Yearly Archives: 2013

Published: December 11, 2013

Stretch Goals 2013 – $25k and $50k

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 This is a Worldbuilders blog.

This year’s fundraiser has taken off amazingly fast, breaking all the records we’ve had in the past.

For example, this year we raised more money in our first week than we did in the entire first year we ran worldbuilders, back in 2008.

Needless to say, this gives me a big warm fuzzy.

Another perk is that we’re hitting our stretch goals faster than ever before. So today we’re going to share a few of those:

  • $25,000 – Peter V. Brett shaves Myke Cole’s head.

This year, we wanted to make more of our stretch goals more whimsical and fun. And as you can see just from the title, Myke Cole and Peter V. Brett started us off on the right foot.

Here’s the thing. When Myke sent in his idea, I laughed my ass off and said it sounded great….

… but I had no idea they were planning to use a straight razor.

The first I heard about it was on Twitter:

Twitter convo

And this is true. Any of you who have read my blog for any amount of time know I regularly make bad decisions in the pursuit of science, mischief, or entertainment. My attempts to distil coffee, for example. Or the time I accidentally burned a pentagram onto the carpet of the house I was renting….

Anyway, the point is, I’m the person you should be talking *out* of doing something, I’m not used to it being the other way around.

But back when I used to shave, I shaved with a straight razor. I have a few very pale, slender scars from those days that I could show you if not for the beard. It’s *hard* shaving with a straight razor, and if Peter was going to try for the first time ever on Myke….

I caved. I called Peter on the phone.

But he didn’t pick up. And I knew why. This had obviously already gone terribly wrong. Peter couldn’t pick up because he had to use both of his hands to stanch the blood that was even now gushing from Myke’s head.

I left a truly incomprehensible voicemail message that was broken up with bouts of panicked/hysterical laughter. Imagine what the Joker would sound like if he drunk dialed Batman. My voicemail was like that.

Peter called me back about three minutes later. The conversation went roughly like this.

Me: Are you guys seriously using a straight razor?

Peter: Oh yeah. I went out and bought one just for this.

Myke: [In the background. Laughing.] Pat! Is that you? Send help!

Me: So you’ve really never used one before?

Peter: I watched a five minute video.

Myke: [In the background] You watched thirty seconds of a video.

Peter: I skipped some the boring bits. It seems pretty simple. You just go against the grain of the hair….

Myke: [In the background] I think he’s been drinking.

In the end, all I could do was beg them to be careful. Partly because they were in New York and I was in Wisconsin, but also because they obviously really wanted to do this.

And also because I can’t start being the voice of reason at this point in my life. It’s just too late for me.

So:

My pleading

They kept posting up pictures through the whole process, while I did the twitter equivalent of watching with my hands in front of my face, peeking between my fingers….

Ward head

And honestly, I wouldn’t have stopped them if I could. Because they’re my kind of crazy.

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Ooopsie

They took video of the whole thing, but it’s going to take a while to splice it all together in a pleasing way. Rest assured that as soon as it’s ready, we’ll share it around.

(Suggestions for the soundtrack should go into the comments.)

  • $50,000 – Paul and Storm Lyrically Mock Patrick Rothfuss

As many of you know, I did a couple shows with the fabulous lyrical duo Paul and Storm early in November. In our brief stint on the road, I like to think we bonded a little. Over the long hours on the road, we learned and shared and grew closer together.

We also discussed the following song….

I’m going to let it speak for itself. The tune might sound familiar, but trust me it’s a different version than the one you’ve heard before.

Suffice to say that when I heard it, I laughed my ass off.

If you know about Paul and Storm, I’m guessing you’ve already heard about their awesome Kickstarter project that’s ending in just a couple days. But you might not know that I’m writing up a short anecdote about our time on the road for inclusion in their PaulandStormonomicon stretch goal.

If you *don’t* know about Paul and Storm, and you got a chuckle out of the song up above, you might want to check them out. And if you’re looking for a good place to start, might I casually suggest their amazingly innuendo-laden-yet-playful 5th album: Ball Pit?

More stretch goals are coming folks. We have some *amazing* stuff lined up.

So stay tuned, and thanks for spreading the word…

*     *     *

Want to learn more about Worldbuilders? You can check out our shiny new website here. Or you can get all the details about this year’s fundraiser on my blog.

There are a bunch of cool auctions up right now, as well, some of which haven’t even been blogged about yet.  If you want to get in early, be sure to check the Worldbuilders eBay page.

Posted in Acts of Whimsy, Beautiful Games, music, My checkered past, Worldbuilders 2013 | By Pat20 Responses
Published: December 9, 2013

For the Love of Books….

I’m guessing if you’re reading this blog, you’re probably fond of books.

By a strange coincidence, so am I.

When I was a kid, my mom read to me all the time. Books I’m guessing most of you have never heard of: Socks for Supper, Little Runner of the Longhouse, and Humbug Witch….

My lovely books

(You envy my circa 1970 orange kitchen countertop.) 

These books are indescribably precious to me. I’m sure you understand why.

She also read me books you probably *have* heard of: Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, & Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Day….

We also went to the library. We went to the library alot.

Sarah and I read to Oot all the time. And while I actively encourage people *not* to buy him toys, (because he has enough toys.) I never, ever mind when someone brings him a book. Because it is scientifically impossible to have enough books.

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(These are just the *upstairs* bookshelves.)

I’m guessing many of you grew up in bookish households too. Because that’s how it works. If you grow up with books, you learn to love books….

And if you don’t grow up with books…. Well….

Here’s the thing. Do you know that there are kids that don’t have any books? No books at all?

If someone had bounced this idea off me as a kid, I wouldn’t have even understood it. How could you have no books? Books were a given. They were like gravity and air. You couldn’t *not* have books.

But I never had to grapple with this idea as a kid. I was lucky.

