What happens on...

10/11/11?

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.