Patrick Rothfuss's Blog, page 41

$300K Bonus: A Favor From Pat (and more)

As I write this blog, our donation total stands at $308,000. So today we’re doing a few things.

1. Adding the 300K bonus to the fundraiser.

2. Announcing the 350K stretch goal.

3. Adding a few other cool pieces of miscellany to the fundraiser.

4.Extending the end date of the Worldbuilders until January 21st at Midnight.

The main reason for #4 is that part of the 300K bonus is going to be an auction, and I wanted to be able to run it for a full seven days.

This is the last extension, so make the mos...

More Signed Books from Amazing Authors

Heya everybody. No long preamble today, just a picture from one of Heifer International’s projects.

This is Gabriela. She lives in Bolivia, and the fruit she’s holding is a cacao pod.

I thought I’d mention that Heifer doesn’t just give out chickens to people who need eggs. They also help farmers increase crop yields through sustainable agriculture. Sometimes that means teaching folks in developing countries about new farming techniques. Other times they might bring in a hive of honeybees to hel...

Signed Art and Awesome Miscellany

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Today we’ve got kind of a mixed bag of cool things, a lot of it is art-related. Some of it’s comic-related. It’s really kind of a big batch of cool hodgelany.

No big preamble today. Let’s just get right to the goods.

A copy of the Penny Arcade Kvothe strip, signed by Gabe and Tycho.

I got a ridiculous amount of geeky joy when Penny Arcade did a strip aboutThe Wise Man’s Fear. I count it as one of my proudest geeky achievements so far in life.

This 12″ x 18″ print is on...

My Terrible Surprise – The Dreaded High School Novel

A couple days ago, Mary Robinette Kowal asked if I’d care to donate an act of whimsy to a fundraiser she was planning to Sequence Jay Lake’s Cancer.

I said I’d be happy to, and she put me in as their $17,500 goal, tucked between Scalzi and Gaiman like the ham in a coolness sandwich.

I had a couple ideas for what I could do, but wasn’t sure what would sound best, so I told Mary to put me down for “A terrible surprise.”

I figured I’d have at least a week or two before I had to come up with anythin...

Signed Books by Gaiman and Pratchett

Those of you who have been following Worldbuilders for a couple years will probably recognize this book.

It’s a book with a story behind it. And the story goes like this.

2008: A Gift from Gaiman.

In 2008 I was still a newbie author, hardly published for more than a year. On a whim, I decided to try raising money for Heifer International on my blog. Things quickly spiraled out of control as other authors pitched in, spreading the word about the fundraiser and donating books.

The pinnacle of the...

Geekery for Gamers

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Today’s blog centers around one of my favorite types of geekery: Gaming.

It’s no secret that I’ve been a gamer from way back. I played PC games back when they were only text. I played D&D in the days of the red boxand dice you had to color in yourself with crayon.

And, of course, my prowess in Catan is legendary. I have never been beaten at Catan.

*Note: Some people claim to have beaten me at Catan, but let me assure you that these are nothing more than fever dreams or...

So Many Signed Books from DAW

I’ve always been fond of DAW.

When I was a kid, DAW was one of the few publishers I recognized. I thought their logo was cool, and I remember spending an embarrassing amount of time time trying to get the initials of my name to fit together in some sort of artistic way….

Though part of that was Tolkien’s fault too.

Later in my life, after working on my fantasy trilogy for years and years, I was beginning to despair. My book was so big. Really big.Really kind of insanely big. Who would read this...

250K Bonus: Books from Pat’s Library (And 100K: Favorite Things)

This is aWorldbuildersBlog.

This weekend Worldbuilders passed 250,000 dollars. So today, I’m going to kick in the bonus I promised to add to the Lottery: 200 books from my personal library.

But first, I’m going to kick in the 100k bonus: Some of my favorite things. Which, come to think of it, I probably should have called, “Joss Whedon, plus a few other classic bits of Geekery on DVD.”

Everything in today’s blog we’re giving away lottery-style. Which means if you donate on The Worldbuilders Team...

200k goal: A Trip to Heifer Ranch with the Worldbuilders Team

This is aWorldbuildersBlog.

So we hit $200,000 over the holidays. Shot right past it, actually. So today we’re going to post up the 200k stretch goal for the fundraiser.

(I know, I know… I haven’t posted up the or the 100k and 150k blogs yet. They’re coming. Be patient.)

* * *

This year, May 10-12, I’m heading down with the Worldbuilders team to Heifer’s educational facility. We’re going to spend a weekend down at the Heifer Ranch seeing what Heifer is really all about.

That’s not the cool part.

Th...

A Fabulous Vacation

This is aWorldbuildersBlog.

Okay. We’re back from the holidays, feeling refreshed, and ready to charge blindly back into the fray.

Well…. maybe not blindly. Boldly. Or bravely. That’s what we’re doing. We’re charging *bravely* back into the fundraiser.

Let’s start over.

This year, when we announced that Worldbuilders was accepting donations, we got an interesting offer from a resort out in California. They offered to donate stays at their posh hotel so we could auction them off and raise some mon...