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...

inked · 01-10-2006, 06:04 PM

But, Spock, will it be a Guernsey cow or an Angus cow. Will it in fact be a bull (as is more usual)? Are you being sexist in the use of the word cow? What does the ACLU think you think? Is it moral to have a cow and use it as a source of recurrent nourishment without its written consent and approval by PETA?

What kind of cow? Does the Constitution prohibit distinction on the basis of cowness?????

Good unnamed deity, Man! You've opened a can of worms!

Sun-star, It may have been merely factual.

sun-star · 01-10-2006, 06:07 PM

Hadn't actually thought of that... Still it's a bad first line

inked · 01-10-2006, 06:15 PM

NOT if that is what actually occured. Why is it bad? Since the image it was associated with was smiling, it might have had an arresting effect upon some reader.

sun-star · 01-10-2006, 06:17 PM

Doesn't it sound exactly like something Rita Skeeter would write?

inked · 01-10-2006, 06:24 PM

YES, but that is only because Rita must in the course of her transcriptions and alterations must occasionally, if entirely inadverdently, get a fact correct.

sun-star · 01-10-2006, 06:37 PM

It's life seen through a Quick-Quotes-Quill lens. Facts become symbols of whatever the journalist wants to highlight.

inked · 01-10-2006, 06:39 PM

Can't argue there, Sun-star. Here's another take:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/book...eut/index.html

And reading all the options certainly gives one insight into the 'objectivity' of reporting, does it not?

sun-star · 01-10-2006, 06:43 PM

Indeed. Another interesting quote in the article was when she said her books are essentially about death - IIRC, Tolkien said almost exactly the same thing about his own work.

**Nurvingiel** · 01-11-2006, 01:59 AM

Intersting Sun-star.

Inked, did you just say objectivity in the same post as a link to a CNN article? (I do see your single quotations around "objectivity" though.

)

About the awful first line, a tear may have trickled down her cheek at some point during the interview, but the job of a reporter is to report the facts that matter. You don't need to tell me someone was emotional while being interviewed about the death of her mother.

edit: All bovines are calves when born, regardless of gender. So really, Mooters might have a calf.

inked · 02-10-2006, 12:14 PM

OF interest...

JANUARY 28, 2006 at 8:20 PM
Black Family Tree to benefit Book Aid
Posted by EUDAEMONIA
Source: News Tip
JK Rowling , along with other renowned authors, has donated handwritten work to be auctioned off for the benefit of Book Aid International . The organization is responsibile for "putting books into the hands of the world's most disadvantaged readers."
The Harry Potter author has put up for auction a drawn layout of the Black Family Tree, which was first introduced to readers in (the fifth book) Order of the Phoenix, that reveals members of the wizarding community not previously mentioned in the series -- although with familiar surnames. The Daily Telegraph has recently released a portion of this drawing and scans of their article are available online, courtesy of TLC.
The items are to be auctioned on the 21st of February -- click here for more information. Thanks to Pearl for the tip!

http://www.hpana.com/news.19252.html

sun-star · 02-10-2006, 01:25 PM

When you have a close look at the tree, you can see a character called "Harfang" - a reference to Narnia, I think

inked · 02-10-2006, 01:42 PM

Observations from Julie H. on another board...

"Harry apparently doesn't know it yet -- at least it isn't mentioned in OoP when the family tree is discussed -- but there's a Dorea Black married to a Charlus Potter listed in a bit of the hand-drawn family tree that's already been shown in photos. Time frames are consistent with these being Harry's grandparents, and they're listed as having "1 son" who is unidentified.

How ironic if HP turns out to be related to Slytherin as well as Griffyndor.

This would truly make him a double-natured king ... something John G I know will enjoy, and potentially quite an interesting plot point. however, it's also quite possible that it's simply misdirection, and that the listed Potter is some distant relative. "

truthiscool · 02-17-2006, 03:45 PM

harry Potter Stinks Dont You People Know That????

**Nurvingiel** · 03-06-2006, 08:57 AM

Books are subjective, don't you know that?

Quote:

How ironic if HP turns out to be related to Slytherin as well as Griffyndor.

While this would be extremely awesome, Harry can't be related to Salazar Slytherin because Voldemort is already his last surviving descendent.

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.

