Category Archives: book two

Fanmail Q&A: Convention Adventures

Pat,

I know you just did some touring around. You hit a bunch of conventions in Indianapolis, Chicago, and Seattle…

Why don’t you tell us about your trips? Not a lot of us can make it to your events, but we’d love to hear some cool stories from the road…

What was you’re favorite part of your travels?

Joe.

*     *     *

Joe,

The truth is, I always mean to write about my conventions/readings/adventures when I get back from them. Because honestly, something interesting always happens.

(What happens in Austin, stays in Austin.)

The problem is, when I get back from these things, I’m exhausted. Plus the travel has usually put me behind on a bunch of other projects. So I spend a couple days answering e-mail and trying to get caught up with things. By the time I *am* caught up, the convention has usually been over for a month. Or two. Or ten.

In fact, when I was at Gencon, someone asked me a question similar to yours. Except they asked about the book tour I did last year. 21 events in 21 days, all over the country.

“You never wrote about it on the blog,” she said.

“Oh sure I did,” I said.

“A little,” she said. “But not much at all. And I should know. I just recently found your blog and read the whole thing.”

“Wow,” I said. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I twisted my ankle so I couldn’t go hiking. It took me about three weeks and I kinda I read it all. The baby ducks. Your Aslan Story. The  Gaiman-Day unit of coolness…

I thought about it for a second, and realized that while I had *planned* to write blogs about some of my road adventures, I’d probably never gotten around to it.

Alternately, sometimes I start writing a blog, and never finish it because other things come up. I have a blog titled: “why people kill themselves in hotel rooms” that I’ve been trying to finish for more than a year now….

“So what was your favorite part of the tour?” she asked.”What was cool?”

I thought about it for a bit. Then told her the truth: There were a lot of cool things that happened. I met a lot of lovely readers. I got hugs and cookies and whiskey and knives…

And a plush unicorn Pegasus kitten.

I did a midnight reading in San Fransisco for the people that couldn’t fit into my earlier reading. Much to everyone’s surprise, more than 300 people showed up despite the ridiculously late hour.

My first signing was over 600 people. So many that I couldn’t take a picture of them all at once. So many that they filled two levels of the bookstore. I got to read in the Library of Congress. I met people that actually squeed with delight.

I met someone who had my name tattooed on her arm…

…which is a level of devotion that is equal parts flattering and terrifying. Especially given that book two wasn’t even out yet.

I got to do a reading at the Library of Congress. People dressed up in costumes….

But honestly? My favorite part came right at the end of the tour, when I met up with Sarah and Oot right at the end of the tour in Boston. I hadn’t seen them in a long while, and I missed Oot terribly.

Oot was barely a year an a half old at that point, so me being away for three weeks was a big deal. I got to see him at various points in the tour, but it was only for an hour or an evening at a time. And as I’ve made clear on the blog, when I’m away from him for a long period of time, I start to lose my shit. Around day five I become a wretched weepy thing, unable to go out in public without embarrassing myself.

It was even worse back then. He was so young. I was worried he wouldn’t remember me. Worried that he’d be shy of me….

So the first morning after the tour was over, we hung out in the hotel. We cuddled a little, and when he got bored with that, I asked him if he wanted to make a pillow fort.

He did. So we made a fort using the ridiculous number of pillows that those posh hotels feel obliged to put on your bed.

To all you parents out there. If you’re not making pillow forts with your kids, you’re really missing out. You don’t need a lot of pillows. Three or four is plenty. In some ways, it can be better without a lot of pillows, because then you can make yourself *part* of the fort. If your kid isn’t a big cuddler, you can get some clandestine snuggling that way.

Sarah and my dad went out for breakfast. Oot and I didn’t. We stayed in the hotel room and continued to made forts.

I told Oot that he better be careful, because there was a creature called the Goonch that would nibble his feet if they were hidden under the pillows. Then I would sneak my hand under the pillow and tickle him.

It has been more than a year since I started that little game, and it still hasn’t gotten old. Not for either of us.

He had a few plush toys with him, and I thought that maybe they would try to break into the fort. Add some drama to the game.

