DWCon 2010 - The View From Tech

-by Bodo Bellut

it's 3pm on Wednesday and everything is unpacked and sorted. emails and newsgroups are read, some pictures and Con Reports consumed as well as 12 hours sleep.

My brain's slowly adjusting to reality, random thoughts[1] becoming German again[2] -- so that's it, the Con is finally over and real life is starting again.

It was nice to see so many new faces, meeting with old friends was nice, too, of course.

I was sticking to Tech this time so didn't really see anything outside of the Dysk apart from the Scone & Jam, therefore this report will be somewhat tech centred.

Empty

We took an early flight into Birmingham, arriving at about 07:00 on Thursday morning. Fortunately the distance between airport and hotel is very short as it was raining.

Even though check-in at the hotel officially is 10:00 we had no trouble checking into our room so we dropped our luggage and explored what's going on already.

Interestingly, there was nothing going on at all, the Dysk was empty apart from some chairs, all other rooms were locked.

While walking around I found Xris who arrived on Wednesday already and was an his way to get breakfast. So I joined him and the both of us were soon joined by a relaxed looking Brian. Over the next hour or so most of the Committee appeared and soon setup began.

I stuffed a couple hundred envelopes with Guild Tokens and Rat Race Money until the truck with the stage and tech kit appeared. The big surprise was the six professional riggers who set up the complete stage.

At the end of the day the stage was completed showing the second surprise: The stage was _big_ and it was tiered. There also were moving spots and not one but two fog machines.

So much to do

I don't remember when I went to bed that night, but I rose at 08:00, had a lovely full English breakfast and entered the Dysk at 09:00, this would be a fixed appointment for the next days.

The Dysk was already busy with techs setting up things so I joined in running cables, moving stuff and whatever had to be done.

We played a bit with the lighting desk and before anyone noticed it was already time for Teach Yourself Tech which I missed while running some cables, I believe.

I can't remember seeing so many interested people at Teach Yourself Tech at the past Cons, there were more volunteers than open positions in all events combined.

Afterwards came the setup for the Opening Ceremony; time flew and suddenly people started pouring into the room, the Con was about to start officially.

The very good Opening Ceremony was quickly followed by Terry & Rob's Bedtime Stories and that ended the programme for that day.

For some reason it was 04:00 when I finally went to bed; again, this would be my time for the rest of the Con.

Who needs rehearsal

The time slot from 09:00 to 12:00 was scheduled for the Maskerade Technical Rehearsal, unfortunately only a minority of the attendees used this opportunity to discuss their technical requirements. The cue sheets were promised for 17:00 that day which left us with plenty of time to program the equipment for the entries we already knew about and program some generic settings for all other entries.

Then followed The Man in the Hat and Going Postal in Technicolour the later event being cut short somewhat to make sure we had the full two hours needed for Maskerade setup.

Only some light effects like the rising moon, the lightning storm, the Phoenix Fire and the disco effect had been programmed so the event was run manually for most of the time, it went very well. After the Maskerade I left tech for the day and went to the Hedgehog Party. I again missed Graham's panel on the interesting uses of leather and turned in at 04:00.

Full programme

The Sunday started with the Rocky Horror Discworld(TM) Show rehearsal quickly followed by the Charity Auction. I was in charge of the lights for this event which we all thought would involve lighting the big items on stage and setting up a spot in front of the stage for the regular items.

As it turned out many of the regular items were packed in plastic and were glaring heavily so I ended up permanently adjusting the lights so the cameras would get the best possible pictures.

Then followed the setup for The Coronation of the Low King. This was scheduled with two hours which was plenty of time given the lights should only involve a white spot centre stage and nothing else.

Unfortunately, these requirements were adjusted a couple of times end we ended up with a well lit stage.

I left the Coronation a bit early to get a good seat in the Scone and Jam which turned out to be unnecessary as not only the Gala Dinner but also the Rat Race was running in parallel and people wandered between them.

This ended the day for me.

Science Fiction/Double Feature

Monday brought six hours of Rocky Horror Discworld(TM) Show, four hours rehearsal and two hours show. For some reason the microphones started heaving issues after the first rehearsal run and never again returned completely to their formerly good reliability so the show suffered from some sound drops. Nevertheless the show was brilliant and given the short rehearsal and setup times also a technical masterpiece. It was easily the highlight of the Con.

Then followed the Closing Ceremony and the tear down.

This was also very well organised, in just two hours stage and tech tower as well as all tech equipment in Dysk, Odium and Ankh had been disassembled, stowed into crates and hauled onto a truck.

Speaking of the tear down, this just felt wrong. It is one thing having the Con end but a completely different one to actively be involved in this. After the tear down had started, after the first cables had been

disconnected, the first bolts had been loosened it was obvious the Con had ended for good, there was no way to get this back together and continue just for even the slightest time. The tear down felt like ripping apart the dream the Con was, leaving nothing but wonderful memories (and thousands of photos).

To sum it up

The whole Con was running very smoothly, of course not everything worked as planned but that's to be expected for events like this where there's limited time for planning, setup, and rehearsal.

All of the hotel staff was very accommodating the only problem being the air conditioning which seemed to only have two settings: full or off.

Again it showed that 4 hours sleep a night and living from breakfast and tech snacks alone worked very well. ^_^

The distance between Lancre Forge where Hedgehog Party and Dead Monkey Party happened and the bar was a bit unfortunate as people wandered between both locations.

