Harry Potter's Page :: Feed Your Harry Potter Addiction ::

We previously told you that JK Rowling was set to make an announcement today as part of her Pottermore unveiling.  She made the announcement on her official JK Rowling Announces YouTube site that Pottermore will include an exclusive place where fans can purchase the Harry Potter audio books, and for the first time e-books, on her Pottermore website.  It will be a place where fans of any age can gather and be a part of Potter.  She also stated that she will include more content from the stories that she’s ‘hoarded for years.’

Here’s some of what she had to say:

I’m thrilled to say I’m now in a position to give you something unique.  An online reading experience unlike any other.  It’s called Pottermore.  It’s the same story, with a few crucial additions, the most important one, is you.  Just as the experience of reading requires that the imaginations of the author and reader work together to create the story so Pottermore will be built, in part, by you, the reader.  The digital generation will be able to enjoy a safe, unique online reading experience built around the Harry Potter books.  Pottermore will be the place where fans of any age can share, participate in and rediscover the stories.  It will also be the exclusive place to purchase digital audio books, and for the first time, eBooks of the Harry Potter series.

I’ll be joining in too, because I will be sharing additional information I’ve been hoarding for years about the world of Harry Potter.

Pottermore is open to everyone from October, but a lucky few can enter early and help shape the experience.  Simply, follow the owl.  Good luck.

Here’s her announcement:

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We previously reported that Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has created Pottermore, a new website for fans of the boy wizard and his world.  There has been a lot of online speculation as to what kind of site it will be:  i.e. role-playing, purchasing Harry Potter e-books, or an interactive encyclopedia on Harry and his world, or all of the above.

Fortunately, we fans won’t have too long to wait for an answer.  Ms. Rowling has also created a YouTube channel where “the owls are gathering” for her video announcement in 6 days (and counting!) which hopefully will uncover the secret of Pottermore!

Source:  Barnes & Noble Official Facebook Page

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After being led on a chase for coordinates and hunting down a very elusive “M” at Secret Street View, we know that we’re getting something new and exciting from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. Unfortunately, as shown on the Secret Street View website, we still don’t quite know what it is, though we know that “this is not a new book, but it is something equally exciting”. Several other Harry Potter news sources, while saying they can’t divulge any information, admit it is amazing. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more about Pottermore.

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Magazine Words with Jam recently had the opportunity to sit down and have tea and cake with JK Rowling.  They also got a chance to ask her a few questions and take some beautiful photos of her as well.

In the interview, she talks about her favorite books, both as a child and today. She also talks about time management, challenges as a writer, and what her desk currently looks like.  They also had the chance to ask her about her opinion of e-books.

Her favorite book as a child was The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge. She admits to re-reading many books, especially Jane Austen.

“I’ve re-read all of Jane Austen so often I can actually visualize the type on the page.  I love Colette, Katherine Mansfield, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio March, E. F. Benson and P. G. Wodehouse, all of whom are always beside my bed.”

When asked what word or phrase she overuses, she admitted to using curse words too much.

When describing her writing room, including her desk, she says she has a study that she shares with her husband that has two computers back-to-back on a large partner’s desk.  She has to room to herself during the day and admits to her side being a ‘health hazard.’  Well, if anyone has ever visited her website, it appears the desk on the site is true to form.  Her desk is littered with papers and other items, including two week old pretzels.

“Around me as I type this are: a long bit of dried-out orange peel, an empty plastic carton that held blueberries, half a bag of salted pretzels (two weeks old), an empty box that contained Optrex Eye Drops, a ton of reference books, a telephone buried out of sight under sundry bits of paper, a couple of old newspapers, a lot of pens (mostly defunct), a pair of broken sunglasses and a single earring.”

When asked about e-books (she’s well known for not allowing the Potter books to become e-books), she says they’re part of progress, but print won’t die.

“There is no point in holding back progress, but print will never die; there’s no substitute for the feel of an actual book.  I adore physically turning pages, and being able to underline passages and not worrying about dropping them in the bath or running out of power.  I also find print books objects of beauty, and I don’t speak as a precious, first-edition-mustn’t-crack-the-spine-type colector, but as somebody who loves a shiny new paperback, and the smell of second-hand books.

However, there are times when e-books are a Godsend.  We forgot to pack my youngest a bedtime book when we were away last year, and I truly appreciated the magic of being able to download one in seconds! This summer will be the first time that I take away fifty e-books to read while we’re on holiday, rather than filling up my suitcase with print books.”

Read the entire interview here.

Source: TLC

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The Guardian has posted an article about the favorite Harry Potter character poll Bloomsbury created on their site.  The UK publisher of the Harry Potter series written by J.K. Rowling would like to know who in Harry Potter’s world is popular among the worldwide readers.  The poll will be open until Friday, August 26, 2011.  The favorite character will be announced Tuesday, August 30.  If you don’t see your favorite character on the “ballot”, there is a place at the bottom where the favored wizard’s or muggle’s name can be added.  Personally, I can’t pick just one…or maybe I can if I think about it…hmm.

Now, The Guardian has quoted J.K. Rowling (from past interviews)  in saying that Harry himself is her favorite, although Albus Dumbledore is the one with whom she would like to have dinner.  But according to what we posted here, the fact that Steve Kloves chose “Hermione Granger” as his favorite character was what made Rowling trust him in writing the screenplay for seven out of the eight films based on her books about the boy wizard.

Go here to vote!

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JK Rowling recently wrote an article for the Writers Guild of America, West Written By magazine about Harry Potter film screen writer Steve Kloves. In the article, she talks about how she met Kloves, how nervous she was, how they hit it off, and how their relationship grew into a great friendship that is still strong today.

She realized that she knew Steve would be right for the job when, on the first day they met in Los Angeles, he turned to her and and asked who she thought his favorite character was.

