What else is in the Wheel of Time universe?

Q: I thought I had heard about a story dealing with Moraine and Siuan Sanche when they were first raised to full sister and the beginning of their search for the Dragon Reborn. Is it out there?
A: It's called New Spring, and it's in a collection called LEGENDS put together by Robert Silverburg.

Q: After reading the first five books (thanks for many wonderful hours) and starting the sixth I find myself wishing for a "Wheel of Time Encyclopedia"--something with longer glossary entries to help me remember who's who and who's done what. Any chance of that happening? 
A: An Encyclopedia will have to wait until the Wheel of Time is finished, but the guys who did The Illustrated Guide to Pern and The Illustrated Guide to Amber are interviewing me next month for the same sort of book about the Wheel.

Q: I was wondering if you will ever write a book based on the age of legends. 
A: No. 

Q: Will you write anye books about characters from the distant past, such as Artur Hawkwing? 
A: No. 

Q: Considering that WoT is such a success, after you have finished this series, can we look forward to anything more coming from this world, past or future? 
A: Not unless I think of something that I particularly want to write, a story I very much want to tell. At the moment, I plan to do another fantasy novel in another universe. I'm working on that already in the back of my head and have been for a couple of years.

Q: have you ever thought of writing the Travels of Jain Farstrider? 
A: No. 

Q: Any chance of producing a "what has happened already" update, either in the next book or maybe as a seperate piece? 
A: Well, let's see, it would probably take--if I made it as short as I could--three volumes. I don't really think so. :) I'm afraid you're just going to have to read the books. Sorry about that. 

Q: You include a glossary in every novel. Any chance we'll see a companion book with EVERY term defined? How about prequels to this series? 
A: The possibilty of a companion book with all the terms defined is fairly strong--once the series is done of course! As far as prequels, that would depend entirely on my coming up with a story I'd like to tell that is set there. It's not enough to say, "I just want to write what came before this." I tell the history of this world in great detail already. I wil add that we're putting together an illustrated guide which will include some things that are not in the books such as the story of Arthur Hawkwing's rise and fall. 

Q: Do you ever plan to print/release any of the notes or character sketches, or anything like that? 
A: Well, some of the information has gone into the illustrated guide, and I expect some would go into the dictionary/encyclopedia, whatever, when the series is done. 

Q: The guide has a lot of stuff we have not seen before. But there are a lot of references made in the series that had no mention in the guide. As you have totally captivated me with your world, can I hope for another guide at the end of the series for more information on all those trivial bits we have come to love?
A: I do intend to do an encyclopedia, if you will, at the end of the series, but I don't want to do too much about what is in the books until the series is finished.

Q: Do you plan on writing any more books after the Wheel of Time that are set in the Randland Universe? 
A: Not at this time, I do not. I have plans for another set of books, but not in the same universe. If a really terrific notion occurs to me for a set of stories that I would like to write, then I would go back to the universe of the Wheel of Time, but otherwise, I won't.

Q: When is the next book coming out? Just kidding! How easy/hard was it to write "New Spring"? Is another short story from the Wheel of Time possible? Or likely? Offhand, what character or background plotline would you most like to explore as you did in "New Spring"? 
A: The answer is it will be in the stores tomorrow! I don't really know whether another short story is possible. "New Spring" took longer than I thought it would to write, and was more difficult to do, in part because I had to leave out a few things I wanted to put in. It was beginning to turn into a 100,000-word short story. If I do write another novella or short, I don't know what area I might look at.

Q: Mr. Jordan, thank you for such wonderful reading! I look forward to reading the new novel. My question is will there be a book similar to THE SILMARILLION about the Wheel of Time Universe? 
A: It's quite possible, but we'll see what happens. It's still a few years in the future, after all.

Q: When will the LAND OF MADMEN (as shown in the Guide) come into play, and are you considering ever making a second edition of the Guide?
A: As for when or if it will come into play, read and find out. As for another edition of the guide, I would like to do a concordance or encyclopedia when the cycle is finished, but I have no plans before that.

