Category Archives: fan coolness

Published: August 2, 2010

Closure

Those of you who have been reading the blog for a while might remember several months ago when I posted up a general call for help.

The short version of the story is this. A reader sent me a very polite invitation to her high-school graduation party, and since I was going to be in the area anyway for Wiscon, I thought I’d stop by and say hello.

Of course I failed to take into account the fact that I’m an idiot. So while I remembered the party was over Memorial Day weekend, I didn’t make note of anything else, such as the address of the party, the person’s contact information, or even her name.

Needless to say, it was not my shiniest moment.

So I posted up a blog asking if anyone could help clue me in.

The bad news was that I did miss the party. The good news is that I did eventually get in touch with the reader. (Her name was Breanna, by the way.)

The weird news was that over the last couple months, I’ve had at least fifty people ask me if I ever managed to get in touch with her. It was kinda strange. I’d be doing a reading in California, and when I threw open the floor for questions, someone would ask, “did you ever make it to that girl’s party?”

So, in the interest of giving everyone the closure they so desperately desire, I figured I’d let y’all know what happened.

This last weekend we finally managed to get together. We grabbed coffee and hung out for a little bit.

Awww…. (Yes, she’s taller than me. No, I don’t have a problem with that.)

I also finally got to give her the graduation present I meant to bring to her party. A remnant of my checkered past: a copy of my College Survival Guide.

I’m including this picture mostly so y’all can make fun of my handwriting.

That’s all for today. Just a little closure on a story I started a couple months ago. See? I can do it. It just takes some time….

Love,

pat

Also posted in College Survival Guide, small adventures

|posted by Pat 45 Comments

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

Also posted in Brandon Sanderson, Catgirl, babies, conventions, lesbian unicorns

|posted by Pat 68 Comments

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

Labels: fan coolness

posted by Pat 71 Comments

Published: June 24, 2010

A Handful of Fanmail

I’ve got two pieces of mail, both of which should be answered sooner rather than later. So today we’re going to have a twofer.

Let’s do it.

Pat,

I missed your signing in Waukesha! I had a UFO come up at the last minute and wasn’t able to make it. (UFO = Unavoidable Family Obligation.)

My major problem is that I wanted to buy a signed book as a present for my boyfriend, who got me hooked on your book about a year ago. But now, when I’m catching up on your blog, I see that you had copies of the princess book there, too! I’m heartbroken!

Was it cool? I bet it was cool…

The point of my e-mail is to ask you if you’ll please come back to Milwaukee soon? Pretty Please?

Nat

It’s too bad you missed it, Nat. It was pretty cool. Everyone that showed up got an early copy of The Wise Man’s Fear and a backrub. Batman showed up too. He brought oatmeal raisin cookies and taught us all how to shatter a man’s hip using a broken-0ff chair leg.

So yeah, as far as my readings go, it was pretty much average.

I’m sorry you weren’t able to make it, but I don’t know soon I’ll be down in that area again. Logistically, it makes better sense for me to spread around my readings a bit, as it gives people in different areas a chance to attend.

I’ll probably do something down in Chicago before too long. Sarah wants to take Oot to the aquarium there, so I might as well do a little reading and signing while I’m in the area. (If anyone has a favorite bookstore in Chicago where they think I should stop, they can mention that in the comments below.)

Anyway, my point is I probably won’t be doing another reading in Milwaukee for months. But if you keep an eye on the blog and tour schedule page, you should be able to catch me when I’m somewhere nearby.

And if you still want a signed book for your boyfriend, you might want to check out Martha Merrell’s Bookstore. They brought in books for my signing down in Waukesha. And before I left, I signed a bunch of their stock. So they should have a bunch of my signed books still in the store.

They even have a few signed copies of the princess book, if you think your boyfriend would like one of those. It’s probably the only store in the country with those on the shelf right now.

Letter #2

Master Rothfuss,

I’ve been bad. I haven’t been keeping up on your blog, and consequently, I only today found out about your t-shirt design contest.

I desperately want to enter a design or two. But your blog says that the cutoff for entries is… today.

Can you please stretch out the deadline a bit for us sad, sorry losers that don’t check your blog as frequently now that school is out?

I promise it will be worth your while. I’m a graphic design major. I seriously do art and stuff.

In desperate minionhood,

Rich

(For those of you who are hopelessly out of the loop, here’s the blog where I talk about having a t-shirt design contest.)

This is what happens when you’re a lackluster minion, Rich. It’s because of people like you that the death star gets blown up.

Hmmm… I’m guessing that’s not the best example.

My point is that checking the blog should be an essential part of your life by now. You should treat my blog like your second job. You should revel in my blog with the same obsessive-compulsive fervor Sarah uses when I bring a bag of Cheetos into the house.

Seriously. She’s a freak for Cheetos. It’s like watching a very dainty shark.

Anyway, as I am a benevolent overlord, I realize my original two-week deadline was a little tight for some people. I’ve had several letters like this in the last few days, asking for a little extra time to complete designs.

