It’s a book with a story behind it. And the story goes like this.

2008: A gift from Gaiman.

On a whim in 2008, I decided to try raising money for Heifer International. Things quickly spiraled out of control (in a good way) and soon all sorts of authors were mentioning the fundraiser on their blogs and donating books to help out.

The pinnacle of the coolness/madness came when Neil Gaiman mentioned us to his vast legion of readers. He also donated a rare ARC of Stardust to the cause.

Unfortunately, the mail was slow around the holidays, and we didn’t get hold of the book until after that year’s fundraiser was over. That meant we couldn’t use it until….

2009: Stardust for the people.

The second year of the fundraiser was going well, but I was having a hard time deciding how best to use Gaiman’s beautiful donation. I knew I could auction it off and raise at least a thousand dollars…. but that didn’t seem right somehow.

So in the end, I decided to put it into the lottery, that way anyone who donated to Heifer on our team page would have a chance at winning it. That seemed fair to me, more egalitarian.

At the end of the fundraiser someone wins it, and in a surprise turn of generosity, they donate it straight back to Worldbuilders. Their one stipulation is that I auction it off next year, so it can bring in more money for Heifer next year.

2010: Stardust on the auction block.

During year three of Worldbuilders, we auctioned off all manner of things. And as the previous winner requested, we put Gaiman’s copy of the Stardust ARC up on e-bay too.

After some fierce bidding it sold for over $2500 to a lovely guy named Dan. There were many high-fives in Worldbuilders central. We were sad to see the book go, but $2500 bucks buys a lot of goats.

But when I e-mailed Dan to arrange shipping, he said he wanted to donate the book back to Worldbuilders.

I asked Dan if he was sure. He said he was sure. I asked Dan how he got to be so cool, and he said he was inspired by the story of how last year’s winner re-donated the book.

But most of the credit, he said, should go to his mom. She always made a point of donating to charity even though she never had a lot of money. Not only that, but she was a died-in-the-wool geek like the rest of us: she read fantasy and sci-fi, she played Infocom games…

From everything I’ve heard, she sounds like my kind of lady.

Dan told me she had passed away recently, and that most of the money he inherited from her went into buying this book. He thinks she would be proud and happy to know that the money will go to helping as many people as possible through Heifer.

Dan also said that he was a big Gaiman fan, and that he hoped that this whole exchange didn’t give Gaiman a complex because nobody would keep his book….

Dan’s only stipulation was that we put the book back into the general lottery next year, so anyone would be able to win it….

2011: Full circle.

As per Dan’s request, we’re not including the ARC in the Worldbuilders auctions this year. (Though we do have some other stuff in there from Gaiman and some other big-name authors, if you want to go look.)

Instead, we’re putting the book back into the general lottery, where anyone can win it:

• A rare, numbered ARC of Stardust. Signed by Neil Gaiman.

Not much remains to be said here. It’s a beautiful book with its own slipcase. Numbered 28 out of 250. Signed by Gaiman.

You have a chance of winning it if you donate on our Team Heifer page before Feb 7th.

How much of a chance do you have of winning this book or one of the other thousands of books that have been donated to the fundraiser?

Well, funny you should ask, because today I’ve been doing a little math….

A brief discussion of odds.

Last year, I tried to calculate what the odds of winning a book from Worldbuilders would be. After careful calculation, I shamed myself by declaring that if someone donated 170 dollars to the fundraiser, they would have a better than 100% chance of winning a prize.

Specifically, they’d have a  106.25 % chance of winning something.

It was bold math, considering the fact that conventional wisdom tells us you can’t have more than 100% likelihood of anything happening.

Luckily some of my clever readers clued me in to the fact that while my math was strong, my understanding of binomial distributions was somewhat flawed.

I’d like to suggest that my carefully calculated 106.25% actually reflected the likelihood of winning a prize in any number of alternate realities, combined with the chance of having two prizes delivered to your house due to a shipping mistake at the post office.

Yeah. Not my proudest math moment. You can see the whole shameful thing over here if you’re interested.

Anyway, this year I looked up what the hell a binomial was and brought in some helpful facebook friends to check my math.

For those of you who don’t care about the numbers, here’s the non-math version:

We have so many books.

(Click to Embiggen and you can actually read the titles….)

This isn’t even all of them. This is just the books on one wall that we’ve put up on the blog. We’ve got another 100-150 books that we’ll be adding before the fundraiser is over on Feb 7th.

So let’s say you donate 20 bucks, enough to give a family a flock ducklings.

Your odds of winning something are really good. They’re like, a hajillion times better than winning the lottery. Roughly two-point-five hajillion times better.

For those of you who do like numbers, here’s the mathy version:

As of now, we’ve raised $185,000 for Heifer, and there are almost exactly 800 prizes in the fundraiser. Not just 800 books. (We’ve got way more than that.) There’s 800 prizes you can win, a lot of those prizes are sets of books, trilogies or longer series. Other prizes are limited editions, signed by the authors, or otherwise rare.

