Results tagged “patrick rothfuss”

There have been a number of great opportunities for fans of fantasy as of late.

In this age of the internet(s), many authors and publishers are using online technology in concert with rare and cool contests to help them market, publicize and get the fans directly involved in forthcoming book releases. It allows the fans to take some ownership of the genre they love and helps bridge the gap between author and reader.

It is a gap that I am happy to see slowly dissolving.

The coolest of these contests in my opinion center around naming a character in a forthcoming book.

What cooler event than to offer fans something so priceless?

• Patrick Rothfuss recently began a contest and auction that allows one fan to get his name and/or appearance into his second book, The Wise Man’s Fear.
• Brandon Sanderson, earlier in the year and in behest of Mr. Rothfuss’s charity efforts, had a similar auction where the winner became a character in one of the three books that become Memory of Light in the Wheel of Time series.
• Even the producers of The Simpsons have a similar contest at the moment, where fans of the show can send in a notecard with the pertinent information of who the character is and why they deserve to be on the show.

Naming contests have been around for years and years.

And here is another one.

This time with bestselling author Terry Brooks!

Pat is a cool cat.

A very cool cat indeed.

He recently launched a contest on his website that benefits his charity of choice, Heifer International. Last year he raised loads and loads of money, his fans contributing thousands and thousands of dollars and Patrick—bless his bearded heart—matched every single donation. It is a cause he constantly has on his mind and I applaud him for his efforts.

Since I’ve been given a tiny podium to stand upon, I thought I would mention his new contest and drive people to his website.

What’s the contest, you may ask?

And what’s the prize?

Want your name and/or appearance in his next book, Wise Man’s Fear?

Of course you do!

Have $10?

Of course you do!

Go to Pat’s blog at www.patrickrothfuss.com and read up on the contest. It will only take you a few moments. But those moments could have a strong impact for others less fortunate.

And might immortalize your name for ages to come!

Beginning in the late 1970’s, Marvel Comics began producing a comic book “what if” scenarios centered around their superheroes.

I loved them. Each issue would twist what was known to be true about the Marvel universe and create an alternate reality—just for one issue usually—that helped explore the characters and the situations that make them who they are. Some of my favorite issues are What if… the Hulk had the brain of Bruce Banner?, What if… Phoenix had not died?, What if… Spider-Man’s clone lived? and What if… the alien costume had possessed Spider-Man?

Note: Some of those What If…? issues became canon and made it even more fun!

I decided to ask a similar question but set in our own sci-fi/fantasy universe:

What if… Scott Lynch, George R. R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss all published their respective next novels on the same day?

The odds of this happening are so small it makes it almost an impossibility. In short, it will never happen. Although Hollywood movie studios grab up opening dates for movies more than a year out—and rarely will place a movie on a date that has already been grabbed by a major movie—I do not think book publishers decide to not publish a book because another major author already “owns” the release date. While three massive-selling books publishing on the same day could happen in the book world, it wouldn’t.

But what if it did?

I travel around the internet(s) quite a bit. I read various blogs. The consensus is the books by Scott Lynch, George R. R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss are all late. They are late for varying reasons that I won’t go into here. The important thing to point out is around the blogosphere these late books receive a great deal of discussion from earnest—and sometimes angst-ridden—readers who spend a great deal of time and energy writing about those writers, their forthcoming books and their feelings about having to wait, wait, wait.

It is testament to how loved each of those writers are.

George, Pat and Scott all know this.

The question is what would happen if those three books were released on the same day?

The writing muse can be a harsh mistress indeed.

It has been quite a while since I updated my progress on The Dark Thorn. In the last article I wrote about it, titled The Healthy Writer (July 17th), I expanded upon my own struggles to find a balance between writing life and healthy lifestyle, where the two meet to get maximum output from both. I have spent these last six weeks focusing on my physical health, my diet and emotional wellness, reacquainting myself with long lost friends and enjoying the outdoor Seattle summer. It has been nice to reassert control over the entirety of who I am.

It has come, however, at the detriment of The Dark Thorn.

Now the balance between the craft of writing and the craft of living with healthy purpose has begun to find an equilibrium and I am once again working on The Dark Thorn. I needed to work on it again. It would not be ignored. The book called to me and it was time for me to answer it and begin rewriting.

