J.K. Rowling. The author’s first non-Harry Potter book, The Casual Vacancy, is coming out on tomorrow. ‘Cozy village mystery’ is not a genre we’d cover if Rowling wasn’t writing it, but there is an interesting profile in The New Yorker for the occasion. Naturally, the part that went viral was the quote about sex and unicorns, but if you’re in the mood for a 10-page profile on Jo Rowling, well. Meanwhile, she told The Guardian that she promised her editor she wouldn’t read Fifty Shades of Grey. If we don’t ask every woman in publishing about the ex-fanfic smut, does the ex-fanfic smut win?
It’s (almost) the end of a Big Fat Fantasy era. The final book of the Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light, will be released in January. Dragonmount’s Jason Denzel read the book, and shares some (spoiler-free) reaction and memories. meanwhile, fans can grab the book’s prologue on Amazon, while Tor offers the first chapter.
Adaptions. The latest YA book on the hoping-to-be-the-next-Twilight-franchise assembly line, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl’s Beautiful Creatures, debuted its first trailer last week, and it looks, well, like a gender-swapped Twilight. (She’s a witch; he’s normal.) I did read the book a while back, and was distinctly unimpressed. The movie features Viola Davis, Emma Thompson, Jeremy Irons and Emmy Rossum in supporting roles. Meanwhile, Dreamworks has optioned Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone. It will be produced by Harry Potter’s David Heyman.
Do not want. Robin Hobb is quietly working on a new Fitz novel, a prospect which fills me with dread. Her breakthrough Farseer Trilogy is all well and good, but the second set of Fitz books were probably about 90% chaff and whining. (Despite that, I think parts of the ending – not Fitz – did actually make me cry. YMMV.) Is the character going to be Hobb’s Lestat? Speaking of, Anne Rice is asking her fans why they want Lestat to come back. Dear lord, no. I could write whole essays for her second question.
Part of the holdup, it seems, has been a move to “an entirely different platform” that should (hopefully) hold up to the expected amounts of users. (The beta was/is notoriously slow.)
The Harry Potter author has a deal with Little, Brown in the United States and Britain to publish her first novel for adults. Her last book was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the series finale, in 2007. (The Potter books were published by Bloomsbury in Britain and Scholastic in the U.S.) In the press release, Rowling writes:
Although I’ve enjoyed writing it every bit as much, my next book will be very different to the Harry Potter series, which has been published so brilliantly by Bloomsbury and my other publishers around the world. The freedom to explore new territory is a gift that Harry’s success has brought me, and with that new territory it seemed a logical progression to have a new publisher. I am delighted to have a second publishing home in Little, Brown, and a publishing team that will be a great partner in this new phase of my writing life.
Further details about the book were not released.
Update: Some news from Rowling’s Twitter account: It’s coming out later this year.
As you may have heard, I have a new book out later this year.Very different to Harry, although I’ve enjoyed writing it every bit as much.
Pottermore finally speaks to what’s going on with the website. As we whined about earlier, the site has been having a hard time dealing with the volume since the last big batch of beta testers was added.
The Pottermore staff says they were surprised by how people have been using the site and that this has contributed to the load problems. They have decided to delay the general public opening until the end of October and, even then, they will bring people on in waves.
I somehow lucked out on hitting the site when one of the Magical Quill qualifying rounds opened. This method involved having the hopeful answer a trivia question and then head to another webpage to find the magical quill. Click on it in time and you’re in! Continue reading “Review: Pottermore needs more… servers”
Details of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter are out, and guys? J.K. Rowling is going to be so much richer. Sorry Disney, but I think it’ll take more sprucing than The Little Mermaid and Star Tours 2 to compete with this.
You can get a closer look at some of the concept art here.
At the Cheltenham Literature Festival, J.K. Rowling said that she’ll be returning to the children’s section for her next book.
The 
