The Gathering Storm Book Tour, Chester County Books, Philadelphia, PA 6 November 2009[]
Report by Paul Grow
He spoke with obvious and heartfelt passion about Wheel of Time and mission in front of him. I asked him a direct question: Where is Demandred? On whom or on what did the Dark One order him to use balefire in book 6? I answered my own question: Surely he is with the Borderlander Army waiting to use balefire on Rand directly. Rand would be burned out of the Pattern and the Pattern would unravel because it it couldn’t exist without him. The Dark One wins. Brandon went into Aes Sedai mode, refusing to answer my questions by correcting me on my understanding of balefire. Brandon said someone killed by balefire could be reborn and woven back into the Pattern later, but the Dark One cannot resurrect that person. What a cool moment! I wish we could have talked all night.
...
One fan said his favorite character was Padan Fain and ask if we would see more of him. Brandon responded that he could not say, but joked that he may or may not have been writing about him on the train. I laughed and said as I was typing that “Brandon said Padan Fain will be in the next book.” Brandon looked at me with little humor, saying “I did NOT say that.” So let that be a warning to you and to me. I take full responsibility for this media report, I hope I get everything right but anyone can make a mistake or misunderstand something, so reader beware.
...
Brandon talked at length about Mat, saying he is undergoing great changes having just been married which might explain some of his behavior in TGS. He talked about Jordan’s use of time in the series, explaining that Perrin’s storyline is maybe a whole month off the other story-lines. Brandon explained that the True Power can only be used by someone that the Dark One has allowed to use it. The True Power is perhaps more powerful then the One Power in the way a drugged up person is more powerful then someone not drugged up. In the moment the drugged up person may be, but in the long run maybe not. Further explaining the True Power he said the guardian in Far Madding cannot stop it. One fan asked him not to make us wait another book for Moraine rescue. Another asked him, considering how the TGS ends, if he will miss writing in Lews Therin voice, Brandon said probably, but he was not 100% sure that we will not see Lews Therin voice again. Another fan asked if the balefiring of Grendeal could bring back Asmodean, if in fact Graendal was the person who killed him. Brandon essentially said no, because it happened much too long ago. At best balefire burns someone out of the pattern 3 days to a week at the absolute most. But usually more like 5 minutes. Brandon named many of the characters that we did not see in TGS and pointed out the need for three books to wrap the series up.
URL for report: http://www.theoryland.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=75000#poststop