If you remember, author Terry Brooks read The Dark Thorn and gave me some wonderful insight into how to strengthen the book overall. He enjoyed the story immensely but felt one of the four point of view characters was boring and did not sufficiently grow over the course of the tale. He was right. I knew it when I gave it to him and asked him to verify it.

Of course that point of view character, Bran Ardall, has half of the point of view chapters in the book.

Terry suggested I reduce that point of view character to a background character and instead tell those parts of the story through the eyes of Richard McAllister, his favorite character in the book.

So what would shifting the focus from Bran to Richard do to the structure of the story?

It changed the first ten or eleven chapters of the book and introduced numerous plot point problems that made my life hell for about the last three weeks.

I wondered then, over this last weekend, if it has taken me three weeks to solve my sticky plot point, how long had some writers gone to find a solution in their own work?

Writers Patrick Rothfuss, Peter V. Brett, Lev Grossman and Chris Evans weighed in.

Scott Lynch, the author of the unbelievably great reads The Lies of Locke Lamora and sequel Red Seas Under Red Skies, has released an excerpt from his forthcoming third novel, The Republic of Thieves!

If you haven’t read the first two books in the series, what the hellfire are you waiting for?! The Lies of Locke Lamora is one of the best books I have read.

Enjoy George R. R. Martin?

Enjoy Patrick Rothfuss?

Grab the novels by Scott Lynch!

To read the new excerpt from The Republic of Thieves, click HERE!

Every once in a while, science fiction and fantasy is given love from the literary world.

Usually only a little love though.

The New Yorker, the long-standing quintessential magazine of New York City known for its breadth of reporting, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, cartoons and poetry, has run an article titled “Seven Essential Fantasy Reads: Going to Second Base.”

Now if the New Yorker was only read in New York City, I’d say their opinion is a small sampling, despite that city’s diversity and population. But the magazine is read all over the world and offers some of the best glimpses into literary fiction.

The writer, Macy Halford, asked her Yale physics friend to come up with the seven must reads for a fantasy nerd. Needless to say, I was interested in what a Yale guy could come up with. Turns out he didn’t do too badly—Tad Williams, Terry Brooks, Guy Gavriel Kay, Robin Hobb, Terry Goodkind, Patrick Rothfuss and Steven Erikson.

Click HERE to read the article.

Awe, isn’t Pat cute when he looks adoringly at his fans?

The other gentleman in the photo overheard Pat and I talking, looked down at our badges, and then stopped to tell Pat how great a writer he was and that Pat could take as long as he needed to make Wise Man’s Fear the best book it could be.

Pat glowed, so happy to hear such sincerity about his work, and he signed several books for the fan and his family.

As I promised yesterday, here is the post containing Part III and Part IV of the San Diego Comic Con Patrick Rothfuss interview!

In these parts, Pat talks about how editing is going on Wise Man’s Fear, rewriters, milk-fed veal, how many people have read the first draft of Wise Man’s Fear, the release date of Wise Man’s Fear, what he’s reading and recommending right now, his soon to be published not for children children’s book, who he has met at Comic Con, and a last message to the fans.

Click through to watch and listen to Part IV!

Comic Con is for old friends.

Sometimes I force my old friends to work!

I’ve known Patrick Rothfuss since almost the moment of his debut publication—and in some ways even earlier. His agent, Matt Bialer, had been telling me for months leading up to the release of The Name of the Wind that he had found a great author. “Just wait until you read it, Shawn. It is going to blow you away.” Matt, as usual, was right.

So when Pat came to Seattle for NorwesCon, we had to meet.

And after getting to know him better and having many shared similarities in our lives, it’s been great fun watching him grow from debut writer to successful and working writer!

I chained him to the Suvudu booth at the San Diego Comic Con and wouldn’t let him go until he had given me an interview. We thought it would only go 10 or 15 minutes. Turns out Pat had a lot to say about his debut, its sequel and what his life is like now.

Let’s get to it then!

Part I and Part II of the interview we conducted are posted in this article. He talks about his initial thoughts on Comic Con, his panel and the definition he has for urban fantasy, the structure of his trilogy and the future, the interesting story he wants to write when he is a stronger writer, his craft of writing and revision of Wise Man’s Fear, what happened to the “yearly” release of his books and woman cats.

