everything but the girl

Hi all! I'm posting this on behalf of tarie, the exec producer of SpellCast's podcast plays. You can hear the podcast plays that SpellCast has already released at the website.

Podcast plays typically run between 20-40 minutes. Up until now, the plays have all been adaptations of existing fanfic.

I am looking to round up a team of writers who would be interested in collaborating on an eight-part play. Ideally I am looking for people who feel they 'specialize' in specific characters, types of characters, or groups of characters (Death Eaters, Order of the Phoenix, Aurors, Hogwarts Students, etc etc). However, if you are rockin' at plot and characterization in general, I'm also looking for you!

I will ALSO be needing writers to create two stories from The Tales of Beedle the Bard for live plays at two upcoming conventions and possibly a musical.

If you think you might be interested, please leave an initial comment to this post with your name, anything you think I should know regarding your writing strengths, where I can find your writing, and your email address.

Conversely, if you think you know someone I might not have friended who would be into something like this, please let me know.

To recap:

I am looking to form a team of writers for:
-an eight-part drama
-two plays from Tales from Beedle the Bard
-and possibly a musical about Hogwarts: The Next Generation (or something)

If you're interested in all OR just in one or two of these things, PLEASE post a reply at tarie's LJ, specifically here (comments are screeened) or send an email to spellcast@fictionalley.org.

If you're only interested in one or two, please include which things you'd want to help out with when you comment.

I've been waiting to join elements and bookshop in announcing faspellcast's upload of Shipping the Velvet, the slash panel at Phoenix Rising that featured bookshop, elements, kitsune13, henryjenkins and my PR roommate tillytilly because I wanted to embed the cool ODEO player so people can listen to it easily using streaming audio. Unfortunately, LJ doesn't incorporate the ODEO player - I'm off to go put in a request at Support - so if anyone can rec a different streaming player that I can incorporate here on LJ, I'll be totally grateful.
Their main player works, but it autoplays, and I don't want to do that to my flist...



If you want to include a player on myspace or on your LJ profile page (it doesn't seem to work in posts on LJ, alas), you can do so by visiting ODEO or by using the code below:

<embed src="http://odeo.com/flash/audio_player_gray.swf" quality="high" width="322" height="54" name="odeo_player_gray" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="always" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars="type=audio&id=12850733" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" /></embed><br /><a style="font-size: 9px; padding-left: 110px; color: #f39; letter-spacing: -1px; text-decoration: none" href="http://odeo.com/audio/12850733/view">powered by <strong>ODEO</strong></a>

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And legomymalfoy just shared a cat macro generator that pulls subjects from your LJ. You can see my LJ , as interpreted by cats, here, but the ones I loved the most are ( behind the cut )

Happy April, SpellCast listeners! Spring has sprung, and SpellCast's own re-birth debuts with an all-new episode. You won't want to miss the excitement!

In this episode:

* The hosts bring a new spin to SpellCast, and things take a turn for the dark side.

* News from all over the internet - in other words, other fandoms - directly to your earbuds.

* The Writer's Corner examines Draco Malfoy's characterization.

* Our new Fan Fiction Review hosts look at two fics: A Match Made in Heaven, and Harry Potter is Dead Because of Me.

As always, you can download it at our website or through iTunes. We hope you enjoy the episode! Let us know what you think about the revamped podcast by emailing spellcast@fictionalley.org leaving feedback at our website, or commenting on LiveJournal, MySpace, or FictionAlley Park.

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Producer Josh from SC has also asked me to pass on this question (newsletters, please mention separate from the announcement about the new ep, please?):

Coming soon to SpellCast, we'll be interviewing Nicholas Hooper - composer for the up-coming Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie. Before we give him a ring, however, we are really keen to see if you guys have any questions you'd like answered, so post 'em here and we'll make a selection of the best ones.

Click here to share your question or email spellcast@fictionalley.org.

Recs of the Evening:
SpellCast...

SpellCast kicks off 2007 with its fifteenth episode and new features!

- The hosts discuss the book title release and its potential meanings.

- Josh sits down with filkmaster Caius Marcius to talk about - and demonstrate - the art of HP filking.

- Zorb chats with Stephanie, one of the webmasters of RupertGrint.net, about the number one source for Rupert news on the web.

- The review of Zannie's The Difference a Day Makes includes both the hosts' opinions and called in reviews from our listeners.

Thanks for staying with SpellCast in the new year! Enjoy the show, and let us know what you think on our website, LiveJournal, FictionAlley Park, or by email. Download the episode here or through iTunes.

