She Deserves It All!

Anyone who can write like that and sell over a quarter of a billion books, translated into 61 languages distributed in over 200 countries, appearing on bestseller lists in the United States, Britain, and around the world...deserves all the money she's getting, as far as I'm concerned!

J. K. (Joanne Kathleen) Rowling: born in Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England, in 1965; graduated from Exeter University and worked as a secretary; later spent time teaching English as a second language in Portugal, where she married a TV journalist; after the marriage fell apart, she moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, with her 4-month-old daughter and was unemployed for awhile. She first thought of Harry Potter while riding a train back in 1990. "Harry just strolled into my head fully formed," she says. She worked on the first book for several years, finding quiet moments while her daughter napped, but was turned down by several publishers before one, Bloomsbury, finally took interest.

The rest is history! She currently resides in Scotland with her second husband and three children.

Talk about the creativity of this woman! I can't tell you how many times I have exclaimed, "How did she ever think that up!" I've laughed out loud so many times that Donica is sure I'm crazy by now. Whoever would have thought, for example, that people in pictures hanging on the wall could overhear first-year students trying to find their way to class and get all excited about helping them with directions...even to the point of running from one frame to the next to guide. Unbelievable.

I just finished the 5th book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix...all 870 pages...in preparation for the 6th book coming out on 7/16. Most of us know by now that adults love these books as much as the kids. It's a different kind of Star Wars, with the build-up of forces between good and evil. I don't know about you but I'm dying to find out what happens next and in the final, 7th book.

HipHipHorray to anyone who can get kids to read all 870 pages in one weekend! Like I said, she deserves it all!