This is the eleventh 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. PS. This one was sent to us almost a week ago, but we got a little backed up here. We’ll add the pictures later this week, but we didn’t want to delay posting any longer. Sorry!

TEAM Salt Lake: (From Left to Right) Jason B, Matt H, Jake H, Kristy P, Brandon S, Stephanie R, Amie B, Nichole R
Greetings from the great Salt Lake! Well, really, Salt Lake City to be exact, and Brandon Sanderson’s home state of Utah! The Salt Lake signing event was a big success. The night began with the Storm Leaders meeting ahead of time at Sam Weller’s bookstore downtown. Let me just tell you… if you ever make it to Salt Lake City, you MUST check out this bookstore. We were amazed to see just how big and magical this place was! Three stories high, with an endless collection of new and used books plus a really awesome Rare Books section fit with a Door guard and alarm buzzer when you enter. =0) We met with John Clukey, a longtime staffer of the store and huge Wheel of Time fan, who was so great to help us get organized and arranged for the event. After our initial meet and greet, we proceeded just down the block to eat dinner, meeting Brandon, his wife Emily and friend Peter there. EVA Restaurant was a deliciously fantastic joint with some tasty Mediterranean cuisine. Brandon made me giggle at one point, because he had a hard time figuring out what “Cous Cous” was, but he dove in and ordered that for dinner anyway! He also ordered the whole table these amazing Garlic Parmesan French Fries, which we devoured so fast, we could barely keep up with the conversations at hand. Here’s a shot of us deep in discussion at dinner:

Dinner was a treat for us Storm Leaders to spend time with Brandon and ask all the down and dirty questions we figured that NO ONE had asked already – ‘Who killed Asmodean’ kinda of stuff ya know? Needless to say, Brandon is a GREAT interviewee and so animated with his responses even if we didn’t get the answer we wanted, we got a great glimpse of what may come. One of the most interesting of conversations at dinner came about when Matt Hatch, from Theoryland.com, brought up the subject of Time vs. Power comparison on the use of Balefire. Luckily— Jake, one of the Stormleaders, had a tape recorder and was able to capture the WHOLE conversation about it. ** SPOLIER ALERT ** I would NOT read this if you do not want any spoilers!! (I actually have NOT finished Book 12 myself, but I didn’t mind hearing the spoilers at dinner that night)
Matt- Question: Did Robert Jordan leave a power to time comparison, as to how much time is burned back on a thread using balefire. Is there a calculation that says x amount of power will burn back x amount of time on a thread?

Brandon: M.A.F.O – Maria and Find Out. What he did leave, he left a lot of stuff, there is discussion of these things in the notes. I need to look and see if there is an actual equation. He was very focused on strength of the power and things like that. He has probably told you before, I think I’ve seen a copy of that on notes and things. He did leave scales on exactly how powerful each person is…

Matt – Question: The Choedan Kal, does it amplify your power? Is it a limited, for example, if I have a certain amount of power does it give me 10x what I have, or is it a certain amount of power I can access?

Brandon: One of the things I’ve been doing when I answer questions is that I’ve been saying that this is my understanding and putting an asterisk at the bottom that is a – I am speaking from my understanding and not from specific knowledge from the notes, meaning yes I am probably right but these are the questions I could be wrong on…this one my understanding is that it is a reservoir of power. It is not necessarily a magnification. A very weak person with a very powerful sa’angreal is very powerful. I’m pretty sure on that one, but I will add the asterisk just in case. If you send me an email, I can go back and look to make sure. But I’m reasonably sure on that one, the reasons being things that are talked about in the notes mixed with the way an’greal and sa’angreal worked previously in the books mixed with two specific things that he talked about in the notes when people using an’greal and sa’angreal after they become very weak or after they are weak.

