Robert Jordan diagnosed with blood disease

[Yukiri]

Ive seen book related material posted in this section before, if it belongs elsewhere, apologies.

Original source can be found here: http://www.tor.com/jordan/

Important note from Robert Jordan: March 25, 2006,

I have been diagnosed with amyloidosis. That is a rare blood disease which affects only 8 people out of a million each year, and those 8 per million are divided among 22 distinct forms of amyloidosis. They are distinct enough that while some have no treatment at all, for the others, the treatment that works on one will have no effect whatsoever on any of the rest. An amyloid is a misshapen or misfolded protein that can be produced by various parts of the body and which may deposit in other parts of the body (nerves or organs) with varying effects. (As a small oddity, amyloids are associated with a wide list of diseases ranging from carpal tunnel syndrome to Alzheimer's. There's no current evidence of cause and effect, and none of these is considered any form of amyloidosis, but the amyloids are always there. So it is entirely possible that research on amyloids may one day lead to cures for Alzheimer's and the Lord knows what else. I've offered to be a literary poster boy for the Mayo Amyloidosis Program, and the May PR Department, at least, seems very interested. Plus, I've discovered a number of fans in various positions at the clinic, so maybe they'll help out.)

Now in my case, what I have is primary amyloidosis with cardiomyapathy. That means that some (only about 5% at present) of my bone marrow is producing amyloids which are depositing in the wall of my heart, causing it to thicken and stiffen. Untreated, it would eventually make my heart unable to function any longer and I would have a median life expectancy of one year from diagnosis. Fortunately, I am set up for treatment, which expands my median life expectancy to four years. This does NOT mean I have four years to live. For those who've forgotten their freshman or pre-freshman (high school or junior high) math, a median means half the numbers fall above that value and half fall below. It is NOT an average.

In any case, I intend to live considerably longer than that. Everybody knows or has heard of someone who was told they had five years to live, only that was twenty years ago and here they guy is, still around and kicking. I mean to beat him. I sat down and figured out how long it would take me to write all of the books I currently have in mind, without adding anything new and without trying rush anything. The figure I came up with was thirty years. Now, I'm fifty-seven, so anyone my age hoping for another thirty years is asking for a fair bit, but I don't care. That is my minimum goal. I am going to finish those books, all of them, and that is that.

My treatment starts in about 2 weeks at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where they have seen and treated more cases like mine than anywhere else in the US. Basically, it boils down to this. They will harvest a good quantity of my bone marrow stem cells from my blood. These aren't the stem cells that have Bush and Cheney in a swivet; they can only grow into bone marrow, and only into my bone marrow at that. Then will follow two days of intense chemotherapy to kill off all of my bone marrow, since there is no way at present to target just the misbehaving 5%. Once this is done, they will re-implant my bmsc to begin rebuilding my bone marrow and immune system, which will of course go south with the bone marrow. Depending on how long it takes me to recuperate sufficiently, 6 to 8 weeks after checking in, I can come home. I will have a fifty-fifty chance of some good result (25% chance of remission; 25% chance of some reduction in amyloid production), a 35-40% chance of no result, and a 10-15% chance of fatality. Believe me, that's a Hell of a lot better than staring down the barrel of a one-year median. If I get less than full remission, my doctor already, she says, has several therapies in mind, though I suspect we will heading into experimental territory. If that is where this takes me, however, so be it. I have thirty more years worth of books to write even if I can keep from thinking of any more, and I don't intend to let this thing get in my way.

- Robert Jordan

The joke about him dying before he finishes Wheel of Time is sickeningly possible now.

[Fammaden]

That's what he gets for trying to kill Hakkar legit.

[Frax]

=/ I hope has good luck with the treatment, chemo is some nasty, nasty stuff.

[Frax]

Originally Posted by Fammaden

That's what he gets for trying to kill Hakkar legit.

And for not having Millie's Coffeshop & Bookstore forum!

[Korbal]

Originally Posted by Yukiri

Ive seen book related material posted in this section before, if it belongs elsewhere, apologies.

Original source can be found here: http://www.tor.com/jordan/

The joke about him dying before he finishes Wheel of Time is sickeningly possible now.

That motherfucker better get writing. Wow... people have been joking about him dying before the series is done for longer than I remember, and now it may even happen. He's been taking 2 years/book and I've yet to see the reason why. Other authors can put out a quality book/year easily but for him it takes 2 years and it's not even like he's taking the time to write a quality book. All the recent books are is a fuck-tonne of fluff with a bit of real story thrown in to keep you hooked. He has been milking this series for all it's worth for far too long. Honestly, did ANYONE fucking care wtf happened to Faile or Perrin, and did it really need like 2 books to resolve that fucking bullshit? Perrin could have died after the third book and I honestly would have been happier.

Sorry for the rant.

[Aethn Anvel]

Bummer hope he gets to finish the series.

But I have to point out, even a press release from Robert Jordan is a mile long. I love the guys books and think he has a great, imaginative mind but holy hell, it takes him 2000 words to describe the color of a horse in his books too.

Wish him the best still though.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Originally Posted by Korbal

That motherfucker better get writing. Wow... people have been joking about him dying before the series is done for longer than I remember, and now it may even happen. He's been taking 2 years/book and I've yet to see the reason why. Other authors can put out a quality book/year easily but for him it takes 2 years and it's not even like he's taking the time to write a quality book. All the recent books are is a fuck-tonne of fluff with a bit of real story thrown in to keep you hooked. He has been milking this series for all it's worth for far too long. Honestly, did ANYONE fucking care wtf happened to Faile or Perrin, and did it really need like 2 books to resolve that fucking bullshit? Perrin could have died after the third book and I honestly would have been happier.

