#local discworld con

[waywardwizzard]

Hearing Nanny Ogg sing made me realize why everyone hides when she starts to

(I will forever be haunted by 'The hedgehog can never be buggered at all' and 'A wizard's staff has a knob on the end' for the rest of my life)

[sassysnowperson]

How Not to Read Terry Pratchett's Discworld Novels

With the very exciting fantasy books poll bracket going on Discworld and how to read it is in the zeitgeist again. I figured I would take a crack at adding to this important topic with a guide drawn from my own chaotic mess of a reading journey:

Learn that Terry Pratchett is a fantasy author that several people whose reading taste you admire enjoy. He apparently blends comedy, good plotting, and a world that is both grounded and satirical and you're a big fan of all those things.

Fabulous! Decide to read some of his work.

Go to your local library. Love a good library. You're new to the area, so you're also exploring the library for the first time, too.

You have found Terry Pratchett! Points to you! Pull a book off the shelf at random. It's called The Dark Side of the Sun.

Start reading. Realize that this feels more like sci-fi than fantasy. Sigh in smug superiority about people who get the two confused.

Realize about halfway through that this is not, in fact, a Discworld book.

Nobody warned you the guy wrote other things!

It's still good, tho. Maybe a little rough but this was an older book and the author clearly has potential. Let's try again.

Review his works. The vast majority are Discworld. You are highly unlikely to grab another non-Discworld book. Go back to the Terry Pratchett section of the library.

Oh hey he wrote a book with Neil Gaiman! You've hears of that guy!

Grab Good Omens off the shelf.

Take it home, realize, much sooner, that this is also not a Discworld book. Still enjoy yourself thoroughly. You should read more of this Gaiman dude, too.

But okay. For real this time. Go back to the library and don't leave without *CONFIRMING* you have a Discworld book this time.

Grab a book. Look at the cover. Read the back Discworld! Ha HA! You've done it!

It's called Thud.

You are utterly gripped by a story of a man wrestling with himself, his growing child, the political tensions of a city and extremism that echoes reality beautifully while still being entirely true to itself. It's a story of responsibility and love and building communities and Fantasy Chess. You are driven nearly to tears by the sentence *WHERE IS MY COW?*

You emerge from the book fundamentally changed as a person, and finally understanding what all the fuss is about. You are now a Terry Pratchett reader for life.

You realize Thud was in the middle of a series. That was a part of another series. That explains why there was a feeling that you were supposed to know some of these people already.

You finally find one of those flowcharts and figure out a more sensible reading order.

I always sort of laugh when people ask where to start reading Discworld, because Thud would be first on absolutely nobody's sensible Terry Pratchett reading order. I'm still tempted to recommend it though!

(My actual advice: Going Postal if you love con men being stuck doing the right thing, Wee Free Men if you like YA and smart angry girls owning their own power, Guards! Guards! *and* Men at Arms if you like crime shows with heart and are okay giving earlier work a try (the quality gets better and better, but I think it needs at least two books to get you into it), and Monstrous Regiment if you like gender and queer feelings, anti-war books told in the middle of a war, and/or would prefer a stand alone novel...and, you know, Thud if you want a great read and don't mind some chaos.)

[gee-arid]

I never posted my pony line up for our Pulp cthulhu investigators :(

Yes, two are based on Hazbin characters, and one on a Discworld character.

Individuals!

Maria (my character), she got accidental fire magicks, saved everyone trouble by befriending local house cat, constantly on the verge of a break down. John, local con artist but also a non-accidental magic man- did accidentally marry an ancient god tho. Evelyn, our favourite medic :), a girls girl, put laxatives in a meal as revenge once.

These three came from the start of campaign to the end. But did die. John and Evelyn linked to an evil god turned into fish monsters and killed the rest of the party (bar one), and were shot dead after. Maria, devastated and past insanity breaking points, murdered by them.

Cleo, Marias brother. TECHNICALLY not dead, however has no fucking limbs anymore so like you know. Alastor was a day one character who got decimated by spiders, was gonna incubate eggs n shit but Maria, John, and Evelyn figured burning the place down would probably be a more merciful death. Nifty was a replacement for Cleo, an excuse for the player to go apeshit tbh lmaoo. Esme was a replacement for Alastor, also a magic user, and the only one to survive by staying hidden, she was gonna help train Maria before she died.

