Generally speaking, my readers are a patient bunch.
For the most part, this is because you are gracious individuals. Intellectuals. The Geek Glitterati.
Those rare few of you who aren’t patient by nature, have been forced to learn this virtue waiting for my books. This is a service I provide free of charge.
Because you’re all gracious, patient human beings, it’s only in these last few weeks that a few folks have sent a few polite e-mails asking if we’ve sent out the prizes for worldbuilders yet.
And now, I’m happy to say that we have.
(You might want to Embiggen this.)
From left to right, we have Maria, Joyce, and Nicole (sporting the new Greysdale Mead t-shirt).
Then there’s Me, Amanda and Kat. I’m easy to spot, as I’m the only boy.
Unseen but not unloved is Nate, who took the picture. And Brett, who happens to be roaming the earth right now, trying to collect all the pieces of the triforce. Or something. I honestly don’t know what he’s doing, but I suspect it’s something like a vacation.
And honestly? He deserves a vacation. Everyone here does. Without these lovely people, Worldbuilders wouldn’t have happened. I would have had a nervous breakdown and lit everything on fire sometime around December 18th.
Of course it goes without saying that without all of *you* Worldbuilders wouldn’t have happened either. So you all deserve vacations as well. Take one. And if anyone gives you grief about it, tell them I said it was okay.
I feel like I should point out that what you see in the picture above aren’t even all the packages. That’s just the final batch we sent out Tuesday.
I would have liked to get these prizes in the mail sooner. But…. well…. things got a little complicated this year.
You see, up until this year, Worldbuilders has been something I banged together on my own with a couple people helping out.
The first year Sarah helped me. The second year (2009), I had an assistant to lend a hand.
In 2010 & 2011, I had an assistant and a half, and some other friends helped with packaging, e-mail, some of the bookkeeping….
But I was still trying to run it all myself.
I hope it doesn’t disillusion y’all to learn that I am not a great organizer. Worldbuilders worked, but things were pretty chaotic behind the scenes. This didn’t particularly bother me, as I tend to gravitate toward Chaotic Good anyway…
But every year Worldbuilders got bigger. And every year there was more to do. And every year I was a little more overwhelmed.
So this year I brought in people to run the charity. Smart, lovely people. People who could organize things. People who liked to make spreadsheets. People to answer the e-mail and run the store. People to package and talk to donors and take pictures and help me put together the blogs.
And I learned two things:
1. It’s awesome having enough help.
2. It takes a lot of time do things the right way.
We’ve got an inventory system now where we scan in books with a bar code reader. (Before we entered them into a spreadsheet manually.)
Now we can print out winner’s addresses on sticky labels. (Before we printed them out in Word, cut them out, and taped them onto the package.)
These thing are so nice, but it took us a while to get them all in place and running smoothly.
What’s more, we now have our own *building* now. For the last several years we’ve been running this whole thing out of an old student rental I bought on the cheap. Now we have space to spread out and grow. But it’s taken us a while to move in.
Plus, we had a lot more prizes to give out this year. A lot more books and a lot more winners.
Now, answers to a few questions.
- How will I know if I’ve won?
A package will show up at your house in the next couple weeks. A springtime surprise.
Please keep in mind that while there were a lot of winners, there were also a lot of donors.
If you won one of the specialty prizes, like the favor ring, or my tuckerization, or the ARC of Stardust, I’ll be getting in touch with you over the next couple days. So if and unfamiliar number shows up on your cell phone, you might want to answer it.
- Will you be posting up a list of winners?
Sorry. We won’t. It would be a violation of the winner’s privacy.
If the winners are okay with it, we’ll share what’s happens with some of the bigger prizes. Like the favor ring and the ARC of Stardust. But that will be their choice, I’m afraid.
If you’d like to take a picture of yourself with your prizes, you could post them up in the Worldbuilders Facebook Group so that everyone can gaze on you with envious desire.
- What were this year’s final totals? How much did we raise?
For that information and much more, stay tuned. We’ve got a lot of cool news coming up….
pat
69 Comments
PAT WHY ARE YOU READING THIS??? Stop checking your posts and go write that third book!!!!
<3 and kind regards
from cj
Don’t do this please.
Hey cj, calmly put the whip down and take four steps back. We all know that this comes from a place of love, but it’s not constructive at all.
