Subject: Bay Area Signing/Social Report Possible Spoilers.

From: "Drew Gillmore" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 03:39:01 -0600

I don't see anyone else doing this, and while it's still fresh in my
mind...well, here's a report.

Of sorts.

<DISCLAIMER>

Further down I discuss some Q&A with the Creator that may inevitably lead to
Spoilers for _The Path of Daggers_

</DISCLAIMER>

I was drinking most of the time, so my recollection of details may be a
little fuzzy.  My Wheel of Time was definitely wobbling.

I got to the Bay Area in time for the book signing.  In fact, I got to Bill
and Hawk's place in time to make Hot Monkey Love with a few people before we
went to the book signing.  Not that Hot Monkey Love was made, just that there
would have been time for it if we had so chosen.

Anyway, we got to Future Fantasy at 2:30.  Chris Mullins, Michael Steeves,
Batya and I all rode with Hawk, and we met up with Noell Milota at the
bookstore.  Bill wasn't feeling well and stayed at home.  Wuss.  (We missed
you, Bill)  Future Fantasy had a policy in place in which if you had not
bought the book at their store then you had to wait until everybody that
*had* bought a book and wished to have it signed went through before you.
Fortunately, there weren't many people willing to spend full price at some
rinky dink bookstore and the number of people who were in front of us was
rather short.

Also there at the bookstore were Eric Fulton and Brian-Something-Or-Other,
Dave H-Someone and a couple of lurkers.  Others in attendance at that time
were a lot of people whose names I don't remember as I stood in line with
Chris discussing some plot points with a lurker.  Actually, that's a lie.  We
spent most of the time in line trying to figure out how we could get Jordan
to sign a Terry Pratchett book, or a Goodkind.  I can't remember which.
Maybe it was both.

We also discussed what questions to ask.  Most were discarded as frivolous,
or obvious RAFO answers.  I hadn't thought about it too much, but fortunately
Chris had, and he had a few that he let me borrow.

The first question Chris channeled through me had to do with the female mega
sa'angreal on Tremalking, and the Seanchan damane there. We were wondering if
the female sa'angreal would have the same effect on female channelers as the
male sa'angreal in Cairhien had on Rand.  Our impression of events was that
Rand did not willingly channel into the thing, but that it just pulled the
One Power through him.  Unfortunately, RJ answered the question with a "Yes,
if they tried to channel through it."   Uh.  Okay.  Whatever.  My second
question was whether or not we would get to see the Battle of Tar Valon or if
it would happen "off-screen".  He opened his mouth, hesitated a second and
shot me down with a "Read And Find Out".  Bastard.

Chris used his moment with the Creator to open himself up to a huge RAFO, but
*his* question was answered.  Chris asked if Moghedian had been raped by
Shaidar Haran.  The answer was "Yes, among other things."

I don't remember most of the other questions.  A couple of interesting things
I do remember, however.  The first is that the reason tPoD seems short is
that Jordan could not go any farther without writing a *whole* lot more.  The
stage it seems, is once again set.  Another interesting thing was Jordan
asking Hawk if she was into leather, and if she was "top, bottom, or switch".

Dirty old man, indeed.

Another interesting point that may just be my interpretation of things, is
that someone asked if Lanfear had been raped as well, right on top of the
Moghedian question, and he answered right away with a "No".  It could be any
number of explanations, but it seemed to me that it was a given that Cyndane
was Lanfear from the context of the conversation.

Like I said, just my interpretation.

Someone else who was paying more attention could fill in here.

The next thing we did was went to the Thai House to drink.  Or at least,
Darkelf and I drank, with a little bit of sipping done by Eric and Chris.
However, Darkelf and I got married (Work *that* in, K-J) and consummated the
marriage with a pitcher of Stout beer (Thanks, oh Dimly Lit Sprite).  I
taunted Noell with the thought that Cal would beat UCLA until with four
seconds left in the game, I relented and admitted that, in fact, Cal would
probably not be coming back.