Being a dry chocoholic at a Discworld Convention is as hard as being a dry alcoholic. ^_^

There's nothing else to say, see you in two year's time -- oh, and Don't dream it, be it.

cu, Bodo

[1] those types of thoughts that just happen when doing unrelated stuff like when brushing your teeth

[2] It was interesting reading a German text while thinking English, usually it's the other way around.

The Closing Ceremony

by Jessica Yates

This was a series of thank-yous, with relief that everything had gone so well. Terry thanked Ops who managed his timetable saying that it was the best-organised convention he had attended. We had the results of the Guild Competition which Jacqueline and her deputies accepted for the Seamstresses (loud cheers).

Before presenting the certificates for the Maskerade, there were two special awards; the first to Davina for her exhibitionism (you had to be there, or maybe not) and the second to Dr. Pat Harkin for his compèring.

Terry praised the Rocky Horror Discworld Show. He had personally obtained the permission from Richard O’Brien for this one-off. “You are the best bunch of loonies there has ever been,” he declared. It was beautifully done, and he would always buy his ice-cream from Beth Warner in future!

Next came a surprise – a non-signed book (joke) from the whole Convention, which Terry vowed not to read! More good news, the charity auction raised over £18,000! After thanking the Hotel staff, and the Guests, Brian requested all his Committee members to parade on stage for their well-deserved applause, which seemed to go on for ever.

Now the announcement we had been waiting for, about the next U.K. Convention! First, we would not have to wait two years for another Discworld Convention as five had already been arranged for 2011: Australia, the Netherlands, North America, Germany and Ireland. But what of our own Convention in 2012? Yes, provisional arrangements had been made for late August to avoid a certain sporting event taking place a little earlier...and maybe in this very hotel. Brian had decided to reprise the role of Chairman (cheers) and Terry had agreed to be Guest of Honour (loud cheers).

And so gradually and reluctantly we began to return to the Roundworld, though there were compensations in my case and probably for everyone else, the DVD of Going Postal and the launch of I shall wear Midnight to keep us cheerful through September.

Desert Island Books

by Ross Younger

(or, "books we think you might care to read whilst marooned on the Nation or waiting for Terry's next work").

Rachel began the discussion by telling us about the "Laundry" series by Charles Stross (The Atrocity Archives, The Jennifer Morgue and The Fuller Memorandum to date) and the "Sharing Knife" series by Lois McMaster Bujold (Beguilement, Legacy and more). She went on to pitch the "Jenny Casey" trilogy by Elizabeth Bear and the "Harry Dresden" series by Jim Butcher.

Mole spoke on two themes, worlds like ours (Guy Gavriel Kay - The Fionavar Tapestry, The Sarantine Mosaic and others) and completely alien worlds (Robert Silverberg - Majipoor series, A Time of Changes, Sailing to Byzantium and more).

Judith cited John Forrest's "The History of Morris Dancing" as a particularly good book to have on a desert island - not only for its in-depth coverage of the subject matter, but also a good example of how to research and write up a topic. She pitched "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein and Lois McMaster Bujold's "Vorkosigan" saga before recommending another fascinating reference book, "The Universal History of Numbers" by Georges Ifrah.

Ross concluded the session with three pitches covering past, present and future. He began by returning to Charles Stross, for the present-day (very near future) "Halting State", then journeyed far into the future with Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon The Deep". He wrapped up with a brief pitch for the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik (first book entitled "Temeraire" or "His Majesty's Dragon" in different editions).

Blood, Guts and Misdirection - The Werewolf Report

by Darrock, Guild of Seamstresses

I was stumbling around, feeling somewhat lost, when I came across a village. It seemed a pleasant enough village to me, with sprawling vineyards (which made very pleasant wine), meandering apple orchards with trees seemingly straight from the garden of Eden itself (which made a very pleasant cider) and some farming bits so you wouldn’t starve.

Suffice to say, I decided to stay overnight at the local inn, so that I could continue my wanderings the following day. The innkeeper looked somewhat nervously at me, but could not say no to the cash I brandished and so he let me stay. He did give warnings to close and lock the doors and windows at night and I wondered idly at the sincerity in his voice since there did not seem a reason to block out the warm summer air.

The following morning, I woke to cries of alarm and concern. The villagers wailed and a great ruckus ensued. I dressed and packed, unsure of what was happening, but certain that the villagers were in distress. As I ventured downstairs, I noticed a group of four burly farmers in quiet conversation with the innkeeper, who was gesticulating frantically but keeping his voice low.

As they saw me come down the stairs, one of the farmers accosted me and demanded to know what the farmer had told me last night. I told them that he had warned me to lock doors and windows and for some reason they seemed satisfied by this and left.

As I was preparing to leave the town, I saw a large crowd gathered round an old yew tree. Being inquisitive by nature, I strolled across to enquire of the happenings and discovered, to my horror, that a young lady was being hung. In morbid fascination, I spoke to various people to discover that a small child had been savaged and killed overnight and that the townspeople blamed this poor lady of the crime, believing her to be a werewolf.

After this, I left the village hastily, feeling that perhaps I should avoid such insane retributions in case the finger of blame should shift my way. After all, the meal last night had been very nice, but there were always other villages, less aware of the dangers than this one...

Werewolf was a very enjoyable game, held in over this weekend and it was great fun. If you have not had a chance to join in a game, do try to make the time and see what the fuss is all about.

