Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling

5 Stars

The sequel to the first Harry Potter book (and second of seven in the series), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets continues Harry’s story of his life at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and his introduction into the wizarding world.

This book includes the introduction of one of my favorite places in Harry’s world – Ron’s house, The Burrow. The fact that it houses so many of Harry’s favorite people, who all love and care for him as if he were family (much different than the Dursley’s home), makes it also one of Harry’s favorite places.  While it’s not a house of grandeur and riches, and is rather crooked and cluttered, it’s still snug and cozy and full of personality.  It’s were Harry first learns to use floo powder and witnesses Mrs. Weasley cooking her family dinner using magic. The Burrow is finally one of the few places Harry truly feels at home.

In this book, we’re introduced to the second in a long line of Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers at Hogwarts – Gilderoy Lockhart. Egotistical and assuming, Lockhart is so easy to hate, yet is one of my favorite characters. Maybe because he was played so brilliantly by Kenneth Brannaugh in the Chamber of Secrets movie, Lockhart is capable of innocent destruction that he’s not even aware of. His inflated ego gets in the way of him actually being useful in any kind of situation. While he’s considered somewhat of a villain in the stories, he’s not malicious in his actions unlike many of the other Potter villains.

Like all Harry Potter books, Chamber of Secrets is filled with many interesting secondary and tertiary characters. Some play important roles in the plot, while some just add personality to the story. Argus Filch, the curmudgeonly Hogwarts caretaker and self-imposed disciplinarian, is one of these fascinating characters. We learn in this book that Filch is a Squib – someone born to a magical family who cannot do magic. Since we see Filch throughout much of the Harry Potter series, I would love to know even more about his background. I’d love to know about his childhood growing up in the magical world but with no magical ability and how that has shaped who he has become.

While I absolutely love rereading the Harry Potter books, I know them so well that it’s hard to distinguish between the information I’ve memorized and what new details I’ve discovered with every reread. I always wish I could read the book again for the first time – the thrill and excitement of reading these books for the first time can’t be duplicated.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was published in 1999 by Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic (US).

We have been given an eleven page handout on how to wash our hands correctly (honestly!) and there is to be an assessment. We won’t know when, but at some point when we least expect it we are going to be dragged away from our desks and asked to demonstrate the difficult task of handwashing. I do hope I don’t fail. I can’t sleep for worrying about it.

The latest thing is we are to be issued with name badges. This is so that if any members of the public wish to complain they can at least complain about the right person. Charming. Personally, given that we are mostly post-menopausal females, I believe they are issuing us with name badges so we can remember who we are. I had a very senior moment the other week when I needed to call for my colleague and she got away from me because I couldn’t for the life of me remember what she was called! Scary…

Our youngest colleague is only in her early twenties and is all bright, pretty and alert with a fully functioning endocrine system. She is away at the moment and won’t be impressed when she gets back to find that she has now got to wear a name badge. She is still young enough to resent anything that makes her think of school. The rest of us pine for our school days, wishing we could go back to those golden days of our youth and do it all differently. Like pay attention and learn something, for example.

They say youth is wasted on the young and the older I get the more I think that’s true. School, when you are that age, is just a drag that you have to get through before real life can start. Now I can think of nothing more wonderful than being able to spend your days actually learning something with no worries about paying bills or keeping a roof over your head. What luxury. Such times never come again.

Of course, time does cast a rosy glow over such memories. If I’m honest, the lessons were mostly deadly boring. Science went way over my head because the teacher just droned on and on about formulas (formulae?) that I had no idea about and no interest in learning. Maths was horrific with a psychopathic teacher who would throw a blackboard rubber at your head if you dared to tell him that you didn’t understand what the hell he was babbling on about. History was dreadful. Apart from a brief interlude when we were taught very intimate details of the Tudors (most of it made up by a perverted teacher but I’d better not dwell on that) it consisted of learning the dates of the Corn Laws and other fascinating facts like who invented the Spinning Jenny and the invention of the steam engine. Not the most riveting subjects when you’re fourteen and just want to go home and listen to your Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. English was the only subject I really looked forward to and a lot of that was because I had a massive crush on the teacher…no really, massive!  Thankfully, he was a decent man. If I’d had a crush on the history teacher I dread to think what may have happened.

Anyway, a lot of my colleagues agreed with me that if we’d had different teachers and different teaching methods things may have been a lot different. When I watch history programmes or science programmes now I find them absolutely fascinating and wish I’d learned all that stuff back then. I would like to know more about art, but our art lessons consisted of my best friend and I and a few other girls sitting in the back room of the art class, listening to Radio One, drooling about John Travolta,  and gossiping about boys, including the man who later became my husband, but that’s beside the point.

So that got me thinking about how different school could have been if we could pick our dream teachers. Obviously, it’s way too late now and the people I came up with mostly weren’t around then, but in a fantasy world, here is my dream school staff.

Maths: Carol Vorderman. What she doesn’t know about numbers isn’t worth knowing. Of course, Johnny Ball would be a fabulous maths teacher, too. I’m not fussy. Anyone would be an improvement on the psycho we had.

Geography: Michael Palin. Who has travelled more widely than this chap? I loved learning about different countries, but then lessons changed to deal with map reading and contours and all that technical stuff and I lost the will to live. Michael could definitely revive my interest in this subject.

History: Tony Robinson. I considered several candidates for this post as I watch a lot of history programmes, but let’s face it, who wouldn’t want Baldrick to be their teacher? And, anyway, I love him on Time Team.

Science: Has to be Professor Brian Cox, doesn’t it? He’s fascinating and I have learned more about physics from him than I did in five years at school.

Biology: David Attenborough. Is there anything that he couldn’t tell us about the life on this planet? I doubt it. Nothing I’d want or need to know anyway. And with that soothing voice it would be a pleasure to learn.

