Newsgroups: alt.fan.pratchett
Subject: FAQ (was Re: Wanted some info)
From: gnat@kauri.vuw.ac.nz (Nathan Torkington)
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 23:43:13 GMT
Organization: Contract to CSC, Victoria Uni, Wellington, New Zealand

In article <leo.715945664@galaxy> leo@ph.tn.tudelft.nl (Leo Breebaart) writes:

   Even better: it is posted regularly to both this newsgroup and
   news.answers. All you have to do is just sit and read a.f.p for two
   weeks or so, and everything will be handed to you on a silver platter.

Aah, if only it were so :)  The periodic-posting software is giving
me hassles of a profound nature.  I'm trying a new fix which might
mean that the news goes out on the 1st and 14th of the month without
fail (hah!).

If you can't find a copy of the FAQ, reading back in the newsgroup,
there is always one available for anonymous ftp from
	pit-manager.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/alt.fan.pratchett/pratchett-faq

ftp.uu.net mirrors this directory (somewhere :-).

If all else fails, I'll be glad to mail you a copy.

(FAQ attached below for reference purposes)

Nat

--begin
PREAMBLE

Comments inside square brackets [] are my own - they usually
indicate things I am uncertain of and will need help with.
Please sent help/comments/feedback to the maintainer,
	gnat@kauri.vuw.ac.nz
I have been thinking of reorganising the FAQ.  Do you think it
needs it?  

IMPORTANT NOTICE

As you will soon discover, Terry Pratchett is not only on the net, but
reads alt.fan.pratchett.  He will answer mail, eventually, but can no
longer be having with the blunt 'Hey, are you Terry Pratchett or what?'
messages.  Take it as read that tpratchett@cix.compulink.co.uk *is*
the man himself.

CREDITS (Have been moved to the end)

TOPICAL INDEX

 1. Who the hell is Terry Pratchett?

 2. What are all the books Terry Pratchett has written?

 3. What are they all about?

 4. What other things has Terry Pratchett written?

 5. Are there Terry Pratchett/Discworld merchandising products around?

 6. Hey look!  There's an inconsistency in the Discworld books!

 7. Does Terry Pratchett like computers?

 8. Are there Discworld computer games?

 9. Is it true that US releases don't have Josh Kirby covers?

10. Who the hell is Josh Kirby?

11. If I like Terry Pratchett, who else might I like?

12. What is the correct pronounciation of Rincewind's name?

13. Is Terry Pratchett on the net?

14. Who the hell is Neil Gaiman?

15. I didn't understand <xxx> - can someone explain it?

16. What's next?

17. What tid-bits of information has Terry let slip?


ANSWERS

 1. Who the hell is Terry Pratchett?

	Terry Pratchett is an author of humourous fantasy-based
	science-fiction novels.  He has been favourably compared
	to Douglas Adams, P.G Wodehouse and Tom Sharpe.  A lot
	of people rather like his books.

	(This is stolen from his liner notes)

	Terry Pratchett is, on average, a sort of youngish
	middle-aged.  He lives in Somerset with his wife and
	daughter, and long ago chose journalism as a career
	because it was indoor work with no heavy lifting.

	Beyond that he positively refuses to be drawn.  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.

	He grows carnivorous plants as a hobby; they are a lot
	less interesting than people believe.

		* * *

	For those people who really need to know, Terry Pratchett
	was born in Buckinghamshire in 1948.  He's managed to avoid
	all the really interesting jobs authors take in order to
	look good in this sort of biography.  In his search for a
	quiet life he got a job as a Press officer with the Central
	Electricity Generating Board just after Three Mile Island,
	which shows his unerring sense of timing.  He now writes
	full time.  It's true about the carnivorous plants, though.

	(and this one is stolen from Guards! Guards!)

	Terry Pratchett was born in 1948 and is still not dead. 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 officier for four nuclear
	power stations.  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.  Since 
	then the books have reached double figures and have a regular
	place in the bestseller lists.  He's also written three books 
	for children (the _Truckers_ trilogy).  Occasionally he gets
	accused of literature.

	Terry Pratchett lives in Somerset with his wife Lyn and daughter
	Rhianna.  He says writing is the most fun anyone can have by
	themselves.

