Well, it’s Christmas and we’re all snuggled up with our friends and families, so just a couple of things for you today:
Remember Lauren Zurchin who we met back in February when she told us about the Fantasy Author calendar she was creating for charity? Well, it’s finished and it’s really cool.
The proceeds from the calendars go to two literacy charities: First Book and Patrick Rothfuss‘s Worldbuilders, which we keep reminding you about. Thanks to some funding from Random House, all donations made to First Book during December are being tripled. And for every calendar sold by December 31, Patrick Rothfuss will donate and additional $5. This means that each calendar sold will result in getting TEN books into the hands of underprivileged kids.
Want to know what’s in the calendar? Well, there’s Patrick Rothfuss lounging with a Siberian Lynx, Holly Black with blue hair and an African Eagle Hawk, Brandon Sanderson pouring glow sticks on the beach, Tad Williams as a Weather Mage with a really cool staff (shown here), Gail Carriger as an evil witch queen… and so much more — I don’t want to spoil ALL the surprises! At Lauren’s website, you can see the final images, and read about the process that went into creating each of them.
Okay, and now for something just plain fun that could keep you entertained for an hour or two on a lazy holiday (like today!). My son showed me the Akinator Web Genius this week. Pick a favorite literary character (or any other person, real or fictional, alive or dead) and play 20 questions with Akinator. See how many questions he needs to accurately identify your character.
It took him only 24 questions to figure out one of my favorites. In the comments below, let me know who you chose and how many questions it took Akinator to identify your character.
Have a great holiday! For those of you who celebrate Christmas, we hope you received some wonderful books today!
Around 24 questions to get Kate Daniels from Ilona Andrews Urban Fantasy Series. 41 Questions to get Frances Crawford of Lymond of Dorothy Dunnett’s series. 16 Questions to get Aslan from the Chronicles of Narnia…. This is fun! Thanks and Happy Holidays!
24 questions to get Vin from Mistborn. (I admit, I was impressed.)
8 for Jesus, which was weird because the last 4 questions were: Is your character in the Bible? Is your character the child of a god? Is your character linked to Christmas? and finally: Does you character appear in Hindi films? (what?) Apparently, after those first 3 it still wasn’t sure, but after that final question all became clear: My character was Jesus.
Next I tried something more obscure: After 24 questions it guessed wrongly that I was thinking about Number 6 (from I am number 4), after 45 it thought I meant Pris from Bladerunner, after 80 it thought Alia from Mega Man X. So I put it out of its missery and gave up. :p The character I was thinking about was Cassandra Kresnov from Joel Sheppards Kresnov series, who is a blonde haired gun wielding, android; so it wasn’t too far off with its guesses.
The Genie could NOT get Gundersen, from Robert Silverberg’s “Downward to the Earth,” after around 60 questions, many of them repeated. I defeated him and added this bit of info to its databank….
Sandy, it would be interesting to try again and see if he knows it now.
Yes, Kat, the Genie DID get the answer right this time, after around 30+ questions. It learned from experience….
I forgot to see how many questions it took but I defeated the Akinator! He couldn’t figure out I was thinking of Panamon Creel from the Sword of Shannara (he did get close with Garet Jax from the Wishsong of Shannara).