So let’s say you donate $30. That’s enough to give a family a hive of bees that will provide honey and pollinate plants, increasing the productivity of farms and gardens throughout the community.

With that $30 donation, your odds of winning at least one prize are better than 12%.

You could donate $120. That’s enough to buy a family a goat. The milk the goat produces means children have more protein and calcium in their diets, and the family can sell the extra milk as a source of income.

With that $120 donation, your odds of winning at least one prize are over 40%. Your odds of winning more than one prize are about 10%.

Let’s say you go all the way and donate $500, enough to buy a Heifer.

There’s a reason the project’s called Heifer International, you know. As their website says:

A good dairy cow can produce four gallons of milk a day – enough for a family to drink and share with neighbors. Milk protein transforms sick, malnourished children into healthy boys and girls. The sale of surplus milk earns money for school fees, medicine, clothing and home improvements.

Better still, every gift multiplies. The animal’s first offspring is passed to another family. That family also agrees to pass on an animal, and so on. Because a healthy cow can produce a calf every year, a single heifer will eventually help an entire community move from poverty to self-reliance.

If that isn’t enough for you, you should know that a $500 dollar donation gives you a 90% chance of winning some swag.

Lastly, keep in mind that if you donate on our team page before Feb 7th, Worldbuilders will match 50% of your donation. So in addition to getting good odds, and doing good work, you’re getting a good deal with a matching donation, too.

Will these odds change over time? Yeah. A little. As people donate more money, the odds will go down a bit. But we’re going to be adding new books to the fundraiser almost every day for the next week, and that will bring the odds back up.

*     *     *

Y’know, I didn’t plan on this being a long blog. My plan was to talk about Gaiman’s book, throw some odds at you, and call it an early evening.

The truth is, the Worldbuilders is a lot of work on this end, and I’ve been close to burning out. But looking at these pictures and talking about the good work that Heifer does… it’s actually made me excited about the fundraiser again.

Here are some kids in Romania that are growing up happier and healthier because of Heifer. You and me, we’re actually helping make this happen.

How cool is that?

We’ve got a little more than a week left, and I still have books to show you. We have a few more auctions to run, too.

Right now, if you really want to help, the best thing you can do is help spread the word. Talk to your friends. Drop your parents an e-mail. Point people toward the main Worldbuilders blog so they can see all the books that authors and publishers have donated.

Facebook it. Tweet it. Tell that cute hippy boy/girl in the coffee shop about it. You’ve been looking for an excuse to talk to them anyway, and this will make a great conversation starter….

We’ve got a week left, let’s go out with a bang.

pat

P.S. Some of our auctions will be ending soon. You might want to check them out before they’re finished.

Part of the reason it’s taken so long is pure option paralysis. People sent in more than a thousand pictures, and they were not mostly crap. In fact, they were mostly awesome.

That put me in a strange situation. I can’t post a thousand pictures up on my blog. Even fitting them into categories is too much for me.

Last time when I did the photo contest, there were a handful photos that didn’t fit into any particular category. So I did a Miscellaneous blog for them.

But this year, there were so many photos that a single miscellaneous blog couldn’t begin to fit them all. So instead, I’ve decided to start off the contest with a bunch of the photos that I liked, but that for one reason or another didn’t make the final cut.

Also, I decided to put them all to verse and include a sort of framing narrative. I can’t remember why exactly I decided to do that, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Personally, I blame it on the fact that I’ve spent a lot of time reading Green Eggs and Ham to Oot lately.

The pictures aren’t as big as I’d like, but I had to do some resizing to make them all fit. Rest assured that you can click on any of them and embiggen to your heart’s content.

*     *     *

That Pat Rothfuss. That Pat Rothfuss.

Oh how he makes me want to cuss.

At first I liked him fairly well,

But he blew his deadline to hell.

His second book was much too late,

So now I hate him. Hate! Hate! Hate!

***

Would you read book number two?

Please do read it. Do! Do! Do!

.

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You could read it in a tree.

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You could read it with some tea.

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***

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I would not read it in a tree.

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I would not read it with some tea.

I do not want to read that book

I will not take a single look.

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***

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Would you read it on a stone?

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Would you read it all alone?

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***

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I will not read it on a stone.

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I will not read it all alone.

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I will not read it in a tree.

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Or drinking some odd robot tea.

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***

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You could read it on your bike,

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Or really anywhere you like:

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Snug in bed with a green frog,

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Right beside this rusty cog,

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Doing art with a quill pen,

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Or while you sit and do zazen.

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***

I hate this book, do you not see?

I will not read it, let me be.

I will not read next to this tyke,

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Or zenning out beside my bike.

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I will not read it while I dance,

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Or bookmarked by spongebob squarepants.

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I will not read it in a tree,

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Or sipping on some pleasant tea,

(With kindle Agatha Christie.)

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I would not read The Wise Man’s Fear

If you threw in a keg of beer,

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A good foot rub, and eight fresh pies,

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Enlightenment with jumbo fries.

