For those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you had a good one this weekend. For those of you who *don’t* celebrate it, or who celebrate it at a different time (I’m looking at you, Canada) I hope you had a good time doing whatever else you did.

Just a quick blog today for those of you who haven’t heard the news: My publisher is holding a photo contest, where you can win some of the new penance piece coins we designed with Shire Post to celebrate the launch of the new book.

They even made this fancy graphic for it and everything…

What’s even more interesting, I think they did this not realizing that I’ve done a couple photo contests over the years…

The contest will be running until December 14th. They’ll be handling it all of it on their end, which I’m glad of, as I have my hands full with a lot of stuff. But I’m looking forward to seeing all the pictures, and sharing some of my favorites here on the blog, too.

Oh… and for those of you who are looking to do some holiday shopping, Worldbuilders Market is running their annual holiday/black friday sale. There’s discounts on a lot of stuff, as well as a few new items, free shipping, etc…

I’ll share more details on the blog later, but I thought I’d throw y’all a heads up as sooner rather than later, as I don’t know how quickly some of the items in the store might sell out…

Here’s a link, if you’re interested.

Later space cowboys,

pat

I can’t remember if I’ve talked about it on the blog recently, but the first week of sales for a book are pretty important. It’s sort of similar to how people mention how much money the opening weekend of a movie made: it’s an easy metric that quantifies the movie’s success. It doesn’t indicate how *good* the movie is, mind you. But even so… there’s an implication…

Luckily, publishing isn’t nearly so tied to just a couple days worth of numbers as a metric for success. But even so, the first couple weeks of sales *do* determine if you hit various bestseller lists. Those things, in turn, make a difference in terms of who pays attention to your book, who reviews it, how many copies bookstores order moving into the holidays, etc.

Of course, I don’t know what my numbers actually *are* at this point. But I’m guessing they’re… okay? I’m hoping they’re okay.

The sort of numbers I do have access to are… the same numbers you do. Numbers of reviews. Star ratings on various websites. Stuff like that. And while I don’t obsess over those things the way I *used* to do… I’m only human, so of course I look.

As I mentioned on the blog last week, before Narrow Road was even published, it had more than a hundred one-star reviews which led to it having a stunning 2.1 star rating.

And yeah, that might seem bad at first. But once you realize the *lowest* you can rate a book is one star…. it actually means it’s not a five-star system. It’s more like it’s a four-star system, and the book had a 1.1 star rating…

Which, among other things, shows that math very rarely helps you feel better about people being pissy.

I’ll admit, I wandered back to goodreads a few times over the last week. Much the same way it’s hard to stop touching a bruise once you know it’s there… Imagine my delight when I saw that on the day of publication, about a 150 people who had actually *read* the book left reviews, which brought things up to about 3 stars….

Which made me feel better, until I realized that put Narrow Road slightly *below* TekWar by William Shatner.

And here’s the thing. I’m not throwing shade here. I only read TekWar once, back in the day. And Shatner’s a better actor than I am. But contrariwise, I’d hope that I’m a better writer than him. And if nothing else, I’d hope that my *fourth* book would at least rank a little bit above his first…

Still as Oot says when he’s trying to build something in MineCraft: “Comparators are the thieves of joy.” I know better that to hang my happiness on plaudits from the hoi polloi…

Fast forward to today though, when I wandered over to look at Narrow Road on goodreads I saw this…

And I have to say, that feels a little better. Not only that it’s almost up at 4 stars, which is nice, but that over a thousand of y’all have taken the time to read and rate the book even though it’s only been out for about six days…

What’s more, that puts it slightly *above* Slow Regard in terms of stars. (Which is a better sort of comparison to engage in.) If Narrow Road turned out as well as Slow Regard, well… then I’m pretty happy.

So… yeah. Thanks. Thanks to all of you who have been picking up the book, or leaving reviews, or telling your friends. I really appreciate it.

In other news, check out this hotness:

These got released in the UK about a week or two ago, and I’ve been too tangled up in one thing and another to post up pictures of them yet. But honestly? They look gorgeous…

Check out those endpapers, y’all…

And they’re different in the The Wise Man’s Fear:

I haven’t managed to get my grubby little hands on one yet, but I’m hoping it won’t be too long…

And speaking of different covers…

(I stole this off instagram, because the purple suede makes me feel like a fancy prince.)

I always love seeing the foreign covers of my books, and this one I love even more than usual. It’s not just because it’s my baby, and I love it no matter what. (It’s a little that.)

The real reason I love this cover extra much is because Nate Taylor did this art. (Remember him? The guy who did the illustrations?) What’s more, I kinda helped him…

But that, as they say, is another story, and I’ve got to get to bed…

Take care of yourselves, everyone.

pat

Launch day went pretty well. It felt… odd. For my last two books, I did signing tours. And while I don’t miss the thought of spending my time in airports and hotel rooms… I do miss the thought of getting to meet a lot of you. Tours are exhausting. But the one part I never got tired of was meeting you guys…

But various things made a tour impractical for me this time around. So when my book came out and it felt a little… different. Not unpleasant, just not as eventful as if I met up with 500-600 of you in Seattle…

That isn’t to say it was a bad day. I fit it what promotion I could while helping the boys with their homework and otherwise dadding it up. I even took a brief field trip with my kiddos to the local bookstore.

(I *really* should have straightened out those books before taking this picture. It’s bothering me…)

Oh! Speaking of which, let’s take a moment to enjoy some good news in a world that’s… well… let’s just say not as good as I think it should be.

After years of being bookstore-less, Stevens Point (the town where I live) has not just one, but TWO local bookstores.

Point’s last bookstore closed *years* ago. It was deeply depressing, as I knew deep in my heart that this town would never have another unless I personally intervened in some way to make it happen….

…Fast forward to my delight at being proven wrong. A couple years back, some amazing local folk opened Bound to Happen books. A local bookstore right on main street. The fact that they survived their first couple years AND covid warms my bitter old heart.

I stopped by to enjoy the book birthday with my boys. Not only did the store have a Draccus pushie on the front counter and the promotional postcards to give away, they had this:

Unknown to me, they’d collaborated with Worldbuilders Market to have some a whole shelf of Kingkiller-related stuff for people who might be showing up for the new book. I had no idea that was happening, and it made me look *very* cool in front of my kids.

Unfortunately, the boys and I were a little rushed, so I didn’t have time to take pictures of the other, even newer, bookstore: Sojourn Booksellers. But picture or no, I’d feel bad not giving them a mention too. They have some of my books as well…

Aaand since I’m splashing around local bookstore love, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a shout to A Room of One’s Own down in Madison. They sent me a picture of displaying not just the new book, but the sexy Bast calendar, too…

Which brings me to my next piece of good news.

