So a while back, Oot had his first birthday. Which meant that he had his first birthday party.
Personally, I didn’t really see the point in this. While my baby is a lump of weaponized cute, he is still mostly a lump. He doesn’t know it’s his birthday. He doesn’t even know it’s a party.
And as for presents, they’re really lost on him. One of the many things Oot and I have in common is the ability to be vastly amused by common household items. Given the choice to play with a cardboard tube and, say, a Porsche, both of us would probably end up playing with the tube.
All of that said, the party was a good time, and an excuse to see a lot of friends that I haven’t seen for a long time.
And as for the presents…
… one was a little cooler than the rest.
For me, that is. I don’t think Oot will be able to appreciate it for a while. Let’s get a close-up…
(You might need to embiggen this to appreciate it.)
It’s a book one of my friends made by taping pictures over one of those heavy-duty kid books with the cardboard pages. Most of the art came from various places on Deviantart.
(Though the cover is by Marc Simonetti from the French translation of my book.)
Want to read along with me?
This version of Kvothe is by Lucy Artiss. She is a lovely person who I met at a booksigning in London more than a year ago. She gave me copies of her drawings of Kvothe, Denna, and Kvothe’s parents, which I absolutely adored. I’ve been meaning to write a blog about them ever since, but with one thing and another, I just never got around to it. Because I’m a jerk.
When I read this to Oot, I usually say, “Denna is hot as nobody’s business.” Then, if Sarah is around, I also add, “She is also a little bit crazy. Most women are crazy. But that’s okay, because crazy women are strangely compelling and roughly 35% hotter than ordinary women.”
The art is another one of Lucy’s.
Picture credit for Auri.
Picture credit for The Wind.
That’s all for now folks. I’ve got to get back to revisions….
pat
64 Comments
Uh oh, now you’ve done it Pat. Give us too many pictures of cool things and I don’t know what we might do. Inane post is inane.
That is possibly the coolest gift a kid could get for his first birthday. Apart from his own set of pots and pans with a wooden spoon. I mean, you can’t go wrong with pots and pans with a wooden spoon when you’re one. But I digress…
That is an awesome gift!
And Happy Birthday to Oot. The first birthday party is really for the parents anyway, so congratulations to you and Sarah as well!
Spoons are pretty cool….
There is no spoon, i’m afraid…
Ok, maybe there is no spoon. But sporks are way cooler anyway. So, maybe we should invent the wooden spork for babies to beat on pots and pans with.
Hmmmm … wooden spork. I want one now.
I took it to the loo and almost didn’t come out again.
HAHAHAHAHAHA Mickey! It’s an all purpose blurb!
What a wonderful birthday present! I love those pictures of Denna and Kvothe. This one should be in the book too: http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&global=1&q=bast+kvothe#/d2zuy5w
“Kvothe is friends with Bast. Bast is a badass Fae and is madly in love with his Reshi.” or something mildly yaoi-ish like that…
Children should learn to appreciate Yaoi at a young age ^^ I can’t wait to have my own…
That should be a page. Though I’d write it this way: “This is Bast. Bast and Kvothe live together. All over the world, fangirls think about the two of them kissing.”
Add it. Add it now.
I’ve never actually had that thought before, but now it will be all I think about when I read their scenes. Dang!
I hadn’t either I admit. The person Kvothe is at the time with Bast just felt so incredibly oooold that I didn’t think of it. Maybe young, not-broken-by-life-yet Kvothe with Bast…
But yeah, that will forever alter how I read the story.
Well, if they didn’t before, they do now…
No no. Not the two of THEM kissing.
hmmm…..
Though that would be cool too.
A year already? Wow. I can remember the first announcement you made here…
Also; that is the most awesome present I have ever seen! Particularly for a baby :)
-A-
Dear Reshi,
It’s great that your friends would take the time to make a present for Oot. Much more heartfelt when they they take the time to create something rather than just get something from the shop.
My mates would just show up with a blank card and drink all my beer….bastards
It’s so cool! I wish I had a present like this, although I’m older… XD
PS: I’m the only girl here who doesn’t like yaoi? ^^U
“Am I”, sorry. English is not my native language and I got muddled for a moment ^^U
Naw, I’m with you. I see no reason for two hot, straight guys to go gay for each other.
