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Celebrating….

So I’ve been trying to remember what it is a person does when he isn’t working on a book 10 hours a day, then blogging, running a fundraiser, and mailing t-shirts for the other six hours he’s awake.

Sarah informed me that what a person does is go get a Christmas tree. She informed me of this very firmly. Several times. With increasing levels of frantic need in her voice. Getting a tree was very important to Sarah. She made it clear that if we did not go pick out a tree, together, our relationship would suffer irreparable damage.

So we got a tree. We did this pretty much the very day after I posted the last blog. It made me feel like a big man lifting it up and tying it to the roof of the car. Oot watched me with muted awe, amazed that I could lift up something so big.

I sawed off the bottom, which is more exercise than I’ve had in months. And while I wasn’t that excited about it at the beginning, the tree is actually pretty awesome.  It makes the house smell piney and nice.

We also made gingerbread men to hang on the tree, because Sarah wanted to, and I owe her because I’ve been neglecting family-ish things pretty severely over these last several months.

I’ve never decorated a gingerbread man before, but I was pretty sure it was supposed to go something like this:

And so that’s the first one I did. Then I tried to do a Santa, but it really sucked. Then I got bored.

You see, I have a strong contrary element in my personality. Plus I have a real problem when it comes to strictly adhereing to genre guidelines. So my next gingerbread people were more… meta.

I’m especially proud of this one:

To me, his expression really conveys the mute horror and existential doubt occasionally brought about by the holiday season.

At first Sarah expressed a little mute horror of her own at my cookie decorations. But there are only so many cute gingerbread people you can make before it starts to grate on you a little, so eventually she got into the spirit of things and made an emo gingerbread man. I made one too…

I think they’re in love….

After that, just a couple days before Christmas, our car broke down. Sarah was actually driving it down to our mechanic because the clutch was behaving oddly, and it died about a mile before she got there. Transmission was utterly shot. They can fix it, but it will take a couple days to get the parts.

By the time we got the diagnosis on the 24th, all the rental places were closed. And you can’t rent a car on Christmas. And in Stevens Point you can’t rent a car on the Sunday after Christmas either.

So the precious few days I’d been counting on to catch up with my shopping were spent car-less. And since I couldn’t shop, I spent some time playing Fallout New Vegas instead.

Merry Christmas to me.

pat

P.S. In a related Christmas Miracle, the Kingkiller shirts showed up on the 24th. My assistants are off for the holidays, so I had to borrow a car to move them over to the place where we do the packaging. Yesterday I slogged away for about 10 hours to get as many of them packaged up as I could. I really owe the folks at the post office something nice for putting up with me….

So rest assured, t-shirts are on the way as quickly as I can get them out the door.

posted by Pat 36 Comments

At Your Request – New Shirts and Posters

Over the weekend, a lot of people chimed in about t-shirt designs, colors, and things they’d like to see in the store.

So here’s what we’ve decided to do.

  • We’ll be printing the Kingkiller design on a grey t-shirt.

Grey is similar but not identical to gray. You see, grey is slightly cooler. Because it’s British. (It’s also slightly darker. Because I say so.)

We’re still fixing the font. But we’re putting the shirt up for sale in the store now, that way you can order it sooner rather than later if you want.

  • Because people clamored for it, we’ll also be printing the Denner Fishing design on a black shirt.

Be warned. We probably won’t be ordering a ton of these. So if you want one, it would be best to order now, so that you can be sure to get the size you want.

  • We’ll be printing a Worldbuilders shirt.

It will have the Worldbuilders logo on a forest green shirt.

All three of these new shirts are now available in the store.

  • We’ve got an easier way of ordering big & tall shirts now.

We have to charge a little more for these, as they cost us more to make. But now we have a Big & Tall option right in the store.

  • We’re re-printing the Four-Corners map.

Several people e-mailed me asking if I could print posters other than Luring the Draccus. A couple folks  reminded me of the map that I printed waaaaaaaay back in the day.

So I’ve printed out some more of those. They’re up in the store already.

  • We’re selling the gold foil promotional Mr. Whiffle stickers.