• Calendars are back from the printer.

In fact, I’m guessing a few of you have already gotten yours in the mail if you pre-ordered them from Worldbuilders, or got them in one of the bundles.

The boys think it’s the funniest thing ever, and wanted to show off their favorite Bast pictures:

(Oot had trouble deciding, so he picked two.)

Launch day wrapped up with a lovely stream with Nate where we got to show off the art and celebrate the book finally being out. If you missed it, you can see the archived video over on my twitch channel.

For those of you who aren’t into streaming, there’s one thing Nate and I announced that I want to let you know about here…

• Surprise! Extra Signed Books (Feat Nate Taylor)

As I’ve already mentioned in a bunch of places, the publisher and I worked hard so those of you who pre-ordered books could get signed copies. I signed a *lot* of books. A very lot. Enough so that you could get them from your local bookstore, or B&N, or Books-A-Million… pretty much anywhere.

You could also pre-order it over at Worldbuilders Market, the online store for my charity. If you did, you could get the same promotional postcard and signed book.

We really appreciate y’all who support the charity, and we know you can buy the book online for a discount, so we wanted to do something a little extra for you who were willing to pay a little more to help make the world a better place.

So… a month or so ago, Amazing Illustrator (and even better friend) Nate Taylor flew out here to Stevens Point. Partly to visit, but also to sign some books.

What this means is that if you pre-ordered a copy of Narrow Road from Worldbuilders Market, you got a book that was signed by me AND Nate.

And not to put to fine a point on it, but there were a *lot* of you:

It’s hard to show you how many packages they got ready in the weeks leading up to the book’s launch…

Because there were too many to get a picture of all at once…

All told, they shipped over 2200 packages on the Monday before publication so y’all could get your books as quickly as possible.

(Child shown for scale. I swear our employees are of legal age.)

What’s more, on publication day, y’all came storming into the store again. And then yesterday too.

At times like this, I’ve asked them to focus on getting people’s packages shipped out as quickly as possible. And they’ve been doing a bang-up job. But since they’re focusing on that, we haven’t had time to switch our two big pre-order items over into the NON pre-order versions yet.

So… congratulations! All y’all who ordered books, calendars, or bundles over the last couple days still managed to get the lower prices and the double-signed books too!

The team says they’ll be getting items switched over as soon as they’re caught up with shipping tomorrow. If you manage to order a Signed Copy of Narrow Road, or any of the bundles containing Narrow Road before they change it, you’ll still get:

• The lower pre-order price.
• A copy of the book signed by me AND Nate.
• One of the promo postcards.

(So long as we don’t run out, of course.)

So if that sounds like something you’re interested in, or if you’re just looking to do some holiday shopping, jump in quick. Because they tell me the pre-order items and prices will definitely be going away by the end of tomorrow.

Oof. There’s more news to share, but this blog is already crazy long.

I’ll post the rest up in a day or so, folks. For now? I rest…

Thanks again for being amazing…

pat

Whyfore Art Thou? An Interview with Nate Taylor.

Pat: So what’s the best part of working with international bestselling author, philanthropist, and bon vivant Patrick Rothfuss?

Nate: Second-hand fame. I get recognized so long as I’m with you, but no one hassles me at renn faires.

Pat: What’s the worst part of working with the world-class hot mess, megalomaniac, sentient dumpster-fire known as Patrick Rothfuss?

Nate: It is pretty annoying when the other super-villains make a power play against you. I get caught in the crossfire, and ninja attacks get old real fast.

Pat: Tell me about it. They keep getting sucked into the engines of my private jet.

Okay, question time. Can you describe what your process is, as an artist?

Nate: Absolutely! It’s like going fishing. You craft a perfect lure, cast the line, and wait for the nibble. You struggle with the catch and reel it in only to find out you caught the wrong fish. Throw it back and try again. Sometimes it’s almost the right fish, and sometimes it’s an old boot. Sometimes the boot kicks you in the armpit and jumps back in the water. Eventually you reel in a glowing Omega Fish that makes you invulnerable for an hour and it was all worth it.

Pat: Is… Is the Omega Fish a finished illustration?

Nate: It is the final form of the Illustration Supreme, a glorious reckoning of science and artistry. So, yeah I guess it could be called finished.

Pat: Can you tell us a story about what it’s like to work with Rothfuss?

Nate: I did a full illustration a couple of years back to prepare for this book. It was of Bast “sneaking” up on the shepherdess. I got friends to pose for reference photos and rendered the illustration in this polished black and white style. It was pretty sleek. But when we started to really work on things together, you said, “This is first-date Nate. This is very careful and reserved. I think we want third-date Nate. Get comfortable and show off what you really want to do.” It was ultimately inspiring, but for two full days I laid on my back and wondered what the hell I really wanted to do.

Pat: Oh god. Did I really say that?

Nate: Pretty much. You even told me to go overboard a little, though not in so many words.

Pat: It was an amazing illo though. Mind if I show it off so folks can see?

Nate: Sure.

Pat: As y’all can see, this one’s from *way* back, before the Billion Revisions… (brief spoiler hidden)

I wrote the first version of the story in just under a month, which is lightning fast for me. It turned out well, all things considered, but I didn’t get nearly as much time to fine-tune as I normally do. Plus that was nearly ten years ago, which is why there was so much for me to improve in this version.

Nate: Now extensive was the revision?

Pat: In terms of the text, I probably re-wrote about half of the original 20,000 word story. Then I reorganized a bunch of things. Added scenes, split some action up. Expanded on the main plot and the main relationship. Added the Embrils. By the end, the whole thing was about 15,000 words longer.

Nate: How long did it all take?

Pat: Between 4-8 months of pretty solid work, depending on how you count it.

Nate: So… it took 8 times longer to revise than it took to write the original?

Pat: Like I said, it depends on how you count it. That includes things like copyedits and page proofs that weren’t part of my one-month draft. It also includes all the art we developed.

Speaking of, how many versions of the shepherd do you think we did, trying to get it right?

Nate: (checks the archives) Five, plus two that were more subtle border illustrations.

Pat: Oof. And that’s not counting the different drafts and tweaks. Then, after everything, we skip it to focus on other images…

Nate: This one was my favorite concept, I think.

Pat: Seriously though. Why do you keep doing this to yourself?

