We have been getting a lot of messages and comments as we approach the end of the fundraiser, asking what people can do to help out and be involved, so we thought we’d share some ideas with you today:
You can bid on one of the many auctions that are running and get yourself something cool and collectible.
You can also buy cool stuff in the store, where all the proceeds go to Worldbuilders.
Or you can do what 7-year-old Charlotte did.
You have to watch that. Seriously. I demand that you watch it.
Charlotte has created her own page as a part of our Worldbuilders fundraiser, setting a goal of $500 to buy a heifer for a family that needs it. She’s also got the energy and go-get-em attitude to someday rule the world, so you might want to consider getting on her good side now by helping her out.
Several people have created their own pages as part of our fundraiser. There’s one for Nerdfighters. One for people who do NaNoWriMo. Some of them are offering their own stretch goals and their own prizes. (But they all are included in the main Worldbuilders lottery, and they all add to our total.)
I’m happy to see them all, but I hope I don’t hurt anyone’s feelings if I say that Charlotte’s page has made my day.
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Today’s blog is full of auctions. There’s a great variety of things, so read all the way to the bottom and see if there’s anything that piques your interest…
- Auction: Author D&D at Confusion with Peter V. Brett, Diana Rowland, Joe Abercrombie, Doug Hulick, Myke Cole, and Wesley Chu.
Your chance to have a seat at the gaming table in the third year of Author D&D. Join these literary masters at Confusion as they D&D it up. If you want to know what it’s like, they’ve filmed it for the last three years, which you can watch here in an epic playlist.
The game itself will be on January 17 2015, and there will be books, dice, and other supplies provided. This doesn’t include travel or accommodations, though, so if you’re already planning on going to ConFusion, it’s a great opportunity.
- Auction: The hard copy of “Something Was Amiss in Civilizanzibean“. Signed by Mikey Neumann.
Mikey Neumann is more than a great game designer (though he is that too, having worked on Half-Life 2, Brothers in Arms, and Borderlands), he’s also a fabulous public speaker, champion whist player, and a writer to boot.
This year, he was kind enough to write a short story just for us, and read it for us in a YouTube video you can see over here. This is the exact copy he was reading from in that video, and Mikey was nice enough to sign it and donate it for us to auction off.
If you’re interested, you can bid on it over here.
- Full run of literary posters created by Book Rapport.
These posters are designed by Steve Shell, an English and Theatre teacher from North Carolina. Each print features a period map of the setting of the text with a cutout of an iconic image or shape from the story and a cutout showing a special selection of text from the novel/poem/story.
There’s a full set of all 30 posters going into the lottery, and another one up for auction. Amanda’s totally bidding on this to give out to all of her friends who are English teachers.
If you want the auction, you can beat Amanda out over here.
Fabulous donations from Valyrian Steel
The folks over at Valyrian Steel started helping out with Worldbuilders last year, and this year they’ve stepped in to donate more of their officially licensed Game of Thrones replicas and memorabilia.
Nearly everything here is limited edition. Some of the items have as few as 500 available in the world, and a few of them are entirely sold out.
So if you, or someone you love, is a fan of Game of Thrones, read on….
- Auction: The Hound’s Helm. Limited edition of 2,500.
This is the helm of the Hound. Not only does it come with a display stand, but it’s also completely wearable.
The jaw opens and closes, and there’s silkscreened Clegane sigil on the stand, which shows that the folks at Valyrian Steel have a nice attention to detail.
If you want to be as badass as The Hound, bid over here.
- Auction: Daenerys Bust. Limited edition of 2,000.
(I’m *not* going to make a bust joke. Here. Because I’m a professional. Mostly.)
Daenerys is one of the most loved characters in GOT, and this bust was made specifically to recall the closing scene of season 1.
To have the Mother of Dragons watch over you, bid here.
- Auction: Tyrion Lannister Statue. Limited edition of 3,000.
Everyone loves Tyrion, and here’s a limited edition statue they made of him before the second season of Game of Thrones. They asked for ideas of what to create a statue of, and were told that the moment Tyrion charges into the Battle of Blackwater would be awesome.
The producers even provided photographs that were taken during filming, expressly as sculpture reference for this piece.
Bid on it in all its coolness here.
- Auction: Longclaw Damascus Steel Artist Proof. One of only 18.
This is a real rarity here.
Not only is this a replica of John Snow’s blade, Longclaw, made of Damascus Steel. But this is one of the incredibly limited run of only 18 artists proofs that were made. Typically they were given to Very Important People, like George RR Martin, or folks who work on the show with HBO.
But the folks at Valyrian Steel have given us one as well, and we’re auctioning it off here for the hardcore fans. It even has the Night’s Watch Oath on the wooden plaque.
