Susan Sto Helit Counts as a Witch.

Cause I say so. This means I get to talk about Hogfather for Yule! Favorite quote:

"Wherever people are obtuse and absurd...and wherever they have, by even the most generous standards, the attention span of a small chicken in a hurricane and the investigative ability of a one-legged cockroach...and wherever people are inanely credulous, pathetically attached to the certainties of the nursery and, in general, have as much grasp of the realities of the physical universe as an oyster has of mountaineering...yes, Twla, there is a Hogfather."

I wish I had a copy with this cover! Oh well, perhaps I can make some pork pies instead, seeing as how I already own the boring American covered one.

These are not the Wee Free Men.

Much as I love the Nac Mac Feegle, they are not sexy in any way. However, this array of beautiful people is getting me in the Yuletide Spirit. Yep, I'm stretching for the Pratchett connection. At least I streamed Hogfather from Netflix last night. :)

I Shall Wear Midnight Review

The Book Aunt is another blogger who SQUEES when she hears of a new Terry Pratchett. The lucky duck got an advance reading copy of the text, so here is a link to her review. It is spoilerish, but not terribly so. Tiffany goes to Ankh-Morpork! So I'm betting she does meet up with Esk, the woman wizard. 

Wee Wee Mens!

Wentworth, Tiffany Aching's little brother, ends up calling the Nac Mac Feegle the Wee Wee Mens. Hey, it's better than constantly demanding candy!

Here is some more good witchy stuff from The Wee Free Men:

'"It's like stories," said Tiffany. "It's all right. I worked it out. This is the school, isn't it? The magic place? The world. Here. And you don't realize it until you look. Do you know the pictsies think this world is heaven? We just don't look. You can't give lessons on witchcraft. Not properly. It's all about how you are...you, I suppose."
   "Nicely said," said Mistress Weatherwax. "You're sharp. But there's magic, too. You'll pick that up. It don't take much intelligence, other wise wizards wouldn't be able to do it."' (pp. 356-7)

Granny Weatherwax, foremost of the leaders the witches don't have, goes on: '"We look to...the edges. There's a lot of edges, more than people know. Between life and death, this world and the next, night and day, right and wrong...an' they need watchin'. We watch 'em, we guard the sum of things. And we never ask for any reward. That's important."
    "People give us stuff, mind you. People can be very gen'rous to witches," said Mrs. Ogg happily. "on bakin' days in our village, sometimes I can't move for cake. There's ways and ways of not askin', if you get my meaning. People like to see a happy witch."
   "But down here people think witches are bad!" said Tiffany, but her Second Thoughts added: Remember how rarely Granny Aching ever had to buy her own tobacco? (p. 357-8)

The Wee Free Men

So let's go through the Tiffany Aching books until 9/28, when I Shall Wear Midnight zips into my Kindle. The Wee Free Men (2003) introduces Tiffany & the Chalk country of the Disc. I could quote almost the whole book as advice on what a witch truly is & should be. As this is the 1st book of the series, Tiffany is only 9 years old, and Miss Tick (heh) has just "found" her as a new witch. I love when they meet, bristling around each other like 2 cats, sizing each other up:

"Witches don't use magic unless they really have to. It's hard work and difficult to control. We do other things A witch pays attention to everything that's going on. A witch uses her head. A witch is sure of herself. A witch always has a piece of string...Although there's more to witchcraft than string. A witch delights in small details. A witch sees through things and around things . A witch sees farther than most. A witch sees things from the other side. A witch knows where she is, who she is, and when she is." (p. 32) Yep, Miss Perspicacia Tick, that gets at it!

Tiffany takes on the wicked witch stereotype: "And all the stories had, somewhere, the witch. The wicked old witch. 
   And Tiffany had thought, Where's the evidence?
   The stories never said why she was wicked. It was enough to be an old woman, enough to be all alone, enough to look strange because you had no teeth. It was enough to be called a witch." (p.34)

As I said, the whole text is sound witchy advice, and hilarity ensues with the pictsies. Little blue men in kilts with a deep appreciation for the Special Sheep Liniment. There is more good stuff, especially when Granny Weatherwax & Nanny Ogg arrive at the end. I will get to it!

Almost release time for I Shall Wear Midnight!!

We are getting close! I Shall Wear Midnight will be released on September 2nd in the UK. Sir Terry will be signing copies at a bookshop, so that's a good indication of his continued intact mind.

I just attempted to get I Shall Wear Midnight delivered to my Kindle from Amazon UK. Stinkers would not do it, so I must wait until September 28th. Stinking stinky effing stupid stinkers.