Q: Are you going to put out an updated Guide? The old one's becoming increasingly out of date.
A: Well, probably not until the series finished. But I do think it would be a great thing to do then. I have some notes for it

Q: I was wondering if there has been any other authors approach you about writing other ages, such as the age of legends or Hawkwings time. If they did would you allow it?
A: I've never been approached. And no, I wouldn't. When I'm done I'll move on to another Universe

Q: Do you think you're going to do any more prequel stories like the one you did in "Legends?" A: No.
Q: No?
A: Well, let me change that. Stories, maybe. But when I finish the "Wheel of Time" I have no intention of doing novels that are prequels or sequels. I'm going to go to another fantasy universe, another world, another set of characters, another set of cultures, another set of rules. I won't say that I'll never do something like that, but I have no plans to.

Q: mumble-mumble on the tape, but the answer should give you a general idea of the question.
No, I will not continue writing it, I will be going on to something else, and nobody else will continue writing it, because I have an automatic contract set up that if anyone tries to share-copy my world, their knee-caps will be brought to me. [laughter]

What are you planning to do with all the notes you have made for The Wheel of Time when you are completely done with the series?
I might publish some of them. I have thought about publishing some sort of concordance, or single volume dictionary/encyclopedia, a very straightforward thing, not with any pretenses to be part of the Wheel of Time. From the beginning my editor has kept a list of words - created words - every plant that I mentioned, animal that I mentioned, every person’s name that was sitting in a town, or a village or an inn, every song. And it’s all there in that long, long list, and just the bare list right now I think is probably over a thousand pages. Which would present some difficulties, but the thing is I think I might take that list and give the basics, give definitions, put in definitions, put in references, who this person is, where this person’s seen.
Sort of like a massive glossary..?
In a way, yes. I don’t know, I think, perhaps, there might be some interest in that. I certainly wouldn’t do it until this is all over, because I, uhm, if and when I do it, I would like it to be complete, just nothing left out.
There is a large request from the fans that you do not let it to be edited, and that you publish them in their ‘raw diamond form’.
Oh, ah, okay.

Q: Any chance of another short story like New Spring?
A: Definitely a possibility. I have two ideas about other novellas. One would be about how Tam ended up finding the child on the mountainside, and why he decided to return to the Two Rivers. The other would be about how Moiraine and Lan wound up in Emond's Field just in the nick of time.

Reports from signings

RJ though stated clearly that _if_ he was going to write another book(s) in the WoT universe (something he thought was not going to happen), it would be placed at least 1,000 years apart from the events in the current books. There would _not_ be any spin-off stories, or stories written by other authors set in the WoT universe, either.

Jordan said that many fans want to know what he'll write next, and many want to know if he'll ever write about the Age of Legends. He said that other than the Wheel of Time series and the forthcoming Illustrated Guide he's (probably) not going to write anything else in the same setting.

On a related topic we may get an encyclopedia after the series ends, but no endless series publishing all of his notes, analogous to Christopher Tolkien's History of Middle Earth volumes.

On the subject of a story set in the Age of Legends, most probably not.  The Age of Legends was entirely too boring to write about, up until the time it became too interesting.  And at that point, it became too gloomy because it was a long, drawn out apocalypse.

A calendar for next year seems like a very possible thing.  So does the encyclopedia concept we've heard about-- he already keeps a running compilation of invented terms anyway.

Q: Will you ever give use the answers to all our feeble WoT questions and whatnot?
A: Perhaps in the future there will be an encyclopedia or concordance. Harriet (both wife and editor) keeps a list of every plant, animal, organization, etc., all alphabetized and everything. This could possibly be the basis of an encyclopedia in the future. [This was one of the points where he said that he wouldn’t say ‘never’, because it “has a tendency to come back and bite you”.]

Q: After the Last Battle, will you write any more books in the WoT world?
A: No. No more in this universe. There will probably be some parallel stories in other fantasy series he’ll be writing, but no, no WoT books. [HOWEVER… He made a point of saying here (and in other places) that it was not NEVER, because “when you say never, you sometimes end up having to eat it”]

The reason he did New Spring was circumstance. Bob Silverberg called him and asked him to do it. He would have said no, except that he had just the day before finished his notes on Moiraine and Lan meeting each other. Those notes had to be shortened to write the story, though. If he'd written New Spring using everything from those notes, it would have been 90.000 words, rather than the 35.000 it's now. (And the idea was: if you get to more than 25.000 words, call Bob immediately!) He's not planning on writing other short stories, but things might just happen in such a way that he will anyway.

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