Moist von Lipwig

Signed novel raises £760 for Alzheimer’s Society

29 December 2008 (13:30) 1 Comment

Terry Pratchett donated a signed copy of Making Money to an auction for the New Forest branch of the Alzheimer’s Society. The book was auctioned off for £760.

This article quotes Terry Pratchett as saying, “I am, along with many others, scrabbling to stay ahead long enough to be there when the cure comes along…. It is a shock to find out that funding for Alzheimer’s research is just 3% of that to find cancer cures.”

Retro News: Pratchett interview, in which he actually talks about things other than Alzheimer’s (29 November 2008)

28 December 2008 (19:57) Comment!

Deborah Orr at the Independent.co.uk interviewed Terry Pratchett late in November, and in doing so provides some insight into Terry Pratchett’s writing process.

The article gets the requisite Alzheimer’s questions done early. Terry Pratchett summed up the effect of his very public diagnosis:
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Terry Pratchett on With Great Pleasure: Recording available

25 December 2008 (13:03) Comment!

Today at 12:00 in England BBC Radio 4 aired a special holiday edition of their program With Great Pleasure, which featured Terry Pratchett and some of his favorite pieces of writing.

A recording of the fifty-three minute show is available via BBC’s Listen Again feature, however the BBC site requires Real Player to play. (For those who are worried about Real Player’s security holes and intrusive nature, Real Alternative is an open-source software that many users use as an alternative.) (This is in no way an endorsement. Don’t blame us if installing either piece of software causes problems with your computer.)

From Rim To Hub has a high quality mp3 file of the program that you can download and play anywhere with any software.
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The Discworld Convention 2008

3 September 2008 (8:29) 3 Comments

Many of you were lucky enough to go to the convention–but many more weren’t so lucky (including the admin of this site, a.k.a. me).  Fortunately for us, demdike from The Cunning Artificer’s forum was nice enough to be our scribe and write a convention report, in which we learn a bit about Nation, slightly more about Going Postal and other future film adaptations, and a lot about our favorite fandom:

The First Day: Friday, August 22, 2008

[The convention] started (officially) with the Opening Ceremony. There were voice-over messages asking for the stage to be cleared of party debris and on came Lu Tze with his broom. After telling everyone to go home–the Con had been and gone, and the disruption in the Number 7 procrastinator was blamed–the Men in Saffron (1 of the 2 was me) were called in to rewind 72 hours.  Cue stone grinding and Tardis noises, the lights went up and Lu Tze and the Men in Saffron had been replaced by Terry.

After briefly touching on his illness (most of which has already been printed online in most places) he spoke about the last year which has propelled him from relative media obscurity to celebrity status.

The evening ended with Terry’s bedtime stories, where the usual nutters turned up in their nightwear clutching their various bed companions (mostly furry).  Terry then read from Nation. I had to leave after an hour and a half so I apparently missed the lighter passages.  Definitely a darker book than any previously written.

The Second Day: Saturday, August 23, 2008

[Saturday] was spent trying to familiarize myself with the Hotel. Although the standard of the rooms was very high, it lacked the atmosphere of previous venues. The rooms were at the end of very long corridors. There was no one place to congregate, [the hotel] having a number of bars and eating places, so I never saw some people I knew were attending, and some I saw briefly in passing and never again.  Although the lectures and workshops were very well attended, quite a lot were scheduled for the same time. In fact the lady running the candle workshop came down the corridor wondering what the queue was for and was quite horrified to find out it was waiting for her. Previously she had had around a dozen people attend and this time it was 60!  She had only brought the materials for 60 candles, so had to turn people away.

The Masquerade I shall have to leave others to describe as I took part and was locked up in the ‘Green room’ with the other participants for all of it, but I can say that during the acts the Ankh-Morpork street refuse collector was called and the anonymous disgusting gnoll that came to clear up was none other than our own Pam Gower, and the fact that she was unrecognised pleased her no end, and of course the costume was all her own work as usual.  In fact, off stage I didn’t recognise her myself until I overheard her speaking.