⁶Anyway, bonus wips im never gonna finish:

[memorijemand]

Oh, I love the idea of the free commissions, I'd offer to join the reward pool if I was in any state to draw rn

That said, while Night Watch is some of the best Pratchett there is, I truly feel like it works best for someone already familiar with Discworld. It's as stand-alone as any other of his books but the context of who the characters involved are adds a lot to its enjoyment value. (and I very much consider the city to be a character unto itself)

Might I recommend Small Gods instead, as a fully stand-alone commentary on religion and its practitioners? It's a deeply profound and funny book, and a good place to see if you enjoy his type of both humour and philosophy.

Perhaps you'd prefer Going Postal, where you can watch an (unwillingly) reformed con-man try to reform the (sometimes equally unwilling) local post office while opposed by a pirate businessman?

Or maybe you'd like to read some of the most adult children's books ever written with Wee Free Men, which starts off the adventures of Tiffany the witch, who fights off magical threats to the world with the help of tiny, foul-mouthed, and extremely scottish pictsies? I promise, it is no less profound than any of his other work for being a "young readers" series.

btw if any of you out there who haven’t read Discworld go out and read one of the books and let me know a little bit about what you thought about it, i will draw a free commission for you. 100% serious. i feel so strongly about this.

btw i highly recommend NOT starting from the beginning. jump in wherever you want. my highest recommendations for places to start are:

- Wyrd Sisters, which i think is the first book with my favorite character, Granny Weatherwax. she is so funny and cool and swag and i love her.

- Guards! Guards!, which is the first Sam Vimes book, and has dragons in it!

- Reaper Man, which is about Death, my second favorite character, leaving to become a farmer and accidentally causing an apocalypse because no one’s dying anymore. Mort is the first book that’s about him but i unfortunately haven’t gotten to read that one yet.

-Night Watch, which is also about Vimes and involves time travel and is probably the best one i’ve read, but which might hit harder with context.

-The Last Hero, which was actually my very first Discworld book and is about the wizards, who are very fun. it’s a later book and honestly probably a very bad place to start but i feel obligated to mention it because if i hadn’t read the illustrated version when i was a wee child i never would have gotten as hooked on the series as i currently am. tbh if you can find the illustrated version you should definitely check it out, i remember it being breathtakingly beautiful.

[secondbeatsongs]

what can you tell me about what filk is and how it works? i looked up the wikipedia article but i feel like it leaves a lot to be desired and might be easier to get first hand info

so, I'm not necessarily the best person to talk on this, as I've never actually been to an in-person filk circle.

(well, I did sing folk songs with some people at a potluck at a discworld convention in 2013, so that might have counted. but I'm still not 100% on that)

but, I can tell you what I do know! and then hopefully people with more knowledge than me can fill in the gaps.

basically, filk is folk music written and sung by fans, about science fiction and fantasy...except it's also a lot of other things. parody music, comedy music, and pretty much any kind of music that the filkers want to sing.

like, that Scotty Doesn't Know parody I wrote? that's filk, even though it's not folk music. and lots of other stuff is filk too. in many ways, filk is more of a culture than a genre of music.

(and the wikipedia article about it is okay, but for stuff like this, Fanlore is usually going to be a better resource. So, here's the Fanlore article on filk.)

filk has definitely influenced the way I think about music - some people have accused me of lying in that post I made about singing, but I do genuinely mean what I said. the best music I've ever heard has been through filk, sung by people with imperfect voices. but the quality of the voice isn't what matters when it comes to music - it's about the heart of it, and what people put into it.

to quote one of my favorite filk songs, "every act of creation is an act of joy"

another of my favorite songs is "Take it Back" by Kathleen Sloan. if you only follow one of the links from this post, I’d recommend that one, because it’s a really important message, and a great song.

but if you’d like to listen to more filk, the best resource right now is probably this reddit post. a wonderful person by the username of rocketman0739 has been converting old filk tapes and uploading them to the internet archive. and, I am not religious? but he’s truly doing the lord’s work. this is the best quality audio I’ve heard for many of these albums, and seeing someone preserve history like this makes me incredibly happy.

but that’s just classic filk - there’s new filk being created all the time! you can buy CDs and tapes at Prometheus Music, or look around on bandcamp - there are tons of amazing filkers on bandcamp!

(oh! and there’s a great tumblr blog you could follow, @filkyeahfilk​, which has a lot of good information and links)

and if you’d like to join in and become a filker, there are plenty of ways to do that, even if you just want to listen! you can google around to see if there are filk circles local to you (there are many all over the world!), or you can come to a virtual convention like The Festival of the Living Rooms (which happens every other month - the next one is this weekend, starting 11/5, and the schedule can be found at the facebook page I linked above. and don’t worry - they also have a discord server).

