Jump to content

Shadows of Self: Houston (7 Oct 15)


Cadmium

Recommended Posts

Howdy, y'all.  Spent yesterday evening at Murder By The Book, the best hole-in-the-wall independent bookseller in Texas.  Picked up Shadows of Self (and a signed copy of Jim Butcher's new Aeronaut's Windlass) and enjoyed my second Brandon Sanderson signing event.

A quick aside, both Butcher and Sanderson recommended Brian McClellan's The Powder Mage Trilogy as their number 1 current recommendation. Probably going to read that soon based on their high praise.
 

I won't give a complete minute-by-minute recounting as there were about 5 people video recording the entire signing, and I have a splitting headache at the moment.

Best Q&A, crowd friendly question was asking about how the Brandon does the blocking for fight scenes like in Mistborn. He answered that he writes the emotional cues for the fight scene first, then fills in the punches, kicks and dodges.

 

The reading was a selection from Stormlight 3, specifically

a fight scene from a Dalinar Kholin flashback.  Scene ends on a comedic note. No further spoilers from me unless y'all really want them.


 

This is as near as I can remember the exact wording for my question as I don't have it recorded and the lady doing the sticky notes wasn't letting folks write questions on them by the time I got up to the line (#79 of 200+ and it was already 8:45pm. Store closes at 6pm.) Heck, I got a dirty look for requesting that he write "Merry Christmas!" in the copy of Firefight that's a gift.

Me: "Howdy."
Brandon: "Hi there. Thank you for welcoming me back to Houston earlier. That was nice."
Me: "Always welcome."
Store Employee: "Photo or?"
Me: No, thanks. Line is long and "Do unto others, as you'd have them do unto you."
Brandon: Do you have a question for me?

Me: (Stammering) Well, yes.  hmm. We... we've seen someone with a hemallurgic spike communicate or under the control of Ruin or Harmony. Can other spikes communi, sorry no people, well Shards...  ugh so nervous."  
(Trying to get it accurate.)
Brandon looks a little confused at me, but smiles.

"Can other *Shards* communicate or control those individuals?"

Yes. Good Question. Yes... *scribbles*  They can certainly communicate...

(I excitedly, but rudely, interrupt a bit) To what extent?

not to the extent that Ruin did. The others could communicate but it'd be vague or faint, not as direct as Ruin was. He connects to us, well, them through the little bit of Preservation that he had or could touch. Because the spike pierces the soul.

What about on other planets than Scadrial?

It'd work the same way. but again probably vaguer or fainter. Might go unnoticed.

 

He looked at me expectantly for another question. I stammered, "Oh well, thank you. I wasn't expecting that plain an answer. I thought I'd get something more cryptic, so I don't have a follow up. ...
Brandon patiently smiled.
Me: "Umm, My son turns 1 this weekend. Will the Elantris sequel be out before he graduates college?
Brandon laughed. I thanked him for coming to visit. We're pretty much BFFFFFFFs now. 

I gave my other question to my friend, but she was #55 in line so I didn't hear the answer, so I'll wait to get her to write it out for me.

Edited by midnightyell
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I recorded the speech, Q&A, and reading. Will be posting the first 2 soon (3-hour drive both ways from Austin and I'm behind on HW at the moment.), but as with WorldCon the reading won't go up until after the tour (Same reading as WorldCon). I put my phone on Brandon's table and got *some* of the signing line questions, but for some reason my phone stopped recording after the first 45 minutes and I didn't notice until I got up there at number 148 that it had. Caught the last hour of the line as well. Will post those for transcription at some point as well, but I want to try to listen to them myself, first.

 

Also, PLEASE DO NOT ASK SPOILERY QUESTIONS DURING THE GENERAL Q&A TIME, AND IF BRANDON CALLS YOU OUT FOR IT, DO NOT PROTEST THAT EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE READ THE BOOK ALREADY! (You'll see what I mean when the Q&A section goes up.)

