Will Hoid be appearing as a major character in other books besides Stormlight and Dragonsteel?
Will Hoid be appearing as a major character in books other than Stormlight or Dragonsteel. Yes, he will have a major role to play in the end sequence of the Cosmere, where he will be a major viewpoint character.
I wanted to know the significance of the lemonade in Legion.
Oh the significance of lemons-- lemonade in Legion? He just really likes lemonade, there is no significance. He really does just love lemonade.
If you die, how do we find everything out?
If I die... *laughter* This is totally legit, considering my history. So, that's why we have Peter and that's why we have Karen, my continuity editor. She goes through and enters everything into our personal wiki. I talk a lot of things through with Peter and Isaac and if I've gotten far enough into a series that we feel it's right to have someone finish it we will have someone finish it. If I haven't, or if I die tomorrow, we aren't going to have them finish 8 books, we'll just release my notes. And that will be their instructions.
I guess this is a continuation of the movie stuff. I heard that you said a lot of the stuff has been optioned. Is anything looking better more recently?
Is anything looking better. The Emperor's Soul film is actually looking really sharp. That's owned by DMG who were producers on the second and third Iron Man films. And they sent a representative on the cruise with me last week *laughter* Yes, because they wanted to brainstorm with me--it was a working cruise, I was doing a writing workshop--and so we brainstormed a lot and we have a treatment that is looking very nice. A treatment is the thing you give to a screenwriter to write the screenplay. I'm very pleased with the experience with them.
And Shawn Levy's company is really good, so our chances are much better there than they have been on anything else.
In [The Hero of Ages], what would have happened if Vin had--
Oh, no spoilers. Oh if Vin had met Hoid? Oh that's not too much of a spoiler. Ohohoho, you're going to find out. *laughter* When? I can't tell you. Spoiler. Someday I will let you know. I may or may not have written stuff that involves that and been waiting a long time to release it. We'll see when the time is right.
I've heard rumors of a Steelheart movie and/or tv series. Do you have any updates on that?
Updates, I don't know if there are a lot of updates on Steelheart other than what I've posted. Shawn Levy's company bought the rights, they're a very good company. They made Real Steel, if you ever saw that, Hugh Jackman movie. And they made the Night at the Museum films. And they have bought the rights, and commissioned a screenplay. I haven't seen the screenplay yet. I mean they only started that in July, so it usually takes six months to get a screenplay written. So I'll let you know once I've read it, assuming they tell me I can tell you.
Alcatraz.
Alcatraz. Oh yes, Alcatraz. *crowd woos* So we got the rights back from Scholastic, who was not treating my baby with the, y'know, reverence that Alcatraz deserves, which isn't very much let's be honest *laughter* And we re-published those, they're going to start January, Tor's putting them out. Isaac has done a brand new full-color map for it. And is that going to go on the cover?
...Yeah that's on the back--
So the cover you'll be able to take off and spread out, and there's a map on the back of it. The jacket cover. Isn't that cool? We want to test this out and see if we should do it for Stormlight, so you have like a map you can spread out. So it's got a brand new full-color cover art, it's got interior art done by someone who did fan-art for the series and we just loved her fan-art so we hired her. So doing fan-art gets you places. And we have brand new covers for the first four and the fifth book, the last book, that Alcatraz will write, is coming out in June. *crowd woos* And the cover is awesome. We finally have good covers for the Alcatraz books. *laughter* They've been so bad for so long.
Do you already know how The Stormlight Archive is going to end?
Do I know how The Stormlight Archive is going to end. Yes I do! *crowd cheers* I'm an outliner, so I have lots of plans. I have not yet written the last scene. I wrote the last scene of Book 5 just so I had it in hand, 'cause there's two five book arcs. But I've known for many years and what's going to happen is hidden in the books already. So! *crowd woos* When it happens you'll be able to go "OH!!" When it happens in twenty years-- *laughter*
Something personal for you, with all of your success, you talk about having a group over near Dubai. What do you do to keep your head to fit in this room?
What do I do to keep my head to fit in this room. How do I keep my ego in check? Yeah. Changing diapers helps. *laughter* Last one is potty-training though so that won't last much longer. What else? Well having my children be like-- I say I write books and they go "Daddy writes books. I write books too" and then go and write one "You should use this one". They're very-- So children and family are very useful for that.