The Third Day: Sunday, August 24, 2008

I attended the “2008 Is Wallace Year” lecture given by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, which was both entertaining and informative and as usual showed that the Roundworld can be as wierd and wonderful as the Discworld, with many similarities.

Pat had made the great error of describing his audience as sitting ducks–bad move as most of the auction (and every other appearance he made) was punctuated by duck calls.  The Octavo made an extremely impressive centrepiece and I had to leave before it came up, because it never would have fitted in the car.

The evening was rounded off by the Gala Dinner and Dragon racing.  The meal was very enjoyable except for the fact that I went out for a nicotine fix between courses and someone replaced my pudding with 2 grapes on a plate!

Terry gave a speech mentioning that for half the attendees it was their very first convention, which does raise the question of what has happened to half of the regulars?  The last speech was given by Lord Vetinari and his statement of one man one vote and he had it was interrupted by Terry begging to differ. Terry also said that he wasn’t bad–he was just written that way, which amused everyone.

The Dragon racing was enjoyable with a Tote using our free money and despite numerous stewards enquiries, photo finishes and one dragon being lifted and ‘helped’ to the finishing post by Nac Mac Feegles went off very well.

The Fourth Day: Monday, August 25, 2008

[Monday] was spent mostly packing, saying goodbye to friends old and new.  The Mob had brought David Jason’s Rincewind hat (the one that had fallen in the water, so suitably snotted), Kring the magical sword, and the Bafta, which Stephen Briggs managed to photograph it held by many people.

During the Meet the Mob presentation it was mentioned that the order of the next films will be Going Postal, Making Money, then Sourcery.  Unfortunately there may be limited fan involvement as the next two will be filmed in Hungary due to a lack of suitable buildings here and that most of the action is set amongst architecture.

The Closing Ceremony

The closing ceremony was the usual mix of sadness and joy.

Joy because the prizes were given out, and we were all able to fit into the room together as at the Opening ceremony, but also sadness as one of the prizes for the Guild member who remained in charactor for the whole convention and who had contributed greatly to their guild and in promoting other peoples enjoyment was given an award named for Ewan the young assassin who captured everyone’s heart at the 2006 convention and who died shortly afterwards.

At the very end when the guests and con committee had left the stage there was the voice overs asking for someone to clear the stage of the mess and on came Lu Tze and despite being told we had only just got there, was adamant that we only got one time turn and this time really had to go home, so we did.

Home again, Wadfest next weekend, then the frantic saving for Hogswatch and Nadcon in Arizona.

Many many thanks to demdike for the report!

Would anyone else like to share their experiences? And for those who couldn’t go, how jealous are you?

Terry Pratchett book signing June 14

25 May 2008 (12:44) 1 Comment

To celebrate the launch of the Making Money paperback, Terry Pratchett will be signing books at the Foyles bookshop on the Southbank this June 14, beginning at noon.  The Saturday signing ends at 2:30 p.m., and fans are urged to arrive early.

Making Money: Locus Awards finalist

19 May 2008 (11:35) Comment!

Discworld’s latest entry, Making Money, has made it to the the Locus Awards finalist list in the fantasy novel category. Making Money attained the honor by ranking in the top five in Locus Magazine’s yearly poll and survey, and shares the honor with Endless Things, by John Crowley; Pirate Freedom, by Gene Wolfe; Territory, by Emma Bull; and Ysabel, by Guy Gavriel Kay. The winner will be announced June 21, in Seattle, at the Locus Awards Ceremony during the Science Fiction Hall Of Fame Awards Weekend.

Finalists in other categories include The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, by Michael Chabon; Powers, by Ursula K. Le Guin; Un Lun Dun, by China Mieville; After The Siege, by Cory Doctorow; Memorare Gene Wolfe; The Witch’s Headstone, by Neil Gaiman; Overclocked, by Cory Doctorow; The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror 2007: Twentieth Annual Collection, by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, and Gavin J. Grant, ed. ; and Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictonary Of Science Fiction, by Jeff Prucher, ed.