Matt – Question: We know that in the Age of Legends that the Forsaken/Chosen, everyone agreed to stop using Balefire because of its effects on the Pattern. Is it unrealistic then to say that a great amount of power could burn someone’s thread back a year or six months. Is that an unrealistic thing to say that there is enough power available to either one or multiple people to burn somebody back that far?

Brandon: I see what you are getting at you are trying to figure out if Graendal was killed with a whole lot of balefire would it bring Asmodean back to life (Brandon had heard about this idea, which he mentions later).

Matt: …like that could ever happen…

Brandon: That’s what you are digging for isn’t you?

Matt: Let’s say, if a Forsaken was responsible for killing another Forsaken.

Brandon: Uh huh

Matt: And said Forsaken was balefired….

Brandon: You are under the assumption…You are trying to figure out who killed Asmodean again. That’s what you are trying to do and I’m not going to get caught and let you know…

Matt: It’s a legit question…and I’m sure whatever is said at this table stays at this table…

Brandon: I’m sure, the leader of Theoryland and the guy taping this…

~Much laughter from table~

Brandon: Let’s divorce it. Rand balefires Rahvin as hardcore as he could and Rand is one of the most powerful people to live and he got us, what have you determined, from the lightning killing Mat until balefire killed Rahvin, I’d guess fifteen minutes.
Matt: Well, he at least got us fifteen minutes. We don’t know how far back, we just know up to that moment.

Brandon: Well, we do know because if it had been too much further than that we would have noticed a lot of discrepancies in the Pattern from things he’d done…

Matt: Let’s say thirty minutes to an hour, at the most

Brandon: Alright, thirty minutes to an hour. Okay, let’s say the Choedan Kal amplifies his abilities 100 fold…let’s say it’s a 100 times more powerful than Rand. That’s giving us, lets say he got an hour, we’ve got four days, from the most powerful, one of the most powerful sa’angreal ever created. I think it is unrealistic to assume you can get back a year, but that’s not saying it is impossible. I think that if you did that to the Pattern the ramifications would be so dramatic you’d see the Pattern unraveling hardcore at that point, it’s like balefiring an entire city. When I first read that guess I just laughed, I’m like guys c’mon lets run the math on this.

Matt: Like I said to Jennifer, it is my job at Theoryland to entertain these ideas.

Brandon: Yes it is, it is your job to entertain them. But in the terms of Mythbusters let’s go ahead and call that one “Busted” in the realistic world. I’ve got to give you at least something, so I’ll at least give you that…If it were possible to do things like that, we’d have the Dark One just going and balefiring you know Tam so Rand never gets picked up off the mountain….
At that point, we realized it was useless to torture the author with trickery, as he has learned from the best Aes Sedai ways to the “skirt the truth” shall we say? Hehehe. In all seriousness, Brandon was great. My foreboding question “When is the most beautiful, talented, baddest, awesomest, most fantastical of characters coming back…. ??” Meaning, Moiraine (may she live forever) of course! Which I was quickly RAFO-ed by Brandon right back into eating my sorrows away on my dessert. And what a dessert it was, check it out:

After dinner we hurried back to the bookstore for Brandon to start his reading. Brandon chose an awesome chapter to read from in The Gathering Storm, Chapter 6 ‘When Iron Melts’. He explained the detailed background of Robert Jordan’s military history, and why this character, Rodel Ituralde, was one of Jordan’s favorites to write. One of the Stormleaders, Jason, was very impressed at how well Brandon captured the tone and depth of Rodel’s character, even in his reading of the man. Brandon finished the short reading and then explained that he has a personal connection to this particular segment of the book because “I sent this chapter to Harriet for review. Usually when I would send something to her, it would come back with some notes like ‘This is good, but change this, or this needs to be adjusted’ however, this one section out of all of them in the whole book came back with nothing. Just a note on the top that said ‘This is great, good job’ I was stunned she had no changes!” We all thought that was so heartwarming to hear from Brandon, and shows just how much he cares about these books and doing the story right, just how Robert Jordan would have wanted.