I thought: You’re going to say Ron.  Please, please don’t say Ron – Ron’s so easy to love. And he said: “Hermione.”  At which point, under my standoffish, mistrusting exterior, I just melted, because if he got Hermione, he got the books.  He also, to a large extent, got me.

She said that from that day forward she trusted Kloves.

She noted that on all of the scripts that she can’t recall that Kloves ever went wrong, other than the one mix up in which Kloves had written into the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince script that Dumbledore was reminiscing about an old girlfriend.  She then had to inform him that Dumbledore was, in fact, gay.

Of course, not everything in the books could go to the film.

Inevitably, things had to be cut between novel and film.  It never bothered me.  Steve’s a compassionate surgeon.  We couldn’t’ make eight-hour-long films, and I’d rather have had him wielding the scalpel than anyone else.

It’s been an intense relationship, forged under very unusual circumstances.  Steve has come closest to being inside the world with me – actually, he has been inside the world with me but always a year or two behind.  Nobody else has come close to that.  The sheer length of the collaboration has made it unique.

He’s beocme a great, real friend.  I remember, on a subsequent visit to L.A., the two of us ended up in a bar at my hotel, sitting at the only table where we were allowed to smoke, like a pair of pariahs.  I said to him: “Do you ever feel like you’ll be found out?” And he laughted and said: “All the time.  All the time.”  That was the same conversation when he told me that Dumbledore was “burdened with knowledge.” So he might not have got Dumbeldore’s sexuality right, but he understood something much more fundamental.

Read the entire article here.

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We recently reported that J.K. Rowling had consulted with her neighbors about demolishing a house next to hers in order to expand her garden and include a couple of outbuildings.  Today, UK’s Daily Mail has reported that it appears one of those buildings is a “lodge” which will resemble Hagrid’s hut from Ms. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.  For it is noted that the building will have a conical-shaped  roof, a chimney,  and stone steps that lead to the front door.

Sir Roy Strong, art historian and landscape gardener, said: ‘Good luck to her. It’s marvellous. With her money she could make my  garden look like a pimple.

‘I have met JK Rowling. She is an intelligent woman and she does have a thing about gardens. She may well want to weave some of the things she has done into the design.’

And with that news, The Guardian has added that another structure Ms. Rowling plans to have built in her garden is a whipping stone:

… The stone – a tall post with the remnants of its original chains – dates back to the 16th or 17th century, and would have been used to punish petty thieves and religious backsliders. What will she use it for? To punish prying journalists who show excessive interest in her domestic arrangements perhaps?

Hmmm…maybe I should change my byline/username…Just the same, it’s fun to imagine what kind of magical, Renaissance themed garden she will create. 

Click here and here to read the complete articles.

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The Independent has reported J.K. Rowling’s intention to arrange for the demolition of a five-bedroom house next to her family mansion in the “plushest suburb” located in the north part of Edinburgh, Scotland.  This would allow her to expand her garden.  According to the article, Ms. Rowling has sought approval from her neighbors for this venture.

“It’s not every day you hear someone seeking approval from their neighbours to flatten a £1m house to make their garden bigger,” the resident said after attending a community meeting about the proposal. “There’s a lot of respect for her and everything she has achieved through her writing so everyone is happy to work with her,” the neighbour added.

Ms. Rowling and her husband already have applied for planning permission to have a few outbuildings, which include kennels, a summer house, and housing for her security staff, on their property.

Click here to read the complete article.

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Fans of electronic books are breathing just a little easier today as Rowling, who for years has been against converting the Harry Potter series to eBooks is, according to this article in the Scotsman, “actively considering plans for e-book versions”. Such a move could be a critical breakthrough for the electronic book industry – sales of Kindles, Nooks, and Readers could skyrocket. Professor Claire Squires of Stirling University compares such a move comparable to the Beetles appearing on iTunes.

Source: The Scotsman.

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We previously mentioned The Times Colonist report on an unauthorized biography film being made on the life of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.  The newspaper now posted a report on a shooting for the film at Munro’s Book Store on Government Street in Victoria British Columbia, Canada.  The location was turned into “a bustling Edinburgh thoroughfare with antiquated red phone booths, a post box and extras posing as fashionable shoppers” in order to re-create J.K. Rowling’s first public reading of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 1997.

According to the article, the local shoppers of the area, who were not banned from the shop during the shoot,  and the extras, who acted as attendants at the “reading”, heard the actress Poppy Montgomery say her lines as “J.K. Rowling”:  “I’m absolutely terrified. It’s my first reading,”

And although Jim Munro admitted the shoot was a bit “disruptive”; and Paul Etherington the first assistant director of the film had to do crowd control by asking the shoppers not to stare so that the film’s cast and crew could leave the store as fast as they can, the book store owner thought the excitement was a nice change during “a boring time of year”.  A few others seemed to have agreed with him:

Vancouver actress Loretta Walsh couldn’t help but notice what appeared to be a sudden increase in the number of extras.

“Then I realized it was people shopping,” said Walsh, who played a spectator at Rowling’s reading. . .

… “This is about as exciting as it’s been in Victoria for filmmaking,” said Kanne Boehme, who with husband John and sons John, 10, and Beauregard, 5, portrayed Harry Potter fans at the reading.

Dusty MacBeth, a traveller from Kelowna, was among hundreds of spectators lining Government Street.

“I’ve been meaning to watch a movie, and now I get to watch a live one.”

The made for television film is scheduled to be released on the US Lifetime TV Network later this year.  Note:  We previously mentioned that the film’s title was Strange Magic. However, according to this current article, the title is now Magic Beyond Words: The J.K. Rowling Story.

Click here to read the complete article and see the full size image of Poppy Montgomery as the famous Harry Potter author at her first reading..

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