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WE ARE AWESOME
That's what I been doing these years as a freelance :) I'm so proud 
Book series creator makes magic in Roland
Book series creator makes magic in Roland
By: Laura Pieper / The Tribune
* What: Wizard Academies series book signing and costume contest.
* Where: Borders Books & Music, 1200 S. Duff Ave.
* When: 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9.
* Learn More: Go to the Wizard Academies Web site, www.interdrama. com/wiz.
* Buy the books: Available at www.lulu.com/rivals and Borders Books & Music in Ames.
Hold on to your wand and watch out for the Wild Hunt and Black Dragons; the next generation of young magicians is based out of a home in Roland.
Alan Lance Andersen created the Wizard Academies book series several years ago, in part as a homage to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series.
He sent out a call for submissions on various author and fan-fiction Web sites and gathered together a motley crew of authors as varied as the schools and students in the Wizard Academies world.
The students at these schools are a bit different from the ones in J.K. Rowling's universe. They follow a different code of magic, and they attend giant universities, tiny private schools, haunted academies and juvenile delinquent institutions. There is even a school dedicated to "reverberaunts," young wizards who died but have returned to life under mysterious circumstances.
And yes, there are inside jokes and references to the Harry Potter books. For example, there is one magic school that is never named, but the Wizard Academies kids refer to the students as "Hoggies."
Come enter a world where magic is everywhere, and the students face problems larger than life.
The Wand Master
Andersen has been involved in desktop publishing for many years and is a former science journalist. In his spare time, he also is a magician and storyteller.
Back in the 1970s, he was involved with a role-playing group called the Wizard Academies in which players acted out the lives of young wizards in bizarre schools and locations around the world.
Jump forward 30 years to 2005, when Andersen began the Wizard Academies book project. He had discovered the world of print-on-demand publishing. A friend, Becky Edwards, told Andersen about some fan-fiction Web sites she had found that had some impressive budding writers.
Inspired by his experiences with the role-playing game years ago and the Harry Potter series, he sought a group of authors to bring the Wizard Academies back to life, in print.
From Iowa to New Zealand, writers began cropping up in Andersen's e-mail box. Together, they created a new world of magic and wizardry that broke new ground yet lightly jabbed at the Harry Potter world.
"I love working with The Gang, as we call ourselves," Andersen said.
The result was a collection of short stories, including mysteries, ghost stories, gothic romance, comedy and adventure. The collection was published by a print-on-demand company in January 2006.
"It was huge, and we eventually decided to split it into two volumes," Andersen said.
Now the original book is divided into the anthologies "Gathering of Enchantment" and "Heart of Darkness."
Barely two years later, five books in the Wizard Academies series are in print, including a novella by Andersen.
"People who have read the stories generally love them," he said. "Because we just got distribution, there haven't been a lot of readers yet."
The Gang
Most of the Wizard Academies authors, about a dozen in number, never have met. Chris Malloy was in New Zealand when he first became part of the group; now he resides in Montana. Celina Cook is from Brazil. The artist, "Lylith," lives in Spain.
"I have never actually met any of the others," Malloy wrote in the introduction to his novella, "A Special Kind of Talent." "We all live in the cyberspace equivalent of an artist's colony in Paris."
In this Web world, the authors gather ideas, share characters and collaborate to build a world of mystery, danger and fun.
Malloy's books take place at a school for delinquent wizards called Long Step, and his stories are Sherlock Holmes-type murder mysteries.
Steven Philip Jones writes out of Cedar Rapids; his stories are Gothic horror with a touch of humor and adventure. He writes about the "reverberaunts," who each have one year from the day they return to life to find out who they are and why they died, and make amends if necessary. If those tasks are not fulfilled in time, the wizard vanishes forever.
"I love the Potter books and thought (Wizard Academies) was a clever concept that did not swipe from J.K. Rowling, but paid homage to her," Jones said.
The artist in the gang, Lylith, has illustrated every Wizard Academies book so far, using her unique take on Anime and Manga art. Andersen discovered her Web site and asked her to join the crew.
"I'm free to draw what I want," she said. "I follow the stories, of course, but the authors give me liberty to have my own interpretation of the scenes. The stories are very imaginative, and I just love them."
Andersen, who edited the original anthology, created his own Wizard Academies school, Gallimaufriars Academy.
"My school is known for being the lowest-accredited wizard school in the world," he said.
The teachers are a bit ditzy, and the wand master is a former hippie who makes Star Wars jokes. The hero, Corwyn Daniels, has a Tom Sawyer type of personality and is always getting into trouble.
"I love it when my own stories don't tell me what's happening, and I get surprised when I find out what's going on," Andersen said.
Making it big
Wizard Academies may become a television series in the near future. Alan Lance Andersen said he has an agent with the prestigious International Creative Management company, and the authors recently completed television treatments for studios to review. The plot centers on Andersen's main character, Corwyn, and the storyline from the novella "Rumpots, Crackpots and Pooka-Mazed Halfwits."
"We're pretty excited about that," Andersen said.
02/07/2008
© Mid-Iowa Newspapers 2008
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Oooh, felicidades. :D
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Damn I have to get better at space-time-travel
I would love to meet you <3
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i'm s proud myself! too bad I wasn't there U_U