I’m scrambling to get everything packed and ready before waking up at 3am to drive to a friend’s house in Buffalo, who will drive me to the airport, from whence I will fly to Dallas for Portus 2008 (you can still register for the whole conference or day passes!). Elvendorks from all around will gather to talk Potter. It’s going to be a blast.
Jeffrey Weiss of the Dallas Morning News interviewed several people involved in Portus 2008, including myself, and his excellent write-up is here. (Yes, I get quoted – though I want to clarify that my book is not about “traditional fairy tales,” but about Harry Potter, and the power of the fairy tale tradition in its story). I had a very pleasant time on the phone with Mr. Weiss, and I hope to run into him at Portus.
As long as I’ve got internet access, I’ll be doing regular Twitter updates from the conference, and I’ll do summary posts here at The Hog’s Head at the end of each day. My presentations are scheduled for 2:30 on Friday (“Christ in the Forest: Aslan and Harry Walk to Their Deaths”) and 10:00am on Saturday (“Hogwarts, A Haunted History: Lovecraftian Fear in Harry Potter”). I’ll also be joining Harry Potter Prognostications for the Portus Podcast Palooza Friday evening.
I’m looking forward to meeting and re-meeting lots of people. Randy Hoyt and I will be interviewing each other for our respective projects (Journey to the Sea is his). I’ll get to meet Dave and Leanne Bruno – Leanne is a pub patron, and Dave is behind Christianaudio.com and the 100 Thing Challenge (which recently appeared in Time). I’m also looking forward to talking again with David of Harry Potter Fan Zone, whom I met at Prophecy 2007 last year.
Don’t forget that you have until Friday, midnight EDT to get your idea in for the Giveaway! Free audiobooks!
PotterMom05 on 
Joivre on 
Red Rocker on 
Arabella Figg on 
korg20000bc on 
Travis Prinzi on 
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I wrote this somewhere else, too, but have a safe trip. Looking forward to the reports on the conference. I get to spend my time this week going to various doctors’ appointments, so I’m sure I wont’ have half as much fun.
Sorry to hear about your medical travails, revgeorge. Hope they fix what’s bothering you.
Have fun at Portus, Travis. Will we eventually get to read – or hear – your two talks? Christ in the Forest is fraught with possibilities, and I’d be interested in what you dug out about the horrors of Hogwarts.
I see that the spam makers seem to be at a high point in their cycle. Will Matthew be on search-and-destroy detail in your absence?
Thanks, Red Rocker. Fortunately, my appointments were just check ups. But two of my specialists are like four hours away, so I got to spend today driving there & back. Also fortunately my wife had today off so she got to come with & help drive.
But still I would rather have been at Portus or at least at home, since it’s a long day & the temps were up near a hundred.
I, too, hope we get the presentations or good detailed recaps of them. Very promising & interesting stuff, I agree.
Have a great time this weekend, Travis. I second Red Rocker on wanting to hear/read your talks from Dallas.
Take care, revgeorge–hope your weekend isn’t too bad.
Pat
Thanks, Red Rocker & Pat. Fortunately, my appointments were just check ups. But two of my specialists are like four hours away, so I got to spend today driving there & back. Also fortunately my wife had today off so she got to come with & help drive.
But still I would rather have been at Portus or at least at home, since it’s a long day & the temps were up near a hundred.
I, too, hope we get the presentations or good detailed recaps of them. Very promising & interesting stuff, I agree.
Have a great weekend Travis. I second revgeorge’s comment. I hope we can get good recaps of your presentations.
revgeorge, that sucks with all that driving. Glad to hear they’re just checkups and that everything is fine.
Sorry about the double posts. Sometimes the spam checker likes to either ignore my comments or post them long after I originally made them.
Thanks, Johnny. I would doctor more locally but being in the middle of nowhere cuts down on the quantity & sometimes quality of the specialists you can get into see. It’d be closer for me to go to Cheyenne or Fort Collins to doctor but I’ve seen these other two doctors for years. Nobody’s seen my sinuses more than my current ENT.
Thanks, Johnny. Living out here in the middle of nowhere makes it hard sometimes to find quality specialists. I’m several hours away from anywhere.