“J.K. Rowling, A Year in the Life” available online

Yesterday's ITV1 broadcast of “J.K. Rowling, A Year in the Life” is now online for everyone to view! There are a few ads first. Thanks ITV.

On the whole I thought the show was lovely, although unlike the famous BBC “Harry Potter and Me” show, there is little new canon.

However, I think the title is a misnomer. Rather than being entirely about “a year,” we get a nice look at Jo’s roots with highlights of events from 2007. Among these are the moment she finishes Deathly Hallows (January 11), the hand off of the manuscript to her agent, a meeting of the worldwide publishers, footage of the book being printed, the OotP film premiere, the book launch at the Natural History Museum (and bits from world launches), at home baking in her kitchen for her son David’s birthday, and at a planning session for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park.

Other highlights:

• it is lovely to see Jo with her sister Di joking about old photographs,
• a stronger sense of place for towns where Jo spent her childhood,
• she is franker than I can remember about her relationship with her father,
• watching Jo draw the family trees of Harry and his friends,
• the wrenching scene in her old flat in Leith.

What were your favorite bits, or observations?

Make your own wands

I'm always on the lookout for Potter crafts for our library's Potter parties, so I was very happy to see excellent instructions on DadCanDo.com for making wands out of paper, acrylic paint and glue from a glue gun. These are as good as some wooden wands I've seen! Appropriate for teens with supervision because of the glue gun. Hmmm. Perhaps you could use glitter glue instead...

Canon summaries posted

The canon summaries for the last several interviews have been posted on the 2007 listing over on Accio Quote!

The big news today is that the third trailer for the December 30 ITV1 documentary contains information on the second generation of Harry's friends and their families. All three trailers are available on The Leaky Cauldron's YouTube page, and Jo's diagrams of the families is above.

Update: The door on Jo's Website is open with the drawing of the tree with additional information on Draco's family.

New JKR feature in Time Magazine

Time Magazine has announced that author J.K. Rowling was a runner-up for the 2007 "Person of the Year." The current issue of the news magazine has a lengthy article and Jo's answers to ten questions! So here is the new quotage and canon:

"Runner-up: J.K. Rowling" by Nancy Gibbs

• Although the bible verse "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" on James and Lily's grave is the "theme for the entire series," Jo is not trying to convert her readers to Christianity.
• "It is perfectly possible to live a very moral life without a belief in God, and I think it's perfectly possible to live a life peppered with ill-doing and believe in God."
• "I'm opposed to fundamentalism in any form," she says. "And that includes in my own religion."
• On Wizard rock activism: "It's incredible, it's humbling, and it's uplifting to see people going out there and doing that in the name of your character," [...] "What did my books preach against throughout? Bigotry, violence, struggles for power, no matter what. All of these things are happening in Darfur. So they really couldn't have chosen a better cause."
• "He's [Harry's] still mine," she says. "Many people may feel that they own him. But he's a very real character to me, and no one's thought about him more than I have."
• On the epilogue: "I kept arguing that 'love is the most important force, love is the most important force.' So I wanted to show him loving. Sometimes it's dramatic: it means you lay down your life. But sometimes it means making sure someone's trunk is packed and hoping they'll be O.K. at school."
• Jo is currently writing two books: an adult novel and a "political fairy tale."
• "If, and it's a big if, I ever write an eighth book about the [wizarding ] world, I doubt that Harry would be the central character," she says. "I feel like I've already told his story. But these are big ifs. Let's give it 10 years and see how we feel then."

Rowling Answers 10 Questions About Harry

• JKR chose the people who came to walk with Harry in the forest as he was going to his death because they were in some way were parental for him, or gave up their lives for him.
• Having Harry's blood in him was a bit of "goodness" for Voldemort, and gave him one last chance. If he had repented he would have been healed to a remarkable extent.
• Voldemort's Avada Kedavra succeeded in "killing the part of him that is not truly him, in other words, the fragment of Voldemort's own soul that is still clinging to his. The curse also disables Harry severely enough that he could have succumbed to death if he had chosen that path."
• Harry was right to feel repulsed by the baby-like remains of Voldemort's shattered soul.
• What did Dumbledore really see in the Mirror of Erised?
  JKR: "His family, alive and whole and reconciled."
• Harry and Voldemort are distantly related through the Peverells, but you could say the same about Harry and most other wizarding familes.
• Draco Malfoy marries Astoria Greengrass, the "younger sister of the Greengrass family."
• Jo repeats her earlier assertion that Ron's adult career was working at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, where he "does very well."
• Tonks was a Hufflepuff.

