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[Brian Dorband]

No: HPFGUIDX 4547

from today's Rueters:


TORONTO (Reuters) - J.K. Rowling (news - web sites), author of the
      extraordinarily popular Harry Potter (news - web sites) 
children's books said
      on Monday that revealing the title of her next book, ``Harry 
Potter and the
      Order of the Phoenix,'' to a child in New York last week was
not 
a mistake.

      ``I didn't expect to do it now at all, but I did say after 
''Goblet of Fire'' that I
      wouldn't keep it a secret,'' said Rowling, who was in Toronto 
for the International Festival of Authors.

      Rowling added that she could not handle the pressure of keeping 
such a big secret and she did not want people
      to sift through her garbage.

      ``I didn't have plans to say it just now. I thought I would at 
some point but then there was this really, really cute
      little boy who asked and I thought, oh, he'd look so happy if I 
told him,'' she said.

      The British-born, single mother who wrote the first Harry
Potter 
novel because she could not afford to heat her
      apartment said she ``only decided a couple of weeks ago what
the 
title was going to be.''

      Other details of the book were scant, although Rowling did say 
at a press conference Sunday that the fifth
      Harry Potter book should be shorter than number four.

      Rowling is in Toronto as part of the annual authors festival. 
She will read at the city's 50,000-seat SkyDome
      stadium Tuesday with Canadian authors Kenneth Oppel and Tim 
Wynne-Jones. The event may prove to be
      Rowling's largest event to date, with the number of ticket sold 
well into five figures.

      Rowling expressed her fear of speaking in front of such a large 
crowd, insisting she's ``not the Rolling Stones.'' 



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JKR's simple integrity continues to impress me - especially above
when 
she reveals why she divulged the title to book # 5 - just to make a 
little boy's day!  How nice is that?!  Very classy.


Brian