May 2007

Quote: “[C]haos is found …

31 May 2007 (16:48) Comment!

“[C]haos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. It always defeats order, because it is better organized.”

-Interesting Times (Terry Pratchett)

Quote: “Fate always wins …

30 May 2007 (16:45) Comment!

“Fate always wins …

At least, when people stick to the rules.”

-Interesting Times (Terry Pratchett)

Quote: “When someone is saved from certain death …

29 May 2007 (16:40) 1 Comment

“When someone is saved from a certain death by a strange concatenation of circumstances, they say that’s a miracle.  But of course if someone is killed by a freak chain of events–the oil spilled just there, the safety fence broken just there–that must also be a miracle.  Just because it’s not nice doesn’t mean it’s not miraculous.”

-Interesting Times (Terry Pratchett)

Quote: “Fate wins …

28 May 2007 (8:41) Comment!

“Fate wins.  At least, so it is claimed.  Whatever happens, they say afterwards, it must have been Fate.”

-Interesting Times (Terry Pratchett)

Quote: “Fate always wins …

27 May 2007 (21:33) Comment!

“Fate always wins.  Most of the gods throw dice but Fate plays chess, and you don’t find out until too late that he’s been using two queens all along.”

-Interesting Times (Terry Pratchett)

Quote: “Peel away the lies …

26 May 2007 (21:31) Comment!

“Peel away the lies, and the truth would emerge, naked and ashamed and with nowhere else to hide.”

-Going Postal (Terry Pratchett)

A Hat Full of Sky: Boy book

25 May 2007 (21:27) Comment!

As part of an effort to encourage reading in teenage boys, Education Secretary Alan Johnson of the UK released a list of the top books for boys to read May 16. Secondary schools have the chance to choose 20 books free from the 160-book list. At 103 on the list is Terry Pratchett’s A Hat Full of Sky, second in the Tiffany Aching series.

Terry Pratchett on the Douglas Adams Continuum: Chat Transcript

24 May 2007 (21:24) Comment!

A chat transcript with Terry Pratchett on the Douglas Adams Continuum is online now (scroll down to the first post), where Pratchett (amidst complaints about the font) answers questions about everything – from the movies to the books to his meeting with Douglas Adams. The concise statements include:

 

I met DNA [note: DNA is Douglas Adams] only once, at a crowded party, where it as almost impossible to be heard, and I think we were almost immediately dragged in opposite directions by people who wanted us to meet interesting people. I have no idea if we would have got on. I was in a hotel in Chicago when I read that he had died, and I sang the Betelgeusian Death Anthem, all by myself. It was a shame.

 

I don’t have a secret desire to write somthing else–if I did, I’d do it. There eill [sic] be a Y/A book that’s non-DW next year, though. One book a year is not punishing, but life seems to fill up with other things, [sic]

 

To judge by the biographies [Douglas Adams] thought writing got in the way of having a good time. For me, it’s the other way round. I get a kick out of it, is the simple answer. When a book is going well, I’m on a high.

 

Among the interesting bits of news we get what seems to be a confirmation that The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic are being adapted together by Sky after the tremendous success of Hogfather. Additionally, an illustrated Wee Free Men (of the YA Tiffany Aching series) is in the works, possibly in the style of The Last Hero.

Hogfather wins Best Interactivity BAFTA

23 May 2007 (20:57) Comment!

At the BAFTA Television awards three days ago, the Hogfather team was honored with a second prestigious award. Beating out Dispatches – War Torn: Stories of Separation, Meltdown and the Big Climate Change Experiment, and The Secret Policeman’s Ball, the Terry Pratchett adaptation won the Best Interactivity BAFTA award. Aidan Conway, Giles Pooley, Rod Brown, and Ian Sharples were recognized especially. Congrats to them and the entire Hogfather team!

Quote: “Sometimes the truth …

22 May 2007 (20:54) Comment!

“Sometimes the truth is arrived at by adding all the little lies together and deducting them from the totality of what is known.”

-Going Postal (Terry Pratchett)

Quote: “The freedom to succeed …

21 May 2007 (20:51) Comment!

“The freedom to succeed goes hand in hand with the freedom to fail.”

-Lord Vetinari, Going Postal (Terry Pratchett)

Terry Pratchett the Toymaker

20 May 2007 (20:43) Comment!

A long, entertaining interview with Terry Pratchett can be found now at thisisthenortheast.co.uk.  The interviewer asks – and Pratchett tells – about a whole hodgepodge of interesting tidbits, including his fan demographic (not entirely made up of 14-year-old boys), his travel to Australia recently, and his small foray into acting.  To quote Pratchett:

 

I have a very small role and I play the little old toy shop owner whose job it is to look absolutely terrified at the fact that Death is standing in front of him, which was not difficult because there was Marnix (Van Den Broeke, who animated Death’s robe and skull) – I think he was six foot six anyway and he’d got built-up shoes – so you’re looking at the better part of a seven foot tall Grim Reaper, with glowing blue eyes.

 

Seeing a figment of your imagination standing in front of you is bad enough, but out of camera this little hand came out of the robe and gave me a thumbs up.  And that came close to freaking me out, but it certainly achieved the effect – I looked suitably scared.

 

Pratchett also spoke about the most common question he’s asked – and you can see his reaction:

 

It’s a bit depressing really – the ink is hardly dry on the paper, you haven’t actually banked the cheque and so, with the new book in their hand they say “Right, when’s the next book coming out?”

 

The [question] an author really likes is “are there any more in the pipeline?”  I swear that one day I shall thump the table and say, “there is no pipeline!  There’s this guy sitting, banging his head on the computer screen, trying to finish this book.”

 

Don’t bang too hard, Terry, we need your genius yet!  (Yes, that means we want another book.)

Quote: “Ultimately, there is …

19 May 2007 (16:09) Comment!

“Ultimately, there is the freedom to take the consequences.”

-Going Postal (Terry Pratchett)

Quote: “Headquarters had even …

18 May 2007 (16:08) Comment!

“Headquarters had even started an Employee of the Month scheme to show how much they cared.  That was how much they didn’t care.”

-Going Postal (Terry Pratchett)

Quote: “That was the thing about artificers …

17 May 2007 (16:06) Comment!

“That was the thing about artificers, they loved explaining.  You just had to wait until they reached your level of understanding, even if it meant that they had to lie down.”

-Going Postal (Terry Pratchett)

Quote: “[A]ll property …

16 May 2007 (16:04) Comment!

“[A]ll property is theft, except mine.”

-Gong Postal (Terry Pratchett)

Quote: “There was a pregnant pause …

15 May 2007 (16:02) Comment!

“There was a pregnant pause.  It gave birth to a lot of little pauses, each one more deeply embarrassing than its parent.”

-Gong Postal (Terry Pratchett)

Quote: “[A]lthough an elderly man …

14 May 2007 (16:00) Comment!

“[A]lthough an elderly man probably has a lot less future than a man of twenty, he’s far more careful about it[.]”

-Going Postal (Terry Pratchett)