Harry Potter party....and more

Here's where we were on release night. Where were you?



Ciara met Madam Trelawney. Our friend Garry (as Mr. Weasley) found Ginny and Mrs. Weasley there (even though he didn't come with them....he was caught with a certain Rita Skeeter)

















We had our fortunes read.









Mad-eye Moody was serious as ever, posing below with that notorious Rita Skeeter (who actually is part of the Garry/Andrea duo.:)










But I dear readers, I went for an ulterior purpose. Oh yes, I enjoyed dressing up and playing the part of the colorful Tonks. But the most serious draw was getting to meet Charles Vess, illustrator of Stardust, written by Neil Gaiman.

I had originally mentioned Mr. Vess at my other blog last year, in connection with Susan Lachman and Amy Steinberg. It's strange how connections keep swirling up from that. I found his art back then and occasionally visited his site to oggle the lovely illustrations.

Didn't make the connection that he was the illustrator of Stardust until that very night, when I purchased my copy of the book in preparation for the artist visit. I took one look at the book and gasped. Yep, it was the same artist and he lives just up the road in Abingdon.

I came home and read Stardust while all the other party goers were probably reading their Harry Potter novels. Traitor that I am. Can't wait for the movie to come out next week. We've even named two of our new kittens "Yvaine" and "Tristran" after the main characters.