Monthly Archives: July 2010

Published: July 30, 2010

Lesbian Unicorns

Pat,

I had to miss San Diego ComicCon this year. It’s my first one I’ve missed in five years. Many tears.

What did you think of it compared to last year? This was only your second ComiCon, wasn’t it?

Michelle

This was only my second ComiCon, Michelle. But I have to admit that it felt a lot different than the first one.

Part of the difference was that this year I knew the lay of the land. I knew where the all night deli was. I knew the layout of the dealer’s room and how to find the place with the good seafood.

The other big change was that this year I’m a dad. This was the longest stretch of time I’ve spent away from Oot since he’s been born. It was harder than I expected, and I missed him from the very first day.

For example, last year when I went to the con, my mental commentary was like this: “Hey! Hot girl dressed as Poison Ivy! Hot girl in chainmail! Hot catgirl! Batman!”

I make no excuses for this. I am who I am.

But this year when I walked around the con, I was thinking, “Oh, look at that baby! Cute baby! Baby dressed up as Yoda! Hot Catgirl! Batman!”

Also, this year I was smart enough to schedule times to meet people instead of just hoping we could get together. As a result, I got to have dinner with Brandon Sanderson and Christopher Paolini on Saturday night.

We had a lovely conversation, and at some point Paolini told us that in an early draft of his first book, the main character was named Kevin, not Eragon.

Not to be outdone, I said that in an early draft of The Name of the Wind, Kvothe was actually a lesbian unicorn.

I didn’t think much of it. This is the sort of thing I say all the time, and I don’t expect people to pay much attention to me.

But I failed to take into account twitter. Which led to someone sending me the profoundly bizarre e-mail.

So the next day when I was doing a reading and signing at Borders, one of my lovely readers brought me a present:

It is, of course, a lesbian unicorn. His name is Kvothe. You may of heard of him.

I had a good laugh over it, and thought that would be the last I ever heard of it. But after I get back from the Con, I find one of my friends has sent my the following surreal e-mail.

Pat,

Okay, so I am doing a search for “pink unicorn gay” in Google Images because, well, it’s a long story…  (Shut up!)

Thing is I spotted something very odd pretty early on in the results.

I swear to you this isn’t a set up or faked or anything.  I just typed in “pink unicorn gay” and this is what I got!

[name withheld for blackmail purposes]

(Click to Embiggen.)

So yeah. That was the unexpected result of this year’s ComiCon. Permenently linking Kvothe’s name with the phrase “Lesbian Unicorn.”

Working to make your day a little more surreal,

pat

Posted in babies, Catgirl, conventions, fan coolness, lesbian unicorns | By Pat73 Responses
Published: July 26, 2010

An interview with Sandeep Parikh

So while I was out at Comic-Con, I did a little interview with Sandeep Parikh, creative genius behind the Legend of Neil.

Honestly, I was more than a little nervous. I’ve been on the receiving end of a lot of interviews, but I’ve never given one on camera before.

Sandeep is an incredibly cool guy, and tolerated my newbie flailing with James Bondian aplomb.

More con stories later. Now, I sleep…

pat

Posted in Me Interviewing Other Folks, videos | By Pat18 Responses
Published: July 19, 2010

Comic-Con Schedule and a Chance to Ask Your Questions.

I’m a couple days away from leaving for San Diego ComicCon. Since I decided to scale back on my conventions this year because of Oot, this is one of the few big cons I’m hitting this year.

Since San Diego is big to an insane degree, I figured I’d post up my schedule here. Normally when I go to a con I do a dozen panels and signings and such. But at ComicCon I’ve only got a handful of events, so it would be pretty easy to miss me with all the background noise and residual coolness.

Thursday –  July 22:

1:30- 2:30 pm

Panel: Once Upon a Time: Epic Fantasy, Bigger Than Life Heroes/Heroines

Location: Room 24ABC

Notes: I’m pretty excited about this panel. It’s got Brandon Sanderson, Brent Weeks, Lynn Flewelling, Christopher Paolini, and Megan Whalen Turner. And me, of course. Should be a good discussion.

2:30 pm-3:00 pm

Autographing session

Location: Table AA1

Note: The AA table number designates a table in the convention’s Autograph Area, upstairs, under the sails.

Saturday, July 24:

1:00 — 1:50 pm

Signing at Mysterious Galaxy (Booth #1119)

Note: The folks at at Mysterious Galaxy will be selling copies of The Name of the Wind and The Adventure of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle. If you buy your copy of the Princess book there, you’ll also get a copy of the sticker I mentioned a couple weeks ago on the blog.

