In the Potterverse…

The short, handwritten prequel that JK Rowling penned for charity will be auctioned off today in London. The story features the misadventures of the Marauders and is set three years before the birth of Harry Potter. According to the BBC, the story ends with the words: “From the prequel I am not working on – but that was fun!”

The money from JKR’s story, plus those of Nick Hornby, Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, Lauren Child, Sebastian Faulks, Tom Stoppard and Irvine Welsh will go to two charities — English PEN (an “international fellowship of writers, working together to promote literature and defend the freedom to write”) and Dyslexia Action.

In other news, Warwick Davis talks about his role as Professor Filius Flitwick.

Poll results: Invincible and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I kind of missed the pie charts, until I made two of them in a single night. Anyway, here are the results of our two-week polls concerning the two biggest events of May: the final Legacy of the Force novel (fig. 1) and the long-awaited fourth Indiana Jones movie (fig. 2.) Overall, it seems you guys liked them – although you clearly liked Indy a lot more. Of course, he received the most votes as well – 154 to Invincible’s 119. (Not too shabby on the book’s part, even considering that our audience is a bit skewed in that regard.)

Google News from a better world

Once you scroll past stories like ‘China Withdraws from Tibet, with Apologies,’ ‘Darfur peace process well underway,’ and ‘Big Three Unveil Emissions-Free Lineup’ on this Google News spoof, there’s also some good news for Serenity, Harry Potter, and Star Wars fans. In theory, anyway… For particularly lazy scrollers, a screencap of the Entertainment section is under the cut. (via) Continue reading “Google News from a better world”