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Not if you tossed me in the stocks,

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Pressed me between heavy rocks,

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Threatened me with a t-rex,

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Not even if …

***

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… book two has sex.

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***

Say!

I rather think I like this book,

Now that I’ve stopped to take a look.

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It’s good enough to read at sea,

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Or upside-down, or in a tree.

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I’ll read it when I’m far from home,

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and lend it to my garden gnome.

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I’ll gaze upon it while I harp.

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I’ll take it with me when I larp.

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I’ll raise this book up to the sky.

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It belongs next to firefly!

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To this fine author’s art I yield,

A man outstanding in his field.

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*     *     *

Man. You have no idea how long that took. It was fun, but I’m never going to do it again.

Thanks to Valerie for helping with the layout of this one while I was busy with other things. Otherwise it would have taken me even longer to get it posted.

Now that this one is out of the way, we’ll have some other picture blogs before too long. As well as the continuation of the ComicCon Chronicle and other assorted geekery.

Later all,

pat

]]> http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2011/08/photo-contest-prolouge-a-sussian-sussurus/feed/ 89 http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2011/06/photo-contest-prelude/ http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2011/06/photo-contest-prelude/#comments Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:52:58 +0000 Pat http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/?p=3498 So for a while now, I’ve been sifting through all the photos that people submitted to the contest. More than a thousand photos in all.

Needless to say, it’s been taking a lot longer than I expected.

It’s not just that life seems determined to get in the way. Neither is it the fact that there are more photos than I expected, or that so many of them are clever. It’s not even that so many of them were so obviously taken as an act of love. (And I mean that literally in some cases.)

The real problem is that so many of the pictures are really good.

While I’ve been sifting through them, organizing them into categories, and trying to winnow some of them out. I keep thinking of what happened last year when I went to Neil Gaiman’s House on the Rock shindig on Halloween.

He had a costume contest there, American Gods themed. And the winners were going to get to ride the carousel. Yeah. The carousel that nobody gets to ride.

Needless to say, the competition was fierce. Of the thousand or so people that attended, I’m guessing almost half dressed up.

(One of these days I’ll get around to telling the whole story of that day, the story of how I got to ride the carousel with Gaiman, but for now I’m just going to tell a tiny piece of the story.)

Anyway, the vast array of costumes paraded in front of Gaiman. The line went on and on. The outfits were clever and funny and elaborate.

And, more than anything, they were acts of love.

It goes on for hours. Sexy costumes, smart costumes, detailed costumes. Then, eventually, after everyone has had their turn in the spotlight, Gaiman goes up to the microphone, shaking his head.

“I hate you all,” he said.

He gets a big laugh, because he has enough charisma to pull off a line line that and make it charming.

He explains that he was expecting maybe a hundred costumes. He said he thought it would be fairly simple to weed out the rubbish ones, and pick the good ones as winners. (I specifically remember that he said “rubbish,” because that’s a word you can only really get away with if you’re British.)

There were too many good costumes, he complained, and he only got to let 8 people on the carousel. There could only be 8 winners.

Then he settled down to the hard job of picking the winners.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot these last couple weeks as I look through all the photos that were sent in for the contest. Honestly, I’m amazed at the lengths people went to for some of their pictures.

Anyway, I just wanted you to know that you’ll start seeing the results of the contest soon.

Soon….

pat

Well… that’s not exactly true. “Pouring in” overstates the case a bit. There hasn’t been a deluge or anything. It’s been more like a slow, steady stream of submissions.

But if I say entries have been “streaming in”, that overstates the case, too. That implies dozens or hundreds of entries a day, and we haven’t had nearly that many.

“Trickling in” isn’t quite right either. That implies we haven’t had many entries at all….

I can’t seem to think of something in between a stream and a trickle. A streamlet? A creek?

I can’t say entries have been creeking in, that would just confuse people.

Well, in the interest of perfect clarity, I guess I should say that entries have been coming in a variable but fairly steady amount between two and twelve a day. Bringing our current total to about 350 pictures.

As description goes, it lacks a certain something, doesn’t it?

Anyway. The purpose of this blog is to send up one final signal flare, letting people know they can still submit photos to the contest until Monday the 16th.

I know, I know. I said the 15th before, but the truth is I’m going to be away from home until the 16th. So, since I won’t be able to do a lot of stuff on my computer until Tuesday anyway. So I’m extending things one last day for the stragglers.

Want a sneak peek?

So far we’ve got photos that are artistic:

And sexy:

And, um, baffling:

I have to admit. This last one gave me a good belly laugh….

I’ve posted up a few more on the facebook fan page, if you’re interested.

Right now we’ve got about 350 photos, so the competition is stiff, but by no means overwhelming. So don’t be bashful about throwing your hat into the ring.

And by ‘hat’ I mean ‘photo’ and by ‘the ring’ I mean the e-mail address that I give over here in the contest guidelines.

Have a good weekend everybody….

pat

And it was strange. There was nothing on it. Nothing but a vast blankness stretching out in front of me.

