Published: November 23, 2016

Overwatch + Hunger Games x Geeks = Charity?

So… I don’t know if you guys have heard about this Overwatch thing. It’s a little shoot-em-up style game made by some indie game developer or other.

If you listen to my podcast with Max Temkin, you’ve definitely heard of it. Max has been singing a song about Overwatch for ages now, trying to seduce me over to the dark side. And a couple months back, I finally gave in.

But that wasn’t enough for Max. Then at some point in the podcast he said our two companies should go head-to-head in a match. Cards Against Humanity vs Worldbuilders for charity. And I laughed and said sure. That would be fun. Whatever.

But then our people got talking, and things started to snowball…

And that leads to today. With me announcing the first (and maybe only ever) Worldbuilders Overwatch Tournament for Charity. Yeah. Let’s go with that name. That acronym shouldn’t be confusing at all….

We have 8 teams representing diverse groups from all the four corners of the geek world:

ow_logo_300dpi-smaller(Art by the amazing Kevin Budnik)

Next week Tuesday (November 29th) our first round of matches will begin. Each team will spend the time between now and then trying to rally their communities to donate on their team pages. Because for each match, the team with less money will have to play with a handicap. Like having everyone on their team play as Junkrat. Or making everyone play support characters. Or not lettting anyone play genji. Ever. Because I hate Genji so much. So so so so much.

For example, the first match next week Tuesday at 5:30pm CT, Team Secret Hitler will be playing Team Penny Arcade. Whichever of them raises less money will have their entire team playing Soldier 76. I’m pretty sure no one wants that, so they’ll be constantly battling to make sure they don’t lose.

It’s gong to get pretty ridiculous.

Here’s the tournament bracket.

schedule

(click to embiggen the glory)

Each game will be watchable in multiple places. And I’m pretty sure at least one of them will be on my very own twitch channel, where I will be blowing myself up constantly as Junkrat. So if you want to make sure you catch the show, you can go and follow me there now.

Using our first game as a reference, If you want to watch the Team Penny Arcade captain’s stream and hear all of the team’s talking in group chat, you can watch on their Twitch channel. Same holds true for Team Secret Hitler. (You can find all of the teams’ Twitch channels on the Worldbuilders Overwatch Wesite)

Or, if you want to watch in Spectator Mode and see the match from both sides you can tune into the Worldbuilders Twitch channel, where we’ll have the lovely Amanda hosting and commentating on all of the matches throughout the tournament.

All of this information is visible on the website we made to track the tournament. We kinda banged it together quick, but it gets the job done by showing each team’s current total, along with links so you can support your favorites by donating.

secret-hitler-vs-penny-aracade(Like so.)

Also, did I mention that any donations you make on those team pages will be doubled thanks to the fact that we have access to a Million Dollars of matching money?

Dollar-panarama-704155(It will.)

Also, every $10 dollars you donate gets you an entry in our fabulous prize lottery. Which at this point has more than 1,600 books, games, and cool geekery worth more than $60,000. (With more being added every day.)

I hope y’all have a happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. With an amount of family that is sufficient to your particular situation and desires.

Know that I am endlessly thankful for all of you. And for the geek community that comes together every year to make Worldbuilders a success.

Here’s the link to the page where you can see team standings and donate.

May the best team win.

pat

P.S.

(Please donate to Worldbuilders because seriously, I can’t play any support characters…)

Posted in Worldbuilders 2016 | By Pat20 Responses
Published: November 21, 2016

Fantastic Beasts, Books, My Shame, and Terrifying Favors

Hey there everybody,

Over the weekend, Worldbuilders hit 150,000 dollars.

That’s cool enough in its own right, but if you consider the fact that all donations are being matched dollar for dollar…

Dollar-panarama-704155(Like so.)

… it means we’ve actually raised over $300,000.

Needless to say, this is our best launch ever. And we’ve passed three stretch goals, including this amazing video the folks at Heifer International made to celebrate.

I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever enjoyed watching a video more….

The amount of money we’ve raised is going to do an amazing amount of good. It’s enough for 15,000 flocks of chickens that will help families increase their gardens’ productivity by eating bugs, to say nothing of eggs they can eat and sell for extra income. It’s enough to provide 1,000 communities with clean water.

And this is just our first week….

*     *     *

Back when I started all this, Worldbuilders was nothing more than me desperately offering up signed books and posters in an attempt to get people to donate to my favorite charity.

These days, we have so many authors helping out. Not to mention dozens of sponsors who donate thousands of games and books for us to give away. This year, in just our first week, we have more than 850 prizes worth more than than $33,000. And for every $10 bucks you kick into the fundraiser, you get another chance to win things like this:

kingkillertakboardpanel

I will never get tired of showing off this beautiful Tak set from Wyrmwood. I’m already jealous of the person who wins it. (P.S. That person can be you if you donate.)

