Nullus Anxietas 3

I Shall Wear Midnight is out 2nd September

Tiffany Aching, the young witch from “The Wee Free Men”, “A Hat Full of Sky” and “Wintersmith” is back in a brand new adventure featuring Discworld characters both familiar and new. There’s the Wee Free Men, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Wee Mad Arthur¹

“I Shall Wear Midnight” comes out in hardback on 2nd September.² If you pre-order it from Fishpond (the Australian based online book store) using the picture link below, then the Australian Discworld Convention receives a small contribution on each sale. The price is advertised as $34.95 (AUD).

Another treat for both adult fans and teenage readers of Terry Pratchett’s exuberant fiction.

¹ Remember the Nac Mac Feegle from “Feet of Clay”

² The image shows the cover for the UK edition, with artwork by Paul Kidby. The USA edition comes out in October.

Paul Kidby Limited Edition Merchandise

Paul Kidby has very kindly given us a licence to use an exclusive piece of Discworld artwork for Nullus Anxietas convention merchandise. As you will know, Paul has designed the covers for all the Discworld series since Nightwatch (UK/Oz/NZ editions), as well as the artwork for many Discworld diaries and calendars over the years. So we are very lucky to have this.

What is more, he has very kindly donated the original to our charity auction. Granny Weatherwax (aka our Publicity Officer) assures me he has done this quite voluntarily and was a “complete sweety” about it.

This is the ridgy-didge and shows six of our favourite Discworld characters¹. As well as offering this design on special T-shirts, we also have mugs, ties, tote bags and mouse mats for those of you who spend a lot of time on the computer! You can order these now from our the Nullus Anxietas store on Zazzle

So a huge thank you to Paul for his generosity.

¹ Including Greebo, who is just a little cutie according to Nanny Ogg.

Gala Dinner Registration starts 2nd October

Registration for the Gala Dinner will open on Saturday 2nd October on this website. Tickets will be $55 per person and include both the meal and a host of other unearthly delights. ¹
You can find more details on the Gala dinner page.

Remember you must be registered for the convention before you can sign up for the Gala Dinner.

¹ may contain nuts

Nullus Anxietas III Poster

Our design team has been working flat out like a lizard drinking on our official poster for the third Australian Discworld Convention. We hope you like it as much as we do!

If any of you would like to help publicise the convention in your area (perhaps your local library or favourite bookshop), you can either download copies (as a PDF File) from the Volunteer News page and print them yourself, or contact us on publicity@ausdwcon.org and we will post you copies.

Inter-Guild Competitions & Gala Dinner

Firstly we have launched details of the planned Inter-Guild competitions. You can find more details on our site here

Secondly, we have now posted details for the Gala Dinner on the Saturday evening here
The theme is Cori Celesti and tickets just $55. Registration for the Gala Dinner will open shortly. Remember you must be registered for the convention before you can sign up for the Gala Dinner.

Membership Recruitment Campaign – Prizes to be won!

We know that many of you have been busy telling your friends and family about the Discworld Convention, so we are starting a competition to see who can recruit the most new members.

Here is how the competition will run:

• Every time a new member registers for the convention, they can register who recruited them. (There is a box for this on the registration page on the web site)
• The recruiter’s name then goes into a prize draw, and they get an entry for each person they recruit. So if they recruit two new members, they get two entries.
• Some members have already entered a name for their recruiter, and we will honour these as entries to the competition. But please note that we cannot retrospectively add names.
• The prize draw will be held on March 1st 2011. The draw will be made by the Membership Secretary and overseen by the Chairman and Financial Officer.
• A recruiter can only win one prize.
• It is not open to members of the committee.

The prizes will be as follows:

• 1 ^st Prize will be a free place at the Gala Dinner on the Table of Honour. If you have already booked a ticket for the Gala Dinner, you will be reimbursed. If you are under 18, a parent or guardian must also attend the Gala Dinner at their own cost.
• 2 ^nd Prize is a limited edition design gift. (More about this in the near future)
• 3 ^rd Prize will be a Nullus Anxietas III convention mug

Nullus Anxietas III Merchandise Now Available On Line

We are delighted to announce that an exciting range of Convention Merchandise is now available from our online store including T-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers and mouse mats, all featuring the new convention logo. There’s an apron for those of you eager to try out some of Nanny Ogg’s recipes.