It was a glorious sight, and it means that for the next two months, I don’t have hardly any trips planned at all. (Or I’ve forgotten to write them down.)

This is something of a relief. While I’ve enjoyed traveling around and meeting y’all, I’m kinda exhausted. The other day I did the math and realized that since February 28th, I’ve only spent 20 days at home.

This is hard if you have hermitish tendencies like I do. I’m a homebody at heart, and I’m looking forward to relaxing, getting back into my normal routine, and spending more time with my baby.

While I was catching up on my e-mail, I found about five or six messages asking if they could please have more time to get ready for the photo contest. Some people complained that they only heard about contest until recently. While others pleaded that midterms, rocky relationships, or hectic job schedules had ruined their plans.

Here’s the one that got my attention the most.

Dear Pat,

Without divulging all of our information because we would like it to be a surprise.  FAA regulations are delaying our plans.  It is unlikely that we will be allowed to launch prior to the end of the contest date.

Is it possible to get an extension?

If April 30th is a hard deadline, then we will try to work around the FAA.

[Name Withheld]

Now at first I had the FAA confused with the FFA (Future Farmers of America) and I was thinking, “No big deal. They can work around some farmer’s regulations….”

Then I realized that these folks were talking about the Federal Aviation Administration. And I got worried.

Let me say this emphatically. Do not attempt to “Work Around” the FAA or any other federal agency in order to take a picture for this contest.

Edit: Just to prove that I am right: (And I’m always right, statistically speaking.) Here’s a relevant comment from below.

I occasionally fly in a helicopter for my job and the topic of FAA regulations since 9/11 has come up. It is my understanding that it is quite possible that those who attempt to “work around FAA regs” may find themselves having to work around a sidewinder missile fired from an intercepting fighter jet. Just something to consider.

Seriously. If you missed the whole “Don’t do anything dangerous or illegal” rule, maybe you want to check out the contest guidelines again, reading a little more slowly this time.

To put it plainly. If you’re doing anything dangerous or illegal in the photo, I simply won’t use it. I won’t even post it up as an example of cool photos that aren’t eligible for winning. It pains me to say that, but I have to stick to it.

As far as the deadline goes, I don’t see why we shouldn’t extend things a bit. It isn’t like this is a term paper or anything. It’s supposed to be fun. So if y’all want more time, you can have more time.

• The new contest deadline will be May 15th at midnight.

Also, I feel like I should mention that you don’t need to go to extraordinary lengths for your photos. Some of the best photos I’ve seen so far aren’t big-budget productions that require filing a flight plan.

For example:

(Now I’ve got the Dawn of Man music stuck in my head…)

You see? A little cleverness goes a long way. (Though having a decent camera doesn’t hurt, either. Grainy cell-phone pics aren’t impressive.)

If you have any questions about the contest, you should head over and read the rules.

Then, if you have any more questions, you can ask them in the comments below.

Later all, I’m off to bed.

pat

Following in that fine tradition, here’s his donation for this year:

• A limited edition copy of Snow Glass Apples with woodcuts by George Walker and an introduction from Jack Zipes. Signed by Neil Gaiman, Jack Zipes, and George Walker.
  

This is a pretty, pretty book. Hardcover in its own slipcase with original woodcut illustrations.

[Edit: Neil left a note in the comments below that I thought I'd post up here:

They only printed 250 of these, and even when you could buy them from Biting Dog Press they would cost you over a hundred bucks. But the book has been sold out for ages, of course.

Simply said, this is a real treasure, signed by Zipes and Gaiman and Walker.

And we’re entering it into the general lottery. That means for every 10 bucks you donate to Heifer International on our Team Heifer webpage, you get the chance to win this book and hundreds of others.

Plus, Worldbuilders will match 50% of your donation. You can’t ask for a better deal than that…

Since we’re on the subject of cool books from Neil Gaiman, I’d like to share some good news and a little story…

Those of you who have been following the fundraiser probably remember the signed ARC of stardust that Gaiman donated last year.

As I mentioned a few weeks back, the person who won that book in 2009 donated it back to the fundraiser with instructions that we auction it off to raise more money for Worldbuilders.

So that’s exactly what we did. Much to my delight the ARC sold for over 2500 dollars to a lovely gentleman named Dan.

In a way, I was sad to see the book go. It’s been living here at Worldbuilders for more than two years now. It’s a beautiful book:

But still, $2500 bucks buys a lot of goats. No matter how you looked at the deal, it was a good trade.

So we contacted Dan to congratulate him, arrange payment details, and make sure we had the right shipping address for the book.

Then something strange happened.

Dan told us that he’d like to donate the book back to Worldbuilders again. He wants it entered in to next year’s lottery so that anyone can win it, not just the person with the most money.

Needless to say, I was stunned. This is a book that I have spent more than a little time coveting. It’s a book I considered bidding on myself in the auction. And if I’d won it, I wouldn’t have given it back. Hell, I probably wouldn’t have let anyone touch it….