But even though the fundraiser is a lot bigger than me these days, I still like to do my part and throw some of my own donations into the mix.

  • Auction: My own personal Flow Hive of Shame.

flowhive-doh-2

As I wrote about on the blog a while back, I bought a Flow Hive.

The marketing sold me on an easy-peasy way to harvest honey without any of the usual work involved. But then I did my research and found out that if lazy, irresponsible people like me get into beekeeping, the hives can go bad and potentially do a lot of harm not only to the bees in the hive, but the whole local bee ecosystem.

So I’ve decided to auction this hive off to someone who will love it, and hopefully use it responsibly, too.

The money from this auction (and all the other auctions) will be doubled with our magical matching money. Then we’ll send it off to Heifer, where they can use it to train, educate, and buy beehives for people who will use them for extra income, honey, and to improve pollination of their gardens and crops.

If you’re interested in beekeeping and want to help me offset this bad decision, you can bid on it right here.

  • A full set of my favorite fantasy books.

PatCarePackage03

(click to embiggen – Rachel had to stand on a stool to get all of them)

A few years ago, someone asked me what they should read while they were waiting for my next book. So I posted a blog listing my 40 favorite fantasy books and/or series are. Books that everyone should read if they wanted to consider themselves well-versed in fantasy.

The clever among you will note that this picture contains a lot more than 40 books. This is because I cheated and used entire series as an entry. Like the Dresden Files, which I’m absolutely gooey over. (Currently 15 books.) Or Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Series. (38 books.)

PatCarePackage10

I gave one of these away a couple of years ago, but we have another available this year. Some of these books are out of print, or at the very least VERY hard to track down. I want to bring them to as many people who haven’t had the luck to read them as possible.

So this is going into the lottery where anyone can win them so long as they donate at least $10 bucks.

  • Signed First Edition Name of the Wind. Lottery and Auction.

NOTW01

I still remember when I sold these online for 60 bucks and felt *really* guilty about it, like I was committing some sort of fraud.

Then came the time when we were selling them in the store for $700 each, but we had to stop because we ran out. Last year we auctioned one for $2,500. Every year people seem to be willing to pay more and more. And I can’t imagine what will happen to the price if a movie ever comes out.

Still, I have handful of them squirreled away. And for Worldbuilders, I’m willing to give up a pair. One is going into the lottery where anyone who donates can win it, other copy is going up on ebay.

  • Signed & Doodled College Survival Guide. Lottery and Auction.

CSG01

These are even more of a rarity than first editions of NOTW. This is a collection of humor columns I wrote for the college paper back when I was a student. This edition is annotated, and illustrated by my longtime friend Brett Hiorns, who now works with us at Worldbuilders.

This book was put together by a small press in 2005. Back before anyone cared who Patrick Rothfuss was. There were only 500 printed, so they’re impossible to find. I’ve put two of my remaining copies into the fundraiser, one in the lottery and the other up for auction right here.

  • Signed, doodled, First Edition copies of The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed. One in the lottery and one in an auction.

princess_doodled

The Princess books are probably my favorite pet project. I worked on them with my friend Nate Taylor, who also illustrated The Slow Regard of Silent Things. We’ve been the ones printing them fora couple of years now, and they’re on their 6th or 7th printing.

These, however, are first printing copies, signed by me, and signed and doodled by Nate.

These aren’t all that easy to come by, so I’ve put one in the lottery, and the other is up for auction here.

  • One Favor from Pat Rothfuss. One in the lottery and one in an auction.

Golden Ticket Ring

I’ve auctioned off favors in the past, and it’s gone over extremely well. Here are the details:

This is a 10 karat gold ring redeemable for one (1) favor from Patrick Rothfuss.

Possible uses for the favor include:

Asking Pat to insert your name/likeness into a future book or story.
Asking Pat’s assistance in wooing the object of your affection, preferably from under a balcony at night.
Asking Pat to read and critique your unpublished manuscript (or your published one, if you really want.)
Asking Pat give a reading/workshop at your local library or University.
Asking Pat to give a reading/workshop at your house.
Asking Pat to give a reading/workshop in your bedroom.
Asking Pat to help you move a particularly heavy couch.
Asking Pat to follow you on twitter and post kitten pictures to you.

This favor has no expiration date. It can be traded, transferred, sold, or lost. In essence, the ring *is* the favor. You give the ring back when you cash in your favor. So if you lose it, you’ve kinda fucked yourself.

