Archive-Name: pratchett/faq Archive-Source: alt.answers Posting-Frequency: monthly (28th) URL: http://connexus.apana.org.au/~orin/pratchett/faq.txt Maintained-by: Orin Thomas (orin@connexus.apana.org.au) Last-modified: January 1996 Previous-maintainer: Nathan Torkington (Nathan.Torkington@vuw.ac.nz) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ALT.FAN.PRATCHETT FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "alt.fan.pratchett ... is a little like written CB, and something like being at a party. Or several parties. all in one go. Blindfolded." - Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs DISCWORLD COMPANION This is the list of frequently asked questions (and their answers) for the newsgroup alt.fan.pratchett. There is biographical information about Terry Pratchett, as well as information about his books, his collaborators, upcoming releases and other fun stuff. IMPORTANT NOTE: Previous editions of this FAQ have mentioned that the next Discworld Novel is Words in the Head. My info has been muddled ... this is the working title. The Next novel will be FEET OF CLAY. ----------------------------------------- CONTENTS. ----------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION TO THE NEWSGROUP General Nettiquette A.F.P. Peculiarities. What does *R* and *I* mean? What is a spoiler warning and when should I use one? alt.fan.pratchett and alt.fan.pratchett.announce BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION Terry Pratchett. Personal History. How did he come to write? Discworld Book List. Neil Gaiman. Stephen Briggs. Josh Kirby. WHERE CAN I GET THE BOOKS? Why is the USA so far behind in publishing Terry's Books? Reliable Bookstores. USA Translations. What Happened to the Kirby Covers? COMPUTER GAMES, INTERNET and TP. Terry's email address Terry's setup Computer Games. The Colour of Magic. Terry Pratchett's Discworld. MUDS and MUSEs MERCHANDISING AND FANDOM. ClareCraft. CMOT Briggs. Octarine. Fan Club. The Wizards Knob. PTERRY ON THE PTELLY. Truckers. Johnny and the Dead. The Mort Film. Discworld Movie. Terry Pratchett's Borneo Adventure. Theatrical Plays. Discworld CD. RELATED FILES. Annotated Pratchett File. Pratchett Archives. Pratchett Bibliography. Discworld Trivia Competition. Pratchett Quote File. Alt.Fan.Pratchett WWW page. afp recipies COMMON THREADS AND HOW TO COPE WITH THEM. (Or "Not the FAQ") What is UNCLEAR PHYSICS and Where can I get a copy? Posting an Annotation. Critisising Terry Pratchett on Alt.Fan.Pratchett Why Pterry? Movie Casting. How should I Pronounce Rincewind's Name? How should I Pronounce Gaspode's Name? What are the Words to The Hedgehog Song? What are the rules to Cripple Mr Onion? What/Where is The Missing Chapter? What is a "Merkin"? Does Terry Pratchett post here or what? Due South/Frazier/Carrot hey aren't they ... What is *A*, *C*, *G*, *O*, *O*, *K* Your "Purity Test" Score. Ppoints. MISCELLANEOUS. Similar Authors. The Future. Discworld Calendar. Johnny and the Bomb Feet of Clay Discworld Convention. Big "No No's"! Posting your own Stories to alt.fan.pratchett Posting "Posting Statistics" Comments on "Proposals" Posting "Test Posts" Inconsistencies. Appearances. Book Signings. The Orang-Utan Foundation Approximate number of Books Published. ----------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION TO THE NEWSGROUP ----------------------------------------- Welcome to alt.fan.pratchett! Where possible, pointers to existing information (such as books, magazine articles, and ftp sites) are included here. This FAQ is currently posted to news.answers alt.answers alt.fan.pratchett and alt.fan.pratchett.announce All posts to news.answers are archived, and it is possible to retrieve the last posted copy via anonymous FTP from ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/pratchett/pratchett/faq Those without FTP access should mailto:mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with "send usenet/news.answers/finding-sources" in the body to find out how to get archived news.answers posts by e-mail. The 'working draft' of this FAQ can always be viewed via WWW at http://connexus.apana.org.au/~orin/pratchett/faq.txt This FAQ was mostly written by Nathan Torkington, with numerous contributions by Leo Breebaart and the readers of alt.fan.pratchett (the Maestro himself included). Comments and indications of doubt are enclosed in []s in the text. The FAQ is now being maintained by Orin Thomas, with the permission of Nathan Torkington. The FAQ has also been HTML'ised by Steven de Brouwer, a copy of which may be found at http://connexus.apana.org.au/~orin/pratchett/faq.html If you have any questions *NOT* covered by this document, feel free to post them to alt.fan.pratchett (or, if you feel a little intimidated by that, email me ... it's what I am here for). If there is something you feel should be included in this document ... don't hesitate to write. GENERAL NETTIQUETTE. ------------------- If you haven't already done so, now is as good a time as any to read the guide to Net etiquette which is posted to news.announce.newusers regularly. You should be familiar with acronyms like FAQ, FTP and IMHO, as well as know about smileys, followups and when to reply by e-mail to postings. Posting a question covered in a well circulated FAQ shows a disregard for polite nettiquette. ALT.FAN.PRATCHETT PECULIARITIES. -------------------------------- Being a rather unique bunch of people we also have some guidelines that are more or less being used on alt.fan.pratchett. --- THE USE OF *R* and *I*. --- "In theory they are forums for those