After that, things *really* get fuzzy.  We went to Amber, an Indian
Restaurant, and had food, and talked.  Rick Moen, Rajiv, Phetsy, Paul Ward,
and "Justin" showed up.  Other people showed up, but they were sitting at the
other table and I don't remember all their names.  (Someone else is *really*
going to have to help me out here...anyone make a total list?) Mansur Ward
made a cameo.

I had Chicken Vindaloo, that was supposed to be spicier than it was,
according to Chris Mullins, but since I was already full of beer I couldn't
taste much anyway.

Somewhere in there my ex-fiancée showed up(1), and I mentally checked out for
the evening.  I remember going to Brian's apartment complex for the rec room
there, more beer, lots of pool, then a jaunt to Bill and Hawks for an hour or
so.  At that point I had been up for somewhere near forty hours, and had
drank sufficiently enough in my sleep depraved condition to make thinking
straight a tricky situation.

I'm not sure how it ended.  Badly, one would assume, but you'll have to get
that part of the story from someone who A) was there, and B) was *there*, if
you know what I mean.

--

Drew Gillmore          www.leisureforce.com

1)  Don't ask.  Weird situation.  I'm sure most everyone at the Social
is/will be thoroughly confused(2) to find out that she's my ex.

2)  About what?  Well, that's what you get for not attending.

---

From: [email-masked] (Justin H. Howell)
Date: 29 Oct 1998 02:08:38 GMT

></DISCLAIMER>


I asked why Elayne thought even a Forsaken couldn't break the shield
Adeleas and Vandene were holding on Ispan, expecting the answer that
Elayne is clue-impaired.  The correct answer is that holding a shield
on someone depends not only on relative strength and fatigue, but
also on whether the shield is held by channellers of the same sex as
the victim.  Thus two women (A&V on Ispan, or Ispan and Falion on
Nynaeve in CoS) can hold another woman, but three women just get
severed if they try to shield Rand.  As a curiosity, it is also
possible for multiple people to hold a shield without linking, but
this is less strong and less precise, producing basically a layered
shield.

Then I asked about Elayne's Rod of Pleasure, and got a RAFO with
the explicit warning that we might not ever get to the FO part.

The popular "are you sure we should be able to figure out who
killed Asmodean" question used up my second trip through the line.
Next time through I asked about the chronology of Eharon and Shiota,
since Bashere describes statues from Eharon as being much older than
the Shiotan statue DKS put on the cover.  We know Deane was born in
the village of Salidar in Eharon (Glossary from LoC, IIRC), yet part
of Bashere's lecture mentioned that Shiota also was pre-Hawkwing.
It turns out there is a textual inconsistency here.  RJ couldn't
remember which comes first (apparently historical details aren't
as engrossing for him as for me), but one was part of the Ten Nations,
and the other covered the same area (Illian + Altara) between the
Trolloc Wars and Hawkwing.  He said the Guide has the correct order,
though since I don't have the Guide I don't know what that order is.
A minor error, really; either that statue was from Eharon and 
Bashere mentioned much older Shiotan statues, or Deane was Shiotan
and the statues were as written.

As Paul mentioned, RJ mumbled something about Sammael.  My interpretation
is simply that he meant "right, he's dead, whatever you say", but
I can see how one might take it more seriously.  I'll believe my 
favorite male character died when I see him come back in a new body
sucking up to Moridin, at which point I'll go looking for a new
favorite male character (Mat or Demandred, probably).

I think the only other WoT-related comment I heard was that if RJ
dies before this is done, we won't find out about this famous last
scene since the hard drives of his computers will be reformatted six
times and every scrap of paper in his house having anything to do
with tWoT will be burned.  He seems to feel quite strongly about this...
On a related topic we may get an encyclopedia after the series ends, 
but no endless series publishing all of his notes, analogous to Christopher 
Tolkien's History of Middle Earth volumes.

I didn't hear (or hear of) anything else not recorded here or in Drew's
post, though as Drew said,

--
Justin Howell
[email-masked]