WMF Photo Contest Part XI: Shrines, Scenery, and Groups

Hey guys, Amanda here again. We’re on a roll, and today we bring you part XI of the photo contest.

[I’m here too. It’s Pat. I’m orange today.]

Like last time, Pat and I worked together on these blogs, and he picked our winners a long time ago. He just needs that extra push to actually post it. So… *push*

Pat’s going to be popping in here and there to give his snarky input again. I hope you enjoy my public mocking.

[Technically, that should be “I hope you enjoy my being publicly mocked.” The way you’ve phrased it implies that you’re going to be mocking people in public.]

Something tells me this is not the only time you’re gonna sass me today….

[Something tells me you’re right.]

  • Groups.

My favorite thing that happened in this contest were the big group efforts.

Some were more simple, like asking these lovely women to pose with a copy of WMF:

photocontest_2_girls

And then there’s some of the more intricate set ups.

WMF_photo

I love the idea of Alan Menken writing the music for this musical. Would it be more in the vein of Little Shop of Horrors or Aladdin?

WMF_sm2

And here we have Spider-man, wrecking everything, like he does.

Advanced Not Being a Stupid Jackass 006

I was a high school Engilsh teacher before I started working for Pat, so this made me grin more than usual.

[Engeilersh.]

These sophomores are in the middle of a course of Advanced Not Being a Stupid Jackass. I approve. Plus, the teacher actually got waivers from all of the kids in the picture. Though given how long it’s taken to post this, some fairly simple math reveals that they’re all at least 19 now.

[ಠ_ಠ]

entry003 - just went around town asking people to hold their book

I admire this. This photo was made just by going around town asking people to hold their book. Making friends, sharing the love, and a cool photo.

Honorable Mention:

EolianMuses

“Wild warblings from the Eolian lyre/Enchantment softly breathe, and/tremblingly expire” -John Keats

Winners:

wiseman-büchermittelalteredit

(Click to embiggen)

Aynaet, the person who sent this photo in, outed herself as a Nerdfighter to us when she submitted these photos, though Pat and I selected this as a winner before I noticed that. I pretty much immediately wanted to be best friends with her.

Many of the pictures are of her at various conventions, adding a little bonus geek factor to the submission.

'Most Blatant Suck-up' entry

[You guys rock my socks. Seeing you flying your freak flag makes me proud to be a geek.]
The folks who submitted this were very detailed in their explanation:
“-Yes, that is a Luring the Draccus poster; yes, that is my computer background reflected in it; yes, my computer background is the art of the French cover of NOTW.
-Yes, we all three are wearing (or in my brother’s case, draped over a shoulder) Rothfussian shirts
-Yes, my brother is copying the pose from the romance novel cover of NOTW with my flute and copy of The Last Unicorn
-Yes, all those copies of NOTW, WMF, Princess and Mr. Whiffle, and assorted other Rothfuss paraphernalia do belong and were purchased by us, making this kinda an entry into the ‘Most Blatant Suck-up’ category.
-Yes, some of our copies are not pictured due to being out on loan, and yes, as this was taken a while ago more copies have been added.”

There’s a lot of enthusiasm here. They have pretty much every edition of Name of the Wind available, including the book club edition. They even have one of our long-gone original Worldbuilders t-shirts. So, for their commitment, they’ll all be getting sets of gold talent pipes.

[Only fair. It seems like that’s the only thing they don’t have in their collection so far….]

The photostream has even more group efforts, including bonus pictures from some featured here already.

  • Shrines.

There were more than a few shrines built in honor of WMF:

[My name is is Pat Rothfuss, and I officially I approve of this behavior.]

IMG_1385a

But not all of them were beautiful, serene things….

IMG_1390a

This contained real strands of hair from the photographer’s boyfriend, her wisdom teeth, and money from a German middle-ages festival.

[Cripes. Teeth? I never mentioned teeth as a sympathetic link, did I? That particular piece of inspired creepy isn’t my personal responsibility….]

candles1

This one features a wax mommet. I’m particularly fond of the way the instrument case has been bound. If you click to embiggen, you see a note that says “SILENCE OF THREE PARTS” on the case, so it factors into whatever spell they’re placing on their mommet.

[*Pushes up glasses again.* “Binding” is the preferred nomenclature. Nobody at the university would use the word “spell.”]

You know Pat, if you’d rather I *stopped* helping with these blogs, all you have to do is ask….