who appreciate the books, but exchanges segue into something completely different with extreme rapidity. On alt.fan.pratchett they generally head in the direction of the topics of food, traffic roundabouts, drink and, for some reason, pubic wigs." - Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs. DW Companion. *R* is for Relevant. *I* is for Irrelevant. Anything about Terry Pratchett, His Books, His Characters, the Computer Games, and items Pratchettesque should be labeled *R*. Anything else should be labeled *I*. Given the high volume of posting to AFP it would be appreciated if you could please modify the subject line as often as you can. --- WHAT IS A SPOILER AND WHEN SHOULD I USE ONE? --- Spoilers, like *R* and *I*, should be mentioned in the subject line of your post. A spoiler would be information in a book just released or in the Discworld game at the moment. Again a judgement call is in order. It would be prudent to put a spoiler in your post for the first two or so months after a book has been released. This gives the rest of the newsgroup time to 'catch up' so to speak. For any book after Men at Arms, please include the title initials in the subject line. This is mostly for the American readers of the group who haven't had the books released there yet. For Example: *R* Rincewind (IT) as a subject line would be good. --- Alt.Fan.Pratchett.Annouce --- The Moderated Newsgroup devoted to the important posts that might be missed in the clutter of alt.fan.pratchett. Mike Knell is the moderator and if you have something important to announce to alt.fan.pratchett then mailto:afpa-mod@eniac.demon.co.uk Please note, the submission criterion are not particularly strict. If you email Mike with something (an annotation perhaps) that has already been covered by one of the FAQs or files then you will be politely pointed towards the aformentioned source (without any embarrasment). If you think that it is important and that the whole newsgroup should know then post it. A.f.p.a is not just for FAQs! ----------------------------------------- BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ----------------------------------------- Condensed from the "About the Author" sections. TERRY PRATCHETT. ---------------- --- PERSONAL HISTORY --- "People never read these biographies anyway, do they? They want to get on with the book, not wade through masses of prose designed to suggest that the author is really a very interesting person so look, okay, he wrote these other books, all right. Most were also about the Discworld, and actually quite a lot of people liked them." - From the "About the Author" section of the earlier Discworld books. Terry Pratchett is, on average, a sort of youngish middle-aged. He was born in 1948 in the village of Forty Green (now a part of Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire) and is still not dead. He lives in the west country with his wife Lyn and daughter Rhianna where he writes books in between answering the mail. He lives in constant dread that someone will find out how enjoyable he finds writing, and stop him doing it. He chose journalism as a career because it was indoor work with no heavy lifting. He's managed to avoid all the really interesting jobs authors take in order to look good in this sort of biography. He started work as a journalist one day in 1965 and saw his first corpse three hours later, work experience meaning something in those days. After doing just about every job it's possible to do in provincial journalism, except of course covering Saturday afternoon football, he joined the Central Electricity Generating Board and became press officer for four nuclear power stations just before Three Mile Island, which shows his unerring sense of timing. He'd write a book about his experiences if he thought anyone would believe it. All this came to an end in 1987 when it became obvious that the Discworld series was much more enjoyable than real work. Occasionally he gets accused of literature. He says writing is the most fun anyone can have by themselves. He grows carnivorous (which, he argues, are really insectivorious) plants as a hobby (which are doing quite well by the way) and tells us that they are a lot less interesting than people believe. He likes people to buy him banana daiquiris (he knows people don't read author biographies, but feels this might be worth a try). He tries to make computers do things they were never intended to do. He also feels that the world could use more orang-utans. He has a two speed Hedge Cutter. --- HOW DID HE COME TO WRITE? --- The first story he ever wrote was for a school assignment and was called "The Hades Business". He managed to get 10 out of 10 for it. It was the first time he had gotten 10 out of 10 for anything except for a painting which his teacher *thought* was two dinosaurs fighting. This story was then published in his school magazine. There it would have ended, except for his school headmaster who addressed an assembly shortly afterward and announced that he didn't approve of the "moral tone" of the story. The magazine, which would have struggled to break even, sold out within 15 minutes. He learned an important lesson, right then -- by writing it is possible to infuriate your enemies as well as please your friends. He then had the story typed up by his Aunt and sold it to the magazine Science Fantasy (#60, vol 20, 1963), and with the profits bought a typewriter. This his first act as an income earner was to fire his Aunt. His mother rewarded this Thatcherite attitude and paid for his typing lessons