But Dan, apparently, is a better person than I am.

We chatted for a while over e-mail, and when I asked Dan how he got to be so cool, he said a big piece of it was the fact that he was inspired by the story of how last year’s winner re-donated the book.

But most of the credit, he says, goes to his mom. She always made a point of donating to charity even though she never had a lot of money. Not only that, but she was a died-in-the-wool geek like the rest of us: she read fantasy and sci-fi, she played Infocom games…

I have to say, she sounds like my kind of lady.

Dan told me that she passed away this March. Most of the money he inherited from her went into buying this book. He thinks she would be proud and happy to know that the money will go to helping as many people as possible.

Dan also said that he was a big Gaiman fan, and that he hoped that this whole exchange didn’t give Gaiman a complex because nobody would keep his book….

Ever since I found out that Dan was redonating the book to Worldbuilders, I’ve been trying to think of something nice I can do for him in return.

Complicating the matter is the fact that Dan’s doesn’t want anything from me. When I saw he’d ordered a few t-shirts from the store, I tried to refund his money. He refused.

Then, last night when I way trying to plan out the blogs for the rest of the fundraiser, I realized I hadn’t posted up the auction for this year’s Golden Ticket yet. The winner of the Golden Ticket gets one official favor from me. As the Marquis de Carabas would say, “a really big favor.”

I’ve been meaning to post that auction for weeks, since last year’s auction was stupefyingly successful. (It raised over 15,000 dollars.) But in the process of posting all the other blogs, finishing revisions, and shipping t-shirts, the Golden Ticket auction went straight out of my head.

So this year, rather than auctioning it off, I think I’m just going to give it to Dan.

He can cash it in however he likes. If he wants, he can get an early look at The Wise Man’s Fear. If he’d prefer to get his name somewhere in book three, we can negotiate that instead.

Dan doesn’t know about this yet. I’m announcing this on the blog so that he won’t have a chance to say no.

And just in case you were thinking it, you can’t re-donate this to the fundraiser either, Dan. It’s yours.

For any of the rest of you who might be thinking, “Gee, I wish I had a Golden Ticket.” Remember that there’s already one in this year’s general lottery. That means for every ten bucks you donate on our Team Heifer page, you get another chance at winning it.

Lastly, I feel like I should mention that yesterday we blew past last year’s donation total.

That means that in the last three years we’ve raised more than a half a million dollars for Heifer International.

We’ve still got a couple days left before the end of the fundraiser, but still, I feel like I should start thanking people now for making the Fundraiser a success again this year:

Thank you Gaiman. Thank you Dan. Thank you to all the mothers out there that taught us to be generous even when times were tight. Thank you publishers and bookstores and authors for donating books. Thank you twitterers and bloggers for spreading the word. Thank you geeks of all colors and creeds. Thank you everyone.

Alright. Enough touchy- feely. Let’s see if we can hit $150,000 by the end of the fundraiser on Friday.

Edit: Wow. We hit 150,000 in less than ten hours. So I’ve decided to re-set the donation thermometer yet again.

Our last goal, the goal that I really don’t know if we’ll be able to meet, is going to be 166,700 dollars.

It’s a rather odd number. But if we raise that much it means that after Worldbuilders makes its matching donation, we will have raised a quarter million dollars for Heifer International this year.

That would be an amazing milestone for us. And it means that when I’m trying to persuade people to donate books next year, I could say to them, “Last year we raised a quarter million dollars.” That’s a persuasive piece of information…

I don’t know if we’ll be able to make it. But I’m excited to try…

pat

Well folks, we’ve got just a little more than a week left before the end of Worldbuilders, and as I type this we are just about to break 80,000 on our Team Heifer page. I’m thinking if we work hard to spread the word we can break 100,000 by the end of the week.

And maybe, just maybe, we might break last year’s total…

Today we’ve got another batch of lovely books donated by readers. Many of these are signed, or first editions, or both. Others are limited, numbered editions.

Some of these books would probably fetch a couple hundred bucks if we were to throw them up for auction. But personally, I like having cool, rare stuff in the general lottery.

Right now we have what I like to think of as a prize-rich environment. I did some quick math and discovered that right now, if you donate enough for a flock of ducks (20 bucks) you have, roughly, a 1 in 8 chance of winning something.

If you step it up a bit and give enough for a Gardener’s Gift Basket (170 bucks can buy a family everything they need to start a sustainable farm – tree seedlings, rabbits to generate organic manure, chickens to eat pests and a hive of bees to pollinate crops and increase yields.) Then the odds say you’ve got a 1 in 1 chance of winning something.

If that by itself doesn’t encourage you to chip in a little extra, maybe a look at these new books will…

[Edit: So apparently there's a reason I failed statistics the first time around. (True story.) It seems logical to me that if buying one ticket gets you a 10% chance to win, then buying 10 tickets gets you a 100% chance to win. Ten ten percents is a hunnert percent, right?