Note: when you click on an image, this should load the shop page in another window in your browser. If you experience any problems with this link, or just have ideas for other items you would like to see here, please contact us on merchandise@ausdwcon.org

Hurry! Registration Fees will increase on July 1st 2010

When we first opened up registration a few months ago, we offered convention memberships at a discounted “early bird” price. This has allowed keen fans to support the convention in its early days, without knowing exactly what they are signing up for. In turn the early membership money has allowed the committee to book the venue, develop an exciting program of events and publicise the convention further.

However, form 1st July 2010, convention membership prices will increase as follows:

¹ Child tickets are for children under 18 years old, in full-time education, and accompanied by at least one adult member.

² Children under 8 will still need to be registered and accompanied by at least one adult member.

Supporting memberships are available at any point for $30 – and if you have one of these and want to upgrade to a full membership at a later point (up to February 1st 2011), then you’ll only need to pay the difference to whatever the full price was when you signed up for the initial supporting membership.

A Chance to Read Terry Pratchett's Earliest Works

Between the 8th of October 1965 and the 17th of July 1970, Terry Pratchett wrote stories for the Bucks Free Press newspaper which were published weekly, sometimes in episodic format. They were printed in the Children’s Circle section, written under the pseudonym of Uncle Jim. His style of writing and humour are easily recognisable in places. In total, Terry wrote about 250 episodes for the Children’s Circle section of the Bucks Free Press. These stories have never before been accessible outside of the original issues of the newspapers they were printed in, and now, due to a collaboration between the Bucks Free Press and the Friends of High Wycombe Libraries, this website will make all of these stories available. This is sure to be an exciting opportunity for enthusiasts to see some of Terry Pratchett’s early works.
Click here to go to Bucks Free Press site

Unseen Academicals coming in paperback

Terry Pratchett’s latest Discworld novel, Unseen Academicals, comes out in paperback on June 10th. If there are any of who you didn’t dash out and buy it in hardback, why not pre-order it from Fishpond (the Australian based online book store) and help the Discworld Convention at the same time. The price is $17.99. Just click on the link below:

PS the hardback is now down to $21.97 at Fishpond.

Convention Guests - Real and Virtual

We are pleased to announce that a number of special guests will be joining us at the convention, either in person or through the magic of tele-conferencing.

Martin Pearson will be with us in person to regale us with his songs and humour (and may possibly even be allowed to perform the “Hedgehog Song”).

Snowgum Films have promised to have something Discworld related to show at the convention.

Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, co-authors of the Science of Discworld series, have agreed to appear virtually.

And last but by no means least Bernard and Isobel Pearson of the Discworld Emporium, better known as the Cunning Atrificer, will also be joining us virtually. Please ask THEM about stamps!

All of you who signed up to the mailing list should have already received more details about this. If you haven’t already signed up, just click the Mailing List link on the left.

NA3 Publicity Flyer #1

A number of you have been kind enough to offer to help publicise the Discworld Convention by distributing information in your local area – or indeed anywhere else you are passing through!

So we have our first flyer, designed by Rhianna, our in house artist (and who has done an excellent job IMHO!) and you can download it from here
It’s in PDF format and comprises two monochrome A5 flyers on an A4 sheet. If you would like the file in a different format, please contact us on publicity@ausdwcon.org

Those of you who went to one of the screenings of Nation may have seen some of them displayed in the cinema foyer.

And thank you again for all your enthusiasm and support – the NA3 team.

Nation (The Play) in Australian Cinemas

Britain’s National Theatre is currently performing an adaption of Terry Pratchett’s Nation. This production was recorded, and will be aired in selected cinemas in Australia at 1pm on both the 13th and 14th of February, 2010. A list of the cinemas can be found on the NT Live website.

Tickets are $25, or $23 for concession holders, and the production is considered suitable for those aged 10 or older. This is not a Convention event, but we’re sure a lot of Australian Discworld fans would love to see this.

'Call to Arms'

Nullus Anxietas III is coming! The call to arms has been sounded. Anyone interested in being part of this should check out the new threads on the Programming and Activities forum ASAP!

Charity Auction Thanks

Just something short, now that the convention’s well and truly wrapped up. We sent the money you all so graciously donated at the Charity Auction to both the Orangutan Foundation and Alzheimers Australia. As you can see from their thankyou letters, they definitely appreciate the support.

