Category Archives: cool things

Published: December 14, 2012

A Game of Books

Hey there everyone. I’d like to take a brief break from our Worldbuilders fundraiser to talk about… a fundraiser.

No! Wait! Don’t run off!

I’m well aware that this is insane behavior. But hear me out. You guys know how much I love Heifer International. I wouldn’t take time away from my own fundraiser to encourage you to put money somewhere else unless it was a good cause.

Here’s the thing. A couple months ago, I got an e-mail about something called The Game Of Books. It seemed like someone was putting together some sort of grand project, and he was a fan of my books and was wondering if I’d like to be involved. It was something about libraries… and reading… and games….

All things I like. But honestly? It was a long e-mail, and I didn’t have time to give it any serious attention, so I forwarded it to my lovely assistant Amanda with the instructions, “Figure out if this is bullshit or not.”

A couple weeks later, she comes back to me and says, “I’ve e-mailed with the guy in charge, and that Game of Books thing looks like it might be pretty cool.”

This really isn’t what I was expecting. And it’s not what I wanted to hear, either. Because I need another project like I need to be punched in the neck.

Still, Amanda is smart. I wouldn’t have hired her if she wasn’t smart. What’s more, she was a teacher. So she knows about education. And she likes my books, so she obviously has good taste as well.

“Fine,” I say, sitting down by the computer. “Show me.”

So she pulls up a website and starts to explain about the Book Genome Project. About how they’re going to take all this information and turn it into a card game that will help  people find books they like, and get kids reading, and….

“Wait.” I said. “I’ve seen this before. It’s bullshit. It said my book was about firefighting.” I’m irritated. I’ve got so many things to do, I can’t waste time with this…

(Click to Embiggen.)

But Amanda is enthusiastic. She points out that this guy has some heavy hitters on his side, like the American Library Association.

“Do we have a number for him?” I ask.

We do. So I dial him up. (His name’s Aaron Stanton, by the way.)

I plan on spending no more than ten minutes on the phone with this guy. I’m going to be polite, thank him for wanting to involve me with the project, and ask a few questions that will confirm my suspicions that this whole project is well-intentioned but ill-conceived bullshit.

Some of you may not know this, but in addition to being a writer, I was an English teacher for a goodly while. I’ve taken entire graduate classes that centered around the critical assessment of writing. I was a writing tutor for fifteen years. I used to *train* writing tutors.

What I’m saying is that I know how complicated interpreting a piece of text can be. It is something that computers suck at, because while computers are meticulous, they are in no way intelligent. I don’t care how good your algorithm is. A computer cannot grade a paper. It cannot give substantive editorial advice. It cannot understand a text.

So I call up Aaron, and I’m very up-front with him. I tell him my doubts in no uncertain terms. I call bullshit on seven distinct levels. I point out that a computer cannot tell the difference between the sentence “The tiger is ready to eat” and “The roast is ready to eat.”

We talked for two hours. And he sold me on the project.

Please believe me when I say, I am *not* an easy person to sell to….

What was the deal about my book being about fires and firefighting? Well, the truth is, my book is kinda about fires and firefighting. Fire is really a big deal in the first book, and it’s central to a lot of the key chapters and scenes. The scene where the Chandrian first show up. The demonstration that he gives in Hemme’s class. His sympathy duel. (Almost all of his sympathy, actually.) The fire in the Fishery. The blue fire at the wedding. The Draccus. All of Trebon….

There’s a lot of fire. Now that I think about it, one of the titles I had for the first book LONG ago was “Kindlings and Beginnings.”

And if you look past the fire and firefighting part, there’s actually some pretty impressive things there. Any algorithm that can correctly identify that my book is about “Secrets and Truthseeking” has something going for it.

Now don’t get me wrong, Aaron didn’t convince me that the whole thing was perfect and beautiful. As with most cutting edge stuff, it has the *potential* to be brilliant.

The big thing he’s interested in is helping people find books that *don’t* have hundreds of reviews on Amazon or Goodreads. He wants to level the playing field. He’s trying to create tools that will help people find books they’ll like even if they don’t have a ton of marketing money behind them, or even if the author is new. He wants to give libraries tools to keep people reading, and to encourage people to broaden their reading habits….

So… Yeah. This thing has my seal of approval. And I say that as someone that hated the idea at first.

So if you’re interested. If you like games, and books, and libraries. Why don’t you wander over to their kickstarter and watch the video they’ve put together.

