March 2007

Terry Pratchett, 52 Minutes of

31 March 2007 (11:23) Comment!

For an amazing fifty-two minutes of Terry Pratchett, check out ABC’s Conversation Hour from February 14^th, when Terry Pratchett was in Australia. Pratchett talks about the writing process, his stint as a spokesperson, and Wintersmith.  To quote the accompanying article:

“I like writing. I mean I really like writing and everywhere I go, with me, including right here in the studio I have a really really tiny little computer and a fold out keyboard and I can get on with my writing. It’s a journalistic thing - I can sit and work anywhere. And it’s something I like doing. I mean that, that’s the horrible thing.”

 

“Once, very nearly the plot of a whole novel occurred to me while I was driving. So I phoned up a friend and dictated the basic details to him. I said, ‘For God’s sake, don’t lose the piece of paper!’ These days I have little cassette recorder in the vehicle.”

 

Writing furiously whilst working on a novel is one thing, but Terry says he can’t lay still for long between novels either. “I usually start the next book on the same day that I finish the last book. Now this is not actually as horrifying as it sounds.”

Sir Terry Pratchett, Knight of England?

30 March 2007 (11:26) Comment!

On the UK Government’s official e-petition site, a petition is up to award Terry Pratchett knighthood for services to literature. The petition is open until June 11 this year, and as of today has 781 signatures. If you are a UK resident, add your name and show support!  To quote the petition:

The UK’s most prolific and successful living author both at home and overseas, Terry Pratchett’s books are funny, well plotted and written with a love for the English language and an artistry that will ensure that his work will be read and enjoyed for a long time. His Discworld series holds up a mirror to our world in a way that few authors have done, and promotes the very best of traditional British characteristics. Honour, loyalty, bravery, tolerance and humour.

Llamedos: A popular British house name

29 March 2007 (11:21) Comment!

 

Interestingly, but not significantly, 24dash.com reports a strange finding in research on the house names in Britain. According to the company records of Norwich Union, the name “Dun Roamin” cropped up one hundred times, an obvious word play. Just as popular was “Llamedos,” which puzzled researchers, though it is possibly a reference to the rainy country of Llamedos in Terry Pratchett’s Soul Music. Of course, we all know that’s the correct explanation.

Or it might be something spelled backwards. Possibly.

Wintersmith: Nibbies contender

28 March 2007 (11:19) Comment!

The Galaxy British Book Awards this year has shortlisted Terry Pratchett’s third Tiffany Aching book, Wintersmith for best children’s book of the year. Wintersmith’s contenders this year include Flanimals in the Deep, a book by television comedian Ricky Gervais. Though voting is now closed, the winner will be announced on the Galaxy British Book Awards (also known as the Nibbies) site later tonight. The Awards will also be broadcast on Friday, channel 4, at 8 p.m. in the UK.

Quote: “Steal five dollars …

27 March 2007 (11:16) Comment!

“Steal five dollars and you were a petty thief.  Steal thousands of dollars and you were either a government or a hero.”

-Going Postal (Terry Pratchett)

Terry Pratchett’s first MidSouthCon: “hospitable”

26 March 2007 (11:14) Comment!

CommercialAppeal.com reported today on the recent MidSouthCon, including a paragraph or two on Terry Pratchett’s first appearance at the “science-fiction/fantasy/comic/gaming convention,” which this year had a turnout of 1,300 people.  Pratchett himself said the convention was successful, saying, “the convention itself was very well done; enterprising and hospitable place [sic].”

Hogfather wins BPG Multichannel Award

25 March 2007 (11:09) Comment!

The Broadcasting Press Guild, “an association of journalists who specialise in writing and broadcasting about television, radio and the media” according to the site, announced their 33rd annual awards with Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather the recipient of the “Multichannel Award.” Previous winners of this award include Balaclava (Cromwell Productions for The History Channel) in 2001, Freestyler (MTV Base) in 2002, and Reporters At War: Dying To Tell The Story (Discovery Channel) in 2005.

Terry Pratchett and Discworld

24 March 2007 (10:58) Comment!

Adelaide Now released a new article on Terry Pratchett and his books, with several insights into Terry Pratchett’s “gentle satire” and his attitude toward Australia. The article also puts an interesting new perspective on Ankh-Morpork, calling it a parody of “Oliver Twist’s London.” To quote the article:

The city, which is a sort of parody of Oliver Twist’s London with the addition of trolls, dwarfs, zombies, werewolves, scientific wizards, an orang-utan and Death, gives the humanist social observer in Pratchett the room to roam and to comment on modern life without actually pointing a finger or causing offence.

“If you can accept the fact that the trolls and dwarfs and fairies and all the other creatures of mythology are actually real and are, along with the people, in a sort of Dickens’ London, all grubbing away trying to make a dollar, then you can understand Discworld,” he says of his creation. And although the characters and situations in his books might not exactly be the everyday type, the resolutions are always well considered and, well, human.

“While it sounds like a huge heap of undirected fantasy, you can do so many things with it,” he says. “Like, you can look at race relations, but because it’s between trolls and dwarfs you can have that bit of distance - it draws the sting. However, the logic has to work.

“None of that, ‘Ho, landlord, a pint of your finest ale!’ ” he mimics, raising his own bottle to emphasise the point.

The article also includes a small tidbit of Wintersmith for those fans who haven’t read it yet.

Quote: “They say …

23 March 2007 (10:51) Comment!

“They say that the prospect of being hanged in the morning concentrates a man’s mind wonderfully; unfortunately, what the mind inevitably concentrates on is that, in the morning, it will be in a body that is going to be hanged.”

-Going Postal (Terry Pratchett)

Quote: “People who step onto the air …

22 March 2007 (10:44) Comment!

“People who step onto the air one hundred and fifty feet above the ground seldom have much to discuss afterwards.”

-Going Postal (Terry Pratchett)

Hogfather miniseries: a “home-grown, quality” production

21 March 2007 (10:41) Comment!

The Independent in the U.K. released an article today about the programming choices of the three main commercial networks in the U.K. this year. A brief mention of Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather, broadcast by Sky One this December, shows the miniseries’ continuing impact. The article lauds the miniseries as a “home-grown, quality” production and one of the “biggest hits of the past few months” with the high ratings for December and the most popular U.K.-commissioned program ever broadcast on Sky.

Introducing the site

20 March 2007 (2:36) Comment!

An ambitious project to upload everything we can about Discworld–the jokes, the characters, the author, the similarities between Discworld and our world–and much more besides!

That’s what our description says, anyway. We’ll start out by providing daily news updates, or quotes, or whatever else strikes our fancy, or whatever we think Discworld fans would enjoy. We’ll work on increasing the site’s scope in the coming months.