Subject: Mini-report, San Jose signing

From: Rick Moen <[email-masked]>
Date: 28 Oct 1998 12:06:35 GMT

I'm hoping that Hawk will report on the wonderful time The Usual
Gang of Lunatics had last Saturday in Palo Alto, CA and thereabouts,
starting with RJ's signing at Future Fantasy bookstore.   So, I'll
leave that to her.

There's rather less to report about Sunday's signing at the Barnes 
and Noble barn (er, store) in San Jose:  I foolishly hadn't checked 
for scheduling updates, and found out at 2 pm that it'd been shifted
to 3:30 -- but there were already about 100 people in line, zig-zagging
around the store's rope barriers from the signing area in Children's
Books.  By 3:30, there were maybe 600, lined up out the front door and 
down the block.

As usual, there was a two-book limit, one of which needed to be Path 
of Daggers.  No personal inscriptions this time, just signature, and
paperbacks were allowed (both in contrast to the Saturday signing).
Harriet (Jordan's wife & editor, and a very winning person) wandered 
off to other parts of the store.

I'd missed most of Jordan's comments during the signing at Future 
Fantasy: arrived late for early remarks, too long in line for others.
This time, I parked myself strategically within earshot, so I could
catch everything in my PalmPilot.

Guess what?  600 people over a two-hour period, and hardly anyone 
asked Jordan questions!  Arrgh.

He said the book-signing tour will run through November 22nd.  He'll
spend two days fishing in Canada, and then return home to Charleston
for Thanksgiving.  (He said he finds being on tour exhausting, 
and always spends the following several days doing nothing at all.)
After Thanksgiving, he'll start in on the next volume.

Someone mentioned the Internet-based rumours about him suffering from
heart attacks / other forms of poor health.  I couldn't tell from his 
expression whether RJ was amused or annoyed:  Probably both equally.  
He replied that he's in good health with a resting heart rate of 71 
beats per minute and good cholesterol.

He told quite a few people that the series would be requiring a 
minimum of three more volumes, perhaps more -- and pointed out
that he'd had to find time to work on "New Spring" and the Guide,
in addition to The Path of Daggers.  He also pointed out that, so
far, the books have always been published within a month of 
completion, which he called "instantaneous for the publishing 
world".  He stressed that he _wants_ to reach the end (the final
scene that he worked out 15 years ago), and would like to be
"as compact as possible".  (He said "Don't laugh.")

A reader asked when the term "Ajah" came to have the  meaning
it has in Rand's time.  He said that until at least 500 years after
the Tower was founded, it meant a temporary association for a specific
purpose, and was a lower-case noun.  Its proper-noun sense arose
afterwards, supplanting the earlier usage after the Trolloc Wars.

Another reader asked how long he's been married to Harriet.  He said 
18 years -- and that he has to have Harriet remind him, since it seems
like last month.

Somebody finally summoned the courage to asking him outright, "What 
happened to Mat?"  He replied, "He had a brick wall fall on him!"

-- 
Cheers,                    Higgledy-Piggledy / Kibo Ubiquitous, 
Rick Moen                  Greps for his name in the / Happynet spool.
rick (at) hugin.imat.com   Interdimensional / Cyberspace deity:
                           Didaktyliaios / Dada is cool. -- Lewis Stiller