More Harry Potter?

It was an idea that Rowling didn't toss away while she visited the White House for Easter. Sure, Harry's youngest generation of fans will be grown up by the time she re-considers writing more HP books, there is still hope. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a Malfoy series!

Rowling also said that she will write, and is writing, more books as we speak. I remember reading something about children's books, like picture books, that she was penning but I can't be sure. Still, if she writes more YA, even middle grade, I'd love to see her style outside of Harry Potter. Considering her knack for research and meticulous detail all woven around an amazing story, if she were to apply that same level of awesome to another book or series, it could be another hit. Granted her name alone could sell books.

What would you like to see Rowling writing? Will you read her books when she publishes more? What about the Harry Potter series? What would you like to see explored in more books that might not have been touched upon a lot in the canon?

You're Just Jealous

JK Rowling's got her boxing gloves on again. Well, I guess they're still on.

She's still fighting the estate of Adrian Jacobs over plagiarism charges for his book The Adventures of Willy the Wizard. And I feel really, really bad for her.

This was a nothing book. It sold a few dozen copies when it came out. Harry Potter came out afterwards and they saw it had some similar features. Everyone knows ideas are unique to each individual and it's totally impossible for two people to have similar ideas so OF COURSE JK Rowling stole this dude's ideas. O_o

You know, I'm usually disinclined to using the "you're jealous" argument because 99.9% of the time it's used by really stupid people that can't think up anything smart to argue with. But in this case, it is pure jealousy. Jacobs had a good idea for a book about a boy wizard. The waves of publishing weren't right for him and the book flopped. Rowling comes along and has a similar idea but the tides were in her favor and the pieces fell nicely into place.

Of course there's going to be jealousy. Anyone's going to be jealous of something like that but to try and claim plagiarism in an attempt to reap some benefits from a book that drove yours even further into the ground? It's just pathetic.

Admit defeat, you feeble estate. You're not going to win this one. If it was a nominal book with decent circulation, you might have had a chance. But considering it was as good as self-published, you're going down. Get some therapy and get over it. You got ninja'd on the boy wizard idea. It isn't the first time its happened and it won't be the last. Such is the animal of publishing.

Putting the Duh in Dubya

It was recently revealed in a memoir by former Bush administration speech writer, Matt Latimer, that Bush denied giving JK Rowling the Presidential Medal of Freedom because he felt her Harry Potter books promoted witchcraft.

O_o

If you didn't think Bush was a tool before, I hope this changes your mind. And no, I'm not making this up. I'll repeat myself--

President George W. Bush denied giving author JK Rowling the Presidential Medal of Freedom because he felt her books promoted witchcraft. It's funny in a depressing and slightly suicidal way.

To be fair, he also denied the late Ted Kennedy the honor during his dictatorship because Kennedy was too liberal, just in case you didn't know were Bush stood in the mix.

BUT, but, of course Charlton Heston was bestowed the honor by none other than Dubya himself. Because he's a hardworking man that represents the values and honors of the United States. President of the NRA. Slightly nuts. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Charlton Heston = Good. JK Rowling = Bad. Guns = Good. Reading = Bad. Get it?

Oi.

Quacks in the Woodwork

Ok, let's get this straight - ideas can not be copyrighted. Got that? CAN NOT BE COPYRIGHTED. If they could, we'd have a very scant reading selection. Not to mention movie and music selection. But they can't. So don't try to sue a bestselling author because you claim he or she plagiarized your work because there's a similar scene in there which only makes you look like a massive tool. Got it?

Because the tool boxes suing JK Rowling obviously don't (here and here). The estate of Adrian Jacobs is suing JK Rowling for plagiarism and claiming that she stole the notion of wizards riding on trains from this man's book that was published ten years prior to Sorcerer's Stone coming out, among other things. You see the ridiculousness of this? It's wasted effort. They really need to stop trying.

My book I'm editing now has a castle that can be moved in it. I thought it was such an original idea! Yay me! Until one of my betas asked me if I got the inspiration from Howl's Moving Castle. I went huh? and then proceeded to Google. Dammit! Granted the premise and everything about the moving castle itself is entirely different, the concept is still there. I'd never heard of Howl's before that. Doesn't make it a plagiarism case. It can't be if I was completely unaware of something similar until months after I'd written the first draft of my own work. But even should my book get published, there's still no harm. Because the idea for a moving castle can't be copyrighted.

Just like the idea for a 19th century Gossip Girl can't be copyrighted or a boy wizard can't be copyrighted or dragon-slaying can't be copyrighted. There's a reason why we tend to see similar books on the shelves, like all of the academy books (with or without fangs). Because the idea doesn't belong to one individual, just the execution does.

It takes a lot of effort to get the lawyers together to take on an author like JK Rowling, not to mention a huge sack of balls. Not because she'll go batshitty on you but because you really have to have a big head to think that she copied off of your work. Really big head.

To be fair, I said the same thing about Rowling when the issue with the HP Lexicon came about. One of her defenses was that the idea for an HP encyclopedia was her idea first. Push all of the copyright infringement issues that the Lexicon had off to the side, that statement is irrelevant. Who had the idea first doesn't matter. Why? "Because you can't copyright ideas." Very good! It's all about winning the race, not what you did to get to the end. So if that alone was her stance, she would have been screwed. Thankfully she's actually the copyright holder of all things HP so she had a pretty comfy pillow to fall back on there.

If you're going to go after any author, let alone one