The nature of this favor is fairly open-ended, though some negotiation may be necessary depending on the nature of the favor. Certain ethical or legal restrictions may apply (though not as many as you might expect.) Under no circumstances will Patrick dance for you. Carnal favors must be approved by Pat’s girlfriend in advance. If you win this favor in the auction, and for any reason I cannot fulfill his obligation to you, I will personally refund your winning bid in exchange for the ring.

In the past these have gone for more than $15,000. But I’m putting on into general the lottery where anyone who donates at least $10 can win it.

Or, if your dark heart is full of a desperate need for something only I can provide, you can go over here and bid.

And may god have mercy on my soul.

  • 3 Silver Court Rings – Same Place, Same Time rings. 

silverrings2

This is something new I’m trying out this year. Rather than continuously giving away gold rings that lay out there in the world, filled with a terrible potential to ruin my life. I commissioned some silver rings from Badali. These won’t give you any sort of favor. But if we’re in the same city, at the same convention, or somewhere convenient like that, I’ll carve out some time to grab a coffee with you, or maybe play a quick game.

Also. How fucking cool do these look? I love them. I think they turned out great.

I’ve put all three of these into the lottery, where every ten dollars you kick in gives you a chance to win.

*     *     *

  • Update on Neil Gaiman’s Stretch Goal.

Our $1 million goal is to have Neil Gaiman read to us again. And you get to vote on what he reads:

what-will-neil-read-10am-11-21-16

 

But of course, this only happens if we hit 1,000,000 dollars. So keep donating….

  • Streaming on Twitch:

As many of you already know, to help promote Worldbuilders, I’m livestreaming on my Twitch channel every day of the fundraiser.

  • Mondays: 1:00-4:00 pm CST
  • Tuesdays: 4:00-7:00 pm CST
  • Wednesdays: 4:00-7:00 pm CST
  • Thursdays: 4:00-7:00 pm CST
  • Fridays: 2:00-5:00 pm CST
  • Saturdays: 2:00-5:00 pm CST
  • Sundays: 2:00-5:00 pm CST

And when I say, “every day” what I really mean is “almost every day.” I will happily sacrifice my health and mental well-being to the fundraiser, but Sarah and the kids have requested that they have their dad back for Thanksgiving. So I’m not having scheduled streams on the 23th-25th. Though I will probably log on later in the evening those days (After 10:00 CST, when my kids are in bed.)

Also, starting today, we’re taking votes on what I should do when I’m streaming.

what-to-stream-on-twitch

This is going to be a little different than last year, where winner took all.

Instead of just doing whichever option raises the most money, it’ll be based on percentages. Let’s say that Witcher raised 75% of the money for the day, Goat Simulator got 20%, and Q&A got 5%. I’ll spend 75% of the stream playing Witcher, 20% playing Goat Simulator, and 5% doing Q&A. This way, every vote counts, and everyone gets what they want, at least a little bit.

While I’m planning on continuing to play Witcher, I’m also open to suggestions of other games. I’m probably going to do a parenting Q&A stream with some other geek dads. And a Mental Health Q&A with some authors.

If you have any other ideas, leave them in the comments below.

Thanks for coming along on this ride with me, everyone. And thanks for helping make the world a better place.

pat

Posted in Worldbuilders 2016 | By Pat40 Responses
Published: November 18, 2016

Cameos and Critiques

Today’s blog continues two of my favorite Worldbuilders traditions, professional critiques of manuscripts and people getting to make guest appearances in upcoming books.

Let’s jump right in.

  • Critiques

This is something I would’ve killed for when I was first sending the book off to publishers. The opportunity to have your manuscript read by a skilled editor, agent, or author is huge. It doesn’t just have an impact on your book, this sort of feedback can help you develop your craft as well.

We always put a bunch of these up for auction, and this year is no exception.

But even better, this year we have critiques available in the lottery, too. Back when I was in college I couldn’t have afforded an expensive auction. So now I’m delighted to give unpublished writers a chance to win a professional critique by donating to the WriMos for Worldbuidlers team page. For every $10 you donate, you’ll get the chance to win a critique, as well as all the other goodies in our prize lottery. Even better? More critiques will be added as we hit higher donation totals on that team page team.

So, if you want to jump in on that option in the lottery, donate right here. If you’d like to be a little more certain that you’ll get a critique, then this next section is for you. We have sixteen different critiques going up in the auction.

A NOTE BEFORE YOU DIVE IN: We’ve made each critique expandable here, so if you’re interested in one, you can click on it to expand out more information. PLEASE READ THIS INFORMATION CAREFULLY.

Everyone is offering something a little different. Each author, editor, or agent is handling their auction in their own way…

  • Everyone has different skills, and they’re each offering something different.
  • Critiques are for different lengths of manuscript. From 7,500 to 150,000 words.
  • The professionals below are busy people. Critiques will have to fit in their schedules.
  • When auctions mention “X pages” of a manuscript, that’s standard manuscript format.
  • Most importantly, it’s important to realize that what you’re getting here is a critique. You’re not buying an introduction to someone’s agent or editor. You’re not winning representation with an agent. Or a foot in the door with an editor. That’s not what’s on the block. You’re getting writing advice from a professional.