You’ll see what I mean.

Enjoy!

Click through to watch Part II! And then come back tomorrow for the release of Parts III and IV!

As I showcased yesterday, Todd Lockwood is an artist.

He spends his time in the Pacific Northwest doing exactly what he loves—bringing the fantastical to visual light. When he isn’t sketching at Comic Cons, Todd has a moderate office in his home where he spends his time painting book cover art for authors, Magic: The Gathering cards, magazine covers and many other similar fantasy and science fiction graphic designs.

He does leave his home several times a year to take part in conventions all over the world. He spends a lot of his time looking over portfolios of burgeoning artists, giving his advice where appropriate, but he also takes his art to sell to his fans as well as talk about each piece he hangs on his booth.

Despite it being late in the afternoon Comic Con Saturday and both of us being reduced to wilted shadows of our true selves, I decided to put Todd on camera so he could talk about the Comic Con and highlight some of his new artwork.

Here you go:

If you love Todd’s artwork and you want it to hang it in your own home or office space, visit him at his website and order a giclee of anything you see!

More soon, including interviews with Patrick Rothfuss and Terry Brooks!

Anon!

When I think about what it takes to be a writer, multiple ideas immediately come to the fore—long hours slumped over a keyboard, deleting of numerous characters and insertion of countless others that may survive, the solitude of being left alone to tell a story that others will read in solitude to enjoy, and the aggravating unknowing knowledge that the story might come together and yet might not.

But I’ve discovered for myself finally that there is so much more that goes into it.

The hard way.

It took me a total of twelve months to write the first draft of The Dark Thorn, my contemporary fantasy that takes place in Rome and Seattle and weaves Arthurian Legend, Celtic Mythology, the history of the British Isles and the history of the Vatican. To me I felt like it should have been wrapped up six months earlier by some internal deadline I can’t even begin to explain. By the time I entered the final four-month stretch, I poured my heart into it. In the morning I wrote for Suvudu, usually only eating a very brief breakfast of wheat toast, before then jumping into the book. I would write until late afternoon and by that time I had the shakes from no lunch. After a good dinner out somewhere I would write some more at night before going to bed and begin anew the next day.

Once I finished the first draft, I felt good about it—but something was not right.

I thought it had to do with the book. I thought it had to do with my main character, Bran Ardall, who seemed devoid of personality. I gave the book to Terry Brooks, a close friend and someone I knew would not pull any punches. He read it right quickly. I soon received his comments and suggestions, and while very positive I still had a lot of work to do to make it a “great” book—and I of course want it to be great, not just good.

I spent a solid week thinking about nothing but his thoughts and how I could improve upon The Dark Thorn. I barely left the apartment. I kept away from friends and family as I mostly had for four months. Why the hell did I feel so terrible? Why had it taken me so long to finish the book? Why did I feel like my entire life had crumbled and I had nothing left?

It wasn’t the semi-rejection of the last twelve months of my life. After the first three of fifteen or so rejection letters on my first book, I had overcome the resentment and anger that usually surfaces from such denial.

So what was it?

As it turns out, having asked advice from Patrick Rothfuss, Vicki Pettersson, Tobias Buckell, Chris Evans, Jacqueline Carey, Robert V.S. Redick and Peter V. Brett, it is something that most writers deal with.

I just can’t help but plug two friends after seeing this picture with them—together!

On the left we have David Anthony Durham, author of Acacia and its forthcoming sequel, The Other Lands!

On the right we have Patrick Rothfuss, author of The Name of the Wind and its forthcoming sequel, The Wise Man’s Fear!

I work for David and have known him a few years. Great guy. Very personable. Super smart. I’ve known Pat for a bit longer, hilarious and enviously hairy, had him in my home twice and he’s read my terrible writing. I bet they had a great time meeting in France! Jealous drinks were had too! And I’m more jealous I could not have been there and flanked Pat on the other side—creating a bald man sandwich.

Would that make Pat a hairy piece of meat? Hmm… not going there.