 2. What are all the books Terry Pratchett has written?

    Unless stated otherwise, these are paperback editions.
    Note that these are the Commonwealth editions - US editions
    have different ISBN numbers.  They follow in a separate list.
    Terry has written two series: the Discworld novels, and the
    nome books.  The Discworld novels are _The Colour of Magic_
    through _Small Gods_.  The nome novels are _Truckers_,
    _Diggers_, and Wings.

	TITLE				ISBN
	The Colour of Magic		0 552 12475 3
	The Light Fantastic		0 552 12848 1
	Equal Rites			0 552 13105 9
	Mort				0 552 13106 7
	Eric (ill. Josh Kirby)		0 575 05191 4 (Non Illustrated)
					0 575 04836 0 (Illustrated)
	Sourcery			0 552 13107 5
	Wyrd Sisters			0 552 13460 0
	Pyramids			0 552 13461 9
	Guards! Guards!			0 552 13462 7
	Moving Pictures			0 552 13463 5
	Reaper Man			0 575 04979 0 (Hardback)
	Reaper Man			0 552 13464 3 (Paperback)
	Witches Abroad			0 575 04980 4 (Hardback)
	Small Gods			0 575 05222 8 (Hardback)
	Good Omens (with Neil Gaiman)	0 552 13703 0
	Strata				0 552 13325 6 (Hardback)
	The Dark Side of the Sun	0 552 13326 4
	The Carpet People		0 552 13325 6
	The Carpet People		0 385 40304 6 (New HB edition)
	Truckers			0 552 52595 2
	Diggers				0 552 52586 3
	Wings				0 552 52649 5
	The Unadulterated Cat (with Gray Joliffe)
					0 575 04628 7

    US Editions:
	The Colour of Magic		0 451 45112 0
					0 451 15705 2 (NEL Edition)
	Equal Rites			0 451 45092 2
	Mort				0 451 45113 9
	Pyramids			0 451 45044 2
	Guards! Guards!			0 451 45089 2
	Moving Pictures			0 451 45131 7
	Good Omens (with Neil Gaiman)	0 894 80853 2 (HB)
					0 425 13215 3 (Berkeley, PB)
	Reaper Man			0 451 45168 6 (Roc, PB)
	Strata				0 451 45111 2
	(and the others?  Are these PB or HB?)

 3. What are they all about?

	* The Colour of Magic
	Jerome K. Jerome meets _Lord of the Rings_ (with a
	touch of _Peter Pan_) ...
	On a world supported on the back of a giant turtle
	(sex unknown), a gleeful, explosive, wickedly
	eccentric expedition sets out.  There's an avaricious
	but inept wizard, a naive tourist whose luggage
	moves on hundreds of dear little legs, dragons who
	only exist if you believe in them, and of course THE
	EDGE of the planet ...
	The wackiest and most original fantasy since
	_Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy_.

 	* The Light Fantastic
	As it moves towards a seemingly inevitable collision
	with a malevolent red star, the Discworld has only one
	possible saviour.  Unfortunately, this happens to be
	the singularly inept and cowardly wizard called
	Rincewind, who was last seen falling off the edge of
	the world ....
	The funniest and most unorthodox fantasy in this or
	any other galaxy.

	* Equal Rites
	The last thing the wizard Drum Billet did, before Death
	laid a bony hand on his shoulder, was to pass on his
	staff of power to the eighth son of an eighth son.
	Unfortunately for his colleagues in the chauvinistic
	(not to say mysogynistic) world of magic, he failed to
	check on the new-born baby's sex ...
	A third hilarious adventure by the author of _The Colour
	of Magic_ and _The Light Fantastic_.

	* Mort
	Death comes to us all.  When he came to Mort, he offered
	him a job.
	After being assured that being dead was not compulsory,
	Mort accepted.  However, he soon found that romantic
	longings did not mix easily with the responsibilities
	of being Death's apprentice ....

	* Sourcery
	There was an eighth son of an eighth son.  He was, quite
	naturally, a wizard.  And there it should have ended.
	However (for reasons we'd better not go into), he had
	seven sons.  And then he had an eighth son ... a wizard
	squared ... a source of magic ... a Sourcerer.

	* Wyrd Sisters
	Witches are not by their nature gregarious, and they
	certainly don't have leaders.
	Granny Weatherwax was the most highly-regarded of the
	leaders they didn't have.
	But even *she* found that meddling in royal politics
	was a lot more difficult than certain playwrights would
	have you believe ...

