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| Am I the only one stuck at the Cornish Pixies? |
Pottermore have announced that the rest of Chamber of Secrets will be available by NOVEMBER.
Snitchseeker reported that the CEO gave a keynote speech at Frankfort Book Fair which confirmed that "the final chapters of
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets will be published sometime later this month".
JK Rowling did a lovely little webcast with Bloomsbury last Thursday evening and
Leaky have posted the link to the video which can be watched
here. She reveals thew proper pronunciation of Hagrid's first name and what Maurauder she will be revealing all of in the Prisoner of Azkaban Pottermore!You can also read the full transcript here.:
Scholastic: How much did this beautiful city and its rich history influence your writing?
J.K. Rowling: It had some influence. There are some small things
that wouldn’t have happened in the books if I hadn’t been living in
Edinburgh. For example, when I was looking for the surname of a certain
particularly arrogant and annoying character whose first name was
Gilderoy, I happened to be in a church and saw the surname Lockhart,
which is a beautiful surname – a church here in Edinburgh, I’m talking
about, of course. And that’s how Gilderoy got his surname.
So there were small things like that. Names, sometimes street names,
gave me detail in the books. But I have to say I’m a writer who can
write pretty much anywhere. So it was wonderful to be writing in such a
beautiful city – and this is a place that’s got great coffee shops,
which is where I did a huge amount of writing so that helped a lot. I
would say that people here are very respectful of your privacy, so I was
able to write in cafes for a long time – even when Harry Potter was
quite well-known. I’m very grateful to Edinburghfor that.
Scholastic: Do you have any idea why these books have and continue to enchant readers, young and old, in such epic proportions?
J.K. Rowling: I have thought about this. I used to say, because it
was an easy answer, “You should ask the readers. They know what they
like.” But over the years, I have come to understand the appeal a little
better – mainly through talking to readers, I have to say. I think
primarily the people fell in love with the characters. Even though the
magic is so much fun, and the idea of this hidden world is so appealing –
it’s appealing to me as the author and as an adult - the idea that
there’s somewhere special you can belong. I still think that it was the
characters fundamentally that made people fall in love with the world,
and above all, Harry, Ron and Hermione probably.
Scholastic: Was it always your dream to write?
J.K. Rowling: Always. I literally cannot remember a time when I knew
that you had to earn your living in some way and I didn’t want to be a
writer. I was not very honest about that. My parents wouldn’t have seen
that as a very stable way to make a living, but it was always what I
wanted to do. In my heart of hearts, I knew that I was going to try as
hard as I possibly could to write.
Scholastic: Were you concocting stories even as a [child]?
J.K. Rowling: Yeah, definitely. The first ‘book’ I ever wrote, I was 6 years old. It was about a rabbit called Rabbit.
Scholastic: I’d like to see that.
J.K. Rowling: It’s not very good. But, in retrospect, what’s
impressive about it to me is that I finished it. I think that is the
mark of someone who really wants to write because beginning stories is
often very easy; finishing them, not so much.
Young student: While you were growing up, did you have teachers who encouraged you to express yourself creatively?
J.K. Rowling: I had several teachers who did encourage me to write.
I had a couple of primary school teachers who, in reading out my work
to the class, made me feel very special. They really did, and that
sticks out in my memory. The pride I felt at my work read out to other
students was a very big deal to me. I had a teacher when I was a little
older called Lucy Shepard, and her name springs very readily to my lips
because I’ve just met her. I just did an event and she came along to it.
She was teaching me when I was in my teens. She was a fantastic English
teacher. Like Dumbledore and McGonagall in the books, she taught me
things in addition to what she was teaching me about literature. Things
about life. She was just a very good example of a woman who was very
smart, and someone who would stick up for herself and her principles –
and that was a great role model.
Scholastic: And that kind of validation, too, at a young age …
J.K. Rowling: Completely. You never forget the teachers who said to you, “You can do this.”
Scholastic: Do you remember the first sentence you wrote in the series, and the last, and how much time between?
J.K. Rowling: Well, I know that it was 17 years between the two. I
know that I finished writing Deathly Hallows in 2007 – I finished
editing it, I should say. I couldn’t tell you what was the very last
word I wrote because when you’re editing, you’re darting around a lot.
