In the last two days, Worldbuilders has raised more than $100,000. Bringing this year’s fundraiser total to over $1,163,000.
This is delightful news, and as we currently have someone matching all donations, it means a net gain of over $200,000 for Heifer International.
Even better, we still have around $100,000 dollars of matching money available to us, but fair warning, there’s only a few days left to take advantage of it.
To celebrate our continued success, I’m putting some books from my personal collection into our prize lottery. What’s more, I’m making a bit of an announcement about our final stretch goal.
Actually, that’s me engaging in Midwestern understatement. Let me re-phrase. I’m going to make a really big announcement. This is something I’ve been dreaming about for years. If Worldbuilders manages to hit $1,225,000 by Friday the 18th, using up *all* the matching donations we’ve been offered, I’m going to pull the trigger and bring this dream to life.
It’s a musical anthology based on my books. It will feature songs *about* my world, and *from* my world.
(Art for this CD mockup courtesy of Melarune.)
I’ve been thinking of calling it Tunes from Temerant.
I’ll talk about that more in just a moment. First let me show you the books I’m adding to the prize lottery.
* * *
- Pat’s Books:
(Click to Embiggen)
I could go on at some length about what I’ve pulled out of my bookish treasure horde here. Some of these are limited editions. Some of them are out of print. There’s a bunch of authors I’m sure you all know: George Martin, Neil Gaiman, Jenny Lawson… (And you can see for yourselves that I’ve thrown a full set of Buffy and Angel into the mix, as well as a bunch of Firefly. Because if you don’t own those, you really should.)
Bur rather than go into obsessive detail, I’m just going to mention that all the books on the top two shelves are signed and leave it at that. If you’re really curious, you can click on the picture, embiggen it, and peruse the spines to your heart’s content.
This shelf full of books brings the total prizes in the fundraiser lottery up to 2751, with a combined worth of over $102,000.
Since every 10 dollars you donate on our team page gets you a chance to win, this is what we refer to as a Prize Rich Environment. To prove this, let me offer up our handy-dandy probability calculation widget thinger. It’s stuffed full of good math provided by the fabulous Vi Hart. (Because when it comes to probabilities, I apparently can’t be trusted to math my way out of a wet paper sack.)
Go ahead and play with that a little bit and you’ll see what I mean. $20 will buy a family a flock of chickens. $120 will buy them a goat. $250 will get an entire town clean water.
But in addition to that, you have a great chance of winning lovely books and games, too.
And since we currently have matching donations in place, the effect of your donation will be doubled.
And there’s only 2 days left in the fundraiser.
And if you donate, you’ll move us toward our final Stretch Goal…
* * *
- Tunes from Temerant
I’m not saying the CD will look like this. But honestly? I wouldn’t mind if it looked like this….
(Credit for this beautiful art goes to: Michelle Tolo.)
If we hit $1,225,000 this year, Paul & Storm have agreed to help me produce an album. The album people have been asking me about for years.
You see, I love music, but have no musical talent of my own. But over these last several years, I’ve ended up making a lot of musical friends. Beyond that, I’ve come to realize that a lot of musicians out there are fans of my books.
So a couple weeks back, I sent out email and Paul and Storm did some asking around. And it seems like among our friends (and friends-of-friends) we know enough quality musicians to make this happen. I have secret lyrics and a world full of music. They have talent. It’s a match made in heaven.
(creepy, crazy-eyes heaven)
But I’ve held off so far because while a Temerant album would be cool, it would be another project. And I don’t need another project in my life right now. But if we hit this stretch goal, Paul and Storm are offering to step up and orchestrate this thing (heh). Which is about a billion times better than me doing it, as they’re the ones with all the musical production know-how and networking connections. The only thing I bring to this project is enthusiasm and beard. (Which, in the name of my Jethro Tull cover band, by the way.)
So. If this is something you’d like to see happen, be aware that the fundraiser ends on Friday night. So you might want to donate sooner rather than later…
And since we’re getting down to our final hours, if you could help us spread the word, it would be an amazing help.
Later Space Cowboys….
pat
P.S. Also, if you’re a music-doer who might be interested in participating in the project. You could drop us an e-mail with your bona-fides over here: [email protected]
P.P.S. If you’re just here because of the news about Tunes from Temerant news, and don’t know anything about Worldbuilders, you can get all the details on our website here.
58 Comments
I need this album.
We all need this album.
Truer words are not often said.
The album! I am one of the irritating ones who always asks about The Album whenever you have Q&A sessions/Ask Me Anythings, because in my mind it is just the ultimate companion piece to your world. I’m so thrilled, and hope we get there!
Also, can I be in your Jethro Tull cover band?
I foresee this last stretch goal being hit before the day is over.
That’s a nice thought. But I’m not quite that optimistic….
I’ve heard you sing. Saying you have no musical talent of your own is a filthy, filthy lie.
Shouldn’t that be a “filky, filky lie?”
I like that you are adding stretch goals but I’m still thinking about the 1.1 million one we just reached. I’m not sure what I think about you giving someone the ability to “redecorate and organize Pat’s home office”, but I think you should have a box of the throwaways as a lottery prize. Your eliminated office stuff is sure to be a treasure trove for fans:)
There’s bound to be a few spare copper jots in that office. Right?
Any old sock found in your office will be fought over by us fans.
We could make a film out of it, all yelling “the sock is a sign” while holding our right sock over our heads… But i think this idea is already taken by some bunch of english guys.
If there is an album I may have to resort to selling my plasma. I must have it in my life.
So let’s say I donated last week because I was in a very good donating mood and I don’t have extra cash on me right now can I still be eligible to win these books or any other prizes?
Yes, as long as you didn’t unselect the option to be entered in the lottery when you donated, you are eligible to win these as well, they are just added to the pot of lottery prizes.