I was already an adult when I learned some of the statistics. I learned that in middle-class homes there are an average of 13 books for every kid. (A number that still seems freakishly low to me.)

But in some of the poorest parts of this country, there can be, on average, only one book for every three hundred children.

I couldn’t have understood this as a kid, and as an adult it’s hard for me to get my mind around. Honestly, I can’t process it in any rational way, and every time I try, I find myself getting terribly, terribly fucking angry.

So I’m going to do something stupid. Despite the fact that I’m currently running my own charity’s fundraiser right now, I’m going to talk to you about a different charity.

I’m going to talk to you about First Book.

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Here’s the simple version: First Book is an organization looking to fix this problem. They give books to kids who don’t have any.

Think about that. Some kids have never owned a book.

You see, First Book works with schools and libraries and publishers to–

Hmmm… Let’s see if I can find a video that will explain this….

Watch that. Seriously. It’s not even two minutes long. You have the time.

Keep in mind that that that video is six years old. Since then, First Book has distributed more than 100 million books to schools, libraries, and families.

First Book is responsible for putting books in the hands of millions of kids. For some of these kids, it’s the first book they have ever owned. For some it’s the first book they have ever held.

There are two reasons I’m mentioning this today.

1. Last week, I got an e-mail from First Book. They’re running a promotion where every donation is being tripled because of a partnership with Random House Children’s Books.

2. Right now, we’re selling a charity calendar with photographer Lauren Zurchen.

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(Click to Embiggen.)

I’ve already mentioned this. But the part that bears repeating is that all the proceeds from the calendar are going to be split between Worldbuilders and First Book. 

So here’s the deal, if you buy this calendar before Dec 31st (Which is the best time to buy a calendar, really.) We’ll donate the money to First Book before the deadline, so it will count triple.

And you know what else? Because I’m all weepy right now from watching a bunch of those First Book videos, and because the thought of kids growing up without books makes me want to rage quit the entire earth, I’m going to do something extra:

For every one of Lauren’s calendars someone buys between now and Dec 31st. I’m going to donate $5 out of my own pocket to First Book.

20131209_030854(I couldn’t find a $5 bill here in the house.)

So *that* donation is going to be tripled as well.

And you know what else? I’ll do the same thing for the Heifer International Calendar we’re selling in The Tinker’s Packs. I’ll even do it if you’re buying them in the combo packs we have set up so you can buy more than one and get a price break.

You’re all geeks, you can do the math. After my matching donation gets added to the proceeds from the calendar, then it gets tripled by Random House, that  means for every one of these calendars someone buys, First Book will be giving out around 10 books to kids who desperately need them.

Think of how much you loved reading books when you were a kid. Now think of that times ten.

And you know, you also get a cool calendar filled with pictures of fantasy authors being awesome.

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And money will go to Worldbuilders, too.

There’s really no downside here.

*     *     *

Since I’m hoping some of you will be visiting the Tinker’s Packs Soon, I’d like to direct you to something new that *just* showed up. Something I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to offer this year….

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Earlier this year, I teamed up with the Harry Potter Alliance to add a collection of blogs and articles I’d written to their annual fundraiser.

In return, they’ve let us carry their awesome Chocolate Frogs in The Tinker’s Packs.

The mission of the Harry Potter Alliance is to raise awareness about social injustice and hopefully bring it to an end. Their Chocolate Frogs are part of that mission. You see, the company that produces the officially licensed Frogs refuses to release the source of their cocoa. This is a big deal, given that cocoa is one of the most corrupt agricultural crops in the world, where a huge portion of the world’s harvest uses some really horrific child labor.

If you want the details about the HPA’s Chocolate Frog campaign, take a look over here.

When the company producing the frogs refused to disclose where their cocoa comes from, the HPA decided to make their own Chocolate Frogs from Fair Trade chocolate. They wanted to show it was possible, and that people would prefer to buy a product that’s ethically produced, even if it costs a little more.

We think the same thing. So we’re selling some in The Tinker’s Packs. They make great stocking stuffers, so you can head on over and grab some in either Milk or Dark Chocolate. Each box comes with a Wizard Card and a nice warm fuzzy that you’ve done something awesome today.

We’ve only got 300 of these, so you might want to move fast. We’ve been selling out of things really quickly this year….

And lastly, an auction.

  • Auction: Stanchion’s earring in 14k gold.

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Folks who have followed the blog for a while know the only gold Talent Pipes in this world are the ones I give out to people. People who have helped me beta read my books, improved my life, or just generally been awesome in ways I appreciate.

In the Four Corners, the only people who have gold pipes are Deoch and Stanchion, because they own the Eolian and they’re slightly smug about that fact.

Stanchion wears his as an earring, and this year, Badali Jewelry offered to make a single replica of Stanchion’s earring in 14 karat gold for us to auction off.

It’s the only one in existence, and you can bid on it over here.

Also, since we’re talking about Badali, I’ll mention that for the duration of the fundraiser, they’re donating 10% of sales to Worldbuilders if you use a special coupon code.

The code is good on anything in their store, AND they’ll give you a deal on shipping too.

If you want to do some holiday shopping for the geek in your life, odds are you’ll find a lot to suit you over on their website. Especially since they hold the licenses for The Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time, Mistborn, and a bunch of my stuff, too.

  • US Customers – WBLDUSA13

US customers get free USPS Priority Shipping and 10% of your order will be donated to Worldbuilders.

  • International Customers – WBLDINT13

International orders get $10.00 off shipping and 10% of your order will be donated to Worldbuilders.

*     *     *

Want to learn more about Worldbuilders? You can check out our shiny new website here. Or you can get all the details about this year’s fundraiser on my blog.

Thanks for tuning in folks, and thanks for helping to spread the word….

pat

Posted in Worldbuilders 2013 | By Pat61 Responses
Published: December 6, 2013

Some Books from Patrick Rothfuss

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When I first started worldbuilders six years ago, I did the whole thing out of my living room. It was just an idea I was trying out on my blog, so the only prizes I had to give away were my own books, and I had grand dreams of maybe, just maybe raising as much as $5000 for Heifer International.