There’s only 3 days left in the kickstarter, but since I posted about this on facebook two days ago, they’ve raised more than 40,000 dollars. I honestly think we have a chance to close the gap these last couple days if everyone helps spread the word….

And, as an added bonus, Aaron has agreed to answer any questions you might have.

So if there’s anything you’re curious about after watching the video and reading the description, feel free to post your questions down in the comments. He’ll swing by and give us a clue-in when he gets a chance…

pat

Also posted in calling on the legions | By Pat56 Responses
Published: December 3, 2012

Photo Contest Winners – Action

Yes. Seriously.

Those of you who know anything about me probably realize that I have a problem with deadlines.

The root of this difficulty is multifarious. But it can mostly be traced back to three elements in my personality.

1. A desire for perfection.

I get obsessive about doing everything *just right* when honestly, *mostly* right would be just fine in most cases.

2. Enthusiasm. 

I get excited about things, which leads me to pick up new projects, which means I constantly over-commit myself, which means I’m always too busy.

3. Stupidity.

This third one is something of a catch-all category, covering my vast array of ancillary character flaws.

Any one of these things can slow a person down, but when you get all three of them together. Well…. it can lead to embarrassing situations.

Like, for example, running a photo contest for your readers, and then taking more than a year to post the results.

There are many reasons for the delay.

Yes, I have been over-busy. (Working on my writing, my fundraiser, and spending time with my little boy.)

And yes, I did foolishly underestimate the number of entries I’d get for the contest. (Well over a thousand.)

And yes, when confronted with the task of judging the entries, my perfectionist tendencies screwed me hard. There were so many good ones.

Besides, so many of the pictures defied easy categorization. Look at this one for example:

Am I supposed to put this in the Kids category? In Costumes? In Clever References? Do I have to start a category just for things that are Unbelievably Frikking Cute?

So many of the pictures were so good. People went to really amazing lengths to take them. I wanted to do the perfect job arranging and judging them. Instead, I just ended up paralyzed with indecision.

But that stops today. I’ve waited too long, so I’m going to bull ahead and settle for *mostly* perfect. It’s time to start showing off the pictures and giving out the prizes.

So here we go, the best photos in the Action category:

*     *     *

There’s a lot of ways you can portray action in a photo.

You can show it directly:

Or indirectly:

We got some Hollywood action, too.

I like this one because honestly, if I could do magic. I would just use it to impress girls.

In the rules of the contest, I told people that they shouldn’t do anything dangerous, like, say, play with fire.

But did they listen?

No, they did not.

They really did not:

They absolutely did not listen to me:

We got some zombie action:

Pirate action:

And geek action:

We’ve got action in the streets:

At the amusement park:

And on top of things:

(He’s a parkour instructor. Don’t do this shit. Seriously.)

But while all of these are great (and believe me, there were dozens I had to leave out) in the end, I had to pick some winners.

Here they are:

Not only is this a great picture, but I’m a huge fan of Aikido. And if I’m mistaken and this isn’t Aikido, it’s still awesome.

This gains a spot not because it’s a scantily clad young woman, but because 1) I could never do this in a hundred years. 2) I actually do not understand the physics that are keeping her from crashing to the floor.

I love this one. We’ve all felt like this at some point, haven’t we?

And lastly:

(You should probably embiggen this one. It’s worth it.)

If you’re having trouble sussing out what’s going on here, let me break it down for you: Young girl + Playing + Red clothes + Swords in a Tree = ???

(Hint: The answer is “Awesome.”)

I’m all sorts of fond of this picture.

“But wait!” I hear you cry. “Pat. There’s no book in this picture! You clearly said in the rules that the book had to be in the picture!”

Don’t quibble. The book is there. You can just barely see it behind her leg….

See?

Here’s another:

And here we see the difference between girls and boys:

OSHA concerns aside, it looks like someone had a pretty great day at the park.

And as a bonus, they (and the rest of the winners) will be sent some Talent pipes as I described in the blog a while back.

It will will probably be a little while before I get to do another one of these. But they are coming. I just wanted to show y’all some proof that even if it takes a while, I do keep my promises.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for something cool, you should stay tuned to the blog, because we’re going to be posting up new items into the Worldbuilders lottery almost every day for the rest of the month. We’ll be adding new stuff to the Worldbuilders auction page too.