French: Johnny Depp. Okay, I’m not entirely sure that he speaks French but he was with Vanessa Paradis for years and she’s French so he must have picked it up, right? And if he didn’t, well, who cares?

Music: So many candidates here. I reckon we’d need a few music teachers. Sue Perkins could tell us all about conducting an orchestra…and baking cakes. Gary Barlow could demonstrate the art of song writing. Tom Jones could reel off many musical anecdotes and name drop for England (or Wales, actually) and what about Lindsey Buckingham to teach us guitar? Or Phil Collins to teach us drums? Or Elton John to demonstrate piano, or…well, you get the gist. Definitely need a HUGE music department.

Drama: Benedict Cumberbatch. Because he’s Benedict Cumberbatch.

English: There are any number of experts on grammar, poetry, Shakespearean plays and novels. I’m not going to pick any of them – I’m going for JK Rowling because she got a whole generation of kids reading and I love her.

Art: Neil Buchanan. Presenter of Art Attack and enthusiastic enough to get any kid painting and drawing. For Art History we could have Prince William or Kate. They got a degree each in that subject right?

Religious Education: Difficult. Wouldn’t want to offend anyone so I’d probably choose the Dalai Lama, because he is full of wisdom and serenity and has no problem with people finding their own path and no interest in insisting there is only one true religion. Or, alternatively, we could have Geraldine Granger, the Vicar of Dibley. She’s Church of England, but what a hoot the classes would be. And there would also be chocolate.

Physical Education: Any number of sporting superstars out there. I’d go for Jessica Ennis and Louis Smith, two of our  Olympic heroes or any of our Paralympic stars … no one more inspirational.

Food Technology: Known as Domestic Science when I was a girl, who else could I choose for this? There’s only one Mary Berry!!

That’s my staff sorted. Although, this is fantasy and if I could choose just one person I’d pick The Doctor. After all, after over nine hundred years of space and time travel, mixing with Shakespeare, Dickens and Van Gogh to name a few, and saving the universe countless times, he would be an expert on all of the above subjects. And he’d have time to teach the whole school, too, since a jaunt in the Tardis after each class would find him at exactly the same moment he began. Oh, if only…what do you think? Who would your dream teacher be?

Have a great week!

We are at war.

(Well, some of us.)

As an Australian, I have the power to stand between both sides of insanity, pleading for reason. That having been said, I often find it difficult not to side with one or the other. Capricious neutralness is not always a bad thing, but I more often than not find myself siding almost entirely with the left. We must be calm, we must co-operate (… hyphen?), we must be civilised (z?)…

Oh bugger… or is it damn?

And so, my cover has been blown. I am, of course, referring to the unavoidable distress of being “divided by a common tongue”. British and American English: where do I begin?

As a translator, I take pride in changing the words of something (or someone) otherwise incomprehensible into words that can be understood. However, as the lovely American chap (dude) (actually, a professor, so I should be more polite) who proofreads my work for me has indirectly pointed out, what I say in English has to then be filtered down into a palatable liquid for the American readers to digest. I call the process “Yankification”. It is one of the few instances where I do not appreciate being “yanked”.

Not only do I have to go from Japanese to English, but then I have to sometimes go from English to American. What’s a lad to do? There is only so much about Americanisms that The Simpsons can teach me. For moral support in my time of need, I turned to someone else who is used to being Yankified… Mr. Harry Potter.

On average, Mr. Potter’s, his allies’, enemies’, or author’s turns of phrase are Yankified 80 times per novel when the books are republished for American release. These changes cleverly point out the minute differences of which I speak. For example, we’ve both had ‘wonky’ Yankified to ‘crooked’, which to a Commonwealth English speaker just isn’t the same; we’ve had “Minister for” edited to “Minister of”. (As in “Minister of Finance” instead of “Minister for Finance”… Is Finance one of those bizarre countries that only cartographers know?) One that always has me second guessing myself is the usage of group nouns with verbs. (Is it “Slytherin wins” or “Slytherin win”?) Just when I think I have grasped it, I realise that I have just used the British way… again… We’ve had “timetable” morphed into a “schedule” (pronounced with a harsh K sound to top it off)… but buses don’t have black books to write their tea (dinner) dates, so why would it be a “schedule” (this time “sh”, because I said it and there’s a bloody SH in it)? “Peckers up!” in America would encourage some rather crass behaviour, so in American Harry Potter it was written as “Spirits up!” Whereas, I still have a little chuckle when I hear someone say “fanny pack”.

I have once raised the hopes of many Americans while interpreting on a tour by promising them “lemonade” which should have been interpreted as a bottle of “lemon-lime”, I realised later. Also, I’ve seen one or two Americans squinting while obviously wracking to determine the tense of my sentence, ‘He had just got up when I called him,’ which is especially confusing to an American as they would have said “have gotten”. It could have been made even easier to understand if I had simply said, ‘He just got up when I called him.’ I’m assured by Americans, in general, that the first sentence is probably more grammatically correct, but it is simply not commonly used in American conversation.

With each eyebrow cocked, I learn how to generalise (z?) my vernacular. This all goes to pot if I hear some words, like 地下鉄, in Japanese, though. Should I say “subway”, “tube”, or “metro”? Should I use some kind of amalgamation, like “subetro” or “metwaybe”? Or when I hear 糖蜜 should I say “treacle” or “molasses”, or perhaps “trelasses”/”moeacle”? Nobody can please everybody, yeah (right)? Of course, I have no problem with either (pronounced “eye” not “ee” when I say it). I love the diversity. I only playfully gibe American English because I love my United Statian friends dearly. If we’re all in a foreign country, and I’m already doing the favour of translating to English, who should compromise (does this need a Z too?) the regional dialect? When Harry Potter’s charm is his Britishisms, does Americanisation (z) make sense? I ask you American, Canadian, British, Australian, New Zealander, South African, Irish, Indian, and any other English speakers: do you have the ultimate solution for me? Is there a way to keep my Down Under flavour (u?) without being misconstrued by my neighbours across the Pacific?

