Pottermore – At Last!
Miscellaneous / September 12, 2011

Finally after 39 days, 21 hours and ten minutes, my Pottermore welcome email granting me access to the beta site finally arrived. As you can imagine, I was rather excited to receive this long awaited missive, and it was well timed as I am on holiday from work this week.  I logged on straight away and was immediately charmed by the beautiful artwork created for the site.  Much of it is interactive, so that in Chapter 1, for example, when you move your mouse over Professor McGonagall in her cat Animagus form her tail swishes.  The highlights of Book One on Pottermore have to be the choice of your pet avatar, Wand selection, and being Sorted into your Hogwarts House. When the time came to choose my pet avatar I knew I wanted a cat, being a cat lover.  I was torn between the tabby and the ginger, but the tabby didn't look like my Isis and the ginger had a similar look to Noah, so the ginger it was.   After purchasing my supplies at Diagon Alley, it was off to Ollivanders to be chosen by my wand.  After answering a few simple questions I ended up with a…

Pottermore – At Last!
Miscellaneous / September 12, 2011

Finally after 39 days, 21 hours and ten minutes, my Pottermore welcome email granting me access to the beta site finally arrived. As you can imagine, I was rather excited to receive this long awaited missive, and it was well timed as I am on holiday from work this week.  I logged on straight away and was immediately charmed by the beautiful artwork created for the site.  Much of it is interactive, so that in Chapter 1, for example, when you move your mouse over Professor McGonagall in her cat Animagus form her tail swishes.  The highlights of Book One on Pottermore have to be the choice of your pet avatar, Wand selection, and being Sorted into your Hogwarts House. When the time came to choose my pet avatar I knew I wanted a cat, being a cat lover.  I was torn between the tabby and the ginger, but the tabby didn't look like my Isis and the ginger had a similar look to Noah, so the ginger it was.   After purchasing my supplies at Diagon Alley, it was off to Ollivanders to be chosen by my wand.  After answering a few simple questions I ended up with a…

Short Story – The Protector
Miscellaneous / September 9, 2011

It hardly seemed less than a week since I was last in our comfortable, if tiny, flat in London, unaware of the existence of Amalisia, nor that my husband was its rightful king.  Yet here I was, staring across the field at my brother-in-law’s army and his dragons.  Let me just repeat that. DRAGONS!  I mean big, scary, fire-breathing lizards – three of them, and not too happy, to judge from the snarls and clouds of smoke drifting over.  What the heck was I doing here?  What could a website designer from Hammersmith hope to achieve against the might of a dragon-backed army?   Then I looked over at my husband, and remembered why I had come to this place.  His brother’s prisoner, chained, dressed in rags and beaten to within an inch of his life, he still retained that quiet, calm dignity and inner strength that had won my heart the first time we met.  I may not be able to do much, but I had to try.   Taking a deep breath to steel myself, I stepped out to confront the new king, ignoring the frantic mutterings from the ragtag little group at my side.  It had to…

Short Story – The Protector
Miscellaneous / September 9, 2011

It hardly seemed less than a week since I was last in our comfortable, if tiny, flat in London, unaware of the existence of Amalisia, nor that my husband was its rightful king.  Yet here I was, staring across the field at my brother-in-law’s army and his dragons.  Let me just repeat that. DRAGONS!  I mean big, scary, fire-breathing lizards – three of them, and not too happy, to judge from the snarls and clouds of smoke drifting over.  What the heck was I doing here?  What could a website designer from Hammersmith hope to achieve against the might of a dragon-backed army?   Then I looked over at my husband, and remembered why I had come to this place.  His brother’s prisoner, chained, dressed in rags and beaten to within an inch of his life, he still retained that quiet, calm dignity and inner strength that had won my heart the first time we met.  I may not be able to do much, but I had to try.   Taking a deep breath to steel myself, I stepped out to confront the new king, ignoring the frantic mutterings from the ragtag little group at my side.  It had to…

Review of Spellwright by Blake Charleton
Book Reviews , eBook reviews / September 3, 2011

