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Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!server3.netnews.ja.net!news.ox.ac.uk!news.lspace.org!unknown!not-for-mail From: Orin Thomas <orin@lspace.org> Newsgroups: alt.fan.pratchett.announce,alt.fan.pratchett,alt.books.pratchett,alt.answers,news.answers Subject: [FAQ] Pratchett Newsgroups Supersedes: <afp-faq_1075248001@faqs.lspace.org> Followup-To: poster Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 01:00:05 +0100 (CET) Organization: Unseen University, Melbourne Campus. The Wizards of Oz. Lines: 1338 Sender: leo@falcon.pds.twi.tudelft.nl Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu,afpa-mod@lspace.org Expires: 11 Apr 2004 00:00:01 GMT Message-ID: <afp-faq_1077926401@faqs.lspace.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: falcon.pds.twi.tudelft.nl X-Trace: library.lspace.org 1077926406 18027 130.161.158.252 (28 Feb 2004 00:00:06 GMT) leo@all-rw X-Complaints-To: abuse@lspace.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 00:00:06 +0000 (UTC) Summary: This is the primary FAQ for Terry Pratchett and the Pratchett newsgroups such as alt.fan.pratchett. Keywords: Pratchett Discworld FAQ alt.fan.pratchett alt.books.pratchett alt.fan.pratchett.announce X-Posting-Frequency: monthly (on the 28th) X-URL: <http://www.lspace.org/faqs/> X-Autoposter: This FAQ was autoposted by <leo@lspace.org> X-Archive-name: pratchett/afp-faq X-Last-modified: June 2002 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu alt.fan.pratchett.announce:2471 alt.fan.pratchett:432965 alt.books.pratchett:41528 alt.answers:71746 news.answers:267109 Archive-name: pratchett/afp-faq Posting-Frequency: monthly (on the 28th) Last-modified: June 2002 URL: <http://www.lspace.org/faqs/> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE LAWS AND ORDINANCES OF ALT.BOOKS/FAN.PRATCHETT or PRATCHETT NEWSGROUP 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 Hearin lies a list of frequently asked questions (and, of course, their answers) for the internet newsgroups alt.fan.pratchett and alt.books.pratchett. This tome contains biographical information about Terry Pratchett, as well as information about his books, his collaborators, upcoming releases newsgroup ettiquette and Pratchettian internet resources. Suggestions, comments, bouquets and FAQ additions to orin@lspace.org ----------------------------------------- CONTENTS. ----------------------------------------- THE NEXT BOOK. FAQ SUGGESTIONS WELCOME. THE USENET NEWSGROUPS. OTHER INTERNET RESOURCES. BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION TERRY PRATCHETT AND THE INTERNET. COMPUTER GAMES MERCHANDISING AND FANDOM. PTERRY ON THE PTELLY. COMMON THREADS AND HOW TO COPE WITH THEM. (Or "Not the FAQ") MISCELLANEOUS. ----------------------------------------- THE NEXT BOOK ----------------------------------------- Night Watch Something to do with Vimes and Sybil's child and possibly time travel to the "pre-Carrot" watch. Due November 2002. The NEW Discworld Companion. Updated, Revised, Elongated, Stretched and definitely not featuring purple cover art. The long awaited update to take into account all of the Discworld stuff that has happened since the companion in paperback was released. The Wee Free Men A classic fairy story with the addition of the Nac Mac Feegle. Nov 2002. A Miss Cosmopolite Guide - similar in theme to Nanny Ogg's Cookbook. (Very Rumoured - Status Unconfirmed) Ponder-Osa (not even a working title) Even more speculative and *not* Interesting Times. Ponder builds some big HEM building device and tears a hole in the fabric of reality. (that bit made up). Something to do with the University and the Wizards. Reformed Assassin's Diary 2003. The next in the Diary series - following on from UU Diary, Fools Guild, City Watch, Assassin's Guild and Thieves Guild. Map of Unseen University. Unconfirmed. Uberwald Nights. Doesn't Exist. Will Never Exist. Made up by the irc channel. A Cruel Prank. Terry Pratchett paperbacks are always released one year after the hardback release. This has not changed and will not change in the future. ----------------------------------------- FAQ SUGGESTIONS. ----------------------------------------- Any suggestions, alterations, daquiris or renditions of the "Banana Splits" theme song can be emailed to the author at orin@lspace.org. A FAQ is as relevant as the newsgroup helps it to be. If you reckon something is wrong or is not covered give us a yell. Your email will be highly appreciated. This document can only be as relevant as people help me make it. Needless to say, as I've been around AFP since late 1992, my view on what constitutes an FAQ is going to be rather different to yours - but in a lot of ways *your* interpretation is more important as I am perhaps past the point where I can see this with clear eyes. ----------------------------------------- THE USENET NEWSGROUPS ----------------------------------------- Welcome to the Pratchett Usenet Newsgroups. 