Awaiting your help,

Blair

A Conversation with J.K.Rowling and Daniel Radcliffe allpotter323

5. The Women – A Feminine Touch

Hermione. Ginny. Lily. Molly. Fleur. Tonks. Luna. Minerva. Rowena. Narcissa. Helga. Cho. Bellatrix. Andromeda. Walburga.

Whether you like them or hate them, these women and the others in the series seem real. We all know that smart girl who’s only friends are boys, and the two gossipy girly-girls. We know a girl who grew up with boys and turns out to be super-hot when she hits puberty. We know mothers who are soft and maternal until the moment their children are threatened, or hard and cold except to her only child.

Harry is the star of the books, but he wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without his mother or Hermione (or McGonagall or Luna or Pomfrey or…). As a girl who loves male-centric hobbies like sci-fi and fantasy, camping, and comic books, it’s great to see strong and weak women in a beloved fantasy series. These well-rounded women are dynamic, interesting, and important characters.

Not to say the menfolk aren’t well-rounded, dynamic, interesting or important, but having so many female characters, especially when they’re secondary — or even tertiary — characters is unusual. All of the characters are realistic, and that helps make the books awesome.

4. The Romance — Sailing the Good ‘Ship

All right, I’ll admit that some of the ‘shipping wars in the fandom got majorly out of hand, but that doesn’t make the romance any less interesting. Unlike in many YA books, the romance isn’t the central point of the story, either; it’s just an aspect of their lives. Whatever your taste, you can find a canon pairing that’ll float your boat.

The main ‘ships of the books (Lily/James, Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione) are the equivalent of high-school romances, which isn’t normally the formula for a happy and long-lasting marriage. It’s not that high school romances don’t happen, but that they aren’t the norm. However, we all want to believe that true love lasts, and these couples all represent different types of romances: rivals-turned-lovers, best-friend’s-sister, and friends-turned-more.

However, if you want something that might seem a bit more realistic, with the couples meeting or getting together later in their lives, there are romances for you. Remus and Tonks had a whirlwind war romance with Remus in his late thirties. We don’t know how they got together, but we do have Draco and Astoria, Percy and Audrey, Neville and Hannah, and Luna and Rolf. They all met or got together after the books ended. You even have (probably) unrequited gay romance with Dumbledore and Grindelwald.

I won’t go far into it, but if none of the many canon pairings quite work for you, the multitude of possible and popular pairings in fandom should have something for you.

3. The Houses — A Place for Every Fan

One of the things that I really love about the Potter books is how inclusive it is. Every fan can find a character they love, a character they identify with, and a pairing to ‘ship. However, I think the best way to illustrate the inclusiveness of the books is the Hogwarts Houses.

There are four Houses, each with its own dominant characteristics. Gryffindors are brave and bold; Ravenclaws, witty and clever; Slytherins, ambitious and sly; and Hufflepuffs, just, loyal and hard-working. Any Harry Potter worth their salt has been Sorted or self-identifies with a certain House.

The Hogwarts Houses allow fans to find like-minded fans, to have a place to belong. One of the first questions a Potter fan will ask another fan is what House he or she is in. It gives you a quick picture of what they value and how they think, but only as long as you don’t take it too seriously.

Sometimes the House rivalries can get out of hand, but usually it’s all in fun. I’m a Gryffindor, but many of my friends are Hufflepuffs and Slytherins, with only a small smattering of Ravenclaws and other Gryffindors. Besides, we all have a bit of each House in us.

The Houses are what helped fans get invested in the series and feel like they could be a part of the books. Without them, we’d still have fandom, but it wouldn’t be nearly as fun as it is with our Red, Green, Blue and Yellow scarves. That’s what makes it number three on my list.

2. The Mystery — Ten Years to Learn Who Did It

This could have turned out really badly for J.K. Rowling. In fact, some fans really hate the last couple of books, where the mysteries of the first five books start to come together coherently. But, that’s what you get when you spend ten years waiting for the end of a mystery; there was no way she’d please everyone.

However, looking back at the books from the first one we can see small and large clues leading up to the conclusions found in Deathly Hallows. Anyone who read the books actively could find and decipher clues that only served to make the books better. Not everyone read the books this way, but I did, and it helped me to become a better, more aware reader.

The mysteries made these books addicting, and it’s what made the community so tenable. If it wasn’t for the mysteries of the plot, the characters, and the romances, would the fandom be as connected as it is?

1. The World — It’s Real For Us

Rowling’s universe is richly detailed. From the characters, to the school, to the places, nearly every aspect of the Potter world makes you feel like you’re in the middle of it. Even with Voldemort killing people, the world is tempting that most fans are still waiting patiently for their owl (myself included).

There are some gripes about her dates and the lack of history in the books, but this is Harry Potter, not Lord of the Rings. There is enough history in the books to make the world realistic, and to give fans a great base to work off when creating their own worlds and history in fanworks. Most of the dates have been fixed so that they work with each other; I can’t get too upset over this either since my basic math skills aren’t as good as they should be.

However, we have detailed descriptions of how the government system works, and some of the political background. We can see what Hogwarts and Diagon Alley and the Burrow look like. We know how magic works and what it looks like. We even have wizarding childhood fairy tales. These small details make the world real, and have fans going back to the books time and time again.

All together, the plot, characters, history, and details in the books make them a fantastic read. These are just five reasons why I think the Harry Potter books are awesome. What are some of your reasons?

Next time we’ll cover the movies, aspects of fandom, and everything else. Leave suggestions in the comments and you may see them featured on one of the upcoming posts.