Also, I’d just like to point out that all donations to Worldbuilders are being doubled right now. So if you were looking for an excuse to be generous. This is it…

Okay. Enough preamble. Let’s get to the auctions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Copy Edits and Fact Checking

This is slightly different than a critique of your manuscript, and so we’ve separated it out a bit.

A copy edit is a really big deal, and honestly something that most people don’t think about. Most authors don’t get this chance until their book has already sold, but it makes a huge difference in the readability of a manuscript.

 

  • Tuckerizations

What is a Tuckerization, you may ask? Well, it means different things to different people. Historically, it’s called a Tuckerization because Wilson Tucker used so many of his friends’ names as characters in his stories that it became something of an in-joke. Nowadays, it’s the chance to make a cameo appearance in a story. An author will take your name, or maybe your personality, or your physical description, and use it for a character in their story.

Maybe it’s not your name. Maybe it’s a sister’s, or a friend’s, or that kid you spent a lot of time with in kindergarten before he moved away. Maybe you only *start* with your name, but the author changes it a bit to fit in with the culture of the world you’re being put into. If that happens, you collaborate with the author and reach a solution you both like.

Whatever the case, it’s a chance to be a part of something really cool. It’s a chance, in some ways, at literary immortality.

We have ten tuckerizations available below, but they’re all a little different, so read carefully.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***

So, we’ve got a lot of options for you there, folks. Take your time, click around, and see what option tickles your fancy the most. Maybe make a list of the top 3. These auctions will be ending at slightly different times, so if you miss out on one, you can still go for another.

And if all of them slip past you, don’t forget that you could win a manuscript critique in the lottery if you donate to the WriMos for Worldbuilders team page. All hope is not lost.

More coming soon…

pat

Posted in Worldbuilders 2016 | By Pat8 Responses
Published: November 17, 2016

Our Best Launch Ever: The First Four Days….

It’s day four of the fundraiser. And as I write this, we’ve just crested up over the top of 70,000 dollars. With our matching money, that means we’ve already raised over $140,000 and hit our $100K stretch goal: Launching my new website (a little earlier than we’d planned.)

At some point this weekend we’ll be flipping the switch on that so y’all can look around at the new coolness, kick the tires a little, and…. to be honest… probably see some things that aren’t working the way we’d intended. Think of this as a very solid beta launch…

More importantly, this blog is a reminder that this year I’m not posting everything that goes up in the fundraiser on this blog. Instead, the Worldbuilders Team has taken over a lot of the information distribution over on their website. You can follow their blogs right here, and keep an eye on the lottery library to see what’s being added to the fundraiser every day.

For example, on Tuesday they posted a ton of cool geekery from Badali Jewelry and Valyrian Steel.

badali-goodies

valyrian-steel-swag(Click on the photos and you can read all about them…)

Wednesday they featured a ton of signed books donated by authors….

author-donatedAnd today we’re putting in over 600 games into the lottery where every $10 dollars you donate gets you a chance to win. (And then gets doubled, too.)

games-day-1

So right now we’ve got nearly 900 prizes in the lottery worth over $33,000. And we’re only just barely four days into our festivities.

If you want to keep seeing everything as it comes it, keep an eye on the Worldbuilders website.

  • Twitch News:

As many of you already know, I’ll be on my Twitch chanel, streaming every night from 4pm-7pm CST to promote the charity.

So far, I’ve played the alpha version of Hero’s Song, only sucked a little in Overwatch, and performed a writing Q&A so intense it almost cost me my voice.

Future plans include inviting Sarah onto the stream for Date night (tonight), playing Witcher 3, and generally getting up to all sorts of hijinks. Hell, things might actually escalate to the point of full-blown shenanigans by early next week.

If you want to be part of that, you can sign up for notifications for when I start streaming.

Simply go to my twitch channel and click “Follow” then turn on notifications.

Um… Amanda? Can you tuck in a graphic to show them what I’m talking about?

followpat

notifyme

(Here you go, Boss.)

Thanks much Amanda, that’s very… high tech of you. um… maybe not pick a screencap where I look quite so dumb next time?

We’re going to start letting people vote on what I do during each stream as soon as we have the technology to do that. Which is sure to lead to absolute madness. You don’t want to miss the madness, do you?

With that in mind, any ideas for fun things you’d like to see on the stream? Share them in the comments below…

Oh, and also, I’m just going to put a link to the donation page here.

And a link to all our current auctions here.

