Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
rab,

>I loaned copies of _Witches Abroad_ and _Lords And Ladies_ to some
>wiccan (neo-pagan) friends and have seen neither since. 

Yeah, it's been said that every DW collection begins with a stolen
book!

I don't know about skewering perceptions.  What perceptions did you
think got skewered?
  

    
I took a couple of paperback books (Pyramids and Small Gods) to a
White Elephant giveaway at the office during Christmas. I'd acquired
the hardback of them and didn't need the paperback any more. THe lady
who got them was unhappy to get a couple of "used" books. Then a couple
of weeks later, she started asking around the office to see who
brought them because she gave them to her teenaged daughter who liked
them so much she convinced her to read them and they wanted to know
more about you and your books. Hah. 

I started reading your books when I accidentally got Hogfather from
Science Fiction Book Club when I forgot to send a card in. It looked
interesting... and the rest, as they say, is history. Now I have a deal
with a bookstore in England to send me your new books as soon as they
come out.

Slippage again
It's hard to think how much better they could have been. Although,
having read recently your Dark Side of the Sun... I can see the
improvement. Not a bad book as SF goes but certainly not in the class
of your Discworld or other later books.

Slippage -

Hey! Welcome to my neck of the woods, Terry. Now, let's see, I have
this here LIST of questions but I promise to ask only one each post...

First - What's the news, if any, on the movie for Good Omens?
  

    

   Oh, perhaps I'm phrasing it badly.  I just thought that, e.g., LaL did
a great job of turning the notion of elves as benign and wonderful beings
right on its head -- and for apparently excellent reasons.  And _Witches_
struck me the same way somehow, although now I can't recall specifics....
(yes, I have a mind like a steel sieve...)
  

    

Mr. Pratchett:  In Thief of Time, do the Yetis speak with Welsh
accents, or am I just misreading something?
  

    
Clotilda,

>First - What's the news, if any, on the movie for Good Omens?

We understand Terry Gilliam has got a script he's happy with.  And
that's it, unless Neil has heard something I haven't.  As I hope
everybody knows, we're keeping out of this, except maybe we'll sneak
around when it's being shot and steal some of the props.  Neil would
like the burning Bentley, I'd like Death's mototcycle.

It's amazing the ways people begin reading DW...
  

    
>In Thief of Time, do the Yetis speak with Welsh
>accents

Damn, I hope not! I wanted a long-drawn-out feel to their, like a
cross between very slow Swedish and a yawn!
  

    
Terry,

It truly is an honor for you to grace us with your presence.  I've been
reading the Discworld books since I ran across Eric, The Colour of Magic,
and Witches Abroad (I think, it's been a while) on the shelves of my public
library.  They had more, but the books never seemed to stay on the shelves
long enough for me to nab them.  Our local used book store had a few more,
but I finally gave in an ordered a bunch from Amazon.com.  (And then
amazon.co.uk when I'd read all of the ones that had been released in the
US.)

I've noticed that it seems that the later books in the series are more
focused than the earlier books.  That is, more things happen in the earlier
books, but the later books seem to have more character development.  Is this
my imagination, or was it more of a conscious development in writing style?
  

    
Rab,

Really, I just started from basics.  Three witches is a given -- the
Maiden, the Mother and the Crone. And then I tried to do it *with real
people*, or as real as I could make them. They don't *do* witchcraft,
it's simply part of what they are.  

In Thief of Time I developed the term 'edge witches' which is how they
see themselves.  They stand with people at those places where
'everyday life' meets the unknown and dangerous.  That's their job.

The elves in CJ were rather closer to *some* of the real elves of
these islands, although I've made them a little nastier.
  

    
Jeff,

Thank you.

I don't think you're wrong.  There's a lot of reasons for the change,
I think, but they boil down to the fact that now I'm a better writer.
You can only write linked gags for so long -- sooner or later you have
to work at it.

Besides, if you get the characters right, they get down and do a lot
of the job for you.
  

    
Terry, my father comments:

It seems to me that you abandoned the teenage girl wizard shown in
Equal Rites.  Did you know when you wrote it that you would have to
abandon her in order to keep the Unseen University on track?
  

    
He adds:

I like the theme of rivalry between Fate and The Lady and hope for
more of it.
  

    
What does it mean that American television has not broadcast Truckers?
  

    
>It seems to me that you abandoned the teenage girl wizard shown in
>Equal Rites.  Did you know when you wrote it that you would have to
>abandon her in order to keep the Unseen University on track?

