Category Archives: Photo Contest 2011

The New Photo Contest….

Hey there everybody….

For those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you had a good one this weekend. For those of you who *don’t* celebrate it, or who celebrate it at a different time (I’m looking at you, Canada) I hope you had a good time doing whatever else you did.

Just a quick blog today for those of you who haven’t heard the news: My publisher is holding a photo contest, where you can win some of the new penance piece coins we designed with Shire Post to celebrate the launch of the new book.

They even made this fancy graphic for it and everything…

What’s even more interesting, I think they did this not realizing that I’ve done a couple photo contests over the years…

The contest will be running until December 14th. They’ll be handling it all of it on their end, which I’m glad of, as I have my hands full with a lot of stuff. But I’m looking forward to seeing all the pictures, and sharing some of my favorites here on the blog, too.

Oh… and for those of you who are looking to do some holiday shopping, Worldbuilders Market is running their annual holiday/black friday sale. There’s discounts on a lot of stuff, as well as a few new items, free shipping, etc…

I’ll share more details on the blog later, but I thought I’d throw y’all a heads up as sooner rather than later, as I don’t know how quickly some of the items in the store might sell out…

Here’s a link, if you’re interested.

Later space cowboys,

pat

Also posted in contests | By Pat21 Responses

WMF Photo Contest Part XIII: Grand Prize Winners

Today we bring you the final part of the photo contest.

Those of you who were around for the beginning of this might remember that I extended our deadline because some people said they were trying to get permission from the FAA for what they were trying to do.

So really, it’s their fault that I haven’t finished the photo contest yet. If I’d had those two weeks, we would’ve finished the photo contest in a timely fashion.

I joke, I joke. And even if it was the truth and their small delay somehow *had* somehow cascaded into this longer one. I honestly think it would be worth it….

You know what? I’m not even going to be coy here. I’m going to skip the preamble and jump right to the end. I’m going to show you the goods.

Here’s what they did:

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This is my book. In space.

It’s. In. Space.

Look at that. It’s so high up that you can see a slight curvature of the earth. And my book.

So there. You know the end. But I’m guessing you’re going to stick around for the preamble anyway. Because you’re my readers. You know the journey is the worthier part…

*     *     *

Three folks from MIT collaborated to make this happen. Jay, Kristyn, and Mike. (With a strong assist from their friend Malcolm, who let them use his book.)

Their photo shoot started at 5am on a Saturday.

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They got a serious weather balloon, and started setup.

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Realize that these photos were taken in 2011. Four years ago. Digital cameras weren’t *quite* as pervasive then, and neither were superphones.

So they hacked an old camera to take pictures every 5 seconds, attached a phone that sent out a GPS signal every 30 seconds, and wrapped everything up in Styrofoam for protection during the flight.

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But they didn’t stop at getting a cool view of the city.

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You see how the clouds in the sky make the same ripple effect that wind makes on the waves? You see how that is the same ripple effect you see in the sand on the beach?

You know what that is? That is the name of the wind writ large across the face of the world, my friends.

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Hello you great, blue beautiful thing….

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It’s almost perfect. It just needs a little something….

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There we go. Fucking rainbow. Done.

For those of you who are into numbers, the balloon went up at around 500 ft/min and reached approximately 75,000 feet.

So… yeah. My book has been into space. I’m *so* going to give John Scalzi a hard time about this the next time I see him…

Hold on. It only now occurs to me. Commercial planes don’t fly that high. And I doubt very much that anyone takes novels on rockets due to weight limitations….

That means The Wise Man’s Fear has probably set some sort of weird record. I’d bet a modest amount of money that it might be the first novel in the stratosphere. If not, maybe first hardcover novel. Or.. maybe… First Hardcover Fantasy Novel to Reach Stratosphere Via Balloon?

Does anyone know how to get in touch with Guinness?

You know what? It doesn’t even matter to me. The fact that someone did this with my book is cooler to me than I can express in words. (And when you read that, please consider who is writing it.)

So thank you, you excellent people.

Thank you, you shiny geeks.

Thank you.

*     *     *

I hope it’s obvious that this isn’t something the three of them just banged together in an afternoon. They made plans. Coordinated with the FAA. Make a test run…

Here’s a piece of the story that Mike sent along:

“During Jay’s practice flight he sent up the camera and when it came back down it landed in a wooded area, so he climbed through a bit of woods only to find it stuck about 40 feet up a tree, with not much remaining daylight he had to leave the camera up in the tree.