Elves – nasty or nice? A lecture by Jacqueline Simpson

By Jessica Yates

Just after Dr. Simpson began lecturing to over 200 fans, her discourse was interrupted by the Queen of the Fairies, who “froze” her, then announced that she had heard a human was discussing Elves and would be keeping a close eye on the proceedings. Now she would take the spell off our lecturer – and watch from the back.

Jacqueline recovered from her dizzy spell and continued her lecture, speaking mainly by heart with readings from her booklet which contained an expanded version of the talk (just published by Bernard, with a foreword by Terry Pratchett, it is now available in the Dealers’ Room.

Near the end of the fascinating lecture, which there is no need to summarise, the Fairy Queen (Periwinkle) returned and went on the attack, but Jacqueline boldly brandished a silver poker and forced her to retreat!

The Man in the Hat

By Jessica Yates

Terry, later joined by Stephen Baxter, was interviewed by Brian with some questions submitted by the members.

Q: Why does Ankh-Morpork have dollars and not pounds?
A: Many countries use or have used dollars – pounds are too English. Mark Twain introduced dollars in Connecticut Yankee – most people know the film not the book – TP praised the book highly for its exploration the too sudden introduction of technology into a medieval culture.

Q: We heard the extract from Snuff. Country versus city – which are you?
A: My ideal is to be a country man living just beyond easy reach to a city. Cities are where civilization comes from.
He then talked about the freedom of the individual, “your house is your castle” and so on.

The talk then moved to Terry’s sword.
Q: Does it have a name?
A: Albion, and I’m going to get Lionel to christen it.
They talked about the remote possibility of using a sword for a zombie Apocalypse.

TP said that he was not the Discworld chronicler, for example he didn’t know what was happening to Rincewind. Snuff or Midnight reference some of the same places. the important thing is to get the book started.

In answer to a question about why he didn’t save his drafts for literary researchers, unlike other writers, he said he didn’t see it as his job, the finished book was what mattered.

Stephen Baxter came on stage and we were treated to a semi-private conversation in which he and Terry batted ideas about the Long Earth project back and forth. Much needs to be developed before they can start. terry wanted Stephen on board because he wanted science and science fiction but no magic.

With reference to the collaboration Stephen said that to work with Terry was like jamming with Paul McCartney.

Church of Om

by Jessica Yates

This ever-popular event was supervised by Lionel and Mole under their Omnian soubriquets and was so well attended the leaflets ran out (and could not be caught – sorry!).

After Mole’s introduction explaining why the Church had sent him to preach in Bonk (you had to be there!) we sang the usual hymn “Om is trampling the unrighteous”. Lionel performed the (real and sincere) Blessing of Sister Periwinkle and Brother Butcher. We accepted our theological instruction and heard the parish notices, especially tailored for Bonk, such as Count von Sturmunddrang invites young ladies to meet for the embroidery circle at midnight – virgins only.

There would be a werewolf awareness meeting, Igor’s Bring and Buy Sale, and the Dwarf Outreach Group had organised a Dwarf speed-dating event – wear leather gear and hoods.

Our final hymn was based on Abide with me, emended to request Om to shield us from vampires and werewolves.

The service was held in the presence of a very fine image of Om, with the guest appearance of Offler and the goddess Libertina and as always, contained a genuine spiritual and ecumenical uplift.

Thanks to Mole for planning the service and organising the A3 leaflets, and Lionel for co-officiating, and Sister torture on the organ.

Going Postal in Technicolor: Behind the scenes of Going Postal with Ian Sharples from Mob Films

By Jessica Yates

Going Postal was filmed in Budapest, Hungary because it was cheaper and the city had a fantastic architecture which fitted Ankh-Morpork. There was a good local tech, the crew had already shot Eragon and Robin Hood for example. The studio already has a fantastic back lot to which they added new sets. They were in regular contact with Terry over the set design.

We were shown drawings of clacks towers and an operator, and photos of the constructing the clacks towers.

The background folk all read the book as well as the script to get the art direction right. We then saw stills interspersed with short videos.

Terry entered and opened the theme of what the next Discworld movie is going to be. Currently it is rumoured to be Sourcery, but there’s a change of heart, going with the cast we have, e.g. Vetinari, Ridcully...
A cast with lots of spectators. Is it going to be the Wee Free Men? But Terry had a football-like ball on the table...

TP complimented Mob on doing Discworld as Discworld should be done. “We know where to get the best extras” he added.
As it’s difficult to get audience on Sky at Christmastime, the next possible showing time is Easter 2012 – that means filming in 2011.

After watching the scene with Moist on the horse, the session closed with a showing of the hilarious DVD extra “Return to Sender”.

So it will be Unseen Academicals – you heard it first!

Choice morsels from the “Man with no hat” interview

by Elias Helfer
Displaying a noticeable lack of male figures in headwear, this year’s Guest of Honor interview failed miserably to live up to its name: “The Man with the Hat.” Chairman Brian Nisbet interviewed Terry on subjects ranging from how to come up with names to the possible future of Tiffany Aching, before bringing Stephen Baxter on stage to discuss Terry’s and his coming collaboration, The Long Earth.


Why Dollars?
The first question dealt with the currency of the Disc: why did Terry choose to name the Ankh Morpork currency Dollars instead of pounds?
To this, Terry countered that there are more countries in the world using dollars than pounds, going into the origins of the word dollar from the original word “Joachimsthaler.” Apart from that, he wanted to mix things up a little, not making things too British.
“Besides, they have pennies instead of cents.”