Now Worldbuilders occupies a whole building and has several full time staff. Over the last five years we’ve raised more than $2,000,000 dollars for Heifer International. And it looks like in our first five days of our 2013 fundraiser, we have a chance of raising more than we did in our entire first year….

Most importantly, it’s a team effort now. These days, authors from all over the world send us signed books. Publishers, fans, and businesses do the same thing. We have a veritable treasure trove of cool swag to give away.

But even so, every year I like to throw in a blog full of my own books, just for old time’s sake:

  • Five pairs of NOTW and WMF. Signed by Patrick Rothfuss.

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If you already have copies, you can give them away as gifts or use their delightfully absorbent paper to clean up spills in the kitchen.

Pro tip: Two hardcover copies of NotW are perfect for raising your computer monitor up to the correct ergonomic height:

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Merciful Buddha, can you even tell that’s a desk? Or a monitor? Believe it or not, that’s where the magic happens. (It’s also where the e-mail happens, which is somewhat less magical.)

Just take my word for it. They’re the perfect size to raise your computer monitor high enough so you don’t get a crick in your neck.

I’ll write something nice in these books. Like some of my favorite quotes. Or a thank you for supporting worldbuilders. Or maybe a secret non-spoilery quote from a future unnamed book….

Nostalga and taunting aside, I’m also going to include some books that are simply hard to find anywhere else.

Like these:

  • One First Edition/First Printing copy of The Name of the Wind. Signed according to your desire.

NOTW-Fabio

Behold the glory of the original NotW cover. Affectionately nicknamed “The Fabio.”

I have just a handful of these left, carefully squirreled away. We used to keep them stocked in the store, but they kept selling out even when we put them up for $800 dollars. This one is going into the lottery where anyone can win it so long as they donate at least $10 on our Heifer Team page.

If you win it, I’ll sign and personalize it however you like. You can also chose the green man cover if you prefer.

We’re also going to put one up for auction:

  • Auction One First Edition/First Printing The Name of the Wind. Signed according to your desire.

As above. But this one is getting auctioned off. I’ll sign it however you like. And you can pick whichever cover you like.

  • Auction: One signed British ARC of The Name of the Wind. Signed according to your desire.

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Now this is a *real* rarity.

ARCs are pretty rare, always rarer than the actual first printings of a book. This British ARC is much more rare than the black-bound US galley, plus it’s fairly pretty to boot. I’ve only ever seen THREE of these in person.

There’s only the one, so if you want it, you should get in on the bidding over here.

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This is the first anthology that ever published a short story of mine, which I mentioned in the blog I wrote when it came out.

There were only 5000 of these books printed, so they’re in pretty short supply. This version is particularly cool as it’s been signed by a few more of the authors and the awesome cover artist.

We have a few copies of this in The Tinker’s Packs, too, if you’re interested. But those are only signed by me.

  • One rare copy of Your Annotated, Illustrated College Survival Guide. Signed by Patrick Rothfuss. Doodled by Brett Hiorns.

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This book is so out-of-print it isn’t even funny. There were only 500 of them printed back in 2005, long before my novels were published.

This is a collection of humor columns that I wrote for the campus paper back when I was a college student. It’s signed by me, and signed and doodled by the artist, Brett, who happens to also work here at Worldbuilders now. He likes to remind me of how many late nights he spent at the paper office, waiting for my article so he could doodle something quickly, and how sometimes, this job isn’t all that different.

We’re putting one in the lottery where anyone can win it, and second one up in an auction, for those of you who really *really* need it.

  • 5 pairs of The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed and The Dark of Deep Below. Signed by Patrick Rothfuss.

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Sometimes, it seems like the Princess  books are one of the best kept secrets that I’m not trying to keep secret. Millions of people have read my novels, but the a lot of folks have never even heard of the Princess book.

I’d like to fix that, so I’ve put 5 sets of the first and second Princess book into the lottery, in the hopes of making someone’s day, if not exactly *brighter* then maybe a little more interesting.

  • 3 limited edition copies of The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Dark of Deep Below. Signed by Patrick Rothfuss and Nate Taylor

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The limited editions of The Dark of Deep Below come with a beautiful, color cover, leather binding, and an awesome signature page, signed by both me and Nate Taylor, who did the illustrations.  Beyond that, they also have cool extras in the back, showing some of my notes to Nate, some of his original sketches, and the original script of the book that I wrote.

You can still buy some over at Subterranean, but every $10 you donate to the Team Heifer page will get you a chance to win one of the 3 I’ve thrown into the lottery, as well.

  • Auction: A rare beta copy of The Dark of Deep Below.

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Everything I write has beta readers, and every beta reader copy looks about the same.  I print it, get it spiral bound, and hand it out, along with a red pen.

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These are the books I give to people to get feedback before we finalize the story. This particular beta shows the The Dark of Deep Below in its unfinished state, some of the pictures are different, and entire pages are changed in the final version.

While it’s not as nice as the limited edition from Subterranean Press, it’s a lot rarer. I only printed about 15 of these, and you can bid on this one over here.

* * *

To be eligible to win one of the lottery prizes, all you have to do is donate $10 or more to the Team Heifer Page. Feel free to swing by the Lottery Library to see all the prizes currently included.

There are also some great game and gaming auctions going that will be ending on Sunday night that you can see on our eBay page.

Stay tuned, folks, you’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg so far….

Posted in College Survival Guide, The Adventures of The Princess and Mr. Whiffle, Worldbuilders 2013 | By Pat22 Responses
Published: December 5, 2013

Games and Geekery

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This is a Worldbuilders blog.