Sorry for the rant.

Ever tried to write a 300k+ word book before? It takes just a little while. Hell, Martin, who everyone is always lining up to kiss his ring like he's the Pope of Fantasy any more, only wrote 4 books in 10 years, which is the same time it took Tolkien to write the Lord of the Rings (3 books not near 300k words). Sometimes you go one direction and decided to axe it out, sometimes you get so big you have other things to do, and, of course, sometimes you bloody just get tired of writing rushed for the whining fans that falsely think they own you, stupidly believe they could do better, and the vast majority of which wouldn't notice half the themes and myths you were playing with if you smashed them if the face with them.

Screw the fans. I hope Jordan finishes the series for himself, because dying before you can tell all you have to tell is every writer's nightmare.

[Kiely]

I'm on book 10 atm, a bit wary of what pace to take, book 11 is out, book 12 is that going to be the final one or is he still snail pacing it out til book 20 or so.

[Kan]

=(

[Korbal]

Originally Posted by Nebuchadnezzar

Ever tried to write a 300k+ word book before? It takes just a little while. Hell, Martin, who everyone is always lining up to kiss his ring like he's the Pope of Fantasy any more, only wrote 4 books in 10 years, which is the same time it took Tolkien to write the Lord of the Rings (3 books not near 300k words). Sometimes you go one direction and decided to axe it out, sometimes you get so big you have other things to do, and, of course, sometimes you bloody just get tired of writing rushed for the whining fans that falsely think they own you, stupidly believe they could do better, and the vast majority of which wouldn't notice half the themes and myths you were playing with if you smashed them if the face with them.

Screw the fans. I hope Jordan finishes the series for himself, because dying before you can tell all you have to tell is every writer's nightmare.

No. I know plenty of good writers that can put out a book a year. Writers that have a far more complex story than WoT. That's not even my real problem anyway. If he was putting out a good solid book every 2 years, I wouldn't have a problem, but it is so obvious now that he is just milking it for all it's worth. Hell, I wouldn't care if it was 3-4 years if he put out amazing books instead of the useless money-grabbing shit he's putting out now. The series was meant to be a trilogy, but I think that once he realized he finally had made a successful set of books, he decided to take it as far as he could. I can almost guarantee he won't write anything successful after WoT. If it is successful, it will only be because of all the WoT fanboys.

[Mimirswell]

Well he has a good reason not to "milk" it now.

[Flinch]

Ah, but you seem to believe that all writers work and act in the same fashion.

While yes, everyone is writing a book or whatever, the process differs greatly from person to person.

IMO, writing fantasy is some of the toughest fiction to actually write. If you're not going to be some hack author and just do a watered down Tolkien-esque story you're going to have to do a fuckton of world building and creation. Keeping all this shit balanced in your head can be annoying as fuck, and, for something as vast and fluff-tastic as the Wheel of Time series, keeping it all straight can be a daunting task.

I've never really read anything from Robert Jordan, so if I'm off here, ignore me, but I do know he churns out huge novels that are full with detail and story. Someone else in here said that his recent stuff is 90% fluff and 10% actual plot. Hate to say it, but creating realistic 'fluff' that doesn't pattern late EQ1 expansion nonsense is a delicate thing, and from what I've seen from Jordan, his books are full of that crap.

Also, if you're a widely successful author who is actually able to SELL, why the hell WOULDN'T you milk it for all it's worth? If you're enjoying it, why not create a 500 page wankfest every 2 years if the unwashed masses are gonna gobble it up? There's a reason why Salvatore keeps doing Drizzt novels.

Now whether you enjoy that or not is another thing entirely :P

[Korbal]

Originally Posted by Flinch

Also, if you're a widely successful author who is actually able to SELL, why the hell WOULDN'T you milk it for all it's worth? If you're enjoying it, why not create a 500 page wankfest every 2 years if the unwashed masses are gonna gobble it up?

Out of respect for your own series? For a writer, I think the ultimate accomplishment would be to write something that is read for years to come. Something that fans and critics alike can praise as a quality piece of writing and something that will be remembered as such. WoT is far too diluted now to be remembered as anything other than just another financially successful fantasy series.

Originally Posted by Flinch

If you're not going to be some hack author and just do a watered down Tolkien-esque story you're going to have to do a fuckton of world building and creation. Keeping all this shit balanced in your head can be annoying as fuck, and, for something as vast and fluff-tastic as the Wheel of Time series, keeping it all straight can be a daunting task.

I've never really read anything from Robert Jordan

Heh, WoT pretty much is watered down Tolkien. Replace orcs with trollocs, Two Rivers with Shire, Gandalf with Moiraine, Lan with Aragorn, Rand with Frodo, Mat with Pippin etc etc. His story is not very complicated and there is very little reason for it to take two years for each book. I just want it to end so I can get some closure and leave Robert Jordan behind forever.

[Flinch]

Fair enough, then.

I'm sort of interested in picking up some of his stuff and gauging it for myself. Sounds like the plot is a foregone conclusion...the fun is seeing how he does shit. =p

and re: the watering down his series, yeah, but again, if he's enjoying doing whatever he's doing, why not? Were I in his position, I'd probably be doing the same. If I was hating every minute of it, like the dude who played Ben Kenobi in the original Star Wars trilogy (whose name is totally escaping me atm), then I'd probably stop.

Jordan seems to like what he's doing and people seem to like reading it. Ergo, he keeps churning out the WoT books.

[Zarcath]

Could never read through his books, much like I could never get through the LotR trilogy.