On the other thing that helps, number 1 you assume my ego wasn't enormous to start with, which it kind of was, if you talk to my friends. But really the nice thing is being a writer is not like being a movie star or a musician. What people love-- And granted they are very appreciative of me. But what they love are the characters in the books, they bond with the books. And that gives me this kind of layer where we are both like, the reader and me, are both participants in this, where we can put our arms around the other's shoulders and go "Look at that". Because the reader imagines in their head, I kind of get it 90% there and the reader does the rest. And so you guys are like part of it, right? And this just creates a nice relationship and keeps me grounded I think. But then again maybe I was never grounded so--
The Mistborn video game.
News on the Mistborn video game. They are currently planning on 2017 I think? *crowd groans* Eah, I dunno. I love the company, don't get me wrong. They are great people. I'm going to consider it vaporware until I see more coming out of them. They've just had so many problems getting started that-- Everything they show me is promising but I've not yet played anything playable. So let's just hope they do a good job and hope they are able to keep it moving forward but I can't promise you anything anytime soon.
The Evil on Threnody.
The Evil on Threnody.
Is it related to Ruin?
Is it related to Ruin. Well technically, yes. Directly? No. You let me wiggle out of that one, that's so broad.
Will Nightblood be focusing more on Siri and the God King or Vivenna or Vasher?
The sequel to Warbreaker, who will it be focusing on. More on the second two that you mentioned. 'Cause I don't want to give spoilers who survives the book.
Will Stormlight Archive ever possibly get an anime?
Will Stormlight Archive ever possibly be an anime. Anything is possible. *laughter* But it is unlikely unless somebody comes to me and really wants to make one. It's not a market I know well enough to pursue. I'll watch good anime when my brother gives it to me, but it's not like I know that market and how to make it happen.
White Sand?
White Sand. So White Sand, if you're unfamiliar with it, it's one of the books I wrote before I got published and it's kind of good, but not great… We are doing a graphic novel adaptation of it, which is awesome. The person that we gave it to to do the adaptation, the writer, took my words and cut out all of the crap that it didn't need--which is why White Sand is kind of mediocre, it's half good and half just doesn't need to be there--and cut all that out, streamlined it and the art is going very well, but it's a slow process… Isaac or Peter do you guys have any idea?
Umm... We've started on Chapter 5. So the book-- it's going to be three volumes.
It's going to be three volumes--
And each one of those covers, basically, the ground of six six comic books.
..Just give us a release date, that's all I'm asking for. *laughter*
We're somewhere in 5.
So they're working on the fifth part of the first chunk, which will be six parts. So, the first one will probably be soon. If you're going to wait until all three volumes are out, it's probably going to be a year or two.
Yes.
A year or two, right. So there you go.
Will we ever figure out, or find out how [Hoid] knows where he needs to be?
You will.
Can I get the Hoid sense of humor question real quick?
Yeah, where'd he get his sense of humor?
Yeah, because he doesn't really have one in like Mistborn.
You will find that eventually. It depends on the character he's playing. He had it in Mistborn, he just was not playing a character that was conducive to that.
Fair enough, 'cause he's very different in--
Yeah. In Elantris too.
Was Nightblood a massive waste of Investiture?
There are lots of people of that think Nightblood is a massive waste of Investiture.
Could you Awaken a Hemalurgic spike and put it in somebody, and would that have crazy effects?
That would have crazy effects. And it would be very hard.
What about [Nightblood] compared to a Shardpool?
Nightblood compared to a Shardpool? Depends on the Pool.
How would you compare the Investiture in Nightblood to the Investiture in one of the spren turned into a--
Sword? They have less Investiture than Nightblood.
What would happen if you used lerasium as a spike for Hemalurgy?
Oh lerasium as a spike for Hemalurgy? Um lerasium as a spike for Hemalurgy--
Would it work or would it just not work?
No I mean it would work--
If you were to place a lerasium spike would you transform into a full Mistborn as opposed to--
Well it can also steal powers, not just grant them, right?
Um, right. The thing about it is you're trying to Invest something that is already very Invested, which always has weird effects. So while you could do it, it would be a gross waste of the potential. It's like using a nuclear bomb as a paperweight. It is functional but--
Does that mean it would be hard, for example, to make Nightblood stick something? Because--
Yes it would be very hard to make Nightblood stick to something. The amount of Investiture in Nightblood is--
Astronomical?
