Dinner with Brandon

It seems I have my realms of geekdom.

I have my Browncoats. That itch I scratched last Thursday with our local Can’t Stop the Serenity screening.

Then I have my Wheel of Time. You might have noticed the overkill of posts over the last two months leading up to the release of The Gathering Storm, the twelfth book in The Wheel of Time books series. The series was started by Robert Jordan who passed away and is being finished by Brandon Sanderson.

And that Wheel of Time itch I got to scratch Monday night while serving as a Storm Leader at a Sanderson book signing for The Gathering Storm. It was an honor given to me by Tor Books and Dragonmount.com. It basically meant I helped with the signing event itself, moving people around, passing out schwag and surrounding myself with other fans.

The real treat of the night was being able to sit down with Sanderson for dinner. My fellow Storm Leaders and myself were able to run questions and theories by Sanderson during the dinner and dessert. He was open when he could be, held back on the spoilers when he could and was guarded when it came to the integrity of the secrets of the series.

But aside from that dinner with Bran the Man, here are just a couple of things I enjoyed about the night.

• It has been some time since have been surrounded by my fellow WoT fans. A couple of years at least. And something of this magnitude? That would have to harken back to when players on Wheel of Time Mud would get together for weekend campouts and general geekery.
• I love that as I walked up and down the line, handing out schwag, that the range in the age of those in line went from the young to the old. For some of those standing in line, the first book in the series had to have been released before they were even born.
• I realized that my WoTbrain is inferior to many of those out there. Being honest with myself, I knew this was going to be the case. It had been far too long since I had read the series to be current with everything. I had left my theory guessing behing me. And there were those there would would just blow you mind with minute facts drawn from a single passage in the fourth book. It was awesome. A bit rejuvenating even. And drives me to finish the reread of the series that I failed on before The Gathering Storm was released.
• Sanderson is a full on geek just like the rest of us. You can tell he loved this series before he was even asked to finish it. So he has something invested in it. And he will routinely talk about Magic: The Gathering with fellow fans. He can strike up a conversation about many other fantasy writers as well. And he is a fan of conventions, with Salt Lake City’s local CONduit coming up quite frequently.
• Sanderson toed the line and lasted until the very end as well to make sure everyone there, including the Storm Leaders. And then he left a plethora of signed copies at Sam Weller’s (a very cool independent bookseller in Salt Lake City) for those who may just wander in.
• Many fans were there not only for themselves but others as well. Going out of the way to get a friend’s book signed is one thing. But getting a brand new book signed for someone you hope to introduce the series to? That is just plain sweet.

So after a great night with Sanderson, my fellow Storm Leaders and all the fans, I consider myself lucky to be part of this particular fandom. Thank you for scratching my itch.

As for my review of The Gathering Storm? You will have it when I finish. I curse you work!