Patrick Rothfuss

"The great new fantasy writer we’ve all been waiting for. But stopped waiting for book 3."

―Orson Scott Card

Patrick Rothfuss
Biographical information
Full name	Patrick James Rothfuss
Alternative name(s)	Pat
Born	June 6, 1973
Gender	Male
Political information
Nationality	American
Occupation	College lecturer (former) Fiction author

Patrick "Pat" James Rothfuss is an award-winning American writer of fantasy fiction, and a former college lecturer. He is the author of The Kingkiller Chronicle and various other works.

Biography

Rothfuss was born on June 6, 1973 in Madison, Wisconsin.

He received his bachelor's degree in English from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point in 1999, after spending nine years exploring various majors, such as Chemical Engineering and Clinical Psychology. He contributed to the campus paper titled "The Pointer" and produced a widely circulated parodic warning about the Goodtimes Virus. He then attended Washington State University for graduate study (which "he'd rather not talk about"), after which he returned to teach at Stevens Point.

Career

In 2002, he won the Writers of the Future 2002 Second Quarter competition with "The Road to Levinshir", an excerpt from his then-unpublished novel The Wise Man's Fear. He subsequently sold the series now known as The Kingkiller Chronicle to publisher DAW Books.

Patrick is currently working on the third installment in the series, titled The Doors of Stone, for which a publication date has yet to be set. He has published a few companion tales set in the same world since the publication of The Wise Man's Fear: How Old Holly Came to Be, The Lightning Tree, and The Slow Regard of Silent Things. A novella entitled The Tale of Laniel Young-Again grew into a "100,000 word novel"; despite being two-thirds complete, Rothfuss postponed the book to focus on The Doors of Stone.

He has published a not-for-children picture book series entitled The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle, which includes two books: The Thing Beneath the Bed and The Dark of Deep Below.

In August 2012, Patrick partnered with Geek & Sundry to participate in a monthly YouTube event titled "The Storyboard". It ran for eight episodes and featured many different authors, primarily from the fantasy genre. It focused on various methodologies for writing.

Pat is an avid gamer and has worked with Albino Dragon to construct a playing card deck with artwork based on The Name of the Wind. He has also worked with Cheapass Games to construct the pub game Pairs, which he plans to feature in his novels. Additionally, he has created a character and accompanying comic book for Torment: Tides of Numenera.

Pat also runs a yearly fundraising event for Heifer International called Worldbuilders. His blog features updates on all the fun stuff the organization does to aid those in need.

Works

Temerant books

• "The Road to Levinshir" in Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy (July 2008, Subterranean Press), also published in Epic: Legends of Fantasy Anthology (January 2012, Tachyon Publications), edited by John Joseph Adams, was an early draft of a chapter that would appear in The Wise Man's Fear
• The Name of the Wind (April 2007, DAW), the first Kingkiller Chronicle entry
• The Wise Man's Fear (March 2011, DAW), the second Kingkiller Chronicle entry
• "How Old Holly Came to Be" in Unfettered (July 2013, Grim Oak Press), edited by Shawn Speakman, a spin-off short story
• "The Lightning Tree" in Rogues (June 2014, Bantam), edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, a spin-off novella
• The Slow Regard of Silent Things (October 2014, DAW), a spin-off novella
• The Narrow Road Between Desires (November 2023, DAW), a spin-off novella
• The Doors of Stone (In Progress, DAW), the third Kingkiller Chronicle entry

Other books

• Your College Survival Guide (January 2005, Cornerstone Press)
• The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed (July 2010, Subterranean Press)
• The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Dark of Deep Below (November 2013, Subterranean Press)
• A five-page backup comic for Rat Queens #2, illustrated by frequent collaborator Nate Taylor (February 2017)
• As part of the Torment: Tides of Numenera Kickstarter, Rothfuss wrote a 12-page digital comic for the game entitled "So Long as You Can See the Moon," which was illustrated by Taylor
• Rothfuss wrote the introduction to The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins, set to publish in July 2018 (read the introduction here)
• In April 2018, it was announced that Rothfuss would be co-writing Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons and Dragons with Jim Zub, illustrated by Troy Little. The comic will debut in August 2018

Other media

• Rothfuss cooperated on several derived works works based off The Kingkiller Chronicle]
• Rothfuss hosted an eight-episode Google Hangouts "podcast" for Geek & Sundry about writing entitled "The Story Board." The show rotated various guest stars. The first episode was published August 2012; the final episode was published in March 2013
• Starting in June 2015, Rothfuss and Cards Against Humanity designer Max Temkin co-hosted the podcast Unattended Consequences. The last episode released in December 2016; as of January 2018, the podcast is on hiatus
• Rothfuss has guest-starred on podcasts dedicated to Dungeons & Dragons, including episodes of TableTop, Critical Role, and Acquisitions, Inc. (where he plays Viari, a reference to a minor character in The Kingkiller Chronicle)
• Rothfuss collaborated with Pixelmage Games on the game Hero's Song, writing the lore; the game was cancelled in 2017, following Pixelmage Games's closure
• Rothfuss participated in the writing of inXile Entertainment's Torment: Tides of Numenera (2017), joining the project as a Kickstarter stretch goal in 2013. He created and wrote the companion character Rhin
• In 2015, Rothfuss joined Rick and Morty creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland as guest writers on the relaunched Mystery Science Theater 3000; the series debuted in 2017 on Netflix
• In August 2017, Rothfuss appeared on the official Dungeons and Dragons podcast Dragon Talk, where he indicated he'd done some work on an unannounced D&D project with senior producer Chris Perkins
• In October 2017, Rothfuss hosted an episode of Myth or Monster for the Travel Channel focused on Wikipedia:The The Mothman

Personal life

Rothfuss and his sister were born and raised in rural Wisconsin. Rothfuss thanks his "marvelous set of parents" for nurturing his love of reading. He credits his mother with kindling his love of fantasy and his father for teaching him to do things "right."

Rothfuss and his girlfriend Sarah started a family in 2009. The couple share two sons whose real names he has not revealed publicly, giving his boys the choice on whether or not to reveal their real names as adults; on his blog, he instead refers to them as "Oot" and "Cutie Snoo". He currently lives in Wisconsin in a house he bought with his girlfriend in 2007.

External links

• Patrick Rothfuss' Website