People asked for them, so we’re putting them up in the store. Supplies are limited.

  • We’ve got a brand-new Mr Whiffle poster up in the store.

A while back, right after The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle was published. I comissioned a special piece of art for my own amusement. Only those of you who have read the book will be able to appreciate it. But I suspect that those of you who have a bizarre sense of humor akin to my own might want a copy for yourselves.

I’m not going to post it up here, though. You’ll have to head over to the store to get a look at it.

So there you are.

Stay tuned for more Worldbuilders swag. We’ll be posting up blogs full of new donated books and auction items every day this week.

pat

posted by Pat 38 Comments

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 by Pat 18 Comments

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 by Pat 29 Comments

Home again, Home again, Jiggedy Jig.

Merciful Buddha, it’s good to be home again.

Don’t get me wrong, traveling abroad was a wonderful adventure, and I have many exciting stories to tell. But I got sick a few days after my London signing/reading and after that the trip was not so much fun. My memory of that last week blurs because I was either in terrible pain, under the influence of powerful drugs, or both.

Take my reading in Manchester, for example. I’m dimly aware that I might have said something about wanting to mess up Joe Abercrombie’s pretty face.

Like I said. Powerful drugs.

Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know that stories and photos will be forthcoming. I’m brimming with things I’d like to write about: Taxis of various nations. My inappropriate encounter with Stonehenge. A list of historic landmarks where I have touched Sarah’s bottom….

I would have posted some of these stories sooner, but internet access was not easy to come by traveling in the UK. One of the many things I never appreciated about Stevens Point before was how easy it is to get wireless access here. There are three coffeeshops downtown with free wireless. No, wait, four. Five. Hell, my neighbors have free wireless, though I suspect that’s an accident on their part.

Yessir. This small town boy sure found out that the world can be a cold, unfeeling place. More specifically, I learned that it can be a place that tries to charge you 22 Euros a day for Wifi.

Personaly, I have better things to do with my money. Specifically: Ale and whores.

Man I really need some sleep.

But first, more drugs.

Until later,

pat

posted by Pat 40 Comments

A writer’s job…

Friend and fellow fantasy author Drew Bowling just sent me the following story. It amused me, so I thought I’d share….

I keep running into random people who have read The Name of the Wind. Most of these incidents are pretty damn funny, but I usually forget to send them your way. Here’s the most recent:

New Years Eve, I’m partying in Bethesda (city on the edge of Washington D.C.). The ball drops, and a girl starts kissing one of my buddies. When that’s all over and done with, I decide to say hi to her, in order to make sure she isn’t a succubus (sober, I was not).

We trade pleasantries, and I tell her I’m a writer. She thinks this is cool, especially since I write fantasy, because she loves fantasy.

“What’s your favorite book?” I ask. Well, it turns out to be your book, Pat. So I tell her I’ve meet you, that you’re a cool guy, and that no, I doubted you actually knew a name for the wind – other than wind – which would make it do magical things (yes, she really asked me this, and yes, she also had been drinking).

At that point, I suddenly become very cool, or at least much cooler that I was before (which, in hindsight, wasn’t cool at all, but rather something of a sweaty mess). So my friend wanders over, and I, being a pillar of loyalty, wander away – but not before I hear the girl say: “I wish Pat had been here at midnight.”

I love a story with a happy ending.

If only I *had* been there. I can picture it clearly in my mind. The party is dimly lit, she sees me across the room, her eyes widen in surprise. Then I hear the three words every man longs for…

“It’s a bear!” she screams drunkenly. Then, mad with terror, jumps through a plate glass window and falls three stories to her death. Probably landing on my car.

Seriously though. How come I never end up at parties with hot qua-succubi who want to get all makey-outy with a fantasy author? We need kissings too, you know. For research. Into…. verisimilitude. Kvothe does eventually engage in the wicked co-mutual pressing of lips, you see. And I worry if I don’t gather enough data before finishing those scenes I won’t be able to make it really *real* for the reader.

Yeah. That’s it.

pat

posted by Pat 36 Comments
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