Where Has The Time Gone?

Where has the time gone? One moment I'm busy scheduling regular blog posts and the next moment it seems, it's five months later and I've barely thought about blogging at all. Blogging breaks happen to all of us, but this one was especially lengthy and left completely unexplained on my part (sorry!).

The summer season started up in May at my museum and all of a sudden I was working extremely exhausting days for the rest of summer. These are the busy months at the museum wherein thousands of tourists visit every day from around the world and I was tasked with educating and entertaining them. As a self-described introverted couch potato, leading hikes into the badlands for hundreds of strangers to hunt for fossils took a lot out of me every day and led to me crashing in bed shortly after wolfing down my supper every night.

Leading a hike into the Canadian Badlands

I love my job though, don't get me wrong. Every day I am so happy when I think about the fact that I get to live and work in an environment that I used to LIVE for as a child on family trips, and I get to be surrounded by fellow dino nerds. I am in my element, the place I want to be long-term, and I am loving life.

Mixed up in all of this, I apparently went insane and decided that among all my exhaustion it would be a good time to buy my first home?! Listen, I have no explanation besides that I fell head-over-heels-in-love with the perfect home that was the right price and I needed to have it.

My "new" 1920s home

Since purchasing property, I have been adulting HARD. I'm finalizing budget plans one day, renovating a bathroom the next, and cleaning out my eavestroughs the day after that. It's a lot of work, but I can't put into words how much joy it brings me to finally have my own space to settle and make my own. Have I mentioned that I am loving life?

Of course in all of this, blogging was the hobby that fell by the wayside. I am tentatively hoping to pick it back up now that things have quieted down a bit. I've missed you guys!

And one more thing:

THIS happened. And honestly, I'm still sort of working through my feelings on it. I'm not used to reading plays and I will admit I felt a bit detached at times reading a bare-bones script instead of the writing that I am used to. Ideally, I could see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child as it was meant to be experienced: on the stage. But until then I'm not sure I will be posting a review for it unless I can find a way to sort through my thoughts... Overall though, it was so great catching up with my favourites and seeing what they had been up to all these years. I'd love to know your thoughts on it!

Muggle Monday: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child to be Published

It's time for Muggle Monday, in which I highlight something from the Harry Potter world. This is somewhat inspired by the Mundane Monday posts by The Mundie Moms.

But let's be real as to why I made up this feature: I just want the opportunity to post something about Harry Potter.


This week, we finally received confirmation that the stage production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts I & II, will indeed be published in print form so that fans around the world can enjoy it:

I know a lot of people were disappointed when the London stage production was announced because not everyone would be able to make the trip just for a night of theatre - I know I was a bit bummed, as well. But I always had faith that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child would be made available to everyone in some format; after all, exclusivity is so NOT Jo's thing.

So I know I wasn't the only one to let out a cry of joy when it was officially announced that us fans would be able to read the play's script on the holy day (July 31, 2016) from Scholastic and Little Brown UK. We've heard some tidbits in the past about what the trio are up to nowadays, but this new eighth story is bound to give us tons of new information about the state of the Wizarding World and Harry's children, as well. I AM EXCITED. To get more stories of our beloved characters from the creator herself? It's more than we ever could have hoped for.

Cursed Child London cast

Maybe the only slight disappointment I have now is I won't get to have the chance to see black actress Noma Dumezweni take on Hermione, and the rest of the original cast too. I can only hope that the play production will be filmed and released as a movie at some point (pretty please?). I have no complaints otherwise.

How about you? Are you as excited as I am to see more of Harry and the Wizarding World? Or would you rather have the story end when it did and not have any new information? I'd love to read your thoughts in the comments!

Muggle Monday: News From A Celebration of Harry Potter

It's time for Muggle Monday, in which I highlight something from the Harry Potter world. This is somewhat inspired by the Mundane Monday posts by The Mundie Moms.

But let's be real as to why I made up this feature: I just want the opportunity to post something about Harry Potter.


My plan this week had been to post my review of the latest Cormoran Strike novel, Career of Evil. But then A Celebration of Harry Potter in Orlando had to go and reveal all sorts of new exciting news from the Wizarding World, so it seemed more pressing to talk about that instead:

New Fantastic Beasts Preview:

Oh man! This looks so awesome!! The teaser trailer was awesome too, but it's so cool to be getting some insight into the film's storyline, characters, sets, etc. I don't know, it may be too early for me to be getting so excited about a movie that we've seen so little of so far and won't be released until November of this year, but... I can't help it!

New Cursed Child Preview:

Okay, well this preview for the upcoming West End play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child might not be as exciting as the Fantastic Beasts preview because it has a lot less to show, but it's still an interesting behind the scenes look at the beautiful Palace Theatre where the play will be running starting this July. And maybe this preview means we will soon get to see pictures of the play's cast in action!

