The Magician is the second book in the series “The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel” and I like it a lot.
The first book The Alchemyst introduces readers to the legend of Nicholas Flamel.
Flamel was born in Paris on September 28, 1330. He is acknowledged as the greatest alchemyst of his day and it is said that he discovered the secret of eternal life.
My Harry Potter friends will know about him and the Philosopher’s Stone.
The records show that he died in 1418 but his tomb is empty.
The legend is that he lives on by making the elixir of life and that the secret of eternal life is hidden within a book that he protects called the Book of Abraham the Mage.
Michael Scott’s series is based on this part of the legend--that the book, in the wrong hands, will destroy the world.
The Magician, Dr. John Dee, plans to steal the book and bring about its prophecy. The Alchemyst, Nicholas Flamel, must protect the book and the good side of the prophecy, which is that twins--Sophie and Josh Newman (regular kids) are the only hope.
The Twins have powers that can be awakened and if they stay on the right side of the battle, they can save the world from the Dark Elders.
I know in writing it seems flaky, but it’s a great, page-turning adventure. I like these fantasy books that are based in reality but have a side of reality that we just don’t see or understand. We ignore magic because it’s just not sensible.
I met several really cool people this weekend at Portus 2008 who are involved in various Harry Potter fan sites. Here’s a few you might like:
Azkatraz, Harry Potter conference next year in San Francisco. July 18-21, 2008. There will be a Wizard Rock show at Alcatraz.
Infinitus 2010 is the next Harry Potter conference AND it’s in Orlando, Florida, which will be the home of the “World of Harry Potter” theme park. I am incredibly excited about this conference.
My loot bag photo includes the links to lots of fun stuff that I discovered at Portus. Click on the photo to view it in Flickr and mouse over areas to see the info.
Saturday I gave my keynote at the luncheon and that evening was the masquerade ball. A little wrock (wizard rock for you muggles) and lots of costumes.
JK Rowling’s handwritten book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, sold at Sotheby’s for £1,950,000 ($4,062,930 CDN) to ...
AMAZON.COM
Rowling is donating the proceeds to The Children’s Voice campaign, a charity she co-founded to help improve the lives of institutionalized children across Europe.
The Tales of Beedle the Bard is extensively illustrated and handwritten--all 157 pages of it--and it looks gorgeous. It’s bound in brown leather and embellished with five hand-chased hallmarked sterling silver ornaments and mounted moonstones.
I’m giddy just thinking about what it would be like to hold that book. Here’s what the reviewer had to say:
So how do you review one of the most remarkable tomes you’ve ever had the pleasure of opening? You just turn each page and allow yourself to be swept away by each story. You soak up the simple tales that read like Aesop’s fables and echo the themes of the series; you follow every dip and curve of Rowling’s handwriting and revel in every detail that makes the book unique--a slight darkening of a letter here, a place where the writing nearly runs off the page there. You take all that and you try and bring it to life, knowing that you will never be able to do it justice. With that, let’s dig in and begin at the beginning, shall we? --Daphne Durham
On the one hand it’s fantastic that a book author has such fame. It’s sad that she’s the only woman. What’s with all the rich dudes?
On the other hand there appears to be weird human nature that takes over when someone gets that rich.
I wonder if Malcolm Gladwell has written about the tipping point for wealth and fandom support? Is there a point where fans start to negatively react to the wealth they’ve amassed for someone else? Is this what happened to Microsoft?
J.K. Rowling, my favourite author of Harry Potter, has released book of handwritten fairy tales. It’s up for auction at London Sotheby’s with a starting bid of $60,000. The proceeds go to the Children’s Voice Foundation, a charity that works with child victims of neglect and abuse in Eastern Europe.
SOME SPOILERS HERE.
No photos were allowed. I haven’t had a chance to proofread this, sorry, but I wanted to post before my brain flaked out--ran out of time on that ...
October 23 I was in Toronto at the Winter Garden Theatre for JK Rowling’s only Canadian stop on her Open Book Tour. The Winter Garden Theatre is a magical place worthy of a Harry Potter setting. The balcony is adorn with tree branches and little glass lanterns hang from the ceiling. The boxes are decorated like a garden trellis and there’s a golden moon hanging over the corner of the stage.
There was a single, high-backed chair in the middle of the stage where JK Rowling sat.
She read for about 20 minutes--the part where Ron returns. I loved her reading and could have happily sat there all day listening to her. Rowling has definitely become a very confident reader. Her voice sounds strong and she does slight accents for each of the characters. It was fantastic.
