Jenn's World

January 9, 2013 -- 3:29 p.m.

Speaking of callbacks and deaths, I almost wish there had been more dying. Lan's fight with Demandred might be one of the top moments of the entire series for me. But you can't SHEAVE THE SWORD and then walk away after. That's cheating. My favorite actual death was either Egwene's or Siuan's. Even if Siuan's is only a couple lines, you got to admire someone who heroically goes to their death, even if they aren't sure it will accomplish anything. That's true heroism. I wish we'd had one last Bryne POV as he went beserking to his death to accompany it, or that they'd found his body later with 90 dead trollocs around it, but you can't have everything even in a 900-page novel, I guess.

I liked the male/female working-together dynamic that was running through everywhere (Andol/Pevara, Elayne/her generals, Rand/NynaRaine). That was a cool pay-off of the series' philosophy. It was cool to see the flaws in Callandor be intentional. That was great.

At the same time, I was disappointed by how useless Moiraine and Nynaeve turned out to be. What did Moiraine do that was so important for saving the world? Alivia could have come in her place and nothing would have changed. Mat sacrificed his eye so that, what, Moiraine could tell Egwene she needed to break the seals when she got her hands on them? I guess coming to a truce between them was good, but I wasn't sure Moiraine was the only one capable of doing that. I had really hoped she'd get to do something awesomely dramatic. And she did, at the very end with exploiting the flaw, but that was Rand's idea, so she only gets partial credit with it.

Ditto with Nynaeve. Alanna could have released the stupid bond at any time. So Nynaeve actually knowing how to do stuff without the power (a theme repeatedly hashed on this whole time) didn't actually turn out to matter. It also brings up the question: Moiraine knew she was going to die, why didn't she release Lan and save him a little suicidal angst? Not good on you, girlfriend. I always assumed she didn't because it was some complicated weave that could only be done with time/effort. Nope!

And all the stuff we had to slog through with how many books with the Windfinders? Did it pay off? Nope. Not that I wanted to spend time with a culture that beats up its teachers. WTF was that???

Padan Fain was the biggest letdown. He's been screwing things up for our heroes ever since the first book and he barely gets a mention (except for two obvious 'help remind the reader that's he's still out there' moments by Perrin) until he's suddenly a mini-roaming Mashadar who gets two pages and then gets offed. Thanks for wasting our book space for however many years only to give Mat something to do at the bore for thirty seconds!

Speaking of Mat, how great was it that the Hornsounder didn't end up sounding the horn after all. Great thing or greatest thing? (TEAM OLVER 4EVAH!!!)

***END SPOILERS***

Overall, even though I was annoyed at some little things, I loved the ending. You can't have a book series go on for so long with so many things being juggled without there being a few disappointments, and I'm in awe that Brandon Sanderson managed to complete such a daunting task.

So bravo, team Jordan, bravo. A part of my life feels...empty, now. Good thing GRRM's still writing books for me to obsess about. If he finishes a Song of Ice and Fire, I won't know what to do with myself :)

There's a fun interview between Pat Rothfuss and Brandon Sanderson. I particularly liked it because it focussed a lot more on the writing process than the material they're writing.

Guess who this is referring too.

I had my first Brandon Sanderson class yesterday. I was glad I'm officially signed up as a student--there must have been fifty non-student people clawing for the chance to listen. Sanderson used my hat to draw names of the lucky people who'd get to audit--although it was too small to hold all the slips of paper. Brandon Sanderson also mentioned he'll do public lectures in the future, so they'll hopefully those who won't get to enroll able to see everything. I suspect a lot of the content will be similar to that expressed on writing excuses.

"No. 1 NYT bestselling fantasy author Brandon Sanderson's MISTBORN: The Alloy of Law, an original, standalone short novel set in the universe of his Mistborn trilogy, and THE RITHMATIST, set in an alternate-history America where magic users (called "Rithmatists") battle wild chalk creatures, introducing a student at the Rithmatist academy with great interest in but no ability to use the magic, but when students start vanishing, it's up to him to expose the sinister figure behind the disappearances, to Tor, for publication in 2011 and 2012, respectively."

So much to blog about, so little time! I'll fill in gaps another day. I have notes from Scott Westerfeld's lecture at the Provo Teen Bookfest, a cartoon appearance by Neil Gaiman, and other goodies like that to comment on. I also had a first date with a guy that I enjoyed a lot, but I guess he didn't have fun since he hasn't called. I wonder, sometimes, how people can perceive things so completely differently? I wish my radar in this area was more well-attuned.

Just registered for Brandon Sanderson's fantasy writing class for next quarter. So excited! So many good things happened to me in a very short time that I am woozily excited.

Well, it's Weds. somewhere, right? I got caught up in some expected yardwork today when the sprinkler system went down, so this post's a little late. But here it is...

Ah, CONduit. The Salt Lake City Con where you can attend a writing panel on How to Get published, stay for a belly-dancing performance and learn the basics of detecting paranormal activity...all in a single night. This year's theme was space pirates. There's such an ecletic mix of gamers, artists, anime fans and writers, if you go to CONduit and don't come home with at least one new friend...it's probably your deoderant.

Of course not everyone's friends are as cool as the Dread Pirate Roberts. But hey, you can't all be as awesome as me. Relax. Don't strain yourself. We wouldn't want to be setting the bar too high now, would we?