Well, apparently not. As a few people pointed out in the comments below, my math is solid (I can still handle basic addition) but the underlying statistical logic doesn't work.

This bugged me, so I actually wandered onto campus and hit up one of the math professors there. He was willing to take a couple minutes to explain to me that  yes, I was wrong.

It turns out that if you were to donate enough for a goat (120 bucks ) the odds of you winning something is actually...

(Pat fiddles with math. )

Um... the odds are good. Really good. Donating a goat to Worldbuilders means that you're roughly a kajillion times more likely to win something than if you buy a lottery ticket.

This is why I don't play roulette...]

• A hardcover first edition of Changes by Jim Butcher. Signed and dated by the author.

“The fast-paced and compelling 12th book in Butcher’s bestselling series  is aptly titled… Butcher is deft at relieving some of the tension and grimness with bursts of gallows humor that keep readers coming back for more.” – Publishers Weekly

• A hardcover copy of Hazards: The Chronicles of Lucifer Jones 1934-1938 by Mike Resnick. Signed by the author.

“This entertaining collection follows con artist, minister and adventurer Lucifer Jones, last seen in 1992’s Exploits, as he travels through South America… The likable scoundrel’s mix of lust, chicanery and naïveté moves the action along nicely, and though Resnick pokes fun at pulp adventure tales and the arrogance of early 20th-century imperialism, he never lets mockery interfere with good storytelling… Jones’s engaging narrative voice will endear it to fans of lighthearted adventure stories.” – Publishers Weekly

• A hardcover first edition of Spook Country by William Gibson. Signed by the author.

“Gibson’s work is all edge and chill and incipient panic…His worlds are so striking, so plausible, that you’re just happy to be along for the ride.” – Chicago Tribune

• A hardcover first edition of Worldwar: Striking the Balance by Harry Turtledove. Signed by the author.

“Turtledove’s historical scholarship, narrative technique, dry wit and deft characterization distinguish this novel just as they did its predecessors, making it a rousing wrap-up to a monument of alternate history from a master of the genre.” – Publishers Weekly

• A hardcover copy of The Children of Men by P. D. James with signed bookplate.

“She writes like an angel. Every character is closely drawn. Her atmosphere is unerringly, chillingly convincing. And she manages all this without for a moment slowing down the drive and tension of an exciting mystery.” – The Times (UK)

• A hardcover copy of Desperate Moon by R. Andrew Heidel with an introduction by Harlan Ellison. Numbered, limited edition in a protective slipcase. Signed by the author and by Harlan Ellison.

It’s not often I’m drawn into a book by the blurbs alone. But really, these two are pretty fabulous…

“Superb! Stirring! Bravo!” — Ray Bradbury

“Extraordinarily talented.” — Harlan Ellison

• A hardcover copy of The Best of Robert E. Howard Vol. 1: Crimson Shadows by Robert E. Howard. Numbered, limited edition in a protective slipcase. Signed by the illustrators Jim and Ruth Keegan.

“Stories such as ‘The People of the Black Circle’ glow with the fierce and eldritch light of [Howard’s] frenzied intensity.” – Stephen King

“Robert E. Howard was a true storyteller–one of the first, and certainly among the best, you’ll find in heroic fantasy. If you’ve never read him before, you’re in for a real treat.” – Charles de Lint

• A set of And Another Thing Part 3 and The Hitcherhiker’s Guide to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Eoin Colfer. Signed by the author.

These are actually rare promotional materials released in advance of the newest installment of the Hitchhiker’s Guide. Both signed by Eoin Colfer, they’re a cool collector’s items.

“Wacky humor reminiscent of the original Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy rings true… You can’t go home again, but Adams fans will still appreciate the reunion with old friends.” – Publishers Weekly

• A hardcover copy of The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Signed by the author.

“The most anticipated science fiction novel of the year. Bacigalupi takes the ideas and themes from his award-winning short and fiction and explores them in greater complexity and depth than ever before. The results are spectacular. You won’t see the future the same way every again.” – C. C. Finlay, author of the Traitor to the Crown series

• A hardcover copy of Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi. Signed by the author.

“…astute social commentary in poignant, revelatory prose.” – Publishers Weekly, Best Books of the Year

• A hardcover copy of Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. Signed and dated by the author.

“Bacigalupi’s future earth is brilliantly imagined and its genesis anchored in contemporary issues…The characters are layered and complex, and their almost unthinkable actions and choices seem totally credible. Vivid, brutal, and thematically rich, this captivating title is sure to win teen fans for the award-winning Bacigalupi.” – Booklist (starred review)

• A hardcover copy of Halting State by Charles Stross. Signed by the author.

“…Halting State is one extremely smart species of fun.” – William Gibson.

“The first couple pages had me hooked and I didn’t touch another book until I finished it.” – John Carmack.

• A hardcover first edition of The Magicians by Lev Grossman. Signed by the author.

Simply said. I really enjoyed this book. If you’re looking for more details on it, including a blurb from Martin, you can check out the blog I wrote about it.