	* Pyramids
	Being trained by the Assassin's Guild in Ankh-Morpork
	did not fit Teppic for the task assigned to him by fate.
	He inherited the throne of the desert kingdom of
	Djelibeybi rather earlier than he expected (his father
	wasn't too happy about it either), but that was only the
	beginning of his problems ...

	* Guards! Guards!
	This is where the dragons went.
	They lie ... not dead, not asleep, but ... dormant.  And
	although the space they occupy isn't like normal space,
	nevertheless they are packed in tightly.  They could put
	you in mind of a can of sardines, if you thought sardines
	were huge and scaly.  And presumably, somewhere, there's
	a key ...
	Guards! Guards! is the eighth Discworld novel - and after
	this, dragons will never be the same again!

	* Eric
	Eric is the Discworld's only demonology hacker.
	Pity he's not very good at it.
	All he wants is three wishes granted.  Nothing fancy - to
	be immortal, rule the world, have the most beautiful woman
	in the world fall madly in love with him, the usual stuff.
	But instead of a tractable demon, he calls up Rincewind,
	probably the most incompetent wizard in the universe, and
	the extremely *intractable* and hostile form of travel
	accessory known as the Luggage.
	When them on his side, Eric's in for a ride through space
	and time that is bound to make him wish (quite fervently)
	again - this time that he'd never been born.

	* Moving Pictures
	The alchemists of the Discworld have discovered the magic
	of the silver screen.  But what is the dark secret of
	Holy Wood hill?
	It's up to Victor Tugelbend ("Can't sing.  Can't dance.
	Can handle a sword a little") and Theda Withel ("I come
	from a little town you've probably never heard of") to
	find out ...
	Moving Pictures, the ninth Discworld novel, is a
	gloriously funny saga set against the background of a
	world gone mad!

	* Reaper Man
	Death is missing - presumed ... er ... gone.
	Which leads to the kind of chaos to *always* expect when
	an important public service is withdrawn.
	Ghosts and poltergeists fill up the Discworld.  Dead
	Rights activist Reg Shoe - "You Don't Have to Take This
	Lying Down" - suddenly has more work than he had ever
	dreamed of.  And newly deceased wizard Windle Poons wakes
	up in his coffin to find that he has come back as a corpse.
	But it's up to Windle and the members of Ankh-Morpork's
	rather unfrightening group of undead (*) to save the world
	for the living.
	Meanwhile, on a little farm far, far away, a tall, dark
	stranger is turning out to be really good with a scythe.
	There's a harvest to be got in.  And a different battle to
	be fought.
	(*) Arthur Winkings, for example, became a vampire after
	being bitten by a lawyer.  Schleppel the bogeyman would be
	better at his job if he wasn't agoraphobic and frightened
	of coming out of the closet.  And Mr Ixolite is a banshee
	with a speech impediment, so instead of standing on the roof
	and screaming when there's a death in the house he writes
	"OooEeeOooEeeOoo" on a piece of paper and pushes it under
	the door.

	* Witches Abroad
	It seemed an easy job ...
	After all, how difficult could it be to make sure that a
	servant girl *doesn't* marry a prince?
	But for the witches Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat
	Garlick, travelling to the distant city of Genua, things are
	never that simple ...
	For one thing, all they've got is Mrs Gogol's voodoo, a
	one-eyed cat and a second-hand magic wand that can only do
	pumpkins.  And they're up against the malignant power of
	the Godmother herself, who has made Destiny an offer it can't
	refuse.  And finally there's the sheer power of the Story.
	Servant girls *have* to marry the Prince.  That's what life
	is all about.
	You can't fight a Happy Ending.
	At least - up until now ...

	* Small Gods
	Brutha is the Chosen One.
	His god has spoken to him, admittedly while currently in the
	shape of a tortoise.
	Brutha is a simple lad.  He can't read.  He can't write.  He's
	pretty good at growing melons.  And his wants are few.
	He wants to overthrow a huge and corrupt church.
	He wants to prevent a horrible holy war.
	He wants to stop the persecution of a philosopher who has dared
	to suggest that, contrary to the Church's dogma, the Discworld
	really *does* go through space on the back of an enormous
	turtle (*).
	He wants peace and justice and brotherly love.  He wants the
	Inquisition to stop torturing him now, please.
	But most of all, what he really wants, more than anything else,
	is for his god to Choose Someone Else ...
	(* which is true, but when has *that* ever mattered?)