The first sentence I wrote, I do still have – if we’re setting aside the
preliminary notes that I made. It was so different to the first
sentence that appeared in the printed books. I can’t quote it exactly,
but it was to do with a place called Dark's Hollow, and Dark's Hollow
became Godric’s Hollow. So in the very first ever version of chapter one
of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone you saw what happened in
Godric’s Hollow whereas in the finished series you don’t get to see
exactly what happened in Godric’s Hollow until much later.
Scholastic: One of your favorite moments along the way of the 17 years?
J.K.Rowling: There were so many. Within the books, if we’re talking
about what happens in the stories, I know that I’m about to read one of
them – one of my very favorite pieces from the first book – but there
are many. Luna’s first appearance because I love Luna Lovegood so much
and I was looking forward to writing her. The graveyard scene – I have
to be very careful for people who haven’t finished the series – but the
graveyard scene in Goblet of Fire for different reasons was great to
write because I’d been aiming for that point for quite a few years by
the time I got to write it. So that felt very satisfying. Some just
really small things but I still remember enjoying writing like stupid
jingles and things that Peeves said. They were always fun to do.
Scholastic: How about a personal favorite moment in those 17 years?
J.K. Rowling:For me personally, as a writer there have been so many,
but I think the second American tour that I did was unbelievable.
Because at that point the books had become very popular and I hadn’t
been exposed to how popular they’d become – physically exposed to it. I
can remember traveling in a car towards my first signing. There were
blocks and blocks of people queuing, and I said to Kris Moran, who was
working for Scholastic and has become a friend, and we’re sitting in the
car and I said, “Kris, is there a sale on?” And she just looked at me,
“Are you mad? This is for you.” I will never forget that moment. That
was the first time I really understood what has happened. It was
extraordinary, and also terrifying. It was scary as well because I just
hadn’t expected that. The previous tour, although we’d had maybe a
couple of hundred people turn up occasionally, it hadn’t been that
crazy.
Young student: How did you first imagine Harry, Ron
and Hermione’s relationship, and how did it change as you got deeper
into the books?
J.K. Rowling: That’s an excellent question because it goes to the
heart of writing a long series. Some writers say ‘character is plot’ and
to a large extent I think they’re right. So I gave Harry two friends.
Two very, very different friends. Ron is all about the fun. But Ron is a
very loyal person. He’s a very human person – in some ways, more human
than Harry, who is someone who is a hero. A hero is often slightly set
apart; not so much inhuman as a purified form of a human. They are the
one who must fulfill the quest.
So Ron is there as maybe slightly more real boy with his faults and his
flaws. Ron gets scared and wonders, “Really, are we gonna have to do
this again?” But he’s always there by Harry’s side. Ron’s one problem –
which is Ron’s problem and sometimes his friends’ problem – is
insecurity. Ron feels that he’s maybe not as good as his brothers. He
comes from a very big family, and then he goes and makes friends with
the most famous boy in the wizarding world, so Ron’s got some issues of
his own to work through. In doing so, Ron goes on his own emotional
journey – so that’s Ron’s character and that’s Ron’s plot, as it were. I
did know those things about Ron from the start. I did know that was
going to be the issue within that friendship.
So Harry is a boy who needs some fun and gets that from Ron. Harry is
also a boy who, even though he’s been marked out for this strange
destiny, he’s someone who doesn’t know a lot. And that’s where Hermione
comes in. Now Hermione is all about knowing stuff. So I’ve given him
these two friends that bring to Harry what he needs. Hermione is very
clever. She not only knows a lot of stuff, she knows where to find out a
lot of stuff. But she, too, goes through a journey through the books.
So Hermione learns to loosen up quite a lot, largely through the
influence of Ron. Hermione learns that there is more to life than book
learning. A lesson that really she learns quite early on, and then she
grows a lot as a person.
I did know those things about the characters, even from the first book,
and I think I needed to because I would’ve run out of steam quite early
on if I hadn’t given them the potential to grow as people.
Scholastic: Ron and Hermione challenge Harry.
J.K. Rowling: Very much so and that’s what keeps the relationship
interesting in that there is conflict within it – as there is with all
human relationships. Even the deepest and warmest friendships will be
subject to trials, and what marks out a truly great friendship is not
that it never had an argument or never saw any conflict, is how you deal
with those things. Because you have to be honest and find a way of
coping with those difficulties.
Scholastic: As a reader, we
feel like we’re experiencing the journey alongside them, and that
journey is actually more than just about magic, isn’t it?