The Ewan MacGregor READ Poster, courtesy of the American Library Association ( behind the cut... )

Phoenix Rising stuff! If you haven't entered the Phoenix Rising contest with FA, SQ and TLC for fanartists, fanficcers and fan-essayists, what are you waiting for? If you're planning to go to PR or be in the NO area, there's great prizes for the winners, and FA has terrific prizes for the runners-up in the fanart category, too!

(Also, shhhhh, coming tomorrow, FA's first fic/art challenge of 2007, which I guarantee will include the phrase NarcissaMalfoy and a Lewd Holly Hat.)

Seriously.

I almost managed NaPoBloMo - I posted every day until I think the 28th, when I got caught up in SpellCast stuff, and sorta forgot about it until the next day.

But the new episode of SpellCast is now up here - with elanor_isolda's interview with the Phelps brothers, who play the Weasley twins, and what I think is one of the coolest, most fascinating interviews at least of the year - gwendolyngrace attended the MIT Futures of Entertainment conference late last month, and had a chance to interview Diane Nelson, lately the Executive Vice President of global brand management and strategized worldwide distribution for Harry Potter, about her thoughts on fans, fandom and fan "ownership" of movie and book properties. Look for a transcript of the interview sometime this weekend, but of course, you can listen to it now via iTunes or the SpellCast site itself. Special kudos to Josh for an amazing job editing two episodes in one week, and I think we're back on schedule now, squee.

Now that it's finally December, I feel more holiday-like. It's difficult in Miami when it's on the warm side - back in mid-November when it was in the 50s I was really dreaming of a White Christmas, but while it's possible that Orlando may get some flurries this winter, the likelihood of us getting it down here is maybe one in ten thousand. We had snow back in 1977, and none since. But every 29 years would work for me.

So if you want a holiday card, click here and leave your name & addy - it's all screened there so I didn't have to screen comments on this post. If you don't want a snail-mailed card, just leave your email address and I'll send you a virtual card instead.

And I'm going to jump on the Holiday Wishes bandwagon:

STEP ONE
- Make a post (public, friendslocked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. The post should contain your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

- If you wish for real life things (not fics or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you. [Note: Your home address is not required!]

- Also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ, or link to this post (it'll be public) so that the holiday joy will spread.

STEP TWO
- Surf around your friendslist (or friendsfriends, or just random journals (ETA or the holiday_wishes Community) to see who has posted their list. And now here's the important part:

- If you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. Sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use--or even know where you could get someone's dream purebred Basset Hound for free--do it.

You needn't spend money on these wishes unless you want to. The point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf--to spread the joy. Gifts can be made anonymously or not--it's your call. There are no guarantees with this project, and no strings attached. Just...wish, and it might come true. Give, and you might receive. And you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special.

1. Regulus/Barty Junior fic! In fact, any Regulus fic, except maybe no Regulus/Hagrid

2. Recs for a region-free DVD player that's under $60 US

3. Tiny-denomination coins from outside the US and Canada - like, the equivalent of a penny. My kids like them but while it's relatively easy to find larger denominations here in Miami, smaller ones are hard to get one or two of.

4. Tickets to this.

5. For more people to submit essays to HPInkPot, no matter when they were written, as you can indicate pre-OotP or pre-HBP-ness.

6. A release date and/or title for Book Seven; if it gets announced on my birthday, like OotP was, so much the better.

7. For you to listen to SpellCast and vote for it on Podcast Alley.

8. A few people to help build stuff in SecondLife

9. Peace on earth and goodwill in fandom, online, and IRL.

10. For you to tell me one thing you wish for in the new year.

So I've been sick in bed with what I suspect was a stomach virus for the last 24 hours or so - about three hours I finally felt all better and had an insatiable craving for bread, having not eaten since breakfast yesterday. Since then, I've baked and eaten corn muffins and Pillsbury biscuits and my husband is bringing home some rye bread.

I've managed to catch the OotP trailer online - and yes, I am befuddled by the change in the writing on Harry's hand - but I have a feeling that Evanna Lynch might make up for it. I hope. For some reason, I can't find the Sneak Preview thing on my OnDemand - how can I find it? Does anyone know?

ETA: One thing I do know ;) - it seems in this screencap that moony made, Remus and Sirius are playing footsie under the table. Right? RIGHT?

: hides from my snupin friends

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In SpellCast news, robertstandring has been having computer issues, so this next episode is a little delayed, but I think it'll be worth it. We are still looking for people to help edit segments & episodes - it can be as little as a 2-3 hour time commitment each week - so if you're interested, let us know via spellcast@fictionalley.org.

It's a Riddikulus episode of SpellCast Creativity this week!

In this show you can enjoy:

"The Government Stole My Toothbrush", written by Pennswoods (also at pennswoods) and read by gwendolyngrace.