Terry Pratchett opens display at Bath’s Postal Museum

18 May 2008 (17:49) Comment!

ThisIsBath.co.uk reports that Terry Pratchett opened a new exhibition, which runs till September, at Bath’s Postal Museum on Northgate Street. The exhibition celebrates Victorian innovations like the penny post and post boxes. To quote Terry Pratchett:

This has been a wonderful exhibition and I am pleased to be here to look around.
The Victorian period was such a great age of inventions and they were all inventions which we could get our heads around - they were easy to understand unlike today’s inventions.

Terry Pratchett used the Postal Museum while researching for Going Postal.

Dress up and win an iPod and every Discworld audiobook

20 March 2008 (20:16) 1 Comment

TimesOnline.co.uk is offering a contest to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Colour Of Magic, the first novel in the Discworld series. To win, send a photograph of “yourself dressed as your favourite Pratchett character” to books@timesonline.co.uk and explain why he or she is your favorite character.  Things to note about the contest:

• Only residents of the U.K. and Eire aged 16 and over are eligible.
• Each person is allowed only one entry.
• Include “Pratchett” in the subject of your entry.
• The email should include the picture of yourself dressed up, the name of your character, why he or she is your favorite (in less than 50 words), your name, your age, your phone number, and your email address.
• The photograph must be in jpeg format and less than 10 megabytes.  Dimension specifications: “a minimum pixel width of 450 for landscape photographs or 450 pixels for portrait photos.”
• The deadline is midday May 19, 2008.

 The full terms and conditions can also be found on the site.

FantasyBookSpot Tournament begins: Making Money v. The Dark River

10 March 2008 (17:14) 1 Comment

Over at FantasyBookSpot.com, their 2007 Book Tournament began yesterday, March 9. In the first round of the tournament, Making Money is matched one-on-one with The Dark River. Don’t forget to vote before this first round ends on Tuesday, March 11!

Making Money on FBS tournament shortlist

15 February 2008 (18:46) Comment!

FantasyBookSpot.com released the shortlist for its annual book tournament. In the 2007 release category, Making Money earned a spot, with competition from Un Lun Dun by China Mieville, Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin, Pirate Freedom by Gene Wolfe, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling, and more than fifty others. Starting March 9, books will matched up individually and voting starts to eliminate books from the competition. Here’s to Making Money’s victory in April!

Terry Pratchett video interview

8 December 2007 (13:01) Comment!

Book Zone interviewed Terry Pratchett in Cambridge on his Making Money tour. In the video interview, Terry Pratchett is, of course, asked about writing Making Money and the premise of the book, but also talks about the writing process. To quote Terry Pratchett:

“Sooner or later it’s you and the cursor flashing on the keyboard and you’ve got to do that book and with any luck you’ll be able to make it better than the last one although you absolutely know that sooner or later, by the sheer laws of mathematics, it’s going to be impossible. And that is quite terrifying.”

Thank you to Colin Smythe for the heads-up.

Terry Pratchett on chapters, Wee Free Men film

2 December 2007 (18:55) Comment!

HarperCollins has released a transcript of an interview with Terry Pratchett conducted in September. Terry Pratchett makes some interesting comments about the new chapters in Going Postal and Making Money:

Going Postal, and indeed it’s successor Making Money both have a somewhat Victorian feel to them so I thought it might be fun to go back to the glorious era of chapter headings which were practically an index to the book! In the same way I found you could have fun with footnotes, I have now learned that chapter headings can be quite amusing.

He also lets drop a hint about the Wee Free Men movie to be directed by Sam Raimi, saying, “I have got on very well with Pamela Pettler who is the script writer, so right now I am feeling quite optimistic.”

Pratchett to tour U.S.