Okay, I’m not that interested in Kvothe, but Bast… let’s just say I have a thing for fae of the properly scary-as-hell kind.
I agree, both with the interested in Bast (YUM!) and the whole slashfic/yaoi thing.
I much prefer to fantasize that the hot men to go gaga over me rather than each other. :o)
On a completely separate note, Delerium, how do I get to be one of the super cool kids who has a profile pic? I keep trying to find the way to add one and either I’m blind or it’s nearly impossible to find…
Ooh, thank you! I’m not alone! XD
Bast <3 ^__^
There has to be a Bast fanclub somewhere. Maybe we should start one?
My picture is attached to my WordPress account, so it must be some kind of automatic thing- it just connected my email/blog and went HEY PICTURE!
I do remember something about Gravatar being involved (http://en.gravatar.com), so that might help… maybe.
Awesome! Thanks for telling me, I went to gravatar, uploaded a picture, and suddenly here it was. Hooray!
yay thanks! :D i dont like yaoi too btw… u.u’
No.
Although I had to look up yaoi on Wikipedia to know whether I liked it or not. The best thing that I learned was that, while it’s an acronym for some Japanese phrase, some Japanese have joked that it stands for a different phrase that translates to “Ouch, my butt hurts!”
T-shirt contest???
Soon.
Hoooraaay!
My holiday gift-giving hopes live on. I mean, after one has given so many copies of TNOTW, having TNOTW accessories to give is just awesome!
Yea, I know I’m gushing. I just do this so others don’t have to. ^_^
Diana
Oh yeah, remember that. :-)
That was very cute :)
That is absolutely incredible. It’s like the story condensed into four pages (or whatever) and presented in a format everyone can enjoy.
I want to go read the actual book again, now.
And, happy birthday Oot. It’s the first of many, and I hope you enjoyed it in your own way.
that is a fabulous present.
I believe that the first birthday is so that you can see your kid eat a cupcake for the first time.
That is too cute Pat. You have fufilled my daily requirement of daawww, and I just got up.
this is beyond adorable. I’m certain Oot will love it when he gets older. Anyways, where can I get a copy? XD The art is fantastic as well.
Awesome birthday gift, very creative. Thanks for sharing it with us.
That first year goes fast, doesn’t it? My son has his first birthday in August and I’m still in shock that he’s a year old now. None of our family and friends gave him any way awesome nerdy gifts, so we got him the Young Mad Scientist Alphabet blocks from ThinkGeek.com. Gotta make sure the next generation grows up right.
That little book Oot got, though, is way, way awesome. If it was marketed, I would so buy it for Nerdbaby. I’m running out of geeky baby books to get him, since he already has all the Star Wars board books.
I was thinking that a Name of the Wind board book isn’t such a crazy idea (althouugh a cool one for a birthday present, especially handmande!). But just as with Star Wars, we’d probably have the movie next, then the action figures, and THEN all the cheap summary books for each age group, including the board books. I can see it now.
That was pretty much the best gift ever. I kind of want it for ME.
I hope Oot’s birthday party was fun and you enjoyed relaxing for a while. Remember to take breaks during revision, for your own sake, so you don’t end up 72% insane and incapable of finishing without tossing in whole pages of “THIS COFFEE IS GREAT!” repeated over and over.
Wow. I honestly don’t know what could have possibly been a cooler gift.
A Porsche… maybe.
Probably not.
I actually thought the cardboard tube idea was a good one…
Here’s a non sequitur regarding a previous post about book blurbs. I was looking at something my husband is reading (called “Sustainable Energy without the Hot Air”), and saw a really excellent blurb, by a guy named Matthew Moss. Thought some folks here might appreciate it:
“I took it to the loo and almost didn’t come out again.”
That’s extraordinarily funny, top marks LittleMy !
I think that’ll have to be my new favorite quote!
This post confirms my long-standing suspicion that cool people have absurdly cool friends.
Having absurdly cool friends, it gives me a little hope that, maybe one day, when I have grown in age, wit, and sexiness, I can aspire to demi-Rothfussian coolness. Maybe 500 or so Gaiman-Day units of coolness.
