Back to the Blog: The Hallmarked Man, Podcast News and non-Hallmarked Strike Ornaments

 Hello, Potter/Strike fans.  Adjusting to life as a business owner has squeezed out some of my blogging time, but hopefully there will be a little bit of catch-up during this holiday season.   Some quick notes. 

Mr. Galbraith gave the Strike and Ellacott fans a special Christmas gift in the form of an announcement that The Hallmarked Man manuscript is complete. Hopefully, this means the book will be in our hot little hands in late summer to early fall, 2025. 

Speaking of Strike and Ellacott:  The Strike and Ellacott files is back from its hiatus with a biweekly read-through of The Silkworm.  I am quite excited by this, as The Silkworm is one of those boks that, per the Double Wedding Band hypothesis, would be expected to include major echoes to The Hallmarked Man. We already know of a few:  1) the author's tweets have informed up that Strike's birthday and Christmas will be celebrated, as they were in Book 2 (and 5 and 6!) and 2) the many allusions to silver suggest an albedo-themed story, as does the copious snow of The Silkworm. I can think of no better way to prepare for The Hallmarked Man than a thorough re-read of the even-numbered books, so check it out. 

Speaking of podcasts, on December 7th, I was privileged to appear on my third Strike-themed episode of The Three Broomsticks, with my friend and fellow scholar/fan Beatrice Groves. We talk about the major and secondary characters of the series, and their connections to Harry Potter characters, and had a great time. So, please tune in!  

And finally, I am excited to share the new Cormoran Strike ornament I have added to my collection this year. Since Hallmark has not started a series of commemorative trinkets, and is not likely to, even with the potential marketing boon of the next book's title, I have had to find or make my own. My UK trip to in summer 2023 got me a few from tourist places visited in Troubled Blood:  a clock from Hampton Palace, a Cynthia Phipps as Anne Boleyn, and a Paddington Bear in a Fortnam and Mason bag (the tiny bag orginally contained chocolates, I found the mini-Paddington clip-on at a souvenir stand later).  

I recently finished up the box of tea bags I brought back from Betty's in York and so I clipped the logo of the box, laminated it with the napkin I saved, and combined it with a small teapot ornament I was given several years ago.  

Here's what it looked like on the tree:  

I've asked Santa for a couple of other ornaments that depict some elements of the books, and I have some ideas for a few others I can make. Depending on what turns up in my Christmas stocking, I will hopefully follow up with some new additions soon. I don't know if I'll ever have enough for my own miniature Strike tree, as I do for my Harry Potter collection, but if I ever do, my donkey balloon will be the tree topper. 

If the Strike fandom ever starts crafting and swapping ornaments the way Harry Potter fans do, count me in!

Anyone else have any Strike themed displays to share?

Pottering Around: Approaching October with a Ton of Wizardry.

Fall has always been my favorite season, and this year, I am once again welcoming the arrival of cooler weather and more colorful leaves.  One aspect of fall that I especially enjoy is the number of great wizarding events that come around. This year, there are more than usual, so I thought I'd take a break from my Striking and share a few.  

First, Part Two of the memory episode of Potterversity dropped last weekend. You can find it here.  I also recorded another episode on ghosts with the great David Martin,  It should be out by Thanksgiving. 

Second, today was the 9th annual Queen City Mischief and Magic festival, in Staunton, VA.  I've been involved with the festival since the first one back in summer 2016, and this year I went with my husband and son  The costumes and decor get better every year. 

There was even a memorial to Dame Maggie Smith.

Third, next weekend I am heading back to my hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee.  In addition to attending my 40th high school reunion, I've got tickets to this wizarding train event sponsored by the Tennessee Valley Railroad museum. This is a new event this year; I'll let you know how it goes. 

Fourth, as part of my recent resolution to get in better shape, I've started doing some Potter-themed Conqueror Challenges, joining a team of Strike and Ellacott Files fans on those endeavors. I just finished The Sorcerer's Stone, and I've gotten started on The Chamber of Secrets. Hopefully my first medal will arrive soon!

Finally, mid-month is the annual Chestnut Hill College Harry Potter Academic Conference.  It's in person this year, and I am excited about making the trip up with two dear Potter friends.  My talk is based on my The Phoenix or the Flame chapter. 

It's shaping up to be a magical month. 

Back to Strike soon!

The Murky Marshes of Memory: Potterversity episode.

 I'm always excited when I can contribute to Mugglenet's academic podcast, Potterversity.  I spoke on their most recent episode about memory in Harry Potter. 

Give it a listen here. 

Reading Along with Prudence, Part 7: Real-Life Flora Brewsters

Chapter 6 of Combating Cult Mind Control presents the stories of a group of people for whom Hassan expresses high admiration: former cult members who came forward with their stories and have both helped other survivors escape and warned the public about the dangers of these organizations.  I'll list a few here whose stories have echoes to The Running Grave.