But Oot thought that if they wanted to come in the fort, that was fine by him. That made me unreasonably proud. No pointless antagonism. No warmongering. He just wanted to hang out in his fort with his friends.

So it went for about two hours, until Sarah and my dad got back from breakfast.

That was my favorite part of my book tour….

[Editorial note: I just searched my computer for an hour, looking for the pictures I know I took of little Oot in his pillow fort. I can’t find them and it breaks my heart a little.

Instead, please accept this picture of comparable cuteness]

(Click to Embiggen the Cute.)

I know we’re all programmed to think our kids are cute, but seriously. Look at him.

And that hair. I can’t bring myself to cut it. He’s just too pretty. About 80% of the people who meet him think he’s a little girl because of it. But I love it. Plus  can’t help but feel that will probably be healthy for him in the long run. Maybe if folks think he’s a girl for another couple years he’ll be slower to absorb some of the gender bullshit that’s constantly fucking up our culture.

*     *     *

Anyway Joe, I hope that kinda answers your questions. For one, it’s not that I try to keep these stories secret, it’s just that I tend to be busy and forgetful.

For two, generally speaking, my favorite part of these adventures is coming home to my little boy.

Rest assured that I’ll be sharing at least one cool story from Gencon in the semi-near future. One that Scalzi has already mentioned on his blog.

In the meantime, here’s one cool thing that happened in Chicago.

I wore a tux:

Oot wore a tuxedo shirt. We were quite the dashing pair….

Later all,

pat

Also posted in conventions, emo bullshit, fan coolness, Fanmail Q + A, Oot, Surreal enthusiasm, Tales from the Con | By Pat60 Responses

A New Addition to the Family

So just a couple days ago, The Wise Man’s Fear came out in trade paperback.

(Cue the music from 2001.)

The new format looks even more monolith like than the hardcover. And in fact, there’s only a few differences between the two:

1. It’s cheaper.

2. It’s smaller.

3. We fixed a couple typos.

4. The front cover is slightly different. Now instead of saying, “New York Times Bestseller Patrick Rothfuss,” it says:

Which, I have to admit, makes me feel a little cool….

The last big difference is that this version has blurbs for The Wise Man’s Fear on the back.

(Click to embiggen.)

A lot of these quotes I hadn’t actually seen before. So that was pretty cool…

I got to actually hold my first copy a couple of days ago. They used the same nice paper as the hardcover, so the book still has a solid weight to it. A satisfying feel. But the way I feel holding this book is far from objective….

The cherry on top of the book release sundae was a four-color ad in the New York Times Review of Books.

The ad quotes from the extraordinarily flattering blog George Martin wrote a while back when he was talking about who he was going to nominate for the Hugos this year.

You’ll notice that this picture is not guest starring my thumb, which is usually the case. This is actually guest starring the thumb of Amanda, one of the assistants I mentioned in my last blog.

It’s odd to me that out of all of this, that one small thing is what strikes me as most odd about all of this: Her thumb.

You see, four years ago, my publisher took out an add in the New York Times to help promote the paperback release of The Name of the Wind. At that point in my life, I’d barely been published for a year. I was a complete fluffy puppy of a newbie author, and the fact that my book was being advertised threw me for such a loop that I wrote a blog about it called Following Diogenes.

Then I walked to the grocery store to buy a copy of the paper so I could see the add for myself.

Now, four years later, I’ve got another ad. This one is in color and features glowing praise from an author who is, if not the biggest name in fantasy today, is at least in the top three.

And today, instead of walking to the store myself, my assistant grabbed me a copy.

It’s not just my assistant, either. One of my *several* assistants. I am now a corporate entity. I can’t do my own taxes anymore. Today I was talking to a friend and when I stopped to count, I realized that I employ nine people. Ten if I count myself.

I mean, what the hell is up with that? What has happened to my life that I now employ myself? I actually write myself a paycheck.

In what world does that make fucking sense? Am I supposed to give myself performance reviews and shit? Should I give myself a stern talking to if I’m late to a meeting with myself? At some point in the future, if I get increasingly insubordinate, will I be forced to fire myself and bring in someone else to do my job?

