Having flipped through course syllabi this week I can see why "English major" hasn't popped up yet in Aimee's continuing series on which college majors best suit each Hogwarts house. For while I feel a bit Slytherin right now, that's probably just a side effect of the lack of magic in the air.

The unfortunate thing is that a heavy workload isn't necessarily the problem. I mean, it is the problem, but page counts and projects, intimidating in schedule form, don't have to be negatives. In fact, the results can be pretty glorious.

No, it's the time factor that has this writer's nerves on red alert and her mood wavering towards the crotchety side. It's tough to learn to balance your time when it's permanent state is unbalanced.

But maybe there's still hope. While I don't expect an owl to drop by my house anytime soon with my acceptance letters to various wizarding academies (if anyone deserves one of those it's Nicole, for her great article on "Harry Potter Canon Still Expanding") I wouldn't write magic off so soon.

After all, the written word is filled with magic. A magic book is the reason events go so amok in one of the greatest Halloween movies of all time, "Hocus Pocus" (also part of Sarah McCabe's article this week celebrating all things Halloween). With power like that at this writer's disposal, coming up with ten page essays should be a breeze.

A ten hour breeze, at least.