Local article about The Lexicon (and Tucson Festival of Books!)

The Arizona Daily Star interviewed me and Steve about our book last Wednesday for an article in today's paper. Danielle did a great job, and Fred took some lovely photos!

Article "Librarian/writer's Harry Potter knowledge is voluminous"

Steve's talk and our booksigning: Sunday, March 15th at 2:30pm, Catalina Ballroom of the University of Arizona Student Union

Signed copies of the book available at: Kids Center, 1725 N Swan Rd, Tucson, AZ

Tucson Festival of Books

List of exhibitors in attendance [pdf]

Come to the Book Festival next weekend! Karen Cushman (Catherine Called Birdy), Gail Carson Levine (Ella Enchanted), Richard Peck (A Long Way from Chicago), Charles de Lint (Widdershins), J.A. Jance (Cruel Intent), Diana Gabaldon (Outlander), Luis Alberto Urrea (Hummingbird's Daughter), Richard Shelton (Crossing the Yard), Gregory McNamee (Moveable Feasts), and over 350 more authors and illustrators will be speaking and signing their books.

Other friends speaking, storytelling, and/or signing: Marge Pellegrino, Martin Rivera, Lynn Bevill, and Liz Danforth.

On my way to Prophecy!

I'm flying to Buffalo on Monday to meet up with Belinda (LexiconBel) and her daughter Trish and then we will drive to Toronto together for Prophecy. Yeah! I'm looking forward to seeing friends old and new, the IMAX show, the Grand Ball, and these presentations...

• Is it Canon, Fanon, or Alan? A Discussion on Where Our Love of Snape Comes From (panel)
• Critiquing ‘Pottermania’ and the Claims to Canonicity by Yogesh Kumar Sinha, Manisha Rajhansh Sinha
• The End of the Tale (a fan’s overview of the entire series) by Steve Vander Ark
• The Science of Harry Potter by George Plitnik
• Wizard Rock Phenomenon by Jolene M. Kernick, Ginger Alford, and Crystal Sullivan
• Playing In Jo’s World by Steve Vander Ark
• The Fountain Told a Lie: Dumbledore’s Deconstruction of the Wizarding World by Travis Prinzi
• Welcome to the Wizarding World by Steve Vander Ark
• Harry’s Victory over Death: The Christian Content of “Deathly Hallows” by John Granger
• J.K. Rowling’s Library: Harry Potter in Context by Karin Westman
• The Meaning of the Phoenix: Love’s Victory over Death in Harry Potter by Travis Prinzi
• The Alchemical End-Game: The Rubedo in “Deathly Hallows” by John Granger

8 months in the making: the Lexicon's new Canon Portkey

Portus! Last night the Harry Potter Lexicon launched our most ambitious project ever: the Canon Portkey.

Clint Hagen, the programmer for the Harry Potter Lexicon spent 8 months, produced over 7000 lines of PHP, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code. John Kearns spent that time paraphrasing every single event in the whole Potter series, noting the page numbers, main characters, setting and time period, etc. Whoa.

Why? So that Harry Potter fans can search the events of the books and organize the them (and the rest of the canon) anyway they want via tagging and bookmarking. Legally.

Many others helped. We had a small army doing data entry and as this group got larger and larger, Bel stepped in and did her own management magic to keep everything rolling along. My role was in pestering Steve about having a new design and then wishing (sometimes) that I hadn't volunteered =). I am very proud of it now, and an chomping at the bit to convert more of the Lexicon now that the Portkey is launched.

What does it do? It is a:

• Location finder. Let's say you can't remember if Jo told us something in the books or in an interview. The Portkey will find it for you and tell you what page it is on for both the UK and US editions
• New path to the Lexicon's information. I write for them and I still have a hard time finding things because it is so huge. The Portkey will take you to the Lexicon's pages that are entirely focused on what you are looking for, and then let you tag and save them. It is like having your own Potter secretary.
• Mashup tool. If you use the icon search you can mash up one set of data with another. Let's say you are building a conspiracy theory and you want to find the places where the Ministry of Magic had dealings with Death Eaters. Mash the Ministry icon with the Death Eater icon and up pops all of your links.
• Community tool. What do others think of your favorite passages? You can see the most popular tags for any event in canon.
• Empowerment. You organize canon the way makes the most sense to you. Did we leave out a detail that is important to you? Add it yourself as a tag.
  

This whole thing was Steve's idea. It came to him one day in a dream and he knew he had to make it happen. When he told us about it it was difficult to conceptualize. I tried to understand what he meant by researching online textual indices for the Bible and Shakespeare. Then I'd show them to Steve he'd say "Sort of, but it also does this, this and this." Thank goodness his vision was strong because we all had a hard time grasping what he meant.

The Floo Network to raise money for Book Aid International with Deathly Hallows guide

The Floo Network (The Harry Potter Lexicon, The Leaky Cauldron and Accio Quote) has launched "HarryPotterSeven.com," a collection of essays about Book 7 (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) that we hope will raise money for Book Aid International, an organization that works to set up libraries in developing countries.

If you read the excellent "Scribbulus" essays on the Leaky Cauldron you will recognize many of the authors; Steve Vander Ark (Harry Potter Lexicon) and I also contributed sections. Steve summarized "What we know so far" -- as only he could -- and I selected statements Jo has made in interviews about Book 7, made my best guesses about what will be important, and then wrote some commentary that I hope will be helpful.

Check it out: Book | Leaky News article

P.S. The delightful artwork is by Polly Beam

Potter teasers galore (movie 5 and book 7)

All kinds of news, lately! I will assume you've watched the "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" trailer, seen the 10-minute HBO teaser, and the screenshots.

Today I read that the Guardian is having a contest for the most clever name for Book 7. I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours! The winner will get a bookplate autographed by JK Rowling. Aviso: You will have to register to submit your title.

And Lexicon Steve has posted his first report on his trip to Leavesden Studios this September. In case you hadn't heard, he got to tour the sets, watch filming and then interview Producer David Heyman and the movie's stars. Can you imagine? It must be torture to stay mum about it all.