Pat adds some goodies to the fundraiser

The Lottery Gets Kingkiller’d

Worldbuilders started as a way for Pat to encourage people to donate to Heifer International by offering to send random donors books from his personal collection. They were all books he loved and was only too happy to share with everyone. Some of them were The Name of the Wind, which of course he loved like a father and couldn’t wait to introduce to the world. Every year since then, no matter how many of our sponsors donate amazing prizes to our Lottery Library (and they all donate such wonderful stuff), Pat still donates things that he loves and wants to share with the world. Here’s what he’s adding to the lottery this year!

One set of Pat’s Favorite Books! The tradition continues with about 40 of Pat’s all-time favorite books. These are books he grew up with, that knocked his socks off, or that really stuck with him over the years. If he was able to, he’d always have a wagon full of these books to hand over when someone asks, “What books influenced you the most in your life?” Since that’s not very practical, he’s donated them to the Lottery Library where one lucky winner will get about a wagonful of Pat’s favorite books.

The Kingkiller Set! Pat’s donated five sets of the three Kingkiller books for you to enjoy or gift to a friend who needs to read them. Each prize consists of signed The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man’s Fear, and The Slow Regard of Silent Things. We love talking Kingkiller with people, because everyone has a different takeaway from the series, and everyone has a very personal reason for loving these books. That means every time we talk to someone, we learn something new we missed when we read them. And re-read them.

The Princess Set! The Princess and Mr. Whiffle is Pat’s best worst-kept secret: a kids’ book for grownups with a twisted sense of humor. A clear favorite at Pat’s live appearances, The Princess and Mr. Whiffle books are fun genre-defying, trope-upending books that each have three different endings. In the first book, The Thing Beneath the Bed, the endings get progressively darker. If you’re reading to a child, we recommend you stop at the first ending. In the second book, The Dark of Deep Below, each ending gets progressively more epic. Nate Taylor‘s classic, black and white storybook art fits Pat’s stories perfectly, and you may need to re-read them a few times to catch everything. We’ll have five sets of both books in our lottery for anyone to win!

The Name of the Wind 10th Anniversary Edition came out this summer, and it’s hands down one of the most beautiful books we’ve seen. It features a brand new cover, gorgeous interior illustrations by Dan dos Santos, a new map from Nate Taylor, and a few new appendices that break down pronunciation, the Temerant calendar, and the various currencies in use throughout the world. Pat has added 5 copies of the 10th Anniversary Edition to our Lottery Library, each one with a Pat-doodled bee drawn with his signature!

Devi’s Box was one of the most beautiful Tak sets we’ve seen, and we’d say Wyrmwood Gaming outdid themselves on this Tak set, but that just seems to be their business model. Devi’s Box is handcrafted from maple and black walnut, with just a touch of bloodwood (of course). The lid is double-sided, with a hybrid 6×6 board on one side that features a bloodwood edge, walnut border, maple squares, and bloodwood diamond inserts. The other side features a standard 6×6 board of maple and walnut, and the whole thing is treated with a hand-rubbed oil and wax finish, using lavender essential oil. Inside Devi’s Box is a full set of 62 pieces in maple and bloodwood. Pat is donating one of these Kickstarter exclusives to our lottery for anyone to win.

Auction alert!

For the collectors in the audience, we have a couple auctions running as well. Pat donated the original galley proofs for the paperback edition of The Slow Regard of Silent Things. These are the pages that DAW Books sent him before printing to get his okay and make sure everything looked right before it went to print. Pat signed the first page, and we have it up for auction through this Sunday.

There’s also an auction for a gorgeous Tak board made of marble tile in a wood frame, with a solid copper sheet as a base. It is tremendously heavy, and so, so cool. This board was made by one of Pat’s fans who agreed to let us auction it off to raise money for Heifer International. If you absolutely must have this board (and you must), you can find the auction here.

You can find everything Pat donated, as well as all the rest of the cool stuff we’ve received from all our awesome sponsors and donors, right in our Lottery Library!

Of course, the big news is still our anonymous donor. Sure, every $10 you donate gets you a chance to win cool stuff, but it also gets us closer to our $715,000 goal. If we can reach it by the end of the day Tuesday, this donor will donate enough money to get us to an even $1,000,000 for Heifer. That money will help a lot of families and communities around the world, and that’s why we do this every year. Thanks for joining us!