Well THAT was certainly kept hush-hush!!

On September 16 of this year (three months ago), Robert Jordan died at his home in South Carolina of a blood disease. WHO HEARD ABOUT THIS? I sure didn’t! (Maybe since his real name was James Oliver Rigney, Jr., we missed it in the news.)

He was working on the 12th and final book of his Wheel of Time series. For all those fans who started reading the series a decade ago (the first book came out in 1990), there’s a large group saying, “We KNEW this was going to happen! Why’d he take so FREAKING LONG on these last few??” (Even though we do admire his valiant fight against cardiac amyloidosis that he contracted over a year ago.)

Well, rest assured, al-Thor-fans, the Wheel of Time will continue to spin as Brandon Sanderson, author of the “Mistborn” series, will be finishing the final novel, according to CNN. Jordan did leave a ton of detailed notes and hours of audio recordings, so his influence will still permeate the final book, entitled A Memory of Light.

So far, CNN reports that books in the “Wheel of Time” series have sold over 44 million copies! I blogged about the series in March 2007 and July 2005.