Last Call for Ascendio 2012 Registration!

All Aboard the Ascendio Express! I have another gig scheduled now at Ascendio 2012, 12-15 July in Orlando, Florida. The good news is that Keith Hawk and I will be talking up Copyright Law, believe it or not, and its relevance to both Fan Fiction and Potter Pundit Writers on Friday afternoon with two MuggleNet Academia guests that are expert on these subjects. Live podcasting out of the Common Room!

But tonight is the last call for registration! Ascendio registration closes tomorrow! See below the jump for all the links and details —

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J. K. Rowling: ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ BBC4

From August 2011, the BBC4 Celebrity Genealogy program ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ on Joanne Rowling:

You can read the Telegraph television guide’s review of the program here. I thought his comments insightful and pedestrian simultaneously and the show well worth watching. My three notes after the jump and a few paragraphs from the Telegraph piece.
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Ascendio 2012 Registration Deadline Looming: Jump On It!

I received an email from Ascendio 2012’s registrar today with some important news if you’re planning, as I am, to be in Orlando this 12-15 July for that conference and Fandom Celebration. Here is what they wanted me to know:
Online registration for Ascendio is only open through June 25; Ascendio will not be selling Full or Merlin’s Circle registrations, or add-on meal tickets to the Feasts or Keynote Luncheon, on-site, although the Registration Desk will be selling
  • Day Passes, as well as tickets to Special Events like
  • Night of a Thousand Wizards in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and
  • the Live DVD Commentary with members of Team StarKid.

Still shopping about the days you want to go? Check out the Chart about what’s included with each type of Ascendio registration.

Ready to register and join me for HPEF’s final Harry Potter fancon? Click here!
I’m signed up for the ‘Merlin’s Circle’ package. To find out why I’m splurging on that, check out these posts about Ascendio 2012!

Call For Papers! ‘Emerging from the Pensieve’ 11-13 October

I’ve been discussing the great turnout and talks at the St Andrews University conference in May this year and how much I’m looking forward to Ascendio 2012 in Orlando in less than a month — and I’ve neglected the first Hogwarts Saga dedicated academic conference in the United States and the follow-up program at the same location this fall.

That first was ‘Replacing Wands With Quills’ held last October at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia (read “beautiful Shenandoah Valley”!). Program sponsor Prof Elisabeth Grumnior is putting together another JMU gathering, this one called ‘Emerging From the Pensieve,’ to be held 10-13 October. Foliage!

I know I’m hoping to get there again because ‘Quills’ was so well put together and I got to meet with Hogwarts Professors Elizabeth Baird Hardy and Louise Freeman, not to mention Edmund Kern. I’m hoping to visit with these friends and others I made there, as well as the JMU Dukes and those students Dr. Freeman and Prof Suzanne Keen bring up from Mary Baldwin and Washington & Lee.

The Call for Papers has been extended until 30 June so if you’ve been waiting until the last minute to get your proposal in — hey, that last minute is all but here!

Just sayin.’ I hope to see you there so get those paper ideas packaged and sent in. All the CFP details and contact information are below the jump!

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MTV: The Lost ‘Hunger Games’ Tributes Speak Out

Hat tip, James!