Published: March 11, 2015

Suvudu cage match: Felurian…

So Suvudu is doing it’s yearly tournament of fictional characters, and in an interesting twist, they’re filling the entire bracket with female characters.

I was flattered to discover that they picked Felurian to fill one of the 32 slots.

Felurian

(Faboo Felurian Art by Craig Paton)

Felurian made it through the first round, and right now she’s battling Johanna Mason from the hunger games. And not that Johanna isn’t cool and all, but personally, I think Felurian has a bit of an edge in that particular fight.

If you like, you can read the way someone thought the fight would go and vote on who you think would win over here.

If Felurian pulls through, it looks like she’ll be going up against Sabriel in the next round.

If she makes it past that, I’m hoping Felurian faces off against Susan from Pratchett’s Discworld novels. That would be an interesting fight, as Susan has a sort of preternatual non-bullshit shield, and Felurian is, by her very nature, glamorous. (In all the different meanings of that word.) Though she has far more tricks up her sleeve than that.

My secret wish, deep in my heart of hearts, is that Felurian and Death both make it to the final round. I would write the hell out of that little scene.

If you want to see the whole bracket, you can head over here.

Later all,

pat

P.S. My event in Vienna filled up, so we added a second event that day. Details here.

Posted in appearances | By Pat39 Responses
Published: March 6, 2015

Novelties: New Releases, White Rabbits, and My Appearance at PAX East

Novelties is fast becoming one of my favorite things we do. I love that we get to spread the word about cool new books, games, and geekery while raising money for charity at the same time.

What’s more, the longer we do this, the more folks come to us with new and interesting things for us to show off….

For example…

MarchNovelties10

It was really cool for Worldbuilders to be contacted by Gary Whitta. For those of you who don’t know him, he’s a screenwriter best known for The Book of Eli. But he’s done work on The Walking Dead, too.

His first novel is coming out soon, and he very graciously signed and donated a few Advance Reader Copies for us to use in Novelties.

“Brutal, brilliant, and deeply compelling, Abomination is quite simply mandatory reading. You may as well call in sick to work now because the moment you pick up Abomination, you won’t want to put it down. This is historical fantasy done right.” – The Nerdist

Abomination won’t be published until May this year, so this is a rare opportunity to get your hands on it before anyone else. Seize the opportunity here.

MarchNovelties08

I’ve talked about Gabriel before. He won a read-and-critique from a Worldbuilders auction a few years ago, and got his book picked up by the critiquing agent. He’s had some great success, and he was kind enough to donate a few ARCs.

“If China Miéville, Neil Gaiman, and Hunter S. Thompson had a ménage à trois, Dead Boys would be the lovechild. A cracking book.” – Jay Kristoff, author of Stormdancer

The book is out now, but you can still get the pre-release ARC right here.

  • Sentinels of the Multiverse: The Video Game.

Hero_Shot_Large_grande

Some of you may remember that we have a fun working relationship with Sentinels. They created a promo character out of Kvothe, which can be played with their card game.

Now they’re back with their video game, and it looks like it’s awesome. The game play is similar to the card game, in that you are a hero who is fighting a super villain in an environment that adds to the experience. The cool thing about the video game is that you can play it solo (but you don’t have to), so if your friends aren’t around or you don’t feel particularly social, you can still kick some super villain butt.

They donated some game codes to us, after seeing that we could do it with a bunch of other folks. So if you’d like to play, you can grab an access code for fifteen bucks and give the game a try…

  • White Rabbit everything.

MarchNovelties07

These items are all inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and feature art by the wonderful Shane Tyree. We have a few different items from the same series.

MarchNovelties06

There are of course, the Limited and Unlimited decks, as well as a cool option to pick up two dice with a limited deck. The limited decks (the one with the blue back) will never be printed again, and this is one of Shane’s earliest decks, so it’s a great deal to be able to pick them up and help out Worldbuilders at the same time…

MarchNovelties05

(Click to embiggen the coolness…)

There’s also uncut card sheets for those of you who want to be able to see all of the beautiful card art in one place.

whiterabbit_collage

Finally, we have posters and magnets featuring a certain bearded fantasy author as the King of Hearts, as well as challenge coins styled to be the White Rabbit’s pocket watch.