All writing and no reality makes Pat a cranky boy. We all await the third book anxiously, but we want it to be at Pat’s usual standard. It takes time. If you survived waiting for Martin, you can survive waiting for Pat. :)
or those who have been waiting for Scott Lynch
DUDE DIDN’T YOU READ THE BLOG ABOUT HIM PLAYING?! STFU MAN WE HAVE A GOOD THING GOING HERE.
Man, caps seem a lot more aggressive after you’ve clicked that submit button. That was a jovial tone. With an edge of reproach.
Sorry :'(
Please don’t be angry with me D:
never ;)
OK be honest. Who else just turned to stare WIDE-EYED AND DEMANDING at their phone for a solid five minutes?
still keeping my fingers crossed.
hahaha… I’ll be honest, just on the off chance that the stars somehow alligned for me, I pulled up my my donation confirmation e-mail to see if it even had my cell phone # and then panicked a bit.
If you didn’t give your phone number, we’ll email you. You HAD to give an email, so we can get into contact with you, don’t worry ;)
I donated but the link I followed from the blog took me straight to Heifer’s International web page. So, I don’t think I ever signed up for a prize. But that’s ok, the charity is worth it, don’t need a prize. So CONGRATS to those of you receiving happy surprises in the next couple of weeks.
I totally did.
The effort you go to to make all of this happen is humbling. Thank you.
It’s easy to forget the magic behind the scenes that keep this beautiful dream alive. Thank you to all your staff for keeping worldbuilders alive and thriving.
I was just wondering, say someone from the UK won one of the prizes requiring a phone call, would you still ring them? You know, on the off chance that I may have one something awesome.
Also you forgot to mention your photograph competition when discussing our enduring patience ;) A fair few years of patience there : )
I feel I such make it clear that wasn’t me having a go :) Pat is my hero and as such he can do no wrong :)
I told my boss I’m taking a vacation and that you said it was okay. He nodded and looked at me funny.
We met Maria at ConFusion in January when we bought some awesome merch, and she was great! She talked to us for a few minutes about the behind-the-scenes of Worldbuilders and it made us respect what you guys are doing even more, because it’s such a huge undertaking. Keep on changing the world!
Despite two months of you throwing down a litany of amazing prizes, I’d completely forgotten, post-donation, about the whole ‘you may be rewarded for doing good’ thing.
I don’t even know what I’d do if you called to say I was receiving the favor ring (after cleaning the back of my shorts out of course). It would be a tough Paragon/Renegade call for that one to save it for myself, or summon you from the Ether for some grandiose charity purpose.
The ARC would be easier I think, just due to the story behind it at this point. I mean, if you kept it, you’d clearly end up cursed unto the end of days by the vengeful spirits of Lamia and her sisters, right??
I see I wasn’t the only one who completely forgot there were prizes!! This blog post was already a spring surprise. :D
About patience…
I am patiently awaiting more photo contest winners. I had understood more blogs with other categories were to come. Is this correct? I will patiently continue to wait. I thought maybe I had misunderstood.
Thank you!
I’m going to be excited every time I open my mail box or hear my phone ring for the next few days.
Crack. I just moved at the beginning of this month. Is there a way I can contact you and see if I should be expecting something? My mail is supposed to be forwarded, but lets be honest….its the USPS.
Try. It doesn’t hurt to try. Maybe your package is still here for some reason.
Email questions (squiggly-at-sign) worldbuilders.org and I’ll update the address we have for you :)
I had no idea that there was an official Worldbuilders website. That’s pretty neat.
I’ve kind of already won. How, you ask? Well, enough time has gone by I was sure that I didn’t win shit. Now, I find out the packages are only just starting to flow and I’m back in the running, baby! Hope is alive! And as Andy Dufresne said, “hope is a good thing, maybe the best thing, and no good thing ever dies.”
I’ve been running to the mailbox for weeks, checking first if there were any packages or boxes (and briefly hyperventilating when I saw a box and didn’t remember I ordered something and was expecting it). I had given up hope of winning – and now I’ll get to start the whole process over again! YES!
From the small picture on my Facebook feed, I thought you guys were standing in a room full of bananas.
Oh my gosh, I thought the EXACT SAME THING. I was so intrigued.
I’d like to express my sincere hope that you post a photo of Brett at some point for his efforts, even though I know he’d probably refuse. But maybe he’d allow you to post a self-made caricature of himself, or at least a photo of creepy dolls in his photo’s place.
We got Brett to do a doodle of himself for one of the WB blogs. He knows we love him ;)
I was totally stoked by the fact that last years Stardust’ed golden ticket not only went towards WorldBuilders, but to Penny Arcade as well.