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.books.pratchett 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/afp-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. This FAQ was mostly written by Orin Thomas who took it on in May in 1995 from Nathan Torkington. It includes contributions by Leo the Ent (thalt shall worship) and the readers of alt.fan.pratchett and alt.books.pratchett (pterry included). Alt.fan.pratchett, alt.books.pratchett,alt.talk.mended-drum and afp.announce ------------------------------------------------------- There are four newsgroups devoted to the author Terry Pratchett on the internet. These are. alt.fan.pratchett The oldest and perhaps the best known Pratchett newsgroup. It has a fairly large amount of traffic much of it not directly Pratchett related. Think of it more as the discussion of a group of Terry Pratchett fans meeting at an on-line pub. alt.fan.pratchett.announce AFPA is the noticeboard of the aformentioned on-line pub. People post FAQ's like this one, notices of fan meetings and other important information. Terry also posts his signing tour details here. alt.books.pratchett alt.books.pratchett is to alt.fan.pratchett as a Cafe is to a Pub. This is where the more serious pratchett discussions take place. If you want a serious discussion of an idea you want to explore this is a better place to start. alt.talk.mended-drum A low traffic newsgroup frequented by those that have been around afp for a reasonably long time and find the hurly burly somewhat exhausting. Posting is a complex affair however instructions can be found on lspace - <http://www.lspace.org/> 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 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. If you note that someone is asking an FAQ then email them and say - "did you know they have this thing called a FAQ?" Posting a short story of Terry's is not only bad nettiquette but will earn you a visit from Lawyers. We are not kidding. Do not do it. --- Flaming --- More recently afp has been subjected to several flame wars where people have hurled abuse at one another under the mistaken impression that the rest of us actually care. Your views on sex, religion, race and politics are of no interest to the group. Your negative views on other posters are also of no interest to the group. Be very aware now that online defamation law is now gaining ground. If you flame a poster who has earnt a significant reputation it is very possible that you will be hit by a defamation lawsuit. A defamation is an imputation that harms a reputation. Also it is very important to note that defendants are almost never awarded costs - hence if you are hit with a defamation suit, you will most likely have to pay your own legal fees. Finally, given that the internet is multi-jurisdictional, a particularly vindictive plaintiff might choose to sue you in a country where defamtion laws are especially strict. Just because the US has a form of free speech doesn't mean that Australia or the UK does as well. You have been warned. As a further addendum to this particular passage. One AFPer has threatened a defamation suit against an ISP and a particular poster. This threat was later withdrawn. Whilst the law might acknowledge your right to litigate such a problem - be aware that the newsgroup probably will not. You will want to be standing on extremely solid ground before you launch, or threaten, a defamation action. If you are launching it against a group regular - you might as well kiss your future postings goodbye. That may seem unfair to say - but groups do tend to watch after their own. Defamation litigation should be your utter last resort - and is guarenteed to do your reputation worse harm than any imputations made in someone's original post. If you post about religion and it don't involve a turtle named "OM" ... well ... you have been warned. Though I must admit it does get you added to quite a few killfiles very quickly. Flaming Pterry is just stupid and is likely to give you a mailbox full of bile. We like him. We probably don't like you. Nuff Said. PRATCHETT NEWSGROUP PECULIARITIES. -------------------------------- Being a rather unique bunch of people we also have some guidelines that are more or less being used on alt.fan/books.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. Be aware that some [R] threads can turn [I] very quickly. Make sure you don't cross post an [I] thread to the group alt.books.pratchett as this will make people very cross. Discipline via Orang-Utan is possible. --- WHAT IS A SPOILER AND WHEN SHOULD I USE ONE? --- A spoiler is essentially a warning about information contained in a book. For example saying that Nobby lead the revolt in Uberwald Nights, or that Rincewind ran away too quickly on his wedding night in "The Missing Chapter" would require a spoiler if these texts existed. Originally we asked that you didn't post information to the group about new books not yet available in paperback. Though you should be especially careful about the newer books you might wish to take care in revealing information about older books as well. Many people new to the group will not have read each and every DW book so keep this in mind when discussing them and warn people appropriately. Terry obviously doesn't have to worry about this. It is rare that he *starts* a thread - and if he answers a spoiler article it is really up to the person who first put the spoiler in to duly warn. Perhaps the best way to warn for spoilers is to take the alt.books.pratchett approach of putting the first line of your post as Spoilers: Jingo, MAA and then leaving a few lines of spoiler space. Perhaps even putting in something like: S P O I L E R S --- Posting to Alt.Fan.Pratchett.Annouce --- The Moderated Newsgroup devoted to the important posts that might be missed in the clutter of alt.fan.pratchett. If you have something important to announce to alt.fan.pratchett then mailto:afpa-mod@lspace.org Please note, the submission criterion are not particularly strict. If you email the moderator 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 embarrassment). 