Anyway, I had a lot of fun. I even introduced myself to some new authors who's advice I have been listening to for a couple years now, and found out that Larry Corriea and John Brown are every bit as nice as they seem to be. And Provo Library doesn't carry a copy of Larry Correia's book, FOR SHAME! Some regular faces were absent (I missed Howard Taylor's jokes) and some of the local authors didn't stay long, but I still went home with a belly-full of advice and a bucket-full of motivation. I chucked out about 40 pages of text on Skin Farm yesterday (and by chucked out, I mean typed out. How much is decent enough to merit staying in the book, we'll see). Brad Torguson recognized my face from previous conventions and came to talk to me and introduce himself without prompting. I also managed to avoid all Lost spoilers, miracle of miracles. I'm still a season behind, grumble.

My question of the con was: How do you deal with form rejection? And boy, these authors had experienced a lot of it. I didn't quite ask every author there, but the ones I missed I'm sure would have had the same advice. Keep your chin up. Work hard. Throw stuff at the wall. Something's bound to stick eventually.

In some ways, there were a lot of depressing moments at the con, because some of the authors haven't had much upward career movement since last year. Barbara Hambly, our guest speaker, has had a whole ton of success over the years--our library has a shelf almost dedicated to her exclusive use. But after she'd "made it", quit her day job, worked full time as an author for decades, she ended up getting chucked out by her publishers (and this time, I do mean thrown out) and forced to find a job at the time in her life when many people start contemplating retirement. So...you can make it, and still not be safe from the terrors of the 9-to-5.

The funny thing is, the community college she's teaching at wouldn't let her teach creative writing, because she didn't have a masters in English. Ha!

Anyway, a lot of advice we got was the kind of thing you've heard before...ie, don't send your query letter on perfumed paper, or dark paper...(part of me groans at people's ignorance)...but there was some new stuff too, like that sometimes the "no submissions" policy at publishers is just a shield and if you send a manuscript to someone anyway, you might get a bite with comments. Not something I'll try unless I have a few Writer's of the Future awards under my belt, but interesting nonetheless.

Barbara Hambly--who is a really interesting woman, she talked about her ghost sightings and her student's reactions to her numorous tattoos--advised me to start with character when writing a historical novel and then work outward, since I'm finding the whole historical setting bigger than I can chew. She also told me her WoW server (not mine, alas) and that she plays on Thursdays.

Another thing: One of the distinctions between M.G. and Y.A. involves spheres of influence. In a M.G. book, the biggest influence on a main character tends to be family. Often kids saving their parents or having to make due without their parents or fighting their foster parents or wishing they had parents, etc. In Y.A., that influence has shifted over to friends. It's less about family and more about that cute boy with the locker three feet left of the girl's bathroom. Friends in trouble that need rescuing instead of parents. Anyway, I'd never thought of it that way before.

I also learned there's a new subgenre called "New Adult" which is for college-aged folks. Not quite adult, not quite young adult. I'm not sure how you'd go about marketing such a thing and whether its a viable sub-genre since college kids are pretty much adults, but it'll be interesting to see if it develops. I can see how there are some unique "college" issues that would make for great reading. I haven't seen a shelf for it in bookstores, but it's been awhile since I went walkabout in a Barnes and Noble.

James Daschner also told me not to worry that I've missed the bandwagon with post-apocalyptic. They're still hot, which is good because I hope to get queries out on Skin Farm by Christmas.

Anyway, I went to readings, a Wheel of Time panel, and other events, and saw pirates and armed knights carrying signs "WILL FIGHT DRAGONS FOR FOOD." James Daschner gave me a copy of the first few chapters of the sequel to Maze Runner (signed) which made me squeal a little. I squealed a lot when Brandon Sanderson told me the first Wheel of Time signing for Towers of Midnight will be at BYU again this year. I'm picking out my sleeping bag already, you losers. That #1 signed copy is MINE!!!

But more importantly, I came home with so many story ideas, I'm not sure what to do with them all. I'm beginning to wonder if I might not actually be a secret Y.A. author in disguise. I think of myself as gritty, but Y.A.'s gotten pretty gritty of late, and most of the characters that spring into my mind are young, if not high school aged. Probably because I am trapped into a perpetual state of immaturity. There would be some advantages--Y.A. authors are less penalized for genre-romping, so I could write historical fantasy and dystopian science fiction under the same pen-name--as well as a wider audience and bigger paychecks. Sounds good to me.

Next year's COnduit will be superhero themed. The guest is Tamora Pierce. They've already got the website up for next year. I've never read anything by her, but I like some of her book titles. I find myself scratching my head and wondering where to start. Usually I study an author's career in chronilogical order but reading 26 books by the same author is a little dauting.

UP FRIDAY: Double book review! The Lies of Locke Lamora and Paper Mage.

The cover art for local author Brandon Sanderson's new epic fantasy series Way of Kings is up on Tor's website. It's by Michael Whalen so it's, of course, beautiful. Sanderson read us excerpts from the book at LTUE, and the parts I heard sounded like good writing. Unfortunately, of course all the ideas I had while listening were blatant copies so I hard to discard them, which was too bad. Some of the ideas were quite good, I thought.

Still not sure whether I'll read the book, because it sounds like the formatting is weird and I hate books I can't finish in a single setting. He said this new puppy's over 400,000 words long, which is freaking ridiculous. Longer than the Gathering Storm. I like reading epic fantasy as must as the next nerd, but I don't like the carpal tunnel that is going to come with it if I try and pick up the hardback monster. Wheel of Time is bad enough for that.

There's also a second choice on the Tor web page. I like the composition better, because it has that classic s-curve which so delights the eye, but it doesn't work so well with the lettering. It surprises me that the lettering is done separately BEFORE. I always figured they decided on the lettering after they saw the cover art. When I decided newspaper layout, I did them both at once, and it's hard for me to imagine developing headline lettering without seeing the image I'm going to use first.

