Category Archives: meeting famous people

Published: September 20, 2008

New Podcast – Writing Excuses.

When I was out at worldcon this year, I got to meet up with Brandon Sanderson.

This was pretty cool for me, because I’ve really enjoyed his books so far. Most notably the Mistborn series. Though Elantris was really good as well.

I’ve recommended his books on the blog before, so I won’t go all gushy again. But I have to say, his stuff is really good. Irritatingly good. Plus he writes really fast, which is nice as a reader because he has more books out. But irritating as a writer, because it makes people like me look bad.

Anyway, he does a writing podcast with a few co-conspirators, and they asked me if I wanted to be their guest for an episode and talk about exposition and stuff.

So I did.

Here’s the link, if you’re interested.

pat

Also posted in Interviews, recommendations | By Pat12 Responses
Published: September 8, 2008

What happens at DragonCon….

Okay, a lot of you asked about the picture I posted up about a week ago:

True, the vast majority of the questions were variations on the theme of “what the hell?” But I still figure it could do with a little explanation.

While cruising around DragonCon, I tried to find a good present for Sarah, my girlfriend. I picked up the catgirl hat for her because I figured she would get a kick out of it.

About half an hour later I wander by a bookseller, and who do I see sitting at the autographing table but John Scalzi and Tobias Bucknell. Both authors, bloggers, and acquaintances of mine, it’s safe to say that the sheer awesome manliness radiating out from the two of them combined was overwhelming.

Perhaps I exaggerate slightly. I can’t honestly say it was overwhelming. Truth be told, it was just whelming. I was whelmed.

Anyway, I started to wander over to chat with them, then realized a golden opportunity lay in front of me….

Needless to say, they were horrified and amused. Scalzi actually borrowed my camera and took this picture of me, while Toby snapped his own.

That picture Toby posted up on his own website, offering a prize to the person who posted the funniest caption. There were over 80 of them there last time I looked, and I have to say, it’s been a long time since I laughed that hard.

You should go check it out.

Later all,

pat

Also posted in conventions, my dumbness | By Pat22 Responses
Published: August 27, 2008

How David Anthony Durham Saved My Life

A year or so ago, I made the online acquaintance of fellow fantasy author David Anthony Durham.

Normally, I don’t associate with people who have three names. It’s just intimidating. Plus, on a practical level, it’s hard to deal with. Does he go by the full “David Anthony?” Is he a “David” a “Dave” or an “Anthony.” Hell, he could even be a “Tony.” I have a real problem remembering names. Even the simple first names of my friends. That means someone with three to seven different potential names is going to give me a lot of trouble.

I can’t remember how we first got in touch. But I do know that our first contact was over e-mail. And, to tell the truth, I was more than slightly intimidated by him.

Part of this was due to the fact that before his most recent novel (an epic fantasy called Acacia) he wrote literary fiction. While I’m not one to engage in genre snobbery. The fact remains that to Lit Fic has a certain amount of cultural cache. A certain gravitas.

Another intimidating thing was the fact that he had a tenure-track job teaching creative writing, which means he’s got some hefty edumication under his belt.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, this picture was the the first I ever saw of him:

Not only was he thinner and more attractive than myself. But to me this picture says: “I’m going kick a man’s ass, then go read some Coleridge. You have a problem with that? No. I didn’t think so. Move along.”

I know, I know. It’s wrong to judge a book by its cover. It’s doubly wrong to judge an author by his jacket photo. If you were to do that with me, you would be forced to assume that I was some sort of rogue Muppet, eremite priest, or Russian dictator.

When I finally met him at a convention. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that most of what I’d assumed about him was off-base. He wasn’t pompous, or stiff, or academic. He was relaxed and friendly, with an easy laugh.

At the last convention we hit together, Wiscon, we sat at the bar for an hour or two and had a lovely argument about Heinlein, and a different argument about C.S. Lewis, and a discussion about purpose of literature and the ethical responsibility of the author. We disagreed a lot.

It was lovely. I love few things more than a conversation with an intelligent person who is passionate in their beliefs and willing to disagree with me.

In short. He turned out to be my favorite sort of person. The sort of person that I wished lived closer to me so that he could come over to my house, watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and get his ass solidly handed to him at Settlers of Catan.

Because, as I’ve said before, I cannot be beaten at Catan.

Lastly, though not leastly, David may prove instrumental in insuring that y’all get to see books two and three.