Stay tuned….

pat

Also posted in a few words you're probably going to have to look up, fan coolness, geeking out, Photo Contest 2011 | By Pat37 Responses
Published: October 8, 2012

Pre-Order of Unfettered

So, to cut right to the chase here, I’ve got a story coming out in an anthology next spring.

The anthology is called Unfettered. I’m in there with Terry Brooks, Brandon Sanderson, Tad Williams, Naomi Novik….

Well… a lot of cool people, basically. If you click to embiggen the cover, you can read the whole list of authors for yourself.

You can go pre-order copies over here.

My advice? If you want one of the limited-edition copies, signed by all the authors, you should probably hop over there sooner rather than later. They aren’t going to last long.

And to answer the question before anyone asks it in the comments below: Yes, my story is set in the Four Corners world.

It’s called, “How Old Holly Came To Be.”

If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you might actually remember me talking about how I wrote it in a single day about a year ago.

I’m excited about this anthology for a couple reasons.

First and most obviously, because there are a lot of really good writers in there. I’m actually really excited to read it.

Second, when you write kinda slowly, like I do. And you revise obsessively, like I do. And you write books that are really long, like I do. It means there are long gaps in between your published books. It’s been more than a year since I’ve had anything new to show y’all. So I’m glad this is coming out to help give y’all something new of mine to read….

Lastly, the proceeds from the book go to a good cause. You can read more about that over here if you want.

More news soon,

pat

Also posted in being awesome, book covers, upcoming publications | By Pat51 Responses
Published: September 21, 2012

Worldbuilders: Sounding the Advance

We’re about a month and a half away from the start of this year’s Worldbuilders, and I have to say, things are going pretty well so far.

Actually, we’re doing way better than that. Things are going amazingly well.

I wish I could take credit for it. But the truth is, it’s the newly assembled Worldbuilders team who deserves the praise.

You see, last year’s fundraiser was our biggest yet. We raised over 450,000 dollars for Heifer International.

The downside was that it swallowed three months of my life.

And I’m not saying it wasn’t worth it. Because it was. $450,000 is a lot of goats. It’s a lot of well-fed kids and a lot of families that are happier and healthier than they were before.

But it made me realize that I needed *way* more help to run things effectively. We’ve come a long way since 2008 when Sarah and I ran this whole thing out of our living room.

As a result, this year I’ve got a bunch of lovely, capable, and above all *organized* people helping out. They say things to me like, “You know, maybe you should start asking authors for donations before the fundraiser actually starts…”

Its because of them that things are moving along smoothly and according to schedule. Hell, they’re the only reason there is a schedule.

So, with no further ado, a few updates:

  • Alchemystic Pre-Order

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog explaining my mortal enemy Anton Strout’s generous offer to donate $1 to worldbuilders for every copy of his upcoming book that people pre-order. I also mentioned that his publisher, Penguin, generously offered to match that donation up to the first 1500 books.

However, after I posted the blog, I realized that while I had gone into some detail about how much I wished to destroy Anton, I hadn’t done a good job of explaining how generous he was actually being with his offer.

(I will admit, this was not my best threat ever.)

You see, authors make their money by earning a royalty off each book they sell. For paperback books, that royalty tends to be between 6% and 8% of the cover price.

Alchemystic has a cover price of 7.99. Let’s call it eight bucks even just to keep the math easy.

This means every copy of Anton’s book that’s pre-ordered, will earn him between 48 and 64 cents.

That means for every copy of his book that’s pre-ordered, Anton is potentially giving away twice as much money as he’s making on the sale.

Now I’m not asking that you rush out and pre-order his book in an attempt to bankrupt this man. My nemesis. My sworn enemy.

No. That would be petty.

What I’m asking you to do is this:

1. Realize that if you order Alchemystic before Sunday the 23rd, it will count as a pre-order.

2. Consider that if you pre-order the book, two dollars will be donated to Worldbuilders, and, by extension, Heifer International.

3. Look at this adorable picture of a little girl hugging a goat.

4. Do whatever comes naturally.

  • The 2013 Literary Pin-Up Calendar.

So far the calendar pre-order has been going very well.

For example, these are the pre-orders we received just on the first day.

As we promised, calendars will go out in the same order that they came in. So these will be the very first calendars we ship out when they come back from the printer.

If you’re interested in seeing one of the recently revealed pin-ups, you can head over to the pre-order page on the Tinker’s Packs and check it out there. (Hint: It’s Peter S. Beagle’s.)

