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Audio from the San Diego Signing


Talenelat

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I have just over 2 hours of audio with people people getting their books signed & asking questions of Brandon.  He was nice enough to let me leave my phone recording on his desk.

It's about the only thing I managed to do right at the San Diego signing, after having to work late & arriving around 9pm (It started at 7).  So it starts in the middle of people getting their books signed, and ends the very moment I'm about to talk to him, as that's when my phone's battery died.

The store owner came outside to tell me it was saying low battery, and then let me go next as I had a lower number than the 50 or so that were still left (I wanted to be last so I could ask a bunch of questions without holding up people behind me, I only ended up asking 2 and didn't even get them recorded, though I thought it was still going).

Anyway, I'd thought to transcribe the pertinent parts myself, but an apparently very fast reader totally spoiled a major thing for me about 20 minutes in and I had to stop listening to it.

I saw from another thread you guys wanted the audio uploaded immediately to Soundcloud for this sort of thing (asking if people wanted to transcribe the questions, rather than wait for me to get around to it).  That site limits you to 2 hours & my recording is longer than that.  So I just uploaded it here instead.

I'll still do it myself if no one gets to it by the time I finish WoR.

 

Edit - The transcription is now complete thanks to Blackwood, who really stepped up.  I didn't think it could possibly be done only 6 hours after my original post, but he did it!

 

Here it is (Spoilers for Wor within):

The San Diego Signing Transcript:

Only transcribing pertinent questions to Brandon’s novels, including wheel of time


Q: Will we see more of Szeth’s backstory, including how he became a truthless

A: His flashbacks will come in a later book, each book is dedicated to one character’s flashbacks. WotK was Kaladin, WoR was Shallan, Then Szeth will be next, followed by Eshonai, and then Dalinar. (Paraphrased)


Brandon Info: Dan Dasantos painting 285. Whelan responsible for the fashion book pics


Q: do you have a story arc for the whole cosmere?

A: Yes. I do. The original plot outline was 36(?) books (paraphrased)


Q: How is your wheel of time experience showing up in your personal work

A: Multiple plot lines, multiple characters, Wheel of time forced him to expand on that. (Paraphrased)


Brandon Info: Audible plans to do a freebie promotion with Legion 2


Q: Do you ever plan on a sequel for Elantris or Warbreaker

A: Some day, no promises, never sure if I should do it sooner or later, right now it’s later


Q: What was the choice that ruined it (?) that ruined it in 2002? plate and blade

A: Good guess, yes, had to bring in bridge 4 and all for it to not be bland


Paraphrased: Inspiration for SA, A surgeon who is forced to go to war, the highstorm inspired by the storm on jupiter.


Q: Do you ever attach yourself to any of the characters

A: Every one is a little bit me, and every one is a little bit of me writing not me, trying to blend influences and experiences (paraphrased)


Q: a while back someone asked if Hoid’s sword is nightblade, you said that was interesting. Is it similarly invested?

A: I’m going to RAFO that. It is a very interesting question.


Q: What’s your favorite comic or comic writer?

A: Such a cliche, but it’s Watchman, original teenage mutant ninja turtles run. Doctor McNinja is his favorite web comic


Q: Anything you can tell me about investiture

A: That is the word for someone or something who has gained a portion of the magic of adonalsyim like a shardblade is an invested object, drawing in stormlight is investiture.

(This got gobblygooked and I missed out on the last bit as he was talking about metals and something else)


Q: How much did you have to fill in on the wheel of time

A: It really depends on the plotline, left a lot of notes on egwene, not much on perrin. Mat was about half and half, some big parts and left some other things. With rand, he only did the ending. 90% of the actual writing was brandon, not to say that there weren’t notes


Q: Why does the stormfather consider himself dead, or will that be covered?

A: That will be covered, eventually.


Brandon info: 10 Characters he built the story (Stormlight) around, and 10 flashback sequences for those, who are the basis for the story


Q: News on the mistborn game?