I’m sure you can figure out what to do with those…

pat

Posted in Worldbuilders 2016 | By Pat25 Responses
Published: November 14, 2016

A Boat, A Board, A Table, and Books

Hey there everybody,

This year’s fundraiser is going to be bigger and better than ever, and today’s blog includes four of the reasons why.

Rather than save our coolest things for last as we’ve occasionally done in the past, we’re launching out with big items that are all going into the lottery, which means for every $10 you donate on our fundraiser page you have a chance to win them and a ton of other prizes.

This first one is something new to the fundraiser. We’ve never put anything like it in the lottery before…

  • A cabin for 2 on the 2017 JoCo Cruise

joco_logo

JoCo Cruise 2017 is a cruise ship full of music, comedy, and general nerdery. The 2017 cruise departs from San Diego, CA on Saturday, March 4th for a 7-night adventure along the Sea of Cortez and will return on Saturday, March 11.

joco-fun-times

I’ve gone on the JoCo Cruise for two years in a row now, and 2017 will be my third trip out. I didn’t know if I’d like going on a cruise, because honestly? I’m a bit of a cave dweller. But despite my initial reservations, I have to say, I absolutely love it. It’s a great atmosphere, and this year’s cruise will be the first time the geeks are taking over the entire cruise ship.

It’s the best time. I’ve had more genuine interactions with fans and other geeks on the boat than I can hope to have at a convention.

So I’m delighted to announce that JoCo Cruise has donated a balcony cabin on the boat to Worldbuilders, and we’re putting it in the lottery where anyone who donates at least $10 can win it.

You’ll still need to pay for your own flights to and from the cruise, but once you’re on the boat you’re pretty much golden. There’s free food and drinks (with some options you’d have to pay for), concerts, events, panels, and so, so much more.

gaming-with-steve-jackson-pic-by-steve-petrucelli-600x401

(Like the 24 hour gaming room, for example)

The JoCo Cruise folks made a handy-dandy list for us of everything this does and doesn’t include, but the big thing is that every $10 you donate gets you another chance to win this awesome trip.

  • The Vanguard gaming table from Geek Chic

3-standardvanguard_lid-on-side

The lovely folks over at Geek Chic have offered up one of their elegant gaming tables for this year’s Fundraiser.

If this table looks a little familiar, it might be because you’ve drooled over one at a convention like GenCon or PAX. Or maybe us playing on one in an episode of TableTop (where I crushed all who opposed me.)

Geek Chic makes gorgeous stuff. This table has an inset game field, so not only will your dice not roll onto the floor, but the replaceable top means you can cover up a partially finished game and still have a functional table you can use for eating dinner or doing work.

The table also has a grooved rail system that allows you to add on things like cup holders, trays, and dice containers onto the *side* of the table without cluttering up your game or risking spills.

7-_standardvanguard_transparent_layer_grande

This table is one of the newer designs from Geek Chic: the Standard Vanguard. There’s a lot more information about it over on their website. (Click that link.)

But wait, it gets better.

If you win this prize and want to customize your Vanguard, adding accessories or picking fancier woods, Geek Chic will give you the $2500 value of this table as credit toward your new configuration or anything else you’d like to buy from Geek Chic. Including a different table.

Even international donors have a chance of winning this, but we’ll coordinate with the winner after the fact, since international shipping can be tricky on something this large.

Remember, you get a chance to win it for every $10 you donate to the fundraiser and select games as something you’re interested in winning.

  • A Beautiful Tak Set from Wyrmwood

Some of you might recognize the Wyrmwood’s handiwork from the recent Tak kickstarter, where they made Devi’s Box and Devi’s Board.

Well this year for Worldbuilders, they made us something special….

boardangelwalnut

Seriously. Look at it. It’s gorgeous.

boardangelwalnut_4

It’s a handmade, one-of-a-kind Tak set, constructed with Kingwood, African Blackwood. (All ethically sourced.) The board has solid silver stringing and mother-of-pearl inlay. If they were selling them, the retail cost of this board would be around $5,000.

_dsc0304

But they’re not selling them. Even I don’t have one. This item is just available for some lucky geek to win if they donate to Worldbuilders.

  • Books From Subterranean Press

For those of you who love books more than games, the rest of the blog contains gorgeous limited-edition books from Subterranean Press. Sub Press has been around since the beginning of Worldbuilders, and all but one of their donations is going into the lottery.

