Awesome Authors…part 1
We have a lot of awesome sponsors these days who contribute books and games, help us get to conventions, and make it so much easier for us to stay busy, diverse, and productive. If you haven’t seen everyone who’s on board so far, please do! But at the heart of our annual fundraiser, we have an amazing number of authors who believe in what we’re doing and want us to be able to offer as much cool stuff in our lottery as possible. Our first group of authors represent a variety of genres and styles, but what they all have in common is an amazing level of coolness.
Paolo has been donating books to us for years, and he’s given us some really cool stuff (like a deluxe limited edition of The Windup Girl a couple years ago!). His books are always well-researched, with sharply drawn characters and some top-notch worldbuilding. His high-concept fantasy runs the spectrum from the rich, detailed dystopia in The Windup Girl to the more grounded, kid-friendly zombie adventure in Zombie Baseball Beatdown.
Paolo donated a bunch of his books this year, and we have a few copies of The Windup Girl, Shipbreaker, Drowned Cities, Doubt Factory, Pump Six, The Water Knife, and more.
You might have missed her, but Jacqueline has joined us for a few years as well–she’s just very understated, letting her beautiful writing speak for itself. You might not have realized she joined us for a stretch goal or two, and even has a lovely card for sale in The Tinker’s Packs.
Jacqueline weaves stories that tap right into your emotions, so if you like getting swept away by lush, fully realized worlds and vivid descriptions, you need to read her books. This year she sent us a signed, hardcover edition of her version of Shakespeare’s Tempest, Miranda & Caliban, as well as an extremely rare edition of Kushiel’s Dart, which we have on auction.
Peat is another author who’s been joining us for the Worldbuilders fundraiser since forever. We usually have some of his Demon Cycle books and jewelry to give away to lucky, lucky people, and one year he got together with Myke Cole for a stretch goal that very nearly lost us both of them.
This year, Peat donated some Demon Cycle books, including the final book in the series, The Core, which brings the whole thing to a whirlwind close. We have a first edition, first printing of The Core that’s signed by both Peat and Brent Weeks, who apparently get confused for each other all the time. We don’t get it. One writes richly-drawn “grey” characters against the brutal backdrop of a bleak world full of magic, horrible monsters, and even more horrible human beings, and the other….hmm….
So, about Laura Anne Gilman…
Laura Anne has contributed all sorts of stuff to our fundraiser every year, from manuscript critiques (she’s both a professional author AND editor, so she’s basically a one-two punch of knowledge right in the cerebrum) to signed books to something cool from her desk. This year, on top of a really cool offer of a a quick “bluesky” discussion in our auctions, she donated signed hardcovers of Silver on the Road and The Cold Eye, the first two books in her Devil’s West series, where myth, magic, and history collide in the old West.
Grant hasn’t been with us for years and years, but he joined us last year in a big way–he donated the proceeds from his book Agent Darcy & Nina Steve in: Tiger Trouble! to Worldbuilders during our fundraiser, and sent us 20 copies for our lottery! This year he sent along some more copies, because really, an action story involving spies and ninjas that’s filled with clever humor and relatable characters? The world needs more books like this.
Kevin hopped on board the Worldbuilders train early and often, and has previously sent us a set of Iron Druid books that he drew characters in, a typewritten manuscript to auction off, and oodles of books. This year, we have a few sets of his nearly-complete Iron Druid Chronicles (he’s currently editing the final book), as well as some lovely signed hardcovers of his new novel, A Plague of Giants, which is making a massive splash in the epic fantasy community. Oh, and like Jacqueline Carey, he also has some stuff for sale in The Tinker’s Packs.
We have so many authors joining us this year that we’ll need to talk about more of them soon, but we do try to keep things brief. You don’t want to listen to us, you want to check out all the stuff in our Lottery Library! For every $10 you donate, you have a chance to win one of these (and hundreds of other) books. You get some awesome new reading material lovingly donated by the folks who brought it to life, and Heifer International gets the funds they need to keep helping folks pull themselves out of poverty.
This is how you build worlds!