Ketchup – Pt. 1
Like “catch up.” Get it? This is me catching you all up on things that have been going on recently.
On March 1st, I was privileged enough to be invited to Pat Rothfuss’ first signing for his new book, Wise Man’s Fear. I’d call the book itself an epic achievement, being a size and weight that would make it ideal for protecting soldiers from explosions or for keeping an average frigate-sized ship anchored in place. Not that I’m bashing the beautiful prose on the pages, just commenting on its intimidating stature.
The signing event was intimidating in its own right. Something in the neighborhood of 500 people attended, and it went from 7pm to 2am. Yeah. Seven hours of signing your own name. If you have even the faintest desire to become famous one day, I highly recommend getting some practice in right now. By far, the best part of being at that signing — and being on the business side of the table — was seeing how a real signing is done. Pat’s ability to handle a crowd borders on superhuman.
He lays down the law, takes questions, shoots down questions, and relays anecdotes with ease. The entire opening hour of him talking and doing a Q&A felt eerily like standing next to a man who was equal parts world’s greatest ring master and mall Santa. Like a line of true-believing children waiting to sit on St. Nick’s knee, the crowd was full of a mixture of reverence and barely contained anticipation.
But enough about Rothfuss. So what if everyone was really there to see him? I was there too, and soon no one’s book was truly signed until it had been signed by both of us, right? Right. In truth, I was pretty flattered to see that taking a little two minute break from the table was enough to cause a back-up of the line. I’ve always been better at being humble than being confident, but I’ll tell you right now that nothing changes your self-image like being seen through the eyes of people who admire you.
Since that day, several things have happened, but those are stories for the next post.
ECM Mech has come to save the world, not condemn it.