Neil, her husband, was in the audience.
After Rowling read, she answered 12 questions from the audience. The 12 questioners were people who had won the Raincoast contest. I don’t remember her answers word for word, but here’s what I recall.
1. How did she come up with the idea for Quidditch?
JK Rowling laughed and said that she came up with the idea after a row with an ex-boyfriend. She came up with the idea of bludgers in particular.
She later said that Quidditch was definitely invented by a woman. Women are multi-taskers and Quidditch is a multi-task game. There’s more than one ball, it’s not like male games where there’s just one ball.
Rowling told a little story about the poor guy from Warner Brothers who had to figure out how to film Quidditch. He told her it doesn’t make sense.
2. Does Albus Porter ever see the portraits of his namesakes?
JK Rowling said that yes, as soon as he was in trouble, Albus would have been in the headmaster’s office and would have an opportunity to see the portraits of both Albus and Severus.
Quite the name, Albus Severus.
3. Asked by a boy who won the contest on the first day: Which part was the most difficult to write?
Character: Dobby
Jo quipped that Graham Green said “all authors must have a chip of ice in their heart”. She’s referring to writing Dobby’s death, which was so sad.
Rowling also said that the chapter where Harry marches to what he believes is his death was the hardest to write. She cried and cried. Um, I don’t think she was the only one. That was the worst thing to read ever. I was sobbing and had to take a break because I truly believed that was the end of Harry.
4. If you could be and animagus what would you be?
Rowling said that that is the fun thing about doing all the work to be an animagus--you don’t know what you’ll end up as. James was a stag but Peter was a rat--that should have tipped off his friends, no?
She said that if she could choose it would be an otter because she loves them, and that’s what she chose for Hermione. But she suspects that she’d be a big dog.
5. A librarian asked what books would be good for boy readers
Rowling said that although the Harry Potter series inspired boys to read that wasn’t her intention specifically. She was writing what she wanted to write.
She did tell a story about Bloomsbury asking her to be JK Rowling instead of Joanne because they felt the books would appeal to boys more if her name was ambiguous. Jo said they could have asked her to take the name Snotgrass and she would have because she was just so happy to have someone wanting to publish her work. When they asked her to use her initials though there was a slight problem, she did not have a middle name. She had to choose a middle name so she decided on Kathleen, after her favourite grandparent.
6. What magical object is her favourite?
Dumbledore’s pensive, and I have to agree. I’d love to own one.
Rowlling said it’s a fantastic way to go back into the past.
7. I can’t recall this question exactly but it was something about the encyclopedia.
Rowling said, yes the encyclopedia is coming but not for a while. She wants to do another book for charity. And she’d like a little break after Harry.
She did answer that George was going to be ok after the loss of Fred and that although Ron initially goes to the aurors office, he’s likely to go to help George in the shop.
8. Any advice for a budding celebrity?
A strange question to be sure. Who knows they are going to be a celebrity, let alone a budding celebrity? Anyway, Rowling said she never dreamt of being a celebrity. She said that we shouldn’t be seduced by celebrity and fame, unless that’s exactly what you’re after, but it’s about choice. She also joked that Paris is not returning her calls. Someone in the audience shouted out that she should.
It was a strange answer to a strange question but the basic sentiment was that Rowling is quite pleased with her money and celebrity but she choses to live a rather quite life and wants to avoid the pitfalls of celebrity.
9. How do you want to be remember 100 years from now?
Rowling said she was love to think that we’ll still be reading Harry Potter 100 years from now and that it would be great if we grow up and decide to read Harry to our kids.
10. Any regrets?
Plot and character-wise no. Chamber of Secrets and Order of the Phoenix were difficult to write because she had to be diffuse, but no regrets. There are times where she overused words and that makes her mad but really no regrets.
11. Is Malfoy in debted to Harry because Harry saved him from Crabbe’s fire?
Rowling said that no, Malfoy is not magically in Harry’s debt. Harry saving Malfoy is just an embarrassing mutual connection, which we get a peak at in the epilogue. Malfoy will resent Harry forever, in the same way that Snape and James resent each other.
12. If Harry Potter didn’t take off, what would she be doing?
“Weeping softly in a dark room.”
Rowling said that if the book was never published then she’d likely be teaching and writing. If it was published but didn’t become a success she would have still been delighted.
After the questions, we were called up row by row to have our books signed.
When it was my turn I told JK Rowling “thank you for coming to Canada”. I also said she was wearing a great pair of boots. “Prada!”