The next morning I went down with him to see how we were going to retrieve the camera and we stopped by Home Depot to pick up supplies. Jay went to get some pipe while I set about getting rope and duct tape. Turns out asking a clerk before he’s had his morning coffee what aisles rope and duct tape would be in will get you a raised eyebrow. Then trying to explain the situation away before you’ve had your morning coffee doesn’t alleviate his concern.

It ended up taking us the better part of the day throwing sticks, stones, lassos, trying to knock it from the tree with a 40’ pipe before it finally fell. Our triumph lasted long enough to find out the data was corrupted and “tech experts” were only able to recover the first 10 – 20k feet of the flight.”

Of the actual flight, they said this:

“One of the fun things about this project is the fact that you lose control of the balloon’s flight path the moment you let go of it. You can use weather radar and predictive models and they really mean absolutely nothing.  Once the balloon reaches a certain altitude the gps we were using stopped working, but we could track it once it dropped back below that altitude.  So for a couple hours we had nothing to do except find a local diner eat breakfast and wait(my favorite weekend activity).  The predictive model we used suggested the book would travel over 50 miles and land up near Marlborough, Massachusetts about 25 miles from the ocean.

So after breakfast we started driving that way to at least be in the general area.  We kept checking the GPS and eventually it resurfaced(not sure if thats the right word considering the book was coming back down) about 75 miles south of Marlborough and  less than 3 miles from the Atlantic.  So we turned the car around to drive toward the balloon.”

There you go. While it’s safe to say that I loved the thousands of pictures y’all sent in for the photo contest, there’s no denying that these guys went the extra mile.

I think it goes without saying that these guys deserve their gold talent pipes. My heart is full of joy when I look at these pictures. I am awash in the glow of their reflected cool.

Gold Pipes

Because they went above and beyond *ahem* I’ll also be sending them some signed books (And a special copy for their friend who gave up his own copy for the cause) and any other swag their hearts might desire.

What’s more, if y’all are interested, next time I’m out in Boston I’d love to take y’all out to dinner. If you’re free, you can pick the place and it’s my treat. I also offer post-prandial libations and board games at a venue of choice.

Because honestly? You guys are people I want to hang out with. You’re my kind of crazy.

* * *

With that, the Photo Contest is finally a wrap. While I enjoyed it, you guys have no idea how nice it is to finally have the weight of it off my neck. I feel positively bubbly having expiated that particular long-term shame.

Lastly, because I’ve been focusing on getting the photo contest finished. There are a few quick announcements I should make.

1. Worldbuilders will be doing its second-annual mid-season fundraiser at the beginning of June.

Last year it went amazingly well, and we raised more than $200,000 for charity. So this year we’re doing it again. Bigger and better.

2. We’re launching a new t-shirt or two along with that fundraiser.

To that purpose, we’re going to have a quick t-shirt design contest. And I *do* mean quick. We’re launching it on Monday, and the window for submissions will only last for seven days. (Though if you’re reading this you can have a couple day’s head start.)

After a week is up, we’ll ask y’all to vote on which ones you like best and they’ll go up in the IndieGoGo.

 3. This afternoon, I’m going to be participating in the Twitter Fiction Festival.

I’m going to be writing a story on twitter. It’s going to be a bizarre melange of improvisational storytelling, old-school text adventure games, and raw caffeinated madness. You’ll control the character through suggesting the character’s actions. I’ll control the story by choosing which suggestions we use, and giving replies.

It’s going to be a glorious experiment that I expect will explode in a huge roiling ball of narrative flame.

I’ll be doing that from 3-4pm CT today. If you want to check it out, or participate, my twitter is right here.

See you later, space cowboys…

pat

Also posted in Achievement Unlocked!, being awesome, fan coolness | By Pat29 Responses

WMF Photo Contest Part XII: Art and Hodgelany

Today we bring you part XII of the photo contest. The penultimate photo contest blog

  • Miscellany.

The first category today is sort of a miscellany….

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Though truthfully, miscellany is a bit of an understatement. This collection is a little more random that that, even….

The Second Coming. But don't worry there's still a third book to look forward to

It’s almost more of of hodge-podge. And with that in mind, I would like to officially class these photos as a hodgelany.

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(Creepy….)

Here we have a photo of WMF between a pair of 16,000 year-old mammoth bones (a radius and ulna, if you’re curious).

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It *is* kind of a mammoth book….

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Here’s my book taken with a statue of Gandalf in the Hyewha District of Seoul, South Korea.

Ana is in love with Kvothe

“She looks pretty enthralled by statue-Kvothe’s serenade. I bet Kvothe would make a pretty kickass bard in D&D actually.” – Amanda

I know you’re just trying to bait me with your bard-talk, Amanda. And I’m not going to take that bait….