and he was on his way. --- THE DISCWORLD BOOK LIST --- Here is a list of Terry's Discworld Book Titles. A more complete listing including the Nome, Pre-Discworld, Collaborations and Young Adult books (including ISBN etc) is in the PRATCHETT BIBLIOGRAPHY. The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites, Mort Sourcery, Wyrd Sisters, Pyramids, Guards! Guards!, Eric Moving Pictures, Reaper Man, Witches Abroad, Small Gods Lords and Ladies, Men At Arms, Soul Music, Interesting Times, Maskerade, The Streets of Ankh Morpork (with Stephen Briggs), The Discworld Companion (with Stephen Briggs), Mappe of the Discworld (with Stephen Briggs) and Maskerade. NEIL GAIMAN ----------- Neil Gaiman used to be a journalist, but gave it all up to write comics, which he claims are a totally valid late twentieth century art-form, and he's even won awards for them, so that's all right. He's 5'10'' tall, owns a number of black T-shirts, and, although he's not overly keen of banana daiquiris, is always very flattered when appreciative fans send him money. from "Good Omens" written with Terry Pratchett. There is a Neil Gaiman FAQ at: gopher://info.tamu.edu:70/00/.data/comic/sandman/ http://haven.uniserve.com/~puck/sandman/ STEPHEN BRIGGS. --------------- Stephen Briggs, with the assistance of Terry Pratchett, helped with the creation of the 'Streets of Ankh-Morpork', 'The Discworld Companion' and the 'Map of the Discworld'. He was born in 1951 and lives in Oxfordshire with his wife Ginny and their sons, Philip and Christopher. He has been involved for many years in the sinister world of amateur dramatics, which is how he came to discover the Discworld. Oxford's Studio Theatre Club went on to stage Stephen's adaptations of Wyrd Sisters, Mort, Guards! Guards! and Maskerade. Stephen is currently working with Pterry on publishing some of the plays. JOSH KIRBY ---------- Josh Kirby is an artist who has been drawing covers for many years now. He has done the covers for (among others) Terry Pratchett, Craig Shaw Gardner, Esther Friesner, Dan McGirt and the new editions of Tom Holt's novels. He also illustrated the Discworld (sort-of picture) book "Eric". He has at least two poster books out, one with large versions of the first seven Discworld covers. One is "In the Garden of Unearthly Delights", published by Paper Tiger in 1991. Its ISBN is 1-85028-154-8. It costs #9.95 (pounds sterling) and runs to 143 pages of artwork. The other is "The Josh Kirby Poster Book" published by Corgi in 1991, ISBN 0 552 99382 4. -------------------------- WHERE CAN I GET THE BOOKS? -------------------------- Terry's books are available to varying degrees in the different countries around the world. Enclosed here is some information on which books were released where, as well as some addresses for stores that are reliable. --- Why is the USA so far behind in publishing Terry's Books? --- Terry's publishers in the USA, most likely, haven't got much of a clue as to how hot a property they have on their hands. There is no really valid reason as to why the books are published so late. Feel free to make up your own ... (better yet, if you are from the USA hassle the publishers!). None of the later books seem to have been generally released in the USA. (this situation seems to be improving) My email informs me that the dedicated American fan should be able to get their hands on most of the books. Some of the recommended ones are listed below. --- USA --- University Bookstore 4326 University Way N.E. Seattle, WA 98105 Dark Carnival 3086 Claremont Avenue Oakland, CA 94705 Future Fantasy 3705 El Camino Real Palo Alto, CA 94306 Waterstone's 26 Exeter St. (at Newbury St.) Boston, MA The University Bookstore was able to get Interesting Times within three weeks. Dark Carnival apparently imports the paperbacks. Future Fantasy has a WWW page (http://futfan.com/home.html ) and could get IT in. Waterstone's apparently achieved this as well. {Can someone please email me with Waterstones Postcode?} Or you could contact ppint (see address below). If your country (or city) isn't mentioned and you think it should be, please email me with the information. Especially appreciated would be any more U.S. bookstores that import new books from the U.K. as well as good bookstores in Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the rest of Europe. --- Reliable Bookstores --- Several Bookstores reliably stock books quickly after the release date. Andromeda Books 84 Suffolk Street, Birmingham BA1 1TA UK Minotaur Books 220 Bourke St, Melbourne 3000. AUS Bolen Books 78-1644 Hillside Ave Victoria, BC V8T 2C5 Canada House of Speculative Fiction 105 Fourth Avenue Ottawa, ON K1S 2L1 Canada AFP'ers might also want to consider mailing the incredibly reliable ppint, who can also arrange things via email. The address is: ppint@i-m-t.demon.co.uk --- Translations --- TP's work has been translated into several different languages. See the Bibliographic FAQ for more information. --- What happened to Josh Kirby's covers? --- Non-Kirby covers are coming out on reprints of his earlier Discworld books, in the hopes of attracting an audience that would otherwise be put off by the Kirby covers. Later books ("Men At Arms" onward) have only a single Kirby illustration in the middle of the cover, for much the same reason. Note however, that the Paperbacks after MAA have different covers to the Hardbacks (which is a perfect reason to buy both :-) ). They are the big Kirby illustrations like the earlier books. ----------------------------------------- COMPUTERS, GAMES, INTERNET AND TP ----------------------------------------- Terry is not only interested in computers, but can also be found driving around the information superhighway. --- His E-Mail address --- "When I first went on line I left myself open to about a thousand mailings on the lines of "Are you Terry Pratchett or what?" It didn't matter what I replied. If I played it straight and said "yes" some of them would reply, "oh, go on, you're not, are you?" and I was damned if I was going to say "no"." Terry Pratchett - Discworld Companion. His e-mail address is TerryP@unseen.demon.co.uk. He tends to be a little brief with the 'Are you TP' type and other questions that are regularly raised on AFP. Apart from that he promptly replies with polite and informative email to intellegent and comprehensible questions. Try to avoid the 'I wannannother Rincewind novel syndrome' :-) --- His Setup --- "I still have the same setup -- two 486s plus a welter of older machines -- although something fairly watty in the Pentium line will probably happen soon. Everything's hooked up to a network around the house. "I still use WordPerfect 4.2. No current reason to change and I know how to use it fast." He also used to own an Amstrad, and is a fan of the classic isometric perspective games, Batman and Head Over Heels, as well as being a ZX-81 maniac. He is a declared fan of the Wing Commander series and also is quite fond of the game Doom. No one knows if he will upgrade to Win 95 or stay with the MS-DOS system. (I guess it depends on the games that come out on Win 95 :-) --- "The Colour of Magic" Game --- There was a game called "The Colour of Magic" released by Delta 4, which contained passages straight from the book. It was available for 8-bit machines, the Spectrum and C64. It was produced by the company behind Bored of the Rings, Robin of Sherlock and The Boggit, using the Quill adventure creator. It even had a picture of Death when you died, wearing a "Have a nice day" badge. Available at the Pratchett Archives. (would someone be nice and upload an emmulator with instuctions for running on PC and Mac?) --- "Terry Pratchett's Discworld" Game --- Released by Psygnosis the new Discworld game has been released for the PC on both CD-ROM and Floppy. The difference between the two being that the CD-ROM contains full speech by Eric Idle, Tony Robinson, Jon Pertwee and Kate Robbins. The basic plot is Guards! Guards! with Rincewind thrown in. From the Game itself. "A Dragon is now ravaging Ankh-Morpork, the world's leading city. Many people would consider that this falls under the heading of civic improvement, but what Ankh-Morpork needs right now is a hero. All it's got, however, is Rincewind the wizard, whose only talent is that he is not in fact dead - yet. He also has the Luggage, the nastiest piece of travelware in the Universe. With that at his side, there is probably no limit to the things he can fail to do ... " An FAQ for the game is regulalry posted by Christopher McMullen mailto:sccmcmul@ucsalf.ac.uk This FAQ is also available at the Pratchett Archives. A demo of this game is also available from the pratchett archives. Discworld II will be released sometime in late 1996. The graphics will be much better and the gameplay more intuitive. (at least, that's what I have been told!) --- MUDs, MUSEs and MUSHs --- Terry wants you to seek his OK before you write Discworld MUDs. His e-mail address is above. There is a Discworld Mud on the Net, it can be accessed through telnet://discworld.imaginary.com 4242 and http://discworld.imaginary.com:5678/ ----------------------------------------- MERCHANDISING AND FANDOM ----------------------------------------- There is a Merchandise FAQ posted regularly to AFP. There are two main sources of merchandise. Stephen CMOT Briggs and ClareCraft. CMOT can be contacted at mailto:sbriggs@cix.compulink.co.uk and ClareCraft has a WWW page at http://vangogh.cs.tcd.ie/cbuckley/clarecraft The merchandise FAQ can be found at the pratchett archives. It is also posted by Leo "Pamela Anderson" Breebart on afpa quite regularly. --- ClareCraft --- Further information about Clarecrafts Discworld range of products, can be requested from Isobel@behemoth.demon.co.uk. Including your postal address means that we can send you a free brochure, etc .. --- Octarine --- Terry has this to say: The officially unofficial Not-the-Terry-Pratchett-Fan-Club. The guy to write to is Chris Tregenza 22 The City Beeston Nottingham NG9 2ED It's like this: a couple of years ago they approached me, and I said I thought it would be an amazingly bad idea (I mean, what do you do after issue three of the magazine: `Um. He's done another book. It's great/okay/not as good as the last one IMHO. Um. Is he losing more hair, or what?' So I suggested they broaden the base to include humorous sf/fantasy generally. --- Fan Club --- ``The Guild of Fans and Disciples'' is the unofficial fan club of Terry Pratchett and Josh Kirby. It is run on a non profit-making basis by a group of fans who produce a bi-monthly newsletter to keep other fans up to date with events. Terry has no direct involvement in the club, other than supplying news and consenting to their existence as long as they avoid commercialism. For more information you can e-mail mailto:philip@yrsk.demon.co.uk --- THE WIZARD'S KNOB --- The Wizard's Knob (TWK) is a fan magazine dedicated to the works of Terry Pratchett. It features a wealth of news, reviews, opinion and artwork and is sometimes even funny. For information on how to subscibe look at the merchandise FAQ. --- CLARECRAFT COLLECTOR'S GUILD --- According to ClareCraft has about 1500 members and its newsletter is practically becoming a fanzine in its own right. Information from ClareCraft. ----------------------------------------- PTERRY ON THE PTELLY ----------------------------------------- --- Truckers Video --- There is a video of "Truckers" available. The details are: Thames Television International, video Collection International VHS TV 8159, 110 minutes, VHS-PAL, price: approx. 