Let me explain. At World Fantasy convention last year his hotel was hell and gone from the convention center, and I had rented a car. So one night when things were winding down, I offered to give him a ride.

We wandered out of the hotel to the parking lot. After we had climbed into the car, he looked at me and said, “You’re not wearing your seatbelt?”

It wasn’t the sentence itself, it was the way he said it. He wasn’t chiding, or disapproving. He was honestly shocked. More than that. He was aghast. It was the same tone I use when I say, “You smoke?”

When I say this, usually the unspoken part of my comment is clear, “What are you, a fucking idiot?”

When he looked at me and said, “You’re not wearing your seat belt?” I thought to myself, “Of course. I should wear my seat belt. I’d be an idiot not to.”

And ever since then, I’ve worn my seat belt. This means that I’m much more likely to live long enough to get you day two and three of the trilogy, and many more after that.

Despite all of his coolness, it took me a long time to get around to reading David’s book. I did mention his book, right?

It’s epic fantasy. A nice mix of big empire-level stuff and character centered story. He’s a great worldbuilder, which is where my heart lies, and his cultures are varied and well-developed. He leans more toward description, where I tend to do more dialogue. But we’re playing a similar game in many ways. Odds are if you dig on Tolkien, Acacia will be right up your alley. Check it out.

That’s all for now,

pat

Also posted in conventions, recommendations | By Pat24 Responses
Published: March 13, 2008

What Should I do #6: The Guild.

In recent news, I got my first piece of hatemail the other day. The author, enraged by the fact that the second book wasn’t going to be published on time, told me he wished a dog would bite me on the balls.

There was more to the letter, of course, but that was pretty much the gist of it.

For those of you looking to occupy yourselves in a more productive way while waiting for book two to come out, allow me to make a friendly suggestion: The Guild.

I stumbled onto the Guild about half a year ago and laughed my ass off. If you play computer games, or know anyone who does, odds say you’ll laugh your ass off too…

Then, months later, one of my friends forwarded THIS LINK to me.

For those of you too lazy to click, it was a blog post someone made about my book. They liked the book, but they had some pointed comments about the sort of covers they put on fantasy novels these days….

Then I looked more closely, and I realized that the person writing the blog was actress Felicia Day. You’ve probably seen her in a bunch of things, but my personal geekery stems from the fact that she played Vi on season seven of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I know I should be cooler than this, but the truth is, I was overwhelmed with geeky joy at the thought of her reading my book and liking it.

It was only after looking over Felicia’s blog, that I realized she was in The Guild too. Not only does she play Codex, but she actually writes the script for it too….

Anyway, here’s the first episode of the guild to get you started.

Share and Enjoy.

pat

Also posted in fanmail, Felicia Day, recommendations | By Pat18 Responses
Published: December 7, 2007

On meeting Gaiman

I realized today that while I did tell the story of when I met Neil Gaiman, I didn’t actually post up any proof. No photographic evidence that I’m not just living an elaborate fantasy world contained entirely in my mind.

Wait, I guess I am. Living in my own fantasy world is kinda what they pay me for. But my point is that my rich personal fantasy life did not include meeting Neil Gaiman, that was a real bit that actually happened in my not-fantasy world.

And here’s the picture to prove it:

(I am the one with the Muppet-like beard.)

First, I would like to state, for the record, that I am not about to bite Neil Gaiman with the intention of devouring a piece of him, thereby gaining some of his power. I am actually laughing. Or I might be doing my Prince Vultan impression. Or both.

For those of you who have not squandered your lives watching bad movies, this is Prince Vultan from Flash Gordon.

Also this:

Uncanny, isn’t it? It’s like we’re twins.

You’ll also notice in the picture that I’m keeping a careful distance between myself and Gaiman. I read somewhere that if you touch him, God strikes you dead for your impiety. That’s why he’s carried everywhere on a platform supported by six burly Mameluke slaves.

Lastly, just to prove that I can look civilized when I have to, here’s a picture of me looking like an something other than a fictional character or a hobo:

Awww…. Look at me. I’m cute as a fluffy puppy.

This is back in 2002 at the Writers of the Future award ceremony with my fellow winner Neddi Okorafor. She’s one of the handful of cool writers that I got to know before my book came out and I got all popular and shit. Nnedi gave me advice on early drafts of my book, and has just generally been all-around cool over the years. Her second book, The Shadow Speaker, just came out. It’s good stuff and you should definitely check it out. She was also on the cover of this month’s Locus, so you know she’s a heavy hitter.