You can read the blog Lee Moyer wrote about it over here.

Rest assured that we’ll be posting more images as they become available.

  • New Facebook Pages. 

We have recently created a Facebook page for our online store, The Tinker’s Packs.

And another page for Worldbuilders itself.

If you want to keep a close eye on the fundraiser and the store, following those pages might be a good idea. You’re less likely to miss updates that way. And some of the items we’ll be offering on the store, or putting up for auction in the fundraiser are going to be limited in number.

For example, last year someone donated 30 Jayne hats to the fundraiser and they sold out in less than a day. The same thing happened with the ceramic steins someone made for us.

If you tune in to the Facebook pages, odds are you’ll have a better chance of catching these sorts of things before they sell out.

That’s all for now, folks. More soon….

pat

[Edit: Added 1:00 PM]

  • Contact E-mails for Worldbuilders.

If you’d like to make a donation, you can drop us a line at donations (squiggly-at-thinger) worldbuilders.org

If you have a general question about the fundraiser, you can contact us at: Questions (squiggly-at-thinger) worldbuilders.org.

 

 

Also posted in calling on the legions, the business of writing, Things I didn't know about publishing, Worldbuilders 2012 | By Pat29 Responses
Published: September 10, 2012

The 2013 Fantasy Pin-up Calendar: Announcing our Authors

Last year, as some of you might remember, I accidentally published a calendar.

We did it as a fundraiser for Worldbuilders, and it fit in with our book-centered geekery pretty well because each month featured a pin-up based on a classic literary figure.

Like Mark Twain:

Lewis Carrol:

Or Nathanial Hawthorne:

At some point while working with the artist, Lee Moyer, we ended up discussing how it would be cool to do a similar sort of calendar, but with more modern authors.

Maybe even doing it with some of the more popular authors that write in the genres we love.

Maybe we could even do it with, say, some big-name fantasy authors.

So I made some phone calls. Lee did some sketches. And almost before we knew it, a bunch of amazingly generous fantasy authors had agreed to help us raise money for Worldbuilders.

Up until now we’ve kept a pretty tight lid on this project. But now it’s time to show off the cover and announce the authors that are involved.

Take a look:

You really need to click on that to see the bigger version. If only to read the names more clearly.

Seriously. Look at that. Gaiman AND Pratchett AND Harris AND Martin.

And Ray Bradbury. The man himself. He agreed to be a part of this not long before he passed away.

Really, there’s no names in there that aren’t big names. I’m solidly geeked about everyone involved.

This is all we’re showing off for now. Just a bit of a teaser. You’ll see some of the finished pin-ups in the weeks to come, and we won’t be shipping them out until November. But I wanted to let everyone know what was coming for a couple reasons….

  • A heads-up to retailers.

Do you run a bookstore or some other geek-friendly business? Do you love things that are awesome? Would you like to sell copies of the calendar and help make the world a better place?

If so, drop us an e-mail at:

questions [squiggly at sign] worldbuilders.org

We’ll make it happen.

  • A chance to pre-order.

You can pre-order your copy of the 2013 calendar right now if you like.

We’re even offering a special pre-order deal. If you order 2 or more calendars, you’ll get a $6.00 discount if you use coupon code PINMEUP.

Also, we’re shipping calendars out in the order they come in, so ordering early means you’ll get your calendar sooner.

But you need to remember that this is a pre-order.

Amanda’s Edit: Good news, everyone!  We’ve extended the pre-order to last through November 3rd, so you’ve got more time to get in your order!

Calendars won’t start shipping until early November.

Still, if you’re interested: you can head over right now and order copies from our online store: The Tinker’s Packs.

Later Space Cowboys,

pat

Also posted in being awesome, cool news, Worldbuilders 2012 | By Pat50 Responses
Published: August 28, 2012

The Curious Case of Anton Strout

Those of you who have been following my blog for a while know about my ongoing antagonistic relationship with Anton Strout.

He is the Moriarty to my Holmes. Though that might be overstating things a bit. Maybe he’s more like the Magneto to my….

No. I don’t want him being Magneto, either. He can be…. Emma Frost. He’s the Emma Frost to my Jean-Luc Picard.

Wait. Nevermind any of that. This analogy just isn’t working out.

Suffice to say that Anton and I have had a long-standing rivalry that I keep interesting by occasionally trying to have him killed.

Now, years into our comfortable relationship, Anton has thrown me a serious curveball.