Kvothe and friends

This is certainly the happiest I’ve ever seen my books looking….

Winner:

isawthemostamazingthing

But this one is our winner. It’s made Amanda giggle on more than one occasion. You’ll have to embiggen it to see why.

Here’s the photostream of all the random miscellany.

  • Artistic:

A lot of really beautiful pictures came in, too. Some of my favorites have been pictures that don’t even look like the books are included at first glance.

Pictures that were taken with the artistry of the photograph itself in mind, rather than with the purpose of telling a story, making a joke, or focusing on a theme….

Mandolin

Okay. Some of them play a bit with theme too….

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But mostly they’re just cool…

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Many of them are designed to give the viewer a moment’s pause before figuring out what’s going on.

WiseMan's-fear

I’m still not sure how this one was done. But I like the tone….

A colorful book

Oh man. It just occurred to me. This might be a reference to the book being a good yarn….

Honorable Mention:

wsfeye

Behold! The last of the contest’s honorable mentions. I’m terribly fond of this one.

Winner:

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As you can see if you embiggen the picture, the words all down this reader’s arm are quotes from my books. Apparently, the lyrics from Jackass Jackass were still in between her fingers when she sent in her submission.

From the early days of the contest we had an inkling that this would be one of our winners, so we contacted her a while back and sent along her set of gold talent pipes.

And here she is, wearing those pipes, in front of the very same bookshelf….

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(Her shelves are so much tidier than mine…)

I’m so pleased to end the blog on this particular winner, as the photos she sent in were some of my absolute favorites.

If you’d like to see the other pictures she submitted, you can check them out in the final photostream.

* * *

Okay folks. Tomorrow is the four-year anniversary of the end of the contest, and we’ll be posting the final blog which only contains one winner. But oh… it’s *such* a winner. You really have no idea….

They really went above and beyond, so be sure to tune in for that one.

In the mean time, feel free to peek at the previous blogs:

[Prologue] [Part I] [Part II] [Part III] [Part IV] [Part V] [Part VI] [Part VII] [Part VIII] [Part IX] [Part X] [Part XI]

pat

P.S. I deliberately made nine puns in this blog. Because I’m just in that that sort of mood. First folks to spot and list them in the comments win the right to feel kinda smug for the rest of the day…

Also posted in fan coolness, hodgelany | By Pat19 Responses

WMF Photo Contest Part XI: Shrines, Scenery, and Groups

Hey guys, Amanda here again. We’re on a roll, and today we bring you part XI of the photo contest.

[I’m here too. It’s Pat. I’m orange today.]

Like last time, Pat and I worked together on these blogs, and he picked our winners a long time ago. He just needs that extra push to actually post it. So… *push*

Pat’s going to be popping in here and there to give his snarky input again. I hope you enjoy my public mocking.

[Technically, that should be “I hope you enjoy my being publicly mocked.” The way you’ve phrased it implies that you’re going to be mocking people in public.]

Something tells me this is not the only time you’re gonna sass me today….

[Something tells me you’re right.]

  • Groups.

My favorite thing that happened in this contest were the big group efforts.

Some were more simple, like asking these lovely women to pose with a copy of WMF:

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And then there’s some of the more intricate set ups.

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I love the idea of Alan Menken writing the music for this musical. Would it be more in the vein of Little Shop of Horrors or Aladdin?

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And here we have Spider-man, wrecking everything, like he does.

Advanced Not Being a Stupid Jackass 006

I was a high school Engilsh teacher before I started working for Pat, so this made me grin more than usual.

[Engeilersh.]

These sophomores are in the middle of a course of Advanced Not Being a Stupid Jackass. I approve. Plus, the teacher actually got waivers from all of the kids in the picture. Though given how long it’s taken to post this, some fairly simple math reveals that they’re all at least 19 now.

[ಠ_ಠ]

entry003 - just went around town asking people to hold their book

I admire this. This photo was made just by going around town asking people to hold their book. Making friends, sharing the love, and a cool photo.

Honorable Mention:

EolianMuses

“Wild warblings from the Eolian lyre/Enchantment softly breathe, and/tremblingly expire” -John Keats

Winners:

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(Click to embiggen)

Aynaet, the person who sent this photo in, outed herself as a Nerdfighter to us when she submitted these photos, though Pat and I selected this as a winner before I noticed that. I pretty much immediately wanted to be best friends with her.

Many of the pictures are of her at various conventions, adding a little bonus geek factor to the submission.