The poor literary historians…
Brian then quoted Terry saying how he saved a number of drafts on his computer, then, when the book was done, shouting “Get a real job, literary historians of the future,” deleting everything but the finished thing. One literary historian had handed in a question citing this quote, adding: “Why?”
Terry quibbed that he’d inherited a certain disregard for literary historians from his father. Though the quote was also made in a time where the technical realities were quite different.
“Back then, I saved my files on floppy discs that were actually floppy,” Terry remembers.
“Nowadays, each new computer has more capacity than all the computers I had before it put together.”
Back then, the limited storage space necessitated weeding out excess files ever so often. Nowadays, saving every draft of a book barely makes a dent in the available space on the hard drive. That means that nowadays, a lot more gets saved.
 But that doesn’t mean that Terry would be happy to let people delve into his drafts.
“It’s about craftsmanship.”
And just as a master swordsmith throws away the shards and ashes that have gone into the crafting of a fine swords, the drafts that Terry make are just tools used in the process of writing the book.
“The book that is printed is the book I wanted to write. The rest is just steps on the way.”

Coming up with names
One congoer had wanted to know how Terry comes up with names. In many different ways, it turned out.
One good source is lists of old names
“It’s amazing how few names I actually have to come up with.”
Other names come to more as a matter of inspiration – like Bestiality Carter
“It occurred to me, that if people name their daughters after virtues, they might name their boys after sins. Some people might actually do that.”
Other names have no basis in anything in Roundworld.
“When coming up for the name for Angua, I was just playing around with sounds,” Terry recalls.
Sometimes, of course, a name proves to have unanticipated connotations.
“When I came up with Tiffany Aching, I wanted a name that didn’t sound anything like the name of a witch. Which is a bit ironic, since the name Tiffany comes from the word ‘epiphany.’”
Tifffany also proves the difficulties involved in translating books:
“I know that in some other languages, Tiffany is used to refer to either hairdressers, or women who you bring with you to your hotel room at night.”

I Shall Wear Midnight
On the topic of Tiffany, Brian and Terry continued on to talk about the book I shall wear midnight, which is set to release this coming Wednesday at midnight (when else?).
Terry explained that one American fan of The Boy That We Shan’t Mention had seen the Tiffany books as an attack on J.K. Rowling’s books.
“Which is ridiculous, since Granny were saying those things all the way back in Equal Rites,” Terry exclaimed
“The thing is, magic is hard. And it isn’t sparkly. The only thing you’re allowed – your only right – is your broomstick.”
Terry went on to say that a life as a witch was not glamorous, but rather very hard work.
“It’s a tough life with only a few satisfactions.”
Being a witch is “a dirty job, doing the things society needs someone to do.”

Stephen Baxter and the Long Earth
After talking to Terry alone for some 45 minutes, Brian called Stephen Baxter up to join them on the stage.
First they talked discussed how Terry had gotten into writing fantasy.
“I’ve done two not very good sci-fi novels,” Terry started.
After that, Terry wrote The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic as a spoof of bad copies of Tolkien.
"I thought: let’s treat all these creatures as if they were real people. Now real people are sometime being rational, sometimes being stupid.”
Then, around the time of Equal Rites, Terry found that the Discworld had started making him money. And so, one book took another, and he never returned to sci-fi.
The idea that lead to The Long Earth came to Terry around this time. Seeing a man seemingly pushing a horse into a pub, he started imagining a man who found an entire world, devoid of human life, the man taking livestock etc. with him to this world to live.
This evolved into the basic idea for The Long Earth: What if mankind found a way to go to all the earths that could have been – and found that only one of them contained Homo sapiens? Suddenly, scarcity of land would not be a problem – every man could get a galaxy of earths to himself!
Of course, the fact that the other worlds contain no human life doesn’t mean they provide no obstacles to human settlement. First of all, with no human civilization, most of the earth will be covered in woods. So provided the explorers manage to avoid materializing inside a tree, they will be in the middle of acres and acres of forest with a visibility of 15 feet. Secondly, “no humans” doesn’t mean “no threatening creatures,” or indeed, “no intelligent life” (Terry and Stephen were trying to keep quiet about much of the plot of the book, but some things were hinted at).
Another thing that was implied was that there will be at least two strands in the story: the story of someone who goes down the line of the many different Earths, going out to explore alone – and the story of those who stay behind, suddenly finding a world being left behind by everyone else. The phrase used was something of the lines of: “What would happen to the ruling classes if all the workers suddenly disappeared?”
Without promising anything, the two authors indicated that there might well be one or more sequels to The Long Earth, Terry saying that he had a perfect title for the final book set in the world.
Brian ended the interview by asking the authors what they’d say to, say, Discworld fans who were worried about Terry writing a sci-fi book. Stephen answered by saying that “this is Terry going back to his roots!”
Terry followed up on that saying that when writing in the real world, you must follow the rules of the real world, and those rules include science – so it helps to have someone who understands science. But when writing Discworlds, there are rules to follow just the same – only difference is, that those rules were set up by Terry.
And with that, Brian ended the interview, commenting that if one of his guests had run as much over time as he had, he would have been angry with them.

