A: Oh Oh OH! Does the phrase Read And Find Out seem familiar to you at all? Take heart, all will be revealed eventually! Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

A: Well, thank you very much, I try! And as far as the other, Read And Find Out. If I tell you guys everythign up front, you're going to say, Jeez, there's no reason to read the book, we know it already!

A: Read And Find Out, guys.

A: Such a bond would be possible, but an Ogier would find it a very strange thing to be asked to do. I can't think of an Ogier on this side of the Aryth Ocean who would be willing to accept.

A: Yes. There's almost nothing that is in the new book that is in the other books. There are things that are mentioned in the books and greatly expanded, and they contain a great deal of information that are nowhere in the novels.

A: I became fascinated with women at the age of three. It's a long story -- too long to go into here. But I quickly realized that for everything that was the same about men and women, there seemed to be at least two or three things that were different. Once I had decided that I wanted to use the One Power in the way that I was using it -- that is, divided into a male half and a female half -- it became obvious to me that the differences between men and women themselves should also play a part.

A: Well, thanks. As far as the westerns go -- yes, I wrote a western once. A little out of the ordinary, set in the 1830s and with only one major character who was not a Cheyenne Indian. I might do a western one day or more historical novels. History and the American West in general interest me greatly. But for the moment, the Wheel of Time takes up all of mine -- time, that is.

A: I wanted to write a fantasy that reflected the real world, with characters who reflected real people -- not specific people, but characters who were real people. And there are things about the real world that I wanted, such as that people who end up heroes very rarely set out to be heroes, and heroic journeys consist mainly of sleeping rough and going hungry, wondering how you are going to pay for the next meal and wonder exactly what it is you are supposed to do and how are you going to get out of it alive.

A: Well, Mayene is based culturally on the cities of the Hanseatic league, as well as Venice and Genoa when those cities were world commercial powers and city-states in themselves. Of course, I didn't put anything into the guide that I wanted to come as a surprise in the books. You have to remember that. Which is one reason I gave quite as much as I did about the history of the world and considerably less about the "present day."

A: I wanted to put different names on different kinds of books so there would be no confusion. I didn't want anyone to pick up a book because they had liked my last book only to find that they had bought something they didn't want to read.

A: I drew from everything that I have read in the past 40-odd years, including the Bible. It's very hard for me to say -- in most cases -- exactly what the sources were in any particular instance.

A: Yes, I have an idea for what I intend to write after I finish the World of Time, but I have not put anything down on paper, and I will not until I have finished the Wheel of Time. Until then, the next work exists only in the back of my head. As for Chang Lung, I don't think there is any source anywhere except for my files, and I'd just as soon leave them there. There are few things more boring than 10-year-old dance reviews and theater criticism.

A: No. Except for the possible occasional divergence -- except for Rand's excursions to Seanchan when he chased after Aviendha. I was willing to put as much as I did into the guide because I will not be using those things in the books in the same way that I used Kandor or Saldaea.

A: I knew the beginning, that is, the opening scenes; I knew the final scene of the final book; I knew the very general line that I wanted the story to take from the beginning to the end. And I knew a number of major occurrences that I wanted to take place and a number of relationships that I wanted to develop. I left open how I would get from one major occurrence to the next to allow for fluidity in writing. I did not want to set anything in stone. Sorry for the pun, but that does lead to rigidity.

A: I've never done a short story, except that I am at the moment working on one which will be in a collection called MASTERS OF FANTASY, which Robert Silverberg has put together. Actually, I'm not certain it really counts as a short story -- more of a novella.

A: No. I usually avoid the net. It's too addictive and I don't have the time. Occasionally, though, people will send me printouts of the latest FAQ or send it to me on disk, and I do enjoy browsing through that. Let me add: I haven't seen one in about a year (hint hint).

A: Read And Find Out.

A: I don't manage to read over 400 books a year now. I'm not certain that I even manage to average a book a day. About half of what I read is nonfiction, half fiction. And the fiction takes in everything. As for recommendations, I assume you mean in the field, so try John M. Ford, C. S. Friedman, Guy Gavriel Kay, Terry Pratchett, George R. R. Martin, and a slew of others -- too many to name. You can find them.

A: A good bit. But on the other hand, history is a hobby of mine, in particular the American Revolution in the South and the southern move west, which went through Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California.

A: Too true. Too true. But when I find out that something I wanted to be obvious isn't, I do look around to see if I can find another place to slip in a hint.