All told, there’s over 200 books going into the lottery today. Many of them signed, numbered, or otherwise rare.

down-burgler-freedom

Subterranean Press always goes the extra mile to make truly beautiful books, so we love being able to show them off. They work hard to make their books incredibly high quality, and they don’t miss the mark.

aquila-confessions

There’s more than just novels going in, too. Both of these books are collections of stories from some of the best authors in their genre. Confessions is completely sold out, and the only place left to get a copy is here in the lottery.

tao-authentic

Each of these limited edition books was limited to 1,000 numbered copies, so you’re getting a real rarity in them.

mallet-amityville

John Scalzi’s collection of posts from his blog, Whatever, is a deep dark look into the things on his mind over the time between 2008 and 2012, which is both horrifying and hilarious.

Amityville Horrible is a wonderful horror story for more traditional reasons: it’s full of ghosts, necromancy, werewolves, and murder. It was limited to 1500 numbered copies which are all leather-bound and gorgeous.

  • Auction: One of every book published by Subterranean Press in 2016.

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This is one of the coolest things Subterranean has been doing for a while now, which is a collection of every single book they’ve published in the last year. It includes some of the books already featured in the fundraiser, plus a bunch more, including some that haven’t come out yet.

There are 38 beautiful books in this bundle. To add some serious class to your bookshelf, you can bid on this auction right here.

* * *

Happy first day of the fundraiser, folks. Remember that I’ll only be posting a few times throughout the fundraiser, but Worldbuilders will be updating their website every day with new items in the lottery, auctions, and stretch goals.

Let’s show Heifer International what we can do with $1 million in matching money.

Posted in Worldbuilders 2016 | By Pat15 Responses
Published: November 14, 2016

Worldbuilders 2016

Well folks, it’s that time of year again.

It’s with genuine excitement, that I announce the beginning of our annual Worldbuilders fundraiser.

Worldbuilders-Logo_Web--less-space

Worldbuilders is the charity I founded when I realized that geeks were startlingly empathetic and caring people, and, when given the chance, they will charge out in force to make the world a better place.

Worldbuilders raises money for several different causes, but our end-of-the-year fundraiser focuses on raising money for Heifer International. Heifer helps people raise themselves out of poverty and starvation. For more than 60 years, they have worked to improve education, sustainable agriculture, and local industry all over the world.

Don’t take my word for it though. Watch this instead. Seriously. It’s only a minute and a half.

This is what Heifer is all about. They don’t just keep kids from starving, they make it so people can take care of themselves. They give families goats, chickens, and sheep so children have milk to drink, eggs to eat, and warm clothes to wear. They provide communities with clean water to drink, building materials to improve homes, and business training to help families become self-sufficient. Forever.

Now for the big news: This year, Worldbuilders has access to a million dollars of matching money.That means if you donate enough to buy a woman like Chasha a goat, your donation will be doubled and Heifer will be able to provide another goat for someone else in need. If we can hit our total, we’ll have raised two million dollars that will help permanently change the lives of thousands of families all over the world, from Nepal to Appalachia. We have all the way until the end of the fundraiser on December 19th at 11:59pm PST to use it all.

There are a few different ways you can contribute and help us earn that matching money, each with a couple of additional benefits…

  • Option 1: The Lottery

This is the simplest option.: quick, easy, and tax-deductible. You just head over to the fundraising page we’ve created and donate.

When you donate on that page, in addition to having your donation doubled, you’ll be entered into our prize lottery, which contains thousands of books, games, comics, and more.

For every $10 you donate on the fundraising page, your name will be entered into our random drawing. So if you donate $30 (enough for a flock of chickens) your name goes in three times. Donate enough for a goat ($120) and your name goes in 12 times. Enough to give clean water to a whole village ($500) you get 50 chances to win.

What’s in the lottery? A lot. So much that if I showed it to you all at once, the raw intensity of the aggregate awesome would cook your brain like a toad thrown into the sun.

So we’ve spread things out so that we can show them to you in all their glory without risking your precious brain. I’ll be posting up blogs a couple times a week here on my blog, but there will be content going up pretty much every weekday on the Worldbuilders website. (Which we just finished re-designing, so it’s even better than last year.)

worldbuilders-home-page

(NEW AND IMPROVED!)

If you head over there, you can see *all* the different games and books we’re giving away on our Lottery Library page that we’ll be updating throughout the fundraiser.

You can also go check out the blogs full of prizes here:

In order to make sure everyone gets prizes they love while also making sure all our prizes find good homes, we’ll have you answer a question or two when you make a donation.

prize-question

Alternately, if you prefer not to leave things to random chance….

  • Option 2: Auctions

Sometimes we get donations that are cool…but only to a select group of people. Some people would squee with delight at winning a portal gun, but some people (sad, unhappy people) just wouldn’t be into it.

The same thing is true with action figures, musical instruments, manuscripts, collectibles. Signed signed art and rare books.

When things like that get donated, we put them up for auction.

Sometimes we also have people offering interesting services. Like writers and editors who are  willing to read and critique manuscripts. We’re auctioning off cameo appearances in comics and the chance to have your name in upcoming books.