J.K. Rowling: Completely because, as we’re saying, these are three
characters who - without wishing to be corny or cheesy - what they
really need to learn about is themselves. They, of course, need to learn
about each other, but self-knowledge is key. Without giving too much
away again, when we get to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, what
the hallows are and what they represent reveals a lot about the people
who seek them, want to use them, and being drawn to a particular hallow
tells us something about the kind of person you are. By the time they
get there, Harry, Ron and Hermione are equipped to come near such
objects, and that was an emotion journey – that had very little to do
with magic.
Scholastic: So you’re writing these three
characters over an extended period of time – how much of you ends up in
all three of them?
J.K. Rowling: I envision a good argument that says that an author is
in every single character they write. They have to be. You have to
understand from the inside what someone’s going through, which means
that you have to put yourself in a lot of different heads. But Harry,
Ron and Hermione, I am absolutely in all three of them. Harry is a
curious character. He’s not the most popular character in the book for a
good reason, because he has to be this questing person.
Often that person is slightly less easy to love because their flaws tend
not to be run-of-the-mill flaws. But Harry is often the by-stander –
the eyes onto the world – and that gives him a particular power. He is
slightly detached, which isn’t a very lovable quality. But often people
who have that detachment are rather unusual and are able to do things.
And most writers have a degree of detachment, so if I stand right back
from those three characters, I can say that is the part of me that maybe
is in Harry. Hermione is easy.
Hermione is an exaggerated version of myself at that age. She’s not
exactly like me, but I was certainly a very bookish girl and I was the
girl who would’ve gone to the library to look it up. That’s how I
would’ve reacted to the challenges of Hogwarts. I would’ve gone to find a
book.And there’s a lot of me in Ron. A lot of Ron’s most base humor
would make me laugh. I’m not saying that’s the only stuff that makes me
laugh, but I love Ron’s humor – and obviously that comes from me. I’m
making up the jokes.
Scholastic: As readers, we identify
with all of them, and largely because, in some ways, they’re dealing
with the same things that we’re struggling with.
J.K. Rowling: Absolutely. One of my favorite ever comments from a
very early reader, like back in ’97-98, was a small boy, he was about 10
years old and looked at me and he said, “I really like this book.” I
said, “Thank you so much.” He said, “Harry often doesn’t know what’s
going on, and nor do I.” And that spoke to me so much because I think at
that age – he was fairly joking, but he meant it at the same time. And I
thought, “That’s perfect. You’ve just summed it up.” All of us having
this sense of, “Am I the only one who doesn’t know what’s going on?” We
all felt that. I think when you’re young, starting a new school, that
those feelings are never as acute as at that time.
Young
student: Did you know when you were writing the books that reading about
Harry, Ron and Hermione’s experience would help us face our challenges?
J.K. Rowling: I probably didn’t know because when you’re writing,
you’re so inside the world – you’re living it, you’re feeling it – it’s,
to be honest, the last thing on your mind: How will someone read this?
You’re too busy creating it. It was only later that I thought, “Wow,”
when I started to get letters, particularly about things like bullying. I
got so many letters from boys saying, “There’s a Draco Malfoy at in my
class,” or girls saying, “I know some Pansy Parkinsons.” That meant the
world to me in the sense that I hope that people dealing with those
issues would think, “Well, I’m not alone. Some people just are mean, and
it’s nothing to do with me. I’ve got to find a way to navigate around
this.” So that was a great thing to hear.
Young student: How did you come up with Pottermore.com?
J.K. Rowling: The initial idea was: It’s time. A lot of fans were
saying, “When are we going to get ebooks? When are we going to be able
to read in a different form?” It felt like it was the right time to do
it. I had time to concentrate on doing it right. So that’s really where
the idea for Pottermore came. But then I wanted it to be more than that
because, as you see, the Internet has amazing possibilities. No one
dreamt of, in 1997, when the first Harry Potter book was published. So I
saw it as a way to create an environment where you could see extra
tidbits.
You could go inside illustrations a little bit. It’s making a book, in
that world. Just putting a book in that world. You can do some wonderful
things there. It’s still a reading experience. You still need to be
able to read the books, but I was excited about the fact that we could
put a really good reading experience online. I think it’s very important
to say that you can get a whole load of extra stuff on Pottermore
completely for free. It isn’t just about selling books. You can buy the
ebooks there if you want to, but the really exciting thing for me was I
had a way of putting extra material that I had crafted over the years –
or that I still wanted to find out about myself, so some little bits and
pieces I’ve invented since – and I could put it online. It was a way of
making sure that any fan could access it. They could just play with it -
it was the kind of thing I would love. If I loved a series of books,
to be able to go and find more about a character, a little bit of extra
backstory, I would’ve adored. It was a chance to do all that.
