This is a Worldbuilders blog.
First, a quick announcement. We’re extending the end date of Worldbuilders to February 7th. I looked at all the donations we still haven’t listed and realized we needed a little extra time to fit them all in.
Second, today I get to introduce you to several delightful human beings who have generously generously offered their time and talent to Worldbuilders, so we can auction them off.
We have authors, editors, and agents offering to read and critique unpublished manuscripts, a tuckerization, and a bookbinding that I myself am currently resisting the urge to bid on.
All auctions are starting at one (1) penny. And remember, proceeds go to improving people’s lives all over the world though Heifer International, so bid lavishly and spread the word.
- A read-and-critique of the first 20,000 words of your manuscript by agent Matt Bialer.
Pat’s Note: Matt is my agent, and I wouldn’t trade him for his weight in gold. He helped me revise my book several times before we landed a publisher, and his help has been invaluable in revising my second book. He’s all kinds of smart, understands stories, and I can honestly say that if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be where I am today.
You can get more of his professional information HERE.
Matt Bialer (literary agent) will read and evaluate the opening chapters of one manuscript (up to 20,000 words) within three months of submission, not including the last few weeks of December. He will read and critique, and help the author think about the issues that could be raised by editors at publishing houses. He will write a general evaluation of the book, both strengths and weaknesses, but line editing is NOT included. If the book is fantastic or has the potential to be fantastic then offering representation is not out of the question — but representation is not a guarantee.
Mailing details and contact with Matt will be set up following the auction
Interested? You can bid on this critique from Matt Bialer over here.
- A read-and-critique of your short story of 7,500 words by Jennifer Brozek .
Jennifer Brozek (DAW Books Human for a Day Editor, Editor Assistant Editor Apex Publications) will read and evaluate your short story (up to 7,500 words) within six weeks of submission. She will write a general evaluation of the story and mark up the manuscript using comments and track changes in the document itself. With seven anthologies, two writing awards and one editing award under her belt, she has the experience and skills to help your story be the best it can be. The bulk of her experience is in horror, science fiction, and urban fantasy. Also, the winner will receive two signed anthologies edited by Jennifer Brozek: Human for a Day, published by DAW and the award winning Grants Pass, published by Morrigan Books.
In addition to a manuscript review, Jennifer will be providing the winner with two anthologies that she has edited, Human for a Day and Grants Pass. Grants Pass won the 2010 Australian Shadows Award for best edited publication. She will personalize and sign each book and send them to the winner.
You may learn more about Jennifer at her website.
Mailing details and contact with Jennifer Brozek will be set up following the auction.
Interested? You can bid on Jennifer’s critique over here.
- A read-and-critique of your manuscript up to 10,000 words by Kat Howard.
Pat’s Note: Kat once saved my life by lifting a burning SUV off my shattered body, and carrying me three miles to a hospital on her back. True story.
Kat Howard is a writer of speculative fiction and an academic, teaching English literature at Stony Brook University. She is a 2008 graduate of Clarion (UCSD). Kat has short fiction that has appeared in the anthology Stories, in Weird Tales, and is forthcoming in Lightspeed and Subterranean. One of her short stories, “Choose Your Own Adventure,” was just chosen for Rich Horton’s Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2012.
Kat will review one piece of writing, up to 10,000 words. Whether that is in the form of one short story, or a section of a novel is up to the winner (She just ask that it not be something like ten one thousand word short stories, please.) She would like the work to be double-spaced in a standard, readable font. It will probably about two weeks, so long as she does not have any other deadlines in that period of time. Kat will provide an overall response to the story or novel excerpt, including what she feels are the strengths and weaknesses of the piece as a whole. She’ll talk about character, plot, language, theme, all the storytelling and craft kinds of details. What she will not do is a line or copy edit.
Learn more about Kat on her blog.
Mailing details and contact with Kat Howard will be set up following the auction.
Interested? You can bid on Kat’s critique over here.
- A read-and-critique of the first 100 pages of your manuscript by David Pomerico.
Pat’s Note: David is the sort of editor I would have loved to have read my manuscript and give me a few pointers back during the long years of rejection before my book was published. What’s more, he’s an absolute prince for donating his time and energy to Worldbuilders even though I don’t have the least bit of blackmail evidence to use against him.
The official description:
David Pomerico is an Associate Editor at Del Rey Spectra, where he focuses primarily on traditional fantasy, urban fantasy, and dystopian and post-apocalyptic literature. That’s not to say that he doesn’t know other genres (he claims to be something known as “well-read”), but that’s definitely where his interests lie. He’s worked with a variety of authors, including Felix Gilman, Sarah Zettel, David J. Williams, Chris Wooding, Darin Bradley, and Ari Marmell, as well as being a part of the Star Wars publishing program at Del Rey. He’s offering a detailed critique and commentary (but not a line edit) for the first 100 pages or so of your manuscript (double-spaced, please—and no margin shenanigans!), which he will get back to you within three months of receiving the manuscript. While he could possibly be blown away and want to make an offer on your book, this isn’t guaranteed (otherwise this might be a really pricey auction!).