	* Strata
	The excavation showed that the fossilized plesiosaur had
	been holding a placard which read, "End Nuclear Testing
	Now".
	That was nothing unusual.
	But then came a discovery of something which *did*
	intrigue Kin Arad.
	A flat earth was something new ...

	* The Dark Side of the Sun
	Dom Salabos had a lot of advantages.
	As heir to a huge fortune, he had an excellent robot
	servant (with Man-Friday subcircuity), a planet (the First
	Syrian Bank) as a godfather, a security chief who even ran
	checks on himself, and on Dom's home world even death was
	not always fatal.
	Why then, in an age when prediction was a science, was his
	future in doubt?

	* Good Omens
	Crowley, Hell's most approachable demon, and an old friend
	Aziraphale, genuine angel and London book shop owner, have
	a problem.  Armageddon - which will happen on a Saturday
	Night.  Next Saturday, in fact.  So they've got no alternative
	but to stopt he Four Motorcyclists of the Apocalypse, defeat
	the Witchfinder Army and find and kill the Antichrist - an
	eleven-year-old boy who loves his dog ...

	* Truckers
	To the thousands of tiny nomes who live under the floorboards
	of a large department store, there is no Outside.  Things like
	Day and Night, Sun and Rain are just daft old legends.
	Then a devastating piece of news shatters their existence:
	the Store - their whole world - is to be demolished.  And it's
	up to Masklin, one of the last nomes to come into the Store,
	to mastermind an unbelievable escape plan that will take all
	the nomes into the dangers of the great Outside ...

	* Diggers
	A Bright New Dawn is just around the corner for thousands of
	tiny nomes when they move into the ruined buildings of an
	abandoned quarry.  Or is it?
	Soon strange things start to happen.  Like the tops of puddles
	growing hard and cold, and the water coming down from the sky
	in frozen bits.  Then humans appear and they really mess
	everything up.  The quarry is to be re-opened and the nomes
	must fight to defend their new home.  But how long will they
	be able to keep the humans at bay - even with the help of
	the monster Jekub?

	* Wings
	Somewhere in a place so far up there is no down, a ship is
	waiting to take the nomes home - back to wherever they came
	from.
	And one nome, Masklin, knows that they've got to try and
	contact this ship.
	It means going to Florida (wherever that is), then getting to
	the launch of a communications satellite (whatever that is).
	A ridiculous plan.  Impossible.
	But Masklin doesn't know this so he tries to do it anyway.
	And the first step is to try and hitch a ride on a new kind
	of truck, a truck with wings - Concorde ...

	* The Unadulterated Cat
	Can you recognise a real, unadulterated cat when you see one?
	Or have you too grown used to the boring, massed-produced
	cats the advertising industry adores?
	Real cats never eat from bowls (at least not the ones marked
	CAT).
	Real cats do eat quiche. And giblets. And butter. And anything
	else left on the table. They can hear a fridge door opening
	two rooms away.
	Real cats don't need names. But they often get called them.
	"Yaargeroffoutofityarbastard" does nicely.

	(Aren't blurbs *horribly* written?)

 4. What other things has Terry Pratchett written?

	He started writing short stories, several of which were
	published.  His first, "The Hades Business", which was
	published in Science Fantasy #60 (vol 20, 1963) was the
	first story he ever wrote.  He got 10/10 for it (the first
	time he had gotten 10/10 for anything except for a painting
	which his teacher had *thought* were two dinosaurs fighting)
	and it was published in the 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.
	Well, 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
	Science Fantasy, 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.

	He also sold "Night Dweller" to _New_Worlds_ (187).
	He has short stories in several collections:
	* Digital Dreams.  This is a collection of computer related
	  sf short stories. [?]
	* After The King.  This is a Tolkein tribute of fantasy
	  stories.  His story is "Troll Bridge" and features
	  Cohen the Barbarian, from the Discworld.  [ISBN ?]
	* Forbidden Planet SF Anthology 2.  "Forbidden Planet" is an
	  SF/fantasy/comics specialist shop in London.  The ISBN is
	  1 85286 332 8.
	[any other publications?]

 5. Are there Terry Pratchett/Discworld merchandising products around?

	There are a lot of informal products (badges saying
	"Librarians Rule Ook!" and the like) but none marketed
	heavily.  Terry says he would rather informally support
	cottage industries than let some big concern screw around
	with his works.