A: Meeting with the owner of that game company tomorrow, moving on glacially


Q: What about kaladin getting sliced with shardblade

A: That is a clue for what is going on with Szeth and his understanding of what is going on with his blade. Szeth says you can’t heal a shardblade hit. Very subtle but big differences between what Szeth does and what Kaladin does. (RAFO’s the honorblade question)


Brandon info: Rothfuss’ movies are apparently actually getting made (i squeed)


Q: Are you under obligation to read other authors

A: Under no obligation, but due to field i’m in i need to be aware of what I’m doing so that if the field evolves, I have my finger on it.


Stopped at 1:00:09

Picked up again by Blackwood


Q: How did you come up with the whole thing in mistborn where you use metals?

A: I was looking for something that bridged science and superstition. Metals had an alchemical feel.


Q: The coats the Alethi wear (officers) I’m thinking something of a Prussian

A: French early 1800’s, post napoleonic

(wife wants to design….blahblahblah…..)


Q: Where did you get the basis for the spren

A: Partially based out of Shinto mythology, and unique representation of emotion in the books


Q: Do you ever dream about spren?
A: No spren, I do dream about other books but not spren.


Q: If you have enough heating fabrials and enough stormlight, how high up could you go?

A: He could theoretically break orbit, he has stormlight for air, and he could manipulate gravity, they have actually figured how long it would take to make it to the various moons (More on Kaladin’s ability than fabrials)


Q: You clearly make rules for the wine in the world, the different colors etc.

A: Made from local fruits, he wanted to make it original and unique to the world. Food is a cultural thing, they could prepare different wines at different potencies, the color is cultural


Brandon Info: Threnity(?) has a character seen in other cosmere novels, planet has no shard, character is not hoid (01:23 for clarity)


Q: When are we first getting a look at the Cosmere coming together?

A: The third mistborn trilogy will include a lot, still doesn’t want it at the forefront


Q: How deep are you going into shadesmar in Radiance (WOR)

A: Not much, have to wait till more exploration from Jasnah/Shallan


Brandon Info: Every book of the first five, the prologue is a different viewpoint of the night Gavilar was killed


Q: For the return characters in stormlight (demoux/gal/vash) - how do you pick which ones you use

A: It just depends on where I feel like going, the interludes are complete freedom for me.


Q: The cosmere has so much going on, what happens if you come up with something that would conflict?

A: I don’t include that, then


Q: Does nightblood rip souls out of bodies by chance?

A: um nightblood consumes investiture, including the spark of life.

(blackwood question, does that apply to life that wasn’t created by Adonalsyum/shard)


Q: Is there a difference between shadesmar and the cognitive realm?

A: Shadesmar is a word for the cognitive realm specifically touching - it’s a local word


Q: What kind of changes do slivers go through after letting go of a shards power

A: It leaves them, imagine it like a balloon that has been deflated

Q: Ok so would Rashekk still have had powers

A: He would have had some residual effects, works the soul in weird ways


Q: If Endowment were killed, would the return still come?

A: The magic in the worlds, for instance, somebody needs to hold the magic. If no-one holds the magic, the magic will gain sentience. Interesting and bizarre things happen then, so um I would say yes, with the caveat that with whoever picks up the power could end up changing that.


Q: To the spren, is becoming mindless the same as death?

A: They consider it as such


Q: Are there birds outside of Shinovar in Roshar?

A: There are, but very few and they are all in the west (excluding import poultry)


Q: Can Breath be used to power surgebinding?

A: They are very similar investitures, and most of the magics can be powered with the other magics if you are capable of making that happen

Q: What would happen to the breath

A: The breath would be consumed much in the same way that stormlight is, renewable resource


Q: Will you ever return to the world of Elantris?

A: Yes - probably. Emperor’s soul was there.


Q: Any chance of a shardspear?

A: Shardspear? YOU are going to get RAFO’d

Edited by Talenelat
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Here's the DOC, I stopped at 1:00:09, the charter guys showed up to fix my dang-ol-tv set.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hagWxPIEaVndEPn3EzrU1HDd8lwB8KBID-OMuN4B1ro/edit?usp=sharing

 

I've been paraphrasing, and omitting non-pertinent information. Don't feel obligated to transcribe that way, if you prefer doing verbatim.

Edited by Blackwood
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What about the question(s) you yourself asked? Anything interesting and free of WoR spoilers there?