She was looking mighty sexy for a kids author. Rowling was wearing a brown shirt dress with brown Prada boots. She looked lovely. She signed my book. I skipped off the stage.
It was a great event and I am thrilled to pieces that I was able to go.
James and I landed in Vancouver last night at 10:30 pm and I’ve slept, unpacked, repacked, done the web check-in and I am now off to Toronto to meet JK Rowling tomorrow.
Aside from feeling jetlagged and dreading getting on yet another airplane, I am dead excited.
My ticket was in my pile of mail when I got home. There is a line drawing of a golden snitch on my instruction sheet!
I’ll be in the Winter Garden Theatre tomorrow listening to Ms. JK Rowling!
There are some reports on her US tour with very interesting tidbits of info about Dumbledore, Christianity and Neville.
I don’t have time to give you the scoop on what Rowling has revealed in the US so far, but check out The Leaky Cauldron news feed.
I met JK Rowling in 2000 when she made her first visit to Canada. She came to the Raincoast offices and met each and every one of us. Then we all went to the Pacific Coliseum to hear her read and chat to the kids.
WELL HERE WE GO AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m just getting on a plane for Toronto but here’s the Raincoast Harry Potter News Alert that I received just now:
J.K. Rowling will be making an appearance in Canada this fall! J.K.
Rowling will be appearing at the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto on
October 23 for an all-ages event sponsored by Raincoast Books and hosted
by the International Festival of Authors. J.K. Rowling will offer a short
reading from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, answer questions from
her fans and sign complimentary copies of the final book in the Harry
Potter series for every fan in attendance. The event will begin at
10:00AM.
There will be no tickets for sale and numbered and assigned seats will
only be available through random draws.
Beginning at 9:00AM Pacific on Monday September 17, Raincoast will be
holding an online sweepstakes for lucky fans, ages seven and older, to win
one of one hundred pairs of tickets to the J.K. Rowling Comes to the
Winter Garden Theatre event. Raincoast will draw ten pairs of tickets per
day for ten days, excluding weekends, from September 17 though September
28. For full details please go to: http://www.raincoast.com/harrypotter/.
The IFOA, working with The Ontario Library Association (OLA) and their
sister organisation, The Partnership (The Provincial and
Territorial Library Associations of Canada), will also be making hundreds
of tickets available for fans across Canada. Seating at the event will be
capped at 950 attendees.
“J.K. Rowling has always given priority to her fans,” said Allan
MacDougall, CEO of Raincoast Books, “and we and the IFOA have tried to
plan an event that reflects her values. The Winter Garden event will be
intimate, interactive and something that her Canadian fans will never
forget. We are thrilled to have her in Canada again.”
Raincoast Books of Vancouver is the joint publisher of Harry Potter series
in Canada in conjunction with Bloomsbury Plc of London. Since first being
published in 1997, the seven books in Harry Potter series have sold over
350 million copies worldwide and over 11 million copies in Canada. The
trip next month will mark the second occasion that J.K. Rowling has
travelled to Canada. In October 2000, she made appearances in Vancouver
and Toronto.
Remember my little site http://www.sinceharry.com well since I’m flying hither and tither, post on the site for me or post comments here if you are as excited as I am.
And in the post or comment answer this question: what has happened in your life since first reading Harry Potter?
For those of you who’ve asked for details about the Harry Potter Party at VanDusen Garden. Here they are.
We arrived and lined up along with thousands of other wizards along 37th. The line was huge. At one point some muggle or another with a megaphone started telling people he had the words of the next Harry Potter book. Did we want to hear it. The resounding answer was no. Go peddle madness elsewhere.
At 11 pm, the doors to the garden opened and the line was ushered through. We passed all sorts of secret wizard police dressed in traffic-directing gear. The path into the clearing was lit with orange twinkle lights. When we arrived at the end of the path we were met with the sight of thousands already gathered in the garden’s centre. There were little white tents around the outside of the circle. Each tent was numbered and decorated as a Ministry of Magic door.
There were also tents for refreshments--water or Happy Planet drinks--as well as ginger cookies and lots of candies. One tent had a stage and a wizard band. There were stilt walkers and dragons and costumes and lots of umbrellas because it was raining.
At midnight we had a big countdown and then the tent doors were opened.
I know I described all this before, but here it is again, in case I missed anything the first time. And for those of you not satisfied with photos, here’s a video.
The Magician is the second book in the series “The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel” and I like it a lot.