I’ve been listening to filk for more than a decade, but I’ve never been able to go to an in-person filk convention, so these virtual cons have been an amazing time, and I really recommend the experience! go listen to other people sing, and you might find that this is something you really need in your life.

and although I’ve linked to a lot of professionally-recorded music here, know that it’s so much more than that - it’s about the people who sing in the circle, because they want to, and because they can, and because they’re taking back their right to sing and play. it’s a very human activity, and I love it.

lastly, I will leave you with another link - just because I’ve had this song stuck in my head a lot recently, and I can’t get over how good it is. so, go enjoy Andrew Ross’ amazing songwriting, and listen to “Greek Humanities (1,000 Ships)”

[chesacakeripper]

I was tagged by @battlesymphonies - thank you I have’t done a tag game for years! 

Three ships: Zukka (Zuko/Sokka - ATLA), Steddy Hands (Stede/Ed/Izzy - OFMD), Obligatory Hannigram insert (Hannibal/Will) 

First Ever Ship: Thiefshipping (Yami Bakura/Malik Ishtar - YGO) 

Last Song: Gimme Shelter - Sisters of Mercy 

Last Film: The Batman (2022) I think 

Currently Reading: several zukka WIPS awaiting update, nothing actively as I’ve just finished a week of nights so brain is dead. Have just signed up to my local library though so might try and start the discworld in order...

Currently Watching: I have two episodes of Ozark left 

Currently Consuming: rhubarb and custard squashies // Con O’Neill’s twitter account 

Currently Craving: OFMD season two announcement

I tag - YOU if you want to. Also maybe @lupadracolis  @thecannibalkitty and @saavikam77 if you feel like it <3

[borderlandscast]

discworld au

i covered rythian in this post, with a hint of someone’s mystery origins in the previous post. chances are that this au is looking to be a very weird crossover. xephos and nilesy are up next!

lomadia:

her family owns a farm that provides most of the crops and produce for the small town she lives in. her family resides in the ramtop mountains. it’s a very insular mountain town, where everyone tends to leave their doors unlocked. no new face shows up without a good bit of gossip following. everyone has a horseshoe hammered to the top of their doorframes.

she became a witch when she was young; about ten or so. her family noticed her lack of childishness, her no-nonsense sensibilities, and the fact that she rarely cried, even when she got hurt. that, and the below incident.

when she first attended what passed as school, one of the rowdiest boys (a year or two older) pulled on her hair. the teacher ran out when the two didn’t return to the classroom after lunchtime. she found the boy meekly pulling up flowers and turning it into a flower crown for lomadia, who was quietly sitting on a nearby rock, merely watching. the rest of the children fell into line. new children quickly learned this hierarchy. rarely had schoolchildren been so well-behaved.

her family had reservations about lomadia becoming a witch. that is, until an injured hawk crash landed in the garden and viciously bit everyone who tried to go near it. lomadia gently wrapped it in a tea towel and took it into her room, whereupon the hawk let itself be bandaged and fed bits of raw meat (leftovers from a butchered hog). she let the hawk go once it recovered. until then, her family had to put up with lomadia’s stubbornness to let anyone see it and the hawk’s demanding nature.

an apprenticeless, elderly witch who shared lomadia’s familiarity with animals accepted her into her cottage. lomadia grew up learning a witch’s practical magic, with a grand heaping of veterinary mixed in. the old witch looked after lomadia like she was a beloved grandchild; sternly and fondly, with tough love.

for lomadia, whose family had been torn about whether to treat her as a child or as a miniature adult, this came as a wondrous blessing. she flourished under the witch’s guidance and teachings.

lomadia eventually inherited the steading and cottage. she feels a lot of the time that she’s not up to the gargantuan task, since her mentor was (and still is) regarded as one of the best witches to consult about animal health. her mentor rarely left the mountains unless it was an emergency concerning multiple herd/flocks/gatherings.

she knows about mythical animals. it’s one of the biggest secrets her mentor impressed on her.

the hawk that lomadia healed as a child? moved into a large tree next door to the steading as soon as lomadia became a witch. she hasn’t named it, and it accompanies her on her daily flights around the mountain. other hawks seem to flock to her if they’re hurt or need a place to safely rest.

lomadia’s understanding of animals, their handling and care is not without its cons or dangers. when lomadia treats horses, she is still vulnerable to being kicked in the head, or be gored by a gassy bull that refuses to be seen. sometimes she can’t always save an animal, but she definitely tries.

