Blog Tour: Guest Post/Spotlight! Chronicles of a Harry Potter Fan, by Thomas Sailer

Welcome to this stop in
the blog tour for

Chronicles of a Harry Potter Fan,

sponsored by

A Universe In Words!

About The Book

The English translation of
Chronicles of a Harry Potter Fan
 is now available on Amazon. 
This blog tour, which started on July 22nd,
will end on August 5th.

Chronicles of a Harry Potter Fan
Thomas Sailer
(translated from the German edition by the author)
Kindle Edition, 1598 KB
(Print Length: 147 pages)
tredition, March 1, 2013


Amazon Synopsis

For many years, Thomas Sailer was active in the virtual Harry Potter fandom: After he had developed a huge fancy for the story in autumn 2004, he started to help out on the renowned fan portal Emma Watson Empire the next spring; and it did not take long until he advanced to the site’s representative.

Two years later, he founded the Knight Bus, a wide-scale directory for Harry Potter websites. And finally, he even tried to mobilize fans from all countries by means of an organization.

During his years as an active member of the fan community, he has accomplished quite a lot and made contacts to fans and website owners from all over the world. However, what he has basically intended with his activity, did not happen to become real.

In this book, he talks about his work in the international fandom, his motives and how the Harry Potter story has influenced his life.

When first released in November 2012, the original German version of the book caused a stir within the fan community: Although it has never been on a bestseller-list, there appeared to be several reports about Thomas Sailer’s story on many fan based websites from all around the world.

Note from A Night's Dream of Books

As readers of this blog know, ebooks are not usually showcased here.  However, this is one of those rare exceptions, simply because the author of this blog is an ardent Harry Potter fan! 

Guest Post: Thomas Sailer and

Chronicles of a Harry Potter Fan

Mr. Sailer is holding a copy of the

German edition of his book.

Hello there, this is Thomas Sailer, author of Chronicles of a Harry Potter Fan speaking about my book here on A Night's Dream of Books! 

Looking back now in 2013, it has been a long while since I started becoming active in the online Harry Potter fandom.  I remember clearly when, in the spring of 2005, I started looking for HP sources on the web -- eager to get active in one of these communities.  For me, being a fan always meant more than just enjoying the books and movies.  I wanted more -- and I wanted to get involved. 

As I always try to find ways to change my dreams into action, I managed to work my way from a normal fan up to a recognized name within the virtual Harry Potter fandom.  And, for a very long time, my activity in the fandom appeared to me like a window and maybe even a possible gateway, to something amazing.

What I really enjoyed about my work was all the creative projects which I thought up and later put into practice.  I loved the various tasks which this activity gave me.  For instance, to inform other webmasters about project ideas or to work in my friend's garage and try desperately to complete a wooden keepsake box for Emma Watson's 18th birthday from the fans.

In the course of my project activities, I got to meet many new people from all over the world; many of whom I am still in contact with and enjoy talking to from time to time.  They were webmasters, staff members of Harry Potter sites or normal fans who did not take part in the virtual fandom the way I did.  It was a real pleasure to meet such a variety of new and interesting people.

The decision to write a book came along at a time when I felt like I was over and done with HP.  In the end of 2009 I started to realise how many things I had done, moved and achieved within the HP fandom.  So I considered it a great chance to gather my memories and thus share my experience.

Writing this book did not happen at once; I had to interrupt my work very soon, as it was some weeks before Christmas and I had no idea how to get all my stuff for university done.  And in the beginning of the new year, I had the incentive to write a novel -- what put this project on ice for the moment.  Further, I was not able to put a proper ending to the book, as at that time I was not finished with my activity in the fandom.

Almost two years later, in the last days of December, 2011, I made the decision that it was time to finish this book.  So, along with writing my second novel, I completed it during 2012.  It was a great experience to confront myself with all those memories once again and to work them out a structured book. 

I'd like to thank Mr. Sailer for his wonderful

guest post here on

A Night's Dream of Books!!

Chapter 1 Excerpt: The Background

Even today, long after the seventh book has been released and the second part of the final film premiered at the cinemas, I do have a weakness for the Harry Potter story.  Still, the memory of the adventures of the world-famous sorcerer's apprentice gives me a pleasant, exhilarated feeling.  I consider the movies, the first three of them especially, truly legendary achievements of cinematic art; the books, whatever square litterateurs might think about them, are masterpieces of literature in my opinion.

However, at this point, I have to mention that I definitely was not a Harry Potter fan from the beginning; actually, when the name 'Harry Potter' was suddenly on everyone's lips, I was very critical of the novel series.  Of course, one reason was that I did not like mass phenomena; so the mass enthrallment back in those days had a deterrent effect on me, rather than a thrilling one.  I preferred to get my own view on a subject first -- or, alternatively, as I did in the case of Harry Potter, to characterize something beforehand.

After all, what should be so great about it?  A story about a conjuring boy who visits some school for wizards.  That could not be anything else than unrealistic horseplay!  Pure waste of time!  Mental enfeeblement of mankind!  In this way -- more or less -- I had characterized the topic 'Harry Potter' back in this time.

As a consequence, I avoided the confrontation with this story as a matter of principle; I did not even want to know what these books were saying.  In the beginning, I also shunned the movies with revulsion.  I definitely did not intend to watch the first Harry Potter screen adaptation in the cinema; actually, I did not even realize the starting shot of this gigantic film series.  But even when we got the first movie on DVD at home, I always left the living as soon as my family watched the film.  Anyway, at some point the laziness, or perhaps a private interest, was stronger than my aversion and that way, I let myself be carried away to finally watch the first Harry Potter movie.  And since I have younger siblings, who, in their early childhood at this time, liked to watch movies several times, I got confronted with the first part of Harry Potter quite frequently for some time; as a result, something foreign turned into something common, or even something familiar slowly.

And finally, I had to acknowledge to myself that the movie found my approval basically; it was thoroughly able to entertain me.

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