'Most Blatant Suck-up' entry

[You guys rock my socks. Seeing you flying your freak flag makes me proud to be a geek.]
The folks who submitted this were very detailed in their explanation:
“-Yes, that is a Luring the Draccus poster; yes, that is my computer background reflected in it; yes, my computer background is the art of the French cover of NOTW.
-Yes, we all three are wearing (or in my brother’s case, draped over a shoulder) Rothfussian shirts
-Yes, my brother is copying the pose from the romance novel cover of NOTW with my flute and copy of The Last Unicorn
-Yes, all those copies of NOTW, WMF, Princess and Mr. Whiffle, and assorted other Rothfuss paraphernalia do belong and were purchased by us, making this kinda an entry into the ‘Most Blatant Suck-up’ category.
-Yes, some of our copies are not pictured due to being out on loan, and yes, as this was taken a while ago more copies have been added.”

There’s a lot of enthusiasm here. They have pretty much every edition of Name of the Wind available, including the book club edition. They even have one of our long-gone original Worldbuilders t-shirts. So, for their commitment, they’ll all be getting sets of gold talent pipes.

[Only fair. It seems like that’s the only thing they don’t have in their collection so far….]

The photostream has even more group efforts, including bonus pictures from some featured here already.

  • Shrines.

There were more than a few shrines built in honor of WMF:

[My name is is Pat Rothfuss, and I officially I approve of this behavior.]

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But not all of them were beautiful, serene things….

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This contained real strands of hair from the photographer’s boyfriend, her wisdom teeth, and money from a German middle-ages festival.

[Cripes. Teeth? I never mentioned teeth as a sympathetic link, did I? That particular piece of inspired creepy isn’t my personal responsibility….]

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This one features a wax mommet. I’m particularly fond of the way the instrument case has been bound. If you click to embiggen, you see a note that says “SILENCE OF THREE PARTS” on the case, so it factors into whatever spell they’re placing on their mommet.

[*Pushes up glasses again.* “Binding” is the preferred nomenclature. Nobody at the university would use the word “spell.”]

You know Pat, if you’d rather I *stopped* helping with these blogs, all you have to do is ask….

[*mumbles something softly to himself without meeting your eye*]

Honorable Mention:

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The photographer was convinced these ducks were performing a ritual to bring about some “well deserved happiness for our dear Kvothe.” I hope it worked…

Winner:

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The best shrines are those that provide enough light for you to read by.

[This is just an awesome picture. I’d love it even if it had nothing to do with my book. As it is, I love it exponentially more….]

There are even more shrines in the photostream, if you want to get ideas for your own glorification of the books.

  • Scenery

Our next category was fairly simple.

A lot of the pictures are simply beautiful, and can pretty much speak for themselves….

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I feel oddly calm and at ease looking at this photo. Stevens Point has nothing resembling this for me to climb, but I might go looking for one now…

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[My aging, decrepit mind thinks this picture was from Finland…]

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Having spent my entire life in the Midwest, and primarily Wisconsin, this was REALLY cool to me.

[Butte. LOLOLOLOL]

New York Times Bestselling author, folks. I’m so proud.

Honorable mention:

book  in stone circle

My immediate reaction to this was a desire to get a group together to sit on the stones and read the book aloud, with each person playing a role. And then I was worried some creepy fae magic would happen and someone would disappear, so I decided not to ever do that.

[I can’t tell if I think this ring of stones is cool or creepy. I keep wondering who made it, and why? Then the stories I come up with in my head to answer those questions aren’t always good stories….]

Winner:

Aileen Hay3

I don’t know why this picture appealed to me the way it did. It’s a beautiful picture, but there’s something more to it that makes me really happy. There’s something about the angle, the black and white, the small glimpse of water through the planks, the expanse of sky, that all just sort of… fit.

And really, that’s enough for me.

[I hear you. There’s a real art to shooting a good photo. I don’t know how it works, but I know what I like…]

There were so many more cool photos. We’ve added them to the photo stream, and you should really see them.

* * *

Thanks for taking this ride with me, guys. I’m pretty sure Pat appreciated having me take over a couple of these, even if he mocked my every word.

[Please, at most I mocked every fourth word or so.]

Previously: [Prologue] [Part I] [Part II] [Part III] [Part IV] [Part V] [Part VI] [Part VII] [Part VIII] [Part IX] [Part X]

There are only two photo contest blogs left: Miscellany and the Grand Prize Winner. They’re both pretty awesome…

Amanda

[What she said.]