• A hardcover copy of A Soul in a Bottle by Tim Powers. Numbered, limited edition, signed by the author.

I love all of Tim Power’s books. I read this one years back, and it’s every bit as good as all his other work. He mingles fact and fiction so cleverly that a lot of times I can’t tell what parts of his books he’s invented, and which parts he’s pulled from the stranger corners of human history.

“There are no thin, hairy specters lurking in this tale, and no cold grue to chill one’s bones. Its impact is more moral than visceral, evoking the pity and fear that are hallmarks of tragedy. Exquisitely illustrated by J. K. Potter, this slender volume is sure to appeal to epicures of the terrible.” – Publishers Weekly

• A hardcover copy of Antediluvian Tales by Poppy Z. Brite.

“Antediluvian, in this collection of stories by New Orleans writer Brite, refers not to watery theology but, rather, to events occurring prior to the landfall of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005… Brite chisels a few new facets in the diamond that was antediluvian New Orleans.” – Booklist

• A hardcover limited edition of Stephen King Goes to the Movies by Stephen King.

From Stephen King’s website: The #1 bestselling author reflects on the filming of five of his most popular short stories, each tale included in this collection. Those movies are The Shawshank Redemption, 1408, Children of the Corn, The Mangler, and Hearts in Atlantis.

Includes an introduction, his brief personal commentary, and behind-the-scenes insights by Stephen.

The Subterranean Press edition of Stephen King Goes to the Movies is — so far — the only hardcover edition scheduled, and features full-color movie poster illustrations — one for each story — by Vincent Chong.

• A hardcover copy of After the War by Tim Lebbon.

“Lebbon’s post-apocalyptic fantasy world is a bleak one, and his strong, descriptive writing and sympathetic characters make its horrors all too visible.” – Booklist

• A hardcover copy of Mirror Kingdoms: The Best of Peter S. Beagle by Peter S. Beagle and edited by Jonathan Strahan. Numbered, limited edition signed by Peter S. Beagle.

This is a really great collection, including Beagle’s best work, including his Hugo award winning follow up to The Last Unicorn.

Even the regular edition is out of print and going for hundreds of dollars. This one is cooler than that, and is one of the 250 signed, numbered, limited editions.

It’s incredibly shiny…

“Beagle plays on the heartstrings as a master musician, and this definitive collection, a magnificent grand tour of his many created worlds, will thrill his legions of fans.” – Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

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Lastly, we have a cool item to add to our growing list of auctions.

• The Heart of Faerie Oracle by Brian and Wendy Froud. Signed by both Brian and Wendy.

From the renowned team of Brian and Wendy Froud comes a delightful and spiritual guide that offer believers a chance to connect with and experience the love and wisdom that comes from the hearts of faeries. The Heart of the Faerie Oracle box set includes 68 oracle cards, illustrated by Brian Froud. The accompanying book provides detailed instructions reading the cards.

The oracle cards feature Brian Froud’s recognizable faerie images, such as the enchanting Queen of Golden Bough and the mischievous Trickster.

For more details and pictures, you can check out the auction over here.

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Remember folks, until Dec 13th, Worldbuilders is matching 50% of all donations made on our Team Heifer page.

Even better, for every 10 dollars you donate, you get a chance to win these books and hundreds of others like them.

For more details about Worldbuilders, or to see the other auctions and donations, you can head over to the main page HERE.

This is a Worldbuilders blog.

While I was busy gathering more books and getting these blogs ready, Worldbuilders topped 25,000 dollars in donations. Rumor has it this makes us unspeakably cool.

I’ve raised the bar to 50,000 dollars. I’m pretty sure we can beat this one fairly quickly. Tell your friends. Spread the word.

Today we have another wealth of donated books. Many of these sent in by fans and readers who wanted to help make worldbuilders a success.

All of these have been signed by the authors. Many of them are first editions. And several of them are limited editions, numbered and slipcased and all manner of cool.

Enjoy.

• A hardcover first edition of Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan. Signed by the Author. 
  

Includes a picture of Robert Jordan signing this book.

You don’t need me to tell you about the Wheel of Time.

“The battle scenes have the breathless urgency of firsthand experience, and the . . . evil laced into the forces of good, the dangers latent in any promised salvation, the sense of the unavoidable onslaught of unpredictable events bear the marks of American national experience during the last three decades.” – The New York Times on The Wheel of Time.

“The complex philosophy behind The Wheel of Time series is expounded so simply the reader often gives a start of surprise at returning to the real world. Rand’s adventures are not finished and neither is this thinking person’s fantasy series.” – Bruswick Sentinel (Australia).

• Four UK copies of An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon. Signed by the author.

Note that these are UK editions of Gabaldon’s books. That means they’re written with an English accent, making them 25% cooler.

“All you’ve come to expect from Gabaldon . . . adventure, history, romance, fantasy.” — The Arizona Republic

• A copy of Grave Peril by Jim Butcher. Signed by the Author.
  

“A fun new occult mystery series. Unusually well crafted.” – Locus

• A copy of The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett. Signed by the author.
  

