Robin Hobb's Blog, page 6

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

In response to many pleas, I will add an extra bit of a clue for #17, originally hidden by Clare.  This is it!  Be on your toes!  I hope this isn’t too big of a giveaway.

 

He was certified by Chet!

 

There you go!

 

Robin

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Okay, Almost awake! And here, from Robin, is the list of found prizes!   Scroll down to my Birthday post about the game to read the clues and find the prizes that are still out there!

#1, hidden by John Howe in NZ, has been found. At the WETA works.

#2 is still in play!

#3 hidden by Terie Garrison in Purl City Yarns was found.

#4 hidden by Laura Lam in a flower pot in Victoria park. Found

#5 hidden by Myke Cole, in Kensington Stables, Brooklyn. Found

#6 hidden by James Bacon at Word on the Water. Found

#7 still in play

#8 hidden by me, on Duane Wilkins, U Book Store. FOUND

#9 Possibly found– awaiting confirmation Italy

#10hidden by Arnaud Mousnier Lompre Sauramps Library FOUND

#11Hidden by Joe Nutter at Traditions in Oly, WA Found

#12 Still in play Wake up Minneapolis!

#13Hidden by Crooty at place de la Riponne FOUND

#14 Still in play

#15 (Alaska) Still in play (sorry about double numbering)

#15 Hidden by Karen at Blue Moon Coffee Café FOUND

#16 Hidden by Elquesogrande at Big Truck Taco Shop FOUND

#17 Still in Play

#18 Hidden by Jack Oakman. Found in marina on docks

#19 hidden by Peter Orullian Found in Seattle University Books

#20Hidden by Mervi in Tampere Found

#21 Still in Play

#22 Hidden by Wes Chu. at Next Door Café FOUND

#22 Still in play                                                   in Olympia WA (double number again! darn!)

#23 Hidden by Jackie Morris, Torquay Museum FOUND

#24 hidden by Sean in Culpeppers Books, Tacoma FOUND

#25 hidden by Tails and Whiskers FOUND

#26 hidden by Amber in The Root Cellar FOUND

#27 Still in play

#28 Yannick’s gift to us all! Found in Trollune book store!</p>

WHEW! So that is my most recent information! At the end of the week, I’ll try to do a big posting of all the great photos!  This has been fun!

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Are you the person who correctly guessed the location of # 15, hidden by Karen Sylte?  And then the prize was not to be found.  And you left a note there.  YOU FORGOT TO LEAVE A PHONE NUMBER!!!!  Please phone or return to the location to get your prize!

 

And Katriel has returned to claim her prize!  Hurray!

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Over at IO9

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Hello!

I’d like to make a request, please. If you leave a comment or message here, please add spoiler space if you are writing about something in the plot of a book.

Several times in the past, I’ve gone into people’s comments and added spoiler space, but I’m not really comfortable doing that. And for a time I emailed people, asking them to put up their post again, with no spoilers or with spoiler space added.

So now I’m going to ask here, in the blog, and see if that helps.

Here is how you do spoiler space:

SPOILER

WARNING. SPOILER FOR GOLDILOCKS

WARNING SPOILER Stop reading if you haven’t finished the story.

SPOILER (See how this adds enough space to keep the casual glance from straying down this far?)

Final warning!

I hated when Goldilocks broke the little bear’s chair. And then she still just took a nap in his bed without trying to fix it or anything. What was wrong with her?

Okay, so that is how Spoiler Space is done! Thanks for your help with this!

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Hey, it’s now! You’re late!

Come on over to Reddit Books. I’m doing an Ask Me Anything there!

http://www.reddit.com/r/books/comment...

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

If you’ve spent time on Reddit, you know what this means!

And if you haven’t, well I hope you’ll join me there on January 22, Wednesday, at 5 PM Pacific time.

I’ll be on Reddit books rather than on Reddit Fantasy (that’s where I was last time!)

Here’s the link to Reddit Books: http://www.reddit.com/r/books/

And if you haven’t previously visited Reddit Fantasy, you should check them out as well: http://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/

Reddit is a wonderful place to connect with people who have similar interests. You can find a topic of interest, post some responses to interesting comments, and then come back later to see how other people have responded.

For the reddit AMA, I will actually be at my desking, answering the questions as they come in. So it’s a bit more spontaneous, and if my answer triggers another question, I’ll try to respond to it as well.

So, visit reddit now. And then come join us on Wednesday January 22 at 5 PM Pacific Time.

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

Well, there are less than 12 hours left in 2013 for me as I type this. So I shall look forward to 2014 in this post.

My biggest thing for 2014 is, of course, the publication of The Fool’s Assassin, Book on in The Fitz and The Fool Trilogy. That is scheduled for August of 2014 in both the US and UK. This is possibly the most re-written book I’ve ever created. In fact, I still have a bout 200 more pages to go in this read-through, and I’ve already discovered so many little errors and places where I needed to clarify something. Working with a back story that large that stretches over decades of my writing life is very intense. And of course I am simultaneously working on the first draft of book two, as yet untitled. So I have a busy writing year ahead of me.

As a result, I’ve cut my travels back for the year. Even so, I fear I may have taken on a bit too much! Here is my roughed out schedule for 2014.

January. Stay home and write. Get those pages.

February. Stay home and write. Fingers on the keyboard, eyes on the screen, cat on the lap.

March. Keep Writing. Every day. Become 62. Scare myself with that idea, and write harder and faster.

April. Write for the first half of the month. Maybe play a little game with some readers. Then off to Chicago for Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo, also known as C3E2.

May. Get back to work and write some more.

June. AUSTRALIA !!! SupaNova in Sydney and Perth. SupaNova is a Pop Culture Expo. Artists, illustrators, writers, actors, comics, video games, wrestlers . . . we’ll have it all!

July. Write like crazy for the first half. For the second half, brace myself for a visit to San Diego and Comic Con International, still often referred to as SDCC. Exhausting and amazing event.

August. Forget about getting any writing work done! The manuscript for book two had better be done and turned in by August 1, because August is eaten up by a book tour of the UK for the launch of The Fool’s Assassin and a wonderful time at Loncon3, the World Science Fiction Convention in London this year. I am bewildered to be one of the guests of honor this year!

September. Oh, start on the rewrites for book two, and begin the draft of book three of the trilogy.

October. Write. Write. Write. Find a child to take Trick or Treating.

November. Write, mostly. But take a break mid-month to fly off to Ontario, Canada for SFContario. I will be a Guest of Honor there.

December. Write some more. And write some more.

No France visit this year, I am sorry to say. I received several kind invitations, but regretfully had to refuse. I was also invited to Israel, but also had to refuse. These books are very, very demanding for me. So I have to face the choice between going out in public and Being The Writer or staying home and actually writing the books. Until this trilogy is finished, I need to focus on actually writing. My publishers may add more events to this schedule, but I’m hoping to hold fairly close to this.

Happy New Year!

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

And here is the link to that!

Sorry that I did not get this news out sooner!

Robin

Originally published at Robin Hobb. You can comment here or there.

We had a lovely snow this morning in Tacoma. Snow forgives everything. Unranked lawns become smooth fields. Every tree is as decorated as my Christmas tree, with snow garlands and small birds balancing. My murder of crows was out in their winter formal wear, hopping through the snow and demanding peanuts because obviously, they were starving due to snow covering the ground.

The lying thieves were fed peanuts, then ate the rest of the dog’s food and fled.

This time of year, I miss Fairbanks, Alaska. I miss the deep dark of winter, and going out at night into the forest when the only light is what the snow gives back to the stars and maybe a moon. The dogs went before and behind me, leashless, no sidewalks, no porch lights. Just snow and birch and alder. And more snow. And if there was a slight thaw, and then a freeze, it would put a good crust on the snow, and I could dare to run on top of it over the hidden slough, as tall as the cat tails for once.

But the cold bites me much harder than it used to when I was a teenager. Nowadays it seems to get into my fingers and knuckles and make a task such as getting my driver’s license out of the wallet envelope nearly impossible. My ears get cold and keeping Kira on a leash makes both of us sad. I hate the wind from the cars passing on the street, and the relentless noise of a city.

So it now is the time of inside puzzles and games I play with myself while Kira sleeps in Fred’s easy chair in front of the fire. Crosswords and jumbles. Pencil games. Solitaire variations with the standard deck of 52 cards. (I collect souvenir card decks from all of my travels. Tulips. Royalty. Australian animals. A card deck for every visit!) Yet I don’t care for Sudoku; it’s all logic and not as much fun for me. But best of all, I’ve always loved jigsaw puzzles. I was not a healthy child, and often I had to spend the day in bed. My mother would pull the bread board out of the cupboard in the kitchen and bring it to me with a jigsaw puzzle. (I doubt if many kitchens even have built in bread boards anymore!) I could occupy myself with jigsaws even in the days before I could read. And after I was old enough to could read, jigsaws were a break from my books and the dancing black print on days when I was ill.

So every winter, my Christmas gift to myself are jigsaw puzzles. Springbok is my favorite brand, and I miss the days when they created circular ones. I prefer the paintings to the photographic images. Their jigsaws are cut with many unique pieces on heavy board, rather than the horrid die-cut puzzles on cheap cardboard.

The best part is laying it all out, color side up, on a large surface. Then you scan all the pieces, and slowly begin to sort them into color groups and edge pieces. Here is the most wonderful thing. If you respect your brain, you will realize that it’s quite capable of looking at all those pieces and almost knowing exactly where every one will go in the puzzle. I assemble the frame and then begin. For me, there is a real joy in picking up a piece, looking at it, and connecting it right away, setting it immediately into the correct place in the puzzle.

I can’t do it every time, of course. I just completed a Springbok puzzle where the final section of the evergreen trees were very difficult for me. And thus a huge pleasure. For me, games and puzzles have to be difficult in order for them to be fun.

The irony is that I don’t do online gaming, or any electronic games, other than on airplane trips. Then I will play solitaire with my tablet when I’ve read all my airplane books. Or I will load a few of the ‘hidden object’ games or mysteries onto my device. I’m afraid if I ever put them onto my desktop, I’d become so immersed I’d never get my writing done. So I have to ration my electronic games and avoid the ones that look too addictive. I’d never dare to go into an online game. I’d probably starve to death at my desk!

But in the winter, in the holiday season, I am allowed to do all the jigsaws I want. I love the tactile sensations of the pieces, and the satisfaction of the completed image. Simple pleasure in a complicated time.

Games and puzzles, puzzles and games. Foolish amusements. But then, I have always loved Fools.