This is the sixth of our Storm Leader reports we’ll be posting throughout the U.S. book tour for THE GATHERING STORM. At each tour location, Dragonmount and Tor Books recruited a select group of volunteer fans to help run the event, hand out promotional materials, and represent us to the fans. In return, they were given the opportunity to meet with Brandon Sanderson and (if present for their event) Robert Jordan’s wife Harriet. We will have a full report with photos and possibly video for each one of the tour stops. Prior Storm Leader reports can be found here.

It was with some trepidation that I left my house to take the light rail train into historic LoDo Denver, as the city had been blasted with a three-day long snowstorm earlier that week. Luckily, the day was perfect, with sunny skies and clear streets.

I got to The Tattered Cover early to pick up my copy to get signed at our brunch meet-up beforehand. The man behind the register was not as impressed as I thought he should have been at my proud announcement of not needing a number for the signing; I’m a Storm Leader! I then met up with Joanna at the bookstore, while my husband was giving me spoilers as to the ending of the book. (Before you ask, he had permission.) We headed over to Dixon’s Downtown Grill to wait for Brandon and the rest of the group.

We didn’t have to wait long. As soon as we got our drinks, Josh and Micah arrived with our shirts. Mine was a little big, but I wasn’t drowning in it or anything. Denver Brandon arrived with a stack of books to get signed, as he’s a long-time fan of Brandon Sanderson. Then with ninja-like stealth, Author Brandon snuck into a chair at the table. I was impressed. Chris was the last one to the table, but he was so good-natured about it, we couldn’t give him a hard time.

The food was good, but the conversation was better. Some spoilers may or may not have been discussed, as we had decided as a group beforehand that we wanted to talk about TGS at the brunch, as we knew we wouldn’t be able to do that at the signing. As it happened, the majority of us had finished the book by then (courtesy of the snowstorm canceling school and work for three days), or were close to the finishing line. I tried my best to give Brandon some time to eat and just relax, as it was clear that this had been a pretty hectic week for him, but the hour-and-half just flew by.

Hurried over to the bookstore, we got our bumper stickers, bookmarks and flyers ready to go. Josh worked on getting us a video feed, while Denver Brandon got photos and some camcorder footage. Joanna had a stack of quotes and trivia questions, so we got the waiting crowd warmed up, with stickers as prizes. Out of the 150 people in the room, a surprising majority were frequent re-readers of the series, clocking at more than thirteen times, so hardly any questions were missed by the crowd. Tor had kindly given us a promotional poster to raffle out as well, so we distributed tickets while Brandon made the transition from Q&A to the signing.

The Q&A seemed so short, but then again, we had just had been picking Brandon’s brain for the last two hours. He told the audience that RJ had been an inspiration to write when he was a teenager, that RJ taught him the power of point of view perspectives. He never got to actually meet him; the closest he got was seeing him from afar at WorldCon one year as a star-struck fan. While he was totally terrified at the idea of taking over the WoT series, he felt that he was the best author to do it, because he was a fan who knew the books inside and out, and had grown up and grown along with the series, going from his favorite character at age sixteen being Rand, to understanding and emphasizing with Moiraine as an adult and father.

Brandon made it a point to emphasize that much of these three novels are straight from RJ’s notes; he’s just providing the connecting text to get us from plot point to plot point. RJ left a very detailed ending and conclusion for the characters after The Last Battle, but if RJ’s notes left open the fates of people and places, Brandon would like to finish those up. The portion of the prologue in TGS involving the borderlander farmer is actually straight from RJ’s dictated text on his death bed, and he wishes that one day, we can all hear that audio, as it is so much more powerful than it is on paper.

Brandon then read a selection from the first chapter, and opened the floor up to the audience, a quarter of which were avid readers, as in, have read the entire series over thirteen times. Needless to say, many of the questions were rather precise. First off, the usual Asmodean question, which was given the new usual answer (“It’ll be made clear in the next book(s).”). One person asked if he wanted to change anything in the story. Brandon said he wouldn’t really, as it’s RJ’s story, but he would remove the spanking scene, as it’s just not his own style, which got many laughs.

