Just a Book

At 12:01 tonight, the last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be released.

And one thing I've heard over and over is "it's just a book."

And I agree. It is just a book. So it does seem rather silly all the security measures being taken, the frantic efforts of its American publisher, Scholastic, to take legal action against those who, having received a copy of the book early, have posted reviews or, in one case, scanned all the pages of the book and put it up on the Internet.

They fear, as does J.K. Rowling, that people having already posted the book on the Web takes away some of the magic of people having the chance to read the book at (or near, taking into account time differences, of course) the same time.

But, what I find amazing is the fact that a book, a book, for goodness sake, is generating such a reaction.

In a world of cell phones, Ipods, video games, the World Wide Web, high-def, wide-screen TVs, DVDs, CDs, laptop computers, digital cameras, and so on and so forth, a simple thing as a book, with clothbound covers and paper pages, can still get so many people so excited.

Now, I've read that sales of Harry Potter books these past ten years have not exactly generated higher sales for other books. Don't know if that's true or not. But there's been a slew of YA fantasy books published during those ten years. And those authors don't exactly seem to be hurting.

Personally, book-lover that I am, I think it's fantastic that people, especially young people, can still get excited over a book. My brother is buying two copies so that he and his two young daughters and wife can read the books at the same time.

Now, will this ever happen again? I doubt it. At least not in my lifetime. But it won't soon be forgotten that a book (which, of course, has spilled over into oodles of merchandising and into a very successful movie franchise, and has spawned video games and hundres of websites devoted to Harry Potter and the Wizarding World) was able to garner this much attention, excitement and devotion.

Just a book? Yeah, just a book. And that's what so amazing.

Happy Reading!

P.S. I came across this while reading an article about J. K. Rowling. A couple of quotes from her that I think are of particluar concern to us aspiring writers. She's talking about possible future writing projects.

"I'll do exactly what I did with Harry — I'll write what I really want to write, and if it's something similar, that's OK, and if it's something very different, that's OK.

"I just really want to fall in love with an idea again, and go with that."

Fall in love with an idea. That's the key isn't it? And, of course, hope that lots of readers fall in love with the idea, the world and the characters too. *wink*

Survive My FIre

You'd have to be living under a rock or in a cave not to know that the seventh and last Harry Potter book will be released tomorrow at midnight.

But there's another relesae tomorrow that I'm even more excited about.

My dear, dear friend and writing pal, Joely Sue Burkhart, will have her first book released by Drollerie Press on Friday, July 2oth.

It's called Survive My Fire, her imaginative reworking of the dragon legend. And trust me, when I say "imaginative reworking" I'm not just throwing words around.

Joely creates these incredible, exotic, passionate worlds. The woman lives and breathes myths and legends and fairytales and in a world that's fast becoming cynical and jaded, her stories are like a breath of sweet fire.

I've known Joely now for over three years. We've yet to meet in person but I feel as close to her as I do any of the friends I've known for years. And she never ceases to amaze me in terms of not only her generosity of spirit but by the fact she's married, works full-time, has three small children and yet manages to write and write and write.

And she never gives up. And if anyone is deserving of this, it's her. Trust me on that.

Congratulations, Joely and much success!

The Finish Line

It's done. I finished my 13,000 word story. Okay, actually it's about 84 words over 13,000 but since I still have to go through and do my last major edit I can get rid of those 84 words fairly easy.

I'm just glad it's finished. It was, as usual, the last scene between the hero and heroine that was giving me the willies. But, as with anything, at some point you just have to stop knawing your fingernails and just get in there and write that darn scene or scenes.

So just some final cosmetic editing and I'll submit it sometime this weekend. I'm also doing my rather hurried prep-work for my project for the 70 Days, which I will officially start on Friday the 13th.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is out today! My son saw it yesterday at an employee's showing and he said it's pretty good. I plan to see it sometime later today.

Speaking of I heard that J.K. Rowling has hinted that she may return to the world of Hogwarts, after stating she had no intention of writing any more Harry Potter books. Or at least to the wizarding world that Hogwarts is part of

I'm not surprised.

I couldn't imagine that she wouldn't want to keep writing in that amazing universe she's created. And I'm sure----not to sound mercenary or anything----that she's had quite a lot of money dangled in front of her (as if she really needs it because last I heard she's worth more than $450 million dollars) to keep writing the HP books.

Just to give you some perspective on her suceess. The print run for the first Harry Potter book was 50,000 copies. The print run for the last book that is coming out next week is 12 million copies.

12 million copies! Mind-boggling, isn't it.

Keeper Shelf

I have a few books on my "keeper shelf". Books that once I've read them I have to keep close so that at some future point in time I can read them again and again and again.

Most of my "keeper books" have been science fiction or fantasy; the first Dune book, Lord of the Rings, The Snow Queen by Joan Vinge and a some others.

These two books are the only romance books, so far, that I have on my keeper shelf: Laura Kinsale's Flowers from the Storm and Penelople Williamson's Heart of the West.

I've had Kinsale's book on my keeper shelf since I first read it a few years ago. I first read Williamson's book last December. Allison Kent mentioned it on her blog as a great read. I picked it up at the library, read it and loved it! I wanted the hardcover version, but it's out of print.

Yesterday I finally found a used copy of the hardcover at Half Price Books. I was so thrilled! Now it's sitting next to all my other keeper books on the shelf.

It's always great to discover a truly wonderful book. A book that becomes a keeper.