An Author's Christmas Wish

So, I should probably do the whole, "Hey, The Dragon Gem would make a great Christmas gift for you and your love ones" thing, but instead, I'd like to bring your attention to Patrick Rothfuss(author of The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear)'s yearly Worldbuilders fundraiser for Heifer International.

I would take some time to explain what Heifer International is all about, but their self-stated mission pretty much sums it up - "Heifer International's mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the Earth."

And Rothfuss describes the charitable organization on his World Builders 2012 site: "It helps people raise themselves up out of poverty and starvation. Heifer promotes education, sustainable agriculture, and local industry all over the world.  They don’t just keep kids from starving, they make it so families can take care of themselves. They give goats, sheep, and chickens to families so their children have milk to drink, warm clothes to wear, and eggs to eat."

Rothfuss has provided a couple of options to contribute to this wonderful charity.  You can straight up donate money, every ten dollars earning you an entry into a random drawing for one of hundreds of books, some signed by the authors, and other random things.  Secondly, you can buy anything from his online store, The Tinker's Packs(appropriate if you've read his books), with all proceeds going to Heifer.  With this option, you can help out the organization while also getting a Christmas present for a friend or loved one.  I'm sure we all have a geeky fantasy friend or two who would love the Fantasy-Themed Pinup Calendar that showcases a different amazing fantasy author each month from Neil Gaiman, to George R.R. Martin, to Patrick Rothfuss himself(no worries, the authors aren't the ones depicted in the pinups).  Thirdly, there will be auctions regularly posted in which you can win some cool stuff with the money going to Heifer.

I just love seeing such a prominent author set up such a well-organized, annual fundraiser for such an amazing charity and just really put his heart and soul into it.  Last year Worldbuilders raised $310,000.  This year, it's going for $500,000.  Anyway, they've got my support this year.

So, my Christmas wish is not necessarily for everyone reading this to immediately go and drop money towards this charity.  I simply ask you check it out and, if you feel you support the cause, donate.

In writing news, still putting small bits of time into my side projects as I wait to get The Forgotten King back in my hands.   My first side project will be a collection of (mostly) fantasy short stories which is trying its darndest to become a collection of novellas.  Getting close to finishing the second story on it.  The other will be a semi-short(50K words or so) fantasy story revolving around the unexplainable deaths(murders) of a group of people who are supposed to be immortal, and basically unkillable.  I'm having a lot of fun with both, but will probably not really dive into them until after The Forgotten King is out.

To end this, I will now post an irrelevant picture of my son "enjoying" his second birthday a little over a week ago.  In all fairness, he just hated the birthday hat.  Once it was back off, the world was well and right again :)

Brian Beam