The Opening Ceremony

By Jessica Yates
The ceremony opened with an evocation of the “knockermen” tradition of the dwarf mines. A knockerman in his working uniform made his way through the fog as the story was told.
Then with a crash, bang and aspotlight, on came Terry, wielding a large sword. “I am so angry! Stephen Briggs has got Inigo Montoya’s sword! Well, I have the Sword of Death!
This is the 7th Discworld Convention!
Journalists say we are a bunch of weirdos – yes we are!
Thank you for your fanmail about my health – it’s OK at the moment.”

Terry praised the new software which allows him to dictate his books with Rob’s help. He has the only computer which can say Crivens! and have a Nac Mac Feegle vocabulary.

“I’ve done 20,000 words in the last few weeks, and if it wasn’t for me having to waste my time with you lot...
There is a streak of madness in the British monarchy – I was tapped on the shoulder by the Queen. I think she said, “Can we have another one with Rincewind in it?”

Terry has made himself a real sword – with help – from digging out the iron ore, smelting, to the finish. Didn’t bring it along though – could have been done for “knife crime”.

He hoped his dad and granddad are proud to see him a knight, he knows they would have been proud he is a millionaire.
“A knighthood is worth nothing and everything – it’s a pass to start speaking up and making a nuisance of yourself. You can bully the bullies.”

His diagnosis 3 years ago has led him to a different kind of life – hopes to meet all (!) of us this weekend. (Prolonged applause).

Brian then came on to do the boring stuff.

Interview with Stephen Baxter

by Jessica Yates
Stephen Baxter is one of Britain’s leading novelists of hard SF, and also a veteran conventioneer. Having previously collaborated with Arthur C. Clarke, and being a long-term professional colleague of Terry’s, he developed an interest in Terry’s unpublished writings of the Long Earth (see Convention souvenir book page 23). The pair have now announced they will collaborate on at least two novels to open the series.
This is not about alternative worlds where human history has run a different course, it’s about exploring Earth-type worlds where no humans have evolved. (For example, Britain would be one big forest.)

Mr. Baxter had read many, but not all Discworld books, and among his favourites are Mort, Monstrous Regiment and Feet of Clay. He feels that although they write in different genres, they have plenty in common under the surface to do with the serious purpose of their work.

Would Baxter be fazed by the large number of fans in costume? Not at all, he enjoys the spectacle, and has also attended Fanderson conventions!

As a member of the Guild of Journalists, Stephen Baxter, welcome to Discworld!

Terry and Rob’s Bedtime Stories

by Jessica Yates
First Roba came on, and after some jokes, Terry came on and Robe proposed to read from I Shall Wear Midnight. Terry objected to Rob doing the Feegles – he couldn’t get the accent right. So Rob put away his proof copy of Midnight, and produced a typescript of Snuff – work in progress. (Applause!)

Since nearly everyone at the Convention was at the Dysk, I need not tell you whar we heard, but for those who weren’t we shall meet a newish species and explore a new part of Discworld. Oh – and it’s about Vimes – and Vetinari makes an appearance.

Thanks to Terry for sharing his draft with us, and to Rob for reading it.

Simpson debates the role of fairies

by Cheresse
Jacqueline Simpson risked the wrath  of the Queen of the Fairies at 12:00 Saturday afternoon with a bold dive into the history of Man's interaction with the Lords and Ladies, and the differing interpretations of elves and their actions.

An Audience with Stephen Briggs

By Jessica Yates
The room was nearly full, and Stephen opened by wondering if he’d come to the right place!

He announced he wouldn’t make a speech, he’d turn the session into a giant Q&A Klatch.
Before he started he showed us a wonderful replica sword, which had come into his possession via his am-dram connections and had originally been a rehearsal sword for The Princess Bride, which he had hoped to adapt for the stage. He draw it and posed as Inigo Montoya with “Hello!” (murmurs of admiration)

The Qs and As began with “Will you marry my mum?”
A: I’m here on my partner’s birthday, every 2 years it clashes with Discworld.

Q: When you read a new Terry Pratchett novel, do you lose yourself into the story or do you think about adapting it straight away?
A: Yes, I start thinking about the play from the outset. A book can change a lot from first idea to publication. The football game in Unseen Academicals was a problem, but most games in drama are off-stage anyway.
The the National Theatre staged Nation, and he saw how the professionals adapted Terry’s work – even more than he does. He saw the cinema version in Oxford and noted big changes.

Q: Is your favourite book the same as your favourite play?
A: Recently we redid Wyrd Sisters which was very well on stage. Mort is my favourite book – it got me into Discworld. It’s where Terry moved from parody into creating his world.

Q: Why don’t we see you on Sky1 as Vetinari?
A: Not for want of asking – a long story but they had decided to go for professional and well-known actors – Charles Dance especially – “out of my league”.
Comment: “Maybe they’ll run out of other people to ask!”
SB: I am on the Colour of Magic DVD as an extra.

Q: What’s it like to play Vetinari?
A: I like it – I wear black, I know everything. It’s been a weird journey. He started out not looking like me, and now he does. I had Ian Richardson in House of Cards in mind – Terry thought the guy who played the villain in Die Hard – he had a beard so I grew one. [that’s Alan Rickman, JY]. Also, TP suggested an Elizabethan feel, Blackadder 2, SB felt like the Cardinal in Amadeus.

Q: What are you doing now?
A: TP’s new books coming out more slowly so I am redoing his canon. Planning to redo Carpe Jugulum, but this November doing Shakespeare’s Dream.

Q: Have you any tips for adapters?
A: Be prepared to throw away stuff you really like.

