Don’t Quarry Be Happy (Diggers)

In episode thirteen, award-winning author Marlee Jane Ward joins us to talk Diggers! Published in 1990, Diggers picks up where Truckers left off, splitting the story of the Nomes in two. (You can catch up on Truckers in episode 9.) The Nomes, having fled the destruction of the Store in a stolen lorry, have spent six months - something like five years in Nome time - making a new life in an abandoned quarry. But as humans start to take an interest in their new home, Grimma must hold the quarry Nomes together - no easy task when Nisodemus, the acting Abbott, is trying to convince them all to return to the old ways of the Store. Meanwhile Dorcas, the engineer who made the Long Drive possible, has made a secret discovery in one of the old quarry sheds - a mighty beast, known only as Jekub... With many of the main characters from Truckers exiting the novel quite early on, Diggers focuses on Grimma and Dorcas, with the books' events happening concurrently with those in the third book, Wings. Among its many themes are Pratchetty commentaries on religion, faith, community and responsibility, as well as many new jokes about the ways in which Nomes misunderstand humans - or, perhaps, understand humans perfectly. Have you read Diggers? What did you think? Use the hashtag #Pratchat13 on social media to join the conversation. We particularly want to see your original drawings of Nomes (see the original description from Truckers in the notes below), and to hear what you think about the exciting news of the The Watch TV series being officially greenlit by BBC America!  November 24, 2018 marks a special Pratchett anniversary - 35 years since the publication of the very first Discworld novel! That's right, we're going back to the very beginning to read The Colour of Magic and find out if it really is a very good place to start, with help from fantasy writer and freelance editor, Joel Martin! We're sure you have loads of questions, so please send them in via social media using the hashtag #Pratchat14. Show Notes and Errata: Marlee Jane Ward's best known works are the YA sci-fi novella Welcome to Orphancorp - winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Young Adult - and it's sequel Psynode, both published by Seizure. A third and final book in the series is coming in 2019. You can find out more about Marlee at her web site, marleejaneward.com, or by following her on Twitter at @marleejaneward.Marlee's story "The Walking Thing" and Liz's story "Naming Rights" can both be found in the short story anthology Best Summer Stories published by Black Inc.Neil Gaiman is an English writer who started out as a journalist, but became better known for his comic book work. His most famous series, Sandman for DC's mature imprint Vertigo, chronicles the life of Dream, also known as Morpheus, one of the seven Endless, anthropomorphic personifications of concepts including Destiny, Despair and, yes, Death. (See the Once and For All podcast for a comparison.) Gaiman was the first journalist to interview Terry, soon after the publication of The Light Fantastic, and the two quickly became friends. Neil has since gone on to become a best-selling novelist, award-winning screenwriter and, most recently, a TV producer, in order to keep a promise to Terry that the television adaptation of Good Omens - the novel they wrote together, based on an idea of Neil's - would be good.The creepy little girl with long black hair who walks weirdly is Sadako, the vengeful spirit of a young girl murdered and thrown into a well in Ring, a 1998 Japanese horror film directed by Hideo Nakata. It was remade in English as The Ring in 2002, directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Naomi Watts. Both versions follow the plot of the 1991 novel by Koji Suzuki, which was been made into an earlier 1995 film and a television series in 1999.Ten is indeed an aspirational age for outdoor nomes, but is about the expected number of years for Store nomes.