lomadia’s hobby is falconry. a lot of the birds of prey living around and on the mountain are persecuted for their fierce reptutations. she accepts orphaned, wounded and elderly birds into her aviary. only the able ones are released back into the wild. the rest, she cares for. it’s a demanding job on top of her regular witch duties, and thus, it’s well known to the locals and the other witches that lomadia will only deal with animals.

she only ever deals with people in a crisis. rare, but it’s happened, especially if it’s in relation to an injury.

she’s a very proud person, if a little haughty at times. she’s fiercely independent, and while she attempts to project a mature and worldly manner at all times, it tends to fall apart when her temper flares up. her temper can be on the short side, especially if she’s dealing with idiots or simple minded people.

she’s somewhat emotionally immature, and can be childish at times. she acknowledges this, and that she can’t help it sometimes, she still tries her best to do better.

her dealings with people can be rather abrupt, and she prefers most of her relationships with others to be ‘cordial, you know my name and what i can do, but nothing else about me’, which is funny considering her home town has known her since birth. she considers respect as something to be earned, especially when it comes to wizards.

ravs the nac mac feegle

ravs moves in when she ‘saves’ him from being eaten by one of her hawks. ravs is in no real danger since pictsies are practically indestructible, but the hawk thought he was a strange looking squirrel.

ravs wants to pay her back, and when lomadia gently turns him down, he decides to look after her, claiming that a hag’s always in need of a helping hand, and that nac mac feegles never forget a debt, whether drunk or sober.

as to why he’s wandering on his own, he claims that he aspires to be a gonnagle (a nac mac feegle’s version of a war poet/bard). he also heard of the ‘bachelor’ lifestyle from the bigjobs (aka, humans), and wanted to try it out. so far, it’s pretty lackluster, but maybe it doesn’t apply to pictsies.

he is very tiny, about the size of a closed fist, if the fist was very meaty and stocky. he wears a kilt, and is bare footed. he’a also ripped, though nobody can tell given his size, kilt and speed. he can also drink booze like it’s water, and make his own. his strength and hardiness are also pictsie standard. his blue tattoos indicate his clan. his hair used to be orange until he dyed it using archival ink in pursuit of the bachelor lifestyle.

he maintains and carries around with him miniature bagpipes, which were lovingly hand crafted from mouse bones and other discarded oddities. he’s actually pretty good at playing them, which is considered something of a quirk to other nac mac feegles. by lomadia’s request, he’s not allowed to play the pipes unless he’s deep in a mountain cave, owing to how far carrying and enthralling it is.

he has never recited a single bit of poetry or song in front of lomadia. it’s the one thing he’s deeply embarrassed about, despite his lifelong aspiration to become a gonnagle. he has surprisingly detailed knowledge of bigjob instruments and music, though (most of them pub songs).

he can read and write. lomadia taught him on the basis that it would benefit him, and especially more so if he wanted to be a gonnagle. ravs conquered his superstition about written words. he refuses to learn math however, and draws a line at it.

ravs looks after lomadia’s steading when she’s gone, and also helps her maintain her aviary. he’s her live-in handyman of sorts. it helps that people who visit think that her cottage has a very literal spirit residing in it. most animals also fear ravs, and submit to being handled by him readily. it must be the bagpipes.

he lives in one of lomadia’s dirt filled flowerpots, in a broken teapot. the flowerpot resides on a windowsill in the kitchen. ravs considers it prime real estate, and the dirt helps him feel like he’s closer to the ground than he actually is. he’d prefer to have a mound of his own, but really, that’d defeat the ‘bachelor’ lifestyle he’s trying to achieve. the spout of the teapot acts like a chimney, and he’s built himself a pictsie sized residence inside the teapot using junk and castoffs.

he does not like being seen by any bigjobs aside from lomadia, who is the sole exception due to her being a witch. he makes an exception every now and again though.