You see, despite our ongoing relationship, Anton has always been cool about helping out with Worldbuilders, the charity I run every year to raise money for  Heifer International. Over the years, Anton has helped spread the word about Worldbuilders, donated signed books to the cause, and even auctioned off a read-and-critique in support of the charity.

But now he’s taken things to a whole new level.

You see, Anton has a new book coming out in about a month’s time. It’s called Alchemystic:

Now when someone has a new book coming out, there’s a bunch of stuff they can do to promote it. They can get bookmarks printed to give away at conventions. They can buy ad space in a magazine. They can do prizes or giveaways on their blog.

But a couple months ago, Anton approached me with a different sort of an idea.

The conversation went something like this:

Anton: So I’ve got a book coming out at the end of September….

Me: Curse you, Strout. Curse you and your vile ability to meet your deadlines….

Anton: It’s a new series. The Spellmason Chronicles.

Me: Yes. My spies have reported it to me. One of the main characters is a gargoyle, isn’t it?

Anton: I was thinking that for every copy of the book that gets pre-ordered. I’d donate a dollar to Worldbuilders.

Me: …

Anton: I talked to the PR people at Penguin, and they’ve said that for the first 1500 books, they’ll kick in a dollar, too.

Me: …

Anton: So… for the first 1500 books, we’ll donate 2 bucks for every pre-order.

Me: …

Anton: Are you still there?

Me: Are you serious?

Anton: Yeah. I was thinking about a bunch of different things I could do to promote the book, but this seemed like a better way to spend the money. This way, I get the word out about Alchemystic, but the money can do some good in people’s lives, too.

Me: Seriously?

Anton: And it will act as kind of a nice prologue to this year’s fundraiser too, remind people that Worldbuilders is coming up in a couple of months.

Me: …

It’s not often that I’m caught without something to say. But it does happen.

*     *     *

In all seriousness, folks. This is an unprecedentedly generous thing that Anton is offering to do. It says a lot about Penguin too, that they’re willing to back his play like this and offer matching money.

Not only does Worldbuilders stand to make some money here, but if this goes well, I hope other authors might consider doing something similar to promote their books in the future.

In my opinion, it would be really great if Anton sold a bunch of books. Like, a crazy amount of books. So many books that other publishers were startled by the number. So many books that folks took notice of this as a viable advertizing solution.

In my opinion, a donation to Worldbuilders beats the hell out of spending money on refrigerator magnets or ad space. And honestly, I’m ashamed that Anton figured that out before I did.

Curse you, Strout.

So. Today I called the local bookstore and ordered my copy of Alchemistic. That’s one copy.

Care to join me?

pat

[Edit – In response to a question asked in the comments below: Yes. The offer is also good for Kindle and Nook versions of the book.]

Also posted in calling on the legions, Warm Fuzzies, Worldbuilders 2012 | By Pat96 Responses
Published: August 24, 2012

Coolness….

So I’m up in the north woods of Wisconsin right now. One of the few places on earth without cell phone coverage or easy wifi access.

I was hoping to post up a different blog today containing some cool news, but due to the fact that I’m working on a netbook and using using borrowed wifi right now, I think I’m going to have to postpone that until Monday.

Instead, today I’m going to do two things:

1. Let y’all know that we have finally settled on a venue for my upcoming Reading and Signing in Chicago.

August 30, 2012 at 7PM
Reading, Q&A, and Signing
The BookMarket Bookstore
2651 Navy Blvd.
Glen Town Center, Glenview, Il 60026
Facebook Event

And before you start to quibble, I know that Glenview isn’t *technically* Chicago. But it’s pretty much Chicago.

Most importantly, it’s got enough space to comfortably hold everyone that might show up to the event. It’s no good me doing a reading and Q&A if half the people that show up have to stand out in the parking lot because the store can’t hold everyone…

So…. yeah. I’ll be there. You should be there too. I might read a new story nobody has ever heard before….

2. Here’s something awesome that a friend made me recently. I just had to share it.

(Click to Embiggen.)

How cool is that?

I have awesome friends….

Y’know. Over the years, a lot of people have given me a lot of cool stuff. Would y’all be interested in seeing it if I posted pictures up here on the blog? It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for some time….

If nothing else, posting pics of those things might help tide y’all over until I can finish wrangling the results of the photo contest. (Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about that.)

What do you think?

pat

Also posted in appearances | By Pat64 Responses

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