Well, who knows what happened next?  Especially with history being
fractured and everything (Get Out Of Jail Free Clause.)  But I have
plans for Esk.

The rivalry...well, yes, I like to keep it up.  But in a way the
rivalry is the background to just about every DW book.

Terry
  

    
Howard

>What does it mean that American television has not broadcast
>Truckers?

If you are American, you tell me.  It's been broadcast just about
everywhere else.  It might be because it's quite intelligent and gentle
and you can't use it to sell plastic models to kids.

But it's no good expecting a reason for anything any TV does.  The
Wyrd Sisters animation went on at teatime on a Sunday and got a big
audience.  Flushed by this success, C4 eventually put the Soul Music
one on at 2am.  That's why there's no more -- I said it wasn't any good
the animators doing wonderful work if some grey-faced dreebs mess
things up with the scheduling.

Terry
  

    
Terry -- no, I've no more news on the Good Omens film. I thought I'd
ring T. Gilliam and ask him what was happening before I started the
current signing tour, as I knew it would come up in every Q&A, but he
was inconsiderately off judging the Cannes Film Festival.

(I'm typing this in a cyber cafe in Canterbury; just eight teenage
boys making things blow up on their screens, and me. That's technology,
that is.)
  

    
Speaking of grey-faced dreebs and gray-faced dreebs, have the DW
books been edited at all for the American market, as the Harry
Potter books were?
  

    
>Terry -- no, I've no more news on the Good Omens film. 

I *like* having no more news. If it doesn't happen, I won't be
disappointed, and if it does it'll be like getting a great big present.

No 7 on the bestseller list in the Indy today (I think that's a
Waterstones-supplied list.)  Well done... 

Terry 
  

    
Catlike treader...

They haven't since the Big Change, and I don't think anyone bothered
before that.  There is a certain amount of creative argument but in DW,
now, Britishisms are seen as 'texture'.

It was interesting working with the editor/copy-editor on Maurice,
though.  The book is technically YA, so I think there is an argument
for *some* changes and, oh boy, we had that argument.  In fact it was
all pretty civilised -- Anne Hoppe, the editor, really took an
interest, and I think we ended up with something good.

I was working with the US and UK copy-editors at the same time.  It
made for a few strange weeks.

Terry
  

    
E-mail from Catherine Young:

Hi,

I have two questions for Mr Pratchett:

"Terry, your website www.turtlesalltheway.com has been under construction 
for about a year - what do you plan to do with it, and when might you find 
the time to do it (no rush, no rush!)
And, we all have favourite Discworld books for reading.  Which was your 
favourite one to write, and why?"

Thanks,

Cathy
  

    
Blast, that was sort of my question!  Oh well, I'll ask it anyway.  Are
there any characters that you've written about that are your favorites?
  

    
>Terry, your website www.turtlesalltheway.com has been under
>construction for about a year - what do you plan to do with it, and
>when might you find the time to do it (no rush, no rush!)

What?  You have to *do* things? We're planning to get that site up
RSN, yes indeed...but I'm not planning anything major, just news items,
tour details, maybe an on-line diary.  We're hoping to have something
up by the end of September.  The reality is that the site is waiting
for some spare time which I never seem to have...

>And, we all have favourite Discworld books for reading.  Which was
>your favourite one to write, and why?"

Probably Men At Arms, because it just flowed.  But you know what I'm
going to say: every book I've done has certain high notes in my memory.
 Every book is the favourite while it's being written, in any case.
  

    
Jeff,

Oh, Vimes and Granny Weatherwax.  Because they are screwed-up
characters, self-tapping screws at that. They just wrap plot around
themselves.  Characters full of doubt and uncertaintly are always
useful to the writer.  But I'm beginning to enjoy writing for Susan
because of her sheer implacable 'common sense', even though it's tricky
writing for a character who is a lot brighter than the author!

Terry
  

    
 As a fellow author (I write computer books, not novels), I'm a bit
surprised and glad to hear you say that every book is your favorite as
you write it.  It certainly explains how you've managed to be so
prolific without burning out completely.

 Every book I've written has started out as my favorite, but by the
time I send in that last chapter, it's generally reviled beyond
compare.
  

    
Talking of words flowing, it is true that more than half of Equal
Rites was written in one sitting?

(I am all in favor of "texture," even though I lost the fight
with my sixth-grade teacher over whether "theatre" was a
legitimate spelling.  On an American spelling test.)
  

    

For a split-second there, I was so happy to hear you say, 
"But I'm beginning to enjoy writing for Susan"
because, of course, I thought you were referring to <sumac>.  Wrong Susan,
alas.