I had a list of 20 that I took from various threads here.  I just asked the first 2 on my list & I see know they weren't good ones.  I only added the first because I thought it was funny & would be a good ice-breaker.

 

It was, "Does Hoid ever show up somewhere, stand around for awhile, realize that there isn't a novel-worthy plot going on, and leave?"

His answer (Paraphrasing from memory as I thought I was still recording):  [Laughed] Yes , Hoid gets around a lot and that has happened a couple of times.  He does not know everything.

 

The second one may be a WoR spoiler (though I doubt it).  It was "Can someone bond more than one honorblade?"

His (paraphrased) answer:

Honorblade?  You can't bond an honorblade, though it can be given to you.  (Only now as I write this do I realize he didn't fully answer it, lol) Shardblades, however, come from a spren bond and it is possible to bond more than one.

Edited by Talenelat
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The second one may be a WoR spoiler (though I doubt it).  It was "Can someone bond more than one honorblade?"

His (paraphrased) answer:

Honorblade?  You can't bond an honorblade, though it can be given to you.  (Only now as I write this do I realize he didn't fully answer it, lol) Shardblades, however, come from a spren bond and it is possible to bond more than one.

 

Thank you so much for asking that question. Brandon's reply raises more questions and doesn't even answer it, though.

 

HUGE WOR SPOILERS:

Who has to give it to you? If it isn't bonded to you, then why can Szeth summon it? Can Kal use it? Given that we now know that Honorblades suck up Stormlight, I believe that having all ten Honorblades would make you incapable of Surgebinding - the Honorblades would just suck it all up.

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OK! All done, I shall put it in spoiler tags just for safety's sake. There were a few things I missed, but the DOC will remain life if anyone wants to make corrections/additions, do so and throw me a PM, I'll edit it in. 

 

Also, tell yo friends, I'm cool with, and actually enjoy doing audio transcripts, providing the audio quality is decent (As this one was, it was great) Throw them up and shoot them over to me and I'll get them typed down and on here ASAP. (My consolation prize for not getting to attend a signing :(  )

 

The San Diego Signing Transcript:

Only transcribing pertinent questions to Brandon’s novels, including wheel of time


Q: Will we see more of Szeth’s backstory, including how he became a truthless

A: His flashbacks will come in a later book, each book is dedicated to one character’s flashbacks. WotK was Kaladin, WoR was Shallan, Then Szeth will be next, followed by Eshonai, and then Dalinar. (Paraphrased)


Brandon Info: Dan Dasantos painting 285. Whelan responsible for the fashion book pics


Q: do you have a story arc for the whole cosmere?

A: Yes. I do. The original plot outline was 36(?) books (paraphrased)


Q: How is your wheel of time experience showing up in your personal work

A: Multiple plot lines, multiple characters, Wheel of time forced him to expand on that. (Paraphrased)


Brandon Info: Audible plans to do a freebie promotion with Legion 2


Q: Do you ever plan on a sequel for Elantris or Warbreaker

A: Some day, no promises, never sure if I should do it sooner or later, right now it’s later


Q: What was the choice that ruined it (?) that ruined it in 2002? plate and blade

A: Good guess, yes, had to bring in bridge 4 and all for it to not be bland


Paraphrased: Inspiration for SA, A surgeon who is forced to go to war, the highstorm inspired by the storm on jupiter.


Q: Do you ever attach yourself to any of the characters

A: Every one is a little bit me, and every one is a little bit of me writing not me, trying to blend influences and experiences (paraphrased)


Q: a while back someone asked if Hoid’s sword is nightblade, you said that was interesting. Is it similarly invested?

A: I’m going to RAFO that. It is a very interesting question.


Q: What’s your favorite comic or comic writer?

A: Such a cliche, but it’s Watchman, original teenage mutant ninja turtles run. Doctor McNinja is his favorite web comic


Q: Anything you can tell me about investiture

A: That is the word for someone or something who has gained a portion of the magic of adonalsyim like a shardblade is an invested object, drawing in stormlight is investiture.