Today’s blog consists of some awesome  games of all sorts.  Cards, role playing, and table top.  Games for kids, games for adults, and games for people who don’t fit well into those sort of categories.  And because they’re a little specialized, we’re going to offer almost all of them up as auctions for the people who really really want them.

But as some of you may have seen, we just had a sale go on over at The Tinker’s Packs, and it was extremely well received.  And since we have a few other things that people might be interested in, we thought we’d throw some up there as well.

Bring it on:

  • The Store: Dice bags of various types, and an awesome game bundle.

Dice Bags and Game Bundle

Sometimes, you just need to be a little bit cooler than all of your friends.  Here we are offering you three ways to do that.

We have eight hand-knit dice bags from Nerdbaby Creations for you to bring to your weekly game of Pathfinder.  Jennifer even pledged a percentage of her Etsy sales to Worldbuilders last month, so we wish that all her modifiers be positive.

If aluminum is more your thing, we have two chainmaille dice bags from Chainmaille by Joy for you to bring to your weekly LARP.  These are really quite impressive, and since we’ve only got two, you should jump on them before they’re gone.

And then we have a sweet game bundle (worth over $125) that we’re selling so that you still have table top games to play the other five nights a week.  It doesn’t matter who’s playing, either.

The bundle contains three games from Albino Dragon: Genegrafter, Dragon Whisperer and Ace of Spies, all card-and-token hybrids with a few spins on game play that keep things interesting.  Then for the little folk, there’s Gamewright’s Sleeping Queens, a combination memory/strategy game that’s geared toward kids but way too fun for the adults to pass up. Finally, there’s Sentinels of the Multiverse from Greater Than Games, which Amanda would self-administer intravenously if she could.

AuthorDnD

Last year we auctioned off a chance to play D&D with a bunch of awesome authors at ConFusion. We had an awesome time, so when Peter V. Brett asked me if we wanted to auction off another seat for Worldbuilders, I was more than happy to accept. I can’t make it this year, which sucks for me, because it’s always a great time.

This year’s awesome author-players will be Kelley Armstrong, Cherie Priest, Myke Cole, Wesley Chu, and Sam Sykes. Peter V. Brett and Howard Tayler will DM the game, which will be filmed and edited for release on youtube again.

Legendary ConFusion will be held January 17-19, 2014 at the Doubletree Hotel Detroit/Dearborn. The game will take place on the 18th from 9am to noon, and books, dice and other supplies and refreshments will be provided.  However, please keep in mind that this auction is just for a seat at the table.  You’ll still have to arrange your own transportation, hotel accommodation and admission to the con.

If you want to get in on the action, make sure to check out the auction and bid.

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During the 2013 Worldcon/Lone Star Con 3 in San Antonio, Texas, members of the Reddit Fantasy community carried this polished steel helm around to various authors and industry people and had them sign it. This thing is covered in signatures. They threw in a couple microfiber polishing cloths and a Lone Star Con program. They even included a handy list where the signers could write their name for easy identification. Think of the list as a key to the puzzle.

They even snagged a picture of Martin trying it on after he signed it.

Martin

They have more photos of the goings on if you’re interested.

To bid, head over here to the auction.

All the Game Bundles

There’s three auctions to choose from.  I’ve linked the titles to their respective auctions if you’re feeling clickish.

Game Salute Bundle: Sunrise City, Zombie Ninja Pirates, Collateral Damage, Alien Frontiers Factions: Faction Pack #1, and Alien Frontiers Factions: Upgrade Pack.

This is a bundle with room for future expansion. Three games you can play right now, plus three expansion packs for the popular (and now sadly out of print) Alien Frontiers. Don’t worry, though–their Kickstarter was a success and the 4th edition of Alien Frontiers is currently available for preorder. Based on the reviews of the 3rd edition, it will be awesome. Awesome.

Five Games from AEG: Trains, Guildhall, Agent Hunter, Maximum Throwdown, and Straw. There isn’t one single dud in this bundle. All five games get great reviews and together they have a broad appeal.  If you’re not in the mood for a more involved strategy game like Trains or Guildhall, Straw is quick and lighthearted. If you feel like messing up your opponents, Maximum Throwdown’s got your back. You won’t be bored, that’s for sure.

Awesome 9 Game bundle: This auction is exactly what the title suggests, 9 awesome games in one go. You get the 8-bit style, classic video game inspired Boss Monster from Brotherwise Games and one of a small pool of strategic wine making games (seriously, there is more than one, but this one is the best), Viticulture from Stonemaier Games.

There’s also the cooperative adventure board game Legends of Andor from Fantasy Flight Games, three Albino Dragon games (Genegrafter, Dragon Whisperer and Ace of Spies), and three games from AEG (Guildhall: Job Faire, Maximum Throwdown and Straw).

Some of these games are available in The Tinker’s Packs game bundle, most are not, and all of them are worth checking out.

Starcraft-Veronica-Books

If your tastes run less board-game-ish and more swag-ish, there’s another trio of auctions (again, each auction is linked to their title).  Speaking of swag, I recently found out it’s an acronym. Seriously.  The word “swag” stands for “Stuff We All Get”–like tee shirts, coffee mugs, and other standard souvenirs. This sort of etymology gives me little shivers.

Solar backpack from Techzilla’s own Veronica Belmont:  Veronica sent a solar backpack full of fun goodies she knew you’d like, including:

Revision3 branded solar backpack with charging tips for iPhone 4 and most Android phones
Fitbit Zip Activity Tracker (poking out of the front pocket, there)
Sword and Laser white fitted women’s tee shirt (Size: Medium)
Gibson Guitars men’s tee shirt (Size: Large)
Gibson Guitars black knit beanie with embroidered logo (Size: head)
Monster Inspiration headphones with changeable Apple/Android ControlTalk cables.
The 4-Hour Chef by Timothy Ferris (Hardcover)
The 2013 Literary Pin-Up Calendar

The auction has more detailed writeups of this stuff, but you get the idea. It’s a sweet batch of stuff lovingly compiled by an awesome woman.

Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty signed by the Blizzard development team: Classic space strategy. You know the drill–it’s Starcraft 2 with its expansive universe, online multiplayer and rich community, but with a box signed by everyone responsible for making this game awesome. If you’re a fan of the franchise, treat yourself to an autographed copy and unlimited bragging rights.

Ultimate History of Video Games & Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures: These two books were chosen by Game of Books creator Aaron Stanton as his favorite books on video games. The Ultimate History of Video Games by Steven L. Kent is a fascinating look inside the video game industry that starts with Pong and runs all the way through the current game industry. Aaron says, “For a time, a good 50% of all my most amusing game-related anecdotes came from this one book. I’ve read it several times.”

The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventure Games by Kurt Kalata is a reference tome for all games texty and adventuresome. It has interviews with the developers and concise illustrated writeups of a ton of graphic adventure games like Sam & Max, Maniac Mansion, King’s Quest, Leisure Suit Larry and, of course, Zork. This is more of a book for browsing instead of reading cover-to-cover, but it’s chock full of interesting stuff about classic, old-school games.

  • Auction: Custom Playing Card Deck Designed by Shane Tyree

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This is a great offer, guys.  Shane Tyree is the artist that brought us Albino Dragon’s Call of Cthulu deck and the Name of the Wind deck. His work can also be found in products from Fantasy Flight Games, Alderac Entertainment Group, Catalyst Game Labs, Wizards of the Coast and more.

Shane is offering up something a really cool to the highest bidder. Shane will draw a unique playing card deck, including custom court cards and card back, for the winner of this auction. The cards will be created digitally, and manufactured through Palaimon cards. Shane will incorporate your feedback into their design, making this a unique piece of functional artwork. If you play cards, collect them, or know someone who does, this would be a great keepsake.

It’s only for individual purposes, so it won’t be distributed commercially.  You should probably go bid on it while you still can.

(P.S. If you’re as much of a fan of Shane’s work as I am, I’m guessing you’ll be excited to hear that he’s doing another Cthulhu-themed kickstarter: Call Of Cuthulu: The Writhing Dark. Not only will there be a new deck of playing cards, but he’s doing a set of Tarot cards too. I heard a rumor that a certain beardy fantasy author will be appearing as the Emperor in that deck…

If you are interested, be warned, there’s just four days left to his kickstarter.)

* * *

Okay, that’s it for now.

This is shaping up to be a pretty awesome year for Worldbuilders, guys.  I hope you’re as excited as I am.

To be eligible to win any of the cool books and prizes in the lottery, head over to our Team Heifer page and donate.

Remember, you can see everything we’ve got in the lottery so far over at the Lottery Library, and hear about on what’s going on in Worldbuilders HQ on the Worldbuilders website.

If you want to watch these auctions and more, keep an eye on our eBay seller page.  We post new auctions every Thursday so there’ll be something new for you soon…

Posted in Worldbuilders 2013 | By Pat10 Responses
Published: December 3, 2013

Signed Books from Subterranean Press

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Subterranean Press was the first publisher to ever sponsor Worldbuilders. They make some damnfine books, then donate them to Worldbuilders so we can share the wealth among the geek community and help raise money for Heifer International.

chicken 2

Simply said, Subterranean Press produces some of the most beautiful books in Sci-Fi and fantasy. Special, limited edition books, carefully constructed and printed on acid-free paper. Books that are built to last hundreds of years.

If they didn’t do good work, I wouldn’t let them publish The Adventures of The Princess and Mr Whiffe.

This year they’ve continued their fine tradition of sending along hundreds of signed books. That means you have a chance to win these books and many others simply by donating $10 or more directly to Heifer International on our Team Heifer page.

  • 20 signed, numbered copies of The Mallet of Loving Correction by John Scalzi.

Mallet-Correction

Scalzi runs what I consider to be the most intelligent, well-informed, and articulate blog in the whole of the interweb. His topics range from funny fluff pieces, to cutting satire, to vicious excoriations of political stupidity.

Honestly? When I want to know what’s really going on with a big news item I check to see if Scalzi has written about it, because I trust his no-bullshit opinion more than 95% of what’s considered journalism these days.

This is a great collection. I own several copies, and I’ll be giving them away as Christmas presents. All but one, of course, that one is my precious.

“Scalzi is thoughtful, witty, and occasionally profane, and he pulls no punches. It’s an impressive feat that so many of these essays retain such liveliness despite the passage of time and their movement to a book form sans links and reader comments. This book is probably only a must-buy for the Scalzi über-fan, but it is an entertaining and thought-provoking read.” – Laura Tarwater Scharp, City Book Review

  • 20 signed, numbered copies copies of The Night Boat by Robert McCammon.

NightBoat

This one is particularly special as it is completely sold out. If you don’t already have this book, this lottery is pretty much the only way you can get it.

“The Night Boat is a fine piece of horror fiction in more ways than are immediately obvious. It is easy to see how McCammon so quickly became established as one of the finer horror writers working in the 1980s.” – Terry Weyna, Fantasy Literature

Tales of Majipoor

“These are simply tales of Majipoor and of people making their way in that world, in large events or small. But one of the joys of them is the unforced flow of the writing, the constant awareness that Silverberg is master both of his method and his material. They are a pleasure to read.” – Duncan Lunan, SF2 Concatination

Impossible_Monsters

This cover gave me the heebie jeebies.

Oh, and the editor, Kasey Lansdale? That’s the country singer. Yeah. Apparently she’s also an author, songwriter, actress, producer…  Basically, she does everything and probably has some sort of superpowers that she hasn’t revealed to mankind.