In unbiased alphabetical order:

• David Anthony Durham
• Patrick Rothfuss

These two guys, together, are future aspects of the fantasy genre. Better get used to it! Visit their websites daily and read their blogs daily! Both are insightful, both are humorous, and it’s great to get the insider look at the business through them.

I’ve professed this before.

Neil Gaiman is a god.

Or maybe he’s just a very talented writer with a fantastic imagination who has the ability to succinctly make a point with a flare!

A few days ago on his Journal, Gaiman decided to answer a question posed him by a fan concerning the perceived lateness of A Dance With Dragons by George. R. R. Martin. My thoughts on this were documented in my article In Defense of George R. R. Martin, so it won’t surprise anyone that I fall on the side of Gaiman and his opinion.

Gaiman sums it up quite nicely with one sentence:

“George R.R. Martin is not your bitch.”

That’s right! He said it! George is not your bitch.

Pause. Soak it in. Become one with the philosophy.

It is important to point out that Gaiman didn’t need to answer that question. He decides which questions to answer and post on his Journal. The spite many send toward Martin is a spite most authors are aware of on some level; I can’t even tell you how many author events I’ve attended where a fan asks the writer what they think of George R. R. Martin. For whatever reason, Gaiman felt it necessary to chime in on the subject.

You can read the entirety of his thoughts on his May 12th Journal!

Gaiman makes some great points. I’ll post two I think are important.

Every few years a book is released that not only makes a splash but hits with such force it drives all water from the pool!

A few years back The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss was such a book.

I’ve known Pat almost from the beginning, in a way even before the book was published. When an agent takes on a new client, that agent will usually put the book through a series of edits to strengthen it for submission to editors. Gotta put your best foot forward, after all! As Pat finished those edits on The Name of the Wind for agent Matt Bialer, I was going through my own edits with Matt for Song of the Fell Hammer. Matt told me then The Name of the Wind was a special book and fantasy readers were going to love it.

He was right. They did.

Matt also shared that Pat had a voracious appetite for ensuring every single word on the page was in the perfect spot. I saw this first hand when, two years ago, Pat showed me his red-slashed marks on pages from his first book’s sequel, Wise Man’s Fear. What a mess! It was like Pat had slaughtered a dragon with the largest broadsword imagined and used the pages of the book to clean up. He told me the he puts a book through literally dozens of full edits before he is happy with it.

This habit has of course pushed back the release for Wise Man’s Fear. Pat had all three books of this trilogy finished before he even approached Matt, but they were the roughest of first drafts at best. They hadn’t experienced Pat’s unique editing process yet. It took more than a year to edit The Name of the Wind.

And look at how great that book turned out to be!

Since the release of his debut book, Pat has been hard at work with Wise Man’s Fear—writing, rewriting, editing, editing, editing. He knows what he has before him. If he does this right his character Kvothe could be one of the greatest in the history of fantasy literature and Pat wants to give Kvothe every opportunity. For two years Pat has edited Wise Man’s Fear, looking over every single word, paragraph and chapter, ensuring the book lives up to his expectations after the marvelous release of The Name of the Wind.

Well, he has finally finished Wise Man’s Fear!

As posted on his website HERE, Pat speaks to finishing the book and has taken a photo of the manuscript next to a hardcover copy of the previous book.

As you can see it is a massive manuscript.

It looks to be 1500 pages of single-sided double-spaced goodness! That is a huge book, larger than The Name of the Wind. It’s great to know the last two years of waiting has not been in vain.

So, what is next? Betsy Wollheim, Pat’s editor at DAW, will undoubtedly be reading it as soon as possible. She will ask for a series of edits as well. When Pat returns from his trip he will sit back down and make some changes.

Then the book will be ready to go.

How long will it be before it is published? Difficult to know. Depends on when Pat finishes those edits. But if I were a betting man I’d say it will be published sometime this Fall 2009.

So keep your fingers crossed!

This is great news!

Trolls.

Trolls are everywhere.

Under bridges. Within walls. In sewers. And on the internet(s).

But the Internet troll is the most peculiar of the specie. This kind of troll is someone who posts controversial or inflammatory messages in an online community with the only intention of provoking other users into an emotional response. They often lack good manners, are immoral in their thinking, and basically hate for the sake of hating. They are an ugly aberration of good online folk and voice outlandish criticisms that often bear no fact in reality. By using that erroneous information they often steal other people’s lives, turning them into trolls as well!