So thanks to everyone for helping make these donations happen.

Happy Hogswatch!

We’ve got a couple of special treats for you this Hogswatch.

Hogswatch Special

For the period 17th of December to the 31st of December we are celebrating Hogswatch by giving people who sign-up in this period a $15 discount off their convention ticket¹. This is a perfect time to get your Pratchett fans a great Christmas present or a present for yourself with your Christmas money. Tickets for this period are $135/$115 respectively.

¹ Discount does not apply to Gala Dinner tickets.

Gala Dinner

The long awaited Gala Dinner tickets are now available for purchase, these tickets will be on sale until the 31st of January and there are a limited number of tickets. If you’ve already got your ticket and want to add the Gala Dinner to your membership head over here: Gala Dinner Upgrade otherwise just purchase your Gala Dinner ticket as you sign-up. You can build your own table if you have friends coming simply nominate them as your preferred dining companions when you sign-up.

Impending Price Rise

Just a quick note to all that there is a scheduled convention ticket price rise on SEPTEMBER 30TH AT MIDNIGHT. After that tickets will be $150 or $130 for valid concession holders.

Also don’t forget that supporting memberships are available. These are for people who wish to support the convention, but don’t have any current plans to be at the event itself.

Supporting memberships are available at any point for $25 – and if you have one of these and want to upgrade to a full membership at a later point, then you’ll only need to pay the difference to whatever the full price was when you signed up for the initial supporting membership.

We Aten't Dead

We’re now open for registration! Thanks for your patience – as a reward, there’s a $15 discount on our starting prices of $120/$100 until July 14th.

More details will be elaborated upon as we draw closer to February, but there’s a start on the programme page and the unions page.

Convention Plans

Sorry it’s taken a while to get an official announcement for the next convention worked out – we wanted to get a few people’s involvement confirmed first though.

So here’s the plan:

• 6th-8th February 2009
• Daniel Knight and Snowgum Films are working to better ‘Run Rincewind Run’, and planning to have Troll Bridge ready to show off too.
• Martin Pearson will be returning to regale us with his witty songs and stories.
• Medieval Weapon Demonstrations, Werewolf, Significant Quest and other favourite sessions will be returning as well.

We’re currently working on getting a venue confirmed and membership registration set up – planning to have that ready in the coming weeks. We’re all pretty excited with what we’ve got lined up, and hopefully you are too.

Update regarding Terry's health

Terry got in touch with us a couple of days ago, and informed us he has a rare form of early onset Alzheimer’s. Before you get too worried, I recommend you read his note about it at paulkidby.com

While it’s not happy news, it is great to see Terry approach it optimistically.

However, this turn of events has led to the cancellation of Terry’s signing tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2008 – and thus, his attendance at Nullus Anxietas 2. Frankly, we’d rather Terry look after himself, and spend more time writing, than come down to this part of the world – it does raise a few questions about the convention though.

We don’t have any concrete answers for you just yet, but we’re in the midst of discussions. At this stage, I’d say there’s a good chance we’ll still go ahead, perhaps as a smaller event, but I can’t give you a definite response about that just yet. (I will let you know as soon as possible, I promise!)

December Status Update

It’s been a while since we’ve mentioned the next convention, so here’s an update:

Since we’re timing the next convention to line up with Terry’s next signing tour, we have to wait until the dates for that are confirmed by his publisher here, Random House. It’s a little more complex than the first time around, but it saves Terry an extra trip over here and helps keep our stress levels down, so we hope you understand the reasons behind it.

Also, as part of our discussions with (the very helpful) Random House, our prospective dates for Nullus Anxietas 2 have shifted from November to October next year.

Rest assured that the next convention will be happening – we’re just as impatient as you are to get things set in stone.

2007 AGM

Just a quick note, in case anyone is interested – we’re holding our AGM at 11am on Sunday 23rd September, at the Fitzroy Library (128 Moor St, Fitzroy Vic 3068). We’re hoping to have it done and out of the way in less than an hour. All are very much welcome.

Edit: Please note the change of venue from the Carlton Library to the Fitzroy Library. Sorry for any inconvenience.

What's next?