We had an amazing team working on it, we really did. And I’ve been so
involved. In fact, you saw a hint of what’s really fun. You get your
wand, you get Sorted into your House, and I think that’s been really
popular with users. I devised all of that. I had so much fun with that. I
think there are 30,000 and something wand combinations you can get, so
you get a really personalized wand.
Devising the definitive questions for the different Houses was a lot of
fun. Because there have been so many pale imitations online. It was time
for me to do it.
Young student: What are your favorite moments from Sorcerer’s Stone on Pottermore?
J.K. Rowling: Diagon Alley being the moment you go into the magical
world is a great moment on Pottermore, I think. I love the
illustrations. Just to be able to move through the shops, pick things
up. It’s like, at my age, pop-up books were really exciting. So this is
like the ultimate pop-up, isn’t it? With the illustrations, there’s that
slightly 3-D effect that you can move through. That was very conscious.
I wanted the style of the site to remain very book-like. So the
illustrations aren’t filmic, they look much more like book illustrations
– like pop-up illustrations – which I love.
Young student: Have any of the characters come back and surprised you?
J.K. Rowling: First of all, returning to Harry’s story … I don’t
honestly feel like I ever left. I’m never going to leave. It was 17
years of my life. I was quite heartbroken to finish writing. It was
tough, very tough. Going back [through Pottermore] is so easy – it’s
ridiculously easy for me. I feel like I’m just unlocking a door back
into my own house. I love that. I love having the ongoing contact.
Pulling things out of boxes or inventing a little bit more for
Pottermore is just fun. It’s a wonderful way to stay connected to the
world and to fans of Harry’s. So that’s been great.
Has a character come back and surprised me? I wouldn’t exactly say
surprised because I did know them all pretty well. Having said that, I
recently completed a biography for Remus Lupin, who is one of my
favorite characters in the series. He’s a teacher that Harry has in the
third book, Azkaban. In writing Remus’s biography – even though it was
in my head I’d never written it down – I kind of knew some, but in
writing it I found myself getting very upset. That’s all I can say
because I don’t want to give anything away, but I did find myself
getting quite emotional. I felt very connected to that character and it
was hard going back through his life again.
Scholastic: It’s got to be a thrill seeing this [the book series] come to life.
J.K. Rowling: It is. It’s been such a thrill. It’s taken a long
time. We – I say we because it’s taken a big team of creators who worked
on this project. It’s been a few years. People kept saying, “When are
you going to do ebooks?” and I couldn’t say because we were working on
what we hoped would be a really great reading experience online. And
[to] finally see it come to life has been wonderful. I am logged on as a
normal participant. I want to have the experience just like everyone
else, so I’m on there.
Scholastic: We polled some of your
fans and we asked them what question they most wanted you to answer.
Close to 40,000 people voted and the question they selected with 40
percent of the vote: Which Pottermore House are you in?
J.K. Rowling: Well as I say, I know how it works. So I logged on,
and I’m now on Pottermore as a regular user – that’s how I go check
what’s going on – although I’m not going to give my user name. So I went
through the Sorting, and I am a Gryffindor. But I had a moment as I
clicked the answer to the last question – and bear in mind, I wrote the
questions – I thought, “Hey, I’m not sure if I’ve answered to get
Gryffindor.” I answered them completely honestly, and I knew that I’d
answered a couple for different Houses so I thought, “I wonder how
they’re going to work this out.” Yes, I am in Gryffindor.
Young student: What would you say to people who are disappointed that they’ve been Sorted into Hufflepuff on Pottermore?
J.K. Rowling: That is actually my favorite question so far because
this is a very sore point for me. This may surprise people, but it is
the truth. In many, many ways, Hufflepuff is my favorite House. Here’s
my reasoning. Bear with me. Again, I don’t want to spoil things too much
for people who haven’t read the whole series, so I’m going to say what
I’m about to say quite carefully. There comes a point in the final book
where each House has the choice whether or not to rise to a certain
challenge – and that’s everyone in the House.
The Slytherins, for reasons that are understandable, decide they’d
rather not play. The Ravenclaws: some decide they will, some decide they
won’t. The Hufflepuffs, virtually to a person, stay – as do the
Gryffindors. Now, the Gryffindors comprise a lot of fool-hardy and
show-offy people. That’s just the way it is. I’m a Gryffindor, I’m
allowed to say it. There’s bravery and there’s also showboating, and
sometimes the two go together. The Hufflepuffs stayed for a different
reason. They weren’t trying to show off. They weren’t being reckless.
That’s the essence of Hufflepuff House. Now my oldest child, my daughter
Jessica, said something very profound to me not very many days ago
actually. She said to me – and she, by the way, was not Sorted into
Hufflepuff House – but she said to me, “I think we should all want to be
Hufflepuffs.” I can only say to you that I would not be at all
disappointed to be Sorted into Hufflepuff House. So I’m a little upset
that anyone does feel that way.
Scholastic: But you’re a Gryffindor.
J.K. Rowling: Yeah, I am a Gryffindor, but that’s not all good. I
know Harry’s a Gryffindor, but Harry’s a Gryffindor for the same reason
I’m a Gryffindor. I’ve got a short temper. Harry’s got his issues. I’m
just saying. Also Gryffindor hasn’t , despite the way it thinks of
itself, it’s turned out the odd dark wizard. Hufflepuff’s got pretty
much a clean record. As, indeed, Slytherin has turned out more than one
hero.
Scholastic: What’s next for you? What are you working on?
J.K. Rowling: More books (laughs). Definitely more books, yes. Right
now I’m still promoting, and will be for a few more days, the last book
I published which is a book for adults. But I think that the next thing
I publish is likely to be a book for children. The reason I’m not
committing myself wholeheartedly is because after 15 years of being a
writer for Harry Potter where you’d say something and someone would
seize on it and say, “She’s definitely doing that now”, and you kind of
felt you weren’t allowed to change your mind. It all got a little
intense. So I try not to commit myself too much with my plans. So I’m
not a hundred percent sure about doing it next, but I think it will be a
book for slightly younger children. I think that will be the next thing
I publish.
Scholastic: First thing that comes to your mind because this is going to go fast. Here we go.
J.K. Rowling: Okay. Gosh that is scary.
Scholastic: Favorite color?
J.K. Rowling: Pink.
Favorite food?
Sushi.
Least favorite food?
Tripe, which I have eaten ‘cause I’ll try anything. It’s as bad as it looks.
Favorite sound?
The sea, or my husband snoring.
Least favorite sound?
My husband snoring when I want to go to sleep.
Favorite sport?
Quidditch, obviously.
Favorite thing to do when you’re not working?Take
my kids out somewhere fun or – I’m quite a creative person – I like to
draw, listen to music. Not very exciting answers, are they? But that’s
the truth. Oh, and I love cooking. I love to cook. I love to bake.
Quality you most admire in a person?
Bravery.
If I wasn’t a writer, I would be …
Depressed. There’s nothing else I would want to do. My youngest daughter
said to me, not very long ago, she said, “Mummy, if you had to choose
between us and writing, what would you choose?” And I said, “I would
choose you, but I would be very grumpy.”
Scholastic: You’ve
said many times that getting kids reading has been one of the most
gratifying outcomes of writing the Harry Potter series. So 20, 50, 100
years from now, when they’re still being read, what do you most hope
that children will take away with them from the experience of reading
Harry?
J.K. Rowling: What I would most like to think they take away, is
what I take away from my favorite books, which is the knowledge that
it’s always somewhere you can go that you love and where you’re safe.
That’s how I feel about my favorite books. That wherever I am, if I’ve
got that book with me, I have got a place I can go and be happy. So if
that place is Hogwarts for anyone, them I couldn’t be more honored or
more humbled.
Speaking of JK, you can enter a competition to win tickets to her New York event at
this address. JK will also do an exclusive LIVE webcast interview with J.K. Rowling in NYC next Tuesday evening. For those unable to attend the event, Sony is giving "an opportunity for a limited number of fans to view a LIVE Webcast at
the Sony Store in Midtown Manhattan on October 16th from 8:00 - 9:00PM.
The Live Webcast will be shown ONLY at the New York City Flagship
Sony Store located at 550 Madison Avenue in Manhattan, New York."
Mugglenet who posted the news have given the following instructions:
For your chance to attend, RSVP to NewYorkRSVP@sonyusa.com with your name and contact details; please let us know if you plan on bringing a friend.
You will receive an email confirming your secured spot plus further details about the event. Space is limited, so hurry along!
Let us know if you're attending either event!
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