01-10-2006, 06:04 PM	#7
inked Elf Lord Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol Posts: 3,114	But, Spock, will it be a Guernsey cow or an Angus cow. Will it in fact be a bull (as is more usual)? Are you being sexist in the use of the word cow? What does the ACLU think you think? Is it moral to have a cow and use it as a source of recurrent nourishment without its written consent and approval by PETA? What kind of cow? Does the Constitution prohibit distinction on the basis of cowness????? Good unnamed deity, Man! You've opened a can of worms! Sun-star, It may have been merely factual. __________________ 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 Last edited by inked : 01-10-2006 at 06:05 PM.

01-10-2006, 06:07 PM	#8
sun-star Lady of Letters Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Either Oxford or Kent, England Posts: 2,476	Hadn't actually thought of that... Still it's a bad first line __________________ 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, 06:15 PM	#9
inked Elf Lord Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol Posts: 3,114	NOT if that is what actually occured. Why is it bad? Since the image it was associated with was smiling, it might have had an arresting effect upon some reader. __________________ 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, 06:17 PM	#10
sun-star Lady of Letters Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Either Oxford or Kent, England Posts: 2,476	Doesn't it sound exactly like something Rita Skeeter would write? __________________ 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, 06:24 PM	#11
inked Elf Lord Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol Posts: 3,114	YES, but that is only because Rita must in the course of her transcriptions and alterations must occasionally, if entirely inadverdently, get a fact correct. __________________ 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, 06:37 PM	#12
sun-star Lady of Letters Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Either Oxford or Kent, England Posts: 2,476	It's life seen through a Quick-Quotes-Quill lens. Facts become symbols of whatever the journalist wants to highlight. __________________ 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, 06:39 PM	#13
inked Elf Lord Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol Posts: 3,114	Can't argue there, Sun-star. Here's another take: http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/book...eut/index.html And reading all the options certainly gives one insight into the 'objectivity' of reporting, does it not? __________________ 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, 06:43 PM	#14
sun-star Lady of Letters Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Either Oxford or Kent, England Posts: 2,476	Indeed. Another interesting quote in the article was when she said her books are essentially about death - IIRC, Tolkien said almost exactly the same thing about his own work. __________________ 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.

02-10-2006, 12:14 PM	#16
inked Elf Lord Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol Posts: 3,114	OF interest... JANUARY 28, 2006 at 8:20 PM Black Family Tree to benefit Book Aid Posted by EUDAEMONIA Source: News Tip JK Rowling , along with other renowned authors, has donated handwritten work to be auctioned off for the benefit of Book Aid International . The organization is responsibile for "putting books into the hands of the world's most disadvantaged readers." The Harry Potter author has put up for auction a drawn layout of the Black Family Tree, which was first introduced to readers in (the fifth book) Order of the Phoenix, that reveals members of the wizarding community not previously mentioned in the series -- although with familiar surnames. The Daily Telegraph has recently released a portion of this drawing and scans of their article are available online, courtesy of TLC. The items are to be auctioned on the 21st of February -- click here for more information. Thanks to Pearl for the tip! http://www.hpana.com/news.19252.html __________________ 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 Last edited by inked : 02-10-2006 at 12:18 PM. Reason: add link

02-10-2006, 01:25 PM	#17
sun-star Lady of Letters Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Either Oxford or Kent, England Posts: 2,476	When you have a close look at the tree, you can see a character called "Harfang" - a reference to Narnia, I think __________________ 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.

02-10-2006, 01:42 PM	#18
inked Elf Lord Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: sikeston, MO, usa, earth, sol Posts: 3,114	Observations from Julie H. on another board... "Harry apparently doesn't know it yet -- at least it isn't mentioned in OoP when the family tree is discussed -- but there's a Dorea Black married to a Charlus Potter listed in a bit of the hand-drawn family tree that's already been shown in photos. Time frames are consistent with these being Harry's grandparents, and they're listed as having "1 son" who is unidentified. How ironic if HP turns out to be related to Slytherin as well as Griffyndor. This would truly make him a double-natured king ... something John G I know will enjoy, and potentially quite an interesting plot point. however, it's also quite possible that it's simply misdirection, and that the listed Potter is some distant relative. " __________________ 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

02-17-2006, 03:45 PM	#19
truthiscool Enting Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Arkansas Posts: 86	harry Potter Stinks Dont You People Know That???? __________________ There are those in the world who do not understand that our time is limited and so they wast it but in the end when they stand before god the will realize what a mistake they made.

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