8 pounds. --- Johnny and the Dead --- I assume this will become available as well seeing it has made it to the small screen recently. (Someone emailed me with details but my #uc£in% computer crashed so I lost it) --- The Mort Film --- Terry wrote a couple of script drafts which wet down well and everything was looking fine and then the US backers said "Hey, we've been doing market research in Power Cable, Nebraska, and other centres of culture, and the Death/skeleton bit doesn't work for us, it's a bit of a downer, we have a problem with it, so lose the skeleton". The rest of the consortium said, did you read the script? The Americans said: sure, we LOVE it, it's GREAT, it's HIGH CONCEPT. Just lose the Death angle, guys. Whereupon, Terry is happy to say, they were told to keep on with the medication and come back in a hundred years. Power Cable Nebraska doesn't appear to exist BTW. (at least my Encarta 96 Atlas didn't have it!) --- Discworld Movie. --- Apparently there is some talk of putting together a sort of 'Hill Street Blues' mixed with the Guards books. More news as it eventuates. --- Terry Pratchett's Borneo Adventure --- He also helped out with a wildlife documentary in Borneo on Orang-Utans. This was recently (May 1995) shown in the United Kingdom and no one really knows if it is going to be released on video. --- Theatrical Plays --- Oxford's Studio Theatre Club went on to stage Stephen's adaptations of Wyrd Sisters, Mort and Guards! Guards! (Maskerade out soon!). If you are interested in more information, please E-mail: mailto:sbriggs@cix.compulink.co.uk --- From the Discworld CD --- A mainly instrumental collection written by Dave Greenslade, a friend of Terrys probably best known for the Pentateuch double album. A Discworld Theme album. ----------------------------------------- RELATED FILES ----------------------------------------- We have been INSPIRED by Terry on AFP. These are 'some' of the things that we have put together over the years. Feel free to make up your own 'pratchettesque' file. --- The Annotated Pratchett File --- Circulated by leo@lspace.org (Leo Breebaart), this explains the subtleties of Terry's works. It is currently at v7.* and can be retrieved via anonymous FTP from the Pratchett Archives. If you've ever gone ... "I know where he got that from" ... this is the file for *YOU*! Version 8 will be out sometime in the future (when Leo gets some time!) The APF is pretty much the alt.fan.pratchett encyclopedia including many of the best quotes from Terry on the net over the years. It is in various formats including Windows Help file format. Reading this will answer almost any question about the books. --- The Merchandise FAQ --- Also circulated by Leo Breebaart this contains lists of Pratchettesque items that are available from various suppliers. Includes Web sites for International Bookshops, mailing addresses for Clarecraft and where to get the Album. --- The Pratchett Archives --- Leo Breebaart (leo@lspace.org) maintains an FTP site of Pratchett related material that is mirrored around the world. The home site is: ftp.lspace.org It is mirrored by ftp-usa.lspace.org:/pub/people/pratchett (USA) ftp-au.lspace.org:/Mirror/Pratchett (AUS) This FAQ, the Annotated Pratchett, the bibliographic information, rules for Cripple Mr Onion, lyrics to the Hedgehog Song, and gifs of all the covers are kept on these sites. There is a mail server as well for the archives. In order to learn how to use the server, send mail to: archives@lspace.org with in the body (commands should *not* be in the Subject line) the lines: send help index The first line will cause the server's help file to be sent to you. This file lists and explains all the commands the server recognizes, most of which you'll never need, but be sure to check out the "index" search command. The second line will cause the current index file for the Archives to be sent to you. --- The 'Terry Pratchett Bibliography' --- this contains ISBN numbers, titles and blurbs for all TP's books. It is available at the pratchett archives. The working copy can be found at http://connexus.apana.org.au/~orin/pratchett/bib.txt This is posted around the first of every month to alt.fan.pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett.annouce alt.answers and news.answers. Circulated by Orin Thomas. (HTML version coming soon) --- Discworld Trivia Competition. --- Reckon you know more about the Discworld Books than CMOT Briggs? Then this is the competition for you! Show off your amazing retentive powers and complete in the Discworld Trivia Competition. To get on the Mailing list email orin@lspace.org --- Pratchett Quote File --- Another Leo Breebaart production (does this guy sleep?) this is a file of all the best of Terry's quotes from all the books. If you want to look up a quote in a hurry, or look for something impressive in a .sig file, take a gander at this one. Available at the Pratchett Archives. --- Alt.Fan.Pratchett WWW Page. --- Alt.fan.pratchett's revolutionary WWW pages are mirrored across the globe. That way you can read some of the best pages on the WEB from a nearer sight than far off