Leave the nonmagical world behind and enroll in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone for the PC. Be Harry Potter, wizard-in-training, learning to master all things magical in a world filled with adventure, fun, and danger. Encounter breathtaking challenges and unforgettable characters from J.K. Rowling’s worldwide bestseller.

Players take the role of Harry Potter as he enrolls in Hogwarts and embarks on a journey to unlock the secrets of his own magical abilities. Along the way, Harry will explore the halls of Hogwarts and its surrounding grounds, study to be a wizard, learn Quidditch, collect objects to solve puzzles, become skilled at spells and potions, discover secret passages and locations, and interact with memorable characters from J.K. Rowling’s magical world.

The PC version features an array of stealth-based gameplay as well as traditional encounters as players guide Harry through the halls of

Hogwarts, sneaking around to avoid confrontations with nosey characters like Filch and Peeves. Many of the adventures in the PC version are dynamic, leading to environments that change over time, such as moving stairs and relocating classrooms. The PC version also features a fast, arcade-style Quidditch game to further immerse players in the magical world of Harry Potter. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone will be developed for the PC with ease of play in mind. The simple interface will consist of just the mouse and one key on the keyboard. The required system specifications will be minimal, ensuring that Harry Potter’s biggest fans can easily install and play his latest interactive adventure.

• Fully navigable 3D environments
• Stealth-based gameplay sneak around, avoiding unpleasant encounters and unwanted guests
• Interact with over twenty unforgettable characters from J.K. Rowling’s magical world
• Lead your house to victory in a fast-paced, arcade-style Quidditch match
• Four key types of obstacles and challenges
• Environments change as time passes. Stairs move and classrooms relocate
• Single-player game

Released as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the US, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in Europe.

System Requirements:

• Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME, XP
• 266 MHz processor Intel Pentium II
• 32 MB RAM
• 500 MB free hard drive space
• 4x CD or DVD-ROM drive
• 4 MB graphics card PCI/ADP
• Direct 3D accelerator
• DirectX 8 compatible
• Keyboard
• Mouse

BUY NOW

I mean look how cool that is.

The downside to the Tale of the Three Brothers is that it gives Harry such a being-right buzz that he forgets not to say Voldemort’s name and gets them all captured by villains.

Hey, man, nobody understands more than I do how exciting and awesome it is to be right. Especially if your rightness has just been proved in front of somebody who is right much often than you are right, in the grand scheme of things. That is like my favorite feeling ever. It is better than gin. It’s better than queso from the queso place near me, which like, that queso is ridiculous. BUT you gotta be sensible about it. You cannot just be running around saying Voldemort’s name out loud. For the time being, that’s a great name to think about angrily in your head while keeping your lips buttoned.

And what is the consequence? Just about the creepiest damn sequence ever! By which I refer to Greyback being all

at Hermione.

Okay, yeah, he doesn’t say “clever”. Or “witch”. But you know when Frollo says “such a clever witch” he means “I want to bite pieces off you to completion” and that’s the gist of Fenrir’s creepiness at Hermione in this sequence. Poor little Hermione! That must have been super scary for her. Harry doesn’t register it as much because he’s off in Voldemort hallucination la la land, but I feel awful for poor Hermione (and to a lesser degree Ron, since Ron loses all of his shit when the Death Eaters harass and then torture poor little Hermione).

Speaking of Voldemort hallucination la la land, this is nice:

“So you have come. I thought you would…one day. But your journey was pointless. I never had it.”

To be honest, I’m not sure why Voldemort bothered going all the way out to see Grindelwald when he didn’t believe what Grindelwald told him anyway. But never mind. The main point is: Aw. That is a good way to finish out a life as a terrible person. I like that JK Rowling put that bit in. Like maybe she thinks even the worst person in the world (Wizard Hitler), if he sits around and thinks about stuff for a long enough time, can stop being the worst person in the world and figure out that he wants to do something good.

Then some other stuff happens. I forget. I’ve blocked it out.

What with one thing and another, our stalwart trio end up at Bill and Fleur’s cottage, all feeling really sad, and then Lupin comes visit and makes them feel happier. I am still in a fight with that dude, but I love this scene. Rowling’s said she wanted the parallel between Harry and baby Teddy Lupin, because it says a lot about the wizarding world Harry and Ron and Hermione helped build, versus the one Harry was born into; and that made me think about James being equally happy and equally in hiding when Harry was born, and running all around telling his favorite people what was going on. That must have been touching too.

The Gringotts theft scene is another of the set pieces in this book that happens, I get why JK Rowling set it up that way, I like a lot of the elements that go into it, but it’s not quite my thing. They did completely deserve to have the sword stolen, however. That was a shitty thing for Harry to try to pull when he knows perfectly well about all the centuries of wizards oppressing goblins. When they made the deal with Griphook, couldn’t they have taken a beat to discuss amongst themselves other things that would destroy a Horcrux and where to get those things? Like, what are the options with the scary monster fire? Could Hermione possibly set that up in a controlled environment? Like could they head to the beach and Hermione could toss a Horcrux into her magic purse, throw some monster fire after it, and levitate the whole thing over the ocean for a bit before letting it fall in? Some fish would die, but so would Voldemort!

This discussion never takes place. Should? But doesn’t.

All in all, this bit is not my favorite section of Deathly Hallows. Except that it ends with Neville showing up, and me screaming NEVILLE NEVILLE NEVILLE (out loud), and now I am super duper ready for the final segment of this readalong.

This is me right now. Because Neville.

The Adulting of Harry Potter

I always like it when Harry gets his shit together and quits being so impulsive. That is difficult for an impulsive person to do, especially when he is seventeen. I like it how he gets up from what happened at Malfoy Manor with new thoughts about what he observed there and what needs to happen next.

He’s got a plan and he’s executing the plan. That is the story of the rest of this book.

