Rincewind

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) 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:

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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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New Discworld miniatures of Death, Weatherwax, Vimes, Ogg, Rincewind

27 December 2008 (17:45) Comment!

Micro Art Studio is now issuing a series of Discworld miniatures. Miniatures of Death, Granny Weatherwax, Sam Vimes, Nanny Ogg, and Rincewind are already available.

Miniatures of Nobby Nobbs and the Luggage are planned.

The miniatures are based on the artwork of Paul Kidby. According to Micro Art Studio, the miniatures are “30 mm scale high quality metal cast” miniatures and are sold unpainted.

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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Retro News: Sir David Jason on Colour Of Magic (18 March 2008)

16 December 2008 (20:24) Comment!

NewsShopper.co.uk posted an article soon after the Colour Of Magic premiere, reporting on some of the things David Jason said about the movie, both at the premiere Q&A and elsewhere. He reflects on the relationship between Rincewind and Twoflower:

The central thrust of most comedy in a two-character relationship is one knowing fool and one unknowing fool…. You must have a balance, an opposite, like a ying and a yang. Where Rincewind and Twoflower succeed is where Twoflower is a totally naive tourist and Rincewind is very streetwise.

And he talks about the stuntwork for the upside-down swordfighting scene between his character and Karen David’s:

In my innocence, I thought ‘We’ll do [the swordfighting scene] standing up, have a swordfight, and they’ll comb your hair back and make it stand on end and then they’ll reverse the film. Then it’ll look like you’re upside-down’, That’s not what happened.

It’s not a nice experience…. being hung upside-down like the last chicken at Sainsbury’s. I wouldn’t do that again in a hurry.

He sums up:

If you haven’t read The Colour Of Magic it’s going to be much easier to follow than Hogfather. It’s much more fun, it’s more of a road movie.

As always, check out our Colour Of Magic page for more information on the miniseries, including more quotes from David Jason.

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?

An update from Terry Pratchett

4 August 2008 (8:58) 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.

The Discworld Graphic Novels re-released

3 August 2008 (20:50) 1 Comment

In honor of the 25th anniversary of the publishing of The Colour Of Magic, The Discworld Graphic Novels: The Colour Of Magic And The Light Fantastic is being re-released (for the first time in hardcover) in both the U.S. and the U.K.

The synopsis:

Imagine a flat world, sitting on the backs of four elephants who hurtle through space balanced on a giant turtle. The Discworld is a place (and a time) parallel to our own—but also very different. That is the setting for Terry Pratchett’s phenomenally successful Discworld series, which now celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary.

The Discworld Graphic Novels presents the very first two volumes of this much-loved series in graphic novel form. First published fifteen years ago, these fully illustrated versions are now issued for the first time in hardback. Introduced here are the bizarre misadventures of Twoflower, the Discworld’s first ever tourist, and possibly—portentously—its last, and his guide Rincewind, the spectacularly inept wizard. Not to mention the Luggage, which has a mind of its own.

The U.S. edition and the U.K. edition are both available on Amazon.

Terry Pratchett the most “evergreen” author

1 August 2008 (17:37) 2 Comments

The British book trade’s premier publication, The Bookseller, released today for the first time a list of “evergreen” titles–titles that have never fallen out of the top 5,000 bestseller chart since 1995.  The list consists of only twelve (out of more than 1.8 million) books, three of which belong to the Discworld series.

The Colour Of Magic, The Light Fantastic, and Mort all received the honor.  No author besides Terry Pratchett has more than one book on the list, earning him the title “‘evergreen’ king.”

Birdsong, by Sebastian Faulks, topped the list.  The other books on the list were Complete Cookery Course, by Delia Smith; The Celestine Prophecy, by James Redfield; A Long Walk To Freedom, by Nelson Mandela; and the favorites of The Hobbit, A Brief History Of Time, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and We’re Going On A Bear Hunt.

Colour Of Magic DVD to be released October 2008 in U.K.

29 July 2008 (22:03) 11 Comments

Despite rumors that the The Colour Of Magic DVD would not be released, PJSM Prints has confirmed that the DVD will be released this October in the U.K. by Twentieth Century Fox. There is no information available about DVD extras, though entertaining “Tourist Guides” and other video extras can be found on Sky One’s official site.

The Colour Of Magic adaptation, starring David Jason as Rincewind and Sean Astin as Twoflower, aired as a two-part miniseries on Sky One this Easter, and is based on events from the first two books in the Discworld series.  Terry Pratchett also appears in a cameo part.

There is no information pertaining to a U.S. airing of the film.

Update: More up-to-date information can be found on our Colour Of Magic Release/Airing Dates and Information page.

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

1 May 2008 (19:53) 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.

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.

Book news: Translations in Czech, Romanian

16 February 2008 (16:31) 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) 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.”

Color of Magic: Great British book

16 April 2007 (12:19) Comment!

telegraph.co.uk has released a list of 100 great British books (published between 1983 and 2006). The Color of Magic is included, alongside classics like The BFG, by Roald Dahl.