Daniel Radcliffe and The mysterious jk rowling Pottermore

Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley seem to be looking for something -- maybe it's Pottermore, the new website from J.K. Rowling. There's not much to show yet, just an enticing, deep pink background guarded by a barn owl and a horned owl.

The Guardian aired speculation that the site was "the long-promised Potter encyclopedia, with other suggestions ranging from a "giant theme park" to a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (Pottermore standing for Potter Multiplayer Online Role-playing Experience) and a fansite.

I think Rowling is making a nod to our fair city, Bmore. Stay tuned for more details as the site gets launched.

Daniel Radcliffe thinks it'd be 'odd' to play Harry Potter again

Muggles everywhere went into an excited frenzy with J. K. Rowling's cryptic tease of "Pottermore," an as-of-yet unveiled project of some relation to the Harry Potter world, earlier this week. 

Fans "apparated" to chat rooms and message boards, trying to decide what it could be: a role-playing site a la World of Warcraft or, possibly, more books about their beloved Harry?

Speculation about Pottermore being an addition to the book series has since died down, as the L.A. Times reports it has been confirmed that it is not a new novel. 

If it had been a new novel, that would mean more movies, and star Daniel Radcliffe, who has played the boy wizard throughout the entire series, isn't exactly gung-ho about putting the robes and lightning-bolt scar back on.

"I think that would be a bit odd," Radcliffe told The L.A. Times. "I’d be very skeptical about that. First of all, I don’t think that [Rowling] will [write another Potter installment] and second of all, oh, I don’t know, the idea of going back to something after 10 or 20 years? At that point, I will have worked 20 years to establish a career outside of it, and at that point to go back to it would feel a little self-defeating.”

The Huffington Post reports that though Radcliffe isn't 100 percent adamant about returning to the wizarding world, his "skeptical" comment doesn't mean he'd completely rule it out.

“I could feel completely different at that time," Radcliffe said, "but at this moment, it feels like it would be strange and not the way it would or should go.”

The mysterious "Pottermore" will release June 23, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, the eighth and last of the series, hits theaters July 15. 

'Harry Potter's' Daniel Radcliffe Not Involved in J.K. Rowling’s ‘Pottermore’

The actor says reprising his former role would be ‘self defeating.’ While J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore project still remains a mystery until June 23, Daniel Radcliffe has announced that he is not involved.

“I know nothing about that whatsoever,” Radcliffe told the LA Times about Rowling’s secret project. “I’m sure that Jo will be writing a lot more in the coming years. I’m sure she has a lot more in her than we’ve read and a lot more stories to tell.”

Radcliffe made it clear, however, that he has no interest in reviving a Harry Potter role should Rowling continue the saga: “As long as [her future books] don’t involve Harry, I’m quite happy to buy them.”

Rowling’s lawyer, Neil Blair, refused to reveal what the announcement will be next week, saying only: “This is not a new Harry Potter book.”

The final film installment of the Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, will be released in theaters July 15. However, Radcliffe has been busy lately in his own projects, most recently as the star of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying on Broadway. The British actor plays J. Pierrepont Finch at the Hirschfeld Theatre in New York seven-plus times per week.

He has taken additional steps to show audiences that he can find success outside of Potter: Radcliffe was the May cover star of Gotham Magazine to discuss his Broadway career, and he has the lead role in The Woman in Black, a chilling film set to be released early next year.

But for this particular Rowling project, Radcliffe can only speculate: “First of all, I don’t think that she will [write another Potter installment], and second of all, oh, I don’t know, the idea of going back to something after 10 or 20 years?” Radcliffe tells the LA Times. “At that point, I will have worked 20 years to establish a career outside of it, and at that point to go back to it would feel a little self-defeating.”

Monstrous Monday: The Mogadorians

The Mogadorian's are a blood thirty race of aliens from the Lorien Legacies series by Pittacus Lore. All they know is destruction and death. First, they destroyed their home planet, Mogadore, then moved on to Lorien. And now, they've chosen Earth as their next target. Oh yes, it's not just because of the nine Loric children that will grow to be the Garde are here. Oh no. They just love to kill off planets for fun - charming. It's just that Number 4 and his friends are standing in their way.

I really love their blood thirsty nature and inability to show even an ounce of mercy. Mutilating the owners of a website called They Walk Amoung Us, they will stop at nothing until they get what they want!

(Handsome chap, isn't he?)

Be sure to check out these books! You will not regret it! Here, is my review of I Am Number Four, and the second book, The Power of Six is out this August!

Pottermore - The Numbers Game

I've decided to start a new post instead of continuing the earlier thread on Pottermore because I want to investigate better the meaning of the numbers on JKR's YouTube Announcement page.  The length of the old thread and number of updates may be confusing.

There are many numbers on the YouTube announcement page that seem to be frozen in time.  One of this blog's commentators, Anonymous, has been posting in the old thread various theories as to what the numbers could mean. I encourage you to go back and read those comments. I think Anonymous is truly on to something as those numbers are fixed, and knowing JKR, chosen for a reason, but I'm just not sure that I buy into them being page numbers in the books as page numbering changes depending on publisher.

I believe JKR IS releasing clues through the Pottermore Youtube video, and I think she gave us a heads-up with the coordinates on the Street View maps as to how to play this game. Like the StreetView coordinates, this is a numbers game, and we've got to figure out what these numbers mean to unlock her clues.

What I'd like to do here is provide a table of the numbers and then we can all throw out theories as to what they could mean, drawing from how JKR has used them in the prior books.

Numbers on Pottermore Youtube:

50 -- videos
0:09/1:13 -- time video holds at
Feb. 4 or 2/4 -- upload date (notice no year is selected)
217,394 -- page views
122 -- likes
25 -- dislikes
360 p (not sure if this one is under her control)
6/23/11 -- date of release

Owl count by date:

6/16: 5
6/17: 7
6/18: 11
6/19: 15

Plus, if you move your cursor around the image, certain leaves will fall from the tree. I don't know if this has happened on prior days because I only noticed it today. But as of today, 10 leaves fall. (Updated from 9 to 10 because one was hard to see).

One very strong clue -- since you can't click "like" or "dislike" these numbers definitely seem to be fixed.

Also, my daughter pointed out that all the suggested videos are frozen, you cannot click to activate them. Each of those videos has numbers attached to them as well, but since they seem to be real YouTube videos, I don't think that aspect could have been manipulated by JKR and her team.

Here are the clues posted by Anonymous with his/her explanation (I left out the book # ones because I'm just not sure that works):
1. The post date is 4th February, the date Septimius Severus died.
2. The timer says 0:09/1:13, and 9/1, or January 9th, is Severus Snape birthday. Also, in some areas, 9/1 means 1 September, the first day of Hogwarts.

Here are my theories for some of the other numbers:
50 - the number of people mentioned killed in the Battle of Hogwarts fighting Voldemort

(I'll be refreshing these theories throughout the day as I've had time to ponder them).


** Please let me know if I missed anything.

Also, even though I'd love Pottermore to be an interactive encylopedia, which was my first theory, see the earlier thread for more, I'm starting to think those who believe it to be a Multi-player Online Roleplaying Exerience may be correct. Notice the letters. PotterMORE.

In My Postbox #39

In My Mailbox idea from Kristi @ The Story Siren, and all links take you to Amazon UK.

Hey guys! It's that time of the week again. Hope everyone is well, and reading something mighty fine! :D 

FOR REVIEW:

Angel's Fury by Bryony Pearce.

This sounds very good and I love that cover. It's really cool! Looking forward to getting around to this! Thanks to Egmont for this!

Exile by Rebecca Lim.

Haven't read the first of this series but it sounds good! Thanks to Harper Collins!!

Glee: Summer Break by Sophia Lowell.

I read the first Glee book and thought it was great but haven't had time to get to Number 2 yet! This is the third book. Hopefully I'll get to it soon. I only watched 2 or 3 episodes of the last season because it was just so bad. Not what it once was! Hope the quality of the books stays good though. Thanks to Headline for this!

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater.

I've really enjoyed Maggie's The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy and am very much looking forward to reading the finale, Forever, which is out next month. But this is a standalone book by Maggie out in October. It came in a red tube which was really cool and different. Read the prologue and was completely captivated. Cannot wait to read on! Thanks to Alexandra at Scholastic for this! You rock!

And finally something amazing which has me excited beyond belief (this happens a lot right? Too much amazingness to handle really!)

The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore.

Sequel to I Am Number Four, the second of the Lorien Legacies series, and out this August this is amazing. I love love love it. Another beautifully produced review copy from Penguin. Lovely white hardback with simple logo and writing. Brilliant. Really eye catching. It's just a shame this isn't openly available for everyone. I love it! It looks great alongside I Am Number Four too...

Reading this now actually and really really enjoying it! Thanks to the lovely Sarah at Penguin for sending this out to me after my first copy sent out went missing in the post! You are a star!

And I also got a DVD this week, following along the Lorien Legacies theme...

I Am Number Four

Just watched this actually! Brilliant! Such a good adaptation of the film. One of the best book to films movies I've seen for a long long time. Some changes obviously, and as a lover of the book I am a teeny weeny bit annoyed, but still, it's all good and a very enjoyable film which no doubt I will be watching again and again in due course!

