HOL

Sir Terry Pratchett, beloved novelist and satirist, published his first book in 1971. The Carpet People launched a prolific career, which included the books of Discworld (all 41 of them) and Good Omens (co-authored with Neil Gaiman).

You are invited to solve this Sudoku, sending a Forum PM to myself and Emily Spencer with the solved puzzle. Title your Forum PM "Whole Nine Yards - Pratchett".


graphic is of a Sudoku puzzle
Direct link to image - click

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
People who have sent in the solution to this Sudoku -
River Fenwick
Dibyarup James Potter
Lex Green
Hiya Debnath
Rosalinda Malfoy
Maeve Madden
Adeline Morior
Janne Halla

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

There are a couple of other things you can do, in addition to (or even instead of) solving this Sudoku puzzle to participate in our March activity.

Reply, in a post below, with one or both of the items listed. (Remember -- send the solution of the Sudoku to me and Emily in a Forum PM! It does not get posted with your write-up and graphic! )

1 - Write about the author, telling us of his life and his work, so we can learn more about this prolific writer. Have at least 90 words - your own words - in your write-up.

2 - Create a collage which contains nine separate images for that author representing their life and their work. Post it in here, below, along with your write-up. Be sure that the graphic is 600x600 or less. Please write a description underneath the collage, describing what you have in it, and why it represents Sir Terry Pratchett's life and work.

Remember, when you complete each part of the week's celebration of an author, you can earn 20 Beans. So if you solve the sudoku, do a write-up and create a graphic, you will earn 60 Beans.

When you post, please keep your post HOL-appropriate.

Everything will be due by the March 31st, 11:59 pm HOL time.

1. Sir Terence David John Pratchett was defined as an English author, satirist, and humorist. He was best known for his comic fantasy novels, called the Discworld series, as he created a whopping 41 in this series. Terry was quite an accomplished author. He sold over 100 million books worldwide in 43 languages, being the bestselling author in the UK in the 1990s. In 2005, a statistic from the Bookseller's Pocket Yearbook stated that in 2003, Pratchett's UK sales were only behind J.K. Rowling's, amounting to 3.4% of the fiction market by hardback sales and 3.8% by value. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease in 2007, which he later passed from the complications of the disease.
2.

Pictured above, top to bottom and left to right, is a visual for astronomy, a greenhouse, a gamepad, a computer, the fantasy selection, a collection of books by Terry Pratchett, Mark Twain, G. Wodehouse, and K. Chesterton. Terry was passionate about astronomy, even going as far as building an observatory in his back garden. He also had a greenhouse filled with carnivorous plants. Terry enjoyed video games and was described as an avid player. Pratchett used computers to write as soon as possible, even being one of the first authors to engage his readers via the Internet. Pratchett loved fantasy as a genre. He wrote his comic fantasy novels, though only a few of his works are pictured. The bottom three pictures are of Mark Twain, G. Wodehouse, and K. Chesterton, all of whom he took inspiration from in his work.

#1 - I'd like to write more about a time in Sir Pratchett's life that led to the creation of Good Omens.

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman have been friends since 1985. After closely observing Douglas Adams at work and being inspired to write a biography of him (Don't Panic: Douglas Adams & The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Gaiman decided to attempt writing a novel. He sent a couple of thousand words, sort of a draft of the book to several friends, including Terry Pratchett, for criticism. One day, Sir Pratchett called Gaiman back. Because he was curious about what would happen next, Sir Pratchett asked Gaiman to either sell him the idea of the book and that opening, or the two of them could write it together. And we all know what Gaiman decided.

1. About the Author (Write-up):
Born Terence David John Pratchett on April 28, 1948, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, Sir Terry Pratchett, was an English author, who predominantly wrote humorous fantasy and science fiction, and was best known for his Discworld series. He sold his first story when he was thirteen, which earned him enough money to buy a second-hand typewriter. His first ever novel was "The Carpet People", a humorous fantasy, which was published in 1971 by publisher Colin Smythe.
Sir Terry Pratchett worked for many years as a journalist and press officer, and wrote in his spare time. He switched in 1987 to full time writing. His first Discworld novel was "The Color of Magic", which was published in 1983.
He is also known for his non-Discworld book "Good Omens", which he created as a collaboration with Neil Gaiman, and got published in the year of 1990. It is a long-time bestseller, now sold by Harper's as paperback editions.
Pratchett won numerous literary awards, and was named an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) “for services to literature” in 1998, besides also acquiring honorary doctorates from the University of Warwick in 1999, the University of Portsmouth in 2001, the University of Bath in 2003, the University of Bristol in 2004, Buckinghamshire New University in 2008, the University of Dublin in 2008, Bradford University in 2009, the University of Winchester in 2009, and The Open University in 2013 for his contribution to Public Service. Besides, on 18 Feb, 2009, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. He was also awarded the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award in 2010. He is well-known as one of the most significant contemporary English-language satirists. As of December 2007, Pratchett was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and he passed away on 12th March 2015.