Europe. The main sight is at http://www.lspace.org Mirrors of which include: http://www-au.lspace.org/~orin/Lspace http://www-uk.lspace.org/~mautx/Pterry Includes almost everything you could thing of related to the Books. --- The Discworld Timeline --- A highly impressive document suggesting which events followed other events which might have proceeded certain events but only after particular events which are known to have caused final events. Available in the pratchett archives (and hopefully soon in HTML) --- Fan Fiction Mailing List --- This gives pratchetteers a chance to write their own stories without violating the 'don't post your own fiction to AFP' rule. (reasons for this rule detailed in the NO-NO's section). If you want to get onto the mailing list send email to: mailto:listserver@dairyho.demon.co.uk in the body of the message have the following subscribe tp_fanfiction Your_Real_Name_Goes_Here end Subscriptions to the mailing list should be sent to mailto:tp_fanfiction@dairyho.demon.co.uk. --- AFP Recipies --- Starting immediately, you can all submit your favourites to the address: recipe-submit@lspace.org To get an index of the current recipes, send an email to: recipe-serv@lspace.org with "send index" in the subject line. ----------------------------------------- COMMON THREADS. ----------------------------------------- Some threads, like the perennial bad penny, just keep turning up. At least read this section of the FAQ before indulging yourself in posting about any of the following subjects. Remember your *I*'s and *R*'s please! --- What is UNCLEAR PHYSICS and Where can I get a copy? --- Unclear Physics was the WORKING TITLE of the book INTERESTING TIMES. This particular FAQ writer gets at least three letters a month asking for the ISBN of this book (which I am sure ammuses everyone else on the newsgroup :-). This happens so often that I am getting my copy of IT signed as THIS IS NOT UNCLEAR PHYSICS. --- Posting an Annotation --- An annotation (usually marked *A*) of a Terry Pratchett book is a reflection of a small "inside joke" used in the text. An example of which is the "Soul Food Cafe" scene in "Soul Music". Something written or filmed after the publication of a TP book obviously does not constitute an annotation. The television show "Due South" might have been influenced in some way by "Guards! Guards!" but it is impossible for it to have happened the other way around. You might also want to consider how you phrase a prospective annotation. Some annotations sound more like allegations of plagurism rather than a helpful attempt to point out an inside joke. Such allegations might even be considered libelous. When posting an annotation it would be helpful if you included: 1) The original text you are annotating (TP's) (include page number) 2) The year of the source of the annotation. (Blues Brothers (1981)) 3) As close an approximation as you can get of the text of the source. (i.e. writing out the conversation in the Soul Food Cafe) --- Critisising Terry Pratchett on Alt.Fan.Pratchett --- The following is some quotes that Terry Posted after a mini flame war errupted through one group of people suggesting that book X was much worse than book Y and another group of people suggesting "get out of your tree ... this is AFP ... we don't critisise *him* here". These are Terry's exact words: "Oh dear..." " Let me drop a few things into this quite interesting thread. "1 I always listen to advice. It's polite. "2 If I *heeded* all the advice I've had over the years, I've have written 18 books about Rincewind. Absolutely true. The most common plea in my mail right now is 'when are we going to read about Rincewind in XXXX?' " I'm being instructed that I have a duty to my readers -- if I was innocent, I'd be attaching corks to that battered pointy hat even now. But perhaps this is an issue on which I have thought long and hard. After all, it's my living and ten years of my life. " If Discworld continues, then old characters will continue -- Rincewind will get red dust in his sandals, the Watch will be back, Gaspode will probably limp into stories. And new characters will arise. Why not? It's not as if there are *rules*. What will probably *end* Discworld is simple crowding -- the Watch already make Ankh-Morpork based stories a little problematical, and I won't get into the comic book convention of having Captain Courage out of town so that Commander Socko can take centre stage. "3 I wish people wouldn't feel obliged to put in the 'no offence meant, pterry' rubric. I'm a big boy. I don't take offence easily at criticism above the 'Moving Pictures is crap' level and can tell if offence is meant, on the whole. If something *is* offensive, to me or anyone else, 'NOM,P' is superfluous. As they say elsewhere, you own your words - in all senses of 'own'. Anyway, as I've harped before, afp isn't mine. If I log on and read something I don't like, I have the same options as anyone else (actually, I probably don't, come to think of it -- but that's my problem) " I do get embarrassed when people give me a lecture on my duties, approach to writing, tell me book X isn't a patch on book Y, and then send me a private email hastening to assure me that 'no offence is meant'. But I do grin when, after all of this, they tag on that "it's about time we saw Gaspode again" or they're waiting for Rincewind's adventures on XXXX..." - Terry Pratchett Terry's views are here for all to see. It would be advisable for all sides to take note. AFP *is* about discussing the books, characters excetra - how that discussion goes is