That’s all for now. I’ve got to get back to work…

Fondly,

pat

Also posted in Neil Gaiman | By Pat32 Responses
Published: December 3, 2007

…. and I’m back.

Hello there everyone. Sorry I’ve been away for so long.

One of the problems with doing a blog like this….

You know, only after typing that sentence did I realize something. I don’t really consider this a blog. Rather, I know this is a blog. This entity that you show up and read is a blog. But I don’t think of myself as *writing* blogs. I think of myself as writing something else. Something nameless. Something somewhere between a news post, an editorial column, and an open letter to the world.

Anyway, as I was saying, one of the problems with writing something like this. (Something that I update according to my whimsy, but that a fair number of people show up and read.) Is that if I don’t post anything for a while, it actually starts getting harder to post. After two weeks of silence, I start to feel like like I should have something *Really Cool* so say when I come back.

But I don’t. I don’t even really have any especially exciting reason for not posting for a while. Truth is, Me Being Busy Playing Catch-Up After A Convention + End of The Semester Grading + Thanksgiving + Two Signings = Radio Silence on My End.

I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t even checked my Amazon Ranking for, like, two or three days…. an unprecedented event.

(470, by the way.)

Let’s see, what news do I have? The Name of the Wind has been nominated for Borders’ Original Voices award for 2007. Point of interest, I’m the only person in my category whose title does not have a colon in it. For some reason that fills me with pride.

It just snowed here in Wisconsin. About 10 inches. My first snowfall as a homeowner. I shoveled for a solid hour tonight, great exercise that has reminded me how truly out of shape I’ve become. Take it from me, kids, being a writer has certain perks, but physique isn’t one of them.

Other news…. Hmmmm… it seems like after almost three weeks of being gone, I should have more to report….

Oh, right, my meeting with Gaiman.

In brief, it was pretty cool. About four hours before Gaiman was scheduled to do his reading, I went from being nervous about meeting him, to a different sort of nervous. Suddenly I was worried that Gaiman wasn’t going to be cool enough to live up to my expectations.

I know it’s silly to idolize authors. I know this because I *am* an author, and it’s silly for people to idolize me. Over these last couple months I’ve had people get nervous about meeting me and/or have various degrees of anxiety-related endearing geekiness when we talk. When people e-mail me and tell me that they’re nervous about meeting me a signing or a reading, I laugh and say, “Believe me, I’m really not that impressive.”

Anyone who has actually met me will back me up on this…

So I know firsthand that it’s silly. Authors are just people. But the fact remains that when we love a book, we want to love the person who wrote the book. We want them to be as cool as the stories they write, and Gaiman writes one hell of a story…

So as Gaiman’s reading approached, I grew increasingly nervous. What if he wasn’t cool enough?

I needn’t have worried. He was very relaxed and laid back. Very witty and articulate. He’s a marvelous public speaker. He gave us a early taste of his upcoming “The Graveyard Book.” He’s a great reader, too. Though I wasn’t surprised by that, as I really enjoyed the audio book story collection, “Fragile Things” which he read himself.

My reading was a half-hour after his, a hard act to follow. But I muddled through as best I could, reading a bit of my novel, a bit of poetry, and an essay I once wrote on the slow vs. fast zombies debate. It was a pretty good time.

I had about five minutes left in my time slot, and was trying to decide how to fill it, when one of the people organizing the conference came in and said, “Mr Gaiman wants to make sure he has a chance to talk to Pat before he leaves. I’m afraid I’m going to have to steal him…”

I gave the audience a look that said, “Are y’all cool with me heading out a little early?” They looked back, “Are you kidding? It’s Neil Gaiman! Run you fool, run!”

So I went over to meet him. I tried my best to not be a total spaz when we met. I didn’t want to be all gushy and fanboy. Personally, I enjoy it when people get a little geeky over my writing, but I figure he has to get that sort of thing all the time, and it has to be wearying after the first ten years or so.

So we hung out and chatted for a bit. Me and Neil. I have a picture somewhere, but I can’t find it right now…

He was, as they say, “a hell of a regular guy.” He told me that he’d had the chance to read the first few chapters of my book, because his publisher in England had given him a copy. He said something very flattering about my writing, but unfortunately, the book was too big to fit it into his carry-on luggage for his flight home. (The UK book is even bigger than the US version.) After that his life got a little busy, what with two movies coming out, books, signings, and generally being Neil Gaiman. So he kinda lost track of it. I can understand that. I’m overwhelmed right now and I can’t be a fraction of as busy as he is…

So yeah. The whole experience was lovely. We chatted and I asked him some comic-book questions, as I have some people sniffing around about doing the graphic novel adaptations of the book. It was lovely, and he gave some good advice.

