemed pretty complete to me, but as it wasn't my baby I'll leave it to Oversleep and the other owners to post so they get the due credit. I'll just say there's a few nice WoBs there that I've been keen to discuss

[Oversleep]

10 hours ago, Pagerunner said:

Just checking in, has this transcript been completed yet?

10 hours ago, Extesian said:

I helped out with this a while ago and it seemed pretty complete to me, but as it wasn't my baby I'll leave it to Oversleep and the other owners to post so they get the due credit. I'll just say there's a few nice WoBs there that I've been keen to discuss

Uh...
*drops a smokebomb*
*jumps out of the window*

Seriously though: I'll aks the rest of the crew about two difficult parts they asked and I can't make out and then I'll stop obsessively try to improve the transcript and post it. Promise.

EDIT:
*40 minutes later*

So, both later and sooner than expected, the transcript! (tagging those who asked about it: @The One Who Connects, @Pagerunner, @Extesian - thanks for your help!)
Here's the link to interview.
(spoiler tag for length)

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 May 8, 2017 by Oversleep

[+Extesian]

Nice work @Oversleep I've updated the OP to include this. 

[Pagerunner]

Quote

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.

The question implies that the Shard not on a world and the hide-and-survive Shard are, in fact, one and the same. Brandon seems to overlook that, and only talk about hide-and-survive. I seem to recall that the original source for not-on-a-world, specifically asked about a Shard we didn't know other than hide-and-survive. Since it's a RAFO in the end, I don't plan on taking anything away from this. But I'll acknowledge that the possibility is there.

[+Extesian]

14 minutes ago, Pagerunner said:

The question implies that the Shard not on a world and the hide-and-survive Shard are, in fact, one and the same. Brandon seems to overlook that, and only talk about hide-and-survive. I seem to recall that the original source for not-on-a-world, specifically asked about a Shard we didn't know other than hide-and-survive. Since it's a RAFO in the end, I don't plan on taking anything away from this. But I'll acknowledge that the possibility is there.

Correct

Quote

BRANDON SANDERSON (PARAPHRASED)

So I asked Brandon at the LA signing if he could tell us about a shard that we don't know anything about (including the survival shard) and he said that there was a shard that isn't on a planet. Now I think this means that the shard is either on an asteroid, or a star. It could also be floating in space or on a moon and influencing from a distance. I will repeat it is not any shard we already know about.

Source

Which is interesting as he certainly worded it as though they were the same. 

[Oversleep]

19 hours ago, Extesian said:

Which is interesting as he certainly worded it as though they were the same. 

Yeah, I may have thought at the moment that they were the same.

But Brandon didn't go "you're making assumptions" or anything of the sort. On the other hand, he may just have wanted to not reveal anything (as evidenced by RAFO), even correct me.

So we should give that WoB a footnote when it's getting parsed into Theoryland.

EDIT:
BTW, if you look closely at the transcript, you can see that at certain point we started going offscript. We prepared up to the "where is Terrisan lady" because we thought we'd have like 15 minutes... but it did not end then so we rolled with it. That's why sometimes we say "one last question" because we had no idea when the interview would end

Good thing we had more questions prepared (all the Realmatical questions save for siamese Feruchemical gold twins are drawn from my personal list of questions which I forgot to take with me when the interview ended. I wonder whether Brandon found it).

Edited May 9, 2017 by Oversleep