"Like Father, Like Son", written by Mira Miracle read by Jason Fraser.
We're looking for fics to read on future episodes of SpellCast Creativity! If you have a fic you'd like us to include, send a link to spellcast@fictionalley.org. Please keep in mind that we can only read fics that are rated PG-13 and below.

Lucky number seven - it's the seventh episode of SpellCast, now available for your downloading enjoyment at iTunes, or download it directly at Libsyn..

In this episode...

The hosts of SpellCast give their thoughts on the recently released photos from Order of the Phoenix movie.

We continue with the second half of the podcast play, copperbadge's Registration.

Josh chatted with Belinda about keeping up with JKR’s website for the Harry Potter Lexicon and FictionAlley and the recent W.O.M.B.A.T. test.

For the Fan Fiction Review, the gang discusses If You’ve a Ready Mind by Maya aka mistful.

Please be sure to check out our forum on FictionAlley Park for more information and discussion regarding SpellCast. We hope you enjoy the show, and if you are enjoying SpellCast, please vote for the show on Podcast Alley!

For the last three or so months, FictionAlley has been plotting with Phoenix Rising regarding FA sponsoring one of the coolest parts of the conference - Artists and Authors Night.

Artists and Authors Night is a chance for the fandom to show off, to recognize how invaluable it is, and for those who aren't in it, to learn what it's all about; as the event team says, it will be intimate, inviting opportunities for people to explore and play from fanfiction readings to fanart portfolio showings to an art gallery.

I'll be joining melissa_tlc and angiej as a presenter at Transformation: From Fan to Fandom (that portion is an "additional cost" event) and of course, I'll be at the live recording of SPELLcast - and, of course, there's the A&A Night Events themselves!

There's going to be Drabble
and Drawble
challenges to our Wireless Web Network (where sponsoring fandom groups, 'ships, etc. can host a table at) to roundtables and creative booths and so on and so forth and etc.!

And as with any event, it is only as great and awesome as we make it, and as comprehensive and broad as the submissions we receive! So have a fanfic or two or three to share? How about some fanart? Want to participate in writing or art challenges? Be a part of creative booths? Got roundtable topics? Possibilities are just about endless... and more excitement will be announced over the next few months.

And as smilie117 reminded me, you can visit fromashandflame for the latest issue, which explains all the above in an easy-to-forward format!

HP Education Fanon, Inc. is thrilled to announce that our website is now live and available at http://hpeducationfanon.org/ for your perusal.

It has a collection of links to past and future events, including prophecy2007 and, of course, next month's Lumos 2006, and information for those who are interested in bidding on events for 2008 and beyond.

Thanks to everyone who made this possible, and especially those who have contributed to my understanding of server-side includes, so I can edit and update the thing!

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Yesterday, before my computer was abruptly and accidentally shut down, I posted to fiction_alley about our contest where two people can each win one ticket to the August 2 JKR reading in New York City - you can read my original post here or visit the contest page itself here.

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And lastly, FictionAlley and HPANA are thrilled to announce that sign-ups are now open for The Creativity Booth at Lumos! If you're registered to attend Lumos, we'd love to have you take a seat in the Creativity Booth, which will be situation in the Vendor Room; you'll be part of the booth staff for a one-hour time-slot, and your fellow attendees will be able to request a drabble, a sketch, a filk, or a bit of meta/debate from you. We have almost 100 slots available for artists, writers and filkers, so we're hoping that a lot of you are able to take an hour and join in the fun!

As some of you remember, we sponsored some of the booths at The Witching Hour, and it was fun for the attendees and the creative people staffing the booths, so we wanted to do it again! (And again, and again, and again!)

ETA: Forgot some spellcast stuff!

The staff of SpellCast is seeking people to fill some positions hidden behind the LJ cut:

( hidden behind this LJ cut )

And, of course, our SpellCast logo contest is still going on. Learn more here!

If you are interested in applying for any of these positions, use your computer's recording equipment and send a voice mail to Skype username "fictionalley" with the following information:

- A brief introduction of yourself.
- How you became interested and involved with the Harry Potter fandom.
- Which position you're interested in and why you'd be the person for the job.

If you are applying for a crew (off-air) position, you can also submit your application to our Skype account using your telephone. The number to call in the United States is 303 800 4342 and in the United Kingdom you can reach us at 0161 408 3427. We ask that all applicants who are applying for cast (on-air) positions not use their telephones but their computer's recording equipment, because via the sound quality suffers via the telephone.

If you have any questions, comments or problems, please don't hesitate to drop us an e-mail at spellcastfa at gmail dot com. Thank you for your interest and we hope to hear from you soon.

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Any questions about any of the above? Feel free to ask!