A: Gee guys, Read And Find Out!

A: First, I expect to deliver the next book in the Fall of next year, which means that it will probably be published in the spring of 1998. I do not know how many more books there will be. There will be at least ten total, probably more but the safest way to say that is to say "there will be a few more, not too many, and please god not as many as have already been written!" Other books? Not until I finish the Wheel of Time. I am already working in my head on what I'll do after that. it is indeed a fantasy series. I have a long gestation period for my books. The Wheel of Time gestated for at least ten years before it appeared on paper, and Shipwreck seems to be doing at least that.

A: Well, I wrote! I had some ideas and I wrote them! I don't know how else to say it.

A: Yes and no. I know the last scene of the last book. I know the major events I want to happen between now and then. I know who will be alive and who will be dead at the end of the series. I know the situation of the world I know all of those things, but I leave how to get from one point to the next free so that I can achieve some fluidity. I don't want it too rigid, which is what I think will happen if i plan in too great a detail.

A: I sit down and do a sort of descriptive sketch of each character. What do they believe about certain things? What do they like to do, and what do they not like to do? It's very useful as long as I make sure that a character continues to react as they would. The fault, the mistake is to decide to make a character behave or speak in a certain way because you need it to happen in the story and the devil with whether the character would do or say that.

A: I would have to say I'm an American author, and more specifically that I'm a Southern author. My voice is both very American and very Southern. I've been lucky in that people in a great many nations seem to enjoy that voice, though.

A: No. That came from my mind twisting certain mythologies that I had read, certain legends.

A: No. Sorry guys! But at least I didn't say, "Read and find out!"

A: I keep detailed files on every character, every nation, every culture, every facet of the world I can imagine If I printed out all of the manuscripts of all the oftthe books, and all of the notes, there would be twice as many pages of notes and of course that doesn't encompass the great quantity of things I have tucked away in my head so solidly fitted there. I feel no need to put them in the notes.

A: All of the women are modelled in one way or another after the conglomerate of women I've met in my life but every single one of them, EVERY one of them, hassome element of my wife in her I won't say what elements are in what characters, we'd get too far afield. I will say it has nothing to do with torture in that particular case.

A: I envision the Dark One as being the dark counterpart, the dark balance if you will, to the creator carrying on the theme, the ying/yang, light/dark,necessity of balance theme that has run through the books. It's somewhat Manichian I know, but I think it works.

A: There are a number of characters reflected, mythological characters, reflected in each of the books because of the basic theme, if you will, of the books, that information becomes distorted over distance or time. You cannot know the truth of an event the further you get from it. These people are supposed to be the source of a great many of our legends or myths, but what they actually did bears little resemblance to the myth. That is the conceit, that time has shifted these actions to other people, perhaps compressing two people into one or dividing one into three as far as their actions go so Rand has bits of Arthur and bits of Thor and bits of other characters and so does Mat and so does Nynaeve, and so do others. And yes Mat does have some bits of Odin, but not exclusively. He has bits of Loki and bits of Coyote and of the Monkey King.

A: Yes, I grew up in a family of strong women. Most of the women i knew growing up were quite strong. I very early on realized that ---well, it seemed natural, this is how I saw the world. There were strong women and strong men and when weak men came along they were ridden over. But the fact that there were strong women didn't mean no strong men. Again, it's a given, there had to be a balance.

A: No, not at all I'm afraid. Some poetry to my wife now and then, that's all.

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.

A: No.

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.

A: Yes, but only when someone sends me a FAQ. Sometimes someone will send me a print out of the latest FAQ from the latest source, or send it on disk (it helps if can access it through Wordperfect 5.1) Generally, these things divide up evenly a third of the answers are right a third are almost right and a third are very off the wall.

A: I'm not sure about the last of that question, but this was part of the basis, the foundation of the story if women had gone insane using the power and not men, it would be a much different world, a much different story. and not the story I was interested in writing!

A: With difficulty. I'll tell you, when I was about four years old, I was picked up by a friend of my mother and she hugged me, she was wearing a soft, silky summer dress, and her perfume smelled life and as she put me down, my face slipped between her breasts and throughout the experience, I was thinking, "this is wonderful, this feels wonderful" and though I was four I found I wanted to spend my life observing these fascinating people and I've learned that they look different , they feel different, they are different, and I've put all this into the books.