Another small moment that really, really pleases me is this exchange:

“Maybe he’s lying,” Harry said, opening his eyes again. “Griphook. Maybe Gryffindor didn’t take the sword. How do we know the goblin version of history’s right?”

“Does it make a difference?” asked Hermione.

“Changes how I feel about it,” said Harry.

Me too, dude.

Thanks as ever to Alice for hosting, and I will see y’all next Friday for the blood-and-tears-fest that is the concluding section of this book.

I am currently editing (or, rather, re-editing) the revised version of my novel, The Heartland of the Winter (having managed to piece back together the work I lost in last week’s Tea-on-Laptop Disaster). One of the things I am trying to decide is how much foreshadowing to do. Some readers have suggested I should do more; some have said it’s fine as it is. Ultimately, of course, I need to go with my own judgement, although being so close to the work can make it difficult. Part of the problem is that the tale changed in the telling: for the better, but this does mean the earlier parts of the book were written with a slightly different climactic scene in mind.

Ideally, what you want as a writer is that the reader will be initially surprised by the twists and turns of your plot, but will then say ‘of course, it had to be that way!’. It’s a delicate balancing act: give away too much early on and it’ll be predictable, give away too little and your revelations will come out of nowhere, leaving the reader feeling cheated. If your character uses a get-out-of-jail-free card, you need to show them picking it up earlier on – but not too obviously.

As well as the general issues around foreshadowing, there are some issues which are peculiar to the fantasy genre. One is that you’re not restricted to real-world rules. Which is part of fantasy’s appeal, but can also be its downfall if you resolve your plot by just making up new bits of magic on the fly. A hallmark of well-written fantasy is that the author creates a world which has its own internal logic, so that any magical or otherwise fantastic solutions to the characters’ problems feel consistent with what has gone before. IMHO, Robin Hobb and Anne McCaffrey get it right; Naomi Novik does not. Since the fantastic elements in my story are quite downplayed, my current issue is more around character motivations, but I expect this is something I’ll have to deal with in future books. Assuming I get around to writing any.

The fact that fantasy books often come in series is the source of another potential issue, namely that you need to start foreshadowing stuff which will happen not just later in the same book, but in a subsequent volume. As the gap between set-up and pay-off widens, readers may completely forget about something that happened two books and five years ago. Or you may have the opposite problem: that the fans have guessed everything in vol.3 by the time vol.2 comes out. The internet makes it very easy for fans to put their heads together and figure out what you’re up to. The author is then left with the options of either carrying on as planned, only it won’t be much of a surprise any more, or making it up as they go along. The 7th Harry Potter book suffered from this: fans had already figured out who R.A.B. was and the identity of the final Horcrux, so JKR threw in some previously-unheard of stuff about Deathly Hallows which left many feeling a bit cheated. A Song of Ice and Fire may well be headed the same way. But hey, I think this falls into the category of ‘problems I would love to have’. And then the ninja space whale killed them all. The End.

This image is from here: http://chewilicious.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=0

Draco Malfoy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

some info about him

Draco Lucius Malfoy is a fictional character and a major antagonist in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series. He is a Slytherin student in Harry Potter’s year. He is frequently accompanied by his two accomplices, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, who act as henchmen. Draco is characterized as a cowardly bully who manipulates and hurts people to get what he wants; nevertheless, he is a cunning user of magic.

Draco serves as a literary foil to the hero, Harry Potter, and is loosely based on bullies JK Rowling encountered during her school days. Harry first gets his snobbish attitude after their initial encounter at Madam Malkin’s (the uniforms store for Hogwart’s students).

JK uses the Malfoys to introduce themes of intolerance with people that are often judged by their blood lineage rather than their good character or accomplishments. Draco, adhering to his family’s beliefs, thinks that Muggle-born witches and wizards, which he and other characters call “Mudbloods”, should be denied a magical education.

Harry’s first impression that the Wizarding community is a “magical wonderland” is instantly shattered when he meets him. “Harry found out that many people in power in the wizarding world are just as corrupt and nasty as they are in our world.” Says Rowling

Malfoy was originally named “Draco Spungen” in the drafts of Philosopher’s Stone. “Spungen” also appeared on her pre-canon class list, but it was crossed out and replaced with the surname “Spinks”, while “Malfoy” was later added. People believe that Malfoy is derived from the French phrase mal foi, meaning “bad faith.”

Many of Draco’s relatives on his mother’s side of the family (the Blacks) are named for stars or constellations, just like Sirius Black, Regulus Black, Andromeda Black Tonks, Bellatrix Black Lestrange, Cygnus Black, Orion Black etc. Another constellation is Draco (the Dragon). Draco Malfoy eventually named his son for yet another constellation, Scorpius.

So hope you liked the info

(link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draco_Malfoy )

I should state the books I have already read, these incredible books have brought me through the emotions leading me to knew worlds as well as pushing me through my own life.

These books are:

1. The Bible (Catholic school, not much I can say about that)
2. The Fellowship of the Ring – JRR Tolkein
3. The Two Towers  - JRR Tolkein
4. The Return of the Kind  - JRR Tolkein
5. Harry Potter 1 – J.K.Rowling
6. Harry Potter 2 – J.K.Rowling
7. Harry Potter 3 – J.K.Rowling
8. Harry Potter 4 – J.K.Rowling
9. Harry Potter 5 – J.K.Rowling
10. Harry Potter 6 – J.K.Rowling
11. Harry Potter 7 – J.K.Rowling *
12. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
13. Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare
14. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkein**
15. The Time Travelers Wife- Audrey Niffenegger
16. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
17. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
18. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
19. Chronicles of Narnia 2 – CS Lewis
20. Chronicles of Narnia 3 – CS Lewis
21. Chronicles of Narnia 4 – CS Lewis
22. Chronicles of Narnia 5 – CS Lewis
23. Chronicles of Narnia 6 – CS Lewis
24. Chronicles of Narnia 7- CS Lewis ***
25. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
26. Atonement – Ian McEwan
27. The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night Time – Mark Haddon
28. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
29. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
30. Dracula – Bram Stoker
31. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
32. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
33. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
34. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
35. George’s Marvelous Medicine – Roald Dahl
36. The Odyssey – Homer
37. The Illiad – Homer
38. Charlotte’s Web – E.B.White
39. Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
40. Twilight – Stephanie Meyer
41. New Moon – Stephanie Meyer
42. Eclipse – Stephanie Meyer ****
43. The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins
44. Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins
45. The Notebook – Nicholas Sparks
46. Dorian Grey – Oscar Wilde
47. Confessions of a Shopaholic – Sophie Kinsella
48. My Sisters Keeper- Jodi Picoult
49. The Girl with the Dragon tattoo – Steig Larsson
50. Angels and Demons – Dan Brown
51. The Lost Symbol – Dan Brown
52. Goodnight Mister Tom – Michelle Magorian

