October 2007

Terry Pratchett at the National Book Festival

28 October 2007 (8:56) Comment!

More coverage is available of Terry Pratchett’s appearance at the National Book Festival, here on the National Book Festival website. (See the October 19 edition for special coverage of Pratchett’s speech.)  Pratchett spent two entire hours signing books, but made a great speech as well, as the Library of Congress Gazette says:

If Terry Pratchett ever hangs up his novelist gig, he might have a career as a standup comedian.  The award-winning British writer kept his Fiction & Fantasy audience in stitches with his wicked wit … As his 30-minute presentation showed, Pratchett’s humor extends well beyond the printed page.  He told of winning the Carnegie Medal for children’s literature in 2002.  “I like working on the children’s books,” he said.  “Adult books give you money; children’s books give you prestige.”

Terry Pratchett Podcast Interview

27 October 2007 (14:56) Comment!

The National Book Festival website, as part of their podcast series, has interviewed Terry Pratchett.  The interviewer asked about everything from his early reading habits to “the genesis of Discworld,” to which Pratchett replied “because I take the fantasy seriously, by some strange alchemy, it then becomes funny.” To quote the podcast description:

Science fiction and fantasy author Terry Pratchett talks about his best-selling books and how he made “Death” one of his most popular characters.

The podcast is about half an hour long and was released September 13.