Spellwright is the debut novel from Blake Charleton and is set in a world where words are magic in a literal as well as metaphorical sense.  It deals with the protagonist's cacography (think dyslexia for the magical language) and his struggles to overcome it and take his place in prophecy.  Nico must learn whether he is the Storm Petrel, destined to change and corrupt language and lead to the demon invasion or the Halcyon, the protector of order in language. This is my second readthrough of the novel and I'd forgotten just how much fun it is.  The characters are likeable and engaging, the world is believable and there are some amusing scenes such as the Jejunus cursing match. What I liked: The magic system: The magic system in this book is well thought out and absolutely fascinating.  The author himself describes it thus: "Imagine a world in which you could peel written words off a page and make them physically real. You might pick your teeth with a sentence fragment, protect yourself with defensive paragraphs, or thrust a sharply-worded sentence at an enemy’s throat." In our world, words can create, destroy, heal or wound but only in the most…

Review of Spellwright by Blake Charleton
Book Reviews , eBook reviews / September 3, 2011

Spellwright is the debut novel from Blake Charleton and is set in a world where words are magic in a literal as well as metaphorical sense.  It deals with the protagonist’s cacography (think dyslexia for the magical language) and his struggles to overcome it and take his place in prophecy.  Nico must learn whether he is the Storm Petrel, destined to change and corrupt language and lead to the demon invasion or the Halcyon, the protector of order in language. This is my second readthrough of the novel and I’d forgotten just how much fun it is.  The characters are likeable and engaging, the world is believable and there are some amusing scenes such as the Jejunus cursing match. What I liked: The magic system: The magic system in this book is well thought out and absolutely fascinating.  The author himself describes it thus: “Imagine a world in which you could peel written words off a page and make them physically real. You might pick your teeth with a sentence fragment, protect yourself with defensive paragraphs, or thrust a sharply-worded sentence at an enemy’s throat.” In our world, words can create, destroy, heal or wound but only in the most…

Let’s Kill Hitler – Doctor Who Review (Spoilers, Sweetie)
Miscellaneous / September 2, 2011

The second half of Matt Smith's second season as the Eleventh Doctor kicked off last Saturday with an episode entitled Let's Kill Hitler. It was written by show runner Steven Moffat. Following on from my previous entry regarding spoilers I saw this episode completely unspoiled, especially the reveal that Amy and Rory's friend "Mels" was actually one of River Song's regenerations.  In this case I believe being spoiler-free added to my enjoyment of the episode. Judging from the Television Without Pity forums, this seems to have been rather a divisive episode with some viewers turned off by what they perceived as Moffat's flaunting his cleverness in the viewer's face.  Personally, I really enjoyed it, although it owes a great deal to the charisma of Matt Smith and Alex Kingston playing The Doctor and River Song respectively.  Honourable mentions to Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan.  I really doubt I would have enjoyed this episode nearly as much with different actors.  Alex Kingston in particular appeared to have an absolute blast playing this episode. So with this episode we've now seen the first and last meetings between River and The Doctor from River's perspective.  We've yet to see the last from The Doctor's…

Let’s Kill Hitler – Doctor Who Review (Spoilers, Sweetie)
Miscellaneous / September 2, 2011

The second half of Matt Smith's second season as the Eleventh Doctor kicked off last Saturday with an episode entitled Let's Kill Hitler. It was written by show runner Steven Moffat. Following on from my previous entry regarding spoilers I saw this episode completely unspoiled, especially the reveal that Amy and Rory's friend "Mels" was actually one of River Song's regenerations.  In this case I believe being spoiler-free added to my enjoyment of the episode. Judging from the Television Without Pity forums, this seems to have been rather a divisive episode with some viewers turned off by what they perceived as Moffat's flaunting his cleverness in the viewer's face.  Personally, I really enjoyed it, although it owes a great deal to the charisma of Matt Smith and Alex Kingston playing The Doctor and River Song respectively.  Honourable mentions to Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan.  I really doubt I would have enjoyed this episode nearly as much with different actors.  Alex Kingston in particular appeared to have an absolute blast playing this episode. So with this episode we've now seen the first and last meetings between River and The Doctor from River's perspective.  We've yet to see the last from The Doctor's…