I have read more books than this so even this list can develop once I have remembered them. However, I do think that everyone needs to read over single one of these books. Even Twilight, no matter how crap it is.

*I apologise for the lack of book titles, but it’s a lot of repetition and frankly I can’t be bothered. I assure you though I am an avid Harry Potter fan and have read these books when each one first came out. Well, after the third did, I was only 4 when the first one came out.

** I am quite proud of reading this, you see I was only 9, and many of my friends had only decided to read it now. I was definitely a progressed child.

***Same as Harry Potter, There’s 7 books for Christ sake

****Didn’t really rate them to be honest

Over the weekend, I ran into a friend I hadn’t seen in oh, months. We’re not the closest of friends, she’s more of an acquaintance…..wait bullshit, ok fine, she’s a friend! A lovely person, very animated (especially for someone her age), alive, whimsical, young at heart, etc. One thing that stands out the most about her (at least to someone like me) is her ability to be mindful in every moment of her life, which I am quite jealous of, harmlessly of course. Without saying too much, I’d like to give you a brief history about her. Let’s call her Karen. Karen is a middle-aged woman, she has 2 grown sons who are married and have their own lives, her husband is no longer in the picture, she recently lost someone near and dear to her. So you can see, Karen has been through much suffering and change. Which is why I find it so astonishing that she is able to see the world for what it is, to be able to still wonder in awe and be perplexed at what it has to offer, even today. To Karen, her life is nowhere near the end. This is not it for her. Instead of waiting for purpose and meaning to appear, maybe the greatness is already present. Maybe greatness was present all along, during childhood, going to preschool for the first time, receiving a diploma from middle school, realizing your potential after you finally get out of school, being unemployed, overcoming your fear of being unemployed, getting your heart broken, falling in love again, not being afraid of the future, visiting a completely foreign country for the first time, living on your own, finding the courage to try something new and different. Can we agree that these are all great things? At some point in our lives? For some of us?

We all struggle. Even the rich and powerful struggle, hard to believe. In my conversation with Karen, she mentioned J.K. Rowling and how we can’t all be like her, an overnight writing sensation from out of nowhere. Well, unfortunately, I have to disagree with Karen on that. As hard as it may be to see Ms. Rowling as a commoner, in her life she has experienced lost, estrangement, rejection, marriage, divorce, being a single mother on welfare, depression followed by suicidal thoughts. And just like the rest of us, she struggles too: “I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter, and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”

It’s ok to struggle. It’s ok to be depressed. It’s ok to feel stuck. Things change. We forget this about life. I forget. But sometimes we need a reminder to keep going, despite how bad it is, regardless of what others say to discourage you or even to console you. We don’t know yet. If I may leave you with one last bit of wisdom, no matter where you are, do good things always.

While we all wait for The Apprentice to start, here is this weeks little ‘review’ post. This week, it’s not beauty. It’s books. Since downloading the Kindle app to my iPad, I’ve become mildly obsessed with it. Very recently I’ve read the following (with a one line review!):

Charlotte Street, Danny Wallace: easy on-the-tube reading that’s not as funny as his easy on-the-tube reading column.

The Casual Vacancy, J K Rowling: it’s no Harry P, and in all honesty I did get bored in places. However the wonderful descriptiveness of HP is the same so I found myself really looking forward to it everytime the NEEDTORELAX feeling hit.

A Visit From the Goon Squad: brilliant, if morbid. I didn’t like the ‘in the future!’ part, but this is the one I could happily DISCUSS for ages, if we were perhaps back in school.

Paper Towns, John Green: I loved this until I felt it became a tad transparent around the middle – as if you were no longer listening to the narrator but a WRITER with an IDEA! It was still enough to lead me on to…

The Fault in Our Stars, John Green: I don’t know how I feel about this yet really, but it did make me slightly weep on the train into Waterloo. Make of that what you will!

What is everyone else reading at the moment? I really need something a bit more light hearted! Throw me your suggestions, please?

Love of wisdom. My journey into the realm of philosophy and ancient/occult knowledge has led me to come in contact with some fantastic books which I intend to share, in hope of providing others with the illuminating ideas they have presented to myself.

The Secret Teachings of All Ages – Manly P. Hall

The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho

Fingerprints Of The Gods – Graham Hancock

Walden – Henry David Thoreau

Harry Potter Series – JK Rowling

Follow the rabbit hole: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM3dRKpRots

As good little nerds, we watched Game of Thrones Sunday night. Carjo has not read the books and was given the warning that something bad was on its way. Call me a sadist but that’s all the prep I gave her. I believe the take home quote from her was “Oh why do we even WATCH THIS FUCKING SHOW!”

She didn’t lose her shit like the videos of folks I have seen online. Years of watching horror movies has given her a fair amount of scar tissue. But she’s never seen major characters getting offed with no warning like this. It almost made Joss Whedon’s slaughter of innocents across the years seem timid. Not that you’re off the hook entirely Joss. I do still smart a bit about what you did to Hoban Washburne and Jenny Calendar.