Oh wellieboots, here is the product description from Amazon US. It sounds wonderfully witch positive:

Product Description

It starts with whispers.
Then someone picks up a stone.
Finally, the fires begin.
When people turn on witches, the innocents suffer. . . .
Tiffany Aching has spent years studying with senior witches, and now she is on her own. As the witch of the Chalk, she performs the bits of witchcraft that aren’t sparkly, aren’t fun, don’t involve any kind of wand, and that people seldom ever hear about: She does the unglamorous work of caring for the needy.
But someone—or something—is igniting fear, inculcating dark thoughts and angry murmurs against witches. Aided by her tiny blue allies, the Wee Free Men, Tiffany must find the source of this unrest and defeat the evil at its root—before it takes her life. Because if Tiffany falls, the whole Chalk falls with her.
Chilling drama combines with laugh out-loud humor and searing insight as beloved and bestselling author Terry Pratchett tells the high-stakes story of a young witch who stands in the gap between good and evil.

About the Author

Sir Terry Pratchett is one of the world’s most popular authors. his novels about the fantastical flat planet Discworld have sold more than 65 million copies, and in 2009 he was knighted for “services to literature.”
Sir Terry’s highly praised novels for children have won such honors as the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book prize for Young Adult Literature, a Printz Honor, and Britain’s prestigious Carnegie Medal.
He lives in England with his wife and many cats. (End of Amazon material)

Cannot wait for the 28th! It does give me the opportunity to re-read the previous three Tiffany Aching novels, though, which can only add to the experience. 

I Shall Wear Midnight Covers

It seems that I Shall Wear Midnight is coming in the Fall! Here are some of the varieties of the cover art.

I read a bit from Sir Terry at Paul Kidby's site. He sounds quite normal & is started on an adult Discworld novel featuring Sam Vimes.

Nanny Ogg's Cookbook

Ah, The Joye of Snackes! I have found Nanny Ogg's Cookbook, and I am ready to make Carrot & Oyster Pie, of which Nanny says, "Carrots so's you can see in the dark, and oysters so's you've got something to look at." I am hopeful that it works that way. I have some lovely Stilton from Trader Joe's that will go in.

While you Pratchettites will definitely get a review of Carrot & Oyster Pie, it will not be immediate. I'm about to go into the vortex of moving house. I don't mind moving, since I've done it a lot, but I will be crazy busy for a bit. So cheers to you! I will likely be signing in to read, but not to write. Don't forget me, though!

Maskerade

Just read Maskerade again for what, the 4th time? It has all the ingredients to be the perfect Pratchett witch book. And it's darned close. Granny Weatherwax & Nanny Ogg are without a maiden for the witchy three. It's assumed that Agnes Nitt (Perdita X Dream), a large girl with a brain, killer voice, and a tendency to say "poot" will be the third. But Agnes goes away to Ankh-Morpork to sing in the opera. Needless to say, Granny & Nanny end up at the Opera House as well, in order to save pretty much everyone. Ok, a few people die. Much fun is had with operatic conventions and the Phantom of the Opera tale. In the end the fat lady sings, or rather, screams. Operatically.

Scattered throughout are some wonderful witchy words to live by.
   "She closed her eyes.
   This was when you started being a witch. It wasn't when you did headology on daft old men, or mixed up medicines, or stuck up for yourself, or knew one herb from another.
   It was when you opened your mind to the world and carefully examined everything it picked up." 
(pp. 146-7)

And when Agnes (Perdita) wishes to escape her fate:
"I have no intention of becoming a witch, thank you very much!"
"Now, don't go getting upset just because you know it's going to happen. A witch you're going to be because a witch you are, and if you turn your back on him now then I don't know what's going to happen to Walter Plinge." (p. 294)

And then there is this description, which is not particularly witchy, but I can't resist putting it in. When Granny & Nanny need a male escort, they sometimes transform Greebo, Nanny's tomcat, into a man. Suuuuuch a man:
"Greebo fully clothed still managed to communicate the nakedness beneath. The insouciant mustache, the long sideburns and the tousled black hair combined with the well-developed muscles to give the impression of the more louche kind of buccaneer or a romantic poet who'd given up the opium and tried red meat instead. He had a scar running across his face, and a black patch now where it crossed his eye. When he smiled, he exuded an easy air of undistilled, excitingly dangerous lasciviousness. He could swagger while asleep. Greebo could, in fact, commit sexual harassment simply by sitting very quietly in the next room."

Is it any wonder I love this writer? Maskerade is from 1995, and in it Nanny Ogg writes The Joye of Snackes--guess what that parodies? It was made into a real cookbook. And I have it. Perhaps I'll try a few recipes and report back. :)

Sir Terry Pratchett

I simply love the writing of Terry Pratchett. Sir Terry has been diagnosed with an early form of Alzheimer's Disease. He is certainly fighting it; raising money for research; making large donations to research efforts himself. So he will not go quietly.

And he is still able to write, thank the Goddess! A new book in the Tiffany Aching series, I Shall Wear Midnight, will be released in September. Hence my nifty blog title. The pic above is likely to be the cover art.

I have decided to write in tribute to Pratchett & his witches, because they all deserve it.