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! --- More FAQs than you can poke a stick at --- There are a lot of FAQs around the pratchett newsgroups. I don't think anyone knows exactly how many there are now. alt.fan.pratchett.announce seems to carry all of them so browse there if you have a question. Perhaps at some stage one of us will write an afplopedia which incorporates all this knowledge. (though at present the lspace web does this quite nicely) It would be novel if people read the FAQs so kindly point any newbies at this document if they seem a little clueless. A good place to find these is: <http://www.lspace.org/faqs/> ----------------------------------------- OTHER INTERNET RESOURCES. ----------------------------------------- --- The LSPACE Web --- Perhaps the most important development in the last years has been the setting up of the Lspace web pages. These are essentially an online library to Pratchett Fandom. There are mirrors at many places around the world and the sites are updated weekly, if not daily. This is sort of the "permanent record" of internet pratchettdom. If you log onto the main server at <http://www.lspace.org/> you should be redirected to your closest lspace mirror. Things on the Lspace Web include: The Annotated Pratchett File This file explains some of the subtleties of Terry's works. It is currently at v7.a.5.3 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*! 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. Pratchett Quote File Another Leo Breebaart production 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. Now moderated by Kimberley Verburg. The Discworld Timeline A highly impressive document suggesting which events followed other events which might have preceded certain events but only after particular events which are known to have caused final events. Available on Lspace.org Rogues Gallery. Photos and personal information on some of the Pratchett Newsgroup's more active denizens. Find out what your favorite posters look like. The Rouges Gallery is getting a little outdated these days. It is more representative of the 1996-1997 AFP crowd than today's posters. Soon will be coming the A-Files - a more current collection of AFPers. You will also find the words to the "Hedgehog Song" and "A Wizard's Staff" as well as the rules to Cripple Mr Onion sitting in the Rouges Gallery. Discworld Monthly. This excellent resource has been around for many a year now. I'd advise that you subscribe to it as it keeps you very up to date on the goings on in the Pratchett Universe. Go to http://www.ufbs.co.uk/dwm/ Where you can enter your email address on a web based form to subscribe. --- 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:fanfiction-serv@lspace.org 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 Recipes --- 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. This resource also resides at the Lspace Web. --- irc.lspace.org --- As with the Newsgroups try to get a hang of the site by listening to the conversation for a while instead of barging in, announcing yourself and pissing everyone else off. (a sure way to be banned) --- 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://ftp.au.lspace.org/Mirror/pratchett> (AU) This FAQ, the Annotated Pratchett, the bibliographic information, rules for Cripple Mr Onion, lyrics to the Hedgehog Song, and JPGs of all the covers are kept on these sites. --- The Merchandise FAQ --- Circulated by Vixen 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 'Terry Pratchett Bibliography' --- This contains ISBN numbers, titles and blurbs for all TP's books. It is available at the pratchett archives and maintained by ppint. This is posted around the first of every month to alt.fan.pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett.annouce alt.answers and news.answers. ----------------------------------------- BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ----------------------------------------- This is stuff about Terry Pratchett himself. Information about Terry is usually hard to find if only because he prefers to talk about his works rather than himself. This information is condensed from the "About the Author" sections of his books. 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 on the 28th of April 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 and there is no truth to the rumor that he likes being presented with Dried Frog Pills. Someone's father once sold him a carrot. --- 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. --- I WANT TO CONTACT TERRY FOR AN INTERVIEW OR SOMETHING --- Contact his agent, Colin Smythe (CPSmythe@aol.com) - that is the best way to ensure that your request gets to Terry. You can try to email him directly - but given the volume he gets, there is a good chance that it might not be responded to. --- 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),Maskerade, Feet of Clay, The Pratchett Portfolio (with Paul Kidby), Hogfather, Jingo, The Last Continent, A Tourist Guide to Lancre (with Stephen Briggs), Carpe Jugulum, The Science of the Discworld Death's Domain, The Fifth Elephant, The Truth, Thief of Time, The Last Hero, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents and Science of Discworld II. NEIL GAIMAN ----------- Co-wrote the fan favorite "Good Omens" with Pterry. 