Sir Terry

Hello Gentle Readers,

I sometimes have trouble being honest with people.

I have a trustworthy face. 

If someone asks me "What's your favorite book?" my answer really varies depending on the audience. But, at the end of the day, there's always been one book I keep coming back to, like an old friend. 

Just kidding. 

No, the book I love the most is the one where Santa Claus goes missing and Death has to take his place. It's a magical and wonderful book I've read a dozen times. And it always gets better every time I read it. 

You can find the book here. 

Or, you can watch the pretty awesome movie.

I'll let you guess where the photo is from. 

And speaking of Death...

1948-2015. 

You'd better believe he'd appreciate mildly inappropriate humor. 

Sir Terry was a fantastic humorist, best-selling author, and all around great guy. He created a complete (disc)world filled with mad-cap characters, hapless heroes, and memorable situations. Sir Terry also taught me a very important lesson. Two actually. 

Three if you count "How to look good in a hat"

1) The best way to be a better writer is to keep writing. His first books aren't nearly as crisp and crackling as his later work. He could be hit or miss. But, he kept writing. He grew the characters, changed the librarian into an orangutan and...

2) Made death not so scary. See, in Pratchett's world Death is a character. A character who really loves humanity, who owns a lot of cats (and a horse named Binky) and TALKS LIKE THIS. And most importantly, for Terry Pratchett, Death understands the value of each life. 

He had a brush with Death. 

They've made a clean sweep of it. 

We all have an end point to this crazy life. I'm reminded of this quote from Sir Terry: 

“Sometimes I get nice letters from people who know they're due to meet him (Death) soon, and hope I've got him right. Those are the kind of letters that cause me to stare at the wall for some time.” 

I'd like to share how Sir Terry announced his death on Twitter. 

Good night Sir Terry. See you in the funny pages. 

Jay Mims writes books, blogs, and sings KARAOKE! Jay lives with The Mimsus, a semi-adopted cat named Eartha Kitty, a lizard named Bob and a passive-aggressive Dalek named Steve. Jay is far funnier on Facebook then in real life. He is terrible at Twitter. Jay now has a website.