Questions For JKR

[Fleurdelacour]

I'm sure all of us are dying to ask the woman herself some questions regarding the books :)

I managed to ask her a question about fan fiction (see sig ;) ) but I have many more... but i can't think of them right now, as I'm literally melting...

So, what are yours? :)

[PhineasNigellus]

I think i would ask her
1. Will Wormtail get his comeupance or will he do a Gollum?
2. Who is the next target for he loathesome- but-not-evil-charecter (eg Lockhart - full of himself celebrity-fraud, Rita Skeeter - snooping journalist, and Proffessor Umbridge government meddlers)
3. What accent does Tonks have (everyone else says its a cockney but i don't think so!)

[Drizella]

I wouldn't want to know anything that would give away plot. I would like to be surprised!

But I would like to know where Snape's hometown is. Where did he grow up? And more personal information about Lupin, please.

[Little Miss]

i'd like to know if any of the characters incidentally turned out to be gay. it seems inda biased that there's a whole school full of kids and hormones and none have publicly decided that they're homosexual yet. its not exactly true to life... not that anything else in the books are anyway but still.

i also want to know if percy gets accepted back into the family, or even admits he's wrong, but i guess we'll just have to wait till the next book to find that out.

[Fleurdelacour]

That was one of my questions Monica :p I'm just convinced that Remus and Sirius belong together!

I would also love to ask her if she would ever consider writing more about the Marauders, like the the Quidditch and Fantastic Beast Books. Ah, I'd be a happy bunny then :D

[PhineasNigellus]

aah yes i can just imagine the scene involving both the Patils' and Cho:D :D :D

[Lord Schaudt]

Book 6? when i crave it!!@!!!!@!@@$%R#@$~!#~#!@#

[stridersghirl]

hmmm most of my questions really would be wanting to know more about the plot, not so much about the future story but more about the past.

i love to know why Malfoy likes Snape yet Dumbledore trusts him -why do they both trust them. But that will come i imagine. Probably in book 7, she'll make us wait.

I'd like to know what was it that finally made Sirius run away from home, and why doesnt he care he nearly killed Snape ? What happened to Sirius's bike ? Did he have a girlfriend ? Is he really dead ;)

I'd like to know what happened to the rest of Harry's family, were they killed by Voldemort ? Who is his godmother ?

How does Petunia know about Azkaban and how much does she know ? Was it James that was that awful boy or did she know sirius and lupin and it was one of them she was talking about ? Why does she hate wizards so much ?

Is Krum coming back in the later books ?

[Snapdragon]

I have perhaps a rather trivial question about wizard clothing. I may of course just have been distracted by the movie version where the Hogwarts students wear robes over what is essentially British school uniform clothing. In the books they appear to wear robes as the main garment, as demonstrated when the schoolboy Snape gets turned upside down, revealing his unlovely underwear:D This couldn't happen in the movie , which may be just as well...

Also the elderly wizard Archie in GoF is obviously not used to wearing trousers, preferring a flowery nightgown to wear instead of robes at the campground:D

So, JKR, do Hogwarts students wear just wizard robes and are the film costumes not really what you have in mind?

I'm sure it must be easier to ride a broomstick wearing trousers but I can't claim to have tried it either way:D

[Bellatrix_Lestrange]

I wouldn't want to hear any spoilers (not that she'd divulge them anyway), so:

1) Who are your daughter's favorite characters?

2) Into which house do you think the Hat would have sorted you, and why?

3) Who among the major characters is the hardest for you to write?

4) Who is the easiest?

5) You were once a schoolteacher yourself; to what degree, if any, are the characterizations of the students and teachers at Hogwarts drawn from people you've known in real life?

And finally, if I can somehow muster sufficient arrogance:

6) What do think of my fanfic? Please, be honest.

EDIT: 7) Is Blaise Zabini a boy or a girl?

[Melpomene]

Originally posted by PhineasNigellus
I think i would ask her
1. Will Wormtail get his comeupance or will he do a Gollum?
2. Who is the next target for he loathesome- but-not-evil-charecter (eg Lockhart - full of himself celebrity-fraud, Rita Skeeter - snooping journalist, and Proffessor Umbridge government meddlers)
3. What accent does Tonks have (everyone else says its a cockney but i don't think so!)

1. One could argue that Gollum got his comeuppance. Just because you inadvertantly do some good while rushing headlong to your justified end doesn't mean you're redeemed.

2. Honestly, I'm hoping that this is what Draco evolves into. He's just not a credible direct threat with the likes of Voldemort and Bellatrix on the loose, but he could still be a foil.