Now here’s the crux of the story. Gaiman got ready to leave, but before he could head out, one of the con-goers caught him. The guy asked if he could send Gaiman a copy of his brother’s novel to read, so that Gaiman could give him some feedback. Gaiman politely refused, explaining that he wished he could, but he really didn’t have the time.

But they guy wouldn’t take the gracious refusal. He asked if Gaiman would maybe just look at a few chapters instead. Gaiman explained, again, that there just weren’t enough hours in the day, and besides, his brother would probably get better, more in-depth advice from a local writer’s group….

But the guy really wouldn’t take no for an answer. He tried a few more times from different angles. And here’s the thing: Gaiman stayed cool through the whole thing. He didn’t get bitchy or snippy or exasperated. Considering that he must get hit like that all the time, I was truly impressed.

The end. Moral: Gaiman is awesome.

I think that’s all I’ve got for now….

Oh… one other thing. I’ve been invited by writer/author John Scalzi to offer up one of my already written blogs for promotional re-post on his site: Whatever.

Any advice? Of the blogs you’ve read on here, which one do you think would be best for amusing/entertaining/hooking in new readers?

I’d appreciate it if you let me know what you think in the comments below.

Later all,

pat

Also posted in awards, hodgelany, Neil Gaiman | By Pat31 Responses
Published: March 15, 2007

Losing My Anonymity…

This past weekend I drove down to Madison to catch a reading/signing by Tad Williams. While we’ve e-mailed back and forth a little, I’ve never actually met him. And despite the fact that he’s a seasoned pro and I’m a wet-behind the ears newbie, we’re the literary equivalent of cousins: we both have the same editor and agent.

Because of this, I’ve heard a lot of stories about Tad over the last year or so, many of which have ended with comments like, “You’d really like Tad. The two of you are a lot alike.”

So part of the reason I was coming down was to see the guy I’d heard so much about. Another large chunk was pure fannishness. I read Memory Sorrow and Thorn years ago. The size of his books and the scope of his story gave me hope that my own huge fantasy novels might actually be publishable some day.

Lastly, I was there to do reconnaissance. I’ve got readings and signings of my own coming up when my book hits the shelves in a couple weeks. I wanted to see how a pro handles it.

Because I was driving down from Stevens Point, I ended up getting in a little late. So I just sat on the floor off in the back corner of the room beside a cart full of folding chairs. Believe it or not, this is actually my happy place. I like being in the back corner of classrooms and restaurants because sitting with people behind me makes me profoundly uneasy. I’m a lurker by nature.

I watch Tad do his thing. He’s got a great stage presence. He finishes his reading and starts into his Q & A. This is even better. He’s quick on his feet, funny and clever. The group loves him.

Then somebody says, “Assume we’ve already read all of your books and we’re looking for something new to read. What do you recommend?”

Tad says, “Well, it seems a little odd to mention it because he’s here right now, and I might be accused of log-rolling, but I recently read a great debut fantasy by Patrick Rothfuss. That’s spelled R-O-T-H-F-U-S-S. It’s called….” he paused and cupped his hand to his ear dramatically.

I was caught flat-footed, but can know enough to take a cue when it’s handed to me. “The Name of the Wind,” I said from where I sat tucked away in the corner of the room. A few people turned to look, but most of them couldn’t see me as I was sitting on the floor, partially tucked behind the cart of folding chairs. I wondered what they thought of the voice coming from nowhere to supply the title of the book. Was it an unseen employee? A high tech customer service device? Some helpful totemistic bookstore spirit?

Tad went back to answering questions, and I sat feeling odd and unsettled. Part of this was that I was flattered he thought enough of the book to mention it. But what really threw me off my stride was the fact that he recognized me. I’m not used to being recognized. I’m pretty comfortable in my anonymity.

After the Q&A, a youngish guy walked up to me and said, “You’re Patrick Rothfuss, aren’t you?” I admitted I was, and we had a pleasant round of what I fondly think of as ‘geek talk.’ We chatted about what books we like, what games we play, what comics are worth reading. It was nice. I like geek talk.

Still, it’s odd having someone come up to me and know me just because they heard about my book.

It’s not a bad thing, just a new thing. It’s going to take some getting used to.

Also posted in being awesome, geeking out | By Pat16 Responses

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