(This got gobblygooked and I missed out on the last bit as he was talking about metals and something else)


Q: How much did you have to fill in on the wheel of time

A: It really depends on the plotline, left a lot of notes on egwene, not much on perrin. Mat was about half and half, some big parts and left some other things. With rand, he only did the ending. 90% of the actual writing was brandon, not to say that there weren’t notes


Q: Why does the stormfather consider himself dead, or will that be covered?

A: That will be covered, eventually.


Brandon info: 10 Characters he built the story (Stormlight) around, and 10 flashback sequences for those, who are the basis for the story


Q: News on the mistborn game?

A: Meeting with the owner of that game company tomorrow, moving on glacially


Q: What about kaladin getting sliced with shardblade

A: That is a clue for what is going on with Szeth and his understanding of what is going on with his blade. Szeth says you can’t heal a shardblade hit. Very subtle but big differences between what Szeth does and what Kaladin does. (RAFO’s the honorblade question)


Brandon info: Rothfuss’ movies are apparently actually getting made (i squeed)


Q: Are you under obligation to read other authors

A: Under no obligation, but due to field i’m in i need to be aware of what I’m doing so that if the field evolves, I have my finger on it.


Stopped at 1:00:09

Picked up again by Blackwood


Q: How did you come up with the whole thing in mistborn where you use metals?

A: I was looking for something that bridged science and superstition. Metals had an alchemical feel.


Q: The coats the Alethi wear (officers) I’m thinking something of a Prussian

A: French early 1800’s, post napoleonic

(wife wants to design….blahblahblah…..)


Q: Where did you get the basis for the spren

A: Partially based out of Shinto mythology, and unique representation of emotion in the books


Q: Do you ever dream about spren?
A: No spren, I do dream about other books but not spren.


Q: If you have enough heating fabrials and enough stormlight, how high up could you go?

A: He could theoretically break orbit, he has stormlight for air, and he could manipulate gravity, they have actually figured how long it would take to make it to the various moons (More on Kaladin’s ability than fabrials)


Q: You clearly make rules for the wine in the world, the different colors etc.

A: Made from local fruits, he wanted to make it original and unique to the world. Food is a cultural thing, they could prepare different wines at different potencies, the color is cultural


Brandon Info: Threnity(?) has a character seen in other cosmere novels, planet has no shard, character is not hoid (01:23 for clarity)


Q: When are we first getting a look at the Cosmere coming together?

A: The third mistborn trilogy will include a lot, still doesn’t want it at the forefront


Q: How deep are you going into shadesmar in Radiance (WOR)

A: Not much, have to wait till more exploration from Jasnah/Shallan


Brandon Info: Every book of the first five, the prologue is a different viewpoint of the night Gavilar was killed


Q: For the return characters in stormlight (demoux/gal/vash) - how do you pick which ones you use

A: It just depends on where I feel like going, the interludes are complete freedom for me.


Q: The cosmere has so much going on, what happens if you come up with something that would conflict?

A: I don’t include that, then


Q: Does nightblood rip souls out of bodies by chance?

A: um nightblood consumes investiture, including the spark of life.

(blackwood question, does that apply to life that wasn’t created by Adonalsyum/shard)


Q: Is there a difference between shadesmar and the cognitive realm?

A: Shadesmar is a word for the cognitive realm specifically touching - it’s a local word


Q: What kind of changes do slivers go through after letting go of a shards power

A: It leaves them, imagine it like a balloon that has been deflated

Q: Ok so would Rashekk still have had powers

A: He would have had some residual effects, works the soul in weird ways


Q: If Endowment were killed, would the return still come?

A: The magic in the worlds, for instance, somebody needs to hold the magic. If no-one holds the magic, the magic will gain sentience. Interesting and bizarre things happen then, so um I would say yes, with the caveat that with whoever picks up the power could end up changing that.


Q: To the spren, is becoming mindless the same as death?

A: They consider it as such


Q: Are there birds outside of Shinovar in Roshar?

A: There are, but very few and they are all in the west (excluding import poultry)


Q: Can Breath be used to power surgebinding?

