Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Brandon Sanderson => Topic started by: Curious on August 02, 2009, 11:25:50 PM
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I'm a great fan of Brandon Sanderson, and I've read everything he's published (except the Alcatraz series). I read his blog and listen to his WritingExcuses pod-casts, so I was extremely excited to hear that he's coming to Montreal. What I'm wondering is, what happens at these signings? How long do they last? Does anyone have any comments about any signings they've gone to? I normally don't go to these kinds of things but then again the first artist I've really become a major fan of is Mr S. Should I go?
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First, Brandon gets there, thanks people for coming and introduces himself. He then signs stuff, talks about his novels, reads at least one excerpt from his books, and signs stuff again. Then he has a Q&A, signs any books that haven't been signed, and leaves.
This was my experience with the two signings I've been to, so while it seemed pretty formulaic to me, two may not be enough to judge by.
Brandon was happy to chat with me after the signings both times, which made them a better experience for me. He obviously won't talk to you very long if other people are waiting to talk to him or if he needs to leave, but the more products you keep him busy with the more time you get with him.
If you have any questions that you want to ask him that you think of before you go, I'd recommend writing them down. I got too excited my first time and forgot the questions I wanted to ask. :P Have fun!
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Thanks so much for the info and the advice! I see that it's worth going to and I'll make sure to bring all the Sanderson books I own if I want to talk to him longer. Hehehe ;D I do think I might have some questions for him–thanks for suggesting to write them down because I could really see myself forgetting them–and I really hope he reads from something he hasn't published yet (because I heard that he read from The Way of Kings at one a public event, and I'm extremely excited for that book). How long does he read? Does the Q&A last long? Thanks so much, I was just kind of afraid of the unknown because I haven't done anything like this before. Oh, and most importantly, is there food?
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He read from Warbreaker my first time and read a character exploration scene from Way of Kings last time, as well as his most recent published work both times, so two for two on the unpublished for me.
He reads for 5-10 minutes per excerpt, but he will cut them short if he thinks that he doesn't have time.
The Q&A was 30-45 minutes at each event I attended, so about that many questions. Plus or minus some, depending on the complexity of the questions.
There is no food unless you bring it. Well, that may be inaccurate, but it has more to do with the people who are hosting the event than the author in most cases. I've been to signings where food is provided by the venue, but never to one where the author supplied it.
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Now you've gone and gotten me really excited. I'm definitely going now. It seems like it will have a good enough length to feed the hungry fans (including me—and by feed I mean satisfy their interest, not food. :D) Thanks again! By the way, I was kidding about the food (though I won't complain if there is some).
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He said at LTUE this year that he will always read from something that isn't published. So he'll more then likely do the prolouge for WoK (what he's done for most of them.)
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He may not have time to read at his Gathering Storm signings later this year (depends how hectic those are), so this is one of the last chances to attend a normal signing and hear a reading before then.
And the prologue to WoK is pretty kick...butt...
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Yeah, the last signing I attended he hadn't written the WoK prologue yet. He read that character exploration thing, which may or may not have been from WoK. a (http://It was a scene of somebody who was posing as a servant at a wedding feast to assassinate a king. Fight scene in the hall with gravity manipulation, powered by heat, I believe. Sound familiar, Ookla? What work is it? Please tell me!) :D
edit:spoiler-texted
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That's WoK. When he did the signing up at borders the day after warbreaker came out, that's what he gave me as the prolouge.
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Dag, I may have just ruined that for Curious then. Brandon said that it probably wouldn't go into his book when he read it this March. :-\
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So edit it out right now!!! If he hasn't read it, then problem solved. If so... well, then there's a problem.
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So is BS going to add an "Eh" to the end of each of his signatures to celebrate doing a canadian signing?
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I may have convinced a friend to join me if she's not busy. We both discovered Mr S at the same time, me with Warbreaker and her with Elantris. We both loved his writing but couldn't talk about it for a while because we hadn't read any of the same stuff by him. I've resolved that I'm going no matter what, though, even if she doesn't come. I already missed seeing Kenneth Oppel when he was visiting my school and he's not even my favorite author.
To Ehran, I hope he does put an "Eh" on the end of each signature. I'll having him sign my hockey stick if I can make it through the ice storm on my pet moose. I hope that when/if he comes back to Canada he comes to the same place... Here in Montreal we're the first place to have oil-heated igloos (extracted from seal blubber) so his stays wouldn't be enjoyable anywhere else. We also have the best poutine.
By the way, what was that spoiler, sortitus? Actually, never mind. :D You've really done a good job getting me all hyped up for seeing Mr S. Even if he only reads for 5-10 minutes, it will be worth it. Have the Q&As been interesting?
Would it would be indecent to bring a bookplate for TGS when it comes out along with my copies of Elantris, MB3 and Warbreaker? If I'm going with just one it's going to be Warbreaker because I have it in hardback, it's the best-looking and also my favorite, although having a bookplate would be cool too for TSG. I was a fan of RJ before BS, even if BS is the first author I'm really a fan of.
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The Q&As are as interesting as the crowd makes it, and if the crowd isn't asking the right questions Brandon will steer it some place interesting. ;)
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The last time I went to Montreal with Brandon and Dan, not one single person asked either of them to sign their books. You ungrateful Canadians—you should be grateful they didn't write off Canada for good. Show some respect! >:(
(It was November 2001. We met a guy named Moshe Feder. And ate Chinese Spaghetti.)
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Come on Ookla, don't be prejudiced against those poor Canadians because of their low-tech nation status. If any of them had a proper American time traveling machine, I'm sure they would have gotten books signed. I'm not sure that they would even work properly in the cold up there though. >_> <_<
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Darn, if no one in Montreal asked Brandon for signatures last year, I feel bad for Montreal. In that case, I'm going to bring all my books I own by him, and maybe lend one to my friend to get signed if she joins me (she's a chronic library-aholic).
Is this a good question? "Is the Stormlight Archive series going to be more driven by a quest (like the Wheel of Time with its central protagonist) or politics (like A Song of Ice and Fire with its political maneuvering)?"
Probably the first because Brandon likes showing off his awesome magic systems (for good reason) yet I think he'll definitely be able to slip in quite a bit... RJ explored The One Power while having tremendous amounts of politics (though he did take his time with those 5 books Faile spent getting captured and Perrin spending 32 chapters tying a rope in knots about it). I really enjoyed Sarene's line of plot in Elantris, and how she pulled off everything that she did.
About the "ungrateful Canadians"—I'm afraid that the vile French who outnumber us English 10-1 here in Quebec probably left the roads unclear of snow to keep anyone from seeing Mr S just because they're jealous that we actually have good literature. >:(
I'm now so determined to go get a glimpse of him that even if I have to walk 20 miles barefoot by myself I'll still go and not be one bit self-conscious. Thanks to everyone who's encouraged me to go see our favorite author!
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Read my post again and you might notice something...
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The innuendo? The cultural diversity?
P.S. Posts can have cultural diversity.
P.P.S. Posts can also have innuendo.
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The date?
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It's tomorrow, and my friend can't go, but I'm going anyway. I'm going to bring all my Mr. S books and depending on how many people are there, I'll either get them all signed, or just Warbreaker. I don't expect it to be action-packed, but I know it will be great to see a bit more of the author I find so amazing and inspirational.
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Did you tell your friend that driving to and from signings is half of the fun? You should go regardless, but it's always better with friends. If you give me an address, I can send some "associates" of mine over to give your friend some incentive. ;)
Have fun! I wish I could make it....
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The date?
Ding ding ding!!!
Man, I've been in this elevator line for 30 minutes?
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WOW! I just went to the signing today. I was telling myself, "This is going to be fun, but I shouldn't expect to be entertained the entire time. It's mainly getting to see the author in person and getting signatures." I knew it was going to be nice but I didn't want to expect too much in case it was low-key. Boy, was I wrong.
There were fewer people there than I expected, maybe 20 or 30. I was very excited just to see him, and I have to say that he looks quite different from his picture in his books. Actually, he mentioned that and said that he had his picture taken by a friend who was practicing photography and making normal people look really awesome. Brandon said that a picture that actually looks like him is going to be used in The Gathering Storm.
At the beginning, he started off by introducing himself and talking about The Wheel of Time, because a few people were there just about that and hadn't read any of his material yet. I didn't realize that Harriet was the main editor of Tor even before she met Robert Jordan. Even in person, Brandon's a great storyteller. He might be a bit long-winded, but I was captivated the entire time. His story about his first unpublished books, his first publishing, and books after that are amazing.
And yes, he read from The Way of Kings. It was just as awesome as I thought it would be, but although I wanted to hear the entire prologue (and the rest of the book too), it was a bit short (about half the prologue). One of the magic-systems is gravity manipulation! That's awesome! I wonder if all the magic systems will run on Stormlight (which I don't know much about yet).
I really like how he makes personal signings that are very special. I had him sign my copies of paper-back Elantris and Mistborn: The Hero of Ages, and my beautiful hard-cover Warbreaker. I asked him to make a personal signing (put "to Brendan" in it—that's my name) for Warbreaker, and he also wrote "My breath to yours" in it which was a nice touch. He also drew the AonDor marking for Spirit below his signature in my copy of Elantris. Thanks Brandon!
The Q&A was interesting. He did a lot of talking about the Wheel of Time, and even after reading tons on his website and some in forums as well, I still learned new things about his adventures of writing this new series. I have to say, he's quite brilliant. He talked about how he decided to go about splitting AMoL into 3, and how for the first two parts he took neither the Robert Jordan approach or the George R. R. Martin approach. Robert Jordan split the 10th book of WoT into two, and people didn't like that the character arcs and the plot arcs don't wrap up in book 10. GRRM split the cast in half for each book, choosing only half the characters for each book and covering their entire plots. Mr. S decided to go halfway between these, putting the bulk of two main story-lines in the first AMoL book yet giving a small mention to the other characters so we got to see what they were doing in the meantime, and then reversing the focus in the next book so that we'd get to see more of the characters we'd only seen a few chapters' worth of heads-up to in the previous book. I love how he's taking the WoT very seriously and how he's probably going to be the best choice to finish it for that reason.
Finally I asked my question. This is hilarious, and true, please believe me. I asked, "Is The Way of Kings going to be driven more by adventure, or more by politics? Is it going to be more like WoT or more like GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire?" He responded, "It's funny that you should ask that, because when I presented this idea to my writing group [ x ] years ago"—I don't remember how many he said—"I said, 'This is going to be half like WoT, and half like A Song of Ice and Fire.'" Wow! It's so cool that my favorite author's favorite authors are my other favorite authors too. That made my day for the third time.
He then showed a bit of art to the people who hung around for The Way of Kings (not stuff that's going to appear in the novel, just stuff his friend did I think) and talked about a whole bunch of stuff that I just typed up but then deleted be cause I realized that he might not want people circulating all this stuff online. He says he doesn't hold back enough on talking.
He also talked about a novel he's going to write one day, Scribbler. He showed us pictures on that too, and I have to say, this author is brilliant. He's inspirational and terrifying, encouraging and discouraging at the same time. He writes so well that it makes me think, "I'll never be able to do anything close to that," and it scares me but then he goes and explains how he does a lot of what he does and it's very educational and inspiring.
My friend missed out on so much.
PS: Are there rules against writing posts this long? :D
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Excellent post, good sir!
*speechless*
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Ink on the forums did both the pic from Scribbler, and the pics for WoK. I have to agree with you that they are amazing to see. Expeically the scribbler one when you know what's going on! (Side note: was it one pic for scribbler, or more then one?)
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I'm not sure, but I think it was a few for Scribbler. :-\ I mainly remember The Way of Kings pictures, and those were awesome! I really hope that with the experience he takes away from finishing the WoT he's able to do a killer 10-novel series. I always found that something felt a bit weird about the Mistborn trilogy, although today when he said that if you compared the Mistborn setting to our world, it would be in early 1800s London and it made a bit more sense to me. The first half of the prologue name-dropped a lot of cultures... I'm sure we'll all get to know them very well within eight months. :)
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I would love to have him do a signing here in Portland (Oregon, not Maine). Since I've started reading his stuff, I've not seen any news of him coming anywhere around here (that's been about a year and a half or 2 years, now).