Nate: Seriously then, and this is something I’ve told other artists and writers who have asked me similar questions. “Pat helps me do my best work.” It’s easy for me to fall victim to my own need for speed and call a piece finished just because the shading looks nice. You are good at pushing the details and the thought behind each choice in the image until it’s the best possible version of itself.

Pat: Is there an illustration we abandoned you really wish we could have made work?

Nate: So many. We cut at least 18 illustrations for one reason or another. I think the one I miss the most was a small portrait of Crazy Martin. I love that little portrait of the hulking madman.

Pat: I love doing character design with you. But yeah, I worried it would take too long. Plus, Martin doesn’t actually show up in the book. I know you did 3-4 versions of him though. Wanna show one off?

Nate: Sure.

Pat: Looking at this again, I don’t know what worries me more. The fact that it looks a lot like me… or the fact that it looks a lot like me but younger and probably more attractive.

Which illustration do you think changed the most while we were revising things.?

Nate: We spent a lot of time on Kostrel dancing. We tried Bast facing toward us, Bast facing away, Kostrel facing toward and away, Bast facing away but head turned toward us. Even after we figured all that out, we did so many versions of Kostrel’s angry face.

Nate: There were so many versions of the different embrils too, and the Lightning Tree itself… You know what? I think the axe in the stump was the only one I nailed on my first pass.

Pat: Actually, I made us go back to that because I was worried the laces on the neck of his shirt hanging off it might interfere with visual continuity.

Nate: True, one change. That still puts it way ahead of the curve.

Pat: It also provides further proof that I am, in fact, a monster.

Nate: My turn for questions. Why do you keep doing this to me?

I mean, what’s your favorite part of working with Nate Taylor?

Pat: I could go on and on. I’ll keep it to three things though.

1. You have never once choked me even though I’m always asking for another, another, another ANOTHER revision. You’ve never even gotten notably salty.
2. When I explain what I imagine for an illustration, or what I’m hoping to change or tweak in the next draft, you for-real understand what I mean. Almost every time. That’s so rare.
3. When you add some twist or detail, it’s not just something that fits. Not just something I love. It’s usually something I wish I would have thought of first. I feel guilty knowing people tend to assume the clever idea in one of the pictures is mine, when the truth is, it’s actually the pure child of your beautiful brain.

Nate: I feel my head swelling, so help me keep an even keel. What’s the worst part of working with Nate? And you can’t say he’s too perfect.

Pat: I worry that you’ll get tired of my bullshit and find easier work somewhere else. Or that someone else will realize how amazing you are and steal you away…

Nate: I’ve seen what happens to artists when they only work for people who think they poop gold-pressed latinum. I need a challenge. Speaking of, when are you going to tell readers that Bast is Kvothe’s real dad?

Pat: Nate… Don’t tease the poor people.

Nate: Sorry. When do you reveal Bast is Kvothe’s step-dad?

Pat: Book four. Right after the chapter where Elodin punches the moon.

Nate: What was your favorite illustration from this book?

Pat: Oh man. It really changes. The one with the kitten cracks me up. Same with little Pem. You *nailed* the one with Rike and Bast making their deal, too. Your idea for making the dividing lines look like shattered ice was brilliant. I can’t believe you pulled that off.

Nate: I became a student of ice for a week. What’s a book you’d love to have Nate illustrate?

Pat: This feels like a cop-out answer, but I’m really excited to put a bow on our graphic novel of The Boy That Loved The Moon. Does that count?

Nate: Of course! I’m looking forward to showing that to the world. How about a book not written by you though?

Pat: Something Wicked This Way Comes. You’re so good with Characters, I’d love to see your take on the boys in that story. To say nothing of Cooger and Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show.

Nate: You got to show off the area around Newarre for the first time. Was it modeled after a real place?

Pat: It’s not based on a place. But it does have a bit of a Midwestern small town feel though. Mostly because that’s where I’ve always lived.

The old men at the bar always remind me of the Norwegian bachelor farmers from Lake Wobegon though. I remember we were going to take a stab at illustrating those, but we nixed that fairly soon because that one illustration would require doing 3-5 sets of character design for what are, at best, tertiary characters.

Pat: I think that’s all the space we have. Thanks again for chatting, Nate. And thanks for all the hard work you put into this. I’m really excited for people to finally get to see what you’ve done now that they can pick up the book…

Nate: I’m beyond thrilled for people to finally see what we’ve made. Let’s talk more tonight!

Pat: I’m really looking forward to it. You wanna show off some of the new illustrations on the stream tonight?

Nate: New illustrations and old ones too! Though, I should hold some back for later. Don’t want to art dump *too* much.

Pat: That’s fair. And since it’s the first day still, we’ll be keeping the stream spoiler-free. You good with doing some Q&A too?

Nate: I’ve never seen a Q that could stand up to my sculpted A. Sorry, I meant thoughtful A.

Pat: You heard it here folks. Tonight Nate Taylor will tell you all his secrets and teach you how to become a successful illustrator, guaranteed.

Nate: I just found this old wardrobe in an empty room and walked through it —

Pat: No backsies! Talk to you soon!

*     *     *

Nate Taylor has illustrated the books “The Slow Regard of Silent Things,” “The Princess & Mr. Whiffle,” “Sometimes the Magic Works” by Terry Brooks, and the graphic novels “The Briar-Sword Monk” by Shawn Speakman and the upcoming Temerant tale “The Boy Who Loved the Moon.” He has also done art for the games “Button Men,” “Tak,” and “Lords of Vegas: Americana.”

He now lives with his family in the Pacific Northwest where he freelances as a human illustrator, cartoonist, and portraitist.

Folks can find him on Instagram @natentaylor and view his portfolio site natentaylor.com

Nobody’s actually read the book yet, obviously. It won’t be published until the 14th. Most of them were 1-star hate-reviews from people pissed it wasn’t Doors of Stone, which means the current rating for the book is around 2.1 stars.

Not gonna lie, took the wind out of my sails a bit. Sucks to have 200+ 1 star reviews before your book even comes out. It almost guarantees that it will never even hit 4-stars.

Same thing happened to Slow Regard, now that I think of it.

(Though to be fair, it’s a weird little book. Not everyone’s cup of tea.)

So instead, I decided to share this story here instead. It’s probably a better place for it to live long-terms anyway…

What story is that, Pat? I hear you say.

Or rather, I imagine hearing you say it. Or rather, I imagine not-hearing you think it to yourself, because I’m guessing not many of you are reading this blog right now and asking questions out-loud. Probably. (If you are, that’s fine. I don’t judge.)

This is, simply said, the story of how The Narrow Road Between Desires came to be.

