Patrick Rothfuss

Patrick Rothfuss
Biographical information
Full name	Patrick James Rothfuss
Gender	Male
Status	Alive
Appearance
Eye color	Unknown
Hair color	Red

I remember sitting down once, [at] three in the morning and probably the only person awake in Stevens Point. And I stop, and I think: "This is crap! I've spent years of my life writing crap. This will never be published - it isn't good... I've wasted years of my life!" *shrugs and types on* You do it because you like the process. I mean... you write because you like to write.

Patrick Rothfuss is the author of The Kingkiller Chronicle and its companion stories, and the founder of the charity Worldbuilders.

Biography

Patrick "Pat" James Rothfuss was born in Madison, Wisconsin, on June 6^th, 1973. His father Jim was an engineer. He and his younger sister were raised in rural Wisconsin.

In 1999, Rothfuss graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where he had originally enrolled "to study the equivalent of chemical engineering". He would later switch to clinical psychology; three years into his degree, he became "Undeclared". Nine years later, university policy finally forced him to graduate; he left with a BA in English, and minors in psychology, medieval history, philosophy, and writing.

Works

Temerant

These are novels or stories set in Temerant, the world of The Kingkiller Chronicle.

• The Road to Levinshir (2002): An excerpt from the series published as a short story. It appears in Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy (July 2008; Subterranean Press), edited by William Schafer, and Epic: Legends of Fantasy Anthology, which was edited by John Joseph Adams (January 2012, Tachyon Publications). Originally written for The Name of the Wind, it would appear in a different format in The Wise Man's Fear.
• The Name of the Wind (March 27, 2007): The first novel in the trilogy The Kingkiller Chronicle.
• The Wise Man's Fear (March 1, 2011): The second novel in the trilogy The Kingkiller Chronicle.
• "How Old Holly Came to Be" (June 21, 2013): A short story published in the anthology Unfettered, edited by Shawn Speakman. It is told from the point of view of a tree.
• The Lightning Tree (June 17, 2014): A spin-off novellette published in Rogues. It was edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois.
• The Slow Regard of Silent Things (October 28, 2014): A spin-off novella. It was illustrated by Nate Taylor.
• "The Boy Who Loved the Moon" (unpublished): A comic book adaptation of a section from The Wise Man's Fear, illustrated by frequent collaborator Nate Taylor.
• The Doors of Stone (unpublished): The upcoming, final book in The Kingkiller Chronicle.

Temerant (Other Media)

• Tunes from Temerant (unpublished): Tunes from Temerant is "musical anthology" featuring songs about and from Temerant. This was the final stretch goal for the 2015 Worldbuilders fundraiser, at $1,225,000. The band Paul and Storm agreed to help produce and organise the album, with Rothfuss contributing lyrics. There has been no news on the album since.

Non-Temerant (Print Media)

These are works of fiction set outside of Temerant.

• Your Annotated, Illustrated College Survival Guide (January, 2005; Cornerstone Press): A collection of four years' worth of humorous "advice" essays written by Rothfuss, starting in 1998. The book was illustrated by Brett Hiorns (credited as "B.J. Hiorns").
• Rothfuss has written a number of introductions and forewords to other books:
  • The "foreward" to The Order of the Stick: War and XPs (August 27, 2008; Giant in the Playground) by Rich Burlew.
  • The foreword to Be Good, Little Puppy: A Penny Arcade Book (June 28, 2011; Del Rey), written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik.
  • The foreword to Unfettered (June 21, 2013; Grim Oak Press), an anthology edited by Shawn Speakman in which the short story "How Old Holly Came to Be" also appeared.
  • The foreword to Sword and Laser Anthology (April 6, 2014; Sword and Laser L.L.C.) edited by Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt.
  • The foreword to The Complete Coming Distractions (2015; King Sheep), written by Patrick D. Johnson and illustrated by Nate Taylor.
  • The introduction to the Subterranean Press edition of Ready Player One (June, 2015; Subterranean Press), by Andy Weir.
  • The introduction to Word Puppets (November 3, 2015; Prime Books), a short story collection by Mary Robinette Kowal.
  • The introduction to The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins (July 17, 2018; First Second), by Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy, and Travis McElroy, and illustrated by Carey Pietsch. The introduction can be read online.
  • The introduction to The Last Unicorn: The Lost Journey (November 12, 2018; Tachyon Publications) by Peter S. Beagle.
• The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Thing Beneath the Bed (June 21, 2010; Subterranean Press): A not-for-children "children's book" about a princess and her teddy bear. It was illustrated by Nate Taylor.
• "Lay of the Eastern King" (September 20, 2010): A Norse edda published in Clash of the Geeks (Subterranean Press), a digital chapbook put together by John Scalzi and Wil Wheaton for the benefit of the Lupus Alliance of America. It was based on a drawing by Jeff Zugale of Wheaton riding a unicorn kitten in combat with Scalzi, who is an orc.
• The Adventures of the Princess and Mr. Whiffle: The Dark of Deep Below (November 30, 2013; Subterranean Press): A sequel to The Thing Beneath the Bed, again illustrated by Nate Taylor.
• "Child's Play" (December 2, 2015): Rothfuss wrote a Lookouts webcomic illustrated by Penny Arcade co-creator Mike Krahulik entitled "Child's Play". It can be read online.
• Rat Queens #2: Rothfuss and Taylor collaborated to create a five-page backup comic for the series Rat Queens (April 12, 2017).
• "So Long as You Can See the Moon": A 12-page Torment: Tides of Numenera comic created exclusively for backers which Rothfuss and Taylor collaborated on.
• Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons and Dragons (issue #1: August, 2018; trade paperback: March 12, 2019, IDW Publishing), co-written with Jim Zub and illustrated by Troy Little: A crossover comic between the cartoon Rick and Morty and the Dungeons and Dragons franchise.

Non-Temerant (Other Media)

• Torment: Tides of Numenera: Rothfuss joined Tides of Numenera as a writer in 2013, creating and writing the companion character Rhin.
• "The Story Board": Between August, 2012 and March, 2013, Rothfuss hosted an eight-episode Google Hangouts podcast with a variety of guest stars on writing.
• Hero's Song: Rothfuss created the lore for Hero's Song, an open world roguelike fantasy game by Pixelmage Games. Following a failed Kickstarter campaign and lack of resources, the game was cancelled and the company closed down in 2016.
• Rothfuss co-wrote Mystery Science Theater 3000 for Netflix with Rick and Morty creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland. The show debuted in 2017 and ran for two seasons.
• Starting July 7th, 2015, Rothfuss and Cards Against Humanity creator Max Temkin created and hosted Unattended Consequences, a weekly podcast in which the two discussed various topics. On December 27th, 2016, the show stopped until another episode was uploaded on December 10, 2018. An archive of all episodes can be found at various websites, including Mixcloud, Castbox, Podyssey, and others. As of January 2020, the show has had 31 episodes.
• On October 27, 2017, Rothfuss hosted an episode of Myth or Monster, entitled "Mothman," for the Travel Channel, a show "about how myths evolve and grow".

On Hold

• The Tale of Laniel Young-Again: This is the working title for a story about a legendary figure in Temerant. In 2014, the book was put on hold "about two thirds of the way in" to focus work on The Doors of Stone.

Personal Life

Rothfuss lives in Wisconsin in a house he bought with his girlfriend Sarah in 2007. The couple has two sons, nicknamed "Oot" and "Cutie Snoo" online to protect their privacy.

The Kingkiller Chronicle is dedicated to his "marvellous" parents Marge and Jim.

Rothfuss has been a Dungeons & Dragons player since the fifth grade, and has cited his inclusion in the Fifth Edition's Inspirational Reading appendix as "wonderful". He has played on episodes of TableTop, on four episodes of Critical Role (as the character Kerren), and Acquisitions, Inc. (where he plays the character Viari, a reference to a character in The Kingkiller Chronicle).

On July 1st, 2018, Rothfuss became a part owner of A Room of One's Own, a Madison, Wisconsin-based independent bookstore "serving [the city's] intersectional, progressive, feminist and LGBTQ+ bookloving community for over 40 years," a venture in which he first expressed interest in November, 2016. Rothfuss is a silent partner, not involved in managing the store.