Patrick Rothfuss, King of the Chronicles

Patrick Rothfuss has the perfect look for a character in one of his stories. With intense brown eyes, unruly hair, and a long wizard’s beard streaked with grey, he would look as comfortable in a cloak and boots as the tee shirts and sneakers he seems to prefer. Rothfuss is the bestselling author of The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear, the first two parts of his fantasy trilogy, The Kingkiller Chronicle.

The Wisconsin-born author is becoming a major figure in the fantasy genre. His first two books received major praise from critics, and he’s garnered a dedicated following of fans across the country. One of those fans is George R.R. Martin of Game of Thrones fame, who after finishing The Wise Man’s Fear, blogged, “He’s bloody good, this Rothfuss guy.”

The author’s appearance at UWM this year was a promotional event for his new book, The Slow Regard of Silent Things, a spinoff of his flagship series. “It’s a palate cleanser until book number three,” said Daniel Goldin, owner of Boswell Books, who organized the event. “It’s such an honor to finally get Patrick here. We’ve been trying for years, and a lot of authors have recommended him.” Goldin made an exaggerated attempt to hide his frustration. “Actually getting him is easier said than done.”

Rothfuss’s event at UWM was on Halloween. The audience was full of fans, casual readers, and newcomers, most of whom were celebrating the holiday in spectacular fashion. The event was a people-watcher’s dream. An eclectic parade of costumed attendees filed into the ballroom. Seating was unassigned, so order and regularity in the audience was nonexistent.

“We’re all from the Midwest,” Rothfuss said from the stage. “So, I understand the desire for roughly 58 inches of space between yourself and another human being.” A wave of laughter rippled through the growing audience. “But feel free to make space for another person; you may make a friend.”

Rothfuss was born in Madison and attended UW-Stevens Point, where his initial major was chemical engineering. He then spent the following nine years changing majors and attending school part-time before he was “encouraged” to graduate with a B.A. in English. In that near-decade of flip-flopping and casual exploration, Rothfuss spent his free time working on what would later become The Kingkiller Chronicle, a fantasy epic he and his friends simply referred to as “The Book.”

“He was always working on it, coming up with new ideas,” says Saryn Cushing-Leubner, a long-time friend of Rothfuss. “We all played Dungeons & Dragons and board games, stuff like that together. That’s kind of where it started. He would get ideas, write them down, and it would just snowball from there.”

A number of Rothfuss’ friends were in attendance at the event. The author was walking the floors well before the event started, shaking hands and chatting as attendees filed in. Rothfuss maintains a strong interactive relationship with his readers and fans through his website. He updates his blog regularly, writing posts about, as he says, pretty much anything he feels like, and a lot of things that, again, as he says, probably aren’t appropriate for him to share.

“How many of you read the blog?” he said as he took the podium. Hundreds of hands rose in response. “And how many don’t?” Less than a dozen went up, my own among them. Like a comedian working a crowd, he waited a beat, letting we unfortunates realize just how outnumbered we were. “Well, first of all,” he said, “I welcome you. You may not know what you were getting yourselves into.”

What we were getting into, it turned out, was a hilarious and stunningly honest hour and a half with the author. Rothfuss is an intelligent, opinionated, and passionate person who doesn’t shy away from expressing himself without a filter. He in fact seems to relish it.

“I cuss a lot,” Rothfuss warned, something those who read his blog already know. “It’s only because I have an excellent vocabulary and I like to use the language to its fullest. And some words are just too delicious not to use.”

There was no consistent theme or direction to speak of as the night progressed. Audience members wrote out questions for Rothfuss, which then made their way back to the podium for Q&A. The questions ranged from inquiries about the present and future of the series, writing advice, personal questions about the author, and requests for his opinion on books, television, and movies.

Rothfuss was selective about which questions he answered, but when answers came, they were well worth listening to.

“How do you develop tone?” was one question. “Is there a trick?”

“You develop a vague obsessive compulsive disorder,” went the answer. “You practice verisimilitude, or making things real. Then you try it, you [screw] it up, you show it to people, they tell you how to fix it, then you do that a thousand times. That’s called developing your craft. There is no trick to it.”

“How will Game of Thrones end?”

“Jaime will come out on top.”

Rothfuss’ books have sold millions of copies worldwide. His fan base spans countries and continents. The Kingkiller Chronicle’s concluding chapter is tentatively titled The Doors of Stone and is due in 2016. “He’ll never leave that world,” says Saryn. “He spent over a decade creating that world and the people. He’ll be writing about it until he dies.”

The Kingkiller Chronicles was optioned last July for 20^th Century Fox for a TV series. Though Rothfuss touched on the subject, he said nothing is certain.

In addition to being a bestselling author, Rothfuss is also a humanitarian. His charity Worldbuilders raises donations for Heifer International, which helps families and communities in third world countries become self sufficient. Instead of simply providing food and resources, Heifer teaches people how to raise and maintain livestock and how to earn an income from the products they produce. Worldbuilders encourages donations by offering prizes donated by a number of sponsors, including Del Rey, Cards Against Humanity, DAW Books, and Bittersea Publications. This year, Worldbuilders has raised over $100 thousand in donations, with a goal of $250 thousand. Since it started in 2008, Worldbuilders has raised over $3 million for Heifer International.