New to This Space....An introduction to DJ and another fan who sadly won't get to finish the series.

[djstipe]

Hello all,

 

Just thought I'd introduce myself. I've been following the series for 20 years or so, and am like all of you chomping at the bit to read those final pages. I'm also a writer of various sorts of fiction, poetry and songs. Robert Jordan and Orson Scott Card are the two authors responsible for turning me into a writer, while Brandon Sanderson has played a key role in my self-education on the trade.

 

I began reading the book when the Great Hunt was only available in hard back. I read the first 9 books as they came out, but something happened with the 10th and I parted ways with the series for a long time. It wasn't really a conscience decision, and I continued to buy the books, but the parallel nature of the time lines of books 9 and 10 kind of turned me off I think. I just needed to have the patience to get to the end of 10, and life was hectic and reading became less of a priority. Then in 2010 I signed up for Audible and picked it back up at book 9, read through to the end, and just finished a full re-read on Audible. I've especially enjoyed the last two books and took that as a cue to get into Brandon's other works, including Mistborn and his podcast Writing Excuses.

 

My love of this series took on a new form when a family member - also a huge fan of the series - was shot and killed this past August by a stray bullet in a fight he wasn't involved in (in fact he was escorting a young lady to her car in a tough part of town). We hadn't spoken since Christmas 2011, but that conversation was about WOT. This man was the kind of person who just saw what he wanted in life and grabbed it with both hands. The memory of that tenacity was what pushed me to apply to be a Memory Keeper, something I probably would have just assumed I'd never be selected for so wouldn't have bothered with. I was honored to be selected and am so looking forward to the Sacramento signing in February. Our Joe won't be there, but I will be, and so will his parents and it will be a way that we can make our own "Memory of Light" part of the final installment to the series, even though he’s not here to read it. It may not be the appropriate space for this but seeing the sheer volume of fans here, I feel compelled to share the words I wrote in his memory, as well as the graphic I created, also called "Memory of Light" that is framed in our household. Thank you for the time to introduce Joe and I, and thank you for your indulgence. And thank you to the community for matching and surpassing my passion, so that this whole thing feels so much bigger than I.

 

 

[My last conversation with Joe Long was at a family function. I'd seen the Wheel of Time fantasy series on the book shelf and heard Joe had read them. Having had several interesting conversations with Joe in the past and being a big fan of the series myself, I figured out a way to work it into our conversation. I didn't regret this. He leaned forward from his casual position on the couch, holiday cocktail in hand, and for the next 20 minutes or so we discussed the Wheel of Time.

 

In this book there are 3 major characters - the main character Rand and his two best friends Mat and Perrin. We both agreed we would want to be Mat, the other two get dealt some pretty heavy loads, and Mat was kind of a ladies man. Actually Joe's words were something like, "Of course, everyone wants to be Mat. He gets to go dicing in all the taverns and dancing with all the girls." To anyone who knew Joe, he got to be Mat.

 

But then he went on to say that as much as he would want to be Mat, and as cool as the powers that Rand got were, he was enjoying the character Perrin the most. Perrin has the interesting power of being able to speak to wolves. But what Joe liked about his storyline was that he got to run with the wolves in what is called the Wolf Dream. Asleep, they can go to this place and speak with their fallen wolf-brothers. When a wolf dies, they go to the wolf-dream. If a wolf dreams too strongly, they can also be taken forever into the wolf dream. Even the few times a year I would get to visit Joe at family functions I could see he lived a bright life. It's a strange comfort for me to think that he may have dreamed too strongly and gone to such a place.

 

The author of the series of books passed away, after a long and full life, before he was able to finish that series. Joe was taken before he could finish the great work of his life. Another author was found to finish the series, and part of why I believe Joe began to like Perrin's character so much is that those parts are in the later books where the new author took over, and they are very exciting. Perrin, usually a very cautious character, begins to trust his instincts and just leap at life. From what I know of Joe, he did this from a young age.

 

It's sad to me that these exciting parts of the series were finished by someone other than the man who envisioned them. Joe's death is of course an even greater tragedy beyond words or comprehension. For my wife and I it's another strange comfort to see all of these memories people have posted, thoughts, prayers, pictures, etc, and it is so clear to us that Joe lived the exciting parts of his life for himself, even if he didn't get a chance to finish it. He obviously made a big imprint, and while we can't finish his life for him, we can finish ours with a little more flair. For my part, his cousin (my wife Lisa) has been asking me to take dance lessons with her since we found he'd become an instructor. When the sharp edges of this horrible tragedy begin to round off, I will finally oblige her. A small thing but something I know Joe would approve of, because as excited as he was to talk about those books, he got even more excited when Lisa told him she wanted to take ballroom dance lessons and he said, "you should."

 

I ache so much for his parents, grandparents and brothers. They are the first people we thougth of and while there's never anything that can be done to help in this situation, they are in our hearts and souls.]

[djstipe]

So, uploading graphic didn't work. I know that DM is kind of in transition, so rather than complain, I just added the graphic as my avatar. The picture is of Joe, a couple weeks before he was killed, at a camping trip. The caption is "See you in the Wolf Dream Young Bull". <br><br>

On an unrelated note, since I'm introducting Joe probably more than myself, he was a fan of Firefly and his last post the day before he was killed:

<br><br>

"Nothing in the 'verse can stop me."

<br><br>

Indeed, because he lives on.

[The Bard Babe]

I'm terribly sorry for your loss, but it sounds as though the memory of Joe will never be forgotten nor tainted whilst you're caring for it.

 

As it is, welcome to Dragonmount. Feel free to join the discussions and the social groups, where there's always someone to talk to and have fun with. And if you're an author, be sure to drop into the Artists, Crafters and Writers Guild, and if you're into Roleplaying, we're always after new RPers.

 

If you have any questions or just feel like a chat, feel free to PM me.   :)

[djstipe]

Thank you Bard Babe!  I appreciate the words and advice.  I've requested access to the Guild and am already reading, looking forward to posting.  It looks like there's a decent community of artists here.  I'm interested in RP but haven't jumped into that fold yet, so may just lurk around there for a bit. 

 

Cheers!  DJ

[The Bard Babe]

Great, lurking is how I started on this forum overall, so I'm a fan of lurkers.   XD

[Shauna]

BBee, lurking is also how I started on this forum :)

[futureliveshere]

Welcome from one newbie on DM to another. So sorry to read about your loss. Life is a river of experiences. I hope you are able to gather strength from your sadness. Glad that you are on this forum and can talk about it.

 

From personal experience it always seems better when I speak about my own sad experiences.

[djstipe]

Thank you for the kind words all, I'm glad to be here.