Further note: Apparently this signing will be a ticketed thing. So if you want to make sure you get a place in line, you need to show up at the Mysterious Galaxy booth at some point on Saturday and get a ticket. Sooner is probably better.

Additional Further Note: Mysterious Galaxy will be selling The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle all through the convention. They’ll probably be the only ones that have it. That way, even if you aren’t able to make one of my signings, you can still stop by their booth and grab a copy of my book.

Sunday, July 25:

3:00 – 4:00 pm

Reading and signing with Patrick Rothfuss, Brandon Sanderson, and Brent Weeks.

(I’m guessing 3-4 is the time for the reading itself, with the signing directly afterward. Rest assured I won’t be bugging out right at 4:00. I’ll stick around until everyone’s books are signed.)

Location: Borders 668 6th Ave

Facebook event here.

Note: While this event is happening at at San Diego, it’s not part of the convention itself. That means you can show up for the fun even if you aren’t attending the con. It’s free and open to everyone. There also aren’t any tickets to this one, so if you miss me at the convention on Saturday, you can catch me here on Sunday.

Further Note: To add some extra excitement, Brandon, Brent, and I won’t just be reading our own stuff. Oh no. Far too pedestrian. We’ll be reading each others’ stuff. Honestly, I’m stuck between excitement and terror just thinking about it.

Last but not least, we’ve got something for those of you who won’t be at the convention.

Last year I did a video interview with Shawn Speakman at Suvudu. It was fun, so this year I’ll be doing another.

Gentleman and free-thinker that he is, Shawn is taking suggestions for interview questions. So if you have something you’d really like him to ask me in the interview, you can post it in the comments below. The door’s open, folks. Thrill me.

Later,

pat

Posted in appearances, Ask the Author | By Pat64 Responses
Published: July 16, 2010

Processing…

We’re still working on the whole t-shirt thing over here. We got around three or four hundred submissions, and it’s taking a while to winnow them down and tweak some of the designs.

Looking through the submissions has been a lot of fun for me. The only thing that keeps it from being pure joy is knowing that I have to cut several hundred designs down to 10 or 15 we can vote on. It’s hard to choose.

So while I’m making those decisions, here’s a few designs that cracked me up. I wanted to share them even though they probably won’t make the final cut.

(Click to embiggen.)

You’ll probably need to embiggen this one a little too…

I didn’t get this one until someone pointed out that it was “Lyre Lyre. Pat’s on fire.”

I hear they make a sounder.

Technically speaking, I’m teaching this class right now.

From now on, when people ask what the book is about. I’ll show them this picture.

Enjoy,

pat

Posted in fan coolness | By Pat71 Responses
Published: July 12, 2010

A New Addition to the Family – Russia

Every once in a while, I get a package from my agent. And honestly, it’s always a little like Christmas.

I spent so long trying to get an agent, you see. Now, not only do I have an agent, but he’s a really good agent. And the people he works with at the agency are really good too. We get along really well, and they help me sell my book all over the world.

So when they send me something, it’s cool by default. They could mail me a gum wrapper and I’d be happy. Why? Because getting a gum wrapper from your awesome agent is roughly a billion times cooler than getting form-letter rejection from yet another agent rejecting your book.

It doesn’t hurt that I’m new enough to this whole professional writer thing that everything is still fresh and new.  Foreign contracts are still interesting to me. I get an envelope in the mail and think, “Yay! I get to read an 8 page contract detailing the sale of the Brazilian rights of my book!”  Even the cryptically opaque royalty statements are fun.

But my favorite things to get in the mail are new foreign editions of the book.

I’ve talked about some of them in previous posts. The German version. The Portuguese version. Japanese, French, Danish…

I love them all. Even the ones I’ve gently mocked.

But just a couple days ago I had a new experience. A book showed up and I couldn’t figure out what country it was from.

(Click to Embiggen.)

Usually if I don’t know which country a book is from, it’s not that hard for me to figure out. If worse comes to worst,  I just google the publisher’s name. For example, if I search on “Argo” and “Rothfuss” I find out that “Jméno Větru” is the Czech version of my book.

But this book had nothing on it that I could use. The foreign character set completely flummoxed me. Normally when I get a book, I can at least read my name on the cover. Not so with this one.

I was pretty sure it was Russian. I needed to be *really* sure. If I was wrong I’d look like a real idiot. It would be like introducing your own child using the wrong name.

