A highlight of the con for me was going to lunch with one of my idols, Michael Whelan. (For more on how much I love his work, see here.) He gave me one of the signed limited editions of The Art of Michael Whelan, which includes a beautiful original illustration (below). The book and the illustration are absolutely gorgeous. I can’t wait to see what Michael comes up with for the cover of Words of Radiance.

Together Jennifer and Jimmy Liang head up JordanCon each year and do a smashing job of it. This year Jimmy wanted to get me Magic cards in Korean. Instead, his search turned up these cards in Chinese:

Of course, readers brought me all sorts of other goodies: mac and cheese, more Magic cards (vintage!), books, an awesome wooden baby rattle, traditional songs rewritten with Wheel of Time-inspired lyrics, and a book of letters from the Black Tower Social Group from Dragonmount.

Matt Hatch from Theoryland brought me a shirt and art print with a symbol based on the Dusty Wheel from Towers of Midnight. As a cool side note, the pipe drawing is based on one of Robert Jordan’s actual pipes. If you’re interested in buying one of these shirts, they’re available at InkWing. (Also note that Ta’veren Tees has many types of Wheel of Time shirts.)

One reader, a student of various languages—including American Sign Language—is working on putting together a sign language based on Aiel maiden handtalk. Check out her blog to follow her research.

I should also mention that two of my readers, Kalyani and Rahul, cooked me a wonderful meal of traditional southern Indian food. Seriously, the food was better than what you might find in a restaurant.

Again, I had a wonderful time at JordanCon. It’s really the people and the hospitality that makes this a great convention every time I’ve gone.

Brandon