My favorite part of this cover is the sky. Which is incredibly gorgeous.

Non-Cliche Wizards (Wyzzzardz)

We're a little late coming into this one because my computer takes freaking 15 mintues to log on.

Panelists: Julie Clegg, Paul Gilette, Brandon Sanderson, Scott Parkin (sp?)

Q: How do we depart from the Gandalf archetype? Especially since stories reuqire a wise mentor?

BS: Taditional story focusses on someone young who doesn't know much about the world. Thus, they need the mentor as a rock, something to latch onto, the hang to. "It fulfills a great story function." Novel is a young form of literature...depending if you count the tale of Genji or not...scholars point to the birth of the novel in modern form in 1700s. Now, we're more mature. We want knowable protagonists instead of unknowable characters who stand above. We write the wizard's POV, make him fallible, instead of having the young mentor-needing presence.

SP: Keep him if you need 'em, lose him if you don't. No need to jettison him if it works for your story. Other side of ancient mentor is evil mentor. Wise crone can be good or evil.

BS: Jafar.

JC: Evil has a bigger evil.

PG: Subverted in my Iron Dragon series by filling different roles--religious priests, warriors. In the second, use a young mentor. Martial artist. Mentor doesn't need to be as weak as Raistlin. He can be stronger than a warrior. The wizard is the tough guy. Studying since a small child, got knowledge. No beard. Twist the wizard!

BS: I like to dig at the roots of these sorts of questions. One of the things that's bothered me is when people use Hero of a Thousand Faces as a guidebook. Even Lucas didn't work...shoe-horned it into the prequel triology. For example, the virgin birth. It was meant as a checkbox. NOT FOR THE STORY OF ITSELF. It didn't fit the story, it was shoe-horned it. Don't do that. If you're going to use the Campbellian characters, use it to make it a greater story, not just because "you have to have one." This mono-myth is what happens when people tell stories. They told the story that came naturally. They did not shoe-horn this stuff in. Look at the roots of the story--why do people like the wise mentor? What does it reprensent? Wonder Mystery Magic--he's the symbol of this. Where he works--the main characters aren't using magic in the same way. Dumbledore/Gandalf says: hey, hero, go do this and then he wanders off. It strains disbelief a little--why doesn't Dumbledore do it himself? Why not remove the character?

SP: What are you trying to accomplish with this character? Simple wisdom, power, magic. Common filler techniques--ancient prophecy. Serves the place of the quest-giver. (I hate ancient prophecy. I think it's overused.) Don't paint by numbers. Tell the story you want to tell. That's the problem with these panels, we're not going to hand you a script of a story that works without these wizards. Come up with the great story first.

BS: These are tools, not rules. Know what the wise mentor does and why people like them. He's part of your toolbox, but do them your own way if you need that where you told.

Survey: Are we trying to fing alternatives to the wise mentors (quarter of audience raise hands) fresh look at the genre (about the same amount)

BS: I think the same ppl raised their hands twice.

JC: You have to know the rules to break the rules. Talks about how you start with the stereotypes, write them, understand them, then once you know, you break it. So the next fantasy I'm going to write has the "old squirrel mentor" and as long as he has a nice long wells.

Dan Willis walks into the room and joins the panel...15 minutes late. Go Dan!

BS: Maybe we should talk about the fact that fantasy as a genre has gotten very tired of the same kind of stories. Then heard in fantasy genre that people are tired of vampires. He was wrong. Read Rob Newcomb--who flopped for reasons the publishers don't understand. Sanderson thinks he fails because telling the same story fails in comparison to Tolkein/Robert Jordan. But then again, Eragon worked. You never can tell what's going to be really big. Advice: stay away from architypes. This is a large genre that is largely unexplored.

JC: Is it ever okay to write it? Yes, if you're beginning. Try to twist them, after you've written and learned.

BS: Even before I was teaching beginning writers, I grew very tired of people saying "My Elves are different." My response: I've read lots and lots and lots of elves. Tad Williams has elves. Really good elves. But I, personally, am sick of them. (Note: there are a lot of people who will not read books with elves.) Same thing with wise old mentors. You can subvert it. For example, Wheel of Time: Gandalf shows up and Gandalf is a girl. Thom Merilin is Merlin with a mustache. And no magic. (I totally did not catch that until now.) Don't think you're being fresh and original just because your orcs do red skin.

SP: Look at American Gods--well known archetypes but made fresh. For example, make powerful but stupid. But they;re not what a novel is built on--they're things to help a story, not the story yourself.

Hands up on who's read American Gods. (SERIOUSLY?????? You guys need to broaden your literary horizons. There's like five of us.)

DW: (Dan Willis) The problem is with any story unless your protagonist sprung fully formed from the head of Zeus, your hero needs some training up. Someone needs to do that, and that's usually the mentor. But then the mentor needs a fatal flaw so the hero still has a role. Wizard replaces Google, as a world of knowledge. You can, of course, skip that part of the story, but then you have that. You still need the world's wikipedia (Hermoine) and that's what the mono-myth wizard does. (That's why mentors often die! Because the heroes lose the crutch). The best thing is to make the character a character with a capital C. Say...Yoda. We meet him, the goofy flake, we know he's powerful, but he doesn't show that face. "If you can make that guardian threshhold character interesting, you'll go much further than just taking the beard off."

JC: But Yoda's disguise was also a archetype, the fairy crone who hides in the forest and tests heroes to decide if they're worthy of their gifts. The old woman at the well. Yoda at the well.

