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Farewell, Potter, and Thanks.

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Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketDid you know that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is being published in 90 countries? Yeah, I’m one of the kazillion people anxiously waiting for this weekend and the final installment in JK Rowling’s fantasy series. Will good crush evil? Will Dumbledore’s Army find the remaining horcruxes before the Death Eaters gain strength? Will Harry discover that HE is a horcrux (that scar, that scar!)? Will he survive his final confrontation with Voldemort? Who will die?

Mostly, I’m just holding my breath, hoping Rowling will tie everything up in a way worthy of the legacy she’s created, while fearing she might not (I’m still remembering Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass). Please, no gnarty personality twists in order to move from plot point S to Z. No dismissing reader expectations in the 11th hour and opting for mediocre wrap-ups. And no senseless deaths.

I’ve been keeping up with books and business news (see the Google notebook HERE), but I have to tell you: Just about everyone is focused on Harry right now. Headlines about Harry Potter orders breaking records; how rich Rowling’s agent must be; whether or not the series counts as literature; what will happen to book sales after it’s all over; kids who’ve already started camping out in front of their fave bookstore to wait for their fave book; how Rowling is using the book to help search for a missing child; who’s going to skip to the end of the book when they crack its cover, and which news agency won’t report on it. And, of course, how well the movie’s done this past week. (Kath and I are going to talk about that and more next Monday and Tuesday.)

My favorite news blip, however, reveals the first few lines of the latest book. Wanna know what they are? Of course you do! This from The Observer: [Read more…]

INTERVIEW: Dave King

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Want to know what a real editor will do for your manuscript? So did we, and we wanted to know some of his secrets as well, which is why we’re so pleased that Dave King, professional editor and co-author of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print, granted us this interview. Read […]

Book Therapy

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Sorry for the long silence. An unexpected family emergency derailed my orderly world, and I had to beat it across the country on short notice. Of course, this travel emergency coincided with a terrorist attack and the midwest’s worst thunderstorms in US history. So it was a crappy time for air travel. But a great […]

Breathing Room

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Since posting here a few weeks ago about the challenges of revising my fourth manuscript, I’ve gotten a deadline extension and a new sense of perspective. While some writers work best with clocks ticking and whips cracking, I’m not one of them. I need room to stretch out, to let the characters run wild, to […]

Keeping Track

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Every speculative fiction writer seems to have a personal blog these days. The better ones provoke some great discussion on writing—see, for instance, the Romance discussion on recent Andre Norton Award winner Justine Larbalestier’s blog. Some writers’ blogs include as much about the minutiae of their health issues / crises with pets and children / […]

Beyond the Fourth Wall

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This from the BBC News Entertainment Section: Author JK Rowling has said she felt euphoric but “devastated” as she penned the last words of the final Harry Potter book, The Deathly Hallows. Speaking on Jonathan Ross’ chat show, she said: “When I finished one chapter near the end I absolutely howled.” … She was in […]

Agreed….

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Philip Pullman’s children’s book NORTHERN LIGHTS (called the Golden Compass in the U.S.) has been named the best children’s book published in the past 70 years and been awarded the Carnegie Medal. Though I wouldn’t envy the task of the selection committee–the last decade or so really has been a golden age in children’s literature–Pullman’s […]