But Martin really set the bar with this one. It came mid-book for one thing. At this point, we readers were used to something traumatic towards the end of the book. So GRRM threw us a changeup and damn, it hurt. I remember being reading that last pages of that chapter over and over, trying to find a way out for Cat and Robb. Hell, it even seemed for a moment that Arya might have bought the farm.

As a writer, this was a good lesson. Don’t be afraid to kill your darlings, or at least do them grievous harm. And while building to a climax is admirable, hitting your readers in the kneecap when they least expect is something they’ll never forget. So thank you George and Joss. Consider the lesson learned.

Why am I talking about this? Well, as an aside to everything else I am doing in London I am rereading the series for the (100th) time!?!? And I enjoyed of course Philosopher’s (Sorcerer’s) Stone and Chamber of Secrets but Azkaban has a different feel to it as I read.  Part of it has to do with the fact that it was the first one I read myself AND the one I started going to the midnight premieres of the movies.  Yes, My parents were SUPER COOL and let me go on school nights!  Another reason this book makes me feel extra warm and happy is because, In my opinion JK Rowling reaches her stride and her voice is affirmed in the telling of this book.  It also contains more elements of background and history which is my favorite subject.  Also, its the only one that does not have Voldemort He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Instead there is a constant sense of dread and suspense as Harry and his friends fear the Grim, the spectral Dog, Sirius Black.  Of course we all know how that turns out, I won’t ruin it for those of you who have some catching up to do

Anyway, as I read this book in particular I get all warm and excited, connecting with the characters.  they begin to have a bit of angst and of course, this is the book where everything gets rolling! (no pun intended) Having a connection with 1 book is great, but having a connection with a series which has shaped the childhood of millions of kids, millennials is Magical.  Harry, Ron and Hermione taught us that we must go for it, adventure is out there and all we need to do is seize every opportunity.  Dumbledore provided us with wisdom and guidance, letting us know that we should respect those who know more then us.  Snape taught us about love and how its power can be consuming and destructive.  Hagrid taught us not to judge others based on first appearances.  Luna and Neville taught us that people can surprise us.  The Dursleys taught us that family, no matter how destructive is still family.   JK Rowling taught us to read and to find in books a world which takes us from our own only to send us back with new knowledge and information.  So, go reconnect with a book or author today!

Oh, and I am also keeping up on my Shakespeare and will try to read some Dickens while I am here!

She suggests that we have a problem in the UK. Despite producing some of the best and most popular children’s fiction (she lists several joys) we seem reluctant, in the wider media, to proclaim and promote this wealth of talent. This, it seems, is relatively unique, at least in comparison to places like Germany and the United States. With regards the United States, she highlights one review of Rebecca Cobb’s Missing Mummy, a children’s book that deals with the hardest of trials. This review, as you can see, is in the New York Times, not exactly a small paper. It came as a shock to me to read in Donaldson’s article that this same book, deemed worthy of a full review in one of the USA’s leading papers, did not receive a single review in the UK. Why on earth is this the case?

It is, most likely, an absurd kind of snobbery. There is a coterie of people for whom children’s literature is not quite worthy enough. Yet, does this stand up to scrutiny? Ask your average reader and their favourite, or most loved, authors and there will almost certainly be mentions of JK Rowling, or Roald Dahl, or C.S. Lewis or Neil Gaiman. Whether it’s the consuming world of Hogwart’s, the delicious delight of reading a Dahl book, or the layers of mythology in a C.S. Lewis or Gaiman book, these authors have a gift for creating worlds and bringing readers in, in a way that many other writers envy. Why are we, in the UK, so unwilling to give children’s literature the position it deserves?

Or, another question might be, why does the UK have so many children’s authors? Is it a certain affinity for whimsy that is inherent in our culture? Is it the fields and graveyards wreathed in bewitching fog?

I heard a story of a publishing company that said they were not interested in Young Adult or children’s fiction, even though that’s exactly how you keep your company afloat. This adverse response to children’s literature is disturbingly rife and it is puzzling. I hope that, in her efforts, Julia Donaldson is successful in encouraging media to take a page from the New York Times and review the books that will light the fire of passion in the readers of tomorrow. Do it for the kids!

 

SAMANTHA SHANNON

Author of a forthcoming literary fantasy series; college student

Could an unknown 21-year-old Oxford student named Samantha Shannon be the next J. K. Rowling? Three years ago, Shannon was an intern in the office of the prestigious London literary agent David Godwin. That experience came in handy when, less than a year later, she had a manuscript for “The Bone Season,” an ambitious novel, the first of a projected seven-part series, that she had somehow written between lectures. Blown away by the book’s inventiveness, Godwin promptly sent it to the editor in chief of Bloomsbury, Alexandra Pringle. “Seven hours later I was still reading it,” Pringle recalls. “I just fell completely in love.” Bloomsbury gave Shannon a six-figure advance for the first three books, an unprecedented show of support for such an untested first-time author. “The Bone Season,” which comes out in August, is about a 19-year-old clairvoyant named Paige Mahoney, who roams the streets of London, circa 2059, until the secret police send her off to a penal colony that looks a lot like Oxford. “Her imagination is so extraordinary,” Pringle says. “She reminds me of the Bront sisters — the world she’s created is absolutely real.” Book rights have sold in 18 countries, and three major studios fought over the movie rights. (Britain’s Imaginarium Studios beat out Hollywood.) Shannon, now in her last year at college, is juggling writing with her studies like she did for the first book. “I had to cut down on going out with my friends so I could squeeze in writing chapters,” she says. “There was a lot of coffee involved.”LIESL SCHILLINGER

Naturally, I started The Casual Vacancy with questions. How would the writing style compare to Harry Potter? How much would Jo attempt to distance herself from the series that made her an international household name? Would I enjoy her writing even if it wasn’t about the magical world? Bearing these questions in mind, I began the book with cautious optimism. I wanted to cheer Jo on as she proved to the world that she can do more than Harry Potter. I wanted to love it as much as I loved my childhood companion.