[*mumbles something softly to himself without meeting your eye*]

Honorable Mention:

ducks2

The photographer was convinced these ducks were performing a ritual to bring about some “well deserved happiness for our dear Kvothe.” I hope it worked…

Winner:

055

The best shrines are those that provide enough light for you to read by.

[This is just an awesome picture. I’d love it even if it had nothing to do with my book. As it is, I love it exponentially more….]

There are even more shrines in the photostream, if you want to get ideas for your own glorification of the books.

  • Scenery

Our next category was fairly simple.

A lot of the pictures are simply beautiful, and can pretty much speak for themselves….

IMG_20110515_164015

DSCN0158

I feel oddly calm and at ease looking at this photo. Stevens Point has nothing resembling this for me to climb, but I might go looking for one now…

Dennabogmark2

[My aging, decrepit mind thinks this picture was from Finland…]

Wise Man's Fear1 201

Having spent my entire life in the Midwest, and primarily Wisconsin, this was REALLY cool to me.

[Butte. LOLOLOLOL]

New York Times Bestselling author, folks. I’m so proud.

Honorable mention:

book  in stone circle

My immediate reaction to this was a desire to get a group together to sit on the stones and read the book aloud, with each person playing a role. And then I was worried some creepy fae magic would happen and someone would disappear, so I decided not to ever do that.

[I can’t tell if I think this ring of stones is cool or creepy. I keep wondering who made it, and why? Then the stories I come up with in my head to answer those questions aren’t always good stories….]

Winner:

Aileen Hay3

I don’t know why this picture appealed to me the way it did. It’s a beautiful picture, but there’s something more to it that makes me really happy. There’s something about the angle, the black and white, the small glimpse of water through the planks, the expanse of sky, that all just sort of… fit.

And really, that’s enough for me.

[I hear you. There’s a real art to shooting a good photo. I don’t know how it works, but I know what I like…]

There were so many more cool photos. We’ve added them to the photo stream, and you should really see them.

* * *

Thanks for taking this ride with me, guys. I’m pretty sure Pat appreciated having me take over a couple of these, even if he mocked my every word.

[Please, at most I mocked every fourth word or so.]

Previously: [Prologue] [Part I] [Part II] [Part III] [Part IV] [Part V] [Part VI] [Part VII] [Part VIII] [Part IX] [Part X]

There are only two photo contest blogs left: Miscellany and the Grand Prize Winner. They’re both pretty awesome…

Amanda

[What she said.]

[pat]

This entry was posted in fan coolness, I mock because I love, Photo Contest 2011. By Amanda21 Responses

21 Comments

  1. Aiwendil
    Posted May 13, 2015 at 12:32 AM | Permalink

    *gasp* Finland isn’t imaginary after all!
    (yep, I’m the one who tweeted about it.)

    Great photos, everyone!

    • Posted May 13, 2015 at 12:39 AM | Permalink

      Just because someone took a picture there doesn’t mean it’s not imaginary….

      • Aiwendil
        Posted May 13, 2015 at 12:52 AM | Permalink

        You’re right. I should hunt Kvothe down and take a picture of him. Might be tricky, though.

  2. Club Neon
    Posted May 13, 2015 at 3:54 AM | Permalink

    The teeth got me wondering. Would they provide a better sympathetic link than blood? I mean they are basically bone. I imagine neither one would be something you want a person of ill intent getting their hands on. But then that thought got me wondering further. There are times when one can’t help but shed blood, or teeth. Is there something that can be done to these items as a method of disposal that can substantially weaken or break the link to the individual who produced them?

    • khil1
      Posted May 13, 2015 at 7:31 AM | Permalink

      I was reading Storm Front by Jim Butcher last night and in it Harry points out that if something of body is a good link to him shouldn’t he also be a good link to it? So if somebody can set you on fire with your hair/blood/teeth couldn’t you reverse it and burn the hair/blood/teeth to ash keeping you safe from it?

    • ofMindandHeart
      Posted May 13, 2015 at 1:27 PM | Permalink

      And we know from when Kvothe makes a gram for the Maer that it has to be tuned to you using samples of your blood, hair, sweat, and urine, but there’s no mention of teeth. So presumably if you found an archanist’s baby teeth you would have a major advantage over them even if they had a gram. Kvothe has tried to thwart dowsing by putting bottles of his blood in a river. I imagine dowsing with a tooth would be much less easy to trick. Teeth don’t replenish like blood does.