But Pat! How did this story of how it came to be, come to be? I hear you not ask. Because even if you’re a bit of a weirdie who reads a blog and talks to himself, you wouldn’t say a sentence like that. (Okay, I’m judging a little.)

Well, this might surprise some of you, but sometimes I have trouble writing a thing. And when it came time to send Narrow Road off to get published, I had a hell of a hard time writing the author’s note.

Or rather, I had an easy time writing things I *thought* were the author’s note. I wrote an odd bit about art and mystery and Robert Frost. A funny bit about trying to find a title. I wrote about making art with Nate. An essay on Embrils. (You don’t know what those are yet.) A historical bit about the origin of the Aturan penance piece….

(You don’t know about those either, but we made some.)

For the most part, they were fine little bits of writing, but they weren’t… um… good. Or rather, they weren’t good as author’s notes.

All told, I wrote about 8,000 – 10,000 words, and only used 1500 of them.

This is one of the bits that felt like it was worth keeping. A a story about how a story came to be. Not something most folks would be interested in. But if you’re here, I’m guessing there’s a chance you might be into that sort of thing….

*    *     *

Once, years and miles away, I started writing a story.

It was 2009, an almost incomprehensibly long time ago. I’d only been published a couple years and was an odd mixture of dewy-eyed newbie and professional writer who’s had a taste of success. I was getting fanmail, going to conventions, and the paperback edition of NOTW had just hit the New York Times Bestseller list.

I was new enough that when I got an invitation to write a story for an anthology, it was a stunning event. Keep in mind that I’d been trying, and failing, to get published for about a decade. Getting *invited* to write a story for publication was just baffling. The opposite of rejection.

What’s more, this anthology was a Big Deal. Edited by Martin and Dozois. It was full of fancy authors I admired. What’s more, the theme was a good fit, and I had an idea for a story about Devi. I was so excited to go play with the cool kids….

Unfortunately, at that point I was also struggling and failing to finish The Wise Man’s Fear. I’d missed deadlines. Then more deadlines. People were pissed at me, and I was more pissed at myself. The delays were making trouble for my publisher, and I was terrified that I was ruining my career.

After agonizing for a while, I politely declined the invitation. I was still new to being a professional writer, and thought if I trimmed everything out of my life except Writing The Book, it would get done, like, ten times faster. (That doesn’t work, just in case you were wondering. Turns out you just get ten times sadder.)

I regretted the decision for years. Still do, honestly. As I’ll never know what I might have learned about Devi’s character. But years later, when the editors reached out again, my regret spurred me to accept the invitation.

The new anthology was titled Rogues, and my plan was to write a story about Auri. I assumed most of the other stories would feature more standard thieves and rascals. Con men. Artful Dodgers. Auri would make a cool counterpoint to that. Not a burglar or a rake. She would be more playful, sort of a trickster….

I worked on Auri’s story for months, and it went in every direction except what I’d planned. It was too long. Too strange. There were no characters, no action. Eventually I started to wonder if it was even *was* a story.

But eventually, two things became clear: Auri wasn’t a rogue, and what I was writing wasn’t going to be appropriate for the anthology. So I grit my teeth and abandoned the story.

A third thing was becoming clear to me, too. I had no idea how to write a short story. It should be easy. Name of the Wind was a quarter million words long. Wise Man’s Fear was over 400,000. A short story is nothing compared to that. Typically 3-5 thousand words. A lot of authors could write one in a couple days, give it a quick edit, and turn it over for publication in less than a week.

Me? I was months into the project and didn’t even have an idea, let alone a draft.

Checking my meticulously crafted project timeline, I found I was now at step 6b. (Have an existential crysis about whether or not I’m a *real* writer.)

Closely following that was step 6c. (Panic about missing your deadline, embarrassing yourself, and delaying the entire anthology.)

Luckily, I’m very clever, so I managed to do both of these steps simultaneously while I frantically rummaged through my files. I found the first 50-60 thousand words of a novel I’d started about Laniel Young-Again. I yanked out a piece of that, tried to mash it into something story-shaped, and sent it to the folks managing the anthology with all of charming aplomb of a sweaty drunk trying to use an expired credit card three minutes before the bar closes.

Luckily, the editors did me a great kindness by not letting me get away with that bullshit. They very gently and professionally pointed out what I’d sent in wasn’t very Rogue-ish. Plus there wasn’t much of a through line. Or a plot. Or an ending.

And… well… it wasn’t really a story now, was it?

They were right, of course. I withdrew the story and I was back to square one, later than ever.

Finally inspiration struck. What about Bast? He was a fan-favorite, fun to write, and rogue-ish down to his bones. And since I was struggling to write something short, I could pull inspiration from old faerie stories and folk tales…

After that, it was almost easy. True, it didn’t really turn out to be much like a faerie story. And yeah, it didn’t end up being short either, clocking in at over 20,000 words. But it held together. There were funny bits. Sad bits. A beginning and an end, and I managed to get the middle in between them. Best of all, I got to explore a part of my world nobody (including me) had ever seen before.

I wrote the entire thing in a month, from first word to final draft. For me, that’s wildly fast. I normally struggle with titles, but even that was easy. It was obviously, “The Lightning Tree.”

I submitted it, and breathed a sigh of relief, and hurried off to put out the other fires in my life that had sprung up in the meantime. Half a year later, the Anthology came out, and there I was, in print with the other cool kids, next to Neil Gaiman and Gillian Flynn.

Some folks liked my story. Some folks didn’t. Most didn’t seem to care one way or the other. But while there wasn’t any fanfaire, there was also a marked lack of hue and cry: nobody was declaiming me as a fraud and impostor. I’d hoped to feel a sense of accomplishment, but I mostly felt relief. In keeping with the theme of the anthology, I felt like I’d pulled off an elaborate con of my own. I’d fooled people into thinking I knew how to write a short story, when what I’d *really* done is bluff my way through with a novella-length vinette.

But, like any good con-man, I made my getaway quickly and quietly. Slipping into the night having learned my lesson, that short-story writing wasn’t for me…

*    *    *

…except I didn’t.

Auri’s strange story story kept tickling at me, so I finished it to get it out of my head. I it was unpublishable, but much to my surprise, my editor liked it. We got the fabulous Nate Taylor to illustrate it, and, feeling like I was performing some sort of strange experiment, we published it as The Slow Regard of Silent Things.

(The whole thing would have been worth it just for a one of Nate’s Illustrations.)

To my surprise, turns out there were people who *did* want to read a weird story where nobody talks and nothing happens. Some folks told me it was their favorite book I’d written.