Okay, so that concludes In My Postbox for this week! I hope you all have a great week and I'll speak to you all soon! Don't forget to enter the giveaway to win a signed copy of Swim The Fly by Don Calame (closing next Sunday!) and happy reading! :)

J.K. Rowling To Launch "Pottermore"

Do you hear them? The owls? They're flying all around the world, delivering some mysterious, yet exciting news to Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff hopefuls!

J.K. Rowling is set to launch Pottermore.com. Representatives for the beloved author have said the site is not a new book, nor is it related to the final film.

Many are speculating the site could include a vault of stories, character backgrounds, and possibly alternative plot lines never before seen in print.

All I know is this: I can't wait! I love the Harry Potter series and always will. Now, we have something to look forward to, as the magic lives on.

To view the upcoming site, simply wave your wand and click here: Pottermore.com

The Mystery of the Backstory

Continuing in our First Chapter Series of posts, I've decided to combine both mystery and backstory into one. The reason: in chapter one of Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone, the backstory IS the mystery.

Here's what JKR had to say herself about her first chapter, especially concerning the mystery and backstory:

There were many different versions of the first chapter of 'Philosopher's Stone' and the one I finally settled on is not the most popular thing I've ever written; lots of people have told me they found it hard work compared with the rest of the book. The trouble with that chapter was (as so often in a Harry Potter book) I had to give a lot of information yet conceal even more. There were various versions of scenes in which you actually saw Voldemort entering Godric's Hollow and killing the Potters and in early drafts of these, a Muggle betrayed their whereabouts. As the story evolved, however, and Pettigrew became the traitor, this horrible Muggle vanished. (from JKRowling.com)

In an earlier post, I talked about how the great agent Donald Maass says, "Backstory is called backstory because it belongs in the back of the story." In becoming experienced novelists, we must learn to control the urge to overload our beginning with the new writer syndrome of The TMI of Backstory. However, we must not leave our reader confused, therefore SOME backstory is absolutely required. What can we learn from JKR's example?

One, rewrite until you get it right. The importance of the first chapter cannot be overstated. And two, backstory is closely linked to your novel's mystery or story question. Readers are compelled to continue because they identify with the character and want to know what happens to her. This latter part of this equation, the mystery or story question, necessitates withholding information from your reader. If the reader knows all up front, there is no compelling urge to go forward.

But, you never want your reader to be hopelessly confused, nor do you want her to feel cheated when your final answers are revealed. You must play fair all along.

Let's see what JKR did and did not reveal in "The Boy Who Lived:"

Part of Backstory Set Forth:

1. Voldemort killed Harry's parents
2. Voldemort tried to kill Harry
3. Voldemort was "gone"
4. "Young" Sirius Black lent Hagrid a motorbike (but notice how subtly that was woven in, with just a short, one-sentence reference from Hagrid and nothing more said.  No reaction to draw attention to this sly reference that will be incredibly important two books down the line).

And that's it! That's all JKR reveals in this first chapter, which leaves the reader to wonder:

1. Why would such a powerful and dark wizard want to kill a baby boy?
2. How will that scar prove useful one day, as Dumbledore suggests?
3. What are these dark powers which Voldemort possessed that Dumbledore was too noble to use (a detail nicely woven in through dialogue, I might add!)?
4. Why does Mrs. Dursley not want to have anything to do with her sister?
5. What did Dumbledore reveal in the letter he left with Harry?
6. And why DID Harry survive?

First, notice how JKR drops in most of the backstory as conversation between McGonagall and Dumbledore. In fact that's the real reason for McGonagall's presence on that wall -- to question Dumbledore and thus interestingly inform the reader of all that has happened. Well, not all.

Think of how much more effective it is to have McGonagall voice shocked surprise that "After all he's done...all the people he's killed...he couldn't kill a little boy?" (p. 12), than to begin with a narrative voice revealing pure backstory. The reader accepts McGonagall's surprise and absorbs it better because we have seen the lengths she will go to to get this info and have come to know her.

Similarly, earlier in the chapter, JKR gave the biggest hint of the mystery when she wrote a tiny old man in a violet cloak hugging Mr. Dursley and telling him to rejoice, "for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating this happy, happy day!"

So, what backstory that is not revealed in this first chapter?:

1. The prophecy
2. Snape's involvement in revealing the prophecy to Voldemort
3. Snape's love of Lily
4. James' and Snapes' hatred for each other
5. Wormtail's betrayal
6. Wormtail's framing of Sirius
7. The Fidelius Charm
8. The Potter's involvement in the original Order of the Phoenix
9. That James died trying to protect his family
10. That on Snape's request, Voldemort offered Lily the chance to live
11. That Lily sacrificed herself to save Harry
12. That this sacrifice gave him protection from Voldemort
13. That this protection can live on in his skin and also protect him in the house of his aunt
14. That Voldemort's act of murder created a Horcrux which attached to Harry
15. That Voldemort had created many Horcruxes before to safeguard his life, or
16. That Wormtail, after cutting off his finger and framing Sirius, escaped into his animagus form and went to live with a family of a boy who will become Harry's best friend.