But I hated it.

The book, at best, is an undignified attempt to scream “LOOK HOW MUCH ADULT CONTENT I CAN INCLUDE!” and, at worst, junk. I’ve been thinking about it in the past few hour since I finished it, and I’ve decided I cannot conceive of any reason to read The Casual Vacancy. Sex, drugs, alcoholism, deceit, selfishness, and general debased behavior line every page. Every single character fails to consider anyone beyond themselves, and eventually that kind of characterization takes a toll on the reader.

Before I expound on the book’s negative traits (and there are many) I’ll start with the few positives I could find. The text does do a nice job of showing how every person, every situation has multiple angles worthy of consideration. Although the frequent and unannounced switching of point of view can be unnerving, it is effective in showing all sides. Even the most vile characters had some redeeming glimpses from certain perspectives, and I appreciated Jo’s ability to highlight that. But really, that was about it for the positives.

The point of view switches so frequently because the book has approximately 15 protagonists. It takes a while to get them all straight, and, had it not been for this blog project, I might have just given up due to frustration and confusion. Another frustration was that I just didn’t see why I should care about the story. The plot centers around a small town and its gossip. Though the book tries to draw the reader and familiarize her with the town as if they were a native of the town, it’s a difficult thing to achieve in a mere 500 pages.

The book’s struggles with characterization and plot development might have been less encumbered were it not for the frequent, and often unnecessary, injections of adult content. Rowling includes somewhat graphic descriptions of sex and porn that don’t really advance the plot at all. She also seems a little out of her element in some of her descriptions about a family of drug abusers and addicts. The writing, at times, seems forced and over-the-top.

All around the story felt fake and meaningless. The town of Pagford is a wannabe Middlemarch. In fact, while reading The Casual Vacancy I was reminded again and again of George Eliot’s classic, Middlemarch. Rowling’s book certainly attempts to imitate the way Eliot captures multiple perspectives within a small town. And, in both novels, each town is attempting to cope with great societal change. However, where the people of Middlemarch model both good and bad ways to handle change, the people of Pagford seem to only know the bad ways, which leads to a depressing yet empty ending to a depressing yet empty novel.

As I said, I wanted to love this book. I just couldn’t. It’s trying too hard to not be Harry Potter to be truly valued as anything else.

This Flavorwire gallery of several outlines of famous authors’ outlines really thrilled the literature geek in me. Scribbled notes, diagrams, and spreadsheets by writers such as William Faulkner, J.K. Rowling, and Norman Mailer provide a raw glimpse at the inner workings of their thought processes.

J.K. Rowling’s handwritten outline for Order of the Phoenix via.

So, writers, do you outline scenes, beats and chapters before starting a draft, or do you let the story develop organically, discovering the plot as the characters do? I’ve tried both. I usually intend to learn as much as I can about my characters before setting them off into the world. I try to create a solid foundation for their desires and backgrounds that will fuel the story to the end. Sometimes this works and sometimes it goes awry. I like the spontaneity of writing without an outline, but having at least a vague, general sense of where I’m going helps keep me on track. It gives the story a spine and helps me arrive at a point at the end of each scene, rather than wandering aimlessly. Too much outlining, however, makes the process feel rigid and doesn’t allow enough room for discovery.

I think the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Having a general outline and a vague concept of where you’ll end up helps keep you on track, allows you to add bits throughout the story that will tie in to the work as a whole. But keeping it loose and discovering the story through the writing of it makes the finished product fresher and more genuine. As the E.L. Doctorow quote goes, “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” Overall, the most important task is just getting the first draft written, however it’s accomplished.

<dhmanga186> Why am I the first you’ve told this to? Is it because I’m halfway across the world and the only thing I could possibly hope to do to you is copy your picture, tag your name, post it somewhere, and only hope that some poor unfortunate soul stumbles across it hoping to catch you with your hands in your pants and fingers up that sweet beautiful place only known to be sought after by so many sick fucks who would want to bang JK Rowling’s big farty behind?

<dhmanga186> Or professor Umbridge for that matter who would automatically stick her hind end in the air while saying, “put in here” but have no idea where to put it.

<Niza-ninja> most likely yes, for me it is easier to talk when I can’t see the person

<Niza-ninja> …… and I started laughing again

<dhmanga186> Have you ever tried this with someone else online or am I a special case?

<Niza-ninja> at 4 am in the morning, and nope I don’t think I have or otherwise I ave a gap in my memory

<Niza-ninja> have*

<dhmanga186> Maybe you should find that someone if he/she exists, otherwise you may save my username somewhere, and hopefully the other guy on this account doesn’t become too nosy…

<Niza-ninja> some people just are easier to talk to, or maybe it is because of all the jokes you have shared with me and my brain has become weird ^^

<dhmanga186> The original question from a while back was, “Have you ever considered Dirty Potter being good for you?”

<dhmanga186> I never guessed it did.

<Niza-ninja> I do remember that ^^

<Niza-ninja> meh …. who knows

<dhmanga186> I’ll post the stuff from where I was talking about JK Rowling’s fine ass on my blog somewhere.

<dhmanga186> It proves either Dirty Potter actually helps medicate minds, or that we’re both a bunch of sick fucks whom Jim Dale would like to see die since this is a bunch of big fail.

Note, this is not an excerpt from Dirty Potter, but made up on the spot. For those who complain about us being sick in the head for using dirty language all the time, maybe someone’s going under therapy and you’re the one being a dick. This is why we’re taught not to be judgmental. Hope this enlightened some of you and gives the rest a good laugh.