by Travis
As I announced yesterday, The Hog’s Head is giving away three free audiobooks in the form of Brilliance Audio’s “The Myths Collection.”

Karen Armstrong, A Short History of Myth: What are myths? How have they evolved? And why do we still so desperately need them?  Heralding a major series of retellings of international myths by authors [...]

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by Travis
There are three different matters of mythology I’ve been meaning to write about, and as long as there’s three, I’ll put ‘em all in this myth-mania post.
Myth Matter #1: Journey to the Sea has been launched!

Randy Hoyt, a Hog’s Head patron, whose voice you heard on the last PubCast, has launched an online journal [...]

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by Travis

Harry Potter in the Classroom
Malfoy Actor Cites “Alchemy of Harry Potter”
Why has Rowling referred to the encyclopedia as “The Scottish Book”?
Young Voldemort
Rowling Wins Another Award

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If any Hog’s Head patrons in Southern CA are interested in having me speak on Harry Potter at a local library, bookstore, coffee shop, or any other venue, I will to be there with my two favorite girls in the world for a week and a half - July 17-27 (23-24 are out - two days [...]

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Some random, end of the week humor:
For anyone wishing to visit Matthew, Black Angus, or Michael, here are directions between Sydney and LA.  Pay close attention to #6.

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I’m working on PubCast #53, and it should be posted tomorrow.
In the meantime, I conducted an email interview with the Chair of Public Relations for Portus 2008, Aziza Aba Butain.  I had to cut part of the interview from the Suite101.com article, so I’ve included that part below.  It’s some interesting insight into what goes [...]

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by Travis
Updates:  Please take note of the changes at the site.  I’ve added a “Schedule” page for my speaking engagements (as well as a downloadable promotional flyer that you can give to your universities, book stores, schools, libraries, and churches - and yes, I’ll put a less blurry picture on it soon), and the PubCast [...]

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Convention Alley was a blast.  Welcome to new Hog’s Head readers who have now found the blog through our meeting at Convention Alley.  Glad to have you here, and I hope you’ll join the discussion!  If you’re a Facebook or Twitter user, we have a Twitter Page and a Facebook Blog Networks page you can [...]

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Reminder to Facebook Users: If you haven’t joined The Hog’s Head blog network yet, please do so!  Another 12 readers, and we’ll have broken into the Top 50!  To those who have joined - thank you, and thanks for the good ratings!
Another good day at Convention Alley.  Once again, I missed the morning talks - I [...]

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by Travis
I pulled onto the University of Ottawa campus today, and just happened to pull in behind a thoroughly bewildered John Granger, who had spent the last hour trying to get from the wrong campus to the right one.  He made up for this blunder, however, by giving an excellent keynote presentation on “The Five [...]

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I would travel all my life
If loneliness was not the price
But headin’ north across that line
Is the only time I’m flyin’
~ Gordon Lightfoot
Very early tomorrow morning, I’ll start the trip up across the good ol’ U.S./Canada border and on to Ottawa.  Trips up to Canada have been a very regular part of my life, but [...]

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If you have a Facebook account, note that there’s a new application for blogs which catalogues blogs and rates them by user ratings and readers.  Presently, we’d need to get over 35 “readers” on Facebook to get us into the Top 50 (which would be really cool).
So, please visit the Facebook Hog’s Head blog page, [...]

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by Travis
I don’t have time to comment on this right now (though I’d really like to), so I’ll just leave it for the pub to discuss around Aberforth’s morning pot of coffee.  It’s a book review by Laura Miller for the NYT which considers the development of children’s lit marketing.

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by Travis

James McAvoy is denying the rumors that he’s Bilbo
The auction price for the Harry Potter prequel works out to $61 a word.
HP Progs has a typed copy of the prequel, in case you, like everyone else in the world, are having difficulty reading Rowling’s handwriting.
Portus News: Leslie Combemale, owner of ArtInsights Animation and Film Art [...]

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by Travis
Bathsheba?  Anyone have a brilliant idea about why she chose that name?  And here’s a prediction: the internet is about to be flooded with people wanting “Elvendork” as their new screen name.  Which new patron of the pub will claim the name here first?
John Granger asks about Elvendork, and at Suite101, I write at [...]

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