Q: What scene do you regret dumping most?
A: I cut Death out of Wyrd Sisters first time, second time – he still didn’t fit, he shows up too late. In general, concepts rather than technicalities (e.g. Thief of Time) make it harder to stage some novels. Effects can be done with imagination.

Finally he talked about reading Terry’s books for audio CDs, which he does for American and British companies. The Nac Mac Feegles are hard to differentiate. He is about to read I Shall Wear Midnight – twice!

A Con Report - at last - from a tired Guild Deputy

Well, I'm finally in a fit state to write something! It's only taken 3 days to recover from the bone-weary sense of fatigue. But I wouldn't have changed a SINGLE THING ... except maybe to have ensured that the Procrastinators were fully charged. I was painfully aware as the Con got into full swing that there were many, many clashes in my own personal schedule

However, I'm getting ahead of myself!

I arrived at the Hilton about teatime on Thursday (and definitely agree with other people's thoughts on the hotel! Gosh, it was BIG!) I made it through Registration in one piece and, attempting to get the trolley to obey, staggered off to find my room (4227). Not a bad size, with an en-suite bathroom and a sofa - mind you, I didn't get to see much of the room except in the early hours of the morning, when I went to bed!

I headed downstairs and decided to get a drink at the "The Bunch of Grapes". I was pounced on by Beth (a con newbie all the way from Delhi, although born in Houston). She'd seen my Con T-shirt and had taken the plunge, as she didn't know anyone. That soon stopped, as she threw herself into the Convention spirit with gusto. She'd joined the Seamstresses Guild and I have the photos to prove that she filled a corset VERY well. :-))

I soon caught up with my other Guild Deputy, Loriba, and the 3 of us enjoyed some rather pleasant nachos. It set the tone for the rest of the Con - good food, good friends and a LOT of fun. Loriba and I realised that we had a LOT to do and started planning and plotting.

The next few days are a bit more of a blur - I can remember getting up anywhere between 0700 and 0830 most mornings (Friday morning I actually made it to the Hotel's pool, which was very nice). But for the most part it was Loriba and I meeting for breakfast and trying to plan what we were going to do for the day, creating posters, putting them up, talking with the Monks of Cool (who were AWESOME - thanks to Abbot Orjan, Leo, Gideon and Drachii), liaising with the other Deputies to try and ensure we were all co-operating (Many thanks to the ones who I pestered and cajoled - Periwinkle, Marlies, Winterbay, Snow, Eelco, Eric, Kary-Ann and Viv, Judith and Marco - you were wonderful to work with), and getting to Guild events to ensure that our members had some moral support. (Huge thanks to Davina, Xris, Torak, Flexor, Sabremeister, Kirsten, Richard, Thomas, Yoo, Dave, and especially Kai who all performed so brilliantly. I know there were many others - the couple in Maskerade who did the Agnes/Ghost duet and all the people who turned up to support the Conjurors' Guild, but I can't remember any more names).

We produced some interesting games, as a Guild, which a lot of lovely people turned up to and seemed to enjoy:

"Where's the Mime, MiLord?" - a Discworld variant on "What's the Time Mister Wolf". We were completely floored when Stephen Briggs actually agreed to play Lord Vetinari for us and the Dark Clerks (thanks to Drumknott and Yoo) provided a Portable Scorpion Kit (every tyrant should have one!) Everyone (including Stephen) appeared to enjoy themselves, we even had volunteers to be Guards to drag the helpless or maybe hapless victims to the PSP - very silly and a LOT of fun! (Sorry to Pat's talk next door - we did try to whisper "Pit, pit, pit" at the appropriate times!)

A Live Thud Match! - Loriba was a complete STAR here! She (and her lovely Mum) created the board out of lining paper and some little flags of Red (D for Dwarf) and Blue (T for Troll). She even had a pin board mapped out for the players to use and plan their moves. We were worried that we wouldn't get the people for this (after all - 32 dwarves, 8 trolls and 2 players!) but we needn't have worried! Bernard Pearson (our lovely Guild Leader) said that he'd make a special badge for everyone who played (or was a piece) and the Con turned up trumps!! We even had an audience and an Assassin for a ref (how appropriate). Many thanks to ALL who turned up and agreed to stand around on a board in the evening - you were all WONDERFUL, but special thanks to Pieter and Ynte our players (congratulations again to Pieter for winning) and to Kural Kushi - our ref at short notice!

The Condensed Discworld Competition - which ran for the whole Con. The task was to reduce the plot of a DW novel to a single sentence (Brevity is Best) and pop it in the box at Ops. A HUGE thank you to the 4 lovely people who agreed to be our judges Monday morning - Judith "Lady Vanessa" Proctor, Lisa "CCA" Williams, Pat "the Compere" Harkin and Bernard "the Cunning Artificer" Pearson. They had a LOT of entries to go through but they finally whittled their way down to 4 that were the cream and Bernard picked the Overall Winner

Maskerade "Ahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!" by Carolyn (M.O.P.P)
Xris got an Honourable Mention as he'd created a limerick of ALL the novels!!

The Trolls' Dress-Tease - this was very silly but seemed to go OK. Xris and Butcher very kindly agreed to be our Trolls and even allowed RJW76 to paint them grey! We then had two Seamstresses (actually the two Deputies, Essy and Periwinkle) race to dress them. Essy & Xris appeared to be going for total body coverage and speed, whereas Periwinkle and Butcher were going for the artistic look. We allowed the audience to judge and they chose Essy and Xris! Worthy winners!

