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2008: The 25th anniversary of the Discworld series!

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Discworld plays roundup

14 February 2009 (20:28) Icon Comment!

There are, as always, many many plays adapted from Discworld novels being performed in the coming months. Here’s some of the newest information:

Thanks to the Discworld Monthly for information used in compiling this article.

Terry Pratchett interview in Times

31 January 2009 (12:44) Icon 1 Comment

An interview with Terry Pratchett published January 25 on TimesOnline.co.uk discusses his experience with Alzheimer’s in the past year and his recently awarded knighthood. To quote the article:

Sir Terry Pratchett cannot help wondering why it was this year - after 30 years as a bestselling writer - that he was honoured with a knighthood: ‘All I know is that on the citation it says ‘for services to literature’, and it would be nice to think that that got me the knighthood - though it may have been for what I stood up for and what I’ve done for Alzheimer’s.’ All in all, Pratchett is treating his recent knighthood with modesty: ‘I am 60. I know exactly who I am,’ he says. ‘I am just me - which is why it’s slightly amusing to be addressed by the postman as ‘Sir Terry”….

When he describes living with Alzheimer’s as ‘a minor flaw in a good, though complicated, year - without it, it would have been a fairly anodyne one’, you can’t help feeling he is underselling his recent literary achievements. Nation, his new book, was an instant bestseller; his Discworld series celebrated its 25th anniversary; and he was at work on two new titles: Unseen Academicals and I Shall Wear Midnight….

“As a science-fiction writer, [knighthood] is an achievement. Despite its popularity, sci-fi is still a ghetto genre. So when a hand of welcome comes from the Establishment, you can do nothing but shake it.”

Retro News: Pratchett’s fan updates October-December 2008; health “stable”; documentary “looks pretty good”; Unseen Academicals finished by May?

1 January 2009 (15:02) Icon Comment!

Since October, Terry Pratchett has posted three updates on PJSMPrints, all of which contain a wealth of information about his writing progress, the media interest in Terry Pratchett The Alzheimer’s Patient, the documentary Living With Alzheimer’s, and so on.

To quote Pratchett’s October update (scroll down at the link):

At last some progress is being made on Unseen Academicals since we got through the making of the BBC2 documentary and all the alternative calls on my time that seemed to have filled the past year. Today, for example, I have nothing to do but write and Rob and I were just mentioning how odd it is to have a day which does not involve some kind of travel, meeting, or interview. In fact Rob is about to interview me right now:

(more…)

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

28 December 2008 (19:57) Icon 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:
(more…)

Four Discworld novels in Amazon’s Hall Of Fame

24 December 2008 (17:34) Icon Comment!

Amazon looks back on the ten years since it started (and subsequently became a book sales juggernaut) with a Hall Of Fame listing the yearly top ten bestsellers, and four of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels make it onto the lists.

Carpe Jugulum is the fourth bestselling title for 1998, The Fifth Elephant is the eighth bestselling title for 1999, Night Watch is the second bestselling title for 2002, and Monstrous Regiment is the seventh bestselling title for 2003.

Other books in the Hall Of Fame are the Harry Potter books, Who Moved My Cheese?, The God Delusion, The Time Traveler’s Wife, and The Kite Runner.

Retro News: Pratchett on Washington Post chat (01 Oct. 2008)

13 December 2008 (17:30) Icon Comment!

Terry Pratchett chatted with Washington Post readers on Wednesday, Oct. 1st on Book World Live for a discussion about his most recent children’s book, Nation. To quote the full transcript:

Terry Pratchett: Hello, it’s Terry Pratchett, here to talk about my book Nation, and anything else. Except cookery, or mathematics. I’d like to start by thanking the Washington Post for the wonderful review in Book World. It’s nice when people spot the little twiddly bits. I was pleased to see that. The reviews have been very encouraging around the globe.

Houston, TX : How did you get the idea for Nation?

Terry Pratchett: I wish I knew, because if I did I would go back to the same place with a bucket. The initial idea and the image of Mau standing on the beach defying his gods came to me instantly, late in 2003, and it hung around for a long time…. what I originally had in mind was something like the explosion of Krakatoa, and the shipwreck of the Sweet Judy is very loosely based on a real event that happened after the volcano exploded.