18 August 2007 (7:41) 2 Comments

The Terry Pratchett’s Making Money signing tour has been announced by his American publisher, Harper Collins. The full tour, to include stops in California, Oregon, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and New York state, is posted here:

Monday, September 24, 2007
07:00 PM
BORDERS #86
3700 Torrance Blvd Torrance, CA 90503

Tuesday, September 25, 2007
07:30 PM
KEPLER’S BOOKS
STE 200 1010 El Camino Menlo Park, CA 94025

Wednesday, September 26, 2007
07:00 PM
POWELL’S BOOKSTORE
3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd Beaverton, OR 97005

Thursday, September 27, 2007
07:30 PM
TATTERED COVER BOOK STORE
1628 16th St. Denver, CO 80202

Sunday, September 30, 2007
01:00 PM
CHESTER COUNTY BOOK COMPANY
975 Paoli Pike West Chester, PA 19380

Monday, October 01, 2007
07:00 PM
BARNES & NOBLE/Union Square
33 E 17th ST New York, NY 10003.

Please note that Terry Pratchett will also be appearing at the National Book Festival in Washington D.C. on September 29, 2007.

Another Making Money Synopsis

13 August 2007 (18:04) Comment!

A new, much longer and more detailed synopsis (scroll down) for Making Money has turned up on amazon.com. The synopsis:

The Ankh-Morpork Post Office is running like . . . well, not at all like a government office. The mail is delivered promptly; meetings start and end on time; five out of six letters relegated to the Blind Letter Office ultimately wend their way to the correct addresses. Postmaster General Moist von Lipwig, former arch-swindler and confidence man, has exceeded all expectations—including his own. So it’s somewhat disconcerting when Lord Vetinari summons Moist to the palace and asks, “Tell me, Mr. Lipwig, would you like to make some real money?”

Vetinari isn’t talking about wages, of course. He’s referring, rather, to the Royal Mint of Ankh-Morpork, a venerable institution that haas run for centuries on the hereditary employment of the Men of the Sheds and their loyal outworkers, who do make money in their spare time. Unfortunately, it costs more than a penny to make a penny, so the whole process seems somewhat counterintuitive.

Next door, at the Royal Bank, the Glooper, an “analogy machine,” has scientifically established that one never has quite as much money at the end of the week as one thinks one should, and the bank’s chairman, one elderly Topsy (née Turvy) Lavish, keeps two loaded crossbows at her desk. Oh, and the chief clerk is probably a vampire.

But before Moist has time to fully consider Vetinari’s question, fate answers it for him. Now he’s not only making money, but enemies too; he’s got to spring a prisoner from jail, break into his own bank vault, stop the new manager from licking his face, and, above all, find out where all the gold has gone—otherwise, his life in banking, while very exciting, is going to be really, really short. . . .

Making Money is set to come out this September, according to Amazon.

Pratchett signing in London

12 August 2007 (11:11) Comment!

Forbidden Planet has announced an October signing with Terry Pratchett at their London Megastore (179 Shaftesbury Ave., London WC2H 8JR) on Saturday, October 13. He will be signing copies of Making Money, which comes out September 24 in the U.K. Go to Forbidden Planet’s signings page and scroll down to pre-order a signed copy.

Discworld book Making Money to come out September 24

5 July 2007 (16:14) 1 Comment

For those who don’t already know, the next Discworld novel is set to release in the U.K. (according to amazon.co.uk) September 24, 2007 and in the U.S. (according to amazon.com) October 1. To quote the synopsis:

It’s an offer you can’t refuse. Who would not to wish to be the man in charge of Ankh-Morpork’s Royal Mint and the bank next door? It’s a job for life. But, as former con-man Moist von Lipwig is learning, the life is not necessarily for long. The Chief Cashier is almost certainly a vampire. There’s something nameless in the cellar (and the cellar itself is pretty nameless), it turns out that the Royal Mintruns at a loss. A 300 year old wizard is after his girlfriend, he’s about to be exposed as a fraud, but the Assassins Guild might get him first. In fact lot of people want him dead Oh. And every day he has to take the Chairman for walkies. Everywhere he looks he’s making enemies. What he should be doing is …Making Money!

Editions in both countries (including the audio versions) are available for pre-order.