So here’s the deal: I’ll extend the deadline for t-shirt submissions until the end of the month.

Two things to consider:

1. You’ve got your work cut out for you. We’ve had more than 100 designs submitted in the last week, and honestly, I’ve been really impressed. People came up with things I never would have thought of….

That means if you’re coming in under the wire, you better bring your A-game.

2. From this point on, we’ll only accept actual picture-type designs. We’ve got plenty of text descriptions right now. Over this next week, I’ll be turning over the best of these to our team of talented artists. They’ll work their magic, and early next month we’ll put the cream of the crop up here on the blog for people to ogle and vote upon.

Later everybody,

pat

Also posted in Fanmail Q + A

|posted by Pat 83 Comments

Published: June 22, 2010

A Brief Musical Interlude

Occasionally someone sends me a youtube video that’s just too cool to ignore.

That said, even the really cool ones I keep to myself. I worry if I posted them up here, I’d eventually become the blog-equivalent of that guy at work that forwards you two dozen funny cat stories every day.

Still, there are a few cool videos that are book related and cool, so I feel like I’m justified in sharing them here…

Here’s a guy who showed me that you can actually play a guitar with three strings. You can play the hell out of it, in fact.

And here’s some guys that took a crack at writing and playing Tinker, Tanner.

Share and Enjoy….

pat

Also posted in music

|posted by Pat 34 Comments

Published: June 7, 2010

Does Anybody Out There Give a Shirt?

Question: Who would be interested if I made some t-shirts?

It’s an idea I’ve been toying with for a while. Last year I was thinking of making some for Worldbuilders. But things were too hectic.

Over the years I’ve even seen a handful of homemade NOTW t-shirts at conventions and signings.

Then, just a couple days ago, I was showing some people an ARC of “The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle” and a guy said he’d like a Mr. Whiffle shirt. Two or three other people instantly chimed in that they wanted one too.

Some people have even sent me links to shirts that they had made online at Zazzle and Cafepress. While I’m fond of the ones that say, “Fanatical Minion” and “I (heart) Bast,” this one probably has to be my favorite:

(I remember there was a story that went along with someone wanting this shirt, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was. You’d think that would be the sort of story a person would remember….)

All this seems to indicate an interest in t-shirts. But I’m not sure *how much* interest…

So I ask again: Who would be interested if I made some t-shirts?

By interested I mean interested-enough-to-maybe-actually-buy-one, NOT interested-enough-to-look-at-a-picture-of-the-shirts-when-I-post-them-on-the-blog.

I know a lot will depend on the design and price and all that. (They’ll probably be about 20 bucks, so I can print them on nice-shirts instead of flimsy crap. Proceeds will probably go to fund Worldbuilders.)

I ask because getting them done will take some doing. I’ll need to figure out designs, set up a store, have them printed. My lovely assistant Valerie will be handling most of the work… But still, it will be an investment of time and money on my part, and I don’t want to go through the work unless I know people are really interested…

Originally, I was going to post up a poll asking this question. Then I realized getting people to leave comments below would be better. It’s easy to click a button, but if someone actually cares enough to leave a comment, that shows they’re really interested.

A third and final time: Who would be interested if I made some t-shirts?

pat

Edit: Mentioning your size wouldn’t hurt either. (And if you want girl-shaped shirts). That will give me a rough idea of our proportions for the order.

Later Edit: Just to be clear, I’m not planning to have the shirts say, “I slept with Pat Rothfuss.” The shirt design has yet to be determined. (We’ll probably vote on it here in the blog.) I just posted up that picture because I thought it was funny.

Unless people *want* a shirt that says that, of course. It certainly wouldn’t hurt my reputation. And I’m guessing most of you have been in bed with my book at some point, so it wouldn’t even be a complete lie…

Also posted in Worldbuilders 2009

|posted by Pat 496 Comments

Published: March 30, 2010

Home again, home again….

… jiggedy jig.

After about two solid weeks on the road, I’m back at home.

I really didn’t plan on doing so many signings on this trip. But I seem to have a knack for starting things that I think will be small and having them spiral rapidly out of control.

Still, now I know I can do a reading/signing a day and not burn out. It was actually a lot of fun. In fact, if I hadn’t been driving about six hours a day on top of that, it would have been downright relaxing.

The upshot is that it’s much more likely I’ll try to do a bit of a tour when book two comes out…

All the signings went remarkably well, by which I mean nobody threw anything at me or left the room crying halfway through. We got about a hundred people at each store, (sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less) which really surprised me, as we kinda threw this whole thing together at the last minute. I’m still more than a little baffled by the fact that some people are willing to drive 2-3 hours to come see me read and get their book signed.

What were the signings like? About what you’d expect:

(Click to Embiggen)

More details in a day or so. Right now I’m still catching up on my sleep and wading through the last of my accumulated e-mail…

pat

Also posted in appearances, my beard

|posted by Pat 64 Comments