Just a quick note to let everyone know that there will be a second convention. Things are still pretty sketchy at this point, but sometime in November 2008 is probably when it’ll happen.

Aftermath (and photos)

And so it’s done. Finished. Kaput.

Thank you so much to everyone who made this convention a success – I listed some people in the closing ceremony, but there’s many others I forgot, which is why I won’t even try to name people this time around.

It was a lot of fun, and it seems everyone had a blast, which is awesome. There’s already some chatter about a follow up con, but more news on that as we have it. If you’re interested in helping in some way, please get in touch.

For those of you interested in seeing some photos of the event, the best place to look is Flickr, where there’s already a few hundred for you to peruse.

Again, thanks to everyone for their support. You’re all fantastic.

Membership Reminder

Hi everyone

We’re getting closer and closer to the start of the convention – it’s only a month away now. I just wanted to send out another reminder for those of you who are planning to come to the convention but haven’t signed up yet that now is a good time to do so – and we’ve got three good reasons why.

Firstly, if you’d like your name in the first-ever Australian Discworld Convention booklet (just to make it that little bit more special), you’ll have to be paid up by the 19th of January – anyone signing up after that date will unfortunately miss out because of printing deadlines.

If seeing your name in print doesn’t really float your boat, we’ve also got a message from Terry, who loves to see our membership list on the web-site grow:

There’s an Oz tourism ad running on UK television right now. You know how it goes. It’s about Typical Australia. All the men wear big boots and hats and the women wear bikinis (except during that Mardi Gras in Sydney, when even Brits know it’s the other way round), and are standing in the places where Australians always stand, like directly in front of Uluru, or on a hundred-mile stretch of otherwise unoccupied white sandy beach. One guy is driving fifty miles to open the front gate. You get the picture. No worries, eh?

The theme of the ad is that Aussies have gone to all this trouble to make a sea-girt paradise and are waiting with a certain amount of exasperation for us, the pale tourists. And the key slogan is: “We’ve got all this, now where the bloody hell are you?”

Well, I don’t know about everybody else, but in early February I bloody well expect to be in a Virgin airliner heading for the first Discworld convention outside the UK. I bloody well hope you’ll be there, because otherwise it’ll be a bit bloody lonely on that beach!

And the third reason to sign up in the next week or two – tickets have been selling quite well for the Gala Dinner, so if you’d like to come to that, you should book sooner rather than later. For those of you who are already booked for that, but want a ticket for your partner, I highly recommend getting in touch with our Membership Co-ordinator Suzie (suzie@ausdwcon.org) as soon as possible.

We look forward to meeting you all (and so does Terry) in February!

Hogswatch Special Offer

We’re offering a Hogswatch discount of $20 off normal and concession memberships from 12:00am 24th December to 11:59pm 31st December. Hopefully this gives you just that bit more incentive to sign up for a membership – perhaps for yourself, perhaps for a Discworld-adoring friend as a Hogswatch gift.

Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen

As you may have noticed from the Virtual Guest list on the front page, we have two more virtual guests joining us for the convention – Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, coauthors of the Science of Discworld books.

As well as working with Terry, Jack (a biologist) and Ian (a mathematician) have worked together on numerous other non-fiction and fiction books, and we’re looking forward to talking with them over the convention weekend.

AGM

Just a quick note to let people know that we’ll be having an AGM for the Australian Discworld Convention Incorporated organisation in two weeks, on the 26th of November at midday. It’s not going to be particularly interesting, and isn’t actually focused on the convention itself, but you are welcome to join us if you wish. It will be held at the offices of MBO, at 335 Ferrars St, Albert Park, Victoria 3206.

Imminent Price Rise

Just a quick heads up to remind people that our current membership rates only last for a little while longer – come November, they will cost $200 (or $180 for concession) each.

Competition: Coffee and Chat with Terry

As an extra incentive for anyone considering coming along to the convention, we’re very happy to announce our latest membership competition. Anyone who signs up for membership before November will go into the running to be one of ten people who will get the opportunity to sit down together for a chat and coffee with Terry for an hour during the convention.

Keep in mind you must have paid for your membership before November, and unfortunately, family of committee members aren’t eligible (and neither are committee members, of course). If you already have a membership, then you are eligible – it’s not just people signing up between now and November.

If you have questions about this, either bug us on the forums or send an email to [pat at ausdwcon dot org].