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[Firefight Tour] Atlanta/Newnan 1/24


ccstat

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This coming Saturday at 3pm is the Atlanta (Newnan) signing. Do we want to have a 17S meetup beforehand? Event details below:

 

The event is at a Barnes and Noble in Newnan, at the Ashley Park mall. Basically, go take I-85 South from the airport for 30 minutes and you'll get there (exit 47). The address is 342 Newnan Crossing Bypass, Newnan, GA 30265. The B&N event page says you can go get a wristband for the signing beginning at 9am when they open that day. According to the employee I spoke with, the wristbands loosely dictate your position in the signing line, probably with 15-30 minute waves of people. She said they have been getting a lot of calls so they expect a big turnout, but they have plenty of Firefight copies in stock so there is no need to preorder.

 

In order to get a wristband, your book must be purchased at a B&N, preferably that location. Officially, the policy is that you need to buy a Sanderson book to get a wristband, but I assume if you came and bought something else they would probably let you in anyway. As usual, you can get as many books signed as you want, with up to 3 personalized.

 

I am attending for sure, but I am carpooling (from Decatur) with some less enthusiastic fans, including my 10-m.o son, so I don't know how long I will be there. If nobody else is going to record the Q&A and signing line I will try to do so, but I may not be able to get as much of it as someone planning to stay for the full event.

 

At the same time, I have some open seats in my car, so if anyone needs a ride from my neck of the woods and doesn't mind being partially beholden to a baby's schedule, let me know.

 

I do think it would be fun to meet other Atlanta area Sharders beforehand, so if there is interest from others then I am up for a 17S lunch etc.

Edited by Windrunner
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The date inthe title is wrong. I should have said 1/24, not 1/27. Can a mod fix this please? Sorry for the typo.

Edit the first post. If you use the Full Editor, you should be able to change the title.

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I'm planning to go and would be happy to meet up with fellow fans before hand, but that moment I'm not certain exactly how early I will be able to get there (I might have things that have to be done in the morning, though I'm trying to clear it). I don't have any other obligations that afternoon/evening, but, ah, my phone also isn't smart enough to record with.  My laptop would be, but that seems rather intrusive.

 

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So, I just called to make sure they are planning to have copies of The Rithmatist(because I had checked it out from the library previously, but am fascinated with rithmatics) and to confirm that if I bought The Rithmatist that would count for the wristband.  The lady I talked to told me that to get a wrist band I have to pick up a copy of either Steelheart or Firefight.  If we are getting conflicting information, that would be interesting to know, but I just wanted to let you guys know what I was told today. 

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The lady I talked to told me that to get a wrist band I have to pick up a copy of either Steelheart or Firefight.

I was told the same today: a Reckoners book gets you a wristband.

Also of note, the in-store price is $18, not the discounted 13-ish that is advertised for online sales.

The employee I spoke with today did not know anything about a Q&A or reading beforehand--doesn't mean it's not happening, just that it isn't part of the store's schedule.

They will start lining people up about 2:30, with the scheduled 3:00 start time. However, Brandon's most recent post on his site said it may be delayed until about 3:30, which I'm guessing is due to his travel time.

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Hey, I'm trying to throw together a little cosplay piece for the Philly signing on Tuesday (my wife and I are going as Prof and Tia), and I'm wondering if anyone there would be willing to ask Brandon about the Epic in Charlotte who keeps the soda bottling machinery running. The Epic's name, maybe, and whether they are a member of the Coven? It would be greatly appreciated! I'm making a cola pouch...

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Hey guys.  


 


I asked for something about Kaladin when he was signing WoR.  Before I tell you what he wrote, I should mention that he was halfway through writing it when I opened my rithimatics notebook and kind of distracted him. "Kaladin has known multiple lightweilders." 


 


I also asked a bunch of rithmatics questions at the signing today. I'm afraid I don't have a recording (which wouldn't be completely clear because it involved me pointing at drawings in my notebook) or his exact words, but I can pass on what I learned.Note: The tumblr posts linked below are meant to help you understand what I mean by constructions, but they were written before the signing and any theorizing not confirmed here is still theorizing.