[pat]

Also posted in fan coolness, I mock because I love | By Amanda21 Responses

WMF Photo Contest Part X: Geekery

Okay folks, Amanda did the blog yesterday, but I’m worried that the power might go to her head, so I’m back for today’s blog.

The good news is that we’re going to finish all of them by Friday. The other good news is that that means we’re going to be doing a blog a day to get everything posted up.

Today we bring you Part X of the photo contest. Featuring a lot of various geekery, from games, to puns, to toys.

But first, let’s start with some flattering geek associations.

Obviously some of the most flattering were Firefly.

Canton has a New Hero

A book walks down the street in a hat like that….

Captain Hammer made a guest appearance, too.

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But there were a lot of other references too….

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This one’s open to a fair amount of interpretation.

It could be that they meant it was a bloody good book. It could be a reference to sympathy.

At first I thought it might be a reference to the book being something that everyone could use, as I know that type O blood is the universal donor. But it turns out that O POS is actually the universal recipient (O NEG is the universal donor.)

Either way, it’s good to know that someone out there has blood in them that was touched by my book. I hope it gives them superpowers.

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Amanda says, “I love this one more the more I look at it. It’s unlimited refills. It’s prescribed by Pat. It has a “Use Before 5/15/11″ which was the due date for the photo contest entries. It even has the DAW logo on it.”

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Jessie says, “I love this picture because it always makes me think of Doctor Who. There’s an episode in series 6 with The Silence that involves the moon landing (aired 4/30/2011) which makes me think that this is not only an awesome reference to the book being more interesting than one of the greatest moments in human history but also Doctor Who which is almost equally as awesome.”

Pat: What she said.

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First edition, Fabio cover of NoTW is definitely top shelf.

Winner:
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This I’m particularly fond of because the first time I looked at it, I found myself thinking. “What? Some people were just taking random pictures of my book with other shit. What possible association does my book have with vegetables….”

Then I got it. I’m sure if you think about it for a moment you’ll get it too…

“I’m not proud of myself for laughing at this one.” Amanda

Here are all of our geek associations/puns in one convenient photostream.

  • Games

My Companions

Awww…. Only portal fans know how sweet this picture is.

Also, you better not throw my book into a fire.

Yet another epic battle arises.

Cube

The number of Portal entries into this contest made me ridiculously happy. – Amanda

Me too…

Winner:

Link finds WMF

I’m really kinda ridiculously fond of this one. When I look at this picture, I can actually hear the music in my head.

The games photostream is full of other game references

  • Captions

Plumbob Full

You really have to embiggen this one to fully enjoy the baby Kvothe under the influence of the plum bob.

(No actual babies were fed alchemical concoctions at this photo shoot.)

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“Also, this puppy is adorable and I want it.” – Amanda

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Winner:

Photo Contest II _ Marina

This one isn’t actually photoshopped. The guy that did it does parkour.

So… yeah. Take a close look at it. This is a really amazingly terrifying picture.

Photostream!

  • Toys

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“The animals have already read Name of the Wind three times waiting for the next book.  With The Wise Man’s Fear, Scary Bear is having to skip over the mature parts so as not to give the young ones bad ideas.”

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Here we’ve got a a Lego re-enactment of Kvothe being whipped. (Starring Rebel Sniper with Ron Weasley’s hair as Kvothe.)

Kubrick-ed

I like to think that if my book were the obelisk from 2001, the monkeys wouldn’t have ended up beating each other to death. They just would have just sat around bitching about how long book three was taking.

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Given the photo that was in yesterday’s blog. People might think I’m trying to start some sort of feud with Sanderson. But I’m honestly not….

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I kinda wonder what brings Indiana Jones to the S-Mart late at night…

  • Honorable mention.

Poker Dwarves

The truly impressive attention to detail here shows in the fact that each dwarf has a different drink. To say nothing about the fact that if you look at the cards you can see why Grumpy is covering his eyes…

 

Winner:

Big Damn Heroes

If you embiggen this, you can see why it’s the winner.

Suggested titles include: “Big Damn Heroes” and “The crew stops in for a drink at a remote bar on Unification Day.”

Think they don’t have a copy of Wise Man’s Fear in this picture? You might want to look at little more closely…

The detail on the figures is truly amazing.

Kvothe on the road

Here’s another one with Bast and Chronicler. I think I’m hovering up there in the corner, too.

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So yeah. The ladies who did this are absolutely the big winners of today’s blog. Full bragging rights, and both they and the Honorable mentions get a set of the gold pipes…

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Photostream!