[odd-gelato]

Okay so if I wanna start reading the Discworld series, where should I start?

the great thing about discworld is that most of the books stand alone fairly well! there are smaller series within the overall (the city watch, the witches, and death are are some of them). i recommend starting where i did, with guards! guards! (drunk and depressed captain of the night watch has to save his city from a literal dragon). it’s the first city watch book and i believe the 6th book in the overall series. honestly once you’ve got started you can pretty much just pick and choose whatever looks interesting. the series does have a rough developmental timeline as technology advances and that sort of thing, but in my experience it rarely affects the reader’s ability to understand the plot and characters. there’s some a couple that you definitely need to have read some of the preceding books for (night watch is a prime example of this; it’s another city watch book and one of the best discworld books), but overall you can jump in pretty much anywhere. some of my favorite stand alone books are going postal (con man must get the post office running or the local tyrant will hang him again, for real this time), the truth (bored writer accidentally invents journalism, what happens next will shock you), and monstrous regiment (girl disguises herself as a boy so she can enlist in the army to find her brother, the moral is war is bad and gender is a construct). then there’s hogfather, which, while technically part of one of the subseries (death), can still stand on its own and i cannot recommend it enough (santa goes missing and it’s up to the anthropomorphic personification of death to save christmas; also, what does it mean to be human?). this is a list of all the books in the series, and this elaborates a bit more on which books are in which subseries.

[akhuna]

On Terry and Me

This is a slightly revised blog entry I wrote on the 15th of March on 2015. My blog is currently not publicly available, but I wanted to post it here.

On the 12th of March 2015, a Thursday night, I cried.

I had just opened the homepage of our local newspaper to get one last look at what was new before I went to bed, when I saw a picture of Terry Pratchett on the first page. "Discworld-Author Terry Pratchett Dead".

I stared and thought: ›Oh no.‹ And when I read the twitter messages, the tears started to flow.

I didn't know about Terry Pratchett and his books until 2000 - The Fifth Elephant had just been published, I think. I was writing for our school magazine then and one of my "colleagues" managed to contact Terry Pratchett via E-mail. I read the interview with interest and decided that I'd give Pratchett a try. I went to the local library and checked out Witches Abroad.

Now, I'd love to say something along the lines of: "From this moment, I was hooked and bought every single one of his books and that was the beginning of a wonderful friendship" - but I want to be honest here. The problem with Pratchett's books (the only problem, that is) is this: You have to read them in English. Most of the jokes are funny because they are puns. Or homophones. Since these cannot be translated into German, the books made me smile - yes - but I was wondering what made them so outstanding. Remember: I was 14, and I had been learning English for three years only so far, and reading English books in the original was still way too hard.

I loved the characters, though. Nanny Ogg quickly became one of my favourites and as I read Reaper Man, Death became another one. Equal Rites, Small Gods, Mort and Guards! Guards!, followed, then came The Hogfather. Until now, my favourite books are about the witches, the Feegles, Death and the Night Watch.

I cannot remember my first English Discworld novel. But I remember my reaction very well: While the German translations had made me smile and sometimes grin, the originals now managed to have me in stitches. There have been so many articles now on what is so brilliant about Terry Pratchett's books (of course, the Discworld novels are only part of his whole work), and many have voiced it much better than I could do that - so I can only tell you what makes them outstanding for me.

They are wise. They are funny. They are benign, and yet there is an irony in them whose sharpness is equal to Dickens'. They are clever and witty, and most of all: They are true. What you learn about character, about motives, the ways of the world, about people while having a good laugh is amazing. They are also very well written and feature characters who are real - you love them and they annoy you and they become real friends and companions. When you read the dialogues, you hear the conversation and if you are a bit unlucky, you can also smell the Ankh.

I put a love letter between the pages of Reaper Man when I was 16 years old and lend the book to my boyfriend at that time. The Wintersmith kept me company in 2008 when I went to Cornwall for six weeks, and the book immediately started a conversation with the girls sitting next to me before I had read ten pages. I remember sitting on a lawn on campus during summer time, talking with a friend about literature and being told: "Man, you have to read Carpe Juggulum! That's one of the best Discworld novels ever!". I finished I Shall Wear Midnight late at night and was moved to tears by the Author's Afterword and I was howling with laughter over some passages in Night Watch. Two years ago, while I was on holiday with the man, I took Unseen Academicals with me and was crying with laughter about the poem "Oi! To his Deaf Mistress".

I own DVDs of the broadcasts of Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters and was over the moon with joy when I could get my hands on the movies Hogfather, Going Postal and The Colour of Magic. While watching The Colour of Magic, I knit my very first pair of socks.

Last summer, while I was taking part in the summer tournament of "Nerd Wars" on ravelry, my team "1 More Page" was discussing Pratchett and his books during one round, because it had been announced that he had to cancel his appareance at Dragon Con due to his health issues. I made Socks for Nanny Ogg afterwards.

On Friday, the day after I had heard the news, I took out Reaper Man and started to read it to the man. And while I was reading and he was laughing and I was remembering how it was when I read the book for the very first time, there was a melancholy in the words that hadn't been there before.