All our current auctions are over on the Worldbuilders eBay page. Keep an eye on it. We’ll be adding stuff all the time.

The funds raised through the auctions will be going to Heifer International too. So whatever you bid in the auctions will be doubled as well. So and they count toward our matching money, so you’re still helping us have a huge impact on the lives of people who need it.

  • The Sure Thing

For those of you who want to have an absolute sure thing, we have an online store.

We have geekery from my books, games, t-shirts, and tons of other stuff for your perusal. The purchases there don’t go toward our fundraiser total, but the profits in the end will come to Worldbuilders and help make the world a better place.

  • Added Incentive: Stretch Goals

To help spread the word about the fundraiser (and encourage donations) we’ve brought members of the geek community together to do whimsical things as our donation total grows. There will be dirty limericks, grown adults clucking like chickens, happy dances, Neil Gaiman reading in that awesome voice of his, and so, so much more….

A special stretch goal this year is coming from Neil Gaiman: he’s offered to read to all of us again, and this year, you get to help decide what he reads. You can cast your vote when you make your donation:

what-should-neil-read

Once we hit $1,000,000, we’ll tally all the donations and tell Neil what he’ll be reading for us. In 2013, Neil read Green Eggs and Ham; the next year he read The Jabberwocky. This year promises to be equally wonderful.

  • Streaming on Twitch

Last year as an experiment, I tried livestreaming on Twitch to raise awareness of charity, talk about our prizes and what Heifer does, and have some fun with y’all at the same time.

It worked pretty well, so this year we’re doing it again. Here’s my new Twitch schedule through the end of the fundraiser (December 19th):

  • Mondays: 1pm-4pm CST
  • Tuesdays: 4pm-7pm CST
  • Wednesdays: 4pm-7pm CST
  • Thursdays: 4pm-7pm CST
  • Fridays: 2pm-5pm CST
  • Saturdays: 2pm-5pm CST
  • Sundays: 2pm-5pm CST

I don’t have anything scheduled on Wednesday November 23, Thursday November 24, and Friday November 25 to spend Thanksgiving with my family. I might do a surprise, unofficial stream in the evenings, but it won’t be pre-planned, and it definitely won’t be at these scheduled times.

As for what I’m streaming… well… I’m thinking I’m going to figure that out as we go along. I’ll probably play some games. But I’ll probably also do some Q&A sessions. Maybe do a few writing discussions. Maybe I’ll read some more kids books, or just work on book three while y’all stare at my coffee mug and listen to the tantilizing clickity of my old IBM keyboard while I write.

You won’t know unless you tune in. So if you want to know, you should head over here, follow the stream, and then change your settings so you get a notification when I start a new stream.

Important Links and Contact Information

Our website has all of the information you’ll need, including a nifty bar that shows off how much money we’ve raised from all of our various avenues. Worldbuilders also has a Facebook page and a Twitter account for those of you who like to have the internet injected directly into your veins.

Have a question that wasn’t answered here? Check out our handy FAQ.

Want to donate something to Worldbuilders? Help us spread the word? Do a stretch goal? Write a story for your local paper? Drop us a line here: donations [at] worldbuilders.org.

All right folks. Are you ready? I’m so ready.

Let’s do this thing.

pat

P.S. Just in case you missed it, here’s one more link to our Fundraiser donation page.

Posted in cool news, Worldbuilders 2016 | By Pat11 Responses
Published: November 11, 2016

Being a Trouper

Hey there everybody,

I’d meant to post a fun blog earlier this week. I had a couple cued up and almost ready. One was full of Kingkiller tattoos I’ve seen over the last year, another was pictures of babies that have been named after characters from my books. The one I *really* wanted to post involved the story of how I snuck some underage chicks into Max Temkin’s hotel room at Gencon.

41f23fed1b92a824ced03db71d8b4a9c(Like this. You pervert.)

But, as everyone knows, the election happened. Anyone who watched my election-night twitch stream might have an inkling of how I felt about that. And those of you who didn’t watch it can still probably guess.

And I’m guessing a lot of you feel the same way.

Interesting fact for those of you who feel shattered about the results: What you’re feeling now? That’s what a depressive episode feels like. At least it does to me. The pisser about depression is that you can feel desolate hopeless dread of exactly this sort even when nothing bad has happened.

Anyway, as a result, I couldn’t bring myself to finish a fun blog earlier this week. In fact, I’m not in the mood to write a blog now, either. I’ve been writing this thing for TWO HOURS and this is as far as I’ve gotten. It’s like trying to walk with a broken leg.

How the hell am I supposed to feel hopeful right now? How am I supposed to launch this year’s fundraiser and be enthusiastic about the cool news I have to share? I feel like everything is crumbling.