  • Yes, 5 and 8 point defenses (constructed from applying the 9-point circle construction to right triangles and isosceles triangles respectively) could exist.  They haven’t really been explored in world though.
  • You can always bind more than one thing to a bind point, but binding multiple things weakens the point. It is a much better idea to add a small circle that gets 3 additional bind points. It doesn’t change anything if the point comes from multiple points in the 9-point construction.
  • When I showed him the 9-point ellipses constructed from different triangle centers (see the constructions here )  he stared at them for a moment before answering.  He hesitantly said that, yes, those constructions should be valid in theory, but that they shouldn’t be used in practice.  The sides of ellipses are weak enough that if you expect to need to defend your sides you really should be using a circle.
  • Yes, Lines of Vigor behave like light waves.
  • Yes, this means that higher frequency waves are better for doing damage, lower frequency waves are better for transferring energy (and thus moving things)
  • Yes, Lines of Vigor follow the rule that the angle of incidence = angle of reflection when bouncing off Lines of Forbiddance.
  • LINES OF VIGOR ALSO REFRACT.  I asked it in terms of whether they slightly change speed and direction when they move between materials like, say, concrete and asphalt.  He said yes and that you also get the wavelength adjusting.
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Do you consider Tien to be a credible theory?

 

I think he is a reasonable possibility, yes.  But if I remember things correctly the revelation that Kaladin has known two Lightweavers was one of the main reasons the "Tien was a proto-Lightweaver" theory was started.

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Only partially, or at least it is not a new point, we had already heard that Kaladin has known two Lightweavers.

I think he is a reasonable possibility, yes.  But if I remember things correctly the revelation that Kaladin has known two Lightweavers was one of the main reasons the "Tien was a proto-Lightweaver" theory was started.

 

Ah. Pardon me, I didn't know how that theory started. *upvoted*

Edited by skaa
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I think he is a reasonable possibility, yes.  But if I remember things correctly the revelation that Kaladin has known two Lightweavers was one of the main reasons the "Tien was a proto-Lightweaver" theory was started.

 

Eh, parallel evolution. Some of us read the chapter The Weeping from Way of Kings, and the scene in the Chasms where Kal points out that Shallan does to him what Tien used to, and came up with the idea on our own. Others heard there was at least one more LIghtweaver out there, and wondered who it was.

 

That's all I've got for now!

 

Some EXCELLENT questions asked here! Very interesting stuff. And an adorable little Cryptic you've got there.

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I have to add that it started out as a very surreal experience. I'm talking to the woman behind me in line and she says, "Have you read Legion? I'm Kalyani." My first thought was, "Well, one of us is going crazy. I wonder if it's her or me?" I'd never been addressed by a hallucination before and wasn't sure how to respond.

After that, it still took me a minute to realize she didn't mean she was in costume as Kalyani, but in fact the inspiration for the character.

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Thanks, Weiry! That's a lot of work.
I haven't gone back to listen to the Q&A yet, but I just finished my rough draft of the signing line. I'm going back over it now to proofread, and should get it posted tonight or in the morning.
 
EDIT: Here it is! There were a disappointingly small number of new questions spread out over those two and a half hours. The majority of information has already been conveyed in the earlier posts, but here are the verbatim responses. (Some of them are included for the purposes of wording, even though we already have similar answers in the database.)
 
I want to also point out that KalynaAnn is very cool for two reasons. First, she bought a copy of Firefight for Brandon to sign before she donated it to the Atlanta Public Library system. Way to be generous and spread the joy! Second, the transcription doesn't get across how quickly both Brandon and Ben (the illustrator for Rithmatist) responded to her questions. They looked at her diagrams and both said, "Yep, that's right." So her Rithmatics theories appear to be exactly right.

 


Q (asked multiple times): What from Steelheart’s past influenced his weakness?[/size]
A: He was secretly afraid of people who weren't intimidated by him. He was a night watchman, and anyone who didn't respect his authority, that was his secret fear. So when people stopped being afraid of him, he lost his powers.[/size]

Q: Have you thought of titles for the rest of the Stormlight Archive?[/size]
A: No, I only named the first five when I was doing my outline. They were Stones Unhallowed, Oathbringer, and I don't like the other name so I'm not going to mention it. But they are all names of in-world books.[/size]

Q: Who is Nazh?[/size]
A: He is kind of like a Cosmere special agent who gathers things for the person who is writing the Ars Arcanum[/size]

Q: Do you consider Kaladin a paladin?[/size]
A: You know, that is partially why I came up with the name. He was named something else in the original draft and it just didn't work.[/size]