	His position is:
	  'Everything works if people are sensible': It's all down to
	  who's doin what, for whom, and what might loosely be called
	  the spirit of the whole thing.  Fans doing things for other
	  fans, such as Octarine does in the UK, (t-shirts and stuff
	  for cost+) -- that's fine.  And I've let people do more
	  than that to raise funds for a con.  I'd only get twitchy
	  if it looked as though we were in real merchandising
	  territory -- four-colour sweatshirts in Forbidden Planet,
	  adverts in magazines ... and my concern there would be as
	  much about fans getting value for money as anything else."

	Discworld models: (thanks to gds@ukc.ac.uk (G.D.Staines))
	  And Discworld characters - everyone from Death to Great
	A'Tuin himself (or herself) - step (or crawl) out of the page
	in a new range of models by Clarecraft Designs, Woolpit, Bury
	St. Edmunds, Suffolk IP30 9SH.  Tel:+44 359 41277 for a list of
	stockists or further information.

	Octarine: Terry has this to say:
	  The officially unofficial Not-the-Terry-Pratchett-Fan-Club.
	The guy to write to is Chris Tregenza, 14 Runswick Drive,
	Wollaton, Nottingham, NG8 1JN.  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 greak/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
	humourous sf/fantasy generally.  And it seems to have worked.
	They resemble ZZ9 a lot and there's an overlap of members; I'd
	say it's probably more an organisation that people who like the
	DW books might enjoy belonging to rather than a fan club).  I
	go along to their birthday meetings (to merry cries of "Who's
	he?", "Throw him out!" and so on).  But there's no learned
	articles on the DW, no signed photos of The Master, no 'official
	news' ... and that's fine by me.

	Maps: A map of A-M is being prepared for the Discworld
	Companion.  The guy doing it had to pinpoint the Assassins'
	Guild, for example, from references in six different books.
	Worked, too.  (Don't ask when it's coming out -- one day ...).
	Did you know there are no fewer than eight eating/drinking
	places mentioned in A-M?  TP didn't.

	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.

 6. Hey look!  There's an inconsistency in the Discworld books!

	Well, he *is* fallible.  Known inconsistencies are:
	* the number of eyes that Greebo has in _Witches_Abroad_
	* in _TCOM_, All's Fallowe is the one night of the year
	  when witches stay home in bed.  In _Wyrd_Sisters_,
	  however, this occurs on Hogswatch night.
	* there are inconsistencies about smells: in _TLF_,
	  Rincewind asks what a smell is, and Twoflower thinks
	  that it is bacon.  Later on, however, Twoflower is
	  described as having "no sense of smell".  Rincewind,
	  in _Sourcery_, is an Ankh-Morporkian who (like all
	  Ankh-Morporkians) has no sense of smell.
	* there are lots of geographical inconsistencies, which
	  caused TP to preface _Sourcery_ with "This book does
	  not contain a map.  Please feel free to draw your own".
	  One of the major inconsistencies which few people spot
	  is that given the size of the Disc, and the distance
	  the sun would therefore need to travel around it in 24
	  hours, and that light travels at the speed of sound in
	  the high magical field, then the sun is actually orbiting
	  the Disc at twice the speed of its own light.
	* When Rincewind meets Death in Ankh-Morpork, in _The_
	  Colour_Of_Magic_, people walk through Death.  Whereas
	  later on, people are described as avoiding him.
	* In TCOM, Death kills a fly.  The Death from Mort and later
	  books would never do such a thing - it changes reality.

 7. Does Terry Pratchett like computers?

	Yup.  He owns the fastest 486 he could buy, he writes with
	WordPerfect 4.2 and uses a laptop when travelling.  He doesn't
	like windows or mice.

	He also used to own an Amstrad, and is a fan of the classic
	isometric perspective games, _Batman_ and _Head Over Heels_.
	
 8. Are there Discworld computer games?

	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.

	It isn't available any more, so currently there is no game.

 9. Is it true that US releases don't have Josh Kirby covers?

	Indeed it is.  Apparently the Kirby covers make for
	confusion with Craig Shaw's Gardner's "humourous" fantasy
	(which isn't at all in Terry's league).  This is only
	true of Sourcery and later books.  The Colour of Magic
	through Mort had the same Kirby covers as the UK editions.