There are so many places on Discworld I haven't visited, so many characters I have yet to meet. It pains me that now I have all the time in the world to check them out, because there won't be any more books to come. It seems so unfair that such a wise, talented man had to be plagued by that damn illness and had to go on so early while so many villains remain. That's not how it is in the stories.

My only consolation is the thought that he probably did still know where he was going. Because, as he had put it in I Shall Wear Midnight:

"It is important that we know where we come from, because if you do not know where you come from, then you don't know where you are, and if you don't know where you are, then you don't know where you're going. And if you don't know where you're going, you're probably going wrong."

Goodbye, Sir Terry. I miss you.

[jurijurijurious]

Happy Birthday Terry Pratchett

So today would have been Sir Terry Pratchett’s 70th birthday. He sadly passed away before his time in 2015 from early onset Alzheimers. Seeing such a bright, inquisitive and sharp mind succumb to that horrible condition was really distressing, and I can’t imagine how difficult it was for those closer to him.

But today I celebrate the effect Terry Pratchett had on my life. Here’s a quick sketch I did of him in his top hat from the “Dodger” era of his writing career. More on that in a bit...

I was introduced to Terry Pratchett and his Discworld through a back-door, so to speak, in (I think) 2003, by @the-mcguffin through a fanfiction. The fanfic interested me enough that I went to my local library for the first time in years, found what Pratchett books they had, and took one out to read. (See, the first step was it encouraged library use! A very Pratchett thing, I think! I had no money to buy books back then...) The first book I read was “Interesting Times”. I think it was the cover I liked the best (or actually was just the one I disliked the least - the Kirby illustrations were never my cup of tea alas...)

After that, the rest is sort-of history. I read another and another and another. And when I got a job, I bought some. The thing is I ended up re-reading favourites before I read all of them because that’s how I rolled. (“Guards! Guards!” was re-read a lot.)

Anyway, again back to my pal @the-mcguffin who, after having successfully converted me to the books, tried to persuade me to go to a Discworld Convention or to a Discworld play. They always seemed to fall at the wrong time, or (during the years before I passed my driving test) were at places I simply couldn’t get to very easily. Finally, I went “fuck it” and succumbed in 2010, buying a membership. (Back in those days, you could still get a ticket for a DWCon months after they had gone on sale - I think I got mine the January before the Con and was still only number 700-and-something. But I digress...)

After the Convention, equipped with a bunch of new friendships and memories, nothing was the same again. I don’t know what DWCons do to you, but literally I was a different person when I came home, and the rest of my life since has near enough revolved around booking holidays for Discworld events. That’s a Hell of a way to spend 8 years of your life.

And the thing about Discworld is the ripples. I think the quote in one of the books, which is more about death than anything, is “No one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away”. But Discworld has always created ripples. Like, for instance, I never would have rediscovered my love of Shakespeare and theatre without Discworld - it was a knock-on-effect thing which followed the first convention. I would never have driven my lonely ass down to some far-flung corner of England called Somerset to spend a weekend in a quirky little town on a hill called Wincanton (twinned with Ankh-Morpork!) with other Discworld fans. I’ve done that several times now. It’s quite a long drive. And, my God, the silly, crazy things we have done in Wincanton in the name of Discworld and Terry Pratchett - I think my favourite was when we did a mountain climbing expedition up the high street. The reaction of locals was priceless. Us bloody lunatics.

I’ve also been privileged to contribute my art to some of the Conventions, a scary but wonderfully rewarding thing to be able to do for something you love. It’s even more peculiar to see people walking around in merchandise with your art on it.

But back to the “Dodger” thing. My best memories of Terry Pratchett surround his novel “Dodger”. To be frank, it’s a novel I’ve only read once, but the memories are gold.

I think my very favourite memory comes from, I think, a Hogswatch event in Wincanton, I’m gonna take a guess it took place in November 2011. Terry was still well enough to attend and it was a wonderfully intimate setting to be in with him, crammed into the back room of The Bear pub in Wincanton and listening to him speak. And I remember him speaking about writing Dodger. And it was wonderful. I think it’s the time where I’ve felt most connected to, most alike, Terry Pratchett, as his face lit up and you could hear the joy, the excitement, in his voice as he spoke about doing the research for this Victorian-based novel - and suddenly I was 15 again, in my history classroom, studying the Poor Law, the Victorian slums, the Factory Acts - dude, this was my thing! Victorian social history was something I adored at school, and it continues to fascinate me, and to hear your favourite author speak so passionately, so lovingly of the historical research process - it was genuinely wonderful. I can’t remember what he said - I just remember the moment and the feelings I had. And that’s why I’ve drawn Terry Pratchett in his top hat for his birthday today - because it is my special memory.

