Category Archives: cosplay

A bit of blog, a bear, and a blush.

Hey there everybody,

I’m still reeling a bit from the response to the last blog. I’m surprised so many of you still show up here after all the long stretches of silence. I’m even more surprised at the storm of kind comments as well. Though I’ll be honest here: I’m not too surprised, as over the years y’all have proved that you are delightfully compassionate and empathetic human beings. Still, the degree to which you are supportive does still amaze me from time to time.

I’m going to be making an effort to blog more, even if they’re just little blogs. Too often I feel like I should only blog if I have something really big to say. But then invariably what happens is I start a big, emotionally engaging blog with a narrative arc and several scene breaks and pictures…. and I get pulled away by other more pressing concerns before I finish it. Then it just sits there….

I just checked. I have 300 partially drafted blogs here on wordpress. And while I’m guessing at least half of those are probably nothing more than a link to an interesting video or article I wanted to talk about. I know many of them are half-written musings on the nature of truth, book reviews, or the nearly-complete story of the time I got to ride the carousel with Neil Gaiman at House on the Rock.

I’ll probably try to finish up those blogs too, here and there. I’m trying to get better about finishing things lately, too.

For now, let me offer you something smaller. This is practice for me, writing a little blog of no particular import.

Here are a couple pictures from earlier this ear at Emerald City ComicCon.

The first was a truly astonishing Princess and Mr. Whiffle Cosplay. She gave me my very own Mr. Whiffle, too.

Now you might look at this picture and think to yourself, “Why is pat so angry despite the fact that he’s just had his mind blown open with delight by a reader showing his work this much love?”

The thing is, I’m not angry. I’m trying to imitate Mr. Wiffle’s expression.

(Added coolness? Mr. Whiffle’s eyes are actually adjustable so I can change his expression.)

Edit: People keep asking about the Princess and Mr. Whiffle. Here’s a link where you can buy it without paying ridiculous amounts on e-bay. (And the money goes to charity.)

Here we have a homebrew t-shirt from the same convention. It’s not *that* strange for me to see a fanmade shirt these days, but I will say, this is the first shirt I’ve seen along this particular theme. The art design was really impressive too, and deserves a better photograph than the one I have here. But honestly? I was a little blushy and flustered when I asked if I could take the picture… so this was the best I could do.

Thanks for being awesome guys, I’ll try to be more awesome in the future so you don’t get too far ahead of me.

Be good to each other,

pat

P.S. – Some of you were lamenting that you missed the Call to Adventure Kickstarter. So the folks at Brotherwise Games are doing a short pre-order period where you can grab the game and expansion at the kickstarter price AND still get the kickstarter exclusive cards, too.

You can pre-order over here, but only until Wednesday.

 

Also posted in Arts and Crafts, blogging, cool things, fan coolness | By Pat138 Responses

Goodbye London, hello Seattle, and an excuse to buy books.

So I’ve been traveling a lot lately.

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(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.

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(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.

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(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

Also posted in appearances, conventions | By Pat23 Responses

The Perils of Fan Fiction – Part I

Lately, I’ve been thinking about fanfic.

This is new to me. Up until this this point in my life, I’ve spent more time thinking about how turtles have sex than about fan fiction.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have anything against fan fiction. It’s just….

It’s like this. Let’s say you came up to me and said, “So, what do you think about Dnipropetrovsk?”

I would look at you blankly.

Then you would say, “Dnipropetrovsk? Major Ukrainian industrial center?”

To which I would shake my head dumbly.

Dismayed, you would continue, “Come on! It’s the third largest city in the Ukraine! More than a million people live there! How can you not know about Dnipropetrovsk?”

At this point in the conversation, I would probably explain that I’m sure that Dnipropetrovsk plays a vital role in a lot of peoples’ lives. I’d admit that I’m not surprised that folks have strong feelings about how it used to be a major military asset for the USSR. I’m sure that a lot of people live, breathe, and spend a big chunk of their waking time thinking about Dnipropetrovsk.

But I’m just not one of those people. I’ve never known anyone from there. Never visited. Never seen a movie set in the city. For all these reasons, Dnipropetrovsk has been off my radar for my entire life.

It’s the same thing with fan fiction.

Admittedly, in these last several years, I’ve become aware of fan fiction through a slow osmosis. At any given convention there are going to be panels on the subject. You’ll hear conversations in the hall. Occasional jokes.

Even so, fan fiction has only been dimly present on the edge of my perception.

The one notable exception is that I’ve known, sooner or later, that someone was going to do fan fiction about my stuff. Using my characters. Set in my world.

Truth is, I’ve looked forward to it. When people start writing fan fiction about your stuff, it shows that your writing has attained a level of popularity. It’s like fanart, in my opinion. No matter how you feel about the art itself, the fact that someone went out of their way to do it is really flattering.

That’s the most I ever thought about it. The thought of folks writing a Potter vs. Kvothe cage match never really bugged me.

How other writers feel on the subject has never concerned me very much. I know emotions tend to run hot on the subject. Some people love fan fiction. Some people hate it. Some people view it as legally actionable, others see it as a crime against god and nature.

The first people I met who were firmly on one end of the spectrum are the awesome folks who won the photo contest that I ran a while back. The first time I ever met them out at Gencon, they expressed a firm distaste for fanfic. They even made up this picture for me.

When I went down to Indianapolis a year ago, I they dressed up for a reading I did at their local library. And, as a joke, I had Kvothe and Bast pose for kiss because we were talking about the bit of Yaoi that got written.

You can see from the expression on Kvothe’s face that she doesn’t condone this sort of behavior.

It didn’t really strike me as odd that people who engaged in cosplay would look down on people who wrote fan fiction. There is a viscous of territorialism in geek society, as shown by this flow chart that Brunching Shuttlecocks put together years ago:

(Click to Embiggen.)

It reminds me of a quote that used to get tossed around when I was in grad school. “Why is the competition on academia so fierce? Because the stakes are so low.”

I think some similar psychological force is at play in geekdom.

Hold on…. I just realized something. Our award-winning cosplayers, by putting together a series of images that tell a story have created a narrative. A narrative that features characters someone else created.

Does that make their entry to the photo contest fan fiction? Are they all closet fanficers?

Whoo boy. I’m glad I’m not there to hear the great wailing and gnashing of teeth right now. I’m guessing those are fighting words….

Anyway, I always figured how people felt about fanfic was a personal issue. It’s like Jefferson said: “It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”

That’s been my philosophy. You love fanfic? Fine. You hate it? Also fine. It really doesn’t effect my life in the least.

But then I accidentally wrote a piece of fan fiction, and everything changed….

(Stay tuned for part two, space cowboys.)

pat

Also posted in BJ Hiorns Art, Catgirl, delicious fanarts, fanfic | By Pat86 Responses
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