I know I’m into The Meta and everything, but all of this seems recursive to the point of absurdity.

(Recursive Absurdity would be a good name for a band, by the way….)

What’s my point? Fuck. I don’t know. I don’t mean to imply that I’m not happy with the way my life is going. I know I’m very lucky. I’ve met with more success than I have any right to.

But on the other hand, for someone whose personal philosophy has always been to strive toward simplicity, I seem to be doing kind of a shit job of things.

Gech. I’m rambling. And this blog has gone from fun and informative to something bordering on existential angst. What can I do to bring it up out of a nosedive before the end?

Ah. Of course. I’ll focus on my favorite complication. Little Oot.

Quick story: A couple weeks ago, Oot was nursing after a nap.

Then he stopped nursing, hugged Sarah’s breast, and said, “This is my birthday Christmas boob!”

I swear I didn’t make that up.

Lastly, here’s a picture of Oot wearing a Jayne hat that a fan made for him. The picture is pretty old at this point, but it’s got cuteness in spades….

Rather cunning, don’t ya think?

pat

http://www.blackcoffeepress.net/shop/article_15/PREORDER-Already-Here%3A-Long-Poems-Matt-Bialer.html?shop_param=cid%3D1%26aid%3D15%26
Also posted in book covers, Diogenes, emo bullshit, Oot | By Pat52 Responses

Favorite Quotes….

So the other day someone asked me what my favorite quote was from The Wise Man’s Fear. I stopped to think about it. And thought.

And thought.

It took me a long while to think of any quotes at all from the book. Which seems odd to me, as I’ve spent the better part of the last year revising it.

For some reason, this isn’t a problem with The Name of the Wind. I have to know a hundred little quotable bits from that book. I can probably do a dozen off the top of my head right now.

There’s  the classic ones:

“It was the patient, cut-flower sound of a man who is waiting to die.”

“You may have heard of me.”

Kvothe obviously has a bunch of good lines, as he’s not only the protagonist, but the narrator for most of the book as well:

“The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind.”

“We are more than the parts that form us.”

“Metal rusts, music lasts forever.”

A few from Bast:

“We all become what we pretend to be.”

“You are not wise enough to fear me as I should be feared.”

“You do not know the first note of the music that moves me.”

A few from Elodin:

“Blue! Blue! Blue!”

“You lack the requisite spine and testicular fortitude to study under me.”

“Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.”

And from some of the supporting characters:

“Yes I am, isn’t it wonderful?”

“All stories are true.”

“A poet is a musician who can’t sing.”

I could go on and on….

Despite this, I have a hard time thinking of The Wise Man’s Fear in terms of quotes. I think it might be because I’ve been focusing on it in terms of plot, character development, story arcs, etc etc. Not in terms of tidy little quotable soundbites.

Or maybe it’s just that The Wise Man’s Fear isn’t as quotable is The Name of the Wind.

So I’m curious, do y’all have some favorite quotes from The Wise Man’s Fear?

And since I’m asking, I wouldn’t mind knowing what some of your favorite quotes are from The Name of the Wind, too….

If so, would you mind posting them in the comments below?

Curiously yours,

pat

P.S. Also, a little attribution wouldn’t hurt. By which I mean it would be nice if you mentioned which book your quote was from, and who exactly said it….

Posted in book two | By Pat553 Responses

Our Story Thus Far…..

Over the last few weeks, a lot of people have e-mailed me, asking if a summary of The Name of the Wind somewhere that they can use to refresh themselves before starting The Wise Man’s Fear.

I had no such thing. Nor did I really have any desire to write one. Not only do those brief narrative summaries always bore me to death, but I suck at summarizing my own book. My best advice, of course, is that if you really can’t remember what happened in book one, you should probably re-read it. Most of what’s in there is pretty important to the story, y’know. I put it all in there for a reason…

Still, a lot of people were asking. So I got together with Nathan Taylor and we did…

Well, just have a look. You can see for yourself what we did:

There you go folks. Share and Enjoy.

pat

Also posted in comics, cool things, Nathan Taylor Art | By Pat343 Responses

A taste of things to come…

I got an unexpected package in the mail the other day. It was a poster tube from my good friend and Nathan Taylor.