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. STEPHEN BRIGGS. --------------- Stephen Briggs was born in 1951 and lives in Oxfordshire. With the assistance of Terry Pratchett, he helped with the creation of the 'Streets of Ankh-Morpork', 'The Discworld Companion' and the 'Map of the Discworld'. He also collaborated with Terry on the Discworld Diaries and Nanny Ogg's Cookbook. Oxford's Studio Theatre Club went on to stage Stephen's adaptations of Wyrd Sisters, Mort, Guards! Guards!, Maskerade, Jingo and Carpe Jugulum. Stephen is currently rehearsing a production of the Fifth Elephant. Six of the plays have been published as has his version of Johnny & the Dead. There is a photo of him on the lspace web. He would like the publishers to pay for more trips to exciting places than they have currently sent him to. He deeply suspects that Terry gets sent really cool places that have daquiris and dancing girls and wants in. There is no truth to the rumor that his most exciting experience on tour with Terry involved a senior citizens club and some cucumber sandwiches. His merchandise can be found at http://www.cmotdibbler.com 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. Josh passed away in October 2001 aged 72. <http://www.lspace.org/art/joshkirby.html> PAUL KIDBY ---------- Paul Kidby has collaborated with Terry Pratchett on a number of projects including the exceptionally interesting Pratchett Portfolio as well as Nanny's Cookbook and the Discworld Diaries and most recently The Last Hero. ----------------------------------------- TERRY PRATCHETT and the INTERNET. ----------------------------------------- --- Terry Pratchett and Usenet --- Terry Pratchett was a regular on alt.fan.pratchett between 1992 and 1999. He was a regular on alt.books.pratchett between its inception an 1999. He has had several periods where he hasn't posted - between 1999 and late 2000 being one. To give you an idea of exactly how long TP has been on usenet, if internet years are like dog years - Terry has been around more than 50 internet years. This is a monumental effort. Consider this, of the regulars that were on the group when Terry joined in 1992, only 2 or so are still around now. His last hiatus was caused by the posting of speculative stories about future discworld events. TP felt that this put him in an awkward legal position. It meant that he could not use these ideas if he had independantly developed them because of possible litigation. There is a *rumour* that a few paragraphs of The Fifth Elephant had to be cut because someone posted a speculative article about the future of Sir and Lady Vimes. So this is a warning - don't post speculative stuff. --- 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. "Well, it's happened... "I have to announce: "I can no longer answer all my email. "There's simply too much. It's hard to catch up even if I'm away from the machine for a day or two, and now I've realised that despite me continuing to give it as much time as I can the inbox is actually getting bigger, possibly because the apparent sudden surge in US fans. Sorry. From now on, an email to me is going to be a shot in the dark, I'm afraid. Terry Pratchett "Certainly at lot of the emails I get suggest that the writer doesn't read afp -- there's a daily sprinkle of 'What's the next book about?' and 'When's the next tour?' "But in reality people often aren't writing because they want that information. They want to write an email to a favourite author, and they don't want to sound too fanboy, so asking a real question gives them, they feel, a reason. This is fine. It's just that there's so many:-) Terry Pratchett Terry gets a staggering amount of email and because he is getting snowed under to the point of being unable to write books, his address has been removed from this document. Smart people tend to be able to figure it out all by themselves though. --- His Setup --- Terry's house is probably similar to the computer version of an Elephant's graveyard. Many relics stored around the place. The house has a network. He is currently using a Pentium II with Word Perfect for Windows. Although, in a concession to tradition, he has Word Perfect set up to run like Word Perfect 4.2 for DOS :-) 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. Future historians of computer science will probably look upon his extensive collection with awe. I don't know what he is playing at the moment but it probably involves lots of explosions ... Rabbits probably figure prominently as well ... and don't get him started about that 2 speed hedge trimmer! According to dejanews the group which he posts to the 3rd most is alt.games.tombraider so he *probably* plays that as well. Think of it this way - if you were a technophile like him and had the oppertunity to get all the kit you wanted - wouldn't you make sure that you were bleeding edge? ----------------------------------------- COMPUTER GAMES. ----------------------------------------- --- "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 should be available at the Pratchett Archives. --- "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. An FAQ for the game is regulalry posted by Christopher McMullen mailto:chrismc@lspace.org This FAQ is also available at the Pratchett Archives. A demo of this game is also available from the pratchett archives. --- Discworld II --- Chris McMullen is "da man" when it comes to walkthrus and FAQ's for this new game. (Bright Orange Box - you can't miss it!). These are available at lspace web. <http://www.lspace.org/> --- Discworld Noir --- Not manufactured by Psygnosis this game involves