I talked personally to Brandon today (Sept 1 at a book signing at the Orem B&N.

I asked him 2 questions, both about “The Seven-Stripped Lass.” He “accused” me of working for DM or Theoryland, but said that I could report back to them on what he said. Sadly, I didn’t have a recording device with me, so his answers aren’t verbatim, but the words in quotations are the words that he used and the content is what I remember him saying. If there are mistakes they are probably mine, not his, as I am only human and cannot fully reproduce a spoken conversation word for word hours after the fact (despite the notes I jotted down).

1) Why did he choose to release Chapter 8?

He said it was strategic, because he knew that the Prologue would be up for sale, and chapters 1 and 2 would be up for free on Tor’s site. As well, chapters 3, 4 etc wouldn’t have worked “because they build upon each other. Chapter 1 builds on the Prologue, Chapter 2 on Chapter 1, etc.” And thus, chapter 8 was the earliest chapter that would work as a teaser without spoiling earlier things or getting in the way of the other early releases. He also confirmed that, yes, chapter 8 is the first Mat POV in the book.

2) I said something to the effect that many on the forums have challenged (I think the exact words I used were “giving him crap”) about the chronology, especially with regards to Mat. I guess it wasn’t a question as much as an interrogative lilt to my voice…

He responded by saying that he has a “detailed and precise” chronology off of which he works. He admitted however that he is not the real “chronology person” on Team Jordan, but those people assure him that “I am right on” with regards to the chronology. He then addressed a number of the concerns:
-first- Rumors: he said that rumors are just rumors. About trolloc attacks, specifically, he said that “trollocs have been attacking, or invading in various places for months” and that rumors abound in all sorts of forms about them.

With regard to the White Tower attack- I prompted this one a little, and he said that they are simply rumors which have coalesced from multiple rumors together, nothing related specifically to the real attack adding that “in the Wheel of Time rumors sometimes have a tendency to double-back on themselves” turning into truth eventually.

As for the horse riding in Caemlyn, I asked him specifically about Rand seeing Mat and Thom on horses in Caemlyn, but Mat in Chapter 8 not taking his horse into the city, and he responded by saying that Rand didn’t see Mat in this specific scene and assured me that all that would work out in the rest of the book.

He did admit that there has been one “hitch” found in TGS as per chronology that will be changed in upcoming editions. If I remember correctly he said Mat is roughly two weeks behind where he was meant to be and explained that Mat’s position in time at the end of TGS was supposed to be two weeks earlier than it was portrayed as being.