Q: Have you ever considered writing a character who is a lawyer?[/size]
A: An attorney? There is a story I’ve wanted to tell forever. I’ll never do it, though. But it's one of those ideas. So, aliens come down and decide that possession of land indicates ownership, by our historical record. We have to convince them in court that that's not the way we do things. They just want to annex the planet. "Look at the Americans. You just took this land and said it's yours. So we want to do that to your planet." And have a science fiction story that is a legal battle about why they can't take over our planet.[/size]

Q: I was deployed in Afghanistan when I read WoK. How do you get in the mind of a soldier?[/size]
A: I have a good friend. His name is actually Skar--he’s the bridgeman Skar, I put him in the book because he helped me so much. who is in the army. He had lots of advice for me on how to make everything work. [/size][brandon and the fan then share some short anecdotes. This is about 38 minutes into the recording.][/size]

Q: As a physicist I appreciate you being so consistent with your magic systems.[/size]
A: It is something I try very hard to do, though I recognize that we do bend a lot of rules. When we were doing the time-based one in this [Alloy of Law], I'm like, "Oh, boy, redshifts. Oh, no, conservation of energy." We had to do some bending so that the radiation from the light passing out of the time bubble wasn't deadly.[/size]

Q: Are going to do anything else in the world of the story "Dreamer" [from the Games Creatures Play horror anthology]?[/size]
A: Probably not. She [Charlaine Harris] wanted me to write a horror story, and I'd never written one before so I said, "All right, what is the most frightening thing I can think of?" The most frightening thing I could think of was the kids who play X-Box having power over real people’s lives, and that’s where that story came from.[/size]

Q: If you were to take a small piece of shardplate, such as a gauntlet, and fuel it with stormlight to regrow the rest of the armor, does it retain the same characteristics of the original? Is it the same plate?[/size]
A. Yes, and the orignal will disintegrate.[/size]

Q: What’s the hardest power you’ve created to find a balance for?[/size]
A: First is Wheel of Time, but I didn’t create that. All have been fairly easy so far. My guess is that it will end up being Stormlight just because I am doing so many books in that world, and I'm not resetting characters as much as I am in Mistborn, that I'm going to have to be careful about power creep. That's and excellent question.[/size]

Q: Is the safehand always the left hand or just the non-dominant hand?[/size]
A: It is always the left hand, It's rough on lefties. But remember, most non-nobles just wear a glove, so it's not such a big deal for them. It's when you're noble and left handed that you kind of have a problem.[/size]

KalynaAnn: So, 9-point circles are really important. You can get all the different point placements as special cases of the nine point circles[/size]
Brandon: Yes.[/size]
KalynaAnn: [/size]You can also get 5 point; is that valid Rithmatically?[/size]
Brandon: Yes, that would work.[/size]
KalynaAnn: [/size]: And 8-point?[/size]
Brandon: 8-point they haven't done much experimentation with.[/size]
Ben: But you could![/size]
Brandon: Yes, you could.[/size]
KalynaAnn: [/size]So when you have multiple points [those arising from redundant/co-localized intercepts from the triangle], could you bind multiple things to that point?[/size]
Brandon: You can always bind multiple things to a point, but it's going to make it weaker. You are better off to just stick circle on and get multiple points off of that.[/size]
KalynaAnn: But if it had multiple ones, would that make it less bad to bind two?[/size]
Brandon: No, it doesn't. Good question![/size]
KalynaAnn: I[/size]f you use different circle centers rather than the orthocenter, you can get other 9-point conicals. Can you make 9-point ellipses?[/size]
Brandon: Yes, that is valid[/size]
Ben: Wasn't there a rule about ellipses being weak?[/size]
Brandon: Yes, they are a little less strong.[/size]
Ben: Because the long sides are weaker than the short sides.[/size]
Brandon: Yeah, but this would work. There's not much reason to use it because the other naturally has a stronger integrity, but you could theoretically do that. The defenses that use an ellipse make use of the strengths of an ellipse already.[/size]
Ben: With an ellipse you are asking for your opponent to flank you and come at you from the sides. And then if he pushes your circle out you're in trouble.[/size]
KalynaAnn: [/size] Do lines of vigor behave like light waves?[/size]
Brandon: Yes.[/size]
KalynaAnn: [/size] So a higher frequency is better at penetrating, lower frequency is better at transferring energy?[/size]
Brandon: Yes.[/size]
KalynaAnn: [/size] So, when they bounce off lines of forbiddance, do they follow laws of reflection?[/size]
Brandon: Yes, they should always reflect at the same angle.[/size]
KalynaAnn: [/size] If a line of vigor is moving from concrete onto asphalt...[/size]
Brandon: Yes, it's going to act like light transferring to a new medium.[/size]
KalynaAnn: [/size]So it refracts?[/size]
Brandon: Yes, it's going to refract.[/size]
KalynaAnn: [/size] It changes speed as it moves?[/size]
Brandon: Yep. And you get a different wavelength, etc. as it transfers onto a new medium.[/size]