Fast forward to a couple years ago. I was livestreaming when someone mentioned that Slow Regard was their favorite book *ever.* When I asked if they’d ever read “The Lightning Tree” they said they’d never even heard of it. Didn’t have the first clue it existed.

My wheels began to spin, and I bounced the idea off my publisher: What if I brushed up the text of The Lightning Tree, did some art with Nate, and we put out a book along the lines of Slow Regard for people who didn’t even know it existed?

Should be easy. I’d work with Nate on 8-12 illustrations, give the text a little spit-and-polish, fix some typos, maybe add a flourish or two. Easy peasy. Done in a month. Right?

Right?

I was wrong. Coming back to the story after almost 10 years, I saw a *lot* of missed opportunities. All in all, I re-wrote about half of the original story, then added about 15,000 words on top of that. I shifted and re-organized, added scenes, and spent *way* too much time fiddling with the words so things sounded just right.

It was the textual equivalent of starting to put up new wallpaper in a closet, only to have the project snowball until you’re putting in a skylight and have torn apart the walls to bring the wiring up to code.

As always, working with Nate Taylor was a delight. By which I mean he never choked me even once, even though the original plan for 10-12 pieces of art turned into over 45 illustrations…

As for the art itself? Well that, as they say, is another story….

*    *    *

See what I did there? I set things up for tomorrow’s blog, where I’ll be sharing ANOTHER attempt at an Author’s note which was an interview between Nate and I where we talk about our artistic process.

I’ll post that one up tomorrow (Monday) night. And then on Tuesday…

(This.)

(I suppose it’s just a book trailer, isn’t it? Not a Movie-Trailer-But-For-An-Audiobook….)

Anyway, like I said, I was surprised and impressed by how well they turned out. If you’re curious, you can see those trailers and read the blog over here.

What I didn’t mention, is that when they sent me the trailers, I was struck by how cinematic they were and felt bad about how skeptical I’d been when they’d pitched it. So I watched the videos with my boys, and did an audio recording of our reactions as a way of showing that I really *did* like them.

Then, since I was on a roll, I recorded some fake voice-overs for the trailers in my best movie-narrator voice. (I’ll be honest, I’d had a *lot* of coffee that day.)

I didn’t think any more of it, so imagine my surprise when a couple weeks later, they sent me some… edited versions of the videos using the audio I’d sent them.

But not *just* the audio, as you can see from this screencap:

(I already suspected they were proper geeks, but it’s nice to have proof.)

I know not everyone here will get the reference. But I’m guessing if you read this blog, you’re more likely to appreciate it than the general population.

So without further ado, here’s the one with me and the boys:

And here’s the one that’s just me:

(If you’re on your phone, here’s versions of the videos formatted for that.)

Me and the boys (Phone version):

Pat’s voiceover – (Phone version):

I don’t want to say I like these *more* than I liked the originals, but I certainly laughed more while I was watching them. And then cringed more, because I’d forgotten that one of my voice-overs took a turn and ended up being an improvisational love letter to Lin Manuel Miranda…

So… yeah. Audiobook. It’s a thing, and if you appreciate the fact that the folks at Recorded Books took the time to turn my silly joke into something cool I could share with you… maybe consider pre-ordering a copy as a way of thanking them?

Share and Enjoy,

pat

No. No it is not.

I am, in fact, posting new blogs two days in a row.

I’m also, by no small coincidence, running around like a chicken with my head cut off. This is actually a good thing, at least in terms of me continuing my pursuit of occasional non-perfection. By which I mean it’s better for me to post up a pretty good blog that’s timely, rather than post up a perfect one a year too late.)

So despite the fact that I just posted up a *bunch* of news about the new calendars, book pre-order promotions, and other sundry just yesterday, allow me to share a couple cool pieces of news about things happening today:

First, this rad trailer for the upcoming audiobook.

I’ll be honest, when Recorded Books said they wanted to do a trailer for the upcoming audiobook of Narrow Road, I was indifferent. Trailers are cool for movies, because those are inherently visual mediums. Books are less so…

But when I saw what they pulled off here, I was impressed. This thing is pretty posh…

Here’s the alternate format version, for those of you who do your internetting primarily on your phones.

I’ll be honest, when I saw these videos, I asked who made them. I’m getting his contact info, because I’d love to have someone like this who could help me bang together a cool video of my own to show y’all.

In other audiobook-related news, I’m doing a livestream tonight on twitch with these two lovely human beings:

(Thursday the 26th at 6:00 CST)

As many of you already know, Nick Podehl narrates my audiobooks here in the US, and Rupert Degas narrates them in the UK.

(Like so.)

I’m *really* looking forward to chatting with them tonight. I’m an okay public speaker, but the Narration they do is nothing short of magic to me.

If you want to swing on by at 6:00 Central Time, you can catch our talk live. Odds are we’ll be doing some Q&A too, so if you’re curious about the subtle art of audio narration, this would be a great stream to show up to…

Lastly, just in case you didn’t already know, this is only the latest of the online conversations I’ve been having. We’ve done a bunch of lovely conversations over on twitch lately, and we have more to come:

Okay. I want to write more. But I’ll stop there. I have to go feed my boys and get ready for the stream.

Take care of yourselves, everyone. Look forward to chatting with some of you later on tonight.

pat

(As always, guest starring my thumb.)

But I’m guessing by now you’ve already seen that. We have a UK cover too. There’s some promotional stuff going on with the book, where if you pre-order The Narrow Road Between Desires, you not only can get a signed copy, but you’ll also get one of the promotional postcards we made to showcase some of the fabulous art Nate Taylor did for the book:

(Sleepy child shown for scale.)

By the way, if you haven’t pre-ordered a copy yet, there’s still time to do that. I signed a *bunch* of books so that they could be available everywhere, B&N, Books-a-Million, as well as a any indie bookstores that would like to prepare. You can pre-order and get a signed book and postcard at the Worldbuilders Marketplace too, of course. But we wanted you to be able to buy from your local bookstores, too. Because we *love* local bookstores around here.

If you don’t have a local bookstore, here’s a link that will show you all the different places where you can buy the book.

But back to my point, I’ve had a bunch of things to share with you. A lot of things I’d love to talk about…

…but I haven’t posted any of them. Partly because… I’ve signed more than 30,000 books over the last month (some for the US, some for the UK) so that (hopefully) y’all can get copies even though I’m not doing a signing tour. Partly because I’m helping my boys with school and trying to be a good dad, partly because there’s a lot of other stuff in my life that eats a truly unfortunate amount of my time and energy…

I’ve also been doing interviews, livestreams, and other things to promote the upcoming book, of course:

(I’ve got one of these happening tomorrow, FYI.)