On another Dodger note, another awesome memory was a little later down the line, after the book had been published and stuff, in the pub after seeing Stephen Briggs’ Studio Theatre Club do their production of “Dodger”. It was the final performance, a lot of Discworld fans had come to little ol’ Abingdon for the final show, and the pub was full of both the cast and crew and Discworld fans. And Terry Pratchett was there, in his top hat. He wasn’t quite so well as he had been at the Hogswatch in 2011, but he was still very lively and interactive, and I just remember him coming over to some of the cast members and myself as we were talking and he started to talk about something to us. Again, I’ve not the foggiest what he said, I can’t recall, but his intensity, his keen interest, his liveliness - they were wonderful things to be privy to.

And I think everyone can always appreciate how Terry would just be happy milling about in a pub, at a convention, or anywhere - he never had airs and graces.

I think my biggest regret is never being able to have a good conversation with him. I’m not the world’s best talker, I’m crap at conversation, and I think this is what defeated me. I only ever said a few words to him and they were pointless. I do remember going to see the Studio Theatre Club’s “The Man Who Was Thursday” in, I believe, 2011? And Terry Pratchett was there with his wife. I held the door for him at the theatre entrance when he was coming up the steps behind me and my friend. And during the half time interval, it was the most peculiar sight to see that no one else there appeared to recognise him, and he spent a few minutes stood alone with no one to talk to. I wonder if he enjoyed that? Part of me regrets deeply not going over and speaking to him, it was a missed opportunity, but there we go, what would I have said? Hey ho.

So happy birthday to the late, great man. The friends I have made, the places I have travelled to, the hobbies I have embarked upon, the experiences I have had, which have all resulted from reading that one fanfiction based on his works... The effect on my life has been immeasurable. It’s a good day to raise a glass to his name and his legacy, read one of his books, and remember him and what he has done for you.

[clonerightsagenda]

you seem to be the one to ask about this- i've read wee free men and hat full of sky, what should i read next in the discworld stuff?? can i just go anywhere, or is there an order?

You have unlocked a can of worms my friend.  Get ready.  

The first thing to understand about Discworld is that it is technically one series but really consists of several miniseries and some standalone books.  The two you have read are part of one miniseries about Tiffany Aching.  Those are actually the books I started with and are nice because you don’t need any preexisting knowledge about the world.  If you want to continue with that miniseries, the next book is Wintersmith, followed by I Shall Wear Midnight and finally The Shepherd’s Crown.  However, you should know that the last one is also the last book he wrote.  He wasn’t in great shape at that point, and it wasn’t entirely completed.  So be aware.

If you enjoyed these ones, Tiffany is preceded by another witch subseries, focusing on Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg (who are mentioned in the Tiffany books) plus some others.  That technically starts with Equal Rites, but that book is early when he was still getting his feel for the world, and so I wouldn’t start with it.  The characterizations aren’t consistent with later books.  Instead, I would read the witch series as Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade, Carpe Jugulum. Then you can go back for Equal Rites.

Those are the witch books, and they’ll be most familiar based on what you’ve already read.  There are a few other main story lines.  Probably the most popular is the guards one.  These are set in Ankh-Morpork, the major setting for most of these books, and featured the city watch solving crimes.  The guards books tend to focus on crime, political intrigue, the faults of mankind, and a team working together, even as the mc (Vimes) tries to go solo.  In contrast, the witch books tend to focus on more magical issues, local and personal problems, and often have the main character having to go it alone to fix their problem.  There’s quite a lot of overlap of course, but that’s general.  The order of the watch books is Guards Guards, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, The Fifth Elephant,  Night Watch, Thud, and Snuff.

A third series is the Death series.  These focus on the character of Death and eventually his family.  These tend to be a lot more philosophical  (looking at issues of humanity, belief, values, etc.) and often have appearances by characters from the other sub arcs. The order is Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music, Hogfather, Thief of Time.

Any of those are good to start with I think, although I would tend to recommend going to the witch or guards one next.  I love the death books, but they can be a little intricate if you’re not familiar with the world. Also imo although Reaper Man and Hogfather are fantastic, Soul Music is weak and the other two are solid but not my faves.