Woodbridge, Va.: The Washington Post review of your book says that it deals with “fundamental questions about religious belief.” Are you a man of faith?

Terry Pratchett: Certainly I have no faith in Jehovah, although I think it quite likely that Jesus Christ, as a preacher and a wise man, did indeed exist. I think possibly the ending of Nation pretty much outlines what I think. Indeed, the whole of Nation outlines what I think, which is that if you do your best for your fellow man, then the issue of the gods is somewhat superfluous.

Falls Church, Va: … I have two questions: What is your favorite Discworld Book? More importantly, how young an adult is your “Young Adult Novel” appropriate for? My 12 year old son is a decent reader for a 7th grader. Do you think the book would be appropriate for him?

Terry Pratchett: I would say that I have done my best writing in the Tiffany Aching series, which are technically Discworld books, although they are meant for children.

Among the adult books, Nightwatch [sic] must be my favourite.

The question of age and suitability is a hot one here in the UK, where authors are banding together to stop publishers’ age-banding children’s/YA books. That is to say, they want to include advice like “suitable for a child of 7 1/2″ on the cover of the book. The reason this is a very hit-and-miss message is that it all depends on the child. I think I had read all the James Bond books that were available by the time I was 12, and you have to remember that a book like Pilgrim’s Progress was once considered a perfect Sunday afternoon for children of 7 or so. If a kid is bright and questioning, and really interested in the world, they will find a lot for them in Nation. Equally, I imagine there’s one or 2 adults that won’t get it!

Gaithersburg, MD: How are you feeling?

Terry Pratchett: I’m feeling good.

I think I feel a question that no one is quite asking here.

Yes, I have PCA, which is a rare variant of Alzheimer’s. Right now, its main effect on me is to mess up my typing skills, and also to make my spelling inaccurate — I mean to the point where I might actually fail to remember how to spell a simple 5-letter word just as I am about to type it. these [sic] things are a nuisance, and certainly slow down my work rate. But to some extent, technology can help. There is no cure. PCA is a strange thing, and no one is taking any guesses about how long I shall be able to keep working like this. My personal view is that the sheer grind of writing will get me down long before there’s still plenty of room for me to enjoy things in life. Oddly enough, the ability to plot and invent dialogue and characters seems to be totally untouched. It is worth pointing out that Nation, in its entirety, was written by a guy with PCA. I did not know that I had it until the late fall of last year, but throughout that year I had been putting down the problems of typing, etc. to other things, senior moments and just general aging. To put it bluntly, you would have to know me very well, and possibly even be familiar with PCA, to suspect that I was anything other than an average 60-year old guy.

Wallace, N.C: You once wrote a short story about a female King Arthur (Queen Ursula) and Mervin (a geeky Merlin). Have you ever thought about returning to that particular story and finding out how the Table is different? (Speaking as a huge female fan of Arthurian legend, I have always wondered what would happen after Ursula pulled the sword out of the stone! She was a very impressive character.)

Terry Pratchett: Thank you! I was very pleased with that short story and had planned, which circumstances are likely to derail, to extend it into a novel. Since Merlin was a time traveller, I did wonder if we would end up with something like an Elizabethan age several centuries ahead of its time. There are so many ways it could have gone. Nevertheless, it was quite good fun doing it as a straight short story, just to introduce the idea.

Washington, D.C.: You hail from the nation that built a global colonial empire, but also wrote the Magna Carta and fought both Napoleon and Hitler. One theme that seems to run through many of your novels is the conception that good is relative but evil is the absolute inability to care about other living things, be they golems, people, or cats. Are there any specific religious beliefs, philosophical texts, or life events that shaped this conviction?

Terry Pratchett: See my earlier answer about being a reader. It was SF and fantasy that got me reading, and SF writers in particular have pack rat minds. They introduce all sorts of interesting themes and ideas into their books, and so for me it was a short leap to go from the F and SF genres to folklore, mythology, ancient history and philosophy. I did not read philosophy because I set out to become a philosopher; I read it because it looked interesting. All I am really promoting in the books is the Golden Rule, which I hope everybody knows to be “do as you would be done by.” It has one or 2 flaws, but it is a good soundbite. Evil starts when you treat other people as things. There are perhaps worse crimes, but they begin when you treat other people as things.