  3. Aynaet
    Posted May 13, 2015 at 8:18 AM | Permalink

    Grinning like a maniac right now. It’s so sweet, what you wrote underneath the photo. And I acually met you in Berlin in March 2015. Made my day :D

    • Amanda
      Posted May 13, 2015 at 9:44 AM | Permalink

      Well we Nerdfighters have got to stick together, after all :)

      • Aynaet
        Posted May 15, 2015 at 7:06 AM | Permalink

        The e-mail account I used in 2011 doesn’t exist anymore. I tried find out if I wrote down the adress of my parents at that time. Just wanted to make sure… cause I don’t remember.
        (Aynaet: old e-mail was [email protected])

  4. Jsherry
    Posted May 13, 2015 at 9:36 AM | Permalink

    I misplaced all of the files from my pics at some point and found them just this week on a hard drive. I saw the Spider-man one and had completely forgotten that I sent it, too, so seeing that one pop up here as a surprise makes the wait worth it:)

    And Amanda, I’m thinking maybe in the vein of Hunchback, using that Romani flavor to connect to the Ruh ;) The Ruh evening campfire number would be called “The Swelling Spirit.”

    • Amanda
      Posted May 13, 2015 at 9:44 AM | Permalink

      That sounds perfect. Brilliant.

      • Jsherry
        Posted May 13, 2015 at 10:40 AM | Permalink

        I honestly hadn’t realized that “Ruh” actually had a “real world” translation until today (and you’d think I would have, since there were plenty of Hebrew Day Camp songs about “Ruach,” which appears to have a related root).

        • Posted May 13, 2015 at 12:14 PM | Permalink

          Means ‘breath’ if I remember correctly. Is that right?

          • Jsherry
            Posted May 13, 2015 at 12:33 PM | Permalink

            Like many Hebrew words, it seems to have a few different meanings – the one I was thinking of was “spirit,” as popularized in a folk song called “Not By Might – Not By Power” by Debbie Friedman (who wrote some of her earlier songs at a Jewish Day Camp in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, which looks to be just a few hours from Stephen’s Point).

            But yes, “breath” is another translation. Er, and, although I never knew it until I just dug a little deeper into some rabbinical commentary, so is……”wind.”

          • Jsherry
            Posted May 28, 2015 at 6:00 PM | Permalink

            Hey, and temerant is a conjugated Latin verb? Hmm, are you hiding thematic imagery in plain sight, Rotfhuss, or do some words just sound like other words? Gah, sometimes I hate being an English teacher…

          • Jsherry
            Posted July 1, 2015 at 6:22 PM | Permalink

            Ohhhh, you little Sneaky Pat (which is like a Sneaky Pete with a long beard)…Just rereading NotW, as I am wont to do, and caught that the Amyr came from the ranks of the “Ruach” in Skarpi’s 2nd tale about Selitos. Of course, the Hebrew connection is unsurprising when the supreme being is called “Aleph.”

      • Jsherry
        Posted May 13, 2015 at 11:47 PM | Permalink

        And Amanda, the next time Pat mocks you, you can remind him that one of my former students who is in the musical pic just pointed out (upon seeing the pic on my FB page) that she has graduated both high school AND college since that pic was taken for the contest.

        (We kid because we love, too, Pat. Some of us are just happy Pat Rothfuss exists and are thrilled he writes anything, be it a blog about a photo contest, a Twitter post, or a story in any form, on any timetable.)

  5. PHXDale
    Posted May 13, 2015 at 10:15 AM | Permalink

    Loving all the photos. Like a visit from an old friend whose been too long in hiding.

    My computers – and backups- were all stolen two years ago, along with my original submission to the contest, so this reveal has taken me down a fond path.

    It’s hard to truly believe the Photo Contest is about over. I kind of feel the way I did when I discovered others besides Big Bird could finally see Mr. Snuffleupagus. You’d hoped for it all those years, but when it finally happens, a wee bit of the magic of anticipation fades. A delightful bittersweet kiss.

    Thank you so much for all your work on this impossible dream. Much love!

  6. Simon
    Posted May 13, 2015 at 10:19 AM | Permalink

    lol the shrine thing kind of reminded me of how my one living room wall has been described. ;)

  7. justajenjen
    Posted May 13, 2015 at 10:53 AM | Permalink

    If the reading circle in the fairy ring sends someone back in time, is there a chance I would go get to meet my other favorite literary redhead? Mmm…Jaime Fraiser….

  8. Robo
    Posted May 13, 2015 at 10:57 AM | Permalink

    We want Winds of Winter!

    Oh, wait…

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • RSS info

  • Visit Worldbuilders!

  • Our Store

  • Previous Posts

  • Archives



  • Bookmark this Blog!

    (IE and Firefox users only - Safari users, click Command-D)