J.: a former Scientologist. Despite the fact that he reached the near-highest levels of the organization, he never developed the supernatural powers he was promised. The UHC people could probably relate to that. He was also subjected to defamation, including child abuse accusations, and decades of lawsuits. 

R.: Human trafficking victim. Forced sex with strangers and mental manipulation, with a behaviors controlled by rewards and punishments. 

M: Islamic terrorism cult: Members forced to cut all family ties, divorcing spouses and surrendering children for adoption. 

J:  Shasta Abbey, a Zen Buddhism cult. Told he would be jailed, committed to a psychiatric hospital or go broke if he left the community. Members were subjected to humiliating verbal attacks and sudden demotions. 

E: A former follower of Lyndon LaRouche. LaRouche, though a political rather than a religious leader, is described as narcissistic, and is a wealthy leader who proclaims himself to be at war with the world and who promotes his own doctrine above all. 

H: A male supermodel who was a member of the New Age cult Eternal Values, a group that believed that a geological apocalypse is eminent and that only their leader's contact with space aliens will save a remnant of humanity. This reminds us a bit of Shauna's odd beliefs about Wace. H's head was shaved to humiliate him, and he, like UHC members, was forced into slave labor. 

G: A member of a small (30 member) Christian cult. This group used the "Hot seat" technique that was depicted as the UHC's Revelation. This cult suffered a tragic loss when a young man with diabetes was persuaded to throw away his insulin, and subsequently died. G. was eventually expelled from the group for a "spirit of rebellion." This group, like the UHC, used physical beatings to punish members. 

G: Member of a group who focused on chanting a particular Japanese phrase for multiple hours per day, in the belief that wishes will be granted as a result. G. experienced a "high" from chanting, not unlike Robin. Conformity with the group doctrine was stressed, and G. and his wife, who were eventually expelled, were convinced terrible things would happen to them outside the group, if they stopped chanting. This group also had some notable celebrity members.  

R: A young man born into the Jehovah's Witnesses and felt his upbringing matched many of the cultic practices described in Hassan's book, including denigrating and forbidding contact with former members. Hassan credits R. and others born into cults who manage to leave with special courage, since they face losing all of their family and friends. TRG readers saw this in people like Linn Doherty and Kevin Pirbright. 

G: A woman who was caught up in a transcendental meditation cult. Like in the UHC, members were subjected to hours of meditation and questionable herbal medications. 

L and L:  Two other people raised in the Jehovah's Witnesses who where shunned by family after leaving. 

T: A leader in his LDS church, who had doubts about his faith despite his public practice. Like those in the UHC, Tom reported being taught that everything outside the faith was evil and "of the Devil." T's story is a lot like Will's, in that he gradually began to question the doctrine he had believed for so long. 

Hassan reiterates high praise for ex-cult members who have gone public with their stories, both to warn others about cult dangers and to help reduce the stigma associated with having been victimized by such groups.  As H. says, "We should be proud and hold our heads high.  Coming forward and telling out stories is one of the greatest gifts we can give to others."

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As long-time readers know, I have never attempted to monetize this blog, but I do occasionally post charitable links, and ask readers to consider a small donation to these causes. My daughter and I are competing in the Great Valley Baking Championship, a fundraiser for Adagio House, a non-center offering counseling and other services to individuals with special needs and their families. Anyone who would like to support our team, the FDBS Baking House-Elves, can donate here.

Quick update: Good news, bad news and exciting news.

 I've had a busy summer with little time for blogging but there are a few updates I want to share:

First, the good news:  JKR  has released another epigraph for The Hallmarked Man, and it is another quotation from Oxenham's A Maid of the Silver Sea. 

Moreover, the quotation appears to be the epigraph for Part nine of the book, as the previous MoSS quotation was for Part seven.  Thus, it seems that MoSS may play the role of Grey's Anatomy in The Ink Black Heart, providing epigraphs for the book's major divisions. Interestingly, this quotation 1) is a mere 15 sentences after the Part seven epigraph and 2) comes even closer to the disastrous mine collapse that kills Old Tom in the book. Hopefully, that doesn't bode ill for our heroes. 

The bad news, of course, is that Rowling indicated she was still working on the book during her recent vacation, meaning the chances of it appearing before year's end are slim. 

But, the exciting news is, another book will be coming out before the end of the year. 

The Rowling Library Press* is coming out with a book of scholarly essays on JKR's original outline for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and I was honored to contribute a chapter. I even got a first-ever mention by name in the press release and was certainly pleased to be included in this company. 