If you’d like to check out other parts of the  photo contest, they’re over here:

[Prologue] [Part I] [Part II] [Part III] [Part IV] [Part V] [Part VI] [Part VII] [Part VIII] [Part IX]

We’re doing a new blog every day this week to finish the photo contest by the 15th.

So stay tuned.

pat

Also posted in fan coolness | By Pat21 Responses

WMF Photo Contest Part IX: Around the World

Heya folks, Amanda here.

[This is Pat. I’m here too, but today, I’m orange.]

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As Pat’s mentioned before, I have been helping him sort through all of these photo contest blogs. It’s mind blowing how many photos you guys sent in, so it’s taken kind of a long time.

That said, a lot of the photo contest blogs have been about 97% done for a while. We grouped things into categories together. We sorted them out. We bickered a bit over who the winners and honorable mentions should be. We got photos into the photostreams so blogs wouldn’t have 80 pictures in them.

Pat’s been part of all these steps. He’s been the ultimate decider. And the blogs have been getting posted up. But, y’know, still kinda slowly.

Ultimately, the problem is that Pat’s more than slightly obsessed with getting things perfect. You know this is the case in his books, where he needs everything to be 100%. What you might not realize is this: for him, even posting a blog that’s only 97% feels wrong to him.

[This is true. The pursuit of perfection is kinda like a sickness.]

With his books, this leads to good books. But with blogs… it mostly leads to long delays.

[Yeah. True. Or it leads to me not writing blogs at all, dreading the amount of time they’ll take to finish.]

Here’s the problem. Pat told me that it was my job to make sure we got the photo contest finished.

So the other day, I say to him: “If we don’t get the photo contest finished, we’re not going to be able to fit in the other thing you want to do before the Mid-Season fundraiser at the beginning of June.”

Pat says, “Yeah. I was wondering. How would you feel about finishing up a couple of the blogs yourself? They’re pretty much done already. They just need final spit and polish. And I know I’m slowing down the process at this point.”

“I would love that,” I said.

“I would kinda love that too,” he said.

For reference, I went to double check, and the submissions for the photo contest were all due on May 15, 2011. On Friday, we will have had these photos for four years.

[I hereby declare that we will finish this photo contest by May 15th of this year. Even if it kills us.]

[And by “We” I mean Amanda. And by “us” I mean me. Because Amanda will kill me.]

So yeah. Let’s get this ball rolling, shall we? Don’t worry. I don’t doubt Pat will jump in and give you a bit of his own color commentary here and there.

[Way ahead of you.]

* * *

Today we bring you Part IX of the long delayed photo contest.

Previous parts are here:

[Prologue] [Part I] [Part II] [Part III] [Part IV] [Part V] [Part VI] [Part VII] [Part VIII]

Lots of people surrounded Wise Man’s Fear with other beloved books from their libraries.

Nerd awesome

Or reading other books.

rothfussphto2

[The glasses are a nice touch here.]

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This one features El Contador de Historias as Sim, La Cultura, Todo lo que Hay que Saber as Wil, and WMF as Kvothe, all having at drink at the Eolian.

A surprising number of people had Wise Man’s Fear fighting other books to the death.

PatRothCon Mockup

This was a somewhat common motif in the previous photo contest, too. I’m not sure what makes Pat’s books fight other books so much, but they sure seem to win a lot.

Winner: Epic Struggle

[I just wanted to claim credit for “Epic Struggle.” That’s mine. I came up with that.]

close fight

This one had great attention to detail. The blood spilling out is words. The books have hands, and WMF got wounded in battle, but not enough to prevent its coup de grâce.

This was a reference to Pat’s blog about blurbing Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings, particularly the quote “Sanderson’s books are so good that he’s starting to piss me off.”

Also Winner: Playing With Yourself.

[I’d like to *not* take credit for “Playing With Yourself.” But I have to. Because I came up with it.]

Our other winner, though, really took advantage of Pat’s obsession with Catan:

Catan 6

Their suggested caption:

  • “Teaching the new guy” or “I have wood for sheep.”

They managed to get one of the cool ARC copies of Name of the Wind into the picture, and as a first edition/first printing of NOTW as well.

We’ve got a photostream of all of the other books hanging out with books, if you want to check them out.

Books Around the World.

For the contest, a lot of people took Wise Man’s Fear to cool and exciting places. Fantastic places. Far-off, exotic locales….

And Urbana. Normally Urbana is not considered an exotic locale, but this dedicated fan gave us the entire photo journey of the Travels of Mr. Book.

Anywhere youlike

This was only the first picture, but if you want to see the complete set, you can check out the Travels of Mr. Book over on the photo stream.