Q: Is there anything happening on the northern part Roshar?[/size]
A: Roshar is a Pangea. On Scadrial, there is a lot more going on, so you will see multiple continents there.[/size]

Q: When you write Hoid's story is it going to be like Ender's Shadow, with a new perspective on the same events?[/size]
A: I know that stuff, but I don't plan to do it that way. I plan to do his backstory more as his own story because while I really like Ender's Shadow, most of the things like that I haven't enjoyed as much. Plus, it would take me books and books and books to do it. We'll see. I haven't closed the door on that idea, but I'm not planning on it right now. There are parallel things like that I am planning to write, though--just not Hoid.[/size]

Q: Are you going to do anything else with The Emperor's Soul?[/size]
A: Shai will show up again, but I can't promise in what form or capacity.[/size]

ccstat:Are spheres on Roshar made by glassblowing or by soulcasting?[/size]
A: They can be made either way.[/size]
ccstat: Are gems in those spheres mined or exclusively from gemhearts?[/size]
A: Some are mined. Mining is not easy on Roshar.[/size]
ccstat: Vin had a set of sapphire jewelry. If Demoux brought those to Roshar, would become infused in a highstorm?[/size]
A: Yes[/size]

ccstat. Are spren equally visible to native Rosharans and worldhoppers?[/size]
A. Yes. It is cognitive things that pull them out, not the native investiture of Rosharans.[/size]

ccstat. Shallan's drawings in WoK showed multiple cryptics. Were there other cryptics accompanying Pattern at that time?[/size]
A. Yes[/size]
ccstat. Did they approve of what Pattern's choices?[/size]
A. Yes. The cryptics are much like what is happening with Lift, where there is more of a conscious effort on their part. As opposed to what is happening with Syl or Jasnah where there is hesitance. What the cryptics are driven to do is in part because of what a few of their members have been experimenting with.[/size]

ccstat. Can a seeker sense another allomancer if there is a coppercloud between the two (but both are outside)?[/size]
A. Yes. but he might get some interference[/size]
Ben: Would they sense the cloud itself, like "Hey, there's a cloud between me and what I'm looking at"? [/size]
A: If you know what you're doing, you might be able to say something is interfering, but you wouldn't be able to determine what. There are multiple things that could cause that, for instance aluminum.[/size] [He started to say a few other things that might interfere, but cut himself off partway through words. If you think you might be able to decipher those almost-words, have at it. It's about 5 minutes from the end.)[/size]

ccstat. Can a skilled smoker be selective in what they mask?[/size]
A. Nobody has figured that out yet.[/size]

ccstat. In Warbreaker, Vasher uses Awakening to modify the memories of a girl they rescue. Can skillful/careful Hemalurgy accomplish the same thing?[/size]
A. [long pause] No, I don't [/size]really think that it can. Nobody has asked that before, but just looking at the way the magics work, I don't think that is something that Hemalurgy is capable of doing.[/size]
 [/size]
ccstat. Have you considered publishing the rules for Tarachin?[/size]
A. I have not, but it's possible.[/size]


In addition, there was an indecipherable question at the 40-minute mark from someone who identified himself as a Sharder. It was RAFO'd but maybe he will come claim his question and let us know what it was. It was immediately followed by the time bubble discussion, but I'm not sure if it was the same person or the next in line.
 
I included the Shai question because it sounded like there may have been a sotto vocce hint at the end, but I'd like a second opinion on that. It is just past the 2:01 mark.
 
Finally, Ben had a lot of interesting conversations, and was fun to talk to. He said he knows a lot about certain aspects of SA, since he had to know background to make good illustrations, but very little about others. For example, he knows "a ton" about flora, fauna, and shardplate, but next to nothing about the politics, the Diagram, etc. (emphasis mine)

Edited by ccstat
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