The other reason I haven’t written about a lot of this stuff is that… well… it’s important to me. And if it’s important, I want to do it really well. REALLY well. Perfectly, in fact. And it takes a long time to write a perfect blog… More time that I usually have.

So today I’m trying to change that by writing an imperfect blog. This is it, by the way. It’s a blog where I just tell you some things and try to come to grips with the fact that the blog isn’t as funny, or detailed, or clever as I’d like it to be.

So… with that in mind. Here’s the most recent piece of news I mentioned at the end of last week’s livestream….

Yeah. It’s a Bast-themed calendar.

It started as a joke. I was working on the illustrations for Narrow Road, and getting some feedback from Julia Maddalina, (an amazing artist I’ve worked with for years. You’ve seen her work in the worldbuilders store.)

While we’re chatting, I made some comment about Bast being sexy, it’s a shame he doesn’t have a pin-up calendar, etc etc… Then 20 minutes later, Julia sent me a sketch Bast. I honestly can’t remember what the first one was, because we joked about it for weeks, and she sent me sketches of him washing a car in daisy dukes, dressed up as a lumberjack, and just generally being the hot fae he is.

Then eventually, it started seeming less like a joke and more like a fun side project I could release alongside the book to make some money for Worldbuilders.

I hesitate to call it a pin-up calendar. As there’s a lot of baggage that goes along with that term, a lot of sexism and objectification. But we *have* pulled a bit from that tradition for some of the images.

(This is one of my favorites)

But a lot of the art we developed doesn’t follow in the pin-up tradition. It’s just playful, and silly, and fun…

(Not really a pin-up)

While working on the calendar, I never really talked about it, as I wasn’t sure we’d be able to get it finished this year, and the last thing I wanted to do was get people excited about something and then not be able to deliver it on time. But it’s at the printers now, going through final proofs, and now I wish I *had* been talking about it for months, because Julia’s art is amazing, and this has turned into something I’m really proud of.

(Yeah. That’s Bast as a sexy Mr. Tumnis…. Plus Noir. I don’t know why I’m proud of it. But I am. I’m really, *really* proud of it.)

Last week, I was showing the finished project to a friend who runs a bookstore down in Madison because I was excited about it being finished, and they ended up ordering a hundred copies for their store. It was only then that I realized that some of you were in direct contact with a bunch of people who would love to buy something like this….

Aaaand. That’s it. An imperfect blog. The story of how I accidentally made a Julia draw bast without his shirt off a bunch, for charity.

Here’s the tricky bit. We’ve done calendars in the past and learned the hard way that they’re not an evergreen product. I don’t want to print, like, 150 of these, then run out and have a bunch of people be sad because we ran out and they can’t have one.

On the other hand, I also don’t want to throw away a thousand calendars when February rolls around. It’s a huge waste of money, and feels like an ecological hate-crime.

So right now we’re doing a pre-order sale in Worldbuilders online store.  For a couple days, if you buy multiple copies, you can get a big discount. (That sale is going to go away when we put in our final order this week.

You can also put together a bunch of different bundles over there, where people can get a discount by buying a bunch of things at once. Like a copy of the new book, a calendar, and one of the new coins we make with shire post to celebrate the release of Narrow Road.)

(These show up in the book, and I’m *really* happy with how they turned out.)

So… there you go. Many announcements made imperfectly. Hopefully I’ll be able to come back and go into more detail about some of these things later, but at the very least I’ve managed to mention them to y’all.

And now, I’ve got to go make breakfast for my boys.

Later space cowboys,

pat

P.S. If you happen to be a cool indie bookstore, and want to sell some sexy Bast during the holidays, drop us a line over at: sexybastcalendar2024@patrothfuss.com.

Later this year, I’m publishing a new novella.

In a lot of ways, it’s going to be similar to The Slow Regard of Silent Things. It’s set in Temerant. It’s going to be illustrated by the fabulous Nate Taylor, and it centers on one of the secondary characters from the Kingkiller Chroniclers: Bast.

[You’re never secondary in our hearts, Bast.]

The Novella is called The Narrow Road Between Desires.

I’ve always said when a new project was happening, you’d hear it here first. So here it is, first.

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know how I typically communicate. I tend to go on tangents, digress, maunder, and only then do I get to the point and share the news.

So… Surprise. That’s the news. Right up at the top. Hope that me changing it up a bit isn’t too disconcerting.

If you want more details about the novella, odd context, and a few tangents, that’s down below the scene break. Because this is my blog, and I can put a scene break in it if I want.

* * *

Part 2: Cookies and Communication

(That’s right, not only a scene break. I’m giving it a subtitle, too.)

Ever since book two was delayed more than a decade ago, I’ve promised y’all that when a new book is going to be coming out, you’ll hear the news from me first.

The reason for this is a little complicated. But it boils down to this:

When you create something people like, they want to know when you’re going to make a similar thing so they can enjoy that too. If they like it a *lot* then they *REALLY* want to know when you’re doing it again.

If the thing you create is say… a batch of cookies for your kids, this isn’t a problem. They want more cookies, so you can let them know the cookie release schedule. If they forget, you can remind them. If the schedule changes, you explain why.

Even if your kids want more cookies than you can produce, and they complain, or whine, or nag at you, the whole thing is still manageable. (Though as anyone who has dealt with kids can attest to, dealing with over-insistent kids can be rough.) But it works because the number of kids is (statistically speaking) only about 2-3. This makes clear and consistent communication possible. Since you’re all on the same page, everyone gets to anticipate cookies together.

All of this goes out the window if, say, instead of making cookies, you make a book. And instead of a 2-3 kids, you end up with several million readers.

When I was first published. I thought communicating with folks online would be easy. I post an update, everyone reads it. Easy peasy. Right?

It only took a couple years to realize it doesn’t work that way. I can spend 10 hours writing a blog about how my Dad’s in hospice, explaining how the whole thing’s upheaved my life, been hard on my boys, and utterly destroyed any semblance of normalcy in my world…. Then later that day still get half a dozen people pinging me on different platforms asking me why it’s been years since my last book was out.

I can post updates on my blog, on twitter, on facebook, on Twitch, but that doesn’t mean people will read them. What’s more, all it takes is a rumor on a reddit thread to spread bad information and make people think there’s a new book coming out. If amazon’s ordering system auto-fills a publication date for Doors of Stone, people think it’s real, then get pissed when no book comes out on that not-real timeline.

