Welcome Jo Walton to LiveJournal

I clicked on a new name that popped up on my "Friends of" list today, papersky and discovered, much to my delight, that this account belongs to Jo Walton, yet another published fantasy novelist. Those of you who, like me, are fans of Lois McMaster Bujold and pameladean will be interested to know that I met Jo a couple of years ago when I was invited to be one of the readers introducing her play, Tam Lin, A Barrayaran Shakespeare Play (sort of a sequel to Midsummer Night's Dream), at Minicon a couple of years ago, when Jo was the fan guest of honor. That certainly was one of the highlights of the con for me.

Anyway, Jo has a newly minted LiveJournal account, and so I point it out to you and say, "Welcome, Jo. Hope you enjoy LiveJournal as much as I do."

Cheers,
Peg

Harry Potter Programs November 20 & 23

It occurs to me with some chagrin that I really should have said something early about the appearance I'm going to be making tomorrow at the University of Minnesota for a panel on the Harry Potter books. Not that I under the illusion that mentioning it in this LiveJournal will cause hordes to show up, you understand, but still . . . every little bit of publicity helps. ( Here's the press release with the information about where and when. )

(Man, am I a publicity ninny.)

Peg

Musings for the book: heart of flesh/heart of stone, bildung, etc.

I've been reading the essays in Jack Zipes' book Sticks and Stones: The Troublesome Success of Children's Literature from Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter which David Lenander kindly lent to me in preparation for the Harry Potter panel tomorrow (the last essay in the book is a critical look at the books; Zipes doesn't look upon them kindly). I wish I had time to finish the entire book, but I need to get it back to David tomorrow.

Also in preparation for the panel, I've been reviewing one of my favorite articles on the Harry Potter books, "Harry Potter's Magic" by Alan Jacobs. This was the article that sparked the train of thought that led to my writing the essays on the Harry Potter For Grownups Yahoo Group on the Seven Deadly Sins/Seven Heavenly Virtues as used in the Harry Potter books. ( One of Jacob's points jumped out at me as being worthy of thought as I mull over the new ice palace book )

Hmm. Perhaps all this musing is rather incoherent. If so, sorry. (Peg goes off to think some more).

I'll be meeting with Inga the architect tomorrow, too. I've been invited to her office and then we'll have lunch, and I'll fish for information. Wish me luck!

Peg