Worldbuilders was already so fantastic this year, all those prizes are just the icing on the cake. Thanks to Worldbuilders this year I already 1) Got warm and fuzzies from donating to a great cause. 2) Got to read even more blog posts from Pat. 3) Found out about a new book/author (thanks to a donated ARC) which just came out yesterday and I can’t wait to read it.
Holy Packages Batman!
I was happy just knowing i’d contributed to a good cause! (in a multiple of Chai of course) But now i might still be getting some pretty/geekery/awesome? I’m very excited!
*That* is a lot of packages, I shudder to imagine what the other batches looked like. My second thought upon seeing your photo was “oh, Oot’s got plenty of leftover boxes to build forts with.” I seem to remember you blogging something of the sort in the past.
Congrats to you all. Be sure to take those well deserved vacations and enjoy them! Pat, maybe build a fort or two with Oot. Your assistants aren’t the only people who deserve a vacation for a job well done.
That’s some tremendous growth. Thanks for being big enough to realize you needed help. Lots of orgs struggle with that realization. Lets see if we can’t strain them some more with the 2014 drive.
Cool Pat, it’s awesome that you’re taking all this time to help others out. And Pat, I was wondering how much later we can expect book three here in the UK after release. Cheers.
Yours sincerely, Ali
p.s. *an (In the Last line of How will I know if I’ve won)
I can’t help but wonder if all the packages in the pictures were strategically turned away from the camera. If so, ya’ll are sly.
I must say, kudos on wearing an appropriate shirt for the photo.
Was that intentional or just coincidence I wonder?
I just want to thank Pat and the whole Worldbuilder’s team for a fantastic job well done. I’m so proud to be part of this project year after year. It’s inspiring and makes me feel good. Both of those are good things. I hope this effort encourages others to start charities or donate to other charities–there are a lot of them out there.
The prizes? Well, they’re the cherry on the cake, aren’t they? Not necessary but still so fabulous. A big thank you to everyone who donated, also.
Now you’ll have to excuse me, I need to check my email, my cell phone, and go stand by the mailbox.
Cheers!!
Jules
Well…I am officially in love with Nicole.
Sorry, it had to be said.
Albender/Spain
I just took a week’s vakation, and then started reading this.
Good to know you approve
Holy cats!!! That’s a lot of packages. I’m sure the post office loves to see you all coming. Thank you so much for putting this on every year. It totally solves my dilemma of what to get the people in my life who have everything. In addition, it takes care of my shopping for the people in my life who love other people and want the world to be a better place. Which means I totally only have to buy gifts for my kids! (I give this out as teacher’s gifts, too. Awesome.) Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you for everyone’s hard work to make this go. Of course I hope one of those lovely packages has my address on it, but really that’s just the icing on the cake. Y’all rock!
I’m curious to know for how many countries you are shipping items to. Additionaly: packages everywhere. That’s a lot of trouble.
About 15 minutes after I read this yesterday, my phone rang with an unknown number and I just about had a heart attack. It wasn’t any awesome news like I had hoped, but oh well. Later that night, I AGAIN received a phone call from a number I didn’t recognize. Again I had a surge of adrenalin. What were the chances, I NEVER get phone calls from uknown numbers! And yet again, I was disappointed. The universe is playing a joke on me, and I just had to share it! (I’ll keep my fingers crossed though, perhaps third times the charm!)
Strangely enough, I was immediately filled with dread at the thought of getting such a phone call. It took me a minute to realize…that’s because there is no doubt in my mind that, if Pat were to call me, I would freak out to such an extent that he would become frightened and never again communicate with me in any way.
Then I realized that he’d probably have one of his new assistants call, and became less excited.
Oh no, Pat is calling them himself. Don’t lose that crazed excitement.
So someone brought up that when they donated it went straight to the heifer international page and didn’t ask for my phone number. I know you said you’d email if the phone number wasn’t there, but I was wondering if being taken straight to the heifer page mean that we weren’t entered into the drawing? If it does I’m OK with it too, but I was just wondering.
Oh wow! I’ve just realised.
I had a note yesterday saying I need to go to my local mail office because a package was delivered with incorrect payment attached to it. I have to pay £1.18p. I had no idea what it was as I haven’t ordered anything and after reading this I realised :)
I wonder what I won!?
One of those banana looking packages arrived today! Thanks!