It’s something that I still don’t know how to come to grips with. And the only solution I do have is the promise I made years back: That when there *is* a publication date for DOS, or I put out a different book, you’ll hear about it directly from me first. And no matter where else I make the announcement. (Like today on Twitch, for example.) I’ll also post about it here on the blog.

It’s not a perfect solution, but this way, if people hear a rumor, they can at least come over here and check out whether or not it’s real.

When I first promised that, I thought it would be easy. But at this point, I think we all know that I can be terribly naive….

* * *

Part 3: Visions and Revisions

So. For those of you who haven’t already guessed, while it’s easy for me to say “You’ll always hear about new books and their publication dates from me first.” It’s *way* more complicated than that. Truth is, things like this, can only work if your publisher has your back….

While I write the books myself, publishing them is a team effort. And as many of you already know, my publisher is DAW, and my editor is Betsy Wollheim. Without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

When I told Betsy I wanted to be first to break news like this to y’all, she agreed. And since then both Betsy and the other lovely folks on the publishing team have gone along with it, despite the fact that it makes things harder for them.

They have to do extra work in order to keep things secret, and it ties their hands a little. Believe it or not, promoting and marketing a book is way harder when nobody knows a book is in the works. Despite all this, we’ve all been keeping news about the novella secret, and the lovely folks at DAW have done that extra work so that I can make the announcement here first.

There are some downsides, though. If I’m going to be the first to break the news, I have to do so fairly early in the publication process so that marketing and PR people can do important things like… talk to bookstores and see if any of them would be interested in, y’know, putting it on the shelves so people can buy it.

The bad news is that since this is early in the process, it means the book is still in development. I’m still tweaking the text. Nate and I are still finishing the art. We don’t have the cover finalized yet:

[I know it’s hard to believe, but this is not, in fact, the final cover.]

The good news is that as new things *do* get finished, I get to show them off to you. That will give me stuff to share here on the blog for the next couple months. But I do still have some stuff to share:

• The publication date will be Nov 14th 2023.
• There will be opportunities to get signed copies. (More on this later, as we solidify promotional plans.)
• The book will be longer than The Slow Regard of Silent Things.
• It will have more illustrations than Slow Regard, too. (More than 30.)

The last of these is really exciting for me, as it’s been a lot of fun working on this with Nate:

(Click to Embiggen.)

We ended up with least 5 different graphics full of potential Bast faces that we developed while working on the illustrations….

For those of you who are into more of the professional ad-copy sort of stuff. Here’s one of the *many* different versions of the promo copy that we’ve tossed around. I’m notoriously bad at writing this sort of thing, so my main contribution is to go into their draft, re-write pieces of it, get increasingly frustrated, then eventually send it back to them saying, “Use any of this that you want to and throw away the rest!”

It’s not a *great* process, but it’s what I have.

#1 NYT bestselling phenomenon Patrick Rothfuss returns to the wildly popular Kingkiller Chronicle Universe with a stunning reimagining of “The Lightning Tree.” Expanded to twice its previous length, and lavishly illustrated by Nathan Taylor, this touching stand-alone story is sure to please new readers and veteran Rothfuss fans alike.

No one taller than the stone. 

Come to blacktree, come alone. 

Tell no adult what’s been said, 

lest the lightning strike you dead.

When you come to the lightning tree to trade with Bast, your mortal money isn’t worth much. What holds true value are older things: secrets and favors. Buttons and flowers. Lies, tricks, riddles, stones, and whatever else your heart truly desires.

Follow the Kingkiller Chronicle’s most charming fae as he schemes and bargains his way through the small town of Newarre. While at first it seems that Bast must be master of this tiny domain, but while he cares nothing for the laws of man, there are older, deeper laws that bind him. And for all his cleverness, Bast finds himself trapped in ways he has never experienced before, and make hard choices and help an enemy.

Playful, sweet, and sly as Bast himself, The Narrow Road Between Desires is Bast’s story. In it he traces the old ways of making and breaking, following his heart even when doing so goes against his better judgement. For after all, what good is wisdom if it keeps you from finding your way to danger and delight?

So… yeah. There you go. Announcement made.

Final notes: Because I have an addiction to bulleted lists:

• If you want to know more details as they become available, finished cover, how to get signed books, sneak peeks at art, etc.) here on the blog is the best place to keep checking back. But we’re also spinning up a mailing list over here at RothCo (TM) so if you want to get updates sent to you about potential events and signings and other promo stuff, you can sign up here.
• Want to pre-order a copy but don’t know where your closest indi bookstore is? You can find one here. (Indibound)
• Are you in the UK? Here’s a link to Waterstones.
• Do you run an indi bookstore and want to be part of some of the cool promotions our PR and Marketing people are planning? You can ping DAW over here.

That’s all for now.

Later, space cowboys….

So I’m going to throw that up here today.

But first, I want to show you the graphic that I made with Julia on the livestream a couple days ago, that shows nice mockups of the books and gives details about them, including all the upgrades we’ve been able to include.

And you know what? I’m going to do you one better than that.

Right now the kickstarter is at $339,827. But I’m going to show you the graphic we have ready for when we hit $350K because that’s kinda the final big goal for us.

Because at $350,000 every Softcover and Hardcover book people get through the kickstarter will include a special bookplate with new, original art by Ursula Vernon.

Here it is.

(Woo!)

Here’s the thing: I know everyone jumping into the kickstarter would like a signed book. But there’s just no way we can do that. The books are *way* too big, and shipping them to Ursula would take a truck, then a crew of people to unload, unbox, present, re-box, and re-load. Pallets of books. Shipping cost both ways. Plus the books get damaged boxing and unboxing. Plus the time. And hassle. And extra money.

Even a bookplate is tricky. It ads more art design. We still have to do a proofing process, pay to get things printed and shipped to Ursula, then shipped back. And god help us if we lose a box…

But the kickstarter has done well enough that we can manage it. And Ursula has been gracious enough to agree to sign *all* of them.

So that means everyone can get their book signed, after a fashion.

But anyway. Here’s the promo graphic I was talking about…

(Click to Embiggen)

That was a ton of fun to make with Julia and the folks on the stream. I’m trying to do my best on this project, because I love Ursula’s book. But I do my best work when I don’t take things *too* seriously.

And now, without further ado, here’s my rambling mess of a foreword. (Forgive the occasional error, this is the raw text, not the nicely trimmed and copy-edited version that exists in the book itself.)

*     *     *

Hello there. My name is Patrick Rothfuss. Do yourself a favor and read this book.

That’s the gist of it right there. You have permission to skip this whole foreword and get straight to the good stuff. I don’t know what you might be expecting from a forward, but odds are you won’t find it here. This is, at best, going to be an odd, maundering aggregation of anecdotes and elegy.