They be evil. Wholly evil!

The people I mostly directed my In Defense of George R. R. Martin article toward are trolls. And as I wrote HERE, George wrote his own post directed at those spiteful little creatures who populate certain areas of the internet(s).

Yesterday, author Patrick Rothfuss wrote his own blog post concerning trolls, although his post is more directed toward educating those trolls and releasing them back out into the wild rather than condemning them.

Click Concerning the Release of Book Two to read Pat’s thoughts on his life, why his second book is taking so long to be finished, and a very cool thing he is doing for his fans!

Plus he has cool cartoons. Gotta love that!

Beware of trolls! Fight them where you see them!

A new year is always reason to celebrate, because that means we are one digit closer to books we’ve known have been coming to us for a year—sometimes longer! Here is a list of novels I am looking forward to in 2009!

• The Judging Eye by R. Scott Bakker
• The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan
• Fool by Christopher Moore
• Lamentation by Ken Scholes
• Drood by Dan Simmons
• The Warded Man by Peter Brett
• Blueberry Girl by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess
• God of Clocks by Alan Campbell
• The City & the City by China Mieville
• Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
• Naamah’s Kiss by Jacqueline Carey
• Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson
• Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb
• The Desert Spear by Peter Brett
• A Princess of Landover by Terry Brooks
• Jessica of Dune by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson
• The Other Lands by David Anthony Durham
• Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
• A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin
• The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch

What are you looking forward to in 2009?

As I reported HERE in November, the wildly amusing Patrick Rothfuss threw down the gauntlet to his fans—donate money to Heifer International and he would match it.

I also commented on Pat’s huge heart—watermelon-sized is the adjective I think I used.

I was wrong. The heart that thunders inside Pat is the size of a mack truck!

Patrick Rothfuss fans from all over the world have helped Pat raise more than $34,000 for Heifer International, an organization that helps end world hunger, fights poverty, and cares for the environment. Pat, of course, must match those proceeds. See what I mean by a massive heart?

Over the last few weeks, other writers have stepped forward to help Pat by giving rare items to stimulate more donations—and it has worked! In exchange for donations, Pat is giving many cool items for free as an incentive to those who donate. With the influx of these new items from various other writers, there are now hundreds of cool things to win by giving!

And you’ll feel pretty good anyway for donating whatever you can! So give, feel great about it, and get some cool stuff!

In other Patrick Rothfuss news, the Fantasy Hotlist has posted an exclusive excerpt to Wise Man’s Fear, the forthcoming sequel to The Name of the Wind! Check it out!

And after you finish reading, give… give… give… to Heifer International!

Tis the season, after all…

Pat Rothfuss is one of the coolest people I know. He is certifiable nuts, but in a good way, and beyond being a very talented writer he has a watermelon-sized golden heart.

He is flexing that heart right now. Pat is matching any donations made by his fans to Heifer International, an organization that works to end world hunger and poverty. He has already raised several thousand dollars, of which he must match, and all the while he is giving away rare prizes he has stashed in his home—the best of which is an early read from his forthcoming book!

I’ve admired Pat for the two years I’ve known him; I now admire him even more.

Read more about this on his very entertaining BLOG! And give what you can!

There have been some great new writers come forth the last few years and established writers doing their best work ever. George RR Martin, who has been writing a very long time, has grown into the preeminent epic fantasy writer of this generation. Gaining accolades left and right are new writers Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind) and Scott Lynch (The Lies of Locke Lamora), both of whom are a breath of fresh air. It is an exciting time to be reading fantasy!

But here comes a massive grain of salt—these writers are late!

That’s right. I said it. They are late. They have not been able to deliver their respective manuscripts as planned and promised. Now, I’m not one of the rabid fans out there upset about this; in my view, there are many books to read and I’m not even close to finishing the numerous stacks that fill my home. But there are fans out there angry about books they were looking forward to with bated breath being pushed back and pushed back and pushed back… You get the picture. In a way, that anger is testament to how great those writers are.

Well, here are some other great books you may not have read. While you wait on A Dance With Dragons, Wise Man’s Fear and The Republic of Thieves, try these: