A note: Pat Rothfuss' blog is one of the highlights of the secular side of my life. He's a fantasy writer AND a humor writer AND a college professor AND a new father. He's an interesting character, and he's from just over the river (well, Stevens Point, Wisconsin), and I really like him. In fact I have one of those weird Internet nonrelationships with him where I think he's my friend but if he actually met me he would a) have no clue who I am and b) wonder just a teensy bit about stalkers. BUT HE WROTE ME AN EMAIL!! Actually he answered my email, which was a very nice thing to do, but it doesn't make us friends. *
I wrote to him the first time after reading the opening pages of The Name of the Wind, his fantasy novel. An early scene takes place in a tavern filled with the locals. I knew Pat was a Wisconsin boy, which probably helped my mental picture of the scene, which put all these pseudomedieval types in feed caps. I wrote him to tell him so and he wrote right back to say he could see it too.
I love it when an author ** actually writes back!
Anyway, the link above, if you haven't already clicked on it, is Pat developing a scientific method to actually quantify the coolness of any given person. He has dubbed it the Gaiman-Day unit, named after the King and Queen of Cool (even though they're not married), Neil Gaiman and Felicia Day. Wil Wheaton, or at least his Lego avatar, makes a special guest appearance in the piece. See? Something for everyone.
* reminder to self
** Kij Johnson does that too. Writes back. Cool. So does John Erickson, of the Hank the Cowdog series. And I once got a personal, handwritten, and heartfelt letter from James Herriot in response to a question I had asked him.
Do you ever read Michael Perry? Northern WI writer/humorist who is also sometimes heartbreaking. He doesn't have a blog, I don't think, but for understanding the Midwest, he gets it.
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