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Apparently this is a shop for jewelery in Ulm, Germany. The Sparrow is the emblem of Ulm.

[In Ulm, um Ulm, um Ulm herum.]

photo contest heroic looking Karo

This was taken at the Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, which the tourist-board calls the Fairytale-Castle and the person who submitted the photo calls “neo-gothic tastlessness.”

Even so, it made for a sweet photo.

The book made it to some classic spots too, like the Colosseum.

Wise Man's Fear Colesso

Or overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

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Seattle….

[Cool skyline.]

at sea(ttle)

Or Cologne, Germany.

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On our recent trip to Germany, I saw this very cathedral. And I think this copy of WMF looks pretty cool with his sunglasses….

[Is that the Cathedral I pointed at and said, “I’ve gotta get me one of those?”]

Yup. I violently rolled my eyes at you.

wisesage

This fan couldn’t get their hands on a copy of WMF, and so made their own based on bootlegged copies of DVDs and books found in the area.

[I remember I didn’t get this joke at first, but when we followed up with them, they explained that bootlegged DVDs tend to have ridiculously bad cover translations.]

In the intervening years, WMF has been translated into both traditional and simplified Chinese, and they’re both beautiful, for reference.

Other folks just found beautiful or picturesque places to take the book, including places that looked like waystones.

Waystone-s of Carthage

[I think this one might actually *be* an old waystone. As in an old Roman stone that marked a road? Is that something that really existed, or did I just make it up in my head?]

[No. Nope nope nope. I’m not going to look it up. Not going to lose two hours researching it. I’m learning to let go and let some blogs be only 97%…]

Columns of heaven

Peek.

Waystone

And on that note…

Winner: Greystones.

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These look like perfect waystones to sit and read beneath. Just be wary on night with a full moon…

[Actually *pushes us glasses* it’s the night with no moon that people are supposed to fear.]

Is it okay if we just fix it and I don’t have to snark back at you because I’m actually legitimately embarrassed that I messed that up?

[No. Everyone will bear witness to your shame. That’s what happens when you settle for 97%.]

We have a photostream of all of the other exotic or interesting locales, so take the time to check them out, because there were a lot.

* * *

Congrats to all the winners, and sorry for the nearly-four-year delay.

Subbing in for this blog was really fun, and Pat and I are going to work hard to get all of the rest of the photo contest blogs up this week.

[Do. Or do not. There is no try.]

I’ll probably take over at least one more. Y’know, just to be sure.

Amanda

[This was a surprising amount of fun for me, too. Make sure to stay tuned to the blog this week, because there’s going to be a new blog pretty much every day.]

[pat]

Also posted in fan coolness | By Amanda28 Responses

WMF Photo Contest Part VIII: Costumes (Warning – Artistic Boobs)

Before we jump into the newest installment of the photo contest, I’d just like to take a moment and reflect on the subtitle of the above blog.

You see, a while back, I wrote a blog where I showed off pictures people had sent me of the tattoos people have gotten based on my books.

There’s a fair amount of skin in that blog, as you might expect, because, y’know… tattoos. I didn’t think much of it, because it wasn’t like you could see anything that would even rate a PG in a modern movie.

But afterwards someone sent me a message along the lines of “You need to warn us when you post up a blog with pictures of half-naked people in it. I was reading your blog at work and it almost got me fired.”

My first thought was, “Half naked… Hmm…. Would that include pretty much anyone in shorts and a t-shirt? That’s pretty much half of your body right there….

The second thought was, “If you’re reading my blog while you’re at work, it’s really not my fault if you get in trouble.”

Then my third thought was, “Unless your job is to read blogs, but you’re employed by, like, a catholic nun who is going to beat the hell out of you with a ruler if she sees a woman’s midriff on your computer screen.”

My fourth thought was, “I don’t think there are many jobs like that.”

Quibbling aside, I’m aware that there’s a certain narrow slice of the population that is absolutely terrified that they might see a naked breast. They fear the boob as if they were some deadly mythological beast that will destroy them should they accidentally gaze upon it.

Hence my warning.

Personally, I’m pro-breast. Back between the ages of 13 and 25, I used to think that boobs were the best. Now that I’m 40, I *know* they’re the best.

I know this because I have two little kids. And let me tell you, the white-hot intensity of my teenage self’s pre-internet boob desire is a pale candle compared to how much my little boys adore boobs.

Anyway, yeah. There are a few boobs later on in this post. If seeing them is going to wreck your day, don’t scroll down through the rest of the blog…

*     *     *

Today we’re going to be looking at costumes.