Edited by Megalodon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, PLEASE DO NOT ASK SPOILERY QUESTIONS DURING THE GENERAL Q&A TIME, AND IF BRANDON CALLS YOU OUT FOR IT, DO NOT PROTEST THAT EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE READ THE BOOK ALREADY! (You'll see what I mean when the Q&A section goes up.)

 

*Wince*

 

And now I feel shamed by association.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's the speech:

 

https://youtu.be/BFgEiOD_AO8

 

Here's the Q&A. I muted the audio during the spoilery question, so anyone should be able to listen to this.

 

https://youtu.be/fgY6xrbD68w

 

For those wondering, the WORDS OF RADIANCE SPOILER began

 

So, in Words of Radiance, we find out that spren are trapped in the form of shardblades, so-- *Brandon cuts her off*

Link to comment
Share on other sites

relient23 over on reddit attended this signing and asked the following:
 


relient23

Are the lines that an Allomancer sees when burning iron or steel are in the physical realm, the spiritual realm, or the cognitive realm?

Brandon Sanderson

"It is more spiritual realm than anything."

relient23

If you're burning atium, can you predict the trajectory of an atium (atium, not aluminum) bullet?

Brandon Sanderson

"Atium? Yes. But aluminum... Maybe not so much sly smile"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's the speech:

 

https://youtu.be/BFgEiOD_AO8

 

Here's the Q&A. I muted the audio during the spoilery question, so anyone should be able to listen to this.

 

https://youtu.be/fgY6xrbD68w

 

For those wondering, the WORDS OF RADIANCE SPOILER began

 

So, in Words of Radiance, we find out that spren are trapped in the form of shardblades, so-- *Brandon cuts her off*

 

 

The guy from Legion he was talking about is likely J.C. The only one I could find who matched the description was Adam Baldwin.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The guy from Legion he was talking about is likely J.C. The only one I could find who matched the description was Adam Baldwin.

 

That is correct.  J.C. is based on Adam Baldwin, Tobias is based on Morgan Freeman, and I believe it was revealed that Ivy is Gwyneth Paltrow though I'm not sure on that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stupid aluminum, breaking everything. At least it's consistently nasty to magic.

 That said, Aluminum projectiles are terrible ballisticly because they are too light to work well with any kind of rifling, so you wouldn't be able to get super high velocity, range or accuracy like with a steel, lead, or copper projectile.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 IF BRANDON CALLS YOU OUT FOR IT, DO NOT PROTEST THAT EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE READ THE BOOK ALREADY! 

For real. I wanted to escort her from the building for being so rude. I understand that it's fantasy book signing, so the average level of social skills is below the mean of society in general, but that young lady did not understand how selfish and arrogant she sounded. Cringe-worthy does not cover that interaction.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi everyone! First time poster here. I also attended the Houston signing (my first signing for any author ever!) and am pretty new to all things Cosmere... I only discovered this vast universe about a year ago and only been lurking here for a few months.

 

I decided to go ahead and create this account and post my questions/answers simply because Brandon said that they hadn't been asked before, which I found hard to believe.

 

Me: Will we ever get to see or experience the cognitive realm on any other planets to the extent that we have on Roshar?

Brandon: ...yes.

Me: Are there inhabitants there like there are in Shadesmar?

Brandon: ...yes.

 

He obviously wouldn't say more than that. I'm paraphrasing my questions, but (un)fortunately his answers were simple enough to remember verbatim. So not much to dissect, but maybe something to look forward to!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm curious as to what Seon/Skaze may look like cogntively, perhaps reminiscent of cryptics? (obvs not in Selish Shadesmar)

 

This was exactly what I was wondering when I realized that I didn't even know if we would ever get a glimpse of "shadesmar" in other worlds or whether or not there was anything actually living there. So I opted for those questions first. I didn't follow up with what I was wondering about seons/skaze because I was worried I would be holding up the line. Wasn't sure of etiquette, it being my first signing and all. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...