3. It sounded like South London to me.

Then again, I'm not JKR.

[Lanen]

Bellatrix -

Just a word of caution. I would suspect that there are very few authors who would see a fanfic, no matter how fun, as anything but - er - mildly amusing at best, annoying at worst.

The characters live in an author's head, she/he has spent years developing them in many cases, the author always know vast amounts more about the characters than they can possibly tell you (it'd slow the story down too much) - so reading something that you have written, using the author's characters as ytou interpret them, is never going to be more than mildly amusing to a writer.

Just so you know. And realise, I could be prejudiced, this is only one writer's opinion! Maybe there are some authors out there who don't mind fanfic. I expect JKR is used to it by now.

[Fleurdelacour]

Originally posted by Melpomene
3. It sounded like South London to me.


That's what I thought at first... I do live in south london after all... But I've never heard anyone around here say "Wotcher!" more like "alrigh?" when they greet someone, or if you look them in the eye, you'll get "what ye starin at?!" then you might get mugged... Ugh... I HATE the crime here... So I'm doing a JKR and moving to Edinburgh in two years... Anway that's very off topic...

Imagine the uproar if JKR banned fan fic, like Anne Rice did... Many people would have nothing to do in the summer. And it's such a good way to broaden your writing skills...

Blaise is a boy's name.

[Bellatrix_Lestrange]

Lanen -

Your points are entirely valid; it's precisely what I'd expect unless the writer in question had expressed a more fic-friendly attitude.

That said, JKR has made public statements to the effect that she loves writing and is delighted to see that her efforts have inspired others to take up the pen (although she takes a dim view of slash).

In the exceedingly unlikely event that this flight of fancy ever came true, and I had the opportunity to ask her opinion of a bit of fan-fic of mine, I'd probably pick a mild, good-natured satire. Getting the characterization to precisely match the author's personal concept is less critical when writing a humour piece.

Personally, Fleur, I'd always visualized Blaise as male; many Canadians are of French descent, and Blaise is not a terribly uncommon masculine name. It was only when I started frequenting discussion boards and fansites that I started to encounter female Blaise. Out of curiosity, I browsed through some baby-name books at B&N, and a few of the larger ones did in fact list 'Blaise' in both the girls' and boys' sections. Mind you, I've never known a Girl!Blaise personally, but they apparently exist.

Besides, it's more fun to simply posit that there are several subtypes of Metamorphmagic, some quite rare and specialized. It would explain a lot about Blaise's indeterminate status...

[Fleurdelacour]

Funny how fan fiction has made us all curious about a character mentioned once...

That's what JKR told me (that still sounds amazing two years later :p ) she loves the fact it inspires people. Do you have a link to where she said something about slash? Because I haven't found anything

She needs to do another webchat!

[Moxie]

I find it especially amusing that everyone wonders and argues about Blaise's gender when I think there's a strong chance there are more important aspects of Mr./Ms. ;) Zabini we should be wondering about. Anyone else notice Zabini was the only Slytherin in Harry's year not mentioned as a member of Umbridge's Inquisitor Squad?

[Fleurdelacour]

That's a good point Moxie.... Maybe something more will come of little Blaise.

I was right about Susan Bones though! :p

[Bellatrix_Lestrange]

Originally posted by Fleurdelacour
Funny how fan fiction has made us all curious about a character mentioned once...

That's what JKR told me (that still sounds amazing two years later :p ) she loves the fact it inspires people. Do you have a link to where she said something about slash? Because I haven't found anything

She needs to do another webchat!

I don't think I should link it directly (the article itself is not slashy, but it mentions sites which go beyond PG), but Tracy Mayor wrote on the subject in June '03. It was printed in the Boston Globe; I believe the title was "Taking Liberties With Harry Potter". JKR isn't quoted directly, but her literary agency makes a statement on her behalf.

There was a more directly relevant article written in '01, which I sadly have not yet tracked down. The gist was that JKR briefly looked into the legal possibilities of suppressing explicit slash (especially when the characters portrayed are still underage), realized it was an impossible task, and settled for opposing the publication of explicit fics in fora accessible to minors.

[Flockman The Wise]

I'd wouldn't ask her something she could answer. I'd just ask her to hurry up and write books 6 and 7. :D

[Ayla]

If I had a chance to ask JKR a couple....okay.... a lot of questions I would highlight one particulair one :

How does she keep on writing. As i'm kind of a writer myself (smalltime) I find it difficult sometimes just to sit down and do the thing. It freaks me out when my mind is blowing with ideas and i can't put it down on paper --or in the PC.

But then again---maybe JKR has the same problem and that;s why the books take so long?:)