Nate is the guy who illustrated The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle. He’s also the one who did the Kvothe Online comic I put up on the blog a while back.

I thought he might have sent me some of the sketches for an upcoming project we’re working on. Or maybe the original art for the Kvothe Online comic.

But what I found inside was treasure of an entirely different sort.

You see, Nate is one of the few people that read The Name of the Wind long before it was ever in print. I met him when I was in grad school back in 2000.

Even rarer, Nate is one of the people who has role-played in my world. I’ve run a few games over the years.

He’s also one of the people I recently trusted to read a beta version of book two and give me some feedback on it.

That means Nate knows all kinds of things about the world that other people don’t. Nate knows all manner of secrets.

This is what he sent me:

When I unrolled the poster, I laughed. It was a big evil-mastermind kind of laugh. Because once again Nate has managed to ring the bell beyond all reasonable expectation. This is the perfect depiction of the Amyr. It fills me with a dark and terrible joy….

In other news, for those of you who would like a small, pretty-much spoiler-free peek at a piece of book two, you can find a small scene over here.

Share and Enjoy,

pat

Also posted in cool things, delicious fanarts, Nathan Taylor | By Pat105 Responses

Psssst. Hey you. Want to see something cool?

Okay. I’ve got some important news about the upcoming signing tour for The Wise Man’s Fear. (Especially the San Francisco event.)

But first I need to you take a look at this:

That’s a screenshot of the product details on the Amazon page for The Wise Man’s Fear.

It doesn’t look like a lot at first, but there’s a cool piece of info there.

No, I’m not referring to the mammoth listing of 1008 pages. (Which isn’t true, anyway. The book is actually a mere 992 pages.)

Neither am I attempting to draw your attention to the fact that it’s coming out on March 1st. (Which is pretty cool in its own right.)

No. I’m referring to that bit at the bottom. Where it points out that right now, the sales rank of The Wise Man’s Fear is #8.

That means out of all the books on Amazon right now, only seven other books are doing better than mine.

Here’s a picture of Amazon’s top 10 list:

Yeah! Suck it, Rumsfeld! And you up there! Yeah you, arty-looking book with the parasol! I’m coming for you next!

Okay. Enough of that. Now some serious business.

Today I was hoping to post up the FAQ that would answer (most) everyone’s questions about the upcoming tour.

Unfortunately, on Monday I was brought low by a bout of food poisoning. I won’t trouble you with the details. But suffice to say that I was brought very low. Very. VENI VIDI VOMI.

So today, I’m just going to give one urgent update and one strong piece of advice.

The Urgent Update:

If you’re planning on attending my reading in San Francisco on March 3rd, you’ll want to e-mail them right away and reserve your seat.

You need to drop an e-mail to [email protected] telling them you’d like to attend. Give your full name. They’ll bounce you back an e-mail confirming that you’ll be able to get inside, and that e-mail will effectively serve as your ticket to get in the door.

Now if you don’t really care about the reading and all you really want is to get your book signed, you don’t need to drop them an e-mail. In that case, you can just show up the address around 9:00 instead of 7:00. Borderlands bookstore will be there at the theater, selling books, and I’ll be there, signing them. No ticket required.

The Strong Piece of Advice:

A lot of people have e-mailed me, asking if there are any particular rules for attending my signings. They wonder if they need tickets to attend, or if they need to call ahead to the bookstores to make sure there will be X copies available for them when they show up.

Here’s the simple answer. I honestly don’t know. Each bookstore does things a little differently.

I do know three things though.

1. Generally speaking, it’s considered polite to buy a book at the place that’s hosting the event.

2. Generally speaking, bookstores love it when people pre-order books.

3. It’s probably safer to call the store and see what their plans are for the signing, rather than be caught by surprise the day of the event.

So here’s my advice.