Roonwit's list of new canon

Roonwit has made a summary of the new canon in the PotterCast interview! Here it is for your reading pleasure...

Rowling on PotterCast!
The first part of Jo's PotterCast appearance in now up. There are summaries of what was said below. There are of course SPOILERS included.

• Helga Hufflepuff gave the Hogwarts House Elves good working conditions (which was the moral thing to do at that time).
• In The Tales of Beedle the Bard
  • The Wizard and the Hopping Pot - the moral is to teach young witches and wizards to use magic altruistically
  • The Fountain of Fair Fortune - (her favourite) about the qualities you need to achieve your heart's desire (magic isn't the best option).
  • The Warlock's Hairy Heart - A dark, gothic tale. Voldemort would have done well to know this one before starting his reign of terror.
  • Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump - (a stupid title) one witch's revenge on muggle persecution.
• Beedle the Bard was originally invisaged as about 30 tales but shrank to 5 when Jo realised she was going to hand write them.
• Horcri was considered as the plural to Horcruxes, but Jo didn't want it too similar to inferi.
• The first Horcrux was probably made by Herpo the Foul [cf. the Basilisk entry in Fantastic Beasts].
• The making of a Horcrux is a dangerous and evil thing, one of two things Jo considers might be too horrible to explain (the other is how Wormtail fashioned the child-like body for Voldemort).
• John Dawlish was originally powerful, but was weakened by Dumbledore's and subsequent attacks on him. However Augusta Longbottom is still a formidable opponent.
• Being gay in the Wizarding world is less of an issue (to those who care about such things) than blood status.
• Dumbledore, the great defender of the power of love, was made a fool by it. Grindelwald was almost his dark twin, Dumbledore wanted to believe he was good, and he appeared to offer a solution of the problem of caring for his family.
• Harry isn't really a Horcrux, which needs to be made intentionally. He wasn't an evil object with curses on him, and wasn't contaminated by it except on occasions in OotP when it fed off the dark time Harry was going through.
• Harry's scar hurts when the soul piece in him is drawn back to the master piece of soul in Voldemort
• The scar is the wound through which the soul piece found its way into Harry.
• The two-headed smoke snake was Dumbledore detecting that Voldemort's soul had split like this.
• Harry had to die to get rid of the soul piece in him, being poisoned by the basilisk but cured wasn't enough.
• Neville is the-boy-it-could-have-been. Harry has an edge more talent, particularly an instinct of the right thing to do which makes him such a good auror, but Neville proves by the end of the books that he could also have done it had Voldemort chosen him.
• Bellatrix went after the Longbottoms because they were efficient and successful at their jobs as aurors.
• James and Lily were asked out of school to join Voldemort, but they rejected him.
• Dumbledore knew what happened at Godric's Hollow because of an alarm spell on the house, but Jo couldn't remember if there was an explanation for the 24 hours until Harry arrived at Privet Drive.
• The Encyclopedia or "Scottish Book" is currently planned to be half facts and backstory within Harry's world, and half discarded plots and commentary on planning and what went in or not. Jo only wants to write it if it is amazing, she doesn't what to have to rush it out.
• Jo thinks of Hannah Abbott as pure blood (though she might be muggle born in Jo's notes.) She is landlady at The Leaky Cauldron.
• Jo was under pressure to do a fan club, but created her website as a better solution.
• There will be no more WOMBATs. She was told for legal reasons that it would be a bad idea to release snippets of information about DH, and saw the WOMBATs as a way of giving the fans something, though WOMBAT 3 had a lot of hints concealed within it. Jo might put up the answers.
• Harry and Ron didn't go back to school and were aurors, but Hermione did another year at Hogwarts to get her NEWTs. Kingsley wanted anyone in the Battle of Hogwarts on the right side, who was old enough, to help clean up the Ministry (including Ron, Neville and Harry).
• Hermione went with Harry and Ron through Deathly Hallows because ultimately her heart was bigger than her brain; she isn't naturally drawn to battle.
• Jo was sad that she wasn't going to write a Hogwarts graduation scene.

