So I’ve been traveling a lot lately.
(Witness the excellent Adem cosplay that happened in London.)
While that means I get to meet a lot of you in person, sign books, and make all manner of amusing tweets about my first time riding first class. It’s not exactly conducive to writing blog posts.
(A great Kvothe from Avilés in Spain.)
I’m back from Spain and London now, and PAX is right around the corner. After that, I’ll hopefully be able to catch up on a few posts I’ve been wanting to write for some time.
It occurred to me today that while I might not write a lot of blogs while I’m on the road, I tend to read more. And when I read, I tend to review the books on goodreads.
As you know if you’ve ever read my reviews, they’re mostly not reviews. They’re usually more of a little story about the book, mixed in with my rambling thoughts about storytelling, and my feelings about the book itself.
And no spoilers, of course. Because we’re civilized around these parts.
Once I stopped to think about it, I realized it was a little odd that I’d tell a story in a book review but I wouldn’t write about the experience on my own blog. So I figured I’d post the first part of a recent review up here today so you can see what I’m talking about.
* * *
I walked into the bookstore in a bit of a mood.
Wait, that’s my Midwestern nature talking. We tend to understate. The truth is I walked into the bookstore furious at the world. I can’t remember why. I am prone to dark moods, and when I’m in the middle of one, I tend to rumble through the world like an angry old-testament god.
I went directly to the Sci-Fi Fantasy section. That’s where I live for the most part. That’s where I go when the world gets to be too much for me.
I looked at the titles. I’d read about a quarter of them. I read a lot. But nothing looked particularly good. Nothing does when I’m in one of my moods.
A friendly bookseller walked over. “Can I help you find anything?” she asked.
“I want to read something good,” I said. “I’m tired of gritty depressing shit. I want a fun, light book that isn’t going to leave me wanting to put a gun in my mouth.”
I’m not hyperbolizing. That’s what I actually said. It wasn’t a nice thing to say, but I can be unpleasantly brusk at times.
The bookseller didn’t bat and eye. She pointed out a couple books, then asked how I felt about YA.
“I’ll read anything if it’s good,” I said.
Here’s the rest of the review if you’re interested.
* * *
In other news, I’ll be out in Seattle soon, making a nusiance of myself at PAX and PAX dev.
I’ve got a few scheduled events if you’re hoping to catch me there.
Thursday, August 28
5:15pm, PAX Dev, Stories of Game Design Panel, Grand III
Friday, August 29
Sometime after 6:30 I’ll be swinging by Gauntlet’s booth, which is in the South Lobby, to chat about the new game on their live stream, which will be up on PAX’s Twitch channel over here.
And I’ll be playing Gauntlet too. Of course.
8:30pm Late night at Benaroya Hall, featuring Triforce Quartet, The Doubleclicks, and Paul & Storm.- Benaroya Hall at 200 University St.
(I’m not performing at this, but I’m going to be doing a brief cameo appearance in the show. As well as perhaps heckling them good naturedly from backstage.)
Saturday, August 30
3:30-5:30, Signing at PAX, in the Paramount
Sunday, August 31
4-5, An Afternoon with Patrick Rothfuss – Main Theater (Benaroya Hall at 200 University St.)
I’ll be doing some Q&A, telling some stories, and reading various and sundry things.
This event will be streamed online, so if you’re near a computer around 4pm Pacific Time, you can see it over here, along with a bunch of other cool stuff that’ll be up throughout the con.
Monday, September 1
12:00 – 2:00, Signing at PAX, in the Paramount
I’ve got one signing event that isn’t at the convention. It’s on Monday night at a local indie bookstore.
7:00pm, Signing with The Oatmeal at Wit’s End Bookstore
1530 Grove St Suite A
Marysville, WA 98270
Call for Free Tickets: 360-386-8997
Facebook Event
Note that this is *just* a signing. I won’t be doing a reading and a Q&A as we won’t have the time or the space. But the Oatmeal will be there signing his books too, and you’ll be able to get copies of the Princess book as well.
* * *
In related news, we’re experimenting a bit by producing a Pinny Arcade pin. Our design is based off the talent pipes.
I don’t have a picture for you yet, but I’ll post one up here when I do.
We’ll be selling them at the Geek Chic booth because…. well…. Geek Chic is awesome.
(Even Oot knows that.)
As always, proceeds from this sort of thing go to support Worldbuilders.
If you’re interested in grabbing a pin, I’ll have some of them with me at the show. So you see me in the hall, you can offer me a trade for one. Or you can probably grab one for cash if you catch me at one of my signings.
Otherwise, you can hit the Geek Chic booth at SKY3. I’ll be lurking around there as well, lowering property values and engaging in general hooliganism.
Rest assured, if we have some pins left over after the convention, we’ll put them up in The Tinker’s Packs.
As some of you might remember from last year, PAX doesn’t have booksellers on site. That means if you’re going to want a copy of Name of the Wind or Wise Man’s Fear, you’ll have to bring your own.
Or… *Pat says in his best used car salesman voice* you can go around the corner to the Barnes and Noble that’s right next to the convention center, where they’ve agreed to stock a bunch of my books.
What’s more, when we called to see if they’d be willing to carry a bunch of extra copies of my books again, they once again offered to do it in conjunction with a Book Fair. So if people show up and buy any books with our Bookfair code (11423936), a portion of the proceeds will go to Worldbuilders.
And it’s not a tiny little piece of the money, either. B&N ends up cutting us a check for about 10% of all purchases made this way.
Just to reiterate: any books you buy with our Bookfair code (11423936) will raise money for Worldbuilders. The code is good from August 28th (today) to September 5th in stores.
Even better, the code works online too. So if you head over to Barnes and Noble’s online store and enter 11423936 during checkout from August 28th to September 10th (a full 5 days longer) a portion of proceeds will come to us from that sale, too.
So if you have some books you’ve been looking to pick up, this is a great chance to kill two birds with one stone…
See some of you soon….
pat