Yup. We won’t be doing the prize drawing until after the end of the fundraiser, and then we’ll have all of the prizes up for grabs for anyone who donated.
Wow, excellent news! Hopefully it’ll also be available to people in Europe, I wouldn’t want to miss on it, or to sell a kidney to import, or even worse, register on itunes.
Thank you for all you’re doing, Pat, you’re awesome!
Are those owlbears going in to the lottery along with the books? Or are they just soft and fluffy bookends?
And what about that mysterious corked ceramic vessel? Rothfustian knowledge potion?
This is too exciting to think about right now since I’m exhausted from today… But we’re at 1,142,724 as I’m typing this, at 22:02 hours German time. Can we do it? CAN we? *fans-face*
Thats awesome Patrick. I’ve been lurking this blog for far too long to not put in a post here yet, so please accept my donation towards more Fallout time :) And a 20.4% chance of winning something as a bonus is sweet :)
I’m so proud of the widget. The odds are *really* good this year….
And thanks so much for the donation.
We have to make this happen.
And if there isn’t a ten-minute sing-along version of Tinker Tanner as an accompanying video, that’s a real missed opportunity.
Its been a while since I’ve been as excited about something as this. It has to happen.
Heh. I think we broke the thermometer. Showing 450000 now…
So basically Pat is gonna become patron to a bunch of artists? Awesome.
Wooow – what an awesome project!
I’m a (medieval-fantasy-inspired) Folk-Musician myself for some years now, and – to be honest, I often thought about setting some of your texts to tunes…but never dared, because – well, as an artist myself, I really do respect the art of others.
I’m sooo looking forwart to this ^^
Beeing part of such an awesome project must be… a dream come true :)
Greetings from Germany, Tini
Well, now I have to donate
I wish I had more money, but I’ll give what I can spare and hope that other people will be able to donate more ^^
At times like this, I really wish that I could use words more effectively. The depth of my gratitude at seeing this whole project/team/community making the good in the world. And then, the fan-glorious Tunes project. I’ll just stop now, since there’s no chance I’ll ever express just how lovely this all is. Thank you.
It hurts! It hurts! I don’t have the thermometer to refresh every 5 minutes for an accurate count!
Not working for me either. Did we break it?
It’s fixed now :)
YAY!!!
The math widget doesn’t seem to be working.
Yes, I’m getting this error when I enter an amount: “m and n must be less than N”, and the probability goes to 100% (surely there aren’t that many prizes). I tried it both in Firefox on my laptop and in Safari on my Android phone, and get the same error.
It’s fixed now! Same thing that broke the thermometer had to be updated, thanks for pointing it out :)
Are the shelves also up for grabs? In the market for some shelves……
Are you sure? it looks like those shelves have a serious owlbear infestation problem
As a professional musician of well over 20 years of playing, the prospect of participating in a project like this would be mind-blowing. Super jealous and super happy to hear it!
Wait, I’m confused. Pat you said that you have “secret lyrics,” but that you wouldn’t be able to contribute to the music project save for your enthusiasm and beard lol. So does that mean your secret lyrics won’t be used in the songwriting process? Or that since they’re already written, you can hand them over and let them do their thing without you?
So the first thing I did after I read this was email about being a participating music-doer. I’ve been playing for almost 20 years, rarely professionally, but I’d love to be involved.
It kinda makes me sad that Pat is reaching into his beloved collection of books. We all know how much we treasure those, they are like pieces of ourselves. :/
I bet this is just an excuse for his book addiction, “oh no I gave away so many of my books and my shelves are bare, I guess I’ll have to get (a lot) more”
As a musician who has attempted to write Rothfuss based songs, I’m just going to leave these here and motion that if you guys need any artistic help, I would donate my time for free!
Jackass, Jackass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZCSwrLC5LY
Maple, Maypole – Waystone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M8g7JFYabg
Maple, Maypole – Bonfire
https://soundcloud.com/anna-phyllis-smith/maple-maypole-bonfire
LOVE YOU GUYS!
Can one donate limbs, various visceral parts, or soul fragments to make this happen? Whatever it takes to build this into your world!
I think you realize this, but it bears saying in case you don’t; your beard is a great addition to anything and everything. You, my friend, have a great beard.
I want to rearrange that bookshelf and put the copies of The Dirty Streets of Heaven together and the copies of The Emperor’s Soul together.
And Unfettered! The one copy of Tiger’s wife can be separated if it’s not signed.
https://soundcloud.com/isabella-souto/bloodless-the-song-of-the-wind please listen!
I know the album name isn’t exactly finalized, but I’m a little disappointed you missed an opportunity for an amazing portmanteau in ‘Temeranthems’. ;)
Wow. I don’t know whether to high five you or shake my head at you.
Bit of both?
Later Space Cowboys sounded sooooooooo Cowboy Bebop.
I’d love to hear the songs as you imagine them. I’m sure it won’t sound as I think, but that’s how it’s suppossed to be isn’t it?
Just as a note, if anyone works for a company that matches charitable donations, Worldbuilders qualifies (as far as I know) for matching donations. It does at my office, anyhow.
I just made my donation today and requested a matching donation. Sadly, it probably won’t be processed in time to help make the stretch goals by Friday night, but the money will still go to Worldbuilders!
will the album include the lyrics for the song about the jackass who wants to be an arcanist? I think that would draw a crowd
Well, Pat – I’ve been a long-time lurker and finally donated. Thanks for your dedication to the craft and to humanity as a whole.
I actually just got so overwhelmed with joy by this prospect that I teared up.
Vi Harts music to Knackerman Knackerman might have been my favorite stretch goal ever – this is very exciting news!
Ehm… sorry for disturbing your writting/leisure time or whatever but… what the hell happened with these?