Things are hotting up in the world of J.K. Rowling and I could not be more excited. Yesterday, news broke that Jo was preparing an announcment. Not a new book, but something equally as excited... Whut?! WHUT?!!! What could possibly be that exciting? Lord knows I've been dying to read something new from Jo since Deathly Hallows came out 4 years ago next month! Then a website appeared. Pottermore! Pottermore! WHUT IS THAT?! LIKE REALLY?! I did a little jig of excitement hoping all would be revealed. But no. This is Jo we're talking about here, the cruelest tease there is! And now this has appeared on YouTube... JK Rowling Announces. How amazing does that look? Really, that's your answer! There is a countdown to next Thursday when a video will be uploaded and Jo will finally reveal what it is! :D Colour me very excited! What do you think it is? Comment box is down below for a reason, get speculating! :D Not long now
Showing posts with label JK Rowling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JK Rowling. Show all posts
Look at Upcoming JK Rowling Biopic
Access Hollywood recently showed a behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming, unauthorized biopic of JK Rowling's life for Lifetime TV. You can see the 2-1/2 minute clip below:
While I know I'll watch this movie when it airs and eat-up anything on JK Rowling, I have to wonder how good or accurate this will be considering what a private life she leads. Still, it shows what a fascination JKR still holds over the public's imagination -- even though the last book of Harry Potter was released almost 4 YEARS AGO!
So, what do you think? Will you watch it?
While I know I'll watch this movie when it airs and eat-up anything on JK Rowling, I have to wonder how good or accurate this will be considering what a private life she leads. Still, it shows what a fascination JKR still holds over the public's imagination -- even though the last book of Harry Potter was released almost 4 YEARS AGO!
So, what do you think? Will you watch it?
Will JK Rowling Revisit Harry's World?
Could JK Rowling be writing another Harry Potter story?
I was initially very dubious of any claims that JKR would revisit Harry's world. She seemed rather firm at the end of Deathly Hallows that she would not return. That's what the whole Epilogue was about: Here's the whole clan 19 years later because this story is final. Done.
Over a couple of weeks ago, when JKR's interview with Oprah aired, the Internet buzzed with the possibility that she would do another Harry Potter book. All the hoopla was based on the following response to Oprah's prompt, "But you know what happens ever after":
However, after today's broadcast from the Hans Christian Andersen Award, I'm having second thoughts. In her speech before the audience in Odense, Denmark, JKR said:
Question: Is "strolling occasionally" a JKR euphemism for "writing a new story"?
When you put today's remarks together with what she said just a couple of short weeks ago on Oprah, and this coming from a writer who is a master at subtext and leading her reader's on a trail-of-clues mystery, you have a strong hint that something Harry Potter related might truly be in the works!
Honestly, I don't think she's busy writing another HP story at the moment. I think she's busy at work on that political fairy-tale for children...whatever that may be. But I would not be at all surprised to find out that she's writing snippets here and there as ideas occur to her and collecting plot notes and character sketches.
And if she is, I doubt very seriously that she would revisit the Harry Potter story with Harry as the main character. I think his Hero's Journey was very well defined and over. However, that she would revisit the wizarding world with another character is definitely a possibility--as she teases us with her "surviving characters" quote.
Would she write about Albus Severus, Harry's middle son, who she admitted in an interview intrigued her? Or maybe Teddy Lupin, who was a metamorphagus like his mother Tonks. Or maybe she would have a female lead, as in Harry's daughter Lily Luna, or possibly Bill and Fleur's daughter Victoire. I know one fan that suspected Voldemort and Bellatrix could have had a child. Could the tables be turned and an orphaned child seek revenge on Harry's family?
Who would you hope JKR would write as a main character if she did indeed revisit Harry's world?
Other quotes from today's speech:
See the video of JKR receiving the award.
Picture credit
I was initially very dubious of any claims that JKR would revisit Harry's world. She seemed rather firm at the end of Deathly Hallows that she would not return. That's what the whole Epilogue was about: Here's the whole clan 19 years later because this story is final. Done.
Over a couple of weeks ago, when JKR's interview with Oprah aired, the Internet buzzed with the possibility that she would do another Harry Potter book. All the hoopla was based on the following response to Oprah's prompt, "But you know what happens ever after":
Yeah, I do. I couldn't stop...They're all in my head still...I could definitely write an eighth, ninth, tenth. I could easily...I'm not going to say I won't...I feel I am done, but you never know.I listened to this, though, and thought that it was nothing different than what she'd said before. She wouldn't discount future HP books because she didn't want to limit her possibilities, but she wasn't planning on writing another one either.