Earlier today, I found myself wondering what Auri would do in this situation. Well… that’s not actually true. Maybe it’s more that I wish I could ask for her advice? I wish she could just… help me. Like maybe she could give me a seashell or something and I would put it in my pocket and then I’d feel a little better.

Hell. You know you’re not doing well when you wish a fictional character would help you out. What the fuck does it even mean that I want help from the person who is arguably the most broken of all my characters? Is this it? Am I finally having a nervous breakdown?

No. I’m not. I’m depressingly sane.

Maybe it’s that Auri never lets it get to her. Not really. Not deep down. She’s a fighter, and despite everything, she always has a tiny flame of joy burning inside her. We’re very different in that regard.

I keep thinking of this picture and I don’t know why….

a-and-e-brazen

One of the things I share with Auri is that we both want to fix the world. Maybe that’s why I wish she could give me some advice. I can’t see a way to fix things right now. I am all unkilter.

Shit. I’m doing an awful job of this. I should just erase everything I’ve written and start over, but that would feel dishonest. I don’t want to lie to y’all. I don’t want to pretend I have my shit together. I don’t. I’m not doing great right now.

But still, I have some news to share. And it can’t wait.

Today I heard someone say, “We have to soldier on” and while I appreciate the sentiment, I don’t think there’s any way I can think of myself as a soldier.

I’ll be a trouper instead. How about that? The show must go on, right?

Okay, I’m taking a mulligan and starting over. Ready?

*     *    *

Hey there everybody,

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you probably know that this is the time of year when we do our big annual Worldubuilders fundraiser.

Last year we raised over 1.2 million dollars for Heifer International. We sent little girls to school in Nepal and fed hungry kids in Haiti. We gave people clean water and education. Medicine and self-reliance. The work we do literally brings light into the lives of people all over the world.

And no, I’m not misusing the word “literally” there. One of the many things Heifer does is teache people to make biogas digesters.

biogas-diagram-990x1024This miraculous contraption turns animal waste into fertilizer and methane. Then families can use that methane as a clean, cheap source of light and heat. Cooking over gas is much safer and easier than using a cookfire. That’s a big deal in parts of the world where electricity is expensive or straight-up unavailable.

It’s like real-life alchemy, folks. Heifer teaches people to turn shit into gold.

Over the last 8 years Worldbuilders has raised more than $5,000,000 to make things better all over the world, in Ukraine and Uganda. From Peru to Appalachia.

This year’s fundraiser is launching Monday, and we’ve got some big news. News I’ve been sitting on for months. And despite the fact that I’m a tease of epic proportions, I’m actually going to tell y’all that news today.

1. Story time with Neil Gaiman.

Two years ago, Neil Gaiman red us Green Eggs and Ham. While last year people who donated got to vote on what Gaiman would read. Jabberwocky beat out Where the Wild Things Are and Goodnight Moon, so he shot a video of himself reciting it from memory to help us spread the word about the fundraiser.

If y’all had any thoughts about what would be fun for him to read this year, I’d love to hear them in the comments below. Personally, I think The Monster at the End of This Book would be great. I’d love to hear him do Grover’s voice.

2. More livestreaming on Twitch.

Last year, I experimented with livestreaming on twitch to help spread the word about the fundraiser and it worked surprisingly well. So this year, not only will I be streaming again, but Worldbuilders is reaching out to the streaming community in general, and providing tools so that you can do fundraising for us on your own stream.

If you’re a streamer and you’d like to help out Worldbuidlers, contact us at twitchteams@worldbuilders.org and we’ll work with you to make that happen.

And now the big one….

3. A Million Dollars of Matching Money

This year, with Heifer’s help, Worldbuilders has access to a million dollars worth of matching money.

That means that if you come in and donate $10 to Worldbuilders, this anonymous benefactor will double that money, turning it into $20. You donate enough for a goat? It becomes two goats…

dollar-panarama-704155

This is a HUGE deal. And it means we have the chance to absolutely destroy last year’s totals.

I mention this to y’all in advance with the hope that you might be are willing to come in swinging in the early days of the fundraiser. If we manage to get some good donations early on, then double them, I’m hoping the total will be impressive enough that we can get some coverage in the media. That means people will find out about worldbuilders who otherwise would never have noticed it.

If that happens…. well… it means we get to feed a *lot* of hungry kids.

And that’s what I’m really in the mood to do right now.

If you have any suggestions for the upcoming fundraiser, or if you have a clever way of helping us spread the word, please drop those in the comments below, too.

Thanks much.

Take care of each other,

pat

Posted in Acts of Whimsy, calling on the legions, cool news, Uncategorized, Worldbuilders | By Pat108 Responses

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