Patrick Rothfuss lights a cigar with a $20 bill

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A few days ago, Patrick Rothfuss posted an open letter to Nathan Fillion, in which he points out that he’s a new author but also an international best seller, and that with his new book about to come out, he’s liable to be coming in to a good bit of money.

That’s why he, as a guy with his second book about to come out, wanted to chip in to help Fillion buy the rights to the Firefly TV series.

My first reaction: 0.0

My second: “wut?”

I’m not sure what my third was because things got fuzzy after that. I do remember the nice people helping off the floor of the Starbucks, wiping away my tears with their post-consumer waste paper napkins. They seemed quite worried about me until I assured them that I wasn’t sick at all, it’s just that someone very dear to me had suddenly died.

Anyway, I think it’s great that he’s so successful that he’s considering a time share on a Hollywood property. It’s funny; I’ve always heard that money and success can’t make a person happy, but the only way I’ll believe it is to test it out personally.

So! what else might Mr. Rothfuss’s new-found wealth bring?

1. NASA will launch geostationary satellite magnifying glass that will keep his home at a comfy 76F all winter long. (During the summer, the glass will be angled to shine that heat at Raymond E. Feist.)

2. Just in case book 3 (The Doors of Stone) is delayed, time-traveling historians have convinced the Mayans to extend their calendar to December 2012.

3. Inspired by Charlie Sheen, Pat Rothfuss has hired a team of Swiss surgeons to give him real “fire-breathing fists.”

4. Saudi Princes have booked tours of Pat Rothfuss’s house for decorating tips.

5. In the future, Pat Rothfuss will do all his grocery shopping in a sedan chair carried by fans.

6. If you have to ask about number six, you can’t afford it.

7. Starting March, 2011, Pat Rothfuss’s face will be on the $1 million bill. Might as well, right?

8. Boring garden statues that never change positions will be replaced by fans assuming poses assigned by Pat Rothfuss. Woe to the fan unable to pee in continuous stream while Mr. Rothfuss walks by.

In all seriousness, good for Pat Rothfuss. I hope his next book is million-seller. (Note to readers: I’d be happy with half that, and would gladly join a campaign to purchase the rights to HOLMES AND YOYO.)

World Fantasy Con

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Is all booked up. It’s not happening until the last weekend in October, but all the memberships have been sold and they’re putting people on a waiting list.

Just thought you ought to know.

The heavily-discounted backlist

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Check out this article about a best-selling backlist title.

I know authors are already doing this with titles that have reverted to them. The interesting thing here is that it’s the publisher who’s pricing a backlist title like an app and surprising the hell out of themselves by hitting the NYT Bestseller list.

Obviously, this is not going to work as well as the practice becomes more common, but a surprise like this (and I’m certain that it is a surprise to everyone involved) will almost certainly cement teh idea of windowed ebook pricing: Full(ish) price when it’s a new release and a heavy discount (mumble mumble) months later.

I like it.

Randomness for 2/26

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1) Five reasons so many movies suck.

2) Teacher tries to reach students via a book she writes, in which they are characters. School board objects to drug and sex references, not to mention the “Mr. Gay UK” stuff. You already guessed the rest.

3) Judgmental bookseller ostrich.

4) Hamster-powered walker.

5) Childhood pictures re-enacted. I have to admit, I love these, but I don’t think I could do it. One picture may be NSFW because it shows a woman’s breast.

6) Dance a dance designed by communist committee.

7) Predator, the musical. Video. What it says on the label, and pretty funny.

Will guest-blogging for a popular author make me popular too?

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My last post at antipope.org went up overnight (well, it was overnight for me, morning GMT) and it examines the question of whether guest-blogging on his site, which gets over 10K visitors a day, resulted in a lot of sales of my books..

Three things I’m thinking about

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First, we were due to get 2-6 inches of snow last night, but something crazy apparently happened and the snow fell and stuck everywhere but right here in Seattle. I know there are some of you out there who are sick of snow, but I have a little boy here who wants to slide down a hill on a flattened cardboard box. We need some kid weather.

In fact, it’s snowing right now but nothing is sticking. I should probably bring him home a treat.

Second, I’m working on this thing, and it’s taking way longer than it should. Even when I devote hours and hours to it, I only plod through a couple thousand words. Tim Pratt, on the other hand, just kicked out an 8,000 word day (yes we are supposed to compare ourselves to other people, so hmph on you). It’s frustrating and annoying.

Third, with regard to the second point, I’m seriously considering a week-long internet fast. It wouldn’t be enough to finish this project, but it would help. Has anyone done it? What did you think?

Randomness for

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1) Now this is a brilliant film trailer: Baby trashes bar. Video.

2) Wildly successful self-published author Amanda Hocking on What It Takes.

3) An appreciation for a show I’ve been watching: The Adventures of Pete and Pete.

4) Samurai fights his own shadow. Video. This is really beautiful and well done.

5) The 50 worst band photos ever. I haven’t looked at all of these yet, but yikes.

6) Facebook ads in a superhero universe. The last one is priceless. I’m tempted to do this for urban fantasy universes.

7) I love this: What happened to the bullies at the end of THE NEVERENDING STORY? Video. Via Matt Staggs at Suvudu.

Second to last antipope post

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My second to last post went up on Charles Stross’s site earlier today. In it, I offer five tricks that are useful in real life, including the Jill Cooper fitted sheet folding video I’ve posted here before. I also talk a bit about my own pain management. Check it out.

Game night

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Inspired by James Nicoll’s regular D&D posts, I thought I’d write up the session of Truth & Justice I just GM’ed. I’m doing it now because it’s late and I’ll forget if I wait until tomorrow.

Truth & Justice is a superhero paper-and-dice rpg. The heroes were:

  • Pressure, a gadgeteering scientist with the ability to control air pressure. The player is a 9yo boy.
  • The Black Monkey, a primate scientist, engineer, window-washer who was bitten by a monkey that he himself irradiated and who can now transform himself into a big, bulky human with a monkey tail, except that his eyes are glowing green and his body is a silhouette. Powers: Super-strength, -agility, -speed. The player is a 9yo boy.
  • Shait, a 12-year old daughter of archaeologists who is possessed by the spirit of the goddess of the Nile/flooding season/all water everwhere (courtesy of a shabbily-researched web site. If the GM had known they were looking up mythological figures, he would have advised them not to rely on a site with green text on a black background). Powers: Super-armor, Immortality, Water Control. The player is a middle-aged woman and non-gamer.

The player running The Black Monkey had never played any kind of rpg before, which put him one session behind Shait’s player and two behind Pressure’s. The session started where the previous had left off: Pressure had slipped out of his university lab and Shait had climbed out the window of a fleeing school bus and had defeated a villain called Nemesis. They were standing over the unconscious body when Black Monkey ran up, too late to join the fight.

Introductions were made, and Shait informed the other two that she was a goddess searching for lost relics. She also informed them that they would be helping her in this task. Despite their inexperience with gaming, I thought the expressions on their faces pretty closely matched the expressions the adult male characters they were playing would have. Sirens approached and all three left the scene, confident the police would be able to contain the villain.

Shait, of course, discovered that her school bus was long gone, having fled the appearance of a super-villain. She rolled well, found a discarded transfer and took a city bus back to her school. Her parents were called and she was grounded. The life of a pre-teen superhero is never easy, and it was going to get worse. Continue reading

How about that.

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My wife has an imdb page of her own. (No, I won’t link to it.)

She’s so much cooler than I am.