Kids' books - OoP timing - Draco - PoA - Lockhart - PDWDWTSAFAB

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 25286

Lisa wrote:

<one of those terrific posts that makes me want to quote the whole 
thing>  but I'll snip and just quote this bit:

> What I do have a problem with is the idea that anything written to, 
or in the presence 
> of, or concerned with, children should be free of All Scary, Dark, 
> and Tragic Things.  

I couldn't agree more.  There are reasons kids gravitate toward 
such books--and their more comical half-siblings, like gross-out 
jokes--and IMO, those reasons are valid and important.

melliene12 wrote:

> also, the first 3 were written before they were published. They 
> spaced them apart on purpose. So she hten had 3 yrs to write 4..

I don't think this can be true, because JKR has said in interviews 
that #2 was very, very hard to write because of all the pressure of 
#1's success.

She has also been asked about how long it takes her to write a book 
and I think she has said a year is typical.  Before PS/SS she also 
worked out the whole story arc, a lot of backstory, etc., and all of 
that & the writing of #1 took 5 years.

Sorry no references--I can never hunt up the interview I'm looking 
for.

I hope OoP is just taking a long time because that's how inspiration 
goes sometimes (or better yet, because it's going to be as long as 
GoF--I am resisting the urge to put Rictusempra on Ali until she 
spills all), but I'm sure a serious boyfriend, QTTA/FB, and movie 
consulting have a lot to do with it.  I would never begrudge her time 
with her boyfriend and I applaud her incredible generosity in doing 
the Comic Relief books (& I love them), but I hope she scales back the 
movie stuff.  I personally hereby promise not to nitpick about the 
shape of the torches on the dungeon walls if she will just stop 
vetting every detail and WRITE!

Susan wrote <hilarious post on EtherFloating!Draco>

> "Start writing something which will  get these women off me now!.  
Oh, and if
> *you* ever dare to mention leather trousers you're dragon 
fodder,Rowling."

What, I wonder, could JKR possibly write that would get these women 
off him?  She has already made him an utter slimeball, 
one-dimensional, immature, and a coward.  His put-downs are seldom 
witty, IMHO; I haven't seen fit to include a single Draco line in my 
almost 60 sigs, though "If you were any slower, you'd be going 
backwards" came close, LOL.  She hasn't even described him as 
compensatorily good-looking (and go ahead and start that thread again, 
but there's no line anywhere that *says* he is good-looking, or 
describes anyone else as thinking he is).  And despite all that--or is 
it because of that?--fans drool over him.

Barb wrote:

>Once he was free, Sirius Black could have sent an owl to Remus Lupin 
explaining what really
> happened with the Fidelius Charm and inform him that Peter Pettigrew
> is alive and well and being kept as a pet rat by Ron Weasley, who 
was
> at Hogwarts.

Ooh, interesting challenge.  Howzabout this?:

(a) Sirius is just too scared (probably paranoid) and pretty 
unbalanced right now.  He doesn't trust anyone--he just can't see any 
alternative to acting on his own, even though it isn't the most 
practical way to go about it.

(b) Such a letter would put Lupin, who, as far as Sirius knows, hates 
him and wouldn't trust him as far as he could throw him, in a very 
difficult position.  He is supposed to seek out a young boy at 
Hogwarts (as you say, Sirius may not even know that Lupin is teaching 
there) and ask him if he can see his rat.  That requires him to put a 
heck of a lot of trust in a man who, as far as all the evidence 
indicates, murdered their best friends.

Tabouli wrote:

> Who says everyone hates Lockhart?  As a character (not as a person, 
that's
> totally different), I think he's great. 

And you're in good company (not mine, I must admit--though I do love 
"Harry, Harry, Harry").  My remark was explaining why *Snape* hates 
Lockhart, and Snape, unlike us, actually has to work, eat, and 
practically live with the man.  :shudder:  The "everyone" referred to 
the staff.

Whoever posts on PDWDWTSAFAB next, if anyone, please make a 
correction:  I was the one who listed the Pensieve.  For all I know 
Haggridd, whose name keeps getting printed next to this one, thinks 
the Pensieve is the greatest idea since perforated toilet paper and 
wants to see it in every book.  

Amy Z
11 weeks 'til the movie

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 Harry remembered how touchy Myrtle had always 
 been about being dead, but none of the other 
 ghosts he knew made such a fuss about it.
                  -HP and the Goblet of Fire
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