Mailing details and contact with David will be set up following the auction.
Interested? You can bid on David’s critique over here.
- A read-and-critique of first 100 pages of your manuscript by Adrienne Lombardo.
Adrienne Lombardo started at Trident Media Group in the winter 2009 as the assistant to Ellen Levine and later to Don Fehr as well. Before being promoted to Audio Rights Agent in January 2011, she was instrumental in managing Ellen Levine’s extensive backlist, helping to find new clients and handling various subrights sales. She holds an MS in Publishing from New York University.
Her interests include general commercial, sci-fi/fantasy, paranormal, horror and historical fiction, graphic novels, YA, narrative nonfiction and memoir. “My main focus is science fiction, fantasy and horror, genres I’ve been reading all my life, and I’m interested in authors who know how to create worlds of their own.”
She will provide a detailed critique of the first 100 pages of your manuscript and an opinion on the book’s saleability. She is already going blind (probably from reading too much), so she would appreciate a double-spaced submission. She will get back to you within two months of 2012. If she likes your book enough, she may decide she wants to represent you.
Mailing details and contact with Adrienne Lombardo will be set up following the auction.
Interested? You can bid on Adrienne’s critique over here.
Bradley P. Beaulieu is the author of The Winds of Khalakovo, the first of three planned books in The Lays of Anuskaya series. In addition to being an L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Award winner, Brad’s stories have appeared in various other publications, including Realms of Fantasy Magazine, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, Writers of the Future 20, and several anthologies from DAW Books. His story, “In the Eyes of the Empress’s Cat,” was voted a Notable Story of 2006 in the Million Writers Award.
Bradley P. Beaulieu is pleased to offer one story or chapter critique of up to 7,500 words. Brad will draft a formal review that will cover such things as how well the story opens, complicates, and closes, how well the characterization works, dialogue, tone, pacing, tension, and a host of other issues. Essentially, he’ll provide a formal review on the positives and negatives found in the story. For these and many more details, including Brad’s bona fides, please visit his Worldbuilders 2011 Auctions page.
Mailing details and contact with Bradley will be set up following the auction
Interested? You can bid on Bradley’s critique over here.
- Tuckerization to appear in book by Bradley P. Beaulieu
Tuckerize: The use of a person’s name or description in an original story. Term is derived from Wilson Tucker who made a practice of using his friends’ names for minor characters in the stories.
Bradley P. Beaulieu is pleased to offer one Tuckerization for inclusion in the third and final novel of his critically acclaimed Lays of Anuskaya trilogy. All proceeds from the auctions will benefit the 2012 Worldbuilders fundraiser. For the details, please visit Brad’s Worldbuilders 2011 Auctions page.
Contact details with Bradley will be set up following the auction
Interested? You can bid on Bradley’s tuckerization over here.
My name is Gerald and I have been working as a professional bookbinder and conservator for a little over a decade. I am originally from Charleston, South Carolina, though I now work and live in Northern Indiana with my wife, daughter, a disinterested cat named Rudy, and an obscenely large book collection. My specialties in bookbinding are 15th – 19th century style reproductions in leather. You may view my work at here.
The bookbinding process typically takes 4-6 weeks depending on the complexity. I am offering to rebind one book of the winner’s choice in leather (either calfskin or goatskin) and tooled on the spine and boards. I will work with the winner in regards to leather type and color, what kind of marbled endpapers they would prefer, and design suggestions…I have quite a few images and scans that I can provide. The winner will pay to ship the book to me, and I will pay shipping for the return of the completed book.
Mailing details and contact with Gerald Ward will be set up following the auction.
Interested? You can bid on Gerald’s bookbinding over here.
- A read-and-critique of your entire manuscript by Pat Rothfuss.
(Me.)
I’ll read and critique your whole book. Though I should put some sort of reasonable limit on it, I suppose. How about this: I’ll read your book, anything up to 200,000 words.
What else should I say about myself? It’s hard for me to do these promotional write-ups for myself. Let’s see…
Before I became a published writer, I was a teacher for five years. Before that, I was a writing tutor for nine years. So I know something about giving productive feedback on a piece of writing. I’ve read roughly ten thousand novels, mostly sci-fi and fantasy.
I think about stories all the time and am obsessive about revision. I also have a soothing baritone voice, an IQ in the 160s, and the ability to steal any other mutant’s power just by touching them.
Ah hell… See? I can never take these things seriously. Just read the official description below for the details:
Patrick Rothfuss (international bestselling author, lover of women, and hirsute iconoclast) will read your manuscript and give you critical feedback. We’ll schedule this based on when your manuscript will be ready and my own schedular constraints.
