Congratulations, You Are Magical

I've done it.  Done the exact thing I said I wouldn't do just a few weeks ago.

I've gone and joined Pottermore.

Actually, what I've really done is set my alarm for 6:04am, put my laptop next to me on the bed before I went to sleep.  Then I woke up, immediately opened up the laptop and went to the Pottermore website.  I read the clue (“In the Gryffindor versus Slytherin Quidditch match, in Harry’s third year, how many points is Gryffindor leading by before Harry catches the Golden Snitch? Multiply this number by 35.”) then I Googled the brains out of that question.  I found my answer (60), multiplied it by 35, and added that number to the end of the magical quill URL.


If you have no idea what I'm talking about, Pottermore is a website set up by JK Rowling and Sony Entertainment.  It doesn't officially go live until October, but she's done a challenge/contest to find 1 million beta testers for the site.


What's the site, you ask?

Pottermore is a unique online reading experience created by J.K. Rowling and built around the Harry Potter books. Share and participate in the stories, showcase your own Potter-related creativity, and discover additional information about the world of Harry Potter from the author herself.

That's right.  Another way for Jo to have the Harry Potter limelight resting on her for just a little bit longer.  Her refusal to let the series go the way of other great novels and films.  That's why I was contrary to the idea at first.

Then word comes around of this challenge she has to find testers for the Beta site.  She posts a clue from each book, once per day, and the clue is open for the solving until she reaches the allotted number of registrations per day.  Yesterday, when I did it, it was open for less than an hour.

As much as I may not agree with the whole idea of Pottermore, waking up at 6am to get a Beta site membership was worth it when I got to see this:

I already told you about how I waited for my letter from Hogwarts when I was eleven.  It was one of the most disappointing things in my young life when I realized that it wasn't coming and I was forever doomed to be a Muggle.

Well, not anymore.  I am now listed among the likes of Harry, Luna, Neville, Ginny, and The Twins.  I couldn't ask for better company.  A childhood dream finally accomplished.

Those four words would have made my life at eleven years old.  Congratulations, you are magical.  In fact, they still do right now, as a nineteen-nearly-twenty year old who hasn't even seen the last movie yet.

It got me thinking, though.  Not about Harry Potter, not about my childhood, not about JKR's frustrating attempts to keep her ridiculously successful novel series alive, or the fact that she suckered me into it.

No, I'm thinking about three words.  

And they're not I love you.

You are magical.

How often have you been told something like that?  Not, oh you're so funny, or you're such a good _____. Not even I love you.

You are magical.

You.  Are.  Magical.

How would your life have changed if, from your first breath, you were told that you were magical?  You would have no choice but to believe in yourself.

Think of all the kids who deserve to hear that, who deserve to hear You are magical, I love you, but they don't.  

You know what?  You are magical.  It doesn't matter if you woke up at 6am like I did so that you could get into Pottermore, or if you've had straight A's in school your whole life.  I believe completely that you are a magical human being.

You're magical because you are completely unique.  Nobody else has all of the same freckles, the same eyelashes, the same thoughts.  You are you, and you're the only one who can ever be that.  You are a conglomeration of people and things and experiences, and you are the only one who has experienced them all.  

You're magical because of the things you create.  I believe in creation, as you know.  Create what you can, when you can.  Give the gift of form and ingenuity to wood, words, or food.  Gussy it up.  Share it with the people you care about.  Create often.  Explore your incredible capacity for making something out of something else.

You're magical not because you know all of the spells or have the right broomstick, but because you've seen amazing things and have good friends.  You're magical because of the love you have for people, places, and things.

You are magical.  Isn't it amazing?  Don't get yourself down, or tell me that I'm wrong.  I'm not.  I don't want to hear it.  I may not always be right, but I am now.  You're magical.  Admit it.  Accept it.

Live it.  When you come up to an obstacle in life, keep your magic in mind.  Say "there's no way this stupid obstacle can stop me.  I'm magical!"  Start the day off with a smile, because you can do anything you put your mind to.  Maybe not right now, maybe not even by next week, but with determination and a little bit of magic, you'll get through it or to it.  I believe in you.

Believe in you.  Believe in fairies.  Believe in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  Believe whatever you want to.  As long as you know that you are magical, the rest falls into place.

So, off with ye.  Go conquer the world.  Use your magic wisely.  Do the things that you've always wanted to. Slide-tackle your fear and take it out.  Slam it into the turf for good measure.  You know what?  Wingardium Leviosa that jerk onto a stadium light, and don't let it down.

Congratulations, you are magical.

Nimbus Racing Broom Co., Official Sponsor of the Quidditch World Cup

P.S.  Have updated music, Okeanos, and added a new page (a picture of the day type thing).  CHECK 'EM OUT! 

Don't Make Me Arrest You, Potter

I do apologize for the lack of movement in the blogosphere lately.  I've been doing...  Actually I don't know what I've been doing, but it obviously wasn't blogging.

Well I'm done neglecting all of my writing projects, this blog being one of them, so here's a sparkly, brand-spankin' new blog post for ya!

By now most of the late-night Potter revelers are awake again, and I'm almost dreading logging onto Facebook to put this post up.