Will the next book continue with the fast pace of TGS? Yes, as we have to catch up with what the other characters were doing during TGS. And in regards to cover artwork, for TGS, Harriet picked the piece, and Brandon wrote out a description of the scene for the artist. To ensure that they have artwork from the same artist (Darrell K. Sweet *cough*) for the remaining two books, Brandon has already supplied scene descriptions for those books’ covers, so presumably they are already in existence or will be soon.

Were there any scenes that were difficult to write? Difficult for him as a fan, yes, but not as an author, a craftsman at work. But surely as long-time fan, you *must* have certain biases towards and against characters! As a fan, yes, but as a writer, no. His job is to write RJ’s story, not to ghostwrite it. Brandon as a writer has his own style, which focuses more on having points of view from side characters, less on elaborate descriptions. Brandon also talked about how RJ’s experiences in Vietnam affected his writing, whereas Brandon has absolutely nothing close to that in his own life experiences.

In terms of the possible prequel novels, Brandon is flat-out against turning the WoT series into an expanded universe farce of the original books, with multiple authors exploiting RJ’s universe with their own original characters. However, in regards to the five books that RJ had been contracted to write before his death (The Outriggers trilogy, the Tam novel, and a novel centering on Moiraine and Lan’s adventures in Dragon Reborn hunting), Brandon said if Harriet asked him to write them, he would. However, she is currently leaning towards keeping those stories unwritten. As it is, his own writing is on hold until the remaining two WoT books are finished. He estimates that Towers of Midnight will be turned in January 2010, as he has started already started that one, and the last book will be turned in January 2011. However, for the last novel, he will take as long as he has to in order to make sure it’s written well.

Brandon repeated that the excellent scenes involving Egwene and Rand in TGS are so strong because of all of the lead-up in previous books, books that he had nothing to do with. If there is anything to say about Brandon, it is that he’s a very humble man, passing all praise for TGS back to RJ and the universe he created.

After the Q&A, we went immediately into the signing, which lasted for two hours. He made sure that everyone got every book that they brought signed, and thanked people for buying his books and giving his work a try. A number of the audience hadn’t read WoT at all, and just came out to support their favorite author. Several of these people Brandon called by name, obviously having a close relationship with his long-time readers.

Micah and Chris stuffed books with flyers and bookmarks, while Josh took down names and opened books. Denver Brandon took care of photos, and Joanna talked with the folks in the line. I kinda ended up overseeing at the table, mostly out of curiosity at the whole signing process, and how you get people’s stories while they talked with Brandon. One girl brought her NaNoWri journal to get signed, to get her motivated to write this year. A couple brought their signature book, filled with autographs from various WorldCons and other conventions. It was a lot easier than carting around a ton of books to get signed, they explained. We had an asha’man come to get books signed, complete with black coat and sword and dragon pins. He teased us about being mere Storm Leaders, and we all had a laugh. One lady brought Brandon some packs of Magic: The Gathering cards, while another fan brought an herbal remedy for aching hands and acupuncture needles. Overall, the atmosphere was very relaxed, as Brandon is very easy to talk to.

As it was, he had about 10 minutes after the signing before he had to go to catch a plane home for a few days. (Yay!) He spent it sitting down with a few die-hard fans and our group for a more intimate Q&A session, albeit a really short one. The guys asked much of the same questions we had back at the restaurant, and they got pretty much the same answers. After that, the Storm Leaders went their separate ways, kinda sad that we aren’t going to be meet up against any time soon, but hopefully in a few years when Towers of Midnight is released.

As I rode the train back home, an elderly man got onto the seat across from mine. “Storm Leader, huh?” he said. “Well, good thing the storm’s passed now!” I smiled, and that was all that needed to be said.