Just A Minute - There were two sessions - I only managed to make one - Torak as host and Davina, Judith, Alison (Mrs Davina) and Periwinkle started - but I've written about this already. I wish I'd seen the Post Watershed one - it was apparently excellent, with an extra rule of "unnecessary cleanliness" joining the more traditional "hesitation, repetition and deviation."

I know there were more things. I actually saw the How to Buckle a Swash this time, took part in Walk the Walk with Kai (who was BRILLIANT), attended A Time and Place for Music (ahh! the Unholy Round with Mole - magic) and also Toast & Jam where a lot of wonderful musicians covered up my singing :-) (thanks Eric, Edmund and the rest of you all for making me sound reasonable), there were some awesome voices there.

Got to see Maskerade again (well done, all the participants - you were ALL great); attend the Gala Dinner (and wear a posh frock); ride a winning dragon (even if the other riders were inhumed around me. ;-) Watched the Reduced Discworld Production (masterfully done guys! Loved the 50 ft woman), and adored the HolyWood ending (Congratulations to you both!!).

Missed the Charity Auction this year (sigh), both the gophering and the watching, although it was lovely to hear that the Beastiary made £40 (woo hoo) -- there's an animal of mine in there (nice warm fuzzy feeling).

I got to see LOADS of people and talk with at least half, run around like the proverbial fly, eat, drink, HAVE FUN and occasionally (very occasionally) sleep! Biggest thanks must go to the Guild of Conjurors, Thespians and Associated Trades members, but the BIGGEST must go to Loriba who was absolutely wonderful and put up with me the whole weekend!

*rubs hands together*
So - how long til 2010?

*grin*

Ssirienna
(Guild Deputy - Guild of Conjurors, Thespians and Associated Trades)

Prizes!

A quick list of the main prize winners as announced at the Closing Ceremony - more prizes and links to follow!

Prizes, Prizes, Prizes!



Karen/hypatia, still half asleep...

Death by Chocolate - Take 2

After some conventioneers were struck down by food poisoning attributed to the Chocolate Tasting Competition* Terry was heard to say,
"You poisoned four out of eighty? That's just not even trying."

To those who were unwell, all my sympathies, to those who survived unscathed, the scores ranged from two to 11 successful identifications, with the most common being six.

The only chocolate successfully identified by all entrants was the Lindt Chilli, the only one never identified correctly was Harrods Belgian Chocolate

Many thanks to all who took part, and left enough chocolate to give presents to the wonderful hotel staff.

Chris Boote

*Now renamed the Lady Lucrezia da Quirm Memorial Wine and Arsenic Party

Limericks

Lots of people asked about my limericks after they were mentioned in the closing ceremony so;

The Reduced Discworld

The Colour of Magic

A tourist in Ankh is at risk
With Rincewind as guide it's quite brisk
To travel the world
Until they are hurled
In a bronze fish-shaped ship off the disk

The Light Fantastic

Rincewind's got a spell in his head
So others now all want him dead
The spell knows what it's doing
And gets cast so A'Tuin's
baby turtles hatch from the star red

Equal Rites

Eskarina's a wizard, AND witch
So as trainee to Granny she's hitched
She runs off to UU
And staves off the hoodoo
By NOT doing magic (neat switch!)

Mort

Apprenticed to Death (with his scythe)
Is an odd way to work out your life
After a major disaster
He makes up with his master
And takes Ysabella to wife

Sourcery

Coin is a sourcerous lad
Though ruled by his death-cheating Dad
Wizards make a great din
Even Rincewind joins in
But we're saved when Coin's dad calls him bad

Wyrd Sisters

It's Shakespeare, with witches and kings
And a play with Death in the wings
Granny flies (despite fears)
The kingdom sleeps for years
And the Jester steps into the ring

Pyramids

Pteppic's called back to his home
Where the customs make him feel alone
But twisted up time
Puts his life on the line
'Til he kills a great tomb made of stone

Guards! Guards!

A dragon swoops down from above
The Guards, led by Vimes, get the shove
But Carrot arrests it
After young Errol bests it
Then they fly off together, in love!

FaustEric

With a Bang, our Rincewind is back
Taking Eric to see all he lacks
From Creation to End
Then Hell's steps descend
But they escape through a door in the back

Moving Pictures

Holywood magic's in town
Turning UU upside down
Victor's a new star
Gaspode will go far
And the Girl and Beast tumble down

Reaper Man

To Death Windle Poons cannot pass
'Cos Death is out mowing the grass
While the Auditors try
To make our Death die
The wizards go out and kick arse!