Manchester, UK: When I had the pleasure of meeting you at the DWCON in Birmingham this year, you said you were a little unsure of the book on the whole - you weren’t sure whether to tweak it somewhat, etc, and what the reaction from your fans was going to be with it being so completely unlike anything you’ve done before. After Nation was released and became a top seller (again!) and the reviews have been wonderful - Do you feel any differently towards it now?

Terry Pratchett: … Somebody once said that books are not finished, they just escape. I probably spent five months doing the final rewrites and edits of Nation. It was so long because I tend to be very “big brush” on the early drafts. I look at it now and see places where I could have improved it, but in reality, I would probably have had to put in 100% more work for 1% improvement.

Philadelphia, Pa.: Do you have a writing process? About how long do you think about your storyline before you put it down on paper? How much of writing is rewriting?

Terry Pratchett: Good one. Nation was written in a very strange way. I was doing draft 5 of the first few chapters when I was on draft 1 of the ending. In a sense, it was written in a way more suitable to painting; in effect I was working on the whole thing all the time.

Generally I start writing when I have even the smallest idea of how a book is going to go, because the physical process of writing itself keeps the mind active and focused on the job at hand. Usually I write in about 5 drafts, but that simply means there are 5 definite times when I go in a linear fashion from the beginning to the end of the book.

Terry Pratchett also talked about his Alzheimer’s and a book he is currently working on, which he says is set on the Discworld and follows an almost completely new suite of characters.

An update from Terry Pratchett

4 August 2008 (8:58) Icon 2 Comments

www.PJSMPrints.com has another update from Terry Pratchett. Here it is in full:

Folks,

To those that want to know, it would be true to say that my life right now is occasional short periods of writing interspersed and interrupted with requests for interviews.  As my UK readers will know, merely catching a variant of Alzheimer’s has propelled me onto more prestigious chat show sofas than I have ever seen in 25 years of quietly writing the Discworld series. 

My general health is good.  The most recent test by my specialist indicates, in effect, that I am no worse now, and possibly slightly better than I was at the back end of November.  I have no idea when Unseen Academicals will be finished, simply because of the amount of media interest that continues to be generated by recent developments in the treatment of AD.  Frankly, and with the agreement of my publishers, I feel that this is something that I should give priority to.

In a week’s time we are flying to the States to talk to a number of specialists in AD research and, incidentally, go out with the LAPD officers who are tasked with – and I am not kidding – locating and bringing home those elderly joggers with memory difficulties who have jogged five miles and can’t remember where they live.  I thought this was an urban myth, but apparently it is true.  We will, obviously, be back in time for UK convention, which I would not miss for root canal surgery.

The bad news is that it looks as if, for various reasons, Going Postal The Movie will be delayed and shooting will not begin until the start of next year. However, the guys from Mob turned up this morning and filmed my sequence for the Colour of Magic DVD which will be released in October.

Warning: Do not buy Discworld novels from Hill House, Publishers until further notice

1 May 2008 (19:53) Icon 5 Comments

Hill House’s proposed facsimile editions of the first twelve Discworld novels, advertised since at least 2005, will probably not be published, according to Terry Pratchett’s agent Colin Smythe.

The new editions were supposed to reproduce the early Discworld novels “in exact facsimile editions,” with the use of identical binding, paper, type, and jacket art as the originals. The books were due to be published about every four months and since 2005 only The Colour Of Magic and The Light Fantastic have been published.

Terry Pratchett’s literary agent Colin Smythe responded to questions with “as far as I’m aware, the owner of Hill House, Publishers Peter Schneider has been ill and as it’s a one man operation I don’t believe that he’s going to publish any more of the facsimiles. It’s a considerable disappointment.”

Discworld fans should be warned that the series of facsimiles is still being advertised on the site, with no mention of these concerns.