10. Who the hell is 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".

11. If I like Terry Pratchett, who else might I like?

	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.

12. What is the correct pronounciation of Rincewind's name?

	Terry himself pronounces it to rhyme with "Mince pinned"
	and in Eric, Rincewind meets his ancestor whose translated
	name means "Washer of Winds".  Evidence would then tend to
	point to this pronounciation.

13. Is Terry Pratchett on the net?

	Yes!  He reads and posts.  Hallelujah, praise be.
	His e-mail address is tpratchett@cix.compulink.co.uk.
	He warns that "people who email me direct will get terse
	answers to the 'Hey, you're not really TP, are you?' type
	questions, which still seem to be turning up -- and I also
	tend to get a bit brief when its questions that get regularly
	aired in the conference.  Apart from that, I'm a real polite
	correspondent -- if I have time ...".

14. Who the hell is Neil Gaiman?

	Neil Gaiman is an sf author whose credits include the
	_Sandman Comics_ (monthly, 3 collections so far: Preludes
	and Nocturnes [1 85286 326 9], The Dolls House [0 930289
	59 5] and Dream Country [1 56389 016]), _Black_Orchid_
	(a one-off comic in 3 parts, also now collected in
	a single graphic novel) [?], _Temps_ (a collection of
	superhero short stories which claims to be "Devised by
	Neil Gaiman and Alex Stewart" [0 14 014560 5]), _Ghastly
	Beyond Belief_ (an anthology of truly awful SF)
	[0-09-936830-7], and _Don't Panic: The Official Companion to
	The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy_ [1 85286 0138 8].

15. I didn't understand <xxx> - can someone explain it?

	The two barbarians (Bravd and Weasel) in _The Colour Of
	Magic_ are parodies of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey
	Mouser.  Ankh Morpork is also derived from Lankhmar, both
	in name and in the concept of being the "City of Cities".
	[anything else that needs explaining?]

16. What's next?

	Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1992
	Subject: Guards, Guards

	The next DW book will probably be a sequel to Guards! Guards!,
	containing a slightly expanded City Watch (a troll and a dwarf
	now on the strength as a result of affirmative action hiring
	procedures) Captain Vimes' wedding day, the assassination of
	the Patrician, and Carrot learning a thing or two...

	[this produced much debate (well, two notices for such a low
	volume group *is* much debate) and so Terry kindly cleared it
	up with this brilliant piece of side-stepping:]
	
	Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1992
	Subject: Re: Guards, Guards and other stuff

	1) The offing of the Patrician ... well, we shall just have
	to see what happens, won't we?

	Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992
	Subject: Upcoming Stuff

	Just so's you know:

	Only You Can Save Mankind(tm) comes out in September - the 24th,
	I think. 
	Lords and Ladies (DW) comes out in hardcover in early November,
	along with Witches Abroad in paperback.
	Johnny and the Dead will, with luck, be out around April next
	year, along with the paperback of Small Gods.
	Then Guards! Guards II (real title as yet unfinished) will be
	out in hardcover in November '93 along with Lords and Ladies
	in paperback.

	Date: Sun, 26 Jul 1992
	Subject: Re: Upcoming Stuff

	Only You Can Same Mankind, the next TP title, is about a kid
	who's playing on his computer one day when all the aliens in
	the latest goshwow computer game surrender to him.  They don't
	want to be shot at any more.  Having surrendered, they become
	his responsibility.  So he has to spend his nights defending
	them from all the other kids in the world ...
	It's about war (the Gulf War is going on in 'real time' in the
	book) and games and our whole strange attitude to both of them.