A lot of people dressed up for the contest: and many of those pictures have already been featured in other blogs, or we’ll be showing them off in the future…

Adem born

Like the adorable Adem from the Babies and Knives Blog.

Not all of the costumes from my books. Some of them were just good costumes.

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Like this dedicated fan trying read wearing 45 pounds of plate armor.

Some of the costumes were *on* my books….

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If I’d been smart, I would have put this blog up on May the 4th…

We had a fair number of hooded figures show up.

Flowing Cloak Paul Coffey

Which is a little surprising, considering how dangerous we all know that can be….

LanreEscape

We even saw some rare behind-the scenes footage of the Chandrian chatting.

Comic

There were more than a few Felurians, too.

Though I can hear you say, “Oh come now. Dressing up as Felurian is kinda the opposite of a costume, isn’t it?”

You have a point. But my readers are clever and subtle.

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And, surprisingly, they are not the source of the boobs in today’s blog. Alas.

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Interesting Fact: The book was her 21st birthday present from her boyfriend. Don’t ask me what age that would make her now. Doing the math just piles guilt onto me…

Here we have some Mistborn crossover….

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Some of the pictures (Not shown here, in the photostream) were taken on a rooftop. That said, these fans live in row houses in Philadelphia and it is quite safe to be on the roof. They even promised that they stayed away from the edge.

An Adventure Begins

(Dr. Livingston, I presume?)

But by far, the most popular costume choice was Kvothe.

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Quite frequently, he was accompanied by Denna.

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Careful observes will note that this Adem baby Kvothe is wearing a sword. So before you get your knickers in a twist:

1. We were assured that no babies were harmed in the making of these picture.

2. We’re aware that while Kvothe studied with the Adem, he never actually wore the mercenary reds.

camp

What really makes this one for me is the fact that there’s a tiny lute in a tiny case next to the Kvothe-book….

All in all, Costumes might be my favorite category. People went crazy with it, and I love their enthusiasm.

So let’s name some winners here:

  • Best Meta.

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This one is all kinds of delightful Meta: It’s the story of a fictional character reading my book and then having a fantasy about role-playing with her crush.

It might not be possible to be more meta than that.

  • Amanda’s Choice:

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For those of you who don’t already know, Amanda is one of my assistants, and without her these photo blogs (among many other things) would never get done. She’s been helpingme sift and organize the pictures and get them up into the blogs so I can finally share them with you.

She picked this one, saying “This is the first cosplay of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle I’ve seen, and it’s FANTASTIC.”

I agree.

  • Most Striking.

wisemansfear

One of my favorite Felurian images to date.

  • Most Dedicated Kvothe.

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(Click to Embiggen)

This committed fan made the cloak and shirt himself, And there are a *bunch* more pictures in the photostream.

  • Most Artistic.

Wise Man's Fear Contest Entry

I’m going to be honest. This is one of my favorite pictures that anyone has sent in. And no, not just because it has boobs in it.

I love this picture because it’s an homage to Gabrielle d’Estrées et une de ses sœurs (Gabrielle d’Estrées with her Sister). The artist is unknown, but Gabrielle was Henry the IV’s mistress, adviser, and baby-momma. To say nothing of the fact that she acted as a diplomat on his behalf and sat on his council.

Gabrielle d'Estrees and one of her sisters in the bath

There’s a lot of speculation about this particular painting. Some people claim that her sister pinching her nipple signifies that she’s pregnant with Henry’s child. (Which is understandable, as Gabrielle is holding his ring in her other hand.)

But there’s a lot of folks who view this picture as historically significant lesbian erotica. Which also seems reasonable to me, because… well… for kinda obvious reasons that I’m pretty sure I don’t have to point out.

I love this picture because it’s always struck me as incredibly funny. Delightful and whimsical. Keep in mind that this was a long time before cameras. Their expressions are so serious, just like a formal portrait. But… tweak

I think I’m not alone in this feeling, which is one of the reasons this painting is constantly referenced and parodied. (I’ll let you google around and find those pictures yourselves.)

So yeah. This is awesome. Thanks for making my life a little brighter.

Here’s the winners with their pipes:

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Costumes was one of our biggest categories, so if you want to see the rest of the pictures (that aren’t in other categories) check out the photo stream over here.

If you’d like to see the other parts, they’re here:

[Prologue] [Part I] [Part II] [Part III] [Part IV] [Part V] [Part VI] [Part VII]

Later all,

pat

Also posted in fan coolness, NSFW (Depending on Where You Work) | By Pat16 Responses
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