“Eschewing romantic vampires and shambling zombies, this collection presents monsters that do not merely kill, but suddenly and incomprehensibly consume, destroy, and reduce their victims to mere bones… Readers who stay up late wondering if there really is something out there will find these stories to be perfect nightmare fodder.” –  Publishers Weekly

  • 15 copies of Five Autobiographies and a Fiction by Lucius Shepard.

FiveAutobios

“Nebula winner Shepard (Life During Wartime) often steers his fiction toward faraway shores, but the bulk of this collection directly targets the American heartland. A painfully confessional introduction sets the stage for five ‘autobiographies’—might-have-been stories exploring facets of the author’s personal journey… This honestly titled collection deals well and satisfyingly with deep truths.” – Publishers Weekly

AmityvilleHorrible

“Fun, spooky and sexy at times, Amityville Horrible is a great addition to this much beloved series. With all the things that make Armstrong one of my favorite authors, it has softened the blow of the series coming to an end for me. Here’s hoping we’ll see lots more of these novellas.” – Vampire Book Club

  • 20 signed, numbered copies of The Last Full Measure by Jack Campbell.

LastFullMeasure

“I overall enjoyed the book and declare it a solid piece of fiction. Mr. Campbell is certainly a seasoned entertainer and on that count he excelled.” – John Guenther, SF Book Revu

  • 20 signed, numbered copies of Jewels in the Dust by Peter Crowther.

JewelsintheDust

“Crowther (Forever Twilight) unearths intelligence and compassion in the crawlspaces of the human heart with these atmospheric and emotionally intensive excursions between reality and fantasy. Versatility of theme and palpable mood breathe life in these modern myths of transformation and revelation. Genre staples (time travel, ghosts, fairies) are anchored in—and enlivened by—scenes of everyday people struggling to live and love and dream.” – Publishers Weekly

  • 20 signed, numbered copies of Baba Yaga’s Daughter and Other Stories of the Old Races by C.E. Murphy.

BabaYagasDaughter

“In this strong collection of 11 short stories, a mixture of reprints and originals, Murphy (Raven Calls) returns to the setting of her Negotiator trilogy…. Ranging from vignettes to novellas, these offerings grant glimpses of a much larger world, fleshing out its history and pleasing series fans.” – Publishers Weekly

  • 18 sets of Gentleman Junkie and The Deadly Streets by Harlan Ellison.

The Deadly Streets and Gentleman Junkie

Here we have two collections of short stories by Harlan Ellison, bundled together. Because really, you want to have both, and we want to make that happen.

“Ellison’s prose remains satisfyingly sharp and his insights into the fears and longings that drive his characters are even sharper and more satisfying.” – Publishers Weekly

  • Auction: Every Book  Subterranean Press Published in 2013

IMG_2888

This collection features one of every title published by Subterranean Press during 2013.

There are over 40 books included here, and over half of them are signed, limited editions. Many are numbered, slipcased, or out-of-print and nearly impossible to find anywhere else.

For those of you who don’t want to give yourselves eyestrain, this auction includes everything we mentioned above, plus more than 30 others: books by Tad Williams, Garth Nix, Kage Baker, Jim Butcher, Ray Bradbury, and Robin Hobb….

If you look at the auction description on ebay, you’ll note that it contains 38 books. This is because 2013 isn’t over yet. The auction winner will get the remaining 7 books in a separate shipment in January. And we’ll pay that shipping out of the goodness of our hearts.

That shipment will  include books from authors like Catherine Valente, Daniel Abraham, and… well… me. Patrick Rothfuss.

Let me make it clear, folks, just the cover price of these books is upwards to 3000 dollars. Some of these books are worth hundreds of bucks by themselves, and that was *before* they went out of print.

The full list of books, and more pictures, are all available in the auction description.

If you want the chance to own all of these gorgeous titles, you’d better head over here and bid.

* * *

There you go, folks, over 200 beautiful books, and all you have to do to get a chance to win is head over to our Team Heifer page and donate.

Remember, you can see everything we’ve got in this blog in detail over at the Lottery Library, and be sure to keep an eye on our eBay seller page, as we’ll be posting new auctions every Thursday.

Happy donating…

pat

Posted in Subterranean Press, Worldbuilders 2013 | By Pat18 Responses
Published: December 3, 2013

Worldbuilders 2013

It’s that time of year again, folks. Time to make the world a better place while winning fabulous prizes.

Worldbuilders-Logo_Web_Smaller

(Oooo, shiny new logo…)

Heifer International is my favorite charity. It helps people raise themselves up out of poverty and starvation. Heifer promotes education, sustainable agriculture, and local industry all over the world.

They don’t just keep kids from starving, they make it so families can take care of themselves. They give goats, sheep, and chickens to families so their children have milk to drink, warm clothes to wear, and eggs to eat.

goat 4

(Are you ready? I’m so ready. Let’s do it.)

We’ve changed things a bit from previous years.  We’re streamlining and making adjustments, which means we might have a glitch or two along the way. Think of this as Worldbuilders 2013 – Beta.  Tweaks will be made as needed….

You’ve got three different options for donating.

Option 1: The Lottery.

This is the option most of you will want. It’s quick and easy and tax deductible.

You just hop directly over to the page I’ve set up on Team Heifer, and donate.

When you donate on that page, two things happen.

1. You’ll move us closer to our stretch goals (the first few are shown below).

2. You’ll be entered in the lottery.

After the fundraiser is over, we’ll have a random drawing for all the swag that’s been donated. Thousands of books, comics, games, and other cool miscellany.

For every 10 bucks you donate on our Team Heifer page, your name will get entered into our drawing. If you donate thirty bucks, your name goes in three times. Donate enough for a goat, ($120) and your name goes in 12 times.

What’s in the lottery? A lot. We have a ton of stuff this year. So much that if I showed it to you all at once, its combined awesome would cook your brain like a toad thrown into the sun.

So for everyone’s safety, we’ll be posting up a new blog every couple of days.

As a new feature this year, you can see *all* the books that have been added to the Lottery so far on our snazzy new Lottery Library page.