Witches Abroad

The witches are all in a tizz
They're off on some Creole-based biz
There's trouble about
It's the stories, no doubt
Then Lilly knows not who she is

Small Gods

Brutha thinks he's going to hell
His god has come back – with a shell
After a torturing session
Om learns a lesson
Belief must bind the Gods as well

Lords and Ladies

The Fair Folk are back with a plan
To capture a small bit of land
They antagonise Nanny
Infuriate Granny
And Magrat stands up for her man

Men At Arms

Edward De'ath was quite mad
And stole the Gonne, what a lad!
Then he went round the bend
But we find out in the end
The worst King would be Good, and not Bad

Soul Music

The music took over Imp Y
To channel its strange mystery
After seeing the coach burnt
Susan has now learnt
That some things must be left to be

Interesting Times

For Cohen and Rincewind it's rough
To take Agatea is tough
It all seems to go wrong
They're threatened by Hong
Then the Barking Dog coughs, that's enough

Maskerade

Poor Agnes must stand in the wings
While the Phantom applies deadly stings
To Opera folk at whim
Only Granny can stop him
And at last, the fat lady sings

Feet of Clay

The golems created a King
Vetinari near death's hovering.
What was the reason?
A lamp made of poison!
Vimes sheds the light on some things

Hogfather

The Fat Man is suddenly gone
Death and Albert their red robes must don
Teatime's the man
For the Auditors plan
But Susan makes sure life goes on

Jingo

Those Klatchian bounders, egad!
Run by their Sultan, the Cad
We set sail for Klatch
It ends in a match
When the island sinks no one is sad

The Last Continent

We're all off to Oz, Oh my Gawd!
The Faculty chaps are aboard
It's all rather tragic
But after Rain Magic
Rincewind finally gets his reward

Carpe Jugulum

The King has invited a bunch
Of Vampires for a christening lunch
The Magpyres are canny
But no match for Granny
They won't be back, I've a hunch

The Fifth Elephant

Werewolves want to rule by fang
The dwarves have elected their King
Vimes must solve mysteries
Of thefts and old histories
And a game of fetch ends with a bang

The Truth

Movable print has arrived
How will Ankh-Morpork ever survive
Against Vetinari, a plot
By the papers is shot
And a free press continues to thrive

Thief of Time

A clock made of glass isn't good
So off must go sweeper and Ludd
To rebuild the continuum
Susan flirts with Time's son
And you know that she would, if she could!

Night Watch

Poor Vimes was in a bad fight
Now he's dropped back 30 years out of sight
A quick substitution,
In the Glorious revolution
He still manages to do what is right

Monstrous Regiment

The girlies are all off to war
But just what are they fighting for?
Jackrum's a rascal
And makes a truce in the castle
But can they make sure that peace reigns once more?

Going Postal

The Ankh Morpork post is not great
(some letters are 40 years late)
A con man is knowing
How to get it all going
And the Clacks are now owned by the State

Thud!

A dwarf has been killed in the mud
A Troll teaches Vimes to play Thud
The Dark is all raged up
But Vimes keeps it caged up
A watchman right down to his blood

Making Money

Lipwig's got bored with his job
So with bankers he must now hob nob
But what's to be done
When the gold is all gone?
Golems will now do the job!

Chris Boote, Gopher, Watchman, dressed troll and no longer a Dyskhead (hooray!)

Moving Pictures by the Reduced Discworld Company

Directed by John Hicks, this production was able to use some costumes and props from his recent production for KATS, and one could tell a lot of work had gone into practising different accents and magnifying certain voices.

As ever, Tim Williams was a reliable leading man, capturing the naivety and dashing heroism of Victor, while Jacqui Lawrence as Ginger had the right standoffishness together with the glamour - in several clinging dresses.

They were ably backed by a large cast of whom I shall mention Kate Oldroyd as Gaspode, Richard Atha-Nicholls as CMOT Dibbler, Tony Perkins as Silverfish and Josh Mace doubling as Death and Oswald. Detritus' rocky grey costume was outstanding.

The adaptation cleverly reduced the text to a core of key scenes, and some of the action had to be narrated when it couldn't be shown, especially Nobby and Colon describing the 50-foot woman and the librarian - which we also briefly saw.

The play ended with a clinch between Ginger and Victor, and that Holy Wood magic lingered even longer for a marriage proposal and acceptance between two of the supporting cast during the curtain call!

Jesca Yates

Photo: Robert "Otto" Flach

The Folklore of Discworld

Jacqueline Simpson, who with Terry is co-author of The Folklore of Discworld, selected some major examples of the connection between Roundworld and Discworld folklore.

Discworld often takes literally what in our world is regarded as superstition. Terry and Jackie have both expressed regret that so much British folklore is disappearing from our culture and Terry has found via fan mail that people don't always understand his folklore references. This new book sets out to explain some of them.

Jacqueline spoke of Whinny Moor, and the connection between the gnarly ground in Carpe Jugulum and the old ballad The Lyke-Wake Dirge. She spoke of narrativium and how a strong idea on Earth penetrates to Discworld, for example, Hwel receives particles of plays by Shakespeare and others.

Jacqueline told us that the traditional witch's garb of pointy hat and black robe came in very late. In early modern woodcuts they wear ordinary peasant clothes. In 1762 Hogarth drew a cartoon on Superstition in which a preacher holds a model of a witch with hat and broomstick. So where did he get the idea? From Discworld, perhaps...

She then spoke of good or white witches and cunning men, who were real village people.
Terry and Jackie had discovered additional links of which they were previously unaware such as in the case of the witch's "shamble" or magical cat's cradle. In Germany a cat's cradle is called Das Hexenspiel or "The Witch's Game".

We heard that the story of Leshp is based on sailors' stories about landing on a whale and thinking it's an island. Jacqueline had also found a reference to the whale in a medieval bestiary, described as aspido chelone or aspido testudo, thus equating the whale with a turtle!

Waterstones had secured agreement to bring along pre-release copies of Jacqueline's book to Sator Square. These sold like hotcakes and many members have left with a whole new collection of annotations signed by a very engaging author.


Jesca Yates