I just completed a creative writing course and I wanted to take a moment here to talk about what makes a piece of writing creative, and what it means to write creatively.

The 176th episode of PotterCast, our Harry Potter podcast, is now online with our live show celebrating Beedle the Bard, from Books of Wonder in New York City! The PotterCast quartet and Scholastic Senior Editor Cheryl Klein, continuity editor on the Harry Potter books, sit down for an hour and a half to discuss Beedle, …read more!

Quick reminder: We hope to see you tonight near Philly at the Bryn Mawr Yule Ball, which PotterCast will be emceeing. It’s free, and promises to be awesome. Info below: Come see The Moaning Myrtles, The Whomping Willows, Ministry of Magic, and The Mudbloods play at a holiday concert. All four PotterCasters will be in …read more!

Warner Bros have now opened a new contest to win a trip to London and tour the set of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The Hogwarts Holiday contest, open to residents of the US to people 13 years and older, runs now until December 31, with the winner announced on January 7, 2009. The …read more!

As we told you previously, there were to be new preview footage and cast interviews broadcast this weekend on ABC Family. We now have the first new clips available here in our video galleries.In the footage we see short new interviews with actors Dan Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson, as well as director David …read more!

It’s time to dust off our tankard-sized goblets and toast one Rubeus Hagrid, for the calendar on Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling’s website has been updated for December 6th to wish the Hogwarts Professor and Gamekeeper a happy birthday. Here’s to you, Hagrid. Cheers!

Our Leaky Lounge has opened up a brand new book club today, just in time for the publication of The Tales of Beedle the Bard by Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling. The Beedle the Bard Book Club will be the center for fresh discussion of the fairy tales during the month of December before …read more!

Quick reminder: We hope to see you tonight at our live PotterCast, in celebration of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. It is at: Books of Wonder 18 W. 18th Street, NYC 6pm to 8pm This will be our first live audience discussion of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Cheryl Klein, continuity editor of …read more!

We have a couple more details (thanks to an email from an attendee) on topics discussed by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling yesterday at the release party for The Tales of Beedle the Bard. In response to a question at the event yesterday in Edinburgh, Scotland, Jo said that none of her invented Harry Potter …read more!

Actor Alan Rickman has given a new interview to SCI-FI Wire where he discusses his filming schedule in his role as Severus Snape for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In the interview he says he will be filming late in 2009, mentioning working with Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort) for those pivotal and dramatic scenes …read more!