Want to be one of less than 20 people in the world with this blade, bid on it over here.
- Auction: Ice Damascus Steel Artist Proof. One of only 18.
The Stark family greatsword has a lot of history behind it, and plays an important role in Game of Thrones.
This is also one of 18 artist proofs, so we’ve put this one up for auction as well. The chance to grab this isn’t likely to come up again, so if you want it, you’ll need to bid on it here.
Stuff from Authors’ Desks
During our IndieGoGo fundraiser last summer, the Worldbuilders Team and I gave up a couple of precious and beloved things from our desks. We figured they might last until the final day of the fundraiser to sell out, but all 12 were gobbled up within the first couple of hours.
We all wrote careful notes to go with our items, explaining why we loved them so dearly, and shipped them out, happy to have raised some money for charity in return for a little bit of joy.
Fast forward to now, where a handful of authors who have helped with Worldbuilders are offering the same thing. This is a bit of an experiment for us. But I know as an aspiring author, I would have loved to have something from a pro-writer’s desk as my personal writing mojo. In fact, I’m considering bidding on some of these things in order to steal some of these other author’s powers….
- Auction: Sherwood Smith‘s Cat Figurine.
This is a charming little cat figurine that Sherwood has kept on her desk for many many years. Since she was in the fifth grade, as a matter of fact.
This comes in a “Thanks for All You Do” velvet bag and a caligraphied note giving a little bit of history of the adorable cat. You can bid on it here.
- Auction: Jaime Lee Moyer‘s Collection of Comic Book Awesome.
Jaime has been a big fan of comic books all her life, so her stuff from her desk has a definite theme: comics. Even the note she wrote explaining the gifts is on Superman stationery.
There’s her 2008 Comic Book Legal Defense Fund membership card, as well as some Superman post it notes. If you want to be half as cool as she is, you can bid on them here.
- Auction: Anne Bishop‘s Snack the Mini Moose.
Anne sent over a signed and inscribed copy of Written in Red to accompany Snack the Mini Moose. Apparently Snack has read the next book in Anne’s series and was really scared, so they’re sending him along to someone who will take care of him. The note that comes with Snack was written by The Wolfgard.
According to The Wolfgard, “If you take good care of Snack, someday he will grow up to be Lunch.”
If you want to take care of Snack for Anne, you can bid on him over here.
- Auction: April White‘s Victorian Pin.
April also kicked in some signed copies of her books to go with her desk item. It’s fairly appropriate, since this piece of Victorian jewelry was a part o the what inspired the period and writing of this series of books from April.
If you want this little piece of coolness, bid on it here.
- Auction: Kristen Britain‘s Figment.
Figment has been on Kristen’s desk since the 80s, when she picked him up from Walt Disney World. Back then, he was the mascot of Epcot, meant to be a manifestation of imagination, which Kristen loved.
He’s going to start sharing his magic with someone new, and if you want that to be you, you should bid on him here.
- Auction: Laura Anne Gilman‘s Deadline Cat.
Laura has been helping out with Worldbuilders for a long time in many ways. According to Laura, Deadline Cat “has seen me through numerous deadlines with minimal loss of sanity.”
I’m seriously considering jumping in on this one….
If you could maybe use a Deadline Cat, you can bid on him here.
- Auction: Joe Ducie‘s Handmade Italian Quill.
Joe (who many of you may remember better as Captain Joe) had a very fancy, handmade quill he thought he’d share with us. Apparently, he won it off of a Fremchman in Canada, and never managed to use it properly. The full details are in the note photoed above, which you can read if you click to embiggen.
If you’d like Joe’s saucy best, you can bid on his quill (hur hur) right over here.
(I would just like to say that Amanda wrote that last bit. For Shame, Amanda. Way to bring down the tone of the blog after I took the high road by avoiding making a bust joke earlier….)
- Auction: Martha Wells‘s Invitation to Deeper Than Swords.
Martha’s desk item is bonus cool, because it was all about the opening of the Texas A&M University Cushing Library’s exhibit Deeper Than Swords, which was about the work of George R.R. Martin.
It includes a packet of info and pictures from the exhibit, as well as the invitation itself, some postcards, and a cool sword letter opener. Martha wrote up a letter with the full details of the event (since she got two invitations, she used one and sent us the other).
If you want your own set of memorabilia, you can bid on it right here.
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We hit Neil Gaiman’s stretch goal yesterday afternoon. He’ll be filming it shortly, but in the meantime, there are plenty of others you can watch to keep yourself entertained.
Me? It looks like I better start calling around to see if I can find some farmer who is willing to let me kiss his Llama…
pat