  • Pinny Arcade Pins

Last year for PAX Prime, we hooked up with the Pinny Arcade people and made a limited edition Talent Pipes Pin.

TalentPipes_PinnyArcade_LapelPin

We put them up for sale at PAX Prime and sold about a thousand of them. And up until now, that’s been the only place you could get them. But now we’re throwing them up in The Tinker’s Packs , because we know a lot of the rest of you would like the chance to get hold of them.

A few things to note:

1. We only produced a set number of these, and when they’re gone, they’re gone. We won’t be making more.

2. All the proceeds we make from these (as with everything we sell in The Tinker’s Packs) goes to charity.

3. If you’d like to buy some pins *and* see my smiling face…

  • PAX East

I’m going to be back at PAX East, and you’ll never guess why…

Okay. You can probably guess why.

It should be a good time. I’m going to swashbuckle the hell out of this game. There will be daring do. I will do it. I will dutifully do some daring-do.

PAX Prime generally doesn’t have booksellers, but the folks at Pandemonium Books will be at PAX East. Not only will they have my books available, but they’ll be selling the Pinny Arcade Talent Pipes. So you can grab some from them, too.

I’ll also be carrying around a few myself, if anyone’s in the mood to trade.

I’ve even got a couple of signings there in addition to my game…

Saturday, March 7
5:00 – 7:00pm Signing in the Queue Hall (Pandemonium Books)

Sunday, March 8
10:30am – 12:00pm Signing in the Queue Hall (Pandemonium Books)
1:30pm Acquisitions Inc Game, Main Theater

Hope to see you there…

pat

P.S. Normally when I swing through a city for a convention (especially a convention that’s sold-out) I make a point of doing an off site signing for the people that aren’t attending.

Unfortunately, my schedule just doesn’t have room for that this time. My trip to Germany is coming up fast, and I’ve got some family things going on in Wisconsin that I need to keep an eye on.

But never fear, I’ll be signing stock for Pandemonium Books. So if you live in the area and you want some books with my name in them, you’ll be able to swing by and grab them there

Posted in gaming, Novelties, The Tinker's Packs | By Pat19 Responses
Published: March 3, 2015

German Tour: An Update

Once I posted about the events I’d be doing in Germany, I got a fair number of people speaking up in the comments of that blog, saying that the event they were hoping to attend was sold out.

Needless to say, this was not great news to me. The main reason I’m coming to Germany is to see as many of you as possible. If places were sold out three weeks ahead of time… well… it wasn’t an ideal situation.

die musik der stille

Once we caught wind of the potential problems, my team and I sprung into deft and decisive action. By which I mean to say we e-mailed around and called some people, seeing what we could do to make things better….

Luckily, some of the problems we heard about were easy to fix because they didn’t actually exist. It was just that some people had the wrong information. Other events we did what we could to open them up to more people.

So. Here’s all the most up-to-date information about the upcoming events:

In chronological order:

  • March 14, 2015: Leipzig

The reading and signing at the Leipzig Book Festival is free to all, with no ticket necessary, and will easily be our biggest event with 800 seats available.

7:30pm UTC+1
Reading Q&A, and signing in Leipzig
Peterskirche, St. Peter’s Church
Schletterstr. 5
04107, Leipzig (South)
Facebook Event

  • March 16, 2015: Berlin

We’ve got a bigger venue for the event in Berlin. It’s about 5 blocks away from the bookstore that was originally hosting it, so now we can seat 700 people.

This event is also free with no ticket necessary, so no worries there.

7:00pm UTC+1
Reading, Q&A, and Signing at Humboldt University
Audimax of the Humboldt University Berlin
Unter den Linden 6
10117 Berlin
Facebook Event

  • March 17, 2015: Cologne

lit.Cologne still has a few tickets available.

There was incorrect info on the site, and it’s been updated and working again. That said, it takes place on a boat, so once it’s sold out, there’s nothing to do to get more seats there. So if you want a ticket, you should grab one quick.

