Raymond Feist's book "Jimmy the hand" referencing Discworld?

Question

I was reading "Jimmy the hand" earlier, and they made reference to "Foul 'Ol Ron" (The sentence is near the end. "They circled for an instant, with breath nearly as bad as Foul ol’ Ron’s issuing from the mercenary")

Was the author reading Discworld just before writing this? or is this a case of parallel evolution.

Answer 1

I don't know

Answer 2

Almost certainly Feist was referring to Discworld.
Foul ol' Ron is not a name that would be likely to
come up by coincidence. A number of Terry
Pratchett's book mention Ron and he would
certainly be a conspicuous character if you were
anywhere near him.