I haven't been around in this forum for almost four months now -- I've had time and work pressure eating at me -- but I thought that my fellow Jordanites needed to hear the following piece of news that just reached me.
Robert Jordan has been offered a "huge" (no further definition available) sum to produce one bodice-ripper a month for Harlequin Books in Canada. "I insisted on payment of the amount offered in American dollars," he is reported to have said, "and they didn't turn a hair as they wrote that into the contract. Given the sum in question, I'd have been crazy not to accept."
Accordingly, Jordan plans to wind up his commitment to "The Wheel of Time" series with the forthcoming Crown of Swords, in which he will tie up all loose ends. The book will be 500 pages long; but more detailed questioning indicated that to reach 500 pages, it will be printed in fourteen-point type and eighteen-point leading. A Tor spokesman denied that the type size and spacing has anything to do with Jordan's desire to move on as quickly as possible to other projects for other companies. "We are merely responding to complaints we have received from people with poor eyesight," she told us. "These people have a right to read Jordan, too."
Jordan will be writing for Harlequin under various pen names, including Gwen Virtue, Vivien Mears, and Elaine Andrews. "Long-time readers will have no problem recognizing books from my word-processor," he told us. "Just look for the wind blowing out of the first page." He refused to discuss the exact nature of the books he would be writing, but recommended those interested to the chapter "The Far Snows" in The Fires of Heaven.
I hope that this doesn't spoil anybody's April 1.
Back to the Jordan Fandom page