9:00pm UTC+1
Reading, Q&A, and Signing at the lit.Cologne
MS RheinEnergie/Literaturschiff Frankenwerft KD-Anleger,
Innenstadt,
50667 Köln
Facebook Event

  • March 18, 2015: Reutlingen

Reutlingen is going to be a fair-sized event at 400 people.

That said, it’s a ticketed event, and they may sell out soon. You can buy tickets here, or you can check out the livestream, which will be available to view on LovelyBooks.

8:00pm UTC+1
Reading, Q&A, and Signing at the lit.Cologne
Stadthalle Reutlingen
Oskar-Kalbfell-Platz 8,
72764 Reutlingen
Facebook Event

  • March 20, 2015: Vienna

EDIT: We’ve added a second, earlier signing this day at the same venue, since the first event is booked solid. Info in the Facebook event…

3:00pm – 5:00pm UTC+1
Reading, Q&A, and Signing at the Fantasy Festival
Kuppitsch Book Trade
GmbH Scots Gasse 4
1010 Vienna
Facebook Event

The bookstore was pleasantly surprised by the response to our Facebook Event for this, and because of the expected turn-out, they’ve started taking reservations by email for seats.

They’re already down to standing-room only, so if you’d like to make sure you’re on the list to get in (it’s free, they just need a headcount), email the bookstore at vindragona [@] kuppitsch.at

7:30pm UTC+1
Reading, Q&A, and Signing at the Fantasy Festival
Kuppitsch Book Trade
GmbH Scots Gasse 4
1010 Vienna
Facebook Event

* * *

I hope that clarifies things for you, folks. If you have any more questions, let us know in the comments below, and we’ll do our best to get answers to you.

That said, please be aware that we have a bit of a language barrier going on here. So if you’re from Germany, and you, y’know, speak German, you might want to try to get answers to your questions by checking out German websites yourselves.

Again, if you know of anyone who might be interested in these events, I’d be delighted if you could share this new information with them.

I’ll be seeing many of you soon…

pat

P.S. Stay tuned for some events happening here in the US….

Posted in travel abroad | By Pat26 Responses
Published: March 2, 2015

Wherein I Start Reading Fifty (50) Shades of Grey

Okay, so everyone’s been talking about it for ages. Everyone’s reading these books. There’s a movie out. Articles are being written all over the place…

I tend to have a irrational aversion to things that are really popular. But at the same time, I feel its my job to be aware what the general populous is reading.

So I’ve decided to start reading 50 Shades of Grey:
DSC04157

It might take me a little while….

I’ve heard that there’s some racy stuff in there, so I’ve been careful to keep Oot away, lest his innocence be irreparably harmed….

DSC04188

God. He’s such a little ham. I can’t imagine where he gets it from….

DSC04180

Now right now I can hear you thinking, “Pat, did you just spend 500 dollars on books just so you can make a joke on the internet?”

To which I reply: You bet your ass I did. What’s more, I don’t feel even the slightest bit bad about it.

The main reason for this is the fact that Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde is an amazingly good book. And I never feel bad about spending money on books I love. (You can see my gushy review of it over here on Goodreads.)

What’s more, I’m sure I’ll find something else fun to do with these books. Maybe I’ll go and hand them out at the movie theatre to people standing in line to see Fifty Shades of Grey. Maybe I’ll just give them away to friends. Maybe we’ll include them in something we’re doing in the future for Worldbuilders.

That’s all I’ve got for today, folks. Sorry to pun and run….

pat

P.S. And just to head off people who will doubtless be asking in the comments. I haven’t read Fifty Shades of Grey or seen the movie, so I don’t have much of an opinion on them.

That said, I have heard that they’re not a good depiction of proper BDSM behavior. Which is a shame, because tying people up (or being tied up) can be a ton of fun with the right partner if you do it in the right way. Alternately, it can be a supremely bad scene when you do it in the wrong way. Do your homework before jumping into something like this, folks.

P.P.S. There’s only two days left on on the Humble Bundle book deal. Then it’ll be gone forever.

Posted in Fucking With You, My Iconoclastic Tendencies, Oot | By Pat69 Responses
Published: February 26, 2015

Humble Bundle and Worldbuilders

I don’t know about y’all, but I love books.

You know what else I love? Supporting charitable causes.

And last but not least, I enjoy getting a bargain as much as the next guy.