up to you. Remember though ... politeness is a virtue. --- WHY PTERRY? --- Pterry is an affectionate nickname in the tradition of his book Pyramids. Pteppic, Ptracy and therefore Pterry. --- CASTING MOVIES --- Leo went through 13 Mb of a.f.p. logfiles, extracted 450 Kb of "Let's cast a Discworld movie" articles, and put together a complete list of all the suggestions ever made, leaving out the less serious possibilities. This can be found at the Pratchett Archives. --- How should I pronounce Rincewind's Name? --- Terry himself pronounces it to rhyme with "Mince pinned" and in Eric, Rincewind meets his ancestor whose translated name means "Washer [Rinser?] of Winds". Evidence would then tend to point to this pronunciation (like the pronunciations in the Discworld Game) --- How should I pronounce Gaspode's Name? --- According to the game the wonder dog's name is pronounced to rhyme with Gas-Mode. Not Gas-Po-Dee. --- What are the words to the The Hedgehog Song? --- The words to the Hedgehog song (many different versions) can be found at the Pratchett Archives. Download, Print, Visit the pub, consume alcohol and sing. (It probably sounds better)(Well .. to you at least) --- What are the rules to Cripple Mr Onion? --- Rules to Cripple Mr Onion also appear at the Pratchett archives. --- What/Where is the Missing Chapter? --- There is *NO* Missing Chapter! One of the more recalcitrant threads that pops up, much like the legend of the Yeti, Yowie or Bigfoot, is the legend of the Missing Chapter. The story goes that, late one night whilst working on a particularly hilarious section of the Discworld Chronicles Terry accidently transmitted a section of his work to alt.fan.pratchett and then had his computer suffer something akin to a complete hard disk failure. Fun is had by all as alt.fan.pratchett regularly mounts search parties around the internet looking for this particular untamed ornithoid. (this was Leo's Fault! (and TP went along with it!)) --- What is a "Merkin"? --- Merkin is an affectionate name used by some of the denizens of alt.fan.pratchett for citizens of the United States. If you want to know what the word really means I suggest that you consult a good dictionary. Apparently on one of the larger US networks AFP's newsgroup description says "Book signings and the sale of Merkins". One unfortunate actually posted asking where could he order a merkin. Apparently he needed one due to an embarrasing personal problem. No one on AFP sells Merkins. (although it could signal a strange new diversification of the CMOT Briggs enterprise :-) --- Does Terry Pratchett post here or what? --- YES! He does! He even reads most of the articles posted to the group (when the posting isn't excessive). For some people in this group posting this question is like a red rag to a wossname. The more *R* the discussions ... the more likely he is to post. --- Due South/Frazier/Carrot/Hey aren't they ... --- Recently a television series has come along which depicts a wide eyed Canadian Mountie working as a cop in deep dark Chicago. Many have noted that similarities exist between the character Frazier and the beloved Discworld "Dwarf" Carrot. Well Terry's books were written first so no, he didn't copy the idea. I have no information suggesting that the creators of Due South are even aware of the adventures of Carrot. So it is likely that they didn't copy either. If they did, I missed the episode where Frazier fought the Dragon, or the one where a crazy man with a Gonne tried to make Frazier mayor of Chicago ... and I am sure that the woman at the police station who likes Frazier is *not* a werewolf. --- What is *G*, *C*, *G*, *O*, *O*, *K* --- Several other "starred capitals" have cropped up on alt.fan.pratchett These are not "official" and sometimes I wonder if people make up new ones just to keep life interesting. *I*, *R*, and the occasional *A* are simple ... anything more is bordering on the anal-retentive. You shouldn't constantly need to refer to a manual to read Usenet! --- Your Purity Test Score --- I have a hard time reconciling this topic with anything in the TP books, as, as mentioned in the DW Companion, there is no real sex in the DW or other TP books. (No actual sex, just some before bits and some after bits - as in Good Omens and Men at Arms). So unless you have something to post about Carrot's purity score, maybe these admissions are best left to the alt.sex groups :-) --- Ppoints --- Pedant points are best left to email replies. Nuff said. ----------------------------------------- MISCELLANY ----------------------------------------- Here's some stuff that didn't fit into any other category. --- Similar Authors --- P.G. Wodehouse, Douglas Adams, Jerome K. Jerome, Robert Rankin, Tom Sharpe, Tom Holt, Calvin Trillin, P.J O'Rourke and Dave Barry are some people whose styles are similar. He reminds me a bit of Joseph Heller (Catch 22) as well ... although not so cynical. Terry occasionally also posts information about books that interest him or have impressed him recently. Keep a look out on alt.fan.pratchett --- The Future --- Discworld Calendar. There has been some discussion about producing a Calendar where many of the top SF/Fantasy artists each do a picture representing some aspect of the Discworld Chronicles. Apparently the publishers have the rights to this one. [Source: Stephen Briggs] Whether this will turn up for 1996 is presently unknown. Johnny and the Bomb. Terry has mentioned at several signings that he is working on a third Johnny Maxwell book (title unknown). It will involve time travel to the 1940s