I’ll read through your manuscript, scrawling notes and dirty words in the margins, then I’ll call you on the phone and we can discuss it. I won’t write you up a detailed critique because that’s not how I roll. But we’ll probably chat on the phone for a couple of hours discussing the various strengths and weaknesses of the book, your writing craft, and I’ll offer any suggestions I might have.
If I think your book is super-awesome, I might be willing to pass it along to someone. But be very aware that what you’re buying here is a critique, not a blurb or an introduction to the publishing world. A critique.
You can bid on the critique by Pat Rothfuss over here.
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Obviously, these auctions are only going to be running for a limited time. So if you know of someone who might be interested, I’d take it as a kindness if you let them know.
If you’d like to see all the auctions Worldbuilders is currently running, you can find them over here.
Or, if you want to see all the other items that have been donated to Worldbuilders, or just learn more about the fundraiser itself, you head over to the main page.
Miscellaneous Auctions
Okay. Today we’ve got stuff up for auction that, doesn’t really fit into any of the other blogs.
Among other things, we’ve got limited edition art from Neil Gaiman and Vincent Chong, signed bookplates from Pratchett and Robert Jordan, and the Arkenstone.
Yeah. Seriously. The Arkenstone.
The folks at Badali Jewelry, the folks that created the Eolian’s talent pipes for me, have been officially licensed by Middle-earth Enterprises to create a replica of the Arkenstone of Thrain.
Your Akenstone replica is made of fine K9 Crystal treated with an Aurora Borealis plating to give the stone a magical glow. The stone is nestled on a black velvet pillow inside a Dwarven crafted chest. The runes on the outside of the chest read Arkenstone, written in the same Dwarvish runes found on Thorin’s Map.
Many thanks to Badali Jewelry for this cool donation.
You can bid on this Arkenstone replica here.
In this numbered giclee print, (#2 of 4) by Lee Moyer we have the early version of the art that eventually became November’s pin-up in the calendar we printed up for this year’s fundraiser.
For more details or to bid on the auction you can click over here.
This bookplate bears the signature of Robert Jordan, the late author of the Wheel of Time series as well as many other books.
Rare for obvious reasons, this Wheel of Time bookplate was donated to Worldbuilders by a long-time Robert Jordan fan.
Bonus! This bookplate includes Brandon Sanderson’s signature. He is authoring the remainder of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.
You can bid on this over here.
This is a signed bookplate by Sir Terry Prachett, OBE. It bears a black and white copy of Terry Prachett’s coat of arms, granted to him by the College of Arms in 2010 when he was knighted.
The motto means “Do not fear the Reaper.”
You can bid on this cool Prachett bookplate over here.
This is a vintage film cell from the classic animated movie, The Last Unicorn, animated by Rankin/Bass, the same production company that produced the original animated Hobbit.
Donated by Conlan Press, this unmounted film cell comes packaged in a clear envelope signed by Peter S. Beagle, who wrote both the novel and the screenplay for the movie.
You can find more information about the film cells on Peter Beagle’s web page and newsletter.
In keeping with our Last Unicorn theme, we have one 5ml bottle of Touched Twice, a perfume created by Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab to commemorate the Saturday, August 6th screening of The Last Unicorn/signing with author Peter S. Beagle.
This scent was only available during the signing for four hours. It will never be available again.
This was the very last bottle of the scent Black Phoenix had, and they were nice enough to give it to us for our fundraiser.
For more details, or to bid on this auction, click here.
Only 150 of these limited edition bookmarks were made. Cast in sterling silver, it is from Vincent Chong’s Illustrated Design Collection.
This special edition bookmark is based on the artwork originally created by Vincent Chong for the Polish edition of Clive Barker’s first novel, The Damnation Game. It comes with a Damnation Game card that is autographed by Vincent Chong.
We got this gorgeous donation from Worldbuilder supporters Vincent Chong, Keith Brunkard, and Doug Hazel. Thanks much!
For more details, or to bid on this auction, click here.
This print measures 11 ¾ inches by 16 ½ inches and is signed by Vincent Chong.
You may learn more about Vincent and view his work by visiting his website or his blog.
To bid on this print, click here.
Here we have a signed print of The Devil’s Tune by Vincent Chong. This print measures 11 ¾ inches by 16 ½ inches. The original commission for this piece was as book endpaper art for Horns by Joe Hill.
To bid on this print, click here.
This limited edition, 12″ x 18″ print by Camilla d’Errico shows us a dreamy interpretation of the otherworldly “girls” from Neil Gaimain’s Hugo nominated short story How to Talk to Girls at Parties. If you’d like, you can read the story here.
The print run on these was limited, and the few that remain are only being sold for charity.
This work of art measures 12″ x 18″ and was graciously donated by Neil Gaiman and Neverwear.
You can bid over here.
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If you’d like to see all the auctions Worldbuilders is currently running, you can find them over here.
Or, if you want to see all the other items that have been donated to Worldbuilders, or just learn more about the fundraiser itself, you head over to the main page.