Rowling to be on PotterCast!

Today The Leaky Cauldron announced that J.K. Rowling would be the featured guest on next Tuesday's PotterCast. Leaky staffers Melissa Anelli, Sue Upton and John Noe were on hand for the first extensive fan interview since 2005. Melissa promises new canon and lots of fun, so stay tuned.

Tales of Beedle the Bard sells for nearly $4 million U.S.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard, translated from the original runes by J.K. Rowling, an entirely handmade book, sold this morning for £1.95 million ($3,985,410 U.S.) in London. The buyer was later announced to be Seattle, Washington-based online merchant Amazon.com. The Children's Voice, a charity co-founded in 2005 by Rowling and Baroness Nicholson is to receive the proceeds.

The book is bound in Moroccan leather with hand-chased silver bosses set with moonstones; there are only 6 other copies in existence. It's 157 hand-written and illustrated pages contain 5 wizarding fairy tales: "The Fountain of Fair Fortune," "The Warlock's Hairy Heart," "The Tale of the Three Brothers," "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot," and "Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump."

Amazon does not have the rights to publish the book; however they say they will post reviews of the stories and more photographs. According to the Associated Press, Amazon spokesman Craig Berman said the company plans a tour for the book of libraries and schools.

December 16, 2007: Well, all 5 of the reviews have been posted, and they make delightful reading. I especially appreciate how the Amazon editor described things like how Jo's handwriting changed during certain parts of the stories, and how the drawings foreshadowed each tale. Bravo, Amazon! And thank you for sharing your treasure with all of us.

Amazon: pictures, reviews, a video, and a forum for questions
Associated Press report

Here, there be artwork

Last week I met author/illustrator James A. Owen and he told me about Every Picture Tells a Story, a store in Santa Monica California that sells artwork from children's books. I found all kinds of wonderful artwork, prints by David Wiesner, Mo Willems and David Shannon, but also a series of Mary GrandPre Potter prints I hadn't seen for sale before -- AND concept art from the movies. Now I have to figure out how I can afford one.

P.S. I am enjoying Owen's book Here, There Be Dragons, very much! He drew a dragon in every book he signed, and gives pointers on drawing them on his blog.

Lengthy interview for De Volkskrant

There is a new interview of J.K. Rowling in the newspaper De Volkskrant, her second ever for her Dutch readers. In this interview she talks about her spiritual development, the King's Cross chapter, and Deathly Hallows meaning and symbolism.

I am working on posting an interview sent to us by Peter Kersbergen. In the meanwhile, the text in Dutch is here (flash animation), and The Leaky Cauldron also has a translation.

"Beedle the Bard" announcement transcripts

Meann has completed two transcripts, one of the BBC Radio broadcast, and one of the BBC's video of Jo's announcement. Both reports were by Razia Iqbal, but were edited differently. There is a bit of new information:

• "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" consists of 5 stories set in JKR's Wizarding world, continuing the same themes in a different time period.
• Only 7 copies exist; the book will never be published.
• Jo thinks what she publishes next will be a "half-finished book for children."

Thanks Meann!

"Tales of Beedle the Bard" to be auctioned

In a surprise announcement, Jo tells us on her website that she wrote The Tales of Beedle the Bard as a thank you gift for 6 people who worked closely with her on the Harry Potter books over the years, and that she will auction the seventh copy off at Sotheby's for charity. The Sotheby's site shows screencaps and the book is chock full of Jo's drawings too! Here is Sotheby's description (it will make you drool, I promise!):

Autograph manuscript of “The Tales of Beedle the Bard ” translated from the original runes by J.K. Rowling. Individually handwritten and extensively illustrated by the author, c.160 pages written in an Italian hand-made notebook, bound in brown morocco embellished on upper cover by Edinburgh silversmiths Hamilton and Inches, with five individually hand-chased hallmarked sterling silver ornaments and mounted moonstones.

AQ staffer Jules has purchased the auction catalog so we will have more soon.

Reports in the media: BBC, CBBC, The Leaky Cauldron.