and will, in some ways, be similar to the BACK TO THE FUTURE series without the gadgets. (Terry is quite fond of this series even once considered buying a Delorean) Feet of Clay Currently a 'work in progress' it is a detective story set in Ankh-Morpork and would appear to be the third book in the highly impressive and popular "Chronicles of Carrot". (To be released in May 1996) The Discworld Plays. Stephen and Terry are putting together the DW plays that have been performed by Oxford's Studio Theatre Company. Discworld Convention. This is the information so far on the 1996 Discworld convention. It will be updated as more information becomes available. The event: The first international Discworld convention 1996 Date: June 28,29,30th June 1996 Venue: The Britannia "Sachas" Hotel, Manchester. Events: any thing and everything you ever imagined plus a couple more! VIP's: Terry Pratchett, Stephen Briggs, Josh Kirby. Information: discworld@cmacloed.demon.co.uk snail mail: A5 stamped, addressed envelope to: The Discworld Convention, P.O. Box 3086, Chelmsford,. CM1 6LD. England Activities at the Convention include: Unseen University Challenge, First official Cripple Mr Onion allcomers Tournament,Banananana Dakrys and Dried Frog Pills on tap,Discworld Kareoke, The Unseen University Midsummers Lecture, The Reduced Discworld Theatre Company, Clarecraft exculsive Commemortive limited edition collector piece,Dead Monk^H^H^H^H Ape Survivors Party,Maskerade Ball and Gala Dinner,Opening Ceremony, featuring Detritus, City Guard,Closing Ceremony, not featuring Detritus, City Guard.Filk/Clicks room, with previously unreleased octo-cellulose footage. Fire extinguishers optional. Dealers room, Discworld Charity Auction. --- Big NO NO's! --- The following things are advised not be done on alt.fan.pratchett. The reasons why they should not be done are detailed here. The internet is, of course, free and 'youcanpostwhateveryouwant' but I hope that you see the following as an intellegent and logical set of rules. Posting Fan Fiction to alt.fan.pratchett It is asked that you do not post your own discworld/pratchettesque Stories to the newsgroup. Someone might feel that an idea in a newly released TP novel was similar to one they posted on day X. They might even have the audacity to take TP to court on this. (this *HAS* happened to television people on other newsgroups). To avoid the possibility of this ever occuring Pterry politely asked that we not post our own stories to alt.fan.pratchett. See the 'Fan Fiction Mailing List' for where you can post your stories in safety. Posting 'Posting Stats' After several bad experiances it has been generally decided that putting forward lists showing the people who contribute the most articles to afp is a really bad idea. The reaction has been 'gosh I only posted X articles ... better post more to improve my ranking' This generally means alt.fan.pratchett is flooded with a higher than usual amount of rubbish. Comments on "Proposals". As a bit of fun it has become traditional to "propose" to any new (or old) female/male poster on alt.fan.pratchett. Whilst not wanting to mention long words like "Sexual Harassment" I do want to caution people that not everyone on the increasingly public internet has our sense of humour. For those who are new to this newsgroup and do recieve proposals of marriage, such proposals are not meant with any malice or threat and are usually done out of fun (and the expectation of rejection :-) Posting "Test Posts" There is a newsgroup which automatically responds to test posts via email telling you where your news post has landed around the world. Test posts on alt.fan.pratchett are likely to be followed up and become long winded threads in their own right. The newsgroup is alt.test. Although nothing is wrong with this, there is a more effective way of testing your news server :-) --- Inconsistencies --- Well, he is fallible. Known inconsistencies are documented in the Annotated Pratchett File. (available at the Pratchett Archives). The Author suggests, however, that there are few inconsistencies merely several alternative pasts. :-) --- Appearances --- Book signings: He'll post when he's going walkabout, so just bide your time and see. The alt.fan.pratchett www page usually has some information in this area if you missed it. Generally he will sign three novels per person, and, if there is time, get on to the others. The Stamp which reads EX LIBRIS MORTIS - HIC EST VITA VESTER means FROM THE LIBRARY OF DEATH THIS IS YOUR LIFE (S Briggs Translation) --- The Orang-Utan Foundation --- Those who enjoyed the program where Terry went to Borneo and want to find out more about Orang-Utans can contact: The Orangutan Foundation 7 Kent Terrace, London NW1 4RP United Kingdom. --- Approximate Number of Books Published --- Terry's agent conservativly estimates that there are over 8 million Terry Pratchett books published worldwide at the moment. This will probably increase at a rate of 1/2 a million per year. (A LOT of books) ----------------------------------------- CREDITS ----------------------------------------- Many people have contributed to this FAQ (so much so that almost two whole pages of text were taken up with credits). In the interests of bandwith I removed them. If you want a list of those who have contributed to the FAQ (and Bibliography) email me and I will forward one to you. Thank you to all people who have helped out with this FAQ, it is very very very much appreciated. An incomplete list can be found at http://connexus.apana.org.au/~orin/pratchett/credits.txt