Patrick Rothfuss's Blog, page 20

NerdCon: Why Stories Matter

So let me tell you a story.

Years ago, I met someone named Hank Green in an accidental way through social media. I’d watched a couple of his videos and liked them. He’d read my book and enjoyed it. He offered to help out with my charity. I offered to help out with his.

I didn’t know him very well, but he struck me as a cool person who was working to make the world a better place. Best of all, he had a fine-tuned sense of the ridiculous, as shown in the Stretch Goal he did for Worldbuilders, w...

Events in Seattle – PAX Prime 2015

Heya guys, Amanda here!

Pat is out in Seattle for PAX Prime, and he asked me to post up his schedule for the con so you could all find his glorious beard wherever its available.

Man, that was way creepier than I meant it to be.

For those of you not attending the con, on Thursday the 27th Pat is doing a reading and signing event with the University Bookstore, who are particularly good at keeping him caffeinated.

(Three different coffees, one crazy signing…)

This event won’t be at the bookstor...

Thoughts on Pratchett – [Part 1]

Earlier this year, when I was in Germany on tour, Terry Pratchett died.

It didn’t come as a complete shock. We’ve known for ages that he was sick. We’ve had years to brace for the inevitable impact.

Even so, it hit me surprisingly hard. I hadn’t expected that.

Odds are, if you know much anything about me, you know I’ve been a fan of Pratchett for years. If you follow me on goodreadsyou’ve seen me write reviews so gushy that they border on the inarticulate.

I didn’t know him. Honestly, I didn...

Novelties: IndieGoGo Edition

As some of you may already know, we’ve been shipping out our summer fundraiser perks for a while now. If it weren’t for the constant arrival of the UPS truck, we would be buried by the sheer mass of packages we’re assembling every day.

And that’s not an exaggeration. Look at the upstretched hand of some poor lost Worldbuilders Minion waving for help from behind this stack of bundled packages. We have to keep shipping things out or we’re going to be crushed to death.

So rest assured that if...

Being Evil

Tonight, I was playing in the living room with my girlfriend (Sarah) my oldest son (codename Oot: age 5.5) and my youngest son (codename Cutie Snoo, age 1.5)

It wasn’t anything fancy. Nothing organized. I’d just come back from recording this week’s podcast with Max Temkin, and rather than head upstairs to do more e-mail, as I am wont to do, I decided to stay downstairs and play with the kids.

A large part of this is because my Cutie is at a magical age. 18 months is pretty awesome. After a bi...

The Things that Children Know

Every night I’m at home, I read to my little boy before he goes to sleep.

“Little” I say, but he’s creeping up on six now. It doesn’t matter. He will always be my little boy.

Every night we read. Usually at least 10 minutes. Usually not more than an hour. A couple short chapters. A dozen pages. Maybe just a picture book if I’m exhausted. Maybe just a page or two. But I always try to read him something.

We worked our way through all the Little House on the Prairie books this way. We read the H...

Some News, and Events in Indianapolis

Heya everybody,

Sorry the posts have been a little slim here lately. It’s been a strange, busy couple weeks at Rothfuss HQ. Aside from the fact that it’s the middle of convention season, some other stuff has been going on too…

Hollywood Talk:

As many of you who follow me on facebook or twitter already know, this happened:

(Click the headline to read the article itself.)

That article is pretty impressive, not just because we didn’t make a press release, but because almost 90% of it is true....

San Diego Comic Con

Hey everybody, Amanda here! Pat’s out at San Diego Comic Con, running around like a mad man.He’s had a lot of stuff to do out there, and he asked me to post up his schedule here, because if we wait for him to have time, the convention will be over.

When in doubt, you’ll probably find Pat hanging out at the Horton Grand Hotel with the folks from Geek Chic, who are set up a seriously cool off-site hangout they’re callingGeek Chic XP.

It’s like a sanctuary from the usual craziness that is SDCC.T...

Podcasts, Musings, and the Importance of Names

So a while back, I was lucky enough to get to meet Max Temkin.

Odds are, even if you don’t know his name, you know his work. He’s one of the driving forces behind Cards Against Humanity.

A couple months back, he asked if I’d like to do a podcast with him, where we pretty much just talked about whatever we felt like at the moment. I said yes because I enjoy every conversation we have, and an excuse to have a new one every week is too good to pass up.

And if other folks want to listen to it… we...

Invisible Interview Questions….

I do a lot of interviews. I used to post up links to them here in the blog. Though lately most of them end up getting posted on facebook or twitter.

The thing is, what you guys end up seeing is the final version of the interviews. The pretty finished versions that have been tidied up. Edited. Expurgated.

For example, when I’m doing interviews, a lot of time, people ask questions like:

Them: If you’d never been published, what do you think you would be?

Me: An unpublished author.

Them: [Laugh...