Well. I need to get a present for my niece, and now I’m pretty sure the title of “Coolest baby present ever” has been taken. You’ve got a lucky kid there!
I’ve been impressed by the various things you’ve shown us that you’ve received from your fans, but that’s one of the most flattering things I can imagine. Not only do people make graphical/musical art based on your book, but someone also made a book based on a book.
Awesome.
You really should expand that and get it published. I would buy like a twelve page version of the the book for my kid! Not even joking, it’s pretty sweet.
Oh my. I want one. I mean ummmmm…. my son wants one! Yeah, that’s it. Since I’m not sure of Oot’s exact birthdate, I can only say that he and my little one were born around the same time – mine just turned one on Sept. 17. And that totally would have been the coolest present ever!
Hello
wow, this is so cool! I agree with the others, you should do a kids picture book for ‘the name of the wind’ :)
I’m glad you liked my paintings, I can’t wait to do some more for book 2.
happy birthday oot x
Pat,
I have had a truly craptacular day today (house repair/disaster stuff…don’t ask.) Coming to your blog and reading Oot’s new book along with you vastly improved my outlook and lifted my spirits. I guess I dig board books and that I, too, am amused by simple things.
Simple absolutely rules, and it’s beautiful.
Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for your hard work! I found an incredible illustration of Kvothe from Art by Kim Kincaid. I love Kvothe and I love this painting of him. Will you look at it?
http://www.artbykimkincaid.com/#goto=fan-art&viewimage=1
Thanks again! I am just patiently waiting for the WMF.
How ’bout a limited edition fan art illustrated book (not necessarily a book for kids, though that would be cool, too) as a fundraiser for Worldbuilders? Fan artists could compete to illustrate different points of the main story arc, and Voila! Simple graphic type book (signed by the author perhaps? ) to raise Moo-lah for a great cause.
Oh, I would buy this in a heartbeat.
This is adorable. If it was printed I would buy it for my kids. I know my sisters kids who are a little older are nuts about the audiobook, which is very well done by the way. Will the next one have the same Actor reading it? just curious, the last one was exceptional. Anyway, sidetracked, put it in print and I’ll buy one.
Thank you so much for this:
“[…] [C]razy women are strangely compelling and roughly 35% hotter than ordinary women.”
It’s my new favourite quote.
Greetings from Germany!
I was thinking about what that french cover reminds me of, until it became glaringly obvious, suddenly:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanderer_above_the_Sea_of_Fog
You totally knew that already I bet, but it just hit me. Sorry for being slow.
Firstly, wot they sed ^^^^ regarding coolness, thoughtfulness, cuteness and other-postive-nesses of the gift. And happy birthday to Oot, of course.
But also: “Lump of weaponised* [insert adjective of chocie here]” is now my utility phrase of choice – which my colleagues will tell you has made me a weaponised lump of annoying.
* Yes, “weaponiSed” – obviously Mr Rothfuss, being an American type, can spell it as “weaponized”, but I’m English and we save our “z”s for when we really need them.
“choice”, not “chocie”, obviously – I’m just a weaponised lump of fat-fingered.
“When I read this to Oot, I usually say, “Denna is hot as nobody’s business.” Then, if Sarah is around, I also add, “She is also a little bit crazy. Most women are crazy. But that’s okay, because crazy women are strangely compelling and roughly 35% hotter than ordinary women.””
I lol’ed for about 15 seconds, and am glad no one was around to wonder why in the world i had burst out laughing so loudly :D
That children’s book kicks so much ass!
I love it.
I think I’d actually buy that.
In fact, I’d probably like children’s versions of my other favorite epic fantasy books as well (and other genres too come to think of it. Imagine Murakami, for example, that would be great).
There’s just something subversively appealing about children’s books that are based on highly intelligent and compelling source material. Fun!
Haha, you can still see the Pinocchio cover underneath the embiggened Kvothe and friends cover.
This is why you’re better than George R.R. Martin. He would have sued his friend for creating a derivative work and violating his copyright.
Don’t know if u still use this blog but i have to say that i’m very anxious for the 3rd book.
I’m brazilian and since i read the book i’m addicted to everything bout it. Blogs, arts, discutions, chats etc.
I loved the arts that u showed here. Hope have more in this last 8 years ^_^-Y