Pottermore is Updated:

Some people were dismayed when, a few months ago, Pottermore's read-along moments feature (with sorting and wand quizzes, and house cup tournaments) were taken down to be replaced with a simple news site. Though I admit I wasn't a fan of some of the more childish aspects of the original Pottermore, I was a bit bummed that they just up and took down everything that the site was based around. Well, the moments and house cup seem to be gone for good, but this weekend, Pottermore brought back the Sorting and Wand Selection quizzes, along with some new writings from J.K. Rowling.

Though I have been sorted before, I wanted to see if I would get the same result so I took the sorting quiz again. And - naturally - I was sorted into Hufflepuff again (Puff Pride!):

Pottermore House in 2011

Pottermore House in 2016

My wand, however... I have a new wand! I guess I must have answered the quiz questions slightly differently?

Pottermore Wand in 2011

Pottermore Wand in 2016

Anyone else get re-sorted and re-wanded on Pottermore this weekend? Let me know your results in the comments below - I'm curious if anyone had any changes like I did!

Maybe the most exciting piece of Pottermore news to come out of A Celebration of Harry Potter was new information from Jo about wizarding schools around the world:

According to Jo, there are eleven long-established wizarding schools in the world (though there are also plenty of smaller ones, apparently). In addition to the ones that we already know about (Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang), there is also Mahoutokoro (in Japan), Uagadou (in Africa), Castelobruxo (in Brazil), and Ilvermorny (in North America). Of course, that's only 7 out of the 11 supposed main wizarding schools in the world, so we're still waiting to hear more about that from Jo. But in the meantime, you can read a bit about each of the aforementioned magic schools here.

Exciting news, no? I know I have always wondered about international wizarding schools beyond Hogwarts for us non-UK folk. Now I only need to know one more thing: what the heck happened to my Ilvermorny letter??

Muggle Monday: It's an exciting time to be a Harry Potter fan again

It's time for Muggle Monday, in which I highlight something from the Harry Potter world. This is somewhat inspired by the Mundane Monday posts by The Mundie Moms.

But let's be real as to why I made up this feature: I just want the opportunity to post something about Harry Potter.



It's been a while since I posted my Muggle Monday feature, but I think it will be making a more regular comeback in 2016 for good reason: it's an exciting time to be a Harry Potter fan again.

The entire concept of my blog was based around the fact that I had spent the past decade living and breathing all things Harry Potter, only to have the rug swept out from under me when the franchise came to an end and I was left floundering with a major series hangover. Of course, my love for the series will never fade. But in the wake of the end of the Harry Potter franchise (i.e. my life), I felt a tremendous amount of loss in that it was over and there would never be anything NEW to get excited over again.

But in the past years, deals have been struck and announcements made: new works set in the Harry Potter universe and written by Queen Jo herself. And so in 2016, it's an exciting time to be a Harry Potter fan again, and I couldn't be happier.

Here are some of the things to be excited about this year as Harry Potter fans:

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Premiering July 30, 2016 in London's West End in two parts, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will tell the story of Harry's life nineteen years later and of Albert Severus Potter, Harry's youngest son.

Jo always said "never say never" when it came to the possibility of Harry Potter 8, but I don't think anyone ever expected it to happen this soon and in play format, no less. I would think Harry has earned his happy ever after finally and so I hope no harm comes to him in this next story! I'm just excited that this work was written at least in part by J.K. Rowling - that's what makes it a must-see.

Synopsis:

It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.
While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Another Wizarding World project written by J.K. Rowling: the first movie adaptation of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be hitting screens November 18, 2016. Fantastic Beasts will give us our first look at Newt Scamander as a main character, as well as the Wizarding World in America in the 1920s. Even though we won't be seeing our favourite boy wizard at any point in this movie, it's still set in the same world and it's still written by Jo, and so there is much to be excited about here.

Synopsis:

The story revolves around Newt Scamander's (Eddie Redmayne) arrival at the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA), for a meeting with an important official. Central to the story and this meeting is a magically expanded briefcase which houses a number of dangerous creatures and their habitats. When the creatures escape from the briefcase, it sends the American wizarding authorities after Newt, and it threatens even further the state of magical and non-magical relations, which is already in a dangerous place, due to the threatening presence of the fanatical New Salem Philanthropic Society, an extremist organization dedicated to the eradication of wizard-kind. The story tells of what effect this devastating mistake has on the state of wizard/No-Maj (the American term for a non-magical person) relations in New York City's community of wizards and witches in 1926, the effort to correct the mistake, and the horrors of the resultant increase in violence, fear, and tension felt between magical and non-magical peoples.

Cormoran Strike Series

Alright, well this one is unrelated to the Harry Potter world in any way, but let me just say that if you're a fan of J.K. Rowling's writing - doesn't matter if you don't typically read adult mysteries - then you MUST read this series. If you love Jo's characterizations - and I'm sure you do if you're reading this post - then you will love these characters too. The fourth book in the series will be out in 2016 as well, though no firm date has yet been set. Also on my radar: the BBC television adaptation of the novels.


So yes, lots to be excited about in 2016! As I mentioned, I plan on posting my Muggle Monday feature more regularly in 2016, at which point I plan on discussing each of these at more length.

So I'm curious: which of Jo's 2016 projects are you most excited about?