Sir Terence David John “Terry” Pratchett, OBE (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English author of fantasy novels and is best known for his Discworld series of 41 novels.

Terry Pratchett, with more than 85 million books sold worldwide in 37 languages, was the UK’s best-selling author of the 1990s. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours. In 2001 he won the annual Carnegie Medal for The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, the first Discworld book marketed for children. He received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2010.

However none of those facts, true though they are, really does justice to the fact that Sir Terry Pratchett wrote books that delighted millions of people. I was just one of those people who looked forward with great delight to the time when his new book would come out. I might be devastated for the rest of my life that I will never get to read a new Pratchett book.

That’s why I would like for us at Author Buzz UK to create a fitting memorial for this literary giant in the form of a dev maintained profile. Dev maintained profiles are like regular profiles except there is no one posting new updates (unless there is some exciting news).

Building a fitting profile for Sir Terry Pratchett

I know we created a Charles Dickens profile as a test but I would like our Terry Pratchett profile to be something a bit special. To do that we need to work out not only what the bio will say but what it will not say too. There is so much we could affectionately say about our favourite author but only so much space to say it.

Furthermore, we will need to choose just two images to represent everything we love about Sir Terry Pratchett. These images must be ones that we can legally use. they should also be suitable for the purpose to which we will put them. while it would be easy to just grab some pictures off the internet this is not the right way to do things. I want our tribute to a great author to also respect the rights of others. That means respecting and upholding copyright laws. Which means obtaining the correct permission and not assuming we can help ourselves.

Divide By Cucumber Error. Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot

There is, without any doubt, far too much that could or even should be said about Sir Terry Pratchett. Indeed, much of it probably should be said about him, perhaps in a firm voice with the folding of the arms and the tapping of the feets. Take a look at his Wikipedia page, for example.

However, the limits of profiles being what they are, we cannot include all that information. The question is one I have thrown open to the community.

I have started a forum thread seeking input from the community on what exactly our Terry Pratchett profile should say.

Ook?

At some point soon, I promise, I will finish the system that will enable authors to list all their books on their profiles. (It is mostly finished). Given Sir Terry Pratchett’s rather extensive bibliography we will need help from the community in compiling said list and making sure that we don’t miss any.

Lecturers of Creative Uncertainty

I also rather fancy that the Discworld might be a suitable topic for the creation of the site’s first fan specific group if enough fans were willing to demand one in the forum (and then agree on what to call it).

However, that is by no means certain (but I, for one, am very open to persuasion and small bribes on the subject).

GNU Terry Pratchett

Creating the perfect Terry Pratchett profile is something, as a fan, that I really want to do and get right. I will need help. I hope it is not too much to ask that a few of my fellow fans grab a free account and meet me in the forums.

On that note, let me end with a quote.

“A man is not dead while his name is still spoken.”
– Going Postal, Chapter 4 prologue

The image in this post is based on a photograph by Luigi Novi, CC BY 3.0, (Link). Due to restrictions in needing to explicitly credit the copyright holder this image is not currently suitable for use on the eventual profile. That said someone could always ask for Luigi Novi’s permission and that would be a different story.