Or you can see the individual blogs here:

Last year, we banded together to raise more than $400,000 for Heifer International. It was a stunning display of generosity and goodwill.

This year I’m hoping we can do even better.

To encourage people to donate, we have some stretch goals. Even better, these are going to be fun things that awesome people will do to support the fundraiser.  There will be music videos, live writing streams, and maybe even some co-written erotic fiction…

I’ll go into more detail about some of these stretch goals as they get closer.  I’ve blogged a bit about the one’s we’ve passed over here…

Here’s a cool new graphic we have to display stretch goals as we approach and hit them, and the list of the ones coming up.

Unlocked stretch goals:

$25,000 Peter V. Brett shaves Myke Cole’s head!
$50,000 Paul & Storm re-tool the lyrics for “Write Like the Wind” to fit another slow-writing fantasy author you may have heard of…
$75,000 Jim Hines does a very special, and probably very disturbing, Poser cover parodyparody.
$100,000 Brandon Sanderson will live-stream writing a story, so you can see him work his magic.
$125,000 The Doubleclicks perform the classic piece, Meownlight Sonata, on cat keyboards.
$150,000 Mary Robinette Kowal will write and read her Name of the Wind erotica fan fiction, entitled “The Wind Comes”.
$175,000 Vi Hart will write and perform music based on lyrics written by Pat Rothfuss, entitled “Knackerman.”
$200,000 Team Unicorn will pie each other in the face.
$225,000 Patrick Rothfuss will reveal his first piece of fan fiction he ever wrote: lyrics to Terry Pratchett’s “A Wizard’s Staff Has a Knob on the End” [Coming soon!]
$250,000 Peter Orullian will perform a heavy metal version of Joss Whedon’s “Ballad of Serenity” theme with lyrics retooled for Worldbuilders.
$275,000 Trey Ratcliff, internationally renowned photographer, will take an “ill-advised” bathroom selfie.
$300,000 Scott Lynch & Elizabeth Bear will give a drunken review of the second Hobbit film.
$325,000 John Scalzi will perform “But Not Tonight” on either ukulele or tenor guitar.
$350,000 Hank Green will seduce a particularly nice-looking tree.
$375,000 Patrick Rothfuss will team up with Mary Robinette Kowal to read the NOTW erotica she wrote. [Coming soon!]
$400,000 Sandeep Parikh will drink Capri Sun while doing a handstand with other members of The Guild. [Coming soon!]
$425,000 Bradley P. Beaulieu will read an excerpt from The Hobbit while enjoying the Wisconsin weather. [Coming soon!]
$433,420 Molly Lewis will perform The Greatest Adventure on various silly instruments.
$475,000 Pat Rothfuss and Amber Benson will write urban fantasy erotica together. [Coming soon!]
$500,000 Neil Gaiman will read you Green Eggs and Ham.
$525,000 Pat will be drawn into a Munchkin Card and a strip of Dork Tower by John Kovalic.
$575,000 Brian Brushwood will teach Pat how to breathe fire. [Coming soon!]
$600,000 Nate Taylor will draw a new map of the Four Corners. [Coming soon!]
$625,000 Pat Rothfuss will livestream a viewing of the first Hobbit movie. [Coming soon!]

Upcoming stretch goals include:

$675,000 Pat Rothfuss and Brett will reissue the College Survival Guide.
$700,000 Pat Rothfuss and Amber Benson will record themselves reading their erotic urban fantasy fiction.

More stretch goals will be added all the time, we’ll be listing them here and on the Worldbuilders website under news.

Note: Worldbuilders ends February 4, 2014 at 11:59 pm PST. To be eligible for the lottery, you must have made your donation on the Team Heifer Page before then.

Option 2: The Sure Thing.

For those of you who aren’t that interested in the lottery, we have some stuff you can just buy from our online store.

Our store, lovingly named The Tinker’s Packs, has t-shirts, posters, and other coolness available for purchase.

We also have foreign editions of many titles, donated and signed by the authors. These are hard to find if you live in the US.

All proceeds go to Worldbuilders, of course.

Additionally, this year we’ve published two calendars. One of them is Heifer International themed, telling the stories of people who have been affected by Heifer’s work.

2014 WB-HI Calendar - Cover

We’ve also got a fantasy-themed calendar, with fabulous authors such as Christopher Paolini, Cassandra Claire, Tad Williams, and many others.

Back Cover

(Click to embiggen)

There are more pictures from both calendars in The Tinker’s Packs.

We’ll be adding new items to the store throughout the fundraiser, so keep an eye on the blog. If you’re worried you might miss some of the coolness, you can follow the Tinker’s Packs on Twitter and Facebook. We’ll post updates there whenever something new happens.

Option 3: Auctions.

Sometimes we get donations that are really cool…. but they’re only cool for for a select group of people. Some people would squee with delight at winning a portal gun, but other people, (sad, unhappy people) have never played portal, and just don’t care.

The same thing is true with action figures, games, musical instruments, manuscripts, or other collectables.

So we put those things up for auction.

We have professionals willing to read and critique your manuscripts. We have signed art and rare books. We have the chance to win cameo appearances in comics and get your name into upcoming books.

We auction these things off as well.

This year all of our auctions will be launching on Thursday evening, running for ten days, then ending the following Sunday.

There might be a few late additions here and there, but we’ll be working hard to stick to this schedule so everyone will have plenty of time to see what’s up for sale.

All our current auctions are visible over on the Worldbuilders eBay page.

A Few Changes This Year

For one thing, we have a whole new Website. We’ve got a bunch of cool new things there.

Worldbuilders also has a Facebook page and a Twitter account for those of you who are into that sort of thing.

But one of the coolest things we have is the ability to look at *all* the books that are currently in the worldbuilders lottery library.

A Plea For Sanity

Lastly, I’d like to ask everyone to please read the instructions/directions carefully before they donate.