You know that I'm not a Potter Hater.  I've been to at least one midnight screening of a Harry Potter film (third one, I think) that I can remember, and it's possible that I went to another one and just don't remember it.  The midnight screening I went to for The Dark Knight is blocking out all of the other midnight screenings I went to before it, but that's a whole other story.

In fact, I love Harry Potter.  Always have.  I waited for my acceptance letter from Hogwarts when I was ten, and I held out until I was close to twelve.  (It probably just got lost.  They probably just got my name because I just turned eleven.  It's probably because I'm in America.)  I spent hours in my backyard playing make-believe Harry Potter.  I bought the computer games and screamed whenever I had to fight a gnome.  I screamed the first time Dobby showed up in the second movie.

I wrote endless stories about the Potterverse, where Harry was the villain and Draco Malfoy was infinitely more cool than he actually was in the books.  Ginny Weasley was my hero until she lost her personality in the 6th book and became Harry's little woman.  Neville and Luna were good replacements for Ron and Hermione.

I had a crush on Oliver Wood.  Big time.  When I played make-believe Harry Potter, Oliver was always my man.  That was until he disappeared from existence, so then I grew into Draco Malfoy instead.

I am a true fan.  I've been to midnight releases for the books, as well.  The Harry Potter series has been a defining part of my childhood, and one of my more favorite parts.  It helped me grow my love for England, which started with BBC Daytime programmes, and ushered me into teenhood as a witch at Hogwarts, which was a lot more exciting than a muggle in high school.

All that being said, I'm glad that the films are all finally out and that Harry Potter is, at last, coming to an end.  Jo Rowling has had an incredible, incredibly successful run with this series, and I can't help but drool in jealousy of all the successes she's had that a weenie unpubbed writer like myself can only dream of.  She's one of the few authors that bridged the gap between being a celebrity and a notoriety.  She's one of the few modern writers whose own face is recognizable.

Or maybe she's only recognizable to Potternerds.

(That's the nice thing about being a writer.  You're ugly?  So what?  The only time people see your face is if they go to the author blurb on the inside of the book jacket.  Even then, you don't have to have a picture at all.  Your face doesn't matter.)

But, like everything, even wildly popular fads have their lifespan.  Harry Potter has only lasted this long because,

1. It's super long.  7 books?  That's ridiculous!
2. The films were staggered after the first few books were written and published.  So, while the last book came out a few years ago, we're only just now getting to the last part of the last film.
3. Crossover appeal.  Although it was originally geared towards MG (middle grade) readers, it was detailed and interesting enough that adults could read and enjoy it.  Not only that, but it covered such a large age group, literally following kids like me as we moved from MG fiction to YA (young adult) fiction.  

That and because JK Rowling made a ridiculously detailed, insanely creative world that took on a life of its own.

Of course there are those people that are going to hate me for saying that Potter has finally run out of steam, because the child inside them, the one that waited for their acceptance letter from Hogwarts when they were eleven, is yelling something about how Harry Potter needs to go on forever.  

No it most certainly doesn't.

Perhaps this is just the drooling, jealous weenie writer in me talking, but I think it's time for the Harry Potter empire to step down and away from the limelight.  I'm not asking Potter to give up his crown, by any means.  I understand that the crown must be won and taken.  I'm just asking him to step aside and recognize that his time is up.  

That's why I'm a little worried about this Pottermore site that's opening in October of this year.  I'm not sure what it's going to be, although there's lots of speculation going around, but I'm so afraid that it's Jo's feeble attempt to keep the series going.  For her sake, even, she needs to let it go.  If she never wants to write again, that's fine.  She could easily go into retirement and never publish another book.

Let's think about this.  Her life for the past twenty years has been Harry Potter.  From her first inklings of an idea in the early nineties to now, the release of the last part of the last film, she's been living and breathing Harry Potter.  

That's a lot of time to be breathing anything other than air.  A twenty-year Harry Potter high?  It's probably scary to think that there's actually an end to it, and I can only see Pottermore as her inability to let go.  "Wait," she's saying, "I've been thinking about this for twenty years.  There are so many details that I never got to share with you.  Wait, don't go!"

The nearly fifteen years that the Harry Potter books have been coming out is a long time, too.  And the ten years of notoriety that Jo has enjoyed is a long time.  She's had the ear of a portion of the world's children, as well as their adults, for ten years.  Ten years of people listening to her every word and wanting her opinion and idolizing her.  It's impossible for all of that not to reach your head eventually.

Jo, what I'm saying is that I won't be going to Pottermore in October.  I didn't go to the midnight screening of the last film.  I haven't been to a midnight screening in years.  I love you and all of the boundaries you have broken in the literary world, and the example you've set for all writers who write for the rising generation.  You'll be a tough act to follow.

But, it's time to bow out of the Potterverse.  Do you want to write other books?  That's fine.  I'll absolutely read them, because I know your prowess at world-building.  Do you want to be done with the whole thing?  That's fine, too.  I know you've made scads of money, loads more than I'll ever make, and you can absolutely afford to do that.

Let it go.  Let the Harry Potter Generation (that's me) immortalize you.  Don't let your baby, your twenty years of hard work, become the petulant, annoying child actor who grew up and still feels entitled to fame.  Go out gracefully, while you still can.

Don't make me arrest you.

Or give you a mustache.  Blast, I forgot the spell.

(P.S.  I've put up the pitches on Okeanos if you wanted to see them, and added a commenting section.)