News about J. K. Rowling

Spock · 01-10-2006, 02:07 PM

Rowling: Mom's Death Influenced Writing

http://eimg.net/harvest_xml/NEWS/img...1617789994.jpg

A portrait dated July 15, 2005 of British author J.K. Rowling in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Rowling said in an interview published Tuesday Jan. MATT DUNHAMFrom Associated Press
January 10, 2006 11:05 AM EST
LONDON - Author J.K. Rowling said in an interview published Tuesday that her mother's death while she was writing the Harry Potter books led her to make her hero suffer the death of his own parents.

Rowling said part of the pain of losing her mother Anne, who died in 1990 at the age of 45 after fighting multiple sclerosis for a decade, was that she never knew her daughter was writing the books.

"I know I was writing Harry Potter at the moment my mother died. I had never told her about Harry Potter," Rowling said in an interview with Tatler magazine that was published in Tuesday's Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Rowling, who was 25 at the time of her mother's death, said: "Barely a day goes by when I do not think of her. There would be so much to tell her, impossibly much."

The writer also said when her novels became world famous she had trouble dealing with the stardom.

"I've never said this before, but when I was repeatedly asked, 'How are you coping?' I would say, 'Fine.' I was lying to myself at the time. It was as though I had lived under a rock for a long time and suddenly someone had lifted it off and was shining a torch on me.

"And it's not that life under the rock was awful, but actually I was petrified and didn't know how to handle it."

Her tales of Harry Potter, the orphaned wizard, quickly became a literary success, selling more than 300 million books in 63 countries.

Spock · 01-10-2006, 02:08 PM

She has always seemed so "real" and "down to earth" that I'm still amazed she came up with this fantastic theme.

sun-star · 01-10-2006, 02:20 PM

It's a nice interview - here's a fuller version: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news

For those interested in the "Christian themes in HP" thread, check out the last sentence

inked · 01-10-2006, 05:15 PM

That's interesting, Sun-star.

Spock · 01-10-2006, 05:18 PM

Jeeze, Louise, some of our members will have a cow

.....

I liked the US report of it as it cut out all the slobbering sentiment and kept to the heart of the story

sun-star · 01-10-2006, 05:22 PM

Yes, that first line about "A tear slowly trickles down J K Rowling's cheek" is terrible writing...

01-10-2006, 02:07 PM	#1
Spock An enigma in a conundrum Join Date: Oct 1999 Posts: 6,476	News about J. K. Rowling Rowling: Mom's Death Influenced Writing http://eimg.net/harvest_xml/NEWS/img...1617789994.jpg A portrait dated July 15, 2005 of British author J.K. Rowling in Edinburgh, Scotland. Rowling said in an interview published Tuesday Jan. MATT DUNHAMFrom Associated Press January 10, 2006 11:05 AM EST LONDON - Author J.K. Rowling said in an interview published Tuesday that her mother's death while she was writing the Harry Potter books led her to make her hero suffer the death of his own parents. Rowling said part of the pain of losing her mother Anne, who died in 1990 at the age of 45 after fighting multiple sclerosis for a decade, was that she never knew her daughter was writing the books. "I know I was writing Harry Potter at the moment my mother died. I had never told her about Harry Potter," Rowling said in an interview with Tatler magazine that was published in Tuesday's Daily Telegraph newspaper. Rowling, who was 25 at the time of her mother's death, said: "Barely a day goes by when I do not think of her. There would be so much to tell her, impossibly much." The writer also said when her novels became world famous she had trouble dealing with the stardom. "I've never said this before, but when I was repeatedly asked, 'How are you coping?' I would say, 'Fine.' I was lying to myself at the time. It was as though I had lived under a rock for a long time and suddenly someone had lifted it off and was shining a torch on me. "And it's not that life under the rock was awful, but actually I was petrified and didn't know how to handle it." Her tales of Harry Potter, the orphaned wizard, quickly became a literary success, selling more than 300 million books in 63 countries. __________________ Vizzini: "HE DIDN'T FALL?! INCONCEIVABLE!!" Inigo: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

01-10-2006, 02:08 PM	#2
Spock An enigma in a conundrum Join Date: Oct 1999 Posts: 6,476	She has always seemed so "real" and "down to earth" that I'm still amazed she came up with this fantastic theme. __________________ Vizzini: "HE DIDN'T FALL?! INCONCEIVABLE!!" Inigo: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

01-10-2006, 02:20 PM	#3
sun-star Lady of Letters Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Either Oxford or Kent, England Posts: 2,476	It's a nice interview - here's a fuller version: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news For those interested in the "Christian themes in HP" thread, check out the last sentence __________________ And all the time the waves, the waves, the waves Chase, intersect and flatten on the sand As they have done for centuries, as they will For centuries to come, when not a soul Is left to picnic on the blazing rocks, When England is not England, when mankind Has blown himself to pieces. Still the sea, Consolingly disastrous, will return While the strange starfish, hugely magnified, Waits in the jewelled basin of a pool.

01-10-2006, 05:15 PM	#4
inked Elf Lord Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol Posts: 3,114	That's interesting, Sun-star. __________________ Inked "Aslan is not a tame lion." CSL/LWW "The new school [acts] as if it required...courage to say a blasphemy. There is only one thing that requires real courage to say, and that is a truism." GK Chesterton "And there is always the danger of allowing people to suppose that our modern times are so wholly unlike any other times that the fundamental facts about man's nature have wholly changed with changing circumstances." Dorothy L. Sayers, 1 Sept. 1941

01-10-2006, 05:18 PM	#5
Spock An enigma in a conundrum Join Date: Oct 1999 Posts: 6,476	Jeeze, Louise, some of our members will have a cow ..... I liked the US report of it as it cut out all the slobbering sentiment and kept to the heart of the story __________________ Vizzini: "HE DIDN'T FALL?! INCONCEIVABLE!!" Inigo: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." Last edited by Spock : 01-10-2006 at 05:20 PM.

01-10-2006, 05:22 PM	#6
sun-star Lady of Letters Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Either Oxford or Kent, England Posts: 2,476	Yes, that first line about "A tear slowly trickles down J K Rowling's cheek" is terrible writing... __________________ And all the time the waves, the waves, the waves Chase, intersect and flatten on the sand As they have done for centuries, as they will For centuries to come, when not a soul Is left to picnic on the blazing rocks, When England is not England, when mankind Has blown himself to pieces. Still the sea, Consolingly disastrous, will return While the strange starfish, hugely magnified, Waits in the jewelled basin of a pool.

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