you playing Ankh-Morpork's first private detective. More information at lspace web in the games section. ----------------------------------------- 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 http://www.cmotdibbler.com/ and ClareCraft has a WWW page on the lspace web --- Discworld Convention 2002 --- There is to be a Discworld Convention held on the 16th - 19th of August 2002 at the Hanover International Hotel in Leicestershire (UK). Guests include Terry Pratchett, Stephen Briggs, Paul Kidby, Bernard & Isobel Pearson, Graham Higgins, Dave Langford, Colin Smythe, Stephen Player, Jay Hurst, Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart. <http://www.dwcon.org/> The merchandise FAQ can be found at the pratchett archives. --- ClareCraft --- Further information about Clarecrafts Discworld range of products, can be requested from elton@lspace.org Including your postal address means that they 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:gofad@bigfoot.com --- 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 ----------------------------------------- --- The Bromiliad --- The film rights to the Bromiliad have been picked up by Dreamworks SKG - there is a rumour that they will do this CGI like they did Shreck. --- Good Omens: The Film --- A movie about this is in pre-production now. Being filmed in Germany it is going to be directed by Terry Gilliam. According to Gilliam the contracts have been signed with Renaissance Films. --- 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 --- This is also available. --- The Mort Film --- Terry wrote a couple of script drafts which went 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!) Maybe someone wants to go to Nebraska and plant a sign declaring Lincoln to actually be Power Cable. If there is ever an American DWCon we should hold it in Nebraska. There is even a place called Terrytown in Nebraska. Perhaps someone should get a photo of them selves infront of the sign with a P infront of the T. --- Soul Music/Wyrd Sisters --- Also available on video for those that are interested. Details in the merchandise FAQ. --- 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. I heard from the production company and if there is enough interest it will be. --- Theatrical Plays --- Oxford's Studio Theatre Club went on to stage Stephen's adaptations of Wyrd Sisters, Mort, Guards! Guards!,Maskerade and Jingo If you are interested in more information, please E-mail: mailto:sbriggs@cix.compulink.co.uk Some of these plays are available in book form as well. (see Bib) --- From the Discworld CD --- A mainly instrumental collection written by Dave Greenslade, a friend of Terry's probably best known for the Pentateuch double album. A Discworld Theme album. ----------------------------------------- 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! --- Using groups.google if you want --- Sometimes it is a great idea to trawl groups.google to look at threads past. Interestingly enough, this very document comes up in the database as one of the oldest posts on AFP. Though it is fair to say that it has already been said before you will most likely pull some pearls from an afp of the past. This is definitely recommended if you are posting a new thread that you suspect may have been discussed before. Point your browser at <http://groups.google.com/> and in the search terms box place your topic and alt.fan.pratchett. Just because something has been discussed before doesn't mean it can't be discussed again - but if you are looking for an answer to a question (which is what this FAQ is about) then groups.google is a great start. --- What is the "N-Word" in Soul Music --- Quoth, the Raven, won't say the N-Word. The N-Word is "Never More". You can find out more about the literary relevance of this phrase (if you don't recognise it) and the answers to questions that you didn't know that you had in the Annotated Pratchett File available at your friendly neighborhood lspace web. <http://www.lspace.org/> --- Old AFP versus New AFP --- Every now and then the group gets very restless. I suspect this has more to do with people deciding that what they once found was funny is now somewhat tiresome. The "good old days" are brought up and handed around. This at times has lead to the creation of the new groups like alt.books.pratchett. Other times this leads to flame wars. My only advice on this one is that you consider that at some stage you are likely to be, or have been, on the other side of this argument. If you stick around you WILL become an oldbie. You will probably get annoyed at newbies. Those that seem locked in their ivory tower of oldbieness you will note as time goes on have very similar views to you. It is kinda funny that way. --- 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 amuses everyone else on the newsgroup :-). This happens so often that I got my copy of IT signed as THIS IS NOT UNCLEAR PHYSICS. I dunno if it was a joke but Terry recently said that he might actually write a book called "unclear physics" as the title was about a particular plot point in IT that never came to fruition. This is speculation. --- 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 plagiarism 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) If you are worried that your annotation may have been covered before I suggest that you trawl Dejanews with the original "TP" text. As we would like you to quote the original when annotating anyway this means that simply by searching on the original text you should be able to find any extra commentary. --- Criticising Terry Pratchett on Alt.Fan.Pratchett --- The following is some quotes that Terry Posted after a mini flame war erupted 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". Note this was from before "The Last Continent" was even a gleam in Terry's eye. 