J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling mini-bio: Joanne Rowling was born in Yate, near Bristol, a few miles south of a town called Dursley ("Harry Potter"'s Muggle-family). Her father Peter Rowling was an engineer for Rolls Royce in Bristol at this time. Her mother, Anne, was half-French and half-Scottish. They met on a train as it left King's Cross Station in London. Her sister Diana is about 2 years younger than Joanne. In 1971, Peter Rowling moved his family to the nearby village of Winterbourne (still in the Bristol vicinity). During the family's residence in Winterbourne, Jo and Di Rowling were friends with neighborhood children, Ian and Vikki Potter. In 1974, the Rowling family moved yet again, this time to Tutshill, near the Welsh border-town of Chepstow in the Forest of Dean and across the Severn River from the greater Bristol area. Rowling admits to having been a bit of a daydreamer as a child and began writing stories at the age of six. After leaving Exeter University, where she read French and Classics, she started work as a teacher but daydreamed about becoming a writer. One day, stuck on a delayed train for four hours between Manchester and London, she dreamed up a boy called "Harry Potter". That was in 1990. It took her six years to write the book. In the meantime, she went to teach in Portugal, married a Portuguese television journalist, had her daughter, Jessica, divorced her husband and returned to Britain when Jessica was just three months old. She went to live in Edinburgh to be near her sister, Di. Her sudden penury made her realize that it was "back-against-the-wall time" and she decided to finish her "Harry Potter" book. She sent the manuscript to two agents and one publisher, looking up likely prospects in the library. One of these agents that she picked at random based on the fact that she liked his name, Christopher Little, was immediately captivated by the manuscript and signed her on as his client within three days. During the 1995-1996 time-frame, while hoping to get the manuscript for "Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone" published, Rowling worked as a French teacher in Edinburgh. Several publishers turned down the manuscript before Bloomsbury agreed to purchase it in 1996.

Graduated from Exeter University.

Is a former English teacher.

She writes all of her books in longhand, rather than with a computer.

Daughter, Jessica Rowling Arantes was born on July 27, 1993.

Her book, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", was the top-selling book of 2000, with 7 million hardcovers sold.

When the first "Harry Potter" novel was published, the publisher asked her to use initials rather than her first name, because boys would be biased against a book written a woman. Since she only had one given name, they then asked her to make up another initial; she took "K." from her favorite grandmother, Kathleen.

She was awarded the O.B.E. (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2000 Queen Elizabeth II's Birthday Honors List for her services to literature and received it from one of her fans, Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales.

Son, David Gordon Rowling, born March 24, 2003 in Edinburgh.

In 2002, she was sued for plagiarism in the District Court of the Southern District of New York by Pennsylvania-based author Nancy Stouffer, who claimed that J.K. Rowling had lifted ideas from her 1984 book "The Legend of Rah and Muggles", which includes a character called "Larry Potter". However, the case against J.K. Rowling was dismissed on 19 September 2002, when the judged ruled that Ms. Stouffer had lied to the court and doctored evidence to support her claims.

Is one of only two contemporary authors to have a novel spend more than a year on both the New York Times hardcover and paperback best-seller lists, the other author being Nicholas Sparks.

As of November 2002, the year and month of the second "Harry Potter" movie (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)) being released, her franchise of books have currently sold over 175,000,000 copies and printed in over 200 languages to become the biggest and fastest selling novels ever.

On 3 April 2003, she and Time Warner successfully sued Dutch publishing company Byblos in the Amsterdam High Court. This prevents Byblos publishing Russian author Dmitry Yemets' novel "The Magic Double Bass", which features a girl wizard "Tanya Grotter". It was deemed to plagiarize Rowling's novel "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" and to infringe her copyright.

The fifth book in the Harry Potter series, entitled "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", was published on June 21 2003. It was approximately 896 pages long, containing 38 chapters and over 255,000 words, making it her longest "Harry Potter" book yet. The first U.S. printing was 8.5 million copies, an American publishing record.

