jzthompson > Recent Status Updates

Grey Seer - Tongue firmly in cheek, with pulpy writing, an excess of exclamation marks and one character that's an exact lift of the shadow.

147 - Final Reward. The most successful one of these short stories yet. Potential for a novel but feels complete as it is.

For the emperor - a second swing at this one, enjoyed this more this run through but still feel that 'blackadder goes 40k' should have more out and out laughs rather than wry amusement.

Twenty Pence with Envelope and Seasonal Greetings - not sure I even understood what was happening in this one.

The High Meggas - the short story that 30 years later would become the long earth. In his intro pratchett says he thinks the idea had legs but abandoned it when the colour of magic took off. Another huge, astronomical leap forward in quality. Hard SF. No humour. Appropriately enough a fascinating insight to a path not taken.

Getting back into this after six weeks of covid brain.

And mind the monoliths - I'm not even sure how to process this one. There's a good germ of an idea here but beyond roughing out what that might be terry really doesn't do... anything... with it. At this stage in his career he's clearly bursting with ideas but struggling with plot and character.

Coo, they've given me the bird - a pleasingly whimsical idea. Not much else to it than that. The (supposedly) true image of the young terry working from a cheap garden shed on top of a flat roofed office probably worth the price of admission.

There's no fool like an old fool in an English Queue - Pratchett's little intro describes this as the kind of thing you write on a lunchbreak rather than taking it out on someone else. I'm sure it was cathartic. Interestingly, in this early story some of the features that would be so uncomfortable about later pratchett are oddly apparent

The Glastonbury Tales - oh dear. Barwlt rhyming doggerel about hippies. I hope he enjoyed himself writing about this one.

Kindly Breath in Short, Thick Pants - this style doesn't really suit pratchett and its a bit hard to put your finger and what exactly the target is here. Cack handed govt advice should resonate in the yr of covid... and yet...