We will read, Pottermore! by Alexandra Kroeger - Thursday, Jun 23, 2011 at 11:07am

This morning, J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, announced the October launch of pottermore.com. Pottermore will offer an interactive reading experience for fans of the series, as well as Harry-Potter-related merchandise and ebooks. Fans will be able to visit Diagon Alley, get their own wand and be sorted into a house. Rowling has also promised additional information about various characters that fans will be able to access on the site - for example, the story of how Petunia and Vernon Dursley met, and what Professor McGonagall did before she came to teach at Hogwarts. Rowling says she's written about 18,000 new words on our favourite witches and wizards, and she's not even finished yet!

Registration begins on July 31st - Harry's birthday - and a million lucky registrants will be able to access the site early. Don't forget to submit your e-mail now so you can get a reminder when registration opens!

For more information, see J.K. Rowling's announcement and the Leaky Cauldron for all up-to-date news regarding Pottermore.

Categories: buzz, SciFi & Fantasy, Publishing News

2011 Prix Aurora Shortlists Announced by Chadwick Ginther - Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 1:46pm

Congratulations to Brandon's Craig Russell for being shortlisted for the 2011 Prix Aurora Award for Best English Novel. We've been fortunate at McNally Robinson in Winnipeg to have hosted four of the five nominees in this year's novel category.

The Prix Auroras will be awarded the weekend of November 18-20 at the Canadian national science fiction and fantasy convention, this year hosted by SFContario.

Best English Novel:

• Black Bottle Man by Craig Russell, Great Plains Publications
• Destiny's Blood by Marie Bilodeau, Dragon Moon Press
• Stealing Home by Hayden Trenholm, Bundoran Press
• Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay, Viking Canada
• Watch, by Robert J. Sawyer, Penguin Canada

Two nominated anthologies feature stories by Manitobans: Tesseracts Fourteen, edited by John Robert Colombo and Brett Alexander Savory, includes "Heat Death, or Answering the Ouroboros Question" by Brandon's Patrick Johanneson and "Chrysalis" by Winnipeg's Ronald Hore appears in Evolve: Vampire Stories of the New Undead, edited by Nancy Kilpatrick. There are also two new categories this year: Poetry or Song Lyric and Graphic Novel.

A complete list of 2011 nominees

Categories: Awards, SciFi & Fantasy, Winnipeg, Horror

Diana Wynne Jones 1934-2011 by Cameron - Saturday, Mar 26, 2011 at 1:08pm

Diana Wynne Jones, author of the Chrestomanci series and Howl's Moving Castle has passed away.

Categories: Site News, Authors, SciFi & Fantasy

more...

Inheritance Cycle Book 4 Has a Release Date! by Alexandra Kroeger - Thursday, Mar 24, 2011 at 7:19pm

Mark your calendars, everybody! The long-awaited fourth book in Christopher Paolini's bestselling Inheritance Cycle finally has a title, cover and release date.

Inheritance will be out on November 8, 2011.

Categories: SciFi & Fantasy, New Releases

more...