I know you’re excited. I’m excited too. We’re going to raise some money, make the world a better place, and end up with big warm fuzzy feelings.

But the more emails we all get about missing addresses, wrong sizes, or forgotten personalization requests, the less time we’re spending on the fundraiser, getting things up, and getting things out. You don’t want that, do you?

I’m sure you don’t. And I’m sure that you’ll read the instructions carefully.

If your question isn’t answered here, you could check out our handy FAQ.

If you have a question about The Tinker’s Packs, you can e-mail the folks there at paperback.contest@gmail.com.

If you’d like to donate something to Worldbuilders, or help us spread the word, you can drop us a line at donations@worldbuilders.com.

All right folks. Are you ready? I’m so ready.

Let’s do this thing.

pat

P.S. Just in case you missed it, here’s one more link to our Team Heifer donation page.

Posted in Worldbuilders 2013 | By Pat23 Responses
Published: November 29, 2013

A Sale That Happens to be on Black Friday.

Let me be honest with you. I kinda hate the thought of having a Black Friday sale. It strikes me as a desperate attempt to be trendy and timely.

And as we all know, I am neither of those things.

But we were *already* planning on putting up our signed books for November. And since last month’s books sold out in about two hours, we were going to put up a new piece of Kingkiller jewelry we have from Badali, too. But we realized we might sell out of *those* pretty quickly too….

So we decided to launch a few other things we’ve been thinking about for months, because honestly, with all the donations coming in for this year’s Worldbuilders fundraiser, we need the shelf space.

And then we had so much momentum going, we decided to bundle a few things together at a discount, and put a few things on sale….

If you scroll down you’ll see a lot of details, but not everything.

If you want to see everything we have going on peek over here on The Tinker’s Packs.

And remember, all proceeds from these sales go to charity, so there’s a free warm fuzzy with every order.

*     *     *

Masks Books

Here’s the books, being lovingly packaged by the author himself after signing them.

This is the first book in a new series. They’re first edition too. That’s a lot of firsts….

You can order one here. Be aware, we’ve only got ten, so they’re going to go quickly….

  • Signed copies of Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman.

Occasionally I like to help out a new authors by spreading the word about their books.

With that in mind, I’d like to offer up some signed books from a plucky up-and-comer called Neil Gaiman.

Fortuneately Milk Blog

I know you probably haven’t heard of him before. But personally? I think this kid is going places.

Again, supplies are limited, so if you want one, you should probably do it quickly.

  • Signed, limited-edition copies of The Dark of Deep Below by Patrick Rothfuss.

And finally from Subterranean Press:

20131129_033122

While it might not be the Patrick Rothfuss sequel you’re really dying for. It is a Rothfuss sequel book that you can actually buy right now.

Subterranean Press sent us 10 copies of the just-released second Princess and Mr. Whiffle book. We’ve got five of the hardcover trades, and five of the special numbered editions. (There’s only 2000 of those total. And they include extras that aren’t in the trade version.)

You can grab them from the Tinker’s Packs. Or, if they’ve already sold out, (or if you don’t want to pay extra) you can order copies right from Subterranean Press.

(And if you haven’t read the first book, we’ve got that on sale for a couple days too.)

  • Mystery Book Bundles from Prime.

Prime-Mystery-Bundle

The lovely folks at Prime have sent us a lot of books over this last year. A ton of books. Hundreds. So many books that we’re having trouble finding places to put them.

We’ve got novels and anthologies and collections. We’ve got books by authors like Philip K. Dick and Elizabeth Bear. We’ve got anthologies featuring greats like Neil Gaiman, George Martin, Holly Black, Cherie Priest, and Ursula K. LeGuin….

But here’s the problem, with our main fundraiser just around the corner, more books keep piling in, and we’re running out of space.

So we’re going to try something new. Mixed book bundles.

We’re going to package up a bunch of these lovely Prime books, then sell them to you at a huge discount.

If you buy a $30 bundle, it will contain over $150 of books.

The $50 bundle will have over $300 of books.

What’s more, none of the books will show up in both bundles. So if you buy both, you won’t get any duplicates.

We’re not guaranteeing more than 50 of these bundles, so if you want one, you might want to jump on them fast.

  • Talent Pipe Earrings

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The talent pipe jewelry Badali makes for us has always been one of the most popular items in our store.

But now, we’re offering them in another style – earrings.

The staff of The Tinker’s Packs have been getting questions about these for years, but now we officially have them.

Here’s the thing. We might sell out of this item. But if we do, you can just hop over and buy them from Badali directly.  And, since the fundraiser starts on Monday, they’re having their annual drive which donates 10% of your order directly to Worldbuilders.

The coupon codes will be good from December 2nd through February 1st.
  • US Customers – WBLDUSA13

US customers get free USPS Priority Shipping and 10% of your order will be donated to Worldbuilders.

  • International Customers – WBLDINT13

International orders get $10.00 off shipping and 10% of your order will be donated to Worldbuilders.

Note: This code is good for anything in Badali’s entire store, not just mine, so as soon as Monday hits, you can do a bunch of holiday shopping, save money on shipping, and know that money is being kicked toward a good cause, too.

*     *     *

So there you are. Mind you, those aren’t the only deals we have going. We have other things on sale or bundled into groups as a discount.

For example, we’re doing two calendars this year, and they’re already bundled together so that if you buy two or three, you’ll save a chunk of change.

Calendar-2-for

If you’d like to see *all* the new items, discounted bundles, and sale items we put up today. You can find them here.

Thanks for being awesome everyone,

pat

P.S. If you’d like to tuned to future Tinker’s Packs shenanigans you can follow them on Twitter and Facebook.  They do cool promotions on there that I don’t mention here on the blog.

Posted in recommendations, The Tinker's Packs, Things I Like, Worldbuilders | By Pat29 Responses

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