A Writer's Guide to Harry Potter Release Week + #Giveaways!

It’s release week for A Writer’s Guide to Harry Potter, and I couldn’t be more excited! So many good things have happened recently to share with all of you. Best of all, I want to invite you to the virtual launch party this Wednesday.

First, I am featured this morning on WRAL TV’s Go Ask Mom column in an interview about how I came to write A Writer’s Guide to Harry Potter. Please check it out here.

What’s really cool is that the reporter for this piece, Sarah Lindenfeld Hall, will also present the book live on FOX 50 this Wednesday as part of their morning newscast. If you’re local, you can watch it between 8:30 – 8:45.

Wednesday will also be the day of our virtual launch with a Facebook and Twitter party. The theme will be Harry Potter Fandom Around the World and the Writers JK Rowling Inspired. My publisher and I will be interviewing writers from many countries about how Rowling inspired their writing and what the fandom is like in their country and throughout the US. If you were inspired by Harry, there is still time to get involved. Just drop me a note at SPSipal AT gmail.com.

As part of the release party, we’ll have giveaways and prizes, so be sure to attend. Along with the interviews, I’ll also talk about some of the clues Rowling wove into the HP series and what we can expect from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which releases this Sunday. Our hashtag for the event will be #WritersGuideToHarryPotter.

After a couple of days of recovering from all this, I’ll be participating in Durham's New Hope Commons Barnes and Noble midnight release party for Cursed Child. I’ll post more updates on Twitter and my Upcoming Appearances page as they are confirmed.

Our live-in-person launch party has turned out to be more fantastic than I ever imagined in my wildest dreams. I’ve been invited to present and sign my book at a mini Renaissance Faire in my hometown, complete with RenFaire craft booths, vendors, food trucks, sword fighting, mead tasting, and lots and lots of cosplay. So, I guess I’ll be dressed as someone from Potterdom. Who should I go as?

If you’re close enough to attend, you can also get your picture made in our Prisoner Sirius Black, “Have You Seen This Wizard” insert-your-face cutout carnival standee.

Finally, the paperback version of A Writer’s Guide to Harry Potter is live today on Amazon. The Kindle will go live tonight at midnight here.

My fabulous publisher, Deep River Press, made all of this possible. The marketing team at Deep River is just incredible, and I cannot thank them enough.

Come have fun with me this week!