There are two other major series.  One is the industrial revolution arc.  This focuses on a few different characters but are grouped together because they look at the city progressing and getting new technology, often opposed by people who would prefer things to stay as they are. These are Going Postal, Making Money, and Raising Steam (focusing on  the character of con man turned civil servant Moist von Lipwig) and The Truth, focusing the the newspaper.  Fair warning, Raising Steam was written near the end of his life, is in slightly messier shape, and is also his attempt to wrap up a lot of plot threads, so I wouldn’t touch that one until late.  I would also recommend doing the guard series before this one, because it requires a little bit more understanding of the city.  That being said, I read Going Postal really early and loved it.  It’s definitely the strongest of this series I would say.

Finally, my least favorite series.  The wizards.  Discworld started as a parody of standard fantasy, and the early wizards books are mostly a series of trope subversions tied together.  They eventually moved beyond that, but I still don’t love them, and one of them (Interesting Times) has some really uncomfortable racial jokes.  Stick with satirizing your own country dude. These are The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Sourcery, Interesting Times, The Last Continent (I did like that one), and The Last Hero. Unseen Academicals is sort of a standalone and sort of a wizards one - I do like that one as well.

There are also several stand alones. Small Gods is a knockout in that regard, a book talking about organized religion and faith. Monstrous Regiment is also really fun.  Overall though, I would recommend picking either the witch or guard series and going that way.  You’ll miss a few details that would only make sense if you’re reading all the books in chronological order, but its not that hard, and I think it’s better that way.

[nocapesdahling]

Why doesn't this exist?

I feel like there's all sorts of dating apps, but I was thinking today about some things they just don't seem to have. (And if they do have this, please tell me)

I would like a dating app that lets you list your favorite books or your favorite movies/ tv shows or your favorite anime or comics. I would like to be able to put down my geeky interests and then be matched with people based on whether we both like Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, or whether we both gave five star ratings to The Name of the Wind. Maybe, we both ship Harry and Luna or Jon and Sansa.

It could be a fandom dating app.

Then, we could chat about why we matched interestwise in the app and see what else we share in common. Or we could set up a meeting at our local Barnes and Noble or the library, and just read together. Or get together to watch Supernatural or see Thor: Ragnarok.

I just want a man that can talk to me about Middle Earth, Westeros, Temeria, Hogwarts, the Discworld, or The University... it doesn't have to be all of these, but it would be nice to be able to understand each other's references and to be able to talk about our passions. I'd love to just find someone who reads as much as I do or gets as into shows as I do and isn't afraid to express his opinion and never ridicules mine or anyone else's (Except in good fun of course)

And then if we don't share all of the same interests and fandoms, then we can always introduce each other to other books, movies, and t.v. shows. I always love getting into new things and getting recommendations, and would love being able to take a man to comic-con with me. I want to cosplay as Yennefer with a Geralt eventually.

[miss-pyrrha-nikos-isms]

Getting to know the Mun

So, I was tagged by @jaune-isms for this, a person who never fails to make me smile.

1) Relationship Status: Happily engaged to my wonderful fiancee, AuntyQrow. She’s a fantastic lady who is entirely too good for me.

2) Lipstick or Chapstick: Chapstick for kissing, Lipstick for looks

3) Last Song Listened to: ‘Endless Froms Most Beautiful’ by Nightwish. That entire album was amazing. I didn’t think fairytale philiosphical gothic rock could work. I have never been more happily proved wrong.

4) Top 3 Shows: (currently)

RWBY

Game of Throne. (Season 7. Oh. My. Gosh. Just. Yeeeeessssssss.)

Doctor Who.

5) Top 3 Characters: (Gonna exclude the muse. She’s pretty obvious)

Moist Von Lipwig- Discworld. An ex con, but not a bad guy, he swears, enlisted into public service on pain of dying again.

Witch-Hunter General Amora Frey- Tales from Taratorum. An original character from a local LARP. A monster hunter with a drinking problem and protector of the living. Been to the Hells so many time they’re giving her frequent flyer miles. She’d say she’s on the side of angels, but the gods tend to be asses too. 

Kelisor- Mistborn: The Final Empire. A man inspiring a rebellion by doing the impossible with a smile in a world of suffering.

6) Top 3 Ships: (There are sooooo many. How do you think of just 3? Gonna stick to ones involving canon characters.)

Royai- FMA. 

Arkos- RWBY

Soriku- Kingdom Hearts

Tagging @and-his-name-is-rouge-crimson, @alphabeowolf-ism, @vidu26 , @tracer-isms@carr-hayes-isms and @mei-isms