See the difference?

All this withheld backstory became key mystery components in later parts of the series. All became story questions that kept JKR's frenzied fans speculating and guessing and writing their own fanfiction with their own hypotheses until the final revelations. And all because of her masterful withholding of backstory and her sly method of dropping a trail of breadcrumbs for her readers to follow.

And she's still at it. Look at what she's doing in these last few days with this news announcement regarding Pottermore, whatever it is. Does JKR, like any other sane author, just come out with a news announcement that says "I'm doing xyz and here's the website for it up and running"?

NO!

JK Rowling must plot and plan, spreading her trail of clues among ten fansites in various languages from all over the globe, each with a snippet that has to be pieced together to only reveal one word -- a clue in itself. That word is then used to unlock a mystery website, still not fully revealed, where each day for a week, I suspect, some new clue will be released until the final revelation.

All of which will drum up her fans into a fevered pitch so much more so than a simple press release would have done.

And you can do it too!

No, you can't start off with the type of rabid fan attention which JKR receives when she simply opens her mouth, but she didn't start there either. She began with one chapter. One chapter which she revised until she got it right. One chapter in which she hacked and sawed, rewrote and re-envisioned until she had just the right balance of backstory revealed for the reader to go forward to tantalizing mystery hinted at to keep her fans eager to know more.

Now, some would argue that this whole first chapter is complete backstory, and not only that, it's a prologue! And some would have a valid point. But that's all for an upcoming post, the final one in this First Chapter Series: "'Mistakes' JK Rowling Made and How She Got Away With Them!" -- which will be after the posts on voice and stakes.

Final fun note: Did you catch JKR's sly nod to the Hitchcock plot element called the McGuffin? Notice the weather man bringing Mr. Dursley the news of the shooting stars all over the country, Jim McGuffin. JKR's toying with the reader. From the start she's telling you -- I've playing a mystery game with you here and I'm dropping clues in subtle ways. You've got to have your wits about you!

What key reader question do you leave with your reader at the end of your chapter one?

Tag!: So, Lisa Gail Green tagged me with the following prompt:

1) Do you think you're hot?  I'll answer like Lisa -- I live in North Carolina. So not only am I hot, I'm also humid!

2) Upload a picture or wallpaper your using: my kitty Crookshanks, taken by my daughter

3) When was the last time I ate chicken meat? Yesterday, chicken salad, though not as good as my grandma's used to be! :-(

4) The songs that I listened to recently: I took a stroll down memory lane from when I lived in Turkey and watched a sweet Mustafa Sandal video, which I love: Jest Oldum and if you like that one, try Araba as well. Lovely views of Istanbul!

5) What were you thinking when you were doing this? How can I keep Crookshanks out of a planter that he's recently decided to use as a hammock?  He's killing my plants!

Tag, you're it!
Brooke Johnson
Laura Pauling
Jami Gold

Rowdy, Proud, & Loud--It's Award/Thank You Time

As you know, for months, I've been consumed with my Dallas Mavericks run for the championship.  I've loved them for as long as I can remember, so with each game, each win, the anticipation, excitement, and nervousness increased to levels I can only assume reached some unknown stratosphere.

Sunday night, the run ended in spectacular fashion with the Dallas Mavs winning their very first NBA Championship.  It was truly a dream season.

I've been so incredibly touched by how many of you supported my devotion to my team, which included some hot-under-the-collar posts about, oh, you know, one-sided announcers, people who constantly put my Mavs down, etc. From the seriously giddy to the rather emotional moments, y'all were there, supporting me and my Mavs, and I want to thank you.

The fact that you even pulled for my Mavs...well, that just meant the world to me. As corny as it sounds, I kinda like to think the Mavs could feel all of the support coming their way.

So, for all of you who put up with my Mavs-sporty-gal posts...this is just a little something for you. The Rowdy, Proud, & Loud Award...well, really it's just a thank you.

With love from a Mavericks' fan.

Somnia, Jewels, Eva (even though you don't accept awards...since this is really just a big thank you, I figured you might not mind too much), Aubree, Chanel, Yvonne, Oilfield Trash, Carole, kitkat, Mrs. B, Chocolateangel, Jack of Diamonds, Not The Hero, George, David (even though he didn't pull for my Mavs, he's a basketball fan and a good sport).

If I missed anyone, I'm sorry--you know who you are and you know I love ya to bits!

Rules? None. This is simply a thank you...a blogging hug of sorts. There are no rules with thank yous. Hugs to you all...

...and, one last time this season...

GO MAVS!!!!!!!!!!!