Transcript for Toronto press conference

AQ staff Meann and roonwit have created a transcript for the 10/22 press conference in Toronto. Jo had a microphone but the reporters asking the questions did not, so many of the questions were unintelligible. The video for it is here: CBC.ca.

Highlights:

• There wasn't a point at which Rowling decided that Dumbledore was gay; she gradually realized it "very early on" while she was writing the first book.
  
• Rowling "probably" won't write a prequel.
• JKR: "He [Dumbledore] is my character, and as my character I have the right to say what I say about him."
• Most of the tweaking of the epilogue was to remove information; the biggest change was the addition of information about Teddy Lupin.
• Rowling still plans on working on a Hogwarts encyclopedia, but not immediately.
• Hermione would read Margaret Atwood's books; Harry and Ron don't read much as adults.

Additional interview summaries for Open Book Tour

Here is a list of the new canon from Rowling's visits to New York and Toronto (except for the Sweepstakes reading at Carnegie Hall, which was posted previously).

J. K. Rowling Talks Marriage, Writing and More at Open Book Tour Stop in New York City
The Leaky Cauldron

• Harry and Dudley kept in touch as adults, but the relationship remained awkward.
• Dumbledore loved Harry like a son.

PotterCast #122: It's Saturday Night [Leaky staff meet Rowling! audio only]
The Leaky Cauldron

• Helga Hufflepuff offered the house-elves refuge at Hogwarts, though conditions there were still slave-like, if a bit kinder than elsewhere.
• The Sorting Hat initially wanted to put Neville into Hufflepuff House.
• Harry was not technically a Horcrux, due to Voldemort’s lack of intent.

Toronto Press Conference [video] [transcript here]
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

• There wasn't a point at which Rowling decided that Dumbledore was gay; she gradually realized it "very early on" while writing the first book.
  
• Rowling "probably" won't write a prequel.
• JKR: "He [Dumbledore] is my character, and as my character I have the right to say what I say about him."
• Most of the tweaking of the epilogue was to remove information; the biggest change was the addition of information about Teddy Lupin.
• Rowling still plans to write an Hogwarts encyclopedia, but not immediately.
• Hermione would read Margaret Atwood's books; Harry and Ron don't read much as adults.

Rowling knew early on Dumbledore was gay
Canadian Press via The Star

• Dobby's death was the hardest one to write.

NYC Sweepstakes Reading Canon Summaries

I've been waiting for a full transcript from Leaky, but want to post this now. I figure I can add to it later. These summaries are actually based upon four sources: TLC, HPANA, as well as Eldritchhobbit’s and iamstarmoms LiveJournals. All were present at the reading.

• Neville married Hannah Abbott, who eventually became the landlady at The Leaky Cauldron. His students think this is cool.
• Molly was the one to defeat Bellatrix because Jo wanted Molly to have a chance to show how powerful she is, and because she found it satisfying to create a face-off between unhealthy obsessive love and strong maternal love.
• Jo decided not to kill Arthur Weasley in Book 5 so that Ron wouldn't have to grow up as quickly.
• The orphaning of Teddy Lupin brought the series full circle, though Harry was a much better godfather than Sirius.
• Jo says (tongue in cheek) that Aberforth's inappropriate goat charm had to do with keeping it clean or its curly horns.
• Dumbledore was gay; he fell in love with Gellert Grindelwald but was "terribly let down by him" when he realized what he was capable of.
• Parseltongue is not a language that people can learn. Ron really only memorized the sound of one word ("open").
• Dumbledore’s first letter to Petunia (she was 12-ish) was very kind and explained why he couldn’t let her become part of the Wizarding world and join her sister at Hogwarts. His 1981 letter reminded her of her wish, appealed to her sense of fair play, and asked her to take care of Harry.
• Petunia desperately wanted to be a part of the Wizarding world and hated that "Lily had what she couldn't have."
• What Petunia almost said when Harry left Privet Drive for the last time was " I do know what you're up against and I hope it's OK." But she couldn't say it because she was too hardened by pretending not to care for so long.
• Harry's Horcrux was not destroyed by the basilisk poison in book2 because the poison's damage was stopped in time by Fawkes' tears.
• Dumbledore worried that Harry would give in to his "reckless" impulses and seek the Deathly Hallows so he gave the book with the clues to cautious Hermione.
  