Eventually I took an educated guess and decided that Патрик Ротфусс was a transliterated version of “Patrick Rothfuss.” But even then, it took me a long time to figure out how to type “Патрик Ротфусс” into google.

So, after a little bit of research, let me introduce the Russian Version of the Name of the Wind: Имя ветра.

It’s a pretty book. Good paper and a nice binding. It doesn’t have a book-jacket either, the art is printed directly on the cover of the book. I kinda like that.

Also, join me in enjoying the cover art. It isn’t to-the-letter accurate, but it’s not that bad, either.

I’ve become philosophical about cover art over the years. I know that its main job is to catch the reader’s eye. If the picture isn’t entirely true to the story Kvothe tells, if it over-dramatizes a bit… I can live with that. I comfort myself with the knowledge that if the cover doesn’t fit Kvothe’s story perfectly, it’s probably pretty close to the version Old Cob would tell….

Later folks,

pat

Posted in book covers, foreign happenings, translation | By Pat70 Responses
Published: July 8, 2010

Updated FAQ

Long ago, back in August of 2007, I wrote a blog answering the question: “If I send you a copy of my book, will you sign it?”

When I wrote that, the book had only been published for a couple months. What’s more, when I wrote the blog, I expected the rules I laid down would discourage people from sending in their books. Specifically, I thought that requiring people to send me something cool would be a big deterrent, and the requests would slow to a tiny trickle.

I was wrong. Since then, hundreds of people have send in books for me to sign. And the cool things they’ve sent have been… well… really cool.

Someone send in a quarter with a bullet hole in it. A handmade Kvothe doll. Old coins. Keys. Jewelry. Magical charms. Grue protective gear. Brass gears, foreign delicacies, and strange gods….

I’ve been meaning to take pictures of some of these and post them up for a long time. Some of them I’ve wanted to post up for years. But with rare exception, I haven’t managed it. There’s only so many hours in the day….

The other thing I’ve meaning to do for over a year is update the post I wrote back in 2007. That, at least, I’ve finally done. Now it’s a little more streamlined, and I’ve included details about how people from other countries can play the game.

The question now is how long will I keep doing this?

The truth is, I don’t know. But the smart money says I might have to stop before book two comes out. If 1000 people mail me their copies of The Wise Man’s Fear, dealing with the packages it will bury me for a solid month. Plus the people at the post office will want to kill me. Plus, cool things aside, I’ll probably want to kill myself.

But for now, I’m still doing it. Here’s the updated blog for those of you who are interested.

Be happy everyone. Be good to each other.

pat

Posted in FAQ, signing books | By Pat29 Responses
Published: July 5, 2010

Machine-Gun Q&A #2

About a month and a half ago, I tried a little experiment here on the blog. I offered people the chance to ask me questions down in the comments. It’s sort of like a machine gun interview.

Much to my delight, it turned out to be fun, so tonight while I’m waiting for Erberts and Gerberts to deliver my sub, I figured we’d do it again.

Here are the rules. Read them before you post:

1. You can ask any question.

2. Bite sized questions are best. I’m not looking to write essays here. Think popcorn, not steak.

2b. One question per comment. No multi-part questions.

2c. Don’t post 20 desperate, flailing questions hoping that I’ll answer one of them. Post one or two clever questions instead.

3. I reserve the right to ignore your question.

3b If I ignore your question, it’s not because I hate you. It’s probably just because I don’t have anything witty to say on the subject.

4. I reserve the right to lie, or at least be wildly inaccurate.

5. Complete sentences, punctuation, and spelling words out in their entirety is encouraged. I’m more likely to pass over your question if it contains abhorrences like “ur.”

6. Nobody can make fun of your question.

6b. Except for me.

7. If I’ve already answered the question in a blog or one of my innumerable interviews, I’m going to pass over it.

7b. If a lovely person wants to post up links to where those answers can be found, that would be very much appreciated.

7c. That said, please don’t answer questions on my behalf. Just links to my answers are best.

8. I won’t answer spoiler-ish questions about the book.

9. I’ll probably trim unanswered questions out of the comments just to streamline things for future readers.

10. I reserve the right to delete unanswered questions so people reading the blog later have an easier time navigating the comments.

Let me see here. It’s 11:50 PM right now in Wisconsin. If you post up your questions in the next 40 minutes, I’ll take a look at them. Questions posted after that will be ignored, because by that time I’ll have eaten my sub and moved on with my evening. So if you miss this window, you’re better off saving your question until next time around.

Ready…. Go!

pat

Posted in Fanmail Q + A, Machine Gun Q&A | By Pat282 Responses

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