If you’re into any of these things, this blog is for you.

I’ve talked about Subterranean Press here before. I’m fond of them for many reasons. They produce fine, high-quality books, doing lovely specialty editions, and occationally bringing a lost work back from out-of-print. Not only that, but they’re the reason The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle ever saw the light of day, and they’ve been long-time supporters of my charity, Worldbuilders.

So here’s the news: Subterranean Press is celebrating their 20th anniversary, and they’re doing it in style by teaming up with the folks at Humble Bundle to do an international e-book bundle.

What’s Humble Bundle? I hear you ask.

Well, Humble Bundle teams up with creators to bring together a bunch of something (a bundle, if you will) then they let you decide how much you’d like to pay for it. This means you usually end up getting hundreds of dollars of books or games for a bargain price.

But that’s not even the best bit. The best bit is that they let you decide where your money goes. You decide how much of your money goes to the creator, how much goes to a charity, and how much you’d like to leave as a tip for Humble Bundle itself.

For this bundle, the associated charity is Worldbuilders, if you hadn’t already guessed.

So let’s say you’ve been a fan of Subterranean Press for ages, and you want to grab a bunch of these delicious books for yourself. Here’s how you could do it.

humble slider

(Actual footage.)

Hmmm… you sure you want to go that route? You do know that Worldbuilders is, like, a really awesome charity, right? You know we do good things all over the world. We help hungry families, promote sustainable agriculture, provide clean water and education for….

25_wb awesome

Woah there. You don’t have to give Sub-Press the short straw, either. This is their party after all. They’re the ones supplying the books, and they were gracious enough to bring Worldbuilders in as their charity….

50_all equal

Hmmm… Well, in some ways you’re taking the coward’s way out with this option. But I noticed that you bumped your overall donation up to 50 bucks, so I’m not particularly inclined to call you names at this point….

My point is that the Humble Bundle gives you an unprecedented amount of control over your purchase. (And, honestly, these sliders are a lot of fun to play with.)

So here’s the details about the Sub-Press Humble Book Bundle:

If you pay any amount of money at all, you’ll get these e-books.

base bundle

The Jack Vance Treasury, Inside Job, Muse of Fire, Jacaranda: A Novella of the Clockwork Century, The Ape’s Wife and Other Stories, The Top of the Volcano: The Award-Winning Stories of Harlan Ellison®, and Brayan’s Gold.

If you pay more than the average donation (currently $12.58), you’ll also get the following twelve books:

The Mallet of Loving Correction, Nobody’s Home: An Anubis Gates Story, The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, The End of the Sentence, The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate, Tortured Souls: The Legend of Primordium, and Amityville Horrible, Bleeding Shadows, I Travel by Night, Salvage and Demolition, New Amsterdam, and The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein.

morethanaverage

additions

So just to break it down for you, if you pay at least $12.58 (or so) you’ll get all 19 of these.

Lastly,  anyone who pays $15 or more will receive all of the above, plus three more additional e-books:  Academic Exercises, The Hunter from the Woods, and Black Hat Jack.

over15

So as long as you donate more than $15, you get more than $123 dollars worth of e-books. AND you get to support a great publisher and a great charity at the same time.

I’d like to point out that included in these books are three I’ve hugely enjoyed myself. Specifically, Scalzi’s collection of blogs, and Salvage and Demolition, which is a nice taste of Tim Power’s writing for those of you who haven’t tried him before.

Best of all, one of my all-time favorite series is in this mix: The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox.

hugart_b

(This includes Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was)

Honestly? That e-book is worth $12.50 just by itself. It’s a book I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys fantasy and has a functioning soul.

I wish I could talk about more of these books, but honestly? Those are the only ones I’ve read. It’s shameful, really, as there are books here by some of my favorite authors. That’s why I just made a point of buying this bundle myself. It’s a bargain even if I just read one or two of them.

Need another excuse to jump in? All these e-books are DRM free, so you can read them on any platform you like.

That also means you’ll be able to read them in any *country* you like. That’s something you won’t find anywhere else.

This is a *very* limited-time offer. So don’t wait too long or you’ll miss it.