• When Harry decided not to seek the Hallows after Dobby died it scared him because it was the first time he had decided not to act.
  
• JKR: Portraits can "only move between portraits in the same building” or other places where the same portrait exists.
• The parallels between Voldemort's goals and methods and those of the Nazi Regime were deliberate, but there are also parallels to regimes that exist today.
• JKR: "The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry.... You should question authority and you should not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth."
• There is no magic involved in life debts.
  
• After Book 7, Draco Malfoy goes back to "being an improved version of what he was but we shouldn't expect him to be a really great guy any time soon."
• James, Lily and Sirius became full time members of the Order of the Phoenix after leaving Hogwarts and did not have regular jobs. They lived off of James's money.
  
• The Potters did not go into hiding until Lily became pregnant.
  
• Lupin was "unemployable" when he left Hogwarts.
• Voldemort's first rise to power did not go as far as the second one did because he was not able to infiltrate the Ministry the first time.
• Hagrid never married. Mme. Maxime was too sophisticated for him, and there weren't many other giantesses around.
• Severus Snape's portrait does indeed hang in the Headmaster's office. Harry had a role in making sure that Snape's abdication did not effect his place there.
  
• Headmaster portraits don't appear immediately; the person needs to be dead.
  
• Jo was surprised that no one had ever asked her what Dumbledore’s wand was made of.

An evening of surprises!

I need to leave for dinner, but please wander over to The Leaky Cauldron where they have posted about the wonderful revelations tonight in New York. I am linking you to the text only version because I had trouble getting the regular one to load. Wowowowowow!

First two reports from New York

Bloomberg.com and The Leaky Cauldron have the first two reports on Rowling's visit to New York this morning (there is another one tonight). It looks like there were some very good questions!

Early reports of New Orleans visit

Here are links to the first reports of Rowling's visit to New Orleans:

• Times-Picayune (via NOLA.com) Thanks Leaky & roonwit!
• Daily Comet
• Associated Press (via International Herald Tribune)
• WDSU television

The Times-Picayune article is the most complete. New canon:

• The first piece of literature that inspired Jo was The Wind in the Willows.
• Rowling wanted the books to show some of the evils of war: how "totally innocent people are slaughtered" and "that children lose their families."
• Cho Chang married a Muggle.
• Snape teaches Potions because Jo didn't do well in Chemistry and wanted revenge.

Links to photographs here: The Leaky Cauldron

More from the LA press Conference

Another report of the Press conference in Los Angeles has appeared on hollywood.com. This seems to be a more complete reporting of Jo's actual words. In addition to what has already been reported, It also contains comments on how Harry reacts to Dobby's death.
Thanks to El Cronista de Salem at Harry Potter Latino and roonwit for the tips!

JKR: "hogwarts is a multi-faith school"

Do you remember back in 1999 when Jo said she couldn't answer the questions about the book's religious content until the conclusion of book seven? Well, that's what she did at yesterday's Los Angeles press conference. Congratulations to MTV writer Shawn Adler for two great articles (this one and the one I linked to on Monday).

I am going to attempt canon summaries, although in some parts it is difficult to tell what is Adler's analysis and what is Rowling:

• Jo thought explicit references to Christianity early on in the story would make the ending too obvious.
• JKR: "Hogwarts is a multifaith school."
• The Matthew 6:21 and 1Corintians 15:26 quotations on his parents' gravestones were meant to symbolize "living beyond death. Living after death." They "sum up" the whole series.
  
• Harry's struggle with questions about the afterlife begins when Sirius dies.
• The two epigrams at the beginning of Book 7 ("The Libation Bearers" by Aeschylus and William Penn's "More Fruits of Solitude") had been planned since book 2 was published: "I always knew [that] if I could use them at the beginning of book seven then I'd cued up the ending perfectly.... They just say it all to me...."
• Harry's struggle with his beliefs about the afterlife mirrors her own.

Of course, Travis Prinzi and John Granger have interesting things to say about this news.

Mary GrandPré video highly recommended

I will get to today's MTV article, but first I want to recommend a wonderful, nearly 30 min. video of Mary GrandPré showing a room of Minnesota children how she draws Harry. It is just so awesome to watch his face emerge from the paper, and hear her funny asides about Hagrid, Krum, Harry, and Harry's scar. The kids are great too.