Various torrent sites, and others, have posted what are claimed to be scans of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, implying that either a few copies of the US edition have escaped the strict security measures or that some sneaky hacker has Mad Photoshop Skillz. This has caused just one or two small news stories, such as:

• The LA Times examines the whole issue, including Scholastic’s efforts to get the illegal postings taken down.
• Time magazine also has an article on the potential leak.
• Forbes looks at the leak and other sources of possible spoilers.
• MSNBC also ran a story about the scans.
• The Sydney Morning Herald used far too many cutesy Potter references in their story about the pirating of Deathly Hallows.
• And, as usual, no story is official until The New York Times takes note of it, so the leak is now real.

The Boston Globe runs another countdown story, this time quoting the Massachusetts governor, who claims to be a big Potter fan. (And it may even be true, though any time a politician claims to love something that millions of his constituents are currently doing, it has to be a bit suspect.)

Peace Arch News, man, gives the South Surrey spin, man, on Pottermania, man.

The Sydney Morning Herald wants to let the book speak for itself.

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Comic Book Resources has the second half of their look at Homosexuality in Comics.

Brian Cronin at Comics Should Be Good has a new, useful, term for our collective little dictionary of comics: False Epiphany Characters. (Also for that same dictionary, and from the same place: Grace Notes.)

Steven Grant gives us a thumbnail history of the convention once and forever known simply as “San Diego.”

And Josh Elder (any relation to Will, I wonder?) of the Chicago Sun-Times looks at the launch titles for DC Comics’s Minx line.

Borders is moving Tintin in the Congo to the adult section in the USA as well (after British complaints), reports Fox News.

Edward Champion thinks the “real books” industry should take an idea from the comics world and institute “Free Book Day.” I think that’s a splendid idea.

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I spent the past weekend at Shore Leave, a wonderfully relaxing convention with a heavy emphasis on Star Trek and other media. I was a last minute addition to the guest roster, taking the place of fellow Mixer Bob Greenberger who had a sudden family emergency.

Among other things, this meant that I took over Bob’s traditional "Trailer Park" panel, giving a rundown of various upcoming movies. The roster of films (and one TV show) in more or less chronological order:

• Sunshine
• Skinwalkers
• The Simpsons Movie
• The Bourne Ultimatum (a.k.a. Bourne 3, as 3 as the wind blows)
• Rush Hour 3
• Stardust
• The Invasion
• Fido
• DOA: Dead or Alive
• Resident Evil: Extinction
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
• Shoot ‘Em Up (which wins the Snakes On A Plane award for most descriptive title)
• Martian Child (because all SF writers look like John Cusack and hang with women who look like Amanda Peet– wait, she married the guy who’s writing the Wolverine movie; maybe it can happen)
• The Golden Compass
• I Am Legend
• 1-18-08
• Vantage Point
• 5-25-77

I also got to see the masquerade, where writer of stuff Peter David, wife Kathleen, daughter Ariel, and friend Marina Olsen won best of show for the above presentation, "Beauty and the Beast(s)". I got to spend time with a number of writers and enthusiastic fans. And I capped off the convention by appearing with Peter and Keith DeCandido in the infamous "Mystery Trekkie Theater 3000" where we proceeded to dissect the TNG episode "Conspiracy".

All in all, a very enjoyable convention, right up until the point Sunday night when my hard drive directory got erased, and I spent the next 36 hours recovering it– which is why this recap is two days after I expected it to be done. The gods just don’t want me to really relax…