And if you know of anyone else who likes awesome things, I’d appreciate you helping us to spread the word. There’s only five days left, and after that, the deal is over.

Here’s one last link to the Bundle.

You know what to do,

pat

Posted in cool news, Subterranean Press, Worldbuilders | By Pat24 Responses
Published: February 24, 2015

Cutie, Crying, and the Weirding Way

I was just laying in bed with Sarah and our youngest child. He’s just a little bit over one year old.

little bug

Codename: Cutie Snoo. (Because I don’t like using my kid’s real names online.)

I don’t know how it works in other households, but in ours, a lot of the day-to-day kid activities end up happening on the bed. Sarah has a huge king-sized mattress that just rests on the floor. Partly because she likes it that way, and partly because low-to-the ground beds are easier and safer for kids.

Anyway, I’m laying in bed with Cutie. I’d come in to hang play with him when I heard him wake up from his nap.  A little later, mom joined us, because she has the boobs, and boobs make everything better.

Cutie was laying between us, nursing (on Sarah) while she and I were talking.

Then, unexpectedly, Cutie rolled over and pushed a little baby spoon he carries around with him at my mouth.

It surprised me. It bounced off my lip a little bit, and hit my teeth. It hurt just a little, about as much as it would if you poked me in the mouth with your fingernail. We’re talking… like… half a newton of force, tops.  Not enough to crack an egg.

Still, it surprised me. And it hurt just a little.

So I looked at him, and I said, “Ow.”

Didn’t shout it, didn’t bark it. Didn’t even do my disappointed dad voice.

I mention this because over the years I’ve learned my voice is a powerful thing. Where my kids are concerned, I’m one of the Bene Gesserit. I’m the Kwisatz Paterach. I’m Black Bolt.

I’m not sure why this is, exactly. I’ve got a pretty good baritone, but it’s not earthshaking by itself. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve been a teacher. That I’ve been a singer. That I was a performer who never really liked using a mic until the crowds started topping 100 people and I was forced to go electric.

Maybe it’s all of those things together. I don’t know.

What I do know is that I discovered early on in my parenting career that if I wasn’t careful with my voice, I would terrify my children. Once, back when he was about 16 months old, I barked Oot’s name at him from the top of a stairway and he went into fetal crouch, trembling with animal fear.

I felt like king asshole of the universe at the time. I still do. As a parent, you slowly build a portfolio of memories. Things your children will never remember, things that you will never forget.

Standing at the top of the stairs, looking down at my terrified boy, I thought to myself, “You need to get this shit under control right now, Rothfuss…”

So I did. Slowly. Over many years.

All of this is to say that I’m very careful with my voice these days. I don’t bark. I rarely even snap or get a little sharp in my tone. There’s no need, just a little disapproval in my voice is like iron to these tiny little faen creatures I have flitting around in my life.

So. Remember where we were? Bed. Cutie. Spoon.

I looked at him and said, “Ow.” Not because he hurt me, but because I want him to know that he *can* hurt someone. He needs to learn to be careful.

“Ow,” I said. Softly.

Hearing me, Cutie turned away, facing back toward mom.

“He was trying to give you a bite,” she explained to me.

I nodded, only understanding then what he’d been trying to do with the spoon. It’s a game I’d seen Cutie play with her, but he’d never done it with me before.

Looking down at him, Sarah’s face goes concerned, then she looks up at me. “He feels bad,” she says.

Then Cutie gave a little sob. It was tiny, but it was one of those deep ones. One of the ones that comes out of you in a lump: “Uh-huh.”

When you’re a parent, you learn the different types of crying. You learn to recognize the panicked cry of a baby that’s hurt. There’s the “I can’t believe you took that away from me” cry. There’s the “I’m tired and can’t hold my shit together” cry. There’s the rare, furious red-faced rage rage rage cry. There’s the “Where’s Mom?” cry.

This wasn’t any of those. It went, “Ah-huh” and it was nothing but sadness. One sob. Pause. Then another. Then he was really crying.

He felt bad. He was sad that he’d hurt me.

I read something somewhere that said children start to develop empathy when they’re 3 years old.

I’d like to officially go on the record as saying that is bullshit.

