BS posted a bit about his progress on ToM at Twitter the last days:
"ToM was at 320k words. Dropped to 275k after merciless cutting of bad chapters. Now back up to 280k. Makes progress bar tough to estimate." Then: "Getting ready to send a chunk of TofM to Team Jordan. First, need to see if I spelled anyone's name wrong. I'm looking at you, Gallenne." (Gallenne is the Lord Captain of Mayene's Winged Guard). And: "Grr. Why do I always spell 'damane' as 'demane' instead? I've only written it a hundred times or so." Finally: "It's off. 400 pages (about 80k words) sent for first reactions from Team Jordan. You can count this as the 1st step in turning in the book."
Besides that, there was a quite interesting interview with RJ's cousin Wilson at JordanCon recently posted at Tor.com [link below]. Two answers were especially noteworthy:
If RJ just said the name of the killer, and Wilson immediately responed: "Yeah, makes sense", but only later got the explanation why from Maria, it points to the assassin "Slayer" being the name RJ said, because just the mention of the word "slayer" would immediately provoke the insight that this makes sense to be the answer. Besides, that only one fan one a signing was spot on, speaks against the most popular suspect Graendal as well.
Besides that, Wilson said about the ending of WoT:
Finally, I also found another tidbit in an interview by Maria (http://www.dragonmount.com/News/?p=1217), which I don't think was explicitely pointed out by anybody:
I think this proves that Talmanes definitely isn't a DF, if anyone considered this anyway.
"ToM was at 320k words. Dropped to 275k after merciless cutting of bad chapters. Now back up to 280k. Makes progress bar tough to estimate." Then: "Getting ready to send a chunk of TofM to Team Jordan. First, need to see if I spelled anyone's name wrong. I'm looking at you, Gallenne." (Gallenne is the Lord Captain of Mayene's Winged Guard). And: "Grr. Why do I always spell 'damane' as 'demane' instead? I've only written it a hundred times or so." Finally: "It's off. 400 pages (about 80k words) sent for first reactions from Team Jordan. You can count this as the 1st step in turning in the book."
Besides that, there was a quite interesting interview with RJ's cousin Wilson at JordanCon recently posted at Tor.com [link below]. Two answers were especially noteworthy:
OK, I know [who killed Asmodean], but not because I figured it out. It’s because I flat out asked. I did, I just went up, and I’m just like you guys. I said, “I just can’t figure it out, let me know.” He said, “You could, if you just read it closer.” I said, “No time, Bubba, who killed him?” And he went, “[censored]”. And I went, “Yeah, makes sense.” And by the way, I asked Maria later on if that was correct, and Maria confirmed that it was correct and told me why.
I understand that it was one of those plotlines that he always wanted to have tied off, and if people couldn’t figure it out, it would be figured out for them. Around the dining room table, when we were first discussing what has got to be done and what not, that was one of the ones he wanted done. So yes, it will be there; you’ll get your answer.
The reason it hasn’t been there up to this point is because somebody figured it out. At a book signing, a fan said to him quietly “This is who did it, and this is why.” And he was right. And it wasn’t a question with an exclamation point on it, and he said “You got it. Spot on.” And he reasoned that if one person could get it from the text, then anybody could get it from the text. And one of the great things about Bubba is that he always wanted people to think. He liked to tell you stories and he might want to give some benefit of his experience in the reading, but he was very, very interested in what you thought and that you were thinking. So, he didn’t want to give that away until the very end.
I understand that it was one of those plotlines that he always wanted to have tied off, and if people couldn’t figure it out, it would be figured out for them. Around the dining room table, when we were first discussing what has got to be done and what not, that was one of the ones he wanted done. So yes, it will be there; you’ll get your answer.
The reason it hasn’t been there up to this point is because somebody figured it out. At a book signing, a fan said to him quietly “This is who did it, and this is why.” And he was right. And it wasn’t a question with an exclamation point on it, and he said “You got it. Spot on.” And he reasoned that if one person could get it from the text, then anybody could get it from the text. And one of the great things about Bubba is that he always wanted people to think. He liked to tell you stories and he might want to give some benefit of his experience in the reading, but he was very, very interested in what you thought and that you were thinking. So, he didn’t want to give that away until the very end.
If RJ just said the name of the killer, and Wilson immediately responed: "Yeah, makes sense", but only later got the explanation why from Maria, it points to the assassin "Slayer" being the name RJ said, because just the mention of the word "slayer" would immediately provoke the insight that this makes sense to be the answer. Besides, that only one fan one a signing was spot on, speaks against the most popular suspect Graendal as well.
Besides that, Wilson said about the ending of WoT:
As with a lot of things in the books, it [the ending] had morphed some. So, a couple weeks before he died, he explained it to me in excruciating detail ‘cause the two of us can talk for a while. There was extreme detail on the last scene: who was standing and who was not. What was going on. Who was casting glances at who. And where there was laughter. You are... OK, there’s enough hints. And who was casting a suspicious eye at someone when they were riding away. But other than that ... hehe, yeah. But it had morphed and changed somewhat. He knew the ending, but there was some beautiful additions, it had ... I don’t know. [...] Yeah, matured. That is a very good term for it. It was not simplistic.
Finally, I also found another tidbit in an interview by Maria (http://www.dragonmount.com/News/?p=1217), which I don't think was explicitely pointed out by anybody:
I frequently encounter things that make me laugh out loud [on WoT boards]. WoT fans are an extremely clever bunch. Once, at Wotmania, someone joined using Harriet’s name. That person made a lovely post that included the (false) info that Talmanes was a Darkfriend (I have a crush on Talmanes...).
I think this proves that Talmanes definitely isn't a DF, if anyone considered this anyway.
A few new infos
- 06/05/2010 11:52:53 AM
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Re: A few new infos
- 06/05/2010 12:31:02 PM
726 Views
Hah, soon you'll see that I was right! 
*NM*
- 06/05/2010 12:56:08 PM
600 Views
*NM*
- 06/05/2010 12:56:08 PM
600 Views
After reading this and the replies...
- 18/05/2010 05:19:30 AM
537 Views