If you go over here to the Tour Page, you’ll see I’ve added phone numbers for all the bookstores on the tour.

So, if you’re planning on driving three hours to come to my signing in City X, you might want to give them a ring and make sure you don’t need to reserve a seat first. Even if you know you’ll be able to get a seat, it might not hurt to call and see if they’ll reserve you a book.

That way, not only will you have a better idea what to expect when you show up to the bookstore. But depending on how many call to ask about the event, the bookstore will have a better idea of what to expect in terms of attendance.

You see? Everyone wins.

Just in case you missed it, here’s the link to the tour page with the phone numbers again.

Share and Enjoy,

pat

Also posted in appearances, FAQ | By Pat109 Responses

Home again, home again, jiggety jig…

I manged to get out of New York just before they got buried in snow. I’m glad for many reasons, but mostly because I really, really missed Oot on my trip. And as cool as it was to see my book in print after all these years, it was much cooler to see my baby after I’d been away from him for a week.

Much to my relief, he still recognized me. We hung out in the airport for a while, catching up on all the news. He poked at my shoes and said, “boots.” Then tugged up my pantleg, found my leg, and told me it was there. I was relieved.

Then we went for a walk. He informed me that the baggage carousel was a “vroom,” and I had to agree.

He also let me know that clocks are still the in thing. That’s reassuring to me, as I was worried the fashion might have changed while I was gone. But no, he continues to point whenever he sees one, announcing to everyone who cares to listen that there is a clock. I agree to this as well, even if that particular clock happens to be, say, a thermometer.

There is an art to conversation, you see, and part of that art is the ability to occasionally let a trifling difference of opinion slide by without making a federal case out of it.

So he says, “Clock,” and I think, Okay. Fair enough. I see your point.

“Clock,” I agree.

At some point Sarah asks me if I’m crying, and I tell her that no, in fact I’m weeping, thank you very much. Because weeping is slightly more dignified, as it’s derived from the Old English wepan shedding of tears, not the the sissy Old French crier which implies a wailing noise.

Oot says, “up,” and I pick him up. Then he pushes my nose and says, “beep.” It’s impossible to explain how cute this is. Then he pushes his own nose, which is exponentially cuter.

After dinner and more hanging out with Sarah and Oot, I slept from 9:00 PM until 4:00 AM. Then, after a little e-mail, I decided that getting a full eight hour’s rest was so much fun that I might as well do it again, so I went to bed and slept from 8:00 AM until 3:00 PM.

In brief, it’s good to be home.

I’m well aware that Wednesday’s picture of The Wise Man’s Fear rather resembled a grainy photo of bigfoot. I wasn’t being coy, it’s just that I was using the camera on my little netbook. Functional, but not elegant by any means….

Here’s what it really looks like.

Strangely enough, the book is just about the same size as The Name of the Wind, but The Wise Man’s Fear has 994 pages, compared to Name’s measly 662. From what I understand, they did this using some manner of tesseract. Or perhaps through the sacrifice of a black she-goat. Or thinner paper. Whatever the source technology, the result is that The Wise Man’s Fear is feels really solid. As if each revision I did somehow increased the gravitational density of the book.

Have I said that it’s pleasing to hold? It is. It very is.

Back in July when I was out at Comic Con, I did an interview with Shawn Speakman. (He’s the lovely gent that’s selling signed versions of The Wise Man’s Fear for those of you that can’t make it to a signing.)

Anyway, Shawn recently posted it up on Suvudu, so I thought I’d share it around for those of you who might be interested….

We chat about a bunch of things, and at the end of the video I answer a bunch of questions that readers sent in.

Honestly? I can’t remember a damn thing I said, as at that point in the convention I was in a fugue state brought about my overexposure to cool people, catgirls, and caffeine.

Share and enjoy….

pat

Also posted in Interviews, Oot, videos | By Pat58 Responses
  • RSS info

  • Visit Worldbuilders!

  • Our Store

  • Previous Posts

  • Archives



  • Bookmark this Blog!

    (IE and Firefox users only - Safari users, click Command-D)