Chillin’ with Patrick Rothfuss
Originally published at Grasping for the Wind. Please leave any comments there.
I’ve somehow managed to interview three #1 NYT bestsellers over the last few months for the Adventures In Sci Fi Publishing podcast (where I’m also a co-host): Brandon Sanderson, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and, now, Patrick Rothfuss.
Pat talked to me and fellow AISFP guy Dan/D.T. Conklin for about 90 minutes last week. Though it hurt to edit it down, I got the conversation down to a 65-minute audio interview.
Researching Pat’s success and talking to him left an impression on me.
- For a #1 NYT bestseller, Pat’s a remarkably open and authentic guy. From all I’ve seen, there isn’t any question he won’t answer honestly. As someone who’s interviewed a lot of successful authors over the last year, I found that to be so refreshing.
- He’s a generous soul. Whether it’s raising around $600,000 for Heifer International in three years (with a lot of that money coming out of his own pocket), slaving away on his well-loved story for geeks everywhere, or putting in a lot of work on his hilarious blog, he seems to be all about making other people happier.
- He has incredibly high standards around writing and storytelling. Talking to him inspired me to be a better writer. Period. He talked about making every piece of your story exceptional, and doing all it takes to make your world believable in the context of the magic or the future that you imagine.
In our interview, Pat tells us which scifi or fantasy author he’d spend eternity with on a desert island, who’d win if he were to wrestle Brandon Sanderson, and why he’s tired of questions about his mighty beard. He also discusses the somewhat subversive nature of his work, and tells us a bit about what we can expect from the conclusion of book 3. We even talked a little bit about Dragon Age 2, his love for John Scalzi, and the current state of publishing.
Here’s the full interview with Patrick Rothfuss.
Moses Siregar III is the author of The Black God’s War, a dramatic epic fantasy novel, coming in May 2011; sample it for 99 cents at Amazon
or for free at B&N, Smashwords, or iBooks. He’s a co-host of the Adventures In Sci Fi Publishing podcast, and he blogs about passion for the writing life at Moses and Dionysus Walk Into a Bar … Learn more about Moses: Facebook or More Facebook, Twitter, and GoodReads.