2. Collage:

Description:
The collage depicts some of my favorite books and novels published by Sir Pratchett.
In the middle is Sir Pratchett himself as a portrait, surrounded by his books and novels that I love, the one on the top left being "The Color of Magic", his first Discworld novel, which was published in 1983. Second from left on top, is another of my favourite Discworld novels " Guards! Guards!". Third from left on top, we have another favorite novel of mine, Mort, also from the Discworld series. The fourth novel on top, that is, at top right corner, is another of my favourites by Sir Terry Pratchett, also another of his Discworld series publications, "A Hat Full of Sky".
The leftmost novel in the bottom in the collage depicted here, is his first novel which was in collaboration with Neil Gaiman, and was also a non-discord book, and one of my favourites as well. It is "Good Omens", published by Harper's, and it was first released in the 1990s. The second from left in the bottom is yet another favorite Discworld novel of mine, "The Light Fantastic", and finally the last two books in order from left to right in the bottom of the collage are "Going Postal", a Discworld novel featuring a con artist, and a fraud, who is faced with the choice of facing punishment or fixing a postal service by getting the mail through despite different obstacles, as the protagonist, who is named as Moist von Lipwig, and "Equal Rites", a Discworld novel featuring the struggle between feminism and sorcery, or in a way also representing the feminine and masculine ways of life in contrast to each other.

Collage:


Imgur Link - Larger Version [1800 x 1800 px]


Write-Up:

In the collage, in the centre, there is a portrait of Sir Terence David John Pratchett OBE. In the top left, we can see a collection of his Discworld books. The image adjacent to it is from when he was a toddler. Then in the image below the collection of books, on the left edge, that is Terry Pratchett in Toronto in 1995. The image below is from Pratchett’s wedding. He married Lyn Purves at the Congregational Church, Gerrards Cross, on 5 October 1968. They moved to Rowberrow, Somerset, in 1970 after that. In the image to the right of that one, we can see his daughter Rhianna Pratchett with him. In the image to the right of that, we can see Pratchett as a teenager. Above that image, that’s Terry Pratchett in 1971, a few years after his wedding. Above that we can see another image of Pratchett from his early teens. To the left of that we can see him being knighted by the Queen at the Buckingham Palace in February 2009.

Pratchett was born on 28 April 1948 in Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire, England, the only child of David (1921–2006), a mechanic, and Eileen Pratchett (1922–2010), a secretary, of Hay-on-Wye. He attended Holtspur School, where he was bullied for his speech impediments. He was bothered by the head teacher, who, he said, thought "he could tell how successful you were going to be in later life by how well you could read or write at the age of six".

In his lifetime Pratchett was awarded multiple honorary doctorates and several literary awards. Honorary doctorates from the University of Warwick in 1999, the University of Portsmouth in 2001, the University of Bath in 2003, the University of South Australia, in May 2014 to name a few. He had also won the British Book Awards' "Fantasy and Science Fiction Author of the Year" category in 1994, the 2003 Prometheus Award for best libertarian novel for Night Watch, Four of the five Discworld novels that centre on the trainee witch Tiffany Aching won the annual Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2016, among others. He was even made an adjunct Professor in the School of English at Trinity College Dublin in 2010, with a role in postgraduate education in creative writing and popular literature.

In August 2007, Pratchett was misdiagnosed as having had a minor stroke a few years before, which doctors believed had damaged the right side of his brain. However, later in December 2007, he announced that he had been newly diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, which was responsible for the stroke earlier. Actually, he had a rare form of posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), a disease in which areas at the back of the brain begin to shrink and shrivel.

On 31 December 2008, it was announced that Pratchett would be knighted (as a Knight Bachelor) in the Queen's 2009 New Year Honours. He was knighted by the Queen at the Buckingham Palace in February 2009.

Pratchett died at his home from complications of Alzheimer's disease on the morning of 12 March 2015 at the age of 66.

https://i.postimg.cc/nzHhqNxp/Terry-Pratchett.png

Images shows in first row from left to right. Sir Pratchett at a younger age and a bit later, books he published and when Terry interviewed a local publisher, Peter Bander van Duren, for The Bucks Free Press. Second row shows Terry and his daughter Rhianna, when Terry receives his knighthood from Her Majesty The Queen at Buckingham Palace and the sword Terry forged for himself. Last row shows, a famous quote from Sir Pratchett, his humor and love for life and living things and a fan created image showing Sir Pratchett, meeting with Death on the Discworld city of Ankh Morpork. with the quote - “DON'T THINK OF IT AS DYING, said Death. JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.”

Here's the answer to the 'Pratchett' Sudoku puzzle -