My contributed essay is "From Dark Dementors to Luna's Light: Brightening a Nigredo Through Positive Psychology." I even managed to work a footnoted mention to the Strike and Ellacott series in my essay. So, those who overlap the Potter/Strike fandom will have something new to read, at least. 

I am also presenting on this topic at the Harry Potter Academic Conference at Chestnut Hill College in October. 

This essay joins two other chapters  (here and here) that I have published in the last year. 

All for now:  I am hoping to be back to posting more about John Oxenham books and Combating Cult Mind Control soon. 

*not affiliated with JK Rowiling

Will The Hallmarked Man have All-Sark Epigraphs? 2B: Carette of Sark, Part II

Here I continue the look at Oxenham's Carette of Sark. This book is much longer and more complex than The Maid of the Silver Sea, but also a potential source for epigraphs.  See here for Part I of this post. 

The next eleven chapters detail Philip's journey, which, though action-packed, I found the much less interesting than his life on Sark, so I will summarize briefly, focusing on the most important dialogue f the series. 

• Within five days, the Swallow encounters La Main Rouge (the Red Hand) and is sunk, with the French cowardly shooting the seamen as they struggle in the waves. Philip is the sole survivor.
• He drifts at sea on wreckage for two days, then is picked up by the 

  Plinlimmon Castle. Barely has Philip explained to the captain who he is when they encounter La Main Rouge again, who immediately disables and boards the 

  Plinlimmon Castle, intent on looting. But Philip recognizes the Red Hand's captain:

• It was Torode of Herm, and in a flash I saw to the bottom of his treachery and my own great peril. No wonder he was so successful and came back full from every cruise, when others brought only tales of empty seas. He lived in security on British soil and played tinder both flags. By means of a quickly assumed disguise, he robbed British ships as a Frenchman, and French ships as an Englishman. That explained to the full the sinking of the Swallow and the extermination of her crew. It was to him a matter of life or death. If one escaped with knowledge of the facts, the devilment must end. And I was that one man.

• 
  Unfortunately, Torode spots Philip, knocks him out and, most surprisingly, takes him prisoner, instead of killing him. He even brings Philip food and drink, personally. After three days, Philip is blindfolded and taken ashore, to a sea cave with a barred door, very much like the smugglers caves of Sark, where Stephen Gard found the skeleton. Philip realizes he has been taken to Herm, only four miles from home. He is held there for ten days. During one of Torode's twice-daily visits with food, he makes Philip an offer:

• "Once you asked to join us and I refused. Now you must join us—or die. I have no desire for your death, but—well—you understand."

  "When I asked to join you I believed you honest privateers. You are thieves and murderers. I would sooner die than join you now."

  "You are young to die so."

  "Go where you can, die when you must," I answered in our Island saying. "Better die young than live to dishonour."

  He picked up my dishes and went out. But I could not see why he should have kept me alive so long for the purpose of killing me now, and I would not let my courage down.

  One more attempt he made, three days later, without a word having passed between us meanwhile.

  "Your time is running out, mon gars," he said, as abruptly as before. "I am loth to put you away, but it rests with yourself. You love Le Marchant's girl, Carette. Join us, and you shall have her. You will live with us on Herm, and in due time, when we have money enough, we will give up this life and start anew elsewhere."

  "Carette is an honest girl—"

  "She need not know—all that you know."

  "And your son wants her—"

  When you have had no one to speak to but yourself for fourteen days, the voice even of a man you hate is not to be despised. You may even make him talk for the sake of hearing him.

  "I know it," said Torode. "I hear she favours you, but a dead man is no good. If you don't get her, as sure as the sun is in the sky the boy shall have her."

  "Even so I will not join you."

  "And that is your last word?"

  "My last word. I will not join you. I have lived honest. I will die honest." 

Will The Hallmarked Man have All-Sark Epigraphs?: Part 2a; Carette of Sark I

JKR/RG has already confirmed that at least one epigraph of The Hallmarked Man will come from John Oxenham's A Maid of the Silver Sea. There are also five "sources" for epigraphs, which could mean five different books, five different authors or some other category. We can still only speculate about the other sources. They could be authors contemporary to Oxenham, other books with "silver" in the title (as suggested by Dr. Beatrice Groves) or other works by Oxenham or his writer daughter.  Another possibility is other books set on Sark or other nearby Channel Islands, of which there are several, both fiction and nonfiction.

I was enthralled enough by A Maid of the Silver Sea, that when I found two other Oxenham books set on Sark, (and available for free on Project Gutenberg) I decided to spend some of my pre-THM waiting time reading then. After all, if JKR searched one Oxenham Sark-based novel in search of epigraphs, it is likely she searched others, even if they didn't make the final cut. The second novel I want to look at is Carette of Sark. Spoilers ahead.