BS: Roots of storytelling--two roots, told to people who weren't educated, so educated people represent something different, because there are more educated people. A weird thing happened right after Tolkein--wizard/science is hard to understand. We're not interested in him, we're interested in the mortal man who's like us. Not the godly people. Cinderella, not the fairy godmother. But after Tolkein, we become educated and we empathize more with Gandalf. Then you see the apprentice stories...the wizard. David Eddings, Terry Brooks. The young apprentice becomes Gandalf rather than Gandalf gives the quest and we go on it. But where is it going now? What's the next step? Start with the character already learned. We're going to start with the character right now. Because we're in the society where we have access to so much information.

SP: Once upon a time, the mentor character was the substitute for god. Not interested in local politics, relies upon the lesser creatures to make the world better. Now, we're not replacing god or seeking power from god. Do you require god to be an external power, or not? Does god have a speaking role in your stories?

PG: Actually, in the mythology, he's an angel. He's there to inspire men and elves. I didn't know that for years--I just thought he was an old man. When I understood what he was, that kind of blew my mind. He's the mouthpiece of a god as a why.

DW: I remember when I first read lord of the rings I was 12 or 13, I was struck by the fact Gandalf didn't do much. He never really did much magic. It's the difference you talk about--in the old tales, you have the guardian character who won't do what needs to be done because it needs to be done by the hero. In the modern series, its the guardian can't do the great thing because he can't. Dumbledore dies because of his own fatal flaw.

SP: Harry Potter--transcended the world of Voldemort and Dumbledore at the end, turning things into something more mundane.

BS: Another convention in MG is that you remove the authority figure so kids can have adventures. So there were extra constraints on Harry Potter--the kids have to have the adventure. Dumbledore usually has no good reason not to solve things but its a kid's book so Harry has to do it.

JC: Can you all think of some classic novels or recent stuff that breaks the boundaries well? The Riddlemaster Triology is the one he likes. As you go through the series, you're revealing more and more. He isn't a stereotype.

DW: Lloyd Alexander -- he does a great thing where he makes the wizard character a pig.

BS: Liked Robert Jordan's Moiraine. She was really interesting, followed some of the new paradigms later in the series, but in the first she was the weird, wise unknowable mentor. (I liked her better as the weird and wise). Part of the archetype: THE WIZARD ALREADY DIES. Told his sister Gandalf was going to die in book five or six.

JC: At least Lloyd Alexander's wizard made good bacon.

BS: All the wise archetypes kick the buckets during the climax. One thing I've tried to do with characters like this is I like getting into his head. I always wanted to get into Gandalf's POV. It changes the story if you do the POV because you have to make them flawed and interesting. We have these people in our lives--parents and scout masters and that--and their stories are interesting. At least to me.

You see a lot of Merlin stories in post-modern. That's kind of doing the same thing. (I loved MAry Stewart!)

SP: Alternative--look at eastern myth, or Greek And Roman, where the gods are advanced men but not advanced morally.

BS: But watch out for the "wise negro" / minority characters.

PG: Harry Dresden. He's broke. He's pretty interesting. Yet he should be the CEO of some major company or something. He's got skills, people, but he's the bottom of the barrel. He's got to survive.

BS: Yep, Harry Dresden is an awesome wizard but not Gandalf.

Comment: Dragonriders of Pern. The bard! He was very human, although he was a mentor. (He was my favorite character.)

SP: Human-driven power versus god-driven power.

DW: But when you have a protagonist as the magical character, you must develop the rules of magic well. Dresden--rules, like technology doesn't work around him. If you get into the Asian stuff, resist the temptation to end the books where the Asian books end. Your American audience will not be happy.

Shameless promotion! They do it!

Hey, Brandon knows what he's doing this time. He's doing two different readings from Way of Kings. Neato! He's doing the Superstars workshop. See more about it on his blog. Too pricey for me...

And yet ends another interesting episodes of Jennifer's blog.

DW blames the parking gods for his lateness. The parking is pretty difficult here--I got here a half-hour early to make sure I had a seat.

Or pink. Whatever.

Anyway, I'm finally back from my excessive vacation and am kicking off by blogging the BYU Life The Universe And Everything conference/seminar/thingy. Anyway, it's directed to those of us who are aspiring science fiction writers.

We'll start the morning off with "Fantasies without Magic." The panelists are: Larry Correia (Monsters Hunter International) Robert Defendi (game designer, works for people, Death by Cliche), Paul Genesse (Moderater--The Golden Cord --Iron Dragon series) and Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn and Gathering Storm, Elantris, etc.)

Forgive the typos, no time to clean up and I'm typing perched on my purse. Not the stablest of positions! Brandon's a little late. The other panelists joke about how we're all here for Brandon...but he'll be here in ten minutes.

They do their intros. Buy these guys books! They're awesome! [Note on my style--direct quotes are marked by "quote marks" and everything else is paraphrase. Parenthesis are my own comments.]

Q: Is it really fantasy if it doesn't have magic?
LC: Sure. Mine has monsters. My magic is in the background. "The real question is 'Can you have fantasy without ninjas?'" (Apparently Brandon Sanderson is going to buy the 300-people crowd doughnuts...or at least so LC promises on his behalf.)
BD: The line between fantasy and sci-fi is so blurred anyway. When it comes right down to it, what is magic? Gods? Fantastic elements versus traditional magic.
RD: George R.R. MArtin--very little magic. Apparently none. (He asks the crowd who's read GRRM and there's surprisingly little. Shame on you! SHAME!) As long as the world is different...
LC: Anne McCafferey--fantasy (kindof) without magic. Bioengerneered dragons are still dragons!