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. Terry would also like to point out that anything you post is "Your Words in EVERY SENSE". They are stored in groups.google and other places - they are likely to be around a very long time. --- WHY PTERRY? --- Pterry is an affectionate nickname in the tradition of his book Pyramids. Pteppic, Ptracy and therefore Pterry. --- CASTING MOVIES --- Leo Breebaart 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. This thread seems to be fairly virulent at the moment so I hope all potential posters have had a look at the casting page at www.lspace.org You CAN post a casting thread - but I recommend you check out all that has been suggested before so you don't do the obvious. "I reckon that James Earl Jones would make a gread Death." Some of us suspect that this phrase was the first ever transmitted over the internet. It was soon followed by: "Does Pterry Post here or What?" What has been amusing me even more of late is the thread of casting an AFP movie. In traditional AFP style everyone is arguing which actor would best represent them while completely ignoring the question of the proposed film's plot. Then again this is AFP ... there would not be a plot! --- 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. As I thought. Apparently no one else did. But I did. So Nyeh. --- 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) There is no line about a two speed hedge trimmer in this song. --- What/Where is the Missing Chapter? --- There is *NO* Missing Chapter! If some guy comes up to you at a meet and says "hey baby, wanna come back to my place, see my local area network and download the missing chapter?" he probably just wants sex. 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 :-). CMOT replied that he didn't really want to explain all this to the British Postal Service. --- Does Terry Pratchett post here or what? --- He does - and sometimes he doesn't. It is kind of Quantum really. --- Due South/Frazier/Carrot/Hey aren't they ... --- A television series came along which was based around 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 "bracketed 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! Karen posts an FAQ explaining all of this. --- 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 :-) --- Will there be a sequel to "Good Omens" --- Nope. What is left to say? --- What is Slood? --- Slood is a substance only invented by intelligent civilisations. Our civilisation hasn't invented slood. Draw your own conclusions. ----------------------------------------- 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 POST PTERRY. Terry is a fairly young bloke (well my dad would say so as they were born only 2 months apart) so is only old enough to be Uncle Pterry instead of Grandpa Pterry so there is at least 40 years left in him yet. However, in recent times, other author's work has been "resurrected" after their death. This brings up the possibility, of course, of Discworld (or Johnny Maxwell and Truckers) Novels being written by "someone else". Terry had obviously given this some thought and has put in place the legal framework so that NO ONE BUT TERRY PRATCHETT WRITES DISCWORLD. Whether or not this means that a "50th Anniversary Tribute" to the Discworld could be written for Terry whilst he is still alive in 2033 similar to what Terry himself did for Tolkien in "After the King" (see the Bib for details) or Asimov had this done in "Friends of the Foundation" is questionable. (You can email Terry in 2033 to ask if you want :-) I wonder if someone changed their name by deed pole to "Terry Pratchett" that they would be allowed to do this :-) --- 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 intelligent 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 occurring 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 experiences 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. 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 :-) This got so out of hand that there is now a newsgroup (lspace.test) devoted purely to afp test posts. --- 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. :-). These are getting rarer as time goes on and a discworld "lore" builds itself up. --- 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) There is a Web Page on the Lspace Web with tour details. He generally goes on tours after a book is just published. --- 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 --- The current estimates that there are over 40 million Terry Pratchett books published worldwide at the moment. This will probably increase at a rate of a million per year. (A LOT of books) If each Pratchett book was placed on top of another Prachett book - There would be over 40 million of them! (you didn't see that joke coming did you!) ----------------------------------------- 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 bandwidth 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 very very very very much appreciated. Thanks to Leo for all his help over the years. If it wasn't for him there wouldn't really be any order to the online pratchett universe. Thanks to my fiancee Oksana - you are the best! Orin <http://primus.lspace.org/>