Oh! So it’s still possible that I won something. I gave up hope a while ago. Now I must ponder whether or not to revive said expired hope, or just pretend I didn’t read this post and then be completely surprised and delighted if a package should chance to arrive. At any rate, thanks for all your efforts on the part of Heifer and to sweeten the pot for all the donors!
Woot! I got one! Thank you, thank you. It came at the perfect time – a Saturday when I finished my last book the night before and I can’t make it to the library today. Will be tucking in to Alan Campbell’s Damnation for Beginners tonight. I’m looking forward to it. Love the Worldbuilders sticker too. Thanks again!
I got a package delivered today. WooHoo! Best part is the Worldbuilders note and sticker. Looking forward to checking out the two new authors (3 books). The blurbs have already peaked my interest.
Also both of my boys are raising money to purchase flocks of chicks for Heifer through our church’s sunday school program. Was so excited when I heard they were doing it.
Keep up the good work!
I answered the phone to a Gallup poll yesterday because of this. A GALLUP POLL! They random number generated me and I was so excited to talk to Pat and then I instead had to answer questions about how I feel about the economy. How dreadful. :) I hope that if Pat really calls, he will enjoy my voicemail and leave a lovely message!
A modest proposal:
Could you guys send a bulk email to the non-winners thanking them for their coolness and letting them know that they didn’t win? (Of course, by BCC to maintain everyone’s privacy.)
I’m guessing you have a list of all donors, and a list of all winners, so hopefully it’s not too hard to compare the two and come up with the “everybody else” list.
Thanks
Like some others, I’d assumed “not a winner this year” a while ago. So, I was intrigued to see this blog, and tickled to get a package last week.
I won twice! Neither book immediately grabs me (admittedly, only judging a book by its cover). And, the ARC probably seemed cooler in January, when it was posted, before it was published in March.
But, hey! I won! The only other time I’ve won I’d never heard of the books or author, and ended up quite enjoying them. So, I’ll definitely give these a shot, also.
Thanks to Pat, and all his elves, for another edition of the greatest fantasy literature charity auction around!
Woohoo! I got a limited edition “Steven King at the Movies” hardcover! It is super cool and I’m totally stoked!!!! Thanks so much! I donate because I want to, the raffle is just a fun bonus game, and I am so thrilled to have won something! I’ll definitely be donating again next year, and every year that Worldbuildiers exists!
In my excited I spelled things all wrong. It’s “Stephen King Goes to the Movies.”
Thanks!
Got my prize yesterday and I’m delighted! One of the books included a story by Harlan Ellison, who happens to be one of my favorite authors.
Too late now but for those whose donation wasn’t credited to WorldBuilders: that happened to me too. I called Heifer in January and asked them to add my donation to the WB team and they (apparently) did so.
I’ll repeat what others have said. The best part is simply having donated. The second best part was getting a note and a sticker. The books I “won”? Icing on the most delicious cake ever baked.
Pat
Is that a Problem Sleuth shirt?
Pat
That is a Problem Sleuth shirt
I’m going to be so disappointed if I didn’t win anything. Seriously! There were so many prizes, I have to have won something.
…Wait. Tons of prizes… plenty of donors still didn’t win one… that must mean that tons of people donated. And that’s the whole point, isn’t it? I’m glad to have been a (small) part of this. Keep up the good work!
I’m a proud owner an Eolian Bar t-shirt in XL TALL. In fact I wore it to your signing in St. Louis for WMF and thanked you profusely for offering this size to accommodate your freakishly tall and skinny fans.
Any chance of the Greysdale Mead being offered in an XLT? That shirt is great and makes me thirsty!
What an unexpected and terrific surprise to find a package of great looking books waiting for me tonight. Thanks so much.
I would like to have Kvothe by my side right now and ask him to write a letter for Nicole in my behalf, but she would probably step down from that luminous smile and say things like: “I dont even know you” or “I have a boyfriend/’m married” or “What kind of creepy nerd does these things?”
Then i’d say, drooling:
“She answered me! Is there probably a non-psychopath way to ask you out on a date for dinner, based on an internet picture of your beautiful smile next to an geniuos literary bearded mammoth?”
Cheers everyone.
So much fun getting an unexpected package in the mail last week! Pat, you and your crew are doing an incredible thing with Worldbuilders and I am glad for the chance to partake of some of that awesomeness. Looking forward to the next campaign!
I had completely forgotten about the prospect of prizes after all that! Only issue is that I have moved house so I have no idea if I actually got anything. Is there a way to find out if I should have? And if I should have I could go to my old place and see if anything’s arrived…