Cutie is 13 months old. He can speak about 10 words, and those he speaks badly. He can’t run, or jump, or eat with a spoon.

But he feels bad when he hurts someone. This is something some adults have yet to learn.

He’s is my boy. My sweet boy. I am so proud of him.

pat

Posted in babies, Cutie Snoo, How to be a Worthwhile Human Being, musings, Oot | By Pat30 Responses
Published: February 21, 2015

German Book, German Tour (And Austria)

[Edit (3/4/15): There’s updated info for these events in this blog so be sure to check it out…]

So today (Feb 21st) The Slow Regard of Silent Things hits the shelves in Germany.

Rothfuss_Musik_Stille_3d_4c(Woo! New cover!)

As usual, this book is significantly larger than its English counterpart. I haven’t gotten to see one in person yet, but in this photo mock-up they seem to be able to fit my name and the title horizontally on the spine. So that indicates that the book has undergone its typical 40% growth from being translated into German. (A phenomenon I mentioned in a blog a couple years back.)

Despite the fact that the post office is slow delivering my copy, I’ll be getting to see a copy of this book in person soon. In fact, I hope to be seeing a lot of them, as I’m going to be making a trip to Germany and Austria next month.

Here’s the schedule:

March 13-14  – Leipzig Book Fair

March 14 – Leipzig

March 16 – Berlin

March 17 – Cologne (Koln)

March 18 – Reutlingen 

March 20 – Vienna, Austria

As you can see, there are a lot of opportunities to catch me on this trip and witness my catastrophically inept attempts to speak German.

  • Details about the Events:

Though we’re calling most of these events “Readings” most of them are actually going to be readings combined with Question and Answer periods, followed by signings.

That said, each event is different, and I highly recommend you take a close look at the details of the event you’re thinking of attending to make sure you understand what’s really happening there.

Will you need a ticket? Will you need to reserve a place at the signing?

Honestly? I don’t know. It’s just my job to show up at these things and look pretty….

  • Concerning where I’m going and/or not going:

Do I wish I could do more events? Yes. But there’s only so much time in the world. I can’t hit major city in the country. Not even a quarter of them.

So before y’all start screeling things like “Why don’t you come to Frankfurt!!!1!” Please keep in mind that I’m already traveling more than 6,500 kilometers to get into your neighborhood. Globally speaking, I’m going to be right next door. If you’d really like to see me, why don’t you and your friends have a road trip and come the last 150 kilometers on your own?

C’mon. You know you want to have a road trip….

  • A Warning:

I don’t know when I’ll be back in Germany. But it probably won’t be for at least a couple years. This is fair warning. If you’d really like to hear me speak and get your book signed, this is the time to do it.

  • An Apology:

Originally, I had one more event in Heidelberg, and I know a few people got tickets and made plans before it was cancelled.

I’m incredibly sorry about that.

Some personal matters came up, and I had to change plans. I feel really bad about it.

In an attempt to make things right, everyone who was signed up for Heidelberg was offered tickets to the event in Reutlingen. What’s more, that event will also be live streamed, so you can see me, even if you can’t be there in person. (I’ll be posting the link to the livestream here, on twitter, and on facebook when we have it.)

{Fancy placeholder for eventual livestream link}

  • A Request:

As you can see, I’m announcing these events about 3 weeks ahead of time. What’s more, I’m painfully aware that a *lot* of the people who might be interested in attending don’t read my blog, or don’t speak English.

So if you know anyone who’d like to attend but might not know about it, I’d deeply appreciate it if you’d clue them in.

Thanks everybody,

pat

P.S. For those of you who are here in the US, and feeling all ensaddened because none of these events are for you.

Here’s two shows I have coming up with Paul & Storm and Joel Hodgson that I have coming up. (And yes, I just got a bit of a tingle when I typed that last bit.)

3/26 Portland http://bit.ly/NMPortland 

3/27 Seattle http://bit.ly/NMSeattle

I’ll be making a more elaborate posting about this later, but I thought I might want to throw this up sooner rather than later for those of you who like to plan your lives in advance a bit.

We’re going to be bringing in other guests, too, so you might want to grab your tickets sooner rather than later….

Posted in book covers, signing books, travel abroad | By Pat81 Responses

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