However, after today's broadcast from the Hans Christian Andersen Award, I'm having second thoughts. In her speech before the audience in Odense, Denmark, JKR said:
I love my own characters so much that leaving them all behind after seventeen years was a kind of bereavement. The fact that so many people enjoyed the world that I made stuns me every day. And yet miraculously, it still feels like my own private kingdom where I can't help strolling occasionally just to see what my surviving characters are up to.
Question: Is "strolling occasionally" a JKR euphemism for "writing a new story"?
When you put today's remarks together with what she said just a couple of short weeks ago on Oprah, and this coming from a writer who is a master at subtext and leading her reader's on a trail-of-clues mystery, you have a strong hint that something Harry Potter related might truly be in the works!
Honestly, I don't think she's busy writing another HP story at the moment. I think she's busy at work on that political fairy-tale for children...whatever that may be. But I would not be at all surprised to find out that she's writing snippets here and there as ideas occur to her and collecting plot notes and character sketches.
And if she is, I doubt very seriously that she would revisit the Harry Potter story with Harry as the main character. I think his Hero's Journey was very well defined and over. However, that she would revisit the wizarding world with another character is definitely a possibility--as she teases us with her "surviving characters" quote.
Would she write about Albus Severus, Harry's middle son, who she admitted in an interview intrigued her? Or maybe Teddy Lupin, who was a metamorphagus like his mother Tonks. Or maybe she would have a female lead, as in Harry's daughter Lily Luna, or possibly Bill and Fleur's daughter Victoire. I know one fan that suspected Voldemort and Bellatrix could have had a child. Could the tables be turned and an orphaned child seek revenge on Harry's family?
Who would you hope JKR would write as a main character if she did indeed revisit Harry's world?
Other quotes from today's speech:
Andersen understood that writing for children does not mean pureeing what one would have written for adults. It ought not to be bland or soppy or devoid of challenging ingredients.
Those who write for children, or at least those who write best for children, are not childlike or immature, but they do remember with sometimes painful intensity both what it was to be small and confused and how wonderful was that fierce joy in the moment that can become so elusive in later life.
Children are not "they." They are us. And this is why writing that succeeds with children often succeeds just as well with adults. Not because the latter are infantile or regressive, but because the true dilemmas of childhood are the dilemmas of the whole of life: those of belonging and betrayal, the power of the group and the courage it takes to be an individual, of love and loss, and learning what it is to be a human being, let alone a good, brave, or honest one.
This is the miracle of literature to which no other medium can compare, that the writer and the reader's imaginations must join together to make the story, so that there are as many different Harrys, Hagrids, and Forbidden Forests as there are co-creators, each one personal to the reader.
See the video of JKR receiving the award.
Picture credit
An Open Letter to JK Rowling
Dear Ms. Rowling,
Like many of your fans, I'm also a writer. I've read or watched many of your interviews, including the most recent one on Oprah. However, as a writer, I have lots of questions which I've never heard addressed.
If you chance upon this blog and have a free moment, :-), could you answer a question...or 50?
1) When you first started writing, who encouraged you the most?
2) What did you do to learn the craft? Did you read books on writing, join a writers group, attend conferences?
3) You seem to have maintained a high level of privacy with your work while writing Harry Potter, but aside from your agent and editors, have you ever used a critique partner?
4) How do you maintain your writing time with the amount of pressure you must receive to spend on the business and promotional end?
5) How much time do you put into research for your story?
6) Your novels seem so full of analogies to myths, alchemy, and classical stories. As a generalization, did fans oversee what was there, or not catch it all?
7) I think I've read somewhere that you have a very detailed plan before you write. Is this correct?
8) Have you ever spoken at a writers conference?
9) What is something you learned with time that you did not understand when you began writing? I'm asking for something related to craft here.
10) In what areas do you believe you strengthened your writing through the series?
11) What aspect of the craft do you find to be the most difficult? The easiest?
12) Who do you turn to when you need help, writing-wise?
13) What's the best piece of advice you were ever given in regard to your writing?
14) What would be your biggest piece of advice for writers, both new and not-so-new?
15) What do you do now to continue to improve your craft?
16) Do you ever read books on writing?
As a writer, I have learned the most from reading--reading other writers, judging contests, and critiquing manuscripts. I've learned tremendous amounts from reading both the Harry Potter series as well as the speculation of fans regarding the books.
Thanks so much, Ms. Rowling, not only for the vast amounts of enjoyable time I've spent reading your delightful stories, but also for helping me to improve my own!
Susan
(Any other writers out there, please join in. Post your questions in the comment trail, and I'll keep this letter revised and updated as we go along.)
Like many of your fans, I'm also a writer. I've read or watched many of your interviews, including the most recent one on Oprah. However, as a writer, I have lots of questions which I've never heard addressed.
If you chance upon this blog and have a free moment, :-), could you answer a question...or 50?
1) When you first started writing, who encouraged you the most?
2) What did you do to learn the craft? Did you read books on writing, join a writers group, attend conferences?
3) You seem to have maintained a high level of privacy with your work while writing Harry Potter, but aside from your agent and editors, have you ever used a critique partner?
4) How do you maintain your writing time with the amount of pressure you must receive to spend on the business and promotional end?
5) How much time do you put into research for your story?
6) Your novels seem so full of analogies to myths, alchemy, and classical stories. As a generalization, did fans oversee what was there, or not catch it all?
7) I think I've read somewhere that you have a very detailed plan before you write. Is this correct?
8) Have you ever spoken at a writers conference?
9) What is something you learned with time that you did not understand when you began writing? I'm asking for something related to craft here.
10) In what areas do you believe you strengthened your writing through the series?
11) What aspect of the craft do you find to be the most difficult? The easiest?
12) Who do you turn to when you need help, writing-wise?
13) What's the best piece of advice you were ever given in regard to your writing?
14) What would be your biggest piece of advice for writers, both new and not-so-new?
15) What do you do now to continue to improve your craft?
16) Do you ever read books on writing?
As a writer, I have learned the most from reading--reading other writers, judging contests, and critiquing manuscripts. I've learned tremendous amounts from reading both the Harry Potter series as well as the speculation of fans regarding the books.
Thanks so much, Ms. Rowling, not only for the vast amounts of enjoyable time I've spent reading your delightful stories, but also for helping me to improve my own!
Susan
(Any other writers out there, please join in. Post your questions in the comment trail, and I'll keep this letter revised and updated as we go along.)
Harry Potter Series Gets A Face-lift!
Yes, I know I'm late to the party, thanks to having no web for 2 weeks, but anyway...
JK Rowling's phenomenal Harry Potter series is getting a face-lift! 7 stunning new covers have been designed by by renowned linocut artist Clare Melinsky. Clare Melinsky’s illustrations follow the style of traditional woodcuts and will appear on the front cover, back cover and spine for all seven titles in the Harry Potter series.
(to see bigger, click on image)
Clare Melinsky commented, ‘I was delighted and excited to be asked to illustrate the covers for such massively famous books – and seven of them! It was top secret for the best part of a year.’
The "Signiture" Look, as it has been daubed by Bloomsbury, will be published exclusively in paperback on 1st November 2010. I for one shall be buying these! Look amazing!
J.K. Rowling News
Okay, so this probably doesn't qualify as news, but for a JK Rowling fan, like me, this is cause for celebration!
Jo was reading at the White House yesterday for their annual Easter celebrations, and in a Q&A, she said that she has written a few things since she finished the epic Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and that there will be something published in the "not too distant future".
All I can say is please... BRING IT ON! Anyone else excited that the prospect for new JKR reading material is coming around?
The Tales of Beedle The Bard [Review]
Written by: J.K. Rowling.
Publisher: Bloomsbury.
Format: Hardback.
Released: 4th December 2008.
Ratiting: 4.5/5
Any readers of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be aware of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. A book left to Hermione by Dumbledore after his death at the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In it, is the story important enough to help Harry defeat Lord Voldemort. The Tale of the Three Brothers.
In late 2007, JKR produced seven hand-written copies of the book, featuring 5 tales. Fans feared that they would never be able to read the tales, but then in the Summer of 2008, JKR announced the publication of the book for charity! Yay! I for one was over the moon and could not wait.
The Tales of Beedle the Bard feature 'The Wizard and the Hopping Pot', 'The Fountain of Fair Fortune', 'The Warlock's Hairy Heart', 'Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump' and 'The Tale of the Three Brothers'.
All five of the tales are superbly written and features specific moral messages. My favourite of the five tales has to be The Fountain of Fair Fortune. It's just brilliant. So rich in Jo's brilliant story-telling. The best written of the five. The story is also my favourite because of the actual plot of the story. It just teaches you that what you sometimes think you need, you actually don't.
Out of the five tales, there's only really one duff one, and that's Babbitty Rabbity. It is a good tale, but at the same time, it just isn't as strong as the other four stories.
For JK fans the world over, this is a brilliant collection that should be added to any respecting fans collection!
(N.b. Reviewed this because in my quest of packing today, I stumbled across my copy and had to have a read. Only took an hour and a half to read the whole book.)
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