In 2003, unauthorized Chinese-language "sequels" to the "Harry Potter" series appeared for sale in the People's Republic of China. These poorly-written books, written by Chinese ghost writers, contain characters from the works of other authors, including Gandalf from J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings", and the title character from L. Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz". Rowling's lawyers successfully took legal action against the publishers who were forced to pay damages.

She is a big fan of the rock band The Smiths and in 2003, she appeared on the Channel Four documentary The Importance of Being Morrissey (2002) (TV).

Is a huge fan of "Monty Python" and claims to put some of their humor into her books. Two apparent references to the "Monty Python" sketch "Crunchy Frog" can be found in her "Harry Potter" books: two of the sweets are a chocolate frog, and a cockroach cluster. "Monty Python" member John Cleese appears in the films.

One of her favorite movies is The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), which was written and directed by "Harry Potter" screenwriter Steve Kloves.

She received an honorary degree from Edinburgh University in recognition of the Potter books and her outstanding contribution to children's literature. [7 July 2004].

Her 3rd child, Mackenzie Jean Rowling, was born on January 23, 2005 in Edinburgh.

Character names in her books are often clues to their identities or secrets. For example, Professor Remus Lupin is a werewolf. According to myth, Romulus and Remus were the founders of Rome and were raised by wolves. His last name, Lupin, is derived from the Latin lupus, for wolf, and the English adjective lupine, meaning wolf-like. Lupin was converted into a werewolf by Fenrir Greyback, whose name is taken from Fenrir, the monstrous wolf son of Loki in Norse mythology. (His alias, Fenrisulfr, was the basis for Fenris Ulf, the American name for Maugrim in C.S. Lewis's "Chronciles of Narnia".) Sirius Black, who turns into a black dog, is named for the star Sirius, which can be found in the constellation Canis Major - the big dog.

Whilst at University she had little money so, for friends' birthdays, she wrote them personal little stories.

Shares the same birthday with Michael Klesic, Wesley Snipes, Ben Chaplin, Barry Van Dyke, Emilia Fox and Loren Dean.

After spending six years writing the first installment of her "Harry Potter" novels, Rowling was rejected by 9 publishers before London's Bloomsbury Publishing signed her on.

The day she signed her contract for the first "Harry Potter" novel, the publishing representative told her she would not make any money selling children's books.

Originally wrote "Harry Potter" to pay off her gas bills while living in a tiny flat with her then, baby daughter.

Although she incorporates characteristics of people she knows into "Harry Potter" characters, she says that the character "Gilderoy Lockhart" is the only character she purposely based on someone she knew. She would not say who she based the character on, only that it was not her ex-husband, and that whoever it was is probably so ignorant and so narcissistic, that he is probably claiming either to be the basis for "Albus Dumbledore", or the real author of the "Harry Potter" books.

Claims her first audience for "Harry Potter" was her daughter, to whom she would read parts of the story that she wrote as a bedtime story.

Is a huge fan of "Monty Python", and claims to put some of their humor into her books.

Owns two properties in the Perthshire and Edinburgh areas of Scotland. In 2003, she hired a former SAS officer as her bodyguard to patrol her Perth home and protect her family.

Doesn't actually have a middle name. She chose the "K" for her initials because she thought it sounded good in conjunction with her surname, and alphabetically it was the next letter after "J".

Was almost barred from boarding a plane from the U.S. to the U.K. when airport security personnel demanded that her manuscript for her final book be screened or placed in her checked luggage. Rowling refused to give up the manuscript, which was bound with rubber bands.

December 21, 2006: Announced that the last "Harry Potter" book will be titled "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".

Finished writing the final book in the fantasy franchise three weeks ago - and marked the occasion by leaving graffiti in a Scottish hotel. Eagle-eyed guests at the five-star Balmoral Hotel spotted a line from the best-selling author scrawled in black pen on the back of a marble bust in a room Rowling occupied. She wrote, "J.K. Rowling finished writing Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on Jan 11th 2007."

One of her biggest fans is Stephen King.

Is an avid train buff.

Like her hero, she now lives in a castle.

Based Hermione on herself.

Is the first author billionaire, according to Forbes magazine, 2006.

Was #2 on the 'Celebrity Forbes List: Who Made Bank?' of 2006, making her the second richest woman behind Oprah Winfrey.

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