A: They are very similar investitures, and most of the magics can be powered with the other magics if you are capable of making that happen

Q: What would happen to the breath

A: The breath would be consumed much in the same way that stormlight is, renewable resource


Q: Will you ever return to the world of Elantris?

A: Yes - probably. Emperor’s soul was there.


Q: Any chance of a shardspear?

A: Shardspear? YOU are going to get RAFO’d

Edited by Blackwood
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Eh. there are a couple iffy things. He RAFO'd certain things from the book, but talked openly about a few other things, mainly based on whether or not the questioner had finished the book I believe. I would wait, even though there are only a few things really pertinent to the book. 

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So a tumblr friend of mine was at this signing and he's posted his report here:

 

 

Q: “Does Nightblood possibly rip souls out of people?”

 

A: Nightblood consumes Investiture, including the spark of life

 

Q: Is Shadesmar just a name for the Cognitive Realm or is there a difference?

 

A: The answer he gave me was a little confusing but he clarified it by saying that it was like San Diego was a part of the United States but the United States wasn’t a part of San Diego. I asked if this meant that Shadesmar was a location in the Cognitive Realm and he said yes.

 

Q: “Would Returned still Return if Endowment died?”

 

A: Magic in the cosmere needs a guiding force. If it doesn’t have one, the magic itself will gain sentience. Or someone would pick it up. So yes, Returned would still come, but there would be something different based on who was guiding the power.

 

Q: “Could Breath be used to power Surgebinding and what would happen to the Breath.”

 

A: Theoretically yes, it can be done, and the Breath would be consumed just the same as stormlight.

 

Q: “Are there birds outside of Shinovar on Roshar?

 

A: Yes but they’re all on the western side of the continent. There are no birds in Alethkar and nearby nations other than chickens and other fowl brought from Shinovar.

 

I also asked him about capitalization. He talked about how in modern English, capitalization is boring and doesn’t happen often enough, referring back to the Victorian era where they would just capitalize Important Words. I asked him about parshmen vs Parshendi and he said that the Parshendi were a nation. I also asked about skaa vs Noble but he didn’t answer (I think he just forgot or missed it, I worded it with lots of unnecessary words and people are loud) but it would be safe to assume a similar reason.

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I wonder if Sel's magic is sentient now.

Nevermind, Odium probably controls it now.

 

Does he? As far as I can tell he went there, Splintered the Shards, and then left.  I think what Brandon means there has to do with naturally occurring Splinters - Seons and Skaze. They are sentient, and they are older than Elantris, and from what we have seen they naturally follow their Shard's Intent (at least on the Seons' case). So it's possible that they are not man-made, but spawn into existence kind of on their own, because of the laws of magic / reality.

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Well, depending on how you define "tamper," we may have confirmation that Odium doesn't roll that way. We know that he doesn't want to actually take any of the other Shards because they would shift his Intent - and he likes it the way it is. So if you meant it this way, then no, Odium just Splintered Aona and Skai and then bailed.

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Another little tidbit from leinton on tumblr:

 

 

Oh something I forgot to mention when I went over my Q/A session with Brandon.

 

Someone else’s question was about the safehand and Brandon gave new information on it.

 

So that essay he told us about? The one that defined masculine arts as being ones with two hands and feminine needing only one? That was in order to let men secure power over Shardblades.

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Huh. I am immediately reminded of the book Arts and Majesty, which is "the foundation of the masculine and feminine" arts (Chapter 25: Monsters). It, being a book, was probably written by a woman. A woman who intentionally - and subtly - gave control over all the Shardblades to men?

 

Something's fishy here...

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This is very interesting. Previously I thought it might be a way of segregating people who feel the Thrill out of science & history so they don't break everything. Or a plan by Odium to create more war by giving half the population nothing else to do.

But it sounds like it's just human pettiness, and more of Shardblades making people greedy.

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Oooh, now I have to wonder whether women can feel the Thrill.

I figured they can, but they just never would because of the gender segregation into different jobs. We haven't seen any gender differences in magics. There were some in Warbreaker Prime but it's not canon, and I can't think of any others.

I used to wonder if the Assuredness Movement is the Thrill affecting scholars, but Adolin usually not feeling it during duels made me think scholars couldn't possibly be feeling it.

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