“The Warded Man works not only as a great adventure novel but also as a reflection on the nature of heroism.”—Charlaine Harris

• Two copies of Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes. Signed by the author.

“Monstrous, murderous, psychotic, deranged, possessed and insane – the only question is what our heroes hate more: the demons they’re fighting, each other or themselves” – Stephen Deas, author of The Adanamtine Palace

• Two first edition hardcover copies of Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes. Signed by the author.

“Wildly descriptive Slaughter-fest fantasy with a surprising pathos” – Stephen Deas.

• A signed hardcover first edition of Rides a Dark Legion by Raymond E. Feist.

“Feist is back on top form, and really delivering the goods. The characters are in place, the scenes are set, and on the evidence of Rides A Dread Legion, it’s going to be a wild ride.” – SF Site Featured Review.

• A copy of of Bec by Darren Shan. Limited edition. Signed by the author.

“All the spells, severed body parts and horror you expect from Shan, with a nail-biting and shocking finish.” – Waterstone’s Books Quarterly.

• A copy of Room by Emma Donoghue. Signed by the author.

“One of the most affecting and subtly profound novels of the year. … For such a peculiar, stripped-down tale, it’s fantastically evocative… Not too cute, not too weirdly precocious, not a fey mouthpiece for the author’s profundities, Jack expresses a poignant mixture of wisdom, love and naivete that will make you ache to save him — whatever that would mean.” – Washington Post Book World.

• A copy of The Empty Family by Colm Toibin. Signed by the author.

“[The Empty Family] reconfirms his mastery of the short story…. ToÍbÍn raised his profile with the exquisitely bittersweet Brooklyn, and this collection is every bit as rich… Likely to rank with the best story collections of the year.” — Kirkus (starred review)

• A copy of What I Didn’t See and Other Stories by Karen Joy Fowler. Signed by author.

“Arresting… each piece puts us on notice in its own way that an intriguing intelligence is at work.” –The Boston Globe.

• A hardcover copy of Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame & Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence by Joseph D’Agnese and Denise Kiernan. Signed by both authors.

The book is published by Quirk Books, the same publisher that brought us Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Among other things, the book tells you which signer was murdered by his own nephew, which signers ended up imprisoned by the British, and which were locked up because of their own greed and stupidity.

“With this work, Kiernan and D’Agnese present readers with astonishing individual portraits of all the signers in an attempt both to dispel some of the mythology surrounding the document as well as to establish a place in the historical discourse for those men not named Jefferson, Hancock, Franklin, or Adams.” – School Library Journal, starred review.

• A copy of Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament by S. G. Browne. Signed by the author.

“A terrific comedy about the perils and joys of life beyond death… A zombie comedy with brains” – Kirkus.

• A Clash of Kings and Part 2 of A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin. Signed by the Author.
  

“I read my eyes out. I couldn’t stop until I’d finished and it was dawn.” – Anne McCaffrey.

• A hardcover copy of Omega by Christopher Evans. Numbered, limited edition in a protective slipcase. Signed by the author.
  

“Christopher Evans is, to my mind, one of the great lost voices of British science fiction… now there is another novel, one that combines the bold and brutal alternate history of Aztec Century with the subtle and disturbing unpicking of identity of In Limbo… We can only hope that Evans’s triumphant return to science fiction is a harbinger of yet another revival in his writing.” – Strange Horizons Reviews.

• A hardcover copy of Banquet for the Damned by Adam L.G. Nevill with an introduction by Ramsey Campbell. Numbered, limited edition in a protective slipcase. Signed by both Nevill and Campbell.

“Banquet for the Damned…  brings together the graphic and the subtle, supernatural and human horror, and makes them play their parts to the best effect.” – SF Site Featured Review.

• A harcover copy of Nowhere Near an Angel by Mark Morris. Numbered, limited edition in a protective slipcase. Signed by the author.

“Mark Morris is one of the finest horror writers at work today.” – Clive Barker.

• Signed, numbered, slipcased limited hardcover edition of Random Walk by Lawrence Block. Numbered, limited edition in a protective slipcase. Signed by the author.
  

“If there is one crime writer currently capable of matching the noirish legacies of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, it’s Lawrence Block.” San Francisco Chronicle

• A hardcover first edition of The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson with a Way of Kings bag and bookmark. Signed by the author.

I’ve talked about this book in a previous blog.

But if you don’t want to read all of that, this blurb sums things up pretty well: “This book is cool, and Brandon Sanderson smells like fresh-baked cookies.” – Patrick Rothfuss.

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Remember folks, for every 10 dollars you donate to Heifer International, you get a chance to win these books and hundreds of others like them. Plus there’s the whole helping make the world a better place thing. That’s nice, too.

Don’t forget, Worldbuilders is matching 50% of all donations. So why not head over to the Team Heifer page and chip in. C’mon. All the cool kids are doing it…

Or, if you want to go back to the main page for Worldbuilders, you can click HERE.

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

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