Thursday, December 21, 2006

HUGE Breaking HARRY POTTER NEWS!

EDITOR'S NOTE: First up, no I'm not dead. And I haven't given up on the lovely Dweebletter. Just very very busy out in the...ugh....non-dweeb world.
But this news was too big NOT to post...
Final 'Harry Potter' title announced
We now have a title for Book VII: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows."

But if you want to find out for yourself, visit J.K. Rowling's Web site, jkrowling.com, and play a little game of hangman.

Rowling's U.S. publisher, Scholastic, Inc., released a brief statement Thursday announcing the name of the world's most anticipated children's book, the finale to her phenomenally popular fantasy series.

No publication date or other details were offered. Rowling is still working on the book, she wrote on her Web site in an entry posted early Thursday.

"I'm now writing scenes that have been planned, in some cases, for a dozen years or even more," she wrote. "I don't think anyone who has not been in a similar situation can possibly know how this feels: I am alternately elated and overwrought. I both want, and don't want, to finish this book (don't worry, I will.)"

Meanwhile, she set up a little game for her Potter fans.

If you go to her home page, click on the eraser and you will be taken to a room — you'll see a window, a door and a mirror.

In the mirror, you'll see a hallway. Click on the farthest doorknob and look for the Christmas tree. They click on the center of the door next to the mirror and a reef appears. Then click on the top of the mirror and you'll see a garland.

Look for a cobweb next to the door. Click on it, and it will disappear. Now, look at the chimes in the window. Click on the second chime to the right, and hold it down. The chime will turn into the key, which opens the door. Click on the wrapped gift behind the door, then click on it again and figure out the title yourself by playing a game of hangman.

Or you can just take Scholastic's word for it.
Rowling finds finishing final Potter book a nightmare
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling said she is having bizarre dreams about being the boy wizard as she struggles to finish the final book in the hugely popular series.

The author wrote on her website that she dreamt for the first time that she was in Potter's head and roaming around the magical world she has created for him.

The 41-year-old hinted that the stress was getting to her as she writes the closing chapters of the seventh and final Potter novel -- in which she has hinted that the beloved hero may be killed off.

"I'm now writing scenes that have been planned, in some cases, for a dozen years or even more," Rowling revealed.

"I don't think anyone who has not been in a similar situation can possibly know how this feels. I am alternately elated and overwrought.

"I both want, and don't want, to finish this book (don't worry I will)," she wrote.

She then described her odd dreams about Harry's world, which Potter fans are sure to scour for clues about what may happen in the final book.

"For years now, people have asked me whether I ever dream that I am 'in' Harry's world," Rowling wrote.

"The answer was 'no' until a few nights ago, when I had an epic dream in which I was, simultaneously, Harry and the narrator.

"I was searching for a Horcrux (a magical object in Rowling's books created through the use of the Dark Arts) in a gigantic, crowded hall which bore no resemblance to the Great Hall as I imagine it.

"As the narrator I knew perfectly well that the Horcrux was jammed in a hidden nook in the fireplace, while as Harry I was searching for it in all kinds of other places, while trying to make the people around me say lines I had pre-arranged for them.

"Meanwhile waiters and waitresses who work in the real cafe in which I have written huge parts of book seven roamed around me as though on stilts, all of them at last 15 feet (4.5 metres) high."

She added: "Perhaps I should cut back on the caffeine?"

The seventh novel is reportedly due to be published next year at the earliest.

The first six books in the Potter series have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide and been translated into 63 languages, making Rowling Britain's highest-earning woman. The novels have also been turned into hit films.

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the fifth movie in the series, is currently being filmed and is due for release next year.

Rowling said she recently went on a day trip to the film studios where she saw 20 minutes of footage "which looks fantastic."