So go on. Get in there. Read it.

*     *     * 

Okay. I warned you.

Once, years and miles away, I stumbled onto a comic called Digger.

I was on a book tour, which meant I needed something to read in airports and hotel rooms. I found this comic in the store after I was done with my signing. I looked it over. Good blurbs. Playful tone. Hold on, Phil Foglio wrote the foreword? I’ve loved his work for ages, especially Girl Genius.

But luggage space was limited, and this book was beefy. Thick as a cinderblock. I wasn’t sure I had space for it…

I flipped a couple pages to look at the art and suddenly there was a full splash page showing Ganesha.

That was enough for me. I rolled the dice, bought it, and ended up having to throw away two t-shirts so I could fit it in my bag.

Every once in a while, apparently, I make a good decision.

*     *     * 

Whenever I write a foreword or introduction, I feel the need to explain that I don’t like introductions. That I don’t read introductions. I find the entire concept baffling at best. More often I think of them as belonging in the same circle of hell as spoilers, paid endorsements, and people who talk in the theatre.

Simply said, I don’t want to tell you about this book. I believe a story should stand on its own, and that the first time you experience it is precious. Sacrosanct.

If my job here is to introduce you to the book… shouldn’t I do it in the same way I introduce people? “Hello there, Reader. I hear you like Books.” I turn to face Digger with an expansive gesture. “What a fortunate happenstance, my good friend Book! I suspect the two of you will form a delightful acquaintance.”

And then I should leave. I shouldn’t stand around, hands in my pockets, eyeballing you intently while rocking back onto my heels, like I’m expecting the two of you to immediately kiss.

So. Reader, meet Book. Book, Reader.

*     *     * 

Giving people books is my love language. And these days, my older son bears the brunt of the impulse. The only thing that keeps me from burying him in books is the fact that I only want to bring him truly good things to read.

Also? He’s 12, and I’ve tried to keep the worst of the world from poisoning him. As a result, he’s crushingly literate with a tender heart and has a real distaste for what he refers to as “Dead Dog Books.” Which is to say, books where there’s needless tragedy, cruelty, violence, etc.

This was more than two years ago, so he was only 10, and even though I loved Digger, I didn’t know if I should share it. Violence, but it’s not gratuitous. Big feelings, but nothing overwhelming. Complex story and relationships, Non-western philosophy but presented with care and clarity…

I rolled the dice again and gave him the book.

He read the whole thing. Then he read it again. On his third time through, he read big chunks of it to his younger brother.

When I asked him what he thought of it, he lit up and said, “It’s almost as good as Bone!”

Trust me, this is stunning praise. I gave him my Omnibus edition of Bone back when he was 7. He’s read it dozens of times. The thing is in absolute tatters. This isn’t him giving Digger second place, he’s saying he loves it infinity –1.

Here’s the hard truth: I’m biased toward digger. You can’t trust me to be impartial about Digger. Hell, I’m publishing it. It’s kinda my job to say nice things.

But my kid? He’s better than me. You can trust him.

*     *     * 

Fast forward. I’m still brimful of New Relationship Energy toward Digger. So I take it on a trip and give it to a friend who lives a thousand miles away.

Again, giving books is one of my purest joys. I get to share something I love with someone I love. And when I replace it, buying a new copy supports the author, publisher, and bookstore.

But it turns out my local bookstore can’t order it. Neither can Room of One’s Own in Madison. Neither can Barnes and Noble…

It isn’t anywhere. Eventually I find a copy for $600 on a rare book site, but that’s it. How could this be out of print? It’s an amazing story. It won a Hugo….

So, using all my vast publishing-world clout, I ping Ursula Vernon on Twitter to ask her what was up. She directed me to Sofa Wolf Press and I learn the harsh truth: The omnibus is, as I mentioned, a *really* big book. They simply couldn’t afford to bring it back with the cost of paper being what it is these days.

I asked if I could help. I have a little experience bringing books back. When my weird picture book went out of print, we brought it back and sold it through the Worldbuilders store, making a *lot* of money for charity while accidentally scarring an entire generation of geek children.

Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that bringing Digger back was going to be harder. For one, Digger was a thousand pages long. For another, Covid was ruining everything. There were paper shortages, printers I’d worked with in the past had gone out of business…

So I called Shawn Speakman, cool guy, experienced book-doer, and founder of Grim Oak Press. We talked. Made plans. One thing led to another, and I ended up finally pulling the trigger on a project I’ve daydreamed of for over a decade: Starting my own publishing imprint.

(I’ll never get tired of showing off the logo.)

As I’ve already said, sharing books is one of my favorite things. I do it so much that I buy my favorite books in bulk, so I always have a copy I can hand to someone. Bringing a book back into print is pretty much the same thing, just on a vaster scale.

Thanks for taking a risk on us. This is the first flight of Underthing Press. I hope it goes well. I hope you enjoy the books I want to share.

*     *     * 

When I was 8, while walking through the woods with my father, he asked me to wait a moment, then rolled up his sleeves and casually pushed over a huge, fully-grown tree.

Later in life, I realized the tree had been long dead. Nevertheless, the effect was that young Pat thought of his father as the strongest man in the world, immeasurably cool.

Earlier today, I told my boys I’d be working on this foreword for the same reason my father pushed over that tree: a desperate desire to look cool in front of my kids. It worked pretty well, because, as I’ve said, my kids love Digger.

On a whim, I asked what they would say if someone asked them for a promotional blurb. (They know what this is because daddy’s an author.)

My 8-year old immediately stomped out with: “It’s wonderfully story-rich!”

My 12 year old said he wanted to think about it a bit, then a couple hours later he came back and said: “Digger is a beautiful story that rambles, but in a good way.”

So there you go. If anyone knows rambling stories, it’s my kids.

And I’m guessing if you’ve made it all the way to the end of this foreword, you might be one of the folks who enjoy that sort of thing as well….

*     *     *

So… yeah.

If that seems like something you might be interested in, you’ve got about 24 hours left to jump in and back it over here.

Later space cowboys,

pat

[Edit: 2:33 PM – We’ve hit $350K, so it’s official. Everyone gets one of the cool new signed bookplates. We also added another 50 Limited editions, as they sold out again.

Also, Shawnposted an update announcing an add-on that folks requested in one of our early brainstorm session, and we’ve been working on for a couple of weeks. Specifically, it’s a way for those of you who love books (and libraries) to add a discounted copy of digger to your order and then we at Underthing Press will donate those books to underserved libraries around the country where they can get the love and attention they deserve.)