Yes. Larger than most things you've seen. So Pushing on Nightblood, really hard.
So Hoid it seems, you've indicated, he has actually used the bead of lerasium he got.
Umm, there are guesses along those lines. And those guesses would be supported by evidence from the books.
That he drank something that gave him an advantage, things like that. But anyway does he also have Feruchemical abilities, and if so how would he have gotten them? Aside from Hemalurgy.
You really think I'm going to answer that one? *laughter* Big old RAFO.
Are you not really willing to comment much on Hoid, should I leave that alone?
You can ask, but you're generally not going to get much on Hoid.
Is his longevity tied to any particular Shard?
Hoid's?
Yes.
I would say no.
Does Hoid have any tattoos?
Hoid has had tattoos.
Okay I had a question for you about that. You make a point about talking about that in your books but we know that air resistance and other things has an effect--
Air resistance does.
--for instance a feather and a bowling ball dropped from the top of the Empire State Building are not going to hit the ground at the same time.
Right.
Even though when in a vacuum they would.
Yes.
...In the books Wax is affecting his weight a lot.
But he's also still wearing clothing, so he's never going to get light enough that-- Like Sazed getting light enough to drift down was pretty hard for him, you'll see how much work he had to go through. Wax could get that light but he's going to have guns and his metal belt and his mistcoat and things like that. And so when Wax is talking you're just going to assume that he's talking in his general experience. Air resistance does matter but that's not how he perceives it.
If Wax were to go to Roshar, and--he's a Skimmer, right? So he can change his weight--if he got Lashed in a different direction if he Stored his weight would that nullify some of the Lashing?
Okay, you're going to make me think through this. *laughter* So Wax actually changes mass. And the Lashing only affects gravitational pull. So the answer is no because different things with different masses fall at the same speed.
So could somebody using maybe a duralumin Push or Pull, or just a strong Allomancer, take control of a Shardblade?
The more heavily Invested something is, the most-- the more <release?> other forms of Investiture? But as we have proof in Mistborn you can Push and Pull on metalminds, you can Push and Pull on even a spike that’s inside of somebody. If you have the strength. So it's kind of pushing against the strength of the Investiture.
Are you ever going to release the other 16 alloys with the god metals? Did you decide?
Maybe.
Are you not releasing them because you're still trying to-- you don't want to pin yourself down just in case?
It's part that, but part I know. The more I release, the more distracting it is from the stories and it also prevents me from using them in the stories as reveals.
Would you be able to use dental fillings as mini-metalminds?
Yeah, you totally could.
Do shardpools grant, basically, easier access into the Cognitive or Spiritual Realm--
Yes.
So how much Investiture does Vasher keep on him in Roshar?
Ummm, enough. *laughter*
To be fair I think the hivemind has said that since he can feed off of Stormlight, that’s not really an issue.
But he also has certain levels of Heightening, so you can guess what minimums he has.
Someone else brought up the point, can blood be Awakened?
Anything can be Awakened.
If you make a human-shaped mold and you poured blood into it and you Awakened it, would you have a Terminator T-1000 style blood-golem that could recombine?
Um, heh, well Awakening liquid is possible but I don't think it would work the way you want it to.
If you had enough of a cloud in one place, could you Awaken a cloud?
Um, you could Awaken anything. It's probably not going to work the way you want it to. There is a reason why they Awaken the things that they do. For instance if you want to make a transforming golem, you would be much better off with something thicker.
Is there a way for any of the Shards to circumvent the Cognitive Realm and resurrect somebody?
...So, resurrection in the cosmere is-- depends on if-- where your mind is, and the status of your body, and whether your mind and soul have kind of combined and passed on. If you get to them before that happens, then you can re-attach the soul to the body. And you see that happening in Warbreaker quite often.
The Returned.
The Returned, yeah. You just gotta get the soul before it passes on. Once it passes on nobody knows where it goes.
Now Harmony tells Spook that Kelsier and Vin say hi. So is he able to reach into wherever they are?
He doesn't say that they say hi, he says--
They're doing well.
They're doing well.
Can he see them or communicate with them at all?
He has interacted with them at some point.
If someone breaks a sword and makes an Investiture into both sides of the sword and then re-melds it, will it become one Investiture, will it be destroyed--
Depends on the process that you use for re-melding it.
But it is possible to have any of the outcomes?
It is possible to go both directions.
Someone tries to Awaken a carrot, and eats it. What happens to the Investiture?
The Investiture will be released into the Spiritual Realm like most Investiture that is destroyed.
The man that gives Nightblood to Szeth at the end of Words of Radiance, I don't understand who he is.
...Oh Nale, oh you mean Nale. Nale's one of the Heralds.
But I thought that those guys left? At the be-- In the prequel, at the beginning of The Way of Kings.
They abandoned their swords and went about the world, but did not return to the place where they were supposed to go, which was off-world.
So they just die?
They did not die.
So they're all still out there? Somewhere in the cosmere?
It can be assumed that they are all still out there unless some of them died since then. It was 4,000 years ago.
But the one guy that stayed, went crazy because--
The one guy they abandoned was left in their version of hell, and the rest of them were supposed to return and didn't.
Every day?
Every time they die they're supposed to go back. Or every time the war is over. You are asking good questions, they're questions that will make more sense as the book progresses.
Is it fair to say that when one of those power sources become vacant a person, or something with--
Something can-- naturally will pick it up, yes.
So the other thing I don't understand is in Hero of Ages when Harmony dies. How they became--
Harmony didn't die, you mean--
The man.
Yes, you're talking about the person who was holding the power of Preservation.
Yeah, how did those people become that in the first place?
That is a book I'm going to write eventually called Dragonsteel, that deals with how that came about.
Are you willing to comment on what it is that provides Frost's longevity, is it something innate to his race or some--
It's racial.
So I’m a big Terry Pratchett fan, and my dad, he got a Ankh-Morpork city map. Do you have any large maps--
Large scale maps?
You know we have-- I actually have that same Ankh-Morpork map and I'm like "We gotta do something like this" but it's-- that’s down the road because that is so detailed.
The thing that I would like to do would be a cosmere star chart, that’s large scale, but we have to get a little further, introduce you to a few more planets before we can do that.
And we changed Hoid's appearance, in the White Sand.
I couldn't even find him.
He's just, as I remember it--it's been a long time--I think he's just one of the cases Ais mentions talking about.
Oh yeah, he's in the letter, no that’s someone else.
No he's just one of the people Ais' been chasing. There's just this one case that is mysterious to him. Like remember a lot of the early Hoid things were really obscure mentions.
When will we find out about the other effect of burning lerasium?
Ummm, you-- I think it-- Ehhh, maybe eventually. I don't know. Not as relevant as it once was.
I am also wondering, does atium actually still regenerate?
Atium does not regenerate.
It stopped when--
It stopped when Ati stopped existing. Yep.
Will we ever see more beads of lerasium?
That's a RAFO. Definitely a RAFO. It's-- It would require some... *sighs*
Navani's fabrial bracelet.
The stones don't have to be all heliodors. "They will change." (???)The number of prongs is not significant; the artist made the decision.
What would happen if Alcatraz tried to wield Nightblood?
They would get in a long conversation about random things and the book would just be those two having a discussion, and then the entire world would break probably.
When do we get to officially get to know what's going on in the Cosmere?
All of my epic fantasy books are connected with continuing characters. That's a way off, and that's because I don't want people to feel like they have to have read all my previous books to enjoy the series. It should be about the characters. Eventually I will write one that's a mashup, but we're not there yet. I'll be very upfront about it when I do it. For now it's just easter eggs.
Is Vasher the swordmaster-ardent?
(coy) I have no idea why you would ask that.
Zahel the Swordmaster ardent was in the 2002 WoK by a different name and it blew my assistant's mind when he looked back in the original draft. It was ALL PLANNED.
When do you expect to finish Shadows of Self?
It was on the schedule for this fall to finish, but the third Stormlight book has pushed that aside, so it'll probably be the next book after that. Tom Doherty didn't want to have a four-year gap twice in a row, and I don't want to let it go so far. It's better to establish that I'll be doing Stormlight regularly before deviating. When I pitched Mistborn to my editor, I pitched a series going to modern times to space opera in the same universe. There will be another trilogy of thick books at 1980s technology, I pitched to my editor as "Tom Clancy Allomancy" and we will eventually get to the space opera, which will be allomancers in space.
Interludes having characters on the other side of the world - when can we see Lift again?
She is seated (ceded)? for future use, indeed. Some of these interludes are for characters that I'll need in the future. Lift is there because she's going to do much Awesomeness in the future.