“I … paid the company $210 for the first six titles–[which] sounded like a good deal,” said one fan, whose complaint brought the situation to light. “As of [April 2008] only two books have been published. At $105 per book this doesn’t sound like as good a deal.”

He had emailed Hill House repeatedly, with no response and no refund.

BBC birthday celebrations for Terry Pratchett

27 April 2008 (14:06) Icon Comment!

BBC 7 celebrates Terry Pratchett’s sixtieth birthday (this Monday) with a mini series of Terry Pratchett interviews, radio adaptations of the Discworld novels, and more. A summary of what’s still available:

All programs, including the dramatization of Small Gods that aired yesterday, should be available on BBC’s Listen Again feature for about a week after airing.

From Terry Pratchett: Alzheimer’s, documentary, book, and film news.

19 April 2008 (14:13) Icon 1 Comment

Over at the Discworld illustrator’s website, Terry Pratchett has kindly updated his fans with information about everything: the BBC documentary (”broadcast next year”), dealing with Alzheimer’s (”I am now firmly ensconced with a specialist”), Nation (”line-edited”), and the coming TV adaptation of Going Postal. The full text of the letter follows:

My office is now effectively at a standstill. In fact, my office is probably moving slightly backwards. It has not helped that a five story rack of filed mail collapsed under the weight recently, thus shuffling several thousand documents into new and interesting combinations. Right now it is a good day if we can answer just those emails that turn up on that day. Most days are nothing like good days. Can we please say this:

I very much appreciate all the letters, emails and cards that have come in, many of them recounting personal experiences and quite a few passing on “survival kits”. There does seem to be some people out there who have managed at least to slow AD, although I have to say that it does appear by taking various supplements, not by milligram, but by grams :o)

Nation has now been line-edited, and in theory I was going to have a month or so off, although a large part of that will now be spent reassembling what passes as our post room. In reality there are now more calls on my time than there have ever been, to the point where we are simply having to ignore approaches. I think we must have had more than a dozen approaches from documentary companies alone, and I think we shall now just stop sending out the “You are too late, guys” emails (You may see us around and about being followed by Craig and Charlie, who are making a documentary about me for the BBC which will be broadcast next year.) I never intended that I would be some kind of AD spokesman, but the world seems to be deciding otherwise.

On a brighter note, I am now firmly ensconced with a specialist, testing last week showed that nothing much had moved since the end of November, except that in situations where I must parallel process I find that serial processing is about as much as I can achieve :o)

There are a number of things planned for the rest of the year, and they include cracking on with Unseen Academicals and also, with any luck, playing a rather larger role in the making of Going Postal.

Dress up and win an iPod and every Discworld audiobook

20 March 2008 (20:16) Icon 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:

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

Book news: Translations in Czech, Romanian

16 February 2008 (16:31) Icon Comment!

In book news, Terry Pratchett’s agent has given us this information:

Talpress in the Czech Republic will be issuing a 2-in-1 omnibus of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic to mark the 25th anniversary of the start of the Discworld. They’re also issuing a collection of the contents of the Discworld Diaries 1998-2007 in a single volume.

Rao in Romania are taking licenses for Pyramids, Moving Pictures, and an unillustrated edition of Eric.

Laguna (Serbia and Montenegro) have acquired licenses for Hogfather and Jingo.

Proszynski (Poland) have just signed a license for Monstrous Regiment.

Discworld translations

14 December 2007 (23:54) Icon Comment!

Terry Pratchett’s agent Colin Smythe has sent us the following information about soon-to-be published translations of the Discworld novels and related publications.

“Goldmann will be publishing Lu-Tze’s Yearbook of Enlightenment as their 2009 diary, as will Talpress, who will also be publishing the illustrated version of Eric.

“Karisto (Finland) will be publishing The Last Continent.

“Dela Vision (Hungary) are acquiring a licence for Soul Music, and Conrad (Brazil) for Small Gods.

“In January 2008 Ediciones Altaya in Spain are market testing news-stand editions of The Colour of Magic, Mort, Sourcery, Wyrd Sisters and Pyramids.

“Proszynski (Poland) have published the graphic novel of The Colour of Magic, which will be followed by The Light Fantastic. They have also acquired a licence for Night Watch.”

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