17. What tid-bits of information has Terry let slip?

	[22 Jul 1992] "The Unadulterated Cat is coming out as a
	mass-marketed paperback RSN -- in August, I think".
	[10 Jul 1992] "Good mail order sources (for TP books) are:
	Andromeda Books, 84 Suffolk Street, Birmingham, BA1 1TA,
	UK" and Forbidden Planet, 11 (I think, but what the hell,
	it'll find them) New Oxford Street, London".
	[13 Jul 1992] "Botswana is also the only country in the
	world with a colour in its flag meant to represent rain (a
	sort of blue-grey).  Not many people know about this."
	[24 Jul 1992] Re: Innovations DW comics: "Issue One of TLF
	is probably still around in the US and anywhere big that
	imports (I know Forbidden Planet carry them); I think all
	four of the TCOM ones are sold out, but RSN (like, by
	September, I think) Corgi in the UK are bringing them all
	as a 'graphic novel' or, as I call it, a big comic.  And I
	think they intend to do the same with the TLF set eventually."
	[23 Jul 1992] "Anyone posting DW ideas: PLEASE put on the
	top TERRY, DON'T READ THIS.  I hate people giving me DW 
	ideas -- if they're good, I'm stealing, if they're not, what
	the hell...Dozens of people have 'suggested' a DW newspapers
	plot, and 20,000 words of that one has existed for more than
	two years.  But it's in obeyance (sic) for various reasons."
	[26 Jul 1992] "We did indeed have the title '668 - The
	Neighbour of the Beast' in hand for a 'sequel' to Good Omens,
	but I can't see it ever being written.  Both of us as
	individuals could probably write it, and get two totally
	different books, but apart from anything else NG is now,
	or RSN, in the States for a couple of years -- and liason
	over GO was hard enough when we lived 120 miles apart."
	[18 Jul 1992] "Since I was asked: These are modern authors
	whose books I will automatically buy knowing that life is
	going to get that little bit richer:
	  George McDonald Fraser (the Flashman books)
	  Carl Hiassen (still to get well known over here)
	  Donald Westlake (a pro)
	  Joseph Wambaugh
	  Tom Robbins
	But I read more and more non-fiction, biographies and stuff
	these days.  Whenever I go to the States I always return with
	my luggage stuffed with Panati's and Straight Dope books (I've
	seen the Straight Dope books here, but never seen an imported
	Panati[Footnote 1]).  I'm afraid I spend money like water in
	American bookshops; I dunno, they just seem more inviting.
	[Footnote 1: They've got title like 'Extraordinary Origins
	Of Everyday Things].
	[24 Jul 1992] "You think publishers LIKE work on disc?  I
	know from my own experience, and via the Society of Authors,
	that this is not the case.  I've twice had books set from
	disc by Gollancz, and it seemed to work, but the whole thing
	was very much an experiment on their part.  They _prefer_
	paper.  It's different with Corgi -- I'm easing into disc
	setting with them, but the only thing they have to set
	direct are the children's books, since DW books have already
	gone through the process with Gollancz.  Why doesn't Roc do
	some kind of similar deal with the tapes?  But that'd be
	too _logical_ ..."
	
CREDITS 

Nathan Torkington		gnat@kauri.vuw.ac.nz	05Jan92
Adrian N Ogden			ano@uk.ac.rdg.cs.csres	08May92
Vicky White						08May92
PR James			prj91@ecs.soton.ac.uk	08May92
Adrian Waterworth		Adrian.Waterworth@newcastle.ac.uk)
							08May92
Chris Stratford			cs@ib.cc.rl.ac.uk	08may92
Steven Ellis			steven@XDML2.ico.olivetti.com
							08May92
Lesley Walker			lesley@phobos.actrix.gen.nz
							10May92
Leo Breebaart			leo@ph.tn.tudelft.nl	12May92
Darkstar			pmygdk@mips.ccc.nottingham.ac.uk
							12May92
Harry Broomhall			haeb@demon.co.uk	22May92
Jonathan Lennox			jml12@cunixca.cc.columbia.edu	
							12Jun92
Martin V. Walser		mvw@anywhere.umd.edu	12Jun92
Melanie Dymond			mdymond@isis.cs.du.edu	19Jun92
All The Madmen			9021147K@Levels.UniSA.Edu.Au
							19Jun92
Daniel Veditz			daniel@borland.com	24Jun92
Dhanesh				dks@Athena.MIT.EDU	27Jun92
D.J.T.				dtrindle@jarthur.Claremont.EDU
							04Jul92
Carl Edman			cedman@golem.ps.uci.edu	04Jul92
Lee Breebaart			leo@ph.tn.tudelft.nl	05Jul92
Jerzy Michal Pawlak		PAWLAK@vxdesy.desy.de	06Jul92
Michael Norrish			mnorrish@comp.vuw.ac.nz	07Jul92
Terry Pratchett			tpratchett@cix.compulink.co.uk
							23Jul92
Klaus Kluge			klaus@inphobox.w.open.de
							24Aug92
--end
Newsgroups: alt.fan.pratchett