With over 100 people in line for the book signing, things went smoothly. The crowd was so fun, patient and high spirited. The Storm Leaders did Trivia Questions to give away bumper stickers and SWAG that TOR Books had sent us. We also had a Crossword puzzle for everyone to try, with one of the clue’s being ‘Asmodean’s killer’ but suffice to say, no one was able to finish it!

Brandon was so energetic and engaging with everyone that came up to chat with him. What was really neat were a lot of fans that had been following Brandon from his other books, who were now very dedicated Wheel of Timer’s— including one of our own Stormleaders, Jake. He had read Brandon’s books first before it was announced that Brandon would be finishing the Wheel of Time series. Here were some other huge Sanderson “groupies” that were so impressive!

Brandon was so honored about the tee-shirts they had, he wore his the rest of the night. Even Brandon’s wife, Emily, thought this was the most creative thing she had seen! Nichole, the Storm Leader helping Brandon stuff books all night, said she loved how Brandon was so chatty and talkative with all of his fans, cracking jokes and discussing theories all night. He really is a great mind and great person.
As for me, my mind still burned to find out when my sweet, precious, loving, darling favorite of females would return, Moiraine (may she live forever). Every fan that came up and asked about her made me *squeal* with giddy, and Brandon would turn his head and glare at me with the “I am not telling you anything eyes” which I took to mean, really “You know what the answer is anyway, duh” eyes. So I took to taking funny photos all night that I knew would end up online somewhere for people to laugh.
Stormleader Kristy, taking the blame with a smile for Asmodean’s demise.

Recognize this criminal? Matt Hatch from Theoryland.com on the loose at Sam Weller’s
Pick the right answer and you win a BUMPERSTICKER!
A. Matt is going to kill me if Jason posts this picture on Dragonmount or B. Matt hates this picture

Brandon signed my book cough, voluntarily, cough as “Moiraine WILL be back” So I say. Yes, I made him write it. If she does not return, I will hold him for ransom on the next book tour.
Overall, the Salt Lake signing event was a great success and so much fun for all of us involved. Brandon was also happy to be home for a day and spend time with his family, and it was nice for him to bring along his wife to the signing event. She was very sweet and supportive! I don’t think any of the Stormleaders could say it better but It was one of the best nights of our lives, and we all walked away with some great memories and lots of hope that our theories for the future books will be addressed! We definitely want to shout out to John Clukey at Sam Weller’s and his staff for working so hard and allowing us to overtake his store for the night. Also, Brandon’s wife Emily and his friend Peter who came along to help with whatever we needed.
As for me, all I kept saying to everyone that night was “Wait until JordanCon … you BETTER be there” And I meant it folks! Team Salt Lake will reunite again in Atlanta for some fun and more torture on Brandon to find out the truth once and for all!
~~ Kristy Pew, Stormleader
Some neat observations from Salt Lake Signing courtesy of our Stormleaders:
• There were a lot of “Newbies” to the Wheel of Time world at the signing event. A few people in line only started reading the books just this year, including one of our Stormleaders, Nichole!
• We also found someone in line who started reading Wheel of Time when “Eye of the World” came out!
• We ate wayyy too much at dinner. I am still full.
• Many people brought more than one book to have signed so they could have presents to give out for friends and family who couldn’t be there.
• We met a gentleman in line who was sight-impaired, so he followed the books exclusively on AUDIO CD and had Brandon sign the discs for him. He stated he loved the readers who do the books on CD, and I agreed with him!
• Matt Hatch is a God. Seriously. I heart you, Matt.
• Brandon is a mega big time MAGIC Card player… so, YES, we learned all about the upcoming Epic Magic Battle Between Brandon and Jason Denzel. Another great conversation at Dinner.
• The Wheel of Time Encyclopedia IS coming! For details… MAFO. But, yes, Harriet, Maria and Alan are working on it. =)
• MOIRAINE (may she live forever) ain’t back yet. At least, today she is not. Next year though……..