(I'm surprised no one's brought up Guy Gavriel Kay.) Description of GRRM-- "It's like getting punched in the face for 700 pages" (--LC?)

RD mentions that he was inspired to write a child-torture scene because of GRRM. Without dragons or magic, books become less escapist.

Q: How do you create a sense of wonder in the reader w/o magic?

BD: Character still confronting the impossible, overcoming that obsticle can create the sense of wonder.

Brandon Sanderson walks in and comments on Bob Defendi's beard.

"This is what ten a.m. looks like" says BS. "This is the only time of the year that I get up this early." He brags about his A parking pass.

This is Brandon's first panel ever as a guest of honor. Says he's on the wrong panel because he doesn't do this.

BS: Looking at the history of fantasy, fantasy started without magic. Conan/Tarzan are the earliest predecessors of fantasy. Gemmell, GRRM are the spiritual successors. "It's gritty, it's dirty and if there's magic, it's not understood." Setting can be sense of wonder. Tarzan had the dark continent. Conan had pre-history. John Carter of Mars, Disney's doing a film of...even though they don't have clothes on. Mars is like that.

LC: I got bashed on, compared to Conan's writer.
BS: Notes that guys in loinclothes hitting people with big swords were actually pretty eloquent.
etc., etc., etc., eloquence and nudity! Woohoo! Recommends reading it because it's better than it's expecting. "If you're going to use magic, use the place to give a sense of mystery." The far east may seem normal to us, but it can be very exotic to the characters, making it exotic to us.

LC: Doing an alternate history series coming out next year. Magic isn't wonder for the main character because she's used to it. Indoor Plumbing causes wonder. Skyscrapers become wonder.
Magic is not.

Q: At what point does magic become science?
BD: When you're Brandon Sanderson!

BS: Admits he's built his career on this. Time travel turns science into magic. Bring science back from the past and it becomes magic. Joel Rosenburg, Dragon and the George sort of thing. The same thing works in reverse--wizards can be scientists.

BD: Anytime your magic is so well understood, like the laws of physics, I think you blur the line.

(I disagree on this point. A well-defined magic system is still magic. No way it'll ever be science. Approaching something scientifically doesn't mean that the object approached is science.)

Argued with Dave Wolverton/Farland about speed runes versus endurance runes for horses, loves the nuts and bolts. The more you give me that, the more you enjoy it.

BS: Making magic a science sacrifices the wonder but gives more credance to plot. Gandalf and the vagueness of magic is okay. I have to find my sense of wonder somewhere else...usually settings. "That's one of the core ideas of fantasy: immersion." Realism, even with magic.

BD: Says he's now going to put a 'theoretical magician' in his book.

Q: When does science become magic.

PG: Speaks about an Egypt series, first book is 'Warlock' and everything he does seems like magic, but it's really not. (Sounds like a cool series! I wish I'd heard the name).

BS: Talks about GRRM. (That's what you get for coming in late, Brandon.) Calls it "proof you can do great, epic fantasy without this." His history is his strength. Brutal, but genius. Admits he couldn't read past the first book. Martin barely uses any.

(Martin does this because he has a great world. Note how many books he'd already written! I'd advise beginning authors to not expect themselves to do so well without the magic.)

Joe Abercrombie -- some magic, but heir to GRRM.

PG: Disappointed when GRRM started using more magic.
LC: Did a magic Deus ex Machina halfway through my book just because people told me I couldn't.
PG: Yes, and you swallow it because its built up.

BS: Dark urban. Fantasy gobbled up horror. Dark urban is its revision--low magic elements, like Twilight. Magical talents of vampires. "A lot of Vampire books aren't approaching it at all." Vampirism as science--STDs, blood disease. (I do like it when they talk about the science of vampires/werewolves/zombies. If the science has depth, its pretty cool.) Obviously Dresden files and those involve a lot of magic. Look at it: what do the readers enjoy. If it's not the magic,what is it?

LC: The sparkles?

BS: Wonder can come on events--what weird things would happen next.

Comment: Jonathan Strange & Mister Norrell does have the theoretical magician.

BS: Obviously, stole the idea.
LC: Is the epic quest for grant money?
BD: No, I want a magician who's like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory. (Audience shows love for Sheldon...I'm a Leonard girl, myself.).

Q: About Slipstream--

PG: Defines it. (Look it up, people.)
BS: Almost hallucinagenic, dreamlike qualities--sense of wonder and "sense of this person is stoned." Not magical, but a sense of stoned.

Other slipstream authors listed, included convention attendee L.E. Modisett.

Q: How do you define magic (Q from magic). (I always wonder why anyone asks this question. Who cares, really? Does it matter? It's like trying to define poetry...)

BS: Hard fight. Between science/magic. Star Wars gets tugged to pieces by both camps. "The line for me is someone breaks the line of physics as we understand them." Science fiction at least gives nod to what could exist.

(Odd, how this puts faster than light travel into the magic category.)

Other panelists agree.

LC: In a business sense, magic is whatever your publisher says it is. Pitched a book as epic fantasy with detailed rules, editor calls it "superheroes."
BS: Genre is a convention for booksellers, publishers and librarians. "It's a necessary evil in most people's eyes." Except the marketers... Familiar and strange balance act. Genre helds with the familiarity.
BD: Video Game marketing. It's an RPG because that's the marketing angle.

Comments: (Not sure where he's going...GRRM is an awesome writer, no duh)...GRRM has good characters, makes sympathy.

BD: Analysis on forums of GRRM...Magic is more ritual/religious than magical. Takes the place of the moral center? Ammoral characters.
BS: He makes my point about how GRRM has been doing this forever. "I think if people COULD figure out how GRRM writes, they would do it." Master of show, master of dialogue, master of characterize someone sharply, quickly, powerfully. Brilliantly brutal to his readers, but if he wasn't so good at characterization doesn't happen. Magic is not his strength. Characters were. Follow your skills! "That doesn't mean you have to do it GRRM or BS or LC or whoever's out there. Do it your own way!"

BD: Gem of wisdom: he's brutal to his readers because his characterization is so good.

(Wow...this is like the GRRM panel.)

Q: Did that Eqyptian dude believe he was a scientist or a magician?

PG: (Wilbur was the author's name). He thought the gods helped him, but he thought of himself as a man of knowledge rather than a man of magic. He thought his knowledge was a connection to the divine.

Q: How far should you take explaining the magic system before it becomes repetitious, obscure, annoying? (Good rule!)

LC: When the reader becomes bored. No hard and fast rule. Look at Mistborn
BD: I was just going to go there!
BS: I love you guys...
LC: Note, he uses the appendixes.
BS: Balance--have more information to give to those who want it, but not so much that they depend on it. BS relates it to a learning curve, how steep a learning curve--all depends on different elements. Erik Stephenson--learning curve punches you in the face. No right answer. Some people want no answers, some people want tables. Brandon tries to cater to both.

(I definitely am a reader who likes less detail in terms of magic, though more in terms of culture and creature evolution.)

BD: I remember how things worked in Mistborn, but not why. BS told us what mattered. The theory versus the practical stuff--practical stuff is more important.
BS: Establish a rule and stick to it. As long you stick to the rule, then you won't need to do why if you're not doing rule-based magic.

Final thoughts. Is it fantasy w/o magic.
LC: Yes. (Talks about signing, workshop.)
BD: It's fantasy if I say it's fantasy. (Shills for next panel).
BS: Fantasy - Alternative. Has his personal assistant tell his schedule. (HA!)
PG: Shills GRRM.

Wow, my back really hurts after that. I doubt I'll keep up that level of detail. Next is a keynote address from an artist in a room with no plugs, so no coverage for you! HAAHAHA

Listened to Writing Excuses again before going to bed. Which, as we all know, triggers the weirdest dreams...

In this case, I spent most of the time watching my grandfather run over suicide bombers who jumped on the road, mowing them all down with his truck. It didn't make a lot of sense, but at least I got to eat Tikka Masala after we went to a banquet thrown in the terrorists' honor (with Indian food?).

Anyway, there I met Brandon Sanderson, who was holding a book signing in a treehouse. Which he should totally do because IT WOULD BE AWESOME. I climbed up there and managed to convince him to read the first five pages of my novel, only I couldn't find my new drafts. I think I ended up re-writing the first five pages from scratch.

When I came down from my hotel room the next morning, Sanderson was literally furious, sweat pouring down his face, pacing back and forth, stomping around. He told me I should never show this to anyone again because it was so horrible, the worst thing ever written in a variety of ways, and I was punishing people by forcing them to read it. THEN he accused me of breaking into his office and plagiarizing parts of the Towers of Midnight... (because it was horrible if I wrote it, but if he wrote it, it was a masterpiece :) )

I woke up, then. Strangest thing was, I woke up feeling happy despite the soul-shredding critique because I'm like "Brandon Sanderson read my work! Awesome!!!!!"

Poor Brandon. He has to play the weirdest roles in my dreams. When I was a Storm Leader, it was nice because almost all the other Storm Leaders had weird dreams about him/Robert Jordan books too. So I may be strange, but at least I'm not the only one.

Other people dream about movie stars. I dream about fantasy authors. Golly, Virgia, I think I'm a nerd.

Ah...the wonderful world of speed dating. I went today and found it doesn't work for me. I need to spend more than three minutes with a person to discover if there's any connection, unless there are supermodels there, and then its love at first sight. But I did find out about a new local board gaming club, yah!

One of the Storm Leaders over at Dragonmount asked Brandon about what books he read and liked, and since the theme of the week seems to be book recommendations, I thought I'd post them here. Red indicate ones I've read and liked too. Rothfuss is one of the books I bought on my orange and black binge. Strangely, one of the guys I met speeding is Brandon's next door neighbor, which is an odd coincidence...

• Patrick Rothfuss: The Name of the Wind (Sanderson must have sold several copies of Rothfuss’s book last night. He practically ordered one guy to take his signed Gathering Storm, walk downstairs, and buy Name of the Wind off the shelf before leaving the store.)
• Barbara Hambly: Dragonsbane
• Jane Yolen: The Pit Dragon Trilogy
• Melanie Rawn: Dragon Prince (he once set this one on fire, surreptitiously reading it by candlelight after his mom had turned out the lights and sent him to bed.)
• Terry Pratchett: recommends starting with Guards! Guards!
• Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon the Deep
• Jim Butcher: The Dresden Files
• Robin Hobb: various trilogies, including the Farseer and Tawny Man Trilogies
• Stephen Brust
• Adam Rex

Godsplay revision is 30,000 words away from being done, and counting... I'm going slowly, trying to maximize the impact of the climax. It's hard to tell if I'm pulling it off or not. That's what writing groups are for, right?

Finished the the Gathering Storm. In about 12 hours. Fantastic. There are minor quibbles, minor disappointments, occasional steps out of character, and definite jolts of stylistic choice that left me blinking, but nothing that denies the basic greatness of the work itself. There is no question that Tor chose a worthy heir. I think most of my annoyances would have existed even if Robert Jordan had written the work, so they don't stem from a new author.

I was right about the character POV swaps though. That was a little distracting. Felt like a water droplet being jolted around on a hot griddle. I wanted to nail the POV to the ground and FOCUS.

Still, he did a phenomenal job. This book will make you fall in love with the Wheel of Time all over again. I laughed, I cried (well, not really), I cheered.

I will have to pick up Brandon Sanderson's other books now and read them. That is the highest compliment you can give an author.

Here's my write-up of the Wheel of Time release party last night: if you were one of those people crazy enough to tune into the live broadcast, you got to watch me sing Dance with Jak o' the Shadows. The video will probably float to the surface to embarrass me long after I have granchildren.

Anyway, here it is. I hope it's all accurate--I was very tired last night and some of the notes I took are completely illegible.

Diary of a Stormleader (By Jennifer McBride)—unrepentantescapist.blogspot.com (a.k.a Vegetathalas)

Want a sneak peek into the glorious, glamorous life of a Storm Leader? Here’s a glimpse into the excitement of during the midnight bookstore release at BYU. (For those of you watching the livecast, I was the really annoying blond girl that hopefully nobody noticed because they were so busy goggling at Brandon. This was my first chance to be at a Wheel of Time release party, so I might have been a touch…overexcited.)

12:00 p.m.: TWELVE HOURS BEFORE THE RELEASE

The Stormleaders have been meeting by email for a couple of weeks, but it’s finally time to meet in person. People from all over the valley (and one from Idaho) converge on Springville, Utah to put the final touches on the event. We range from fans who have followed the series almost since its inception to one person who only joined up at the Knife of Dreams. Most of the meeting we spend talking about our favorite books and examining the swag from Tor, which includes comic books, bumper stickers and bookmarks. As I run my fingers down the slick comic book covers, murmurs of “my precious” are heard. THANKS TOR!

Matt Hatch, our “First Among Servants,” already has the book and stayed up all night reading it despite a trip from Las Vegas which left him short of sleep. He lets us look at it. A quick-flip through doesn’t reveal any new chapter symbols, though I could have missed some. The book weighs in at a hefty 783 pages with a skinny glossary. Oddly, the symbol above Brandon Sanderson’s biography is Faile’s golden waistband from Sevanna. An oblique commentary on Brandon being ‘chained’ to his work? I’m glad they changed the last line of Robert Jordan’s biography. Every time I read the “until they nail shot his coffin” part, I feel like I’ve lost him all over again.

We also learn that a storm is literally gathering in Provo, but the rain won’t break until after the party, hopefully. At least the live feed works, even if there’s a delay.

The host’s two-year-old daughter tells us gleeful that the Stormleaders are coming. She seems disappointed to find out the “Stormleaders” are us.

3:00 p.m.: NINE HOURS BEFORE THE RELEASE

We break to visit fans, who are already in line at the BYU bookstore. I rush around town buying necessities—chocolate to keep me awake all night (thank God for Halloween!) and enough copies of the trivia quiz/word find/crossword puzzle to keep some 300 people entertained – our rough estimate of how many are going to show up.

On my way to the bookstore, I’m thinking about Semirhaag when I see a dead hand dangling out of the car trunk in front of me. Seeing it helps me reach new heights of vulgarity until I realize that the hand is plastic, which makes me remember…oh yeah. Halloween.

I run these errands wearing my Stormleader t-shirt to show my general awesomeness. Unfortunately, the rest of the world seems oblivious to said awesomeness. The clerks at Albertsons seem more concerned with the sale on camouflage Snuggies.

6:00 p.m. SIX HOURS BEFORE THE RELEASE

After struggling with a possessed copy machine, I head over to the Red Rooster Dumpling Bar in downtown Provo. Matt’s there and he’s put together a poll in which fans try to guess what will happen by the series’ end.

I get kicked out of my seat by Brandon’ s assistant (Peter, who is wearing a shirt with the word “incalculable,” because that’s what Brandon calls him in one of his book dedications). And I realize with horror that BRANDON SANDERSON is going to be sitting across from me. Watching me eat. What if I get broccoli stuck in my teeth? The HORROR!!!

Brandon arrives fresh off his trip to Denver’s MileHighCon with a nasty cold that will, through the night, put him on the edge of losing his voice. We all feel sorry for him, especially because he’s going to get a maximum of three hours sleep tonight before he’s off on the plane to his next signing.

The dinner goes well, with good conversation. There’s a certain surreal aspect to it, as we’re all clustered around a table treating Brandon like a celebrity and/or minor god and NO ONE ELSE IN THE RESTAURANT KNOWS WHO HE IS. There’s even another Brandon at another table, and the author looks up when he hears his name, grinning sheepishly. His wife, Emily, a former English teacher, is nice, beautiful and pregnant.

Some things we talk about at dinner: (I didn’t take proper notes but I believe the 4^th Age Podcaster of our group was recording it so you can probably hear an edited version there)

· Brandon refuses to confirm or deny that the One Power was used to kill Asmodean. He also mentions a Slayer scene deleted from the Shadow Rising which would have shown more about Slayer’s powers.

· If he could pick a nationality from the Wheel of Time world, he’d belong to Malkier because he loves the lost kingdom story. He thinks all the Borderlands are cool, but would definitely NOT be a Saldaean.

· He says he’d have to consult the notes to make sure, but he believes women can become “wolf-sisters.” We just haven’t seen any.

· His favorite chapters to write from TGS were the concluding chapter and also chapter 22.

He also repeated things that he’s said elsewhere, like that Robert Jordan left extensive notes, though he does have the power from Harriet to override them for the interests of the story. Robert Jordan especially left a lot of specific notes as to who lived and who died in Tarmon Gaidin, and he wasn’t going to change any of that. So is there going to be a lot of deaths?

The answer, of course, is RAFO.

I don’t remember if he said this during dinner or during the signings or both, but he was considering doing the outrigger and prequel novels, but that the decision was ultimately Harriet’s. Jordan left notes for that as well, especially the other prequels. If Brandon writes the other books, it will be after a pause at the end of the series. He definitely doesn’t want it to become ‘the McWheel of Time.’

He also said that the series’ ending puts certain threads in perspective. For example, Morgase, my least favorite character, apparently turns out to be less annoying than she appears. Also, fans will better be able to understand the importance of some of the lesser-liked books, like Crossroads of Twilight.

After Tor picks up the check (THANKS TOR! AGAIN!), Brandon heads over to the bookstore to begin signing books. He goes into the back to sign and number everything, and will wait to personalize the books of those willing to stick around and wait in another line. At this point, there’s about 120 people waiting out in the cold at the bookstore. The sun went down almost four hours ago, and I’d guess the temperature is around 46 degrees.

10 p.m. TWO HOURS BEFORE THE RELEASE

The gates are opened and people flock in. While I’m off making copies, a 150 more people get in line with more to come. The line, which once wound around the block, now winds around the bookstore. We hand out trivia quizs and start grading them. The winners will get their pick of the Wheel of Time comic books, which are both beautifully illustrated. I love the lacy gateway Ishamael weaves in the prequel, as well as Lews Therin’s destruction scene. Awesome. To my chagrin, the other fans know the series better than I do. The key has some answers wrong, which I realize after I’ve thought about it. Oops. Only two people managed to get a perfect score, both brothers, so congratulations to the Briggs!

When Brandon gets finished signing in the back, he works the line, signing copies of Mistborn, Elantris, the Alcatraz series, and his latest: Warbreaker.

12 a.m.: MIDNIGHT!

After a fifteen second countdown, the boxes are opened and the books are released. Brandon begins signing, and signing, and signing. Sometimes he takes questions from the live feed. I only heard a couple, but one of them was “which Ajah would he be if he could pick an Ajah” and he answered: Brown. Given his love of the Borderlands, I was expecting Green.

The signing went smoothly and well. The bookstore did a wonderful job hosting us and gave out their own door prizes, including free books. It struck me how sincerely grateful Brandon was for his fans, thanking them and trying to remember their names—impossible given however many hundred were stuffed into line. He also stuck up for the Stormleaders and made sure we got our numbers (in the 90s), which was kind of him. He had a cheat card with some phrases of the Old Tongue written down to help with the spelling in personalizing books. Some of his favorite things to write included: “May you always find water and shade” and “it’s time to toss the dice.”

Fans requested other things, like “Tai’shar Robert Jordan” and sayings from Siuan Sanche along with personal jokes. Brandon refused to sign stuff he hadn’t worked on, like the comics. One person brought his old Magic the Gathering Cards and gave them to Brandon, earning his eternal gratitude.

There were a surprising number of fans who waited the several hours in line even though they’d never read a Robert Jordan book. One person waited hours to thank Brandon for his books even though he had nothing to sign. Even Brandon’s sisters joined the line, and Brandon signed a book to “the Goober,” his mother. One of the two people who had come to Brandon’s first book signing back when Elantris was released (and Brandon sat in the bookstore, all alone—very different than today) came to get his book signed. He can legitimately call himself Brandon’s “#1 fan.” There were also people who’d never read Brandon’s works before, including some truly dedicated. Among the rubber band balls, axes and corsets, there was also a man with a heron marked sword. Epic fantasy lovers and t.v. cameras mingled between shelves stacked high with books.

Brian Lickey was the lucky fan who ended up with book #1 of TGS. He waited in line 41 hours, waking up at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday and deciding to go wait in the bookstore line because he had “nothing better to do.” Brian may be a relative latecomer to the series, (he started reading in 2002), but that didn’t dampen his enthusiasm. He said he’d been resisting reading Robert Jordan for years until he fled Utah to get away from Olympic Fever and caught Wheel of Time fever instead. His favorite male character is Mat and his favorite female character is Min.

APPROX. 2:45 a.m.

The last fan has made it through the bleary-eyed yet enthusiastic line. Brandon’s voice is shot. Everyone is tired after a long day. It’s rumored the bookstore sold 400-500 books. The Storm Leaders are the last to get their books personalized from Brandon’s hands, still writing legibly despite the weariness. For some reason, more than a hundred crazy souls have stuck with us through the livefeed and Brandon dances for them. Let’s just say I don’t think MTV will be calling anytime soon. The Stormleaders join in, and we all chant “To Dance with Jak O’ the Shadows.”

Brandon called it his “biggest book signing ever” and hurries home to upload Towers of Midnight onto his portable computer so he could work on it during the tour. Hopefully he managed to get some sleep in the three hours before his flight to Carolina.

The Stormleaders trudge away. I’m too tired even to read the book I spent the last who knows how many years waiting for. I stare at the stack of some 200-300 email addresses I need to put together for the Utah Wheel of Time mailing list we’re developing and sigh before turning into bed.

The Storm may be over, but the work is just beginning. Especially for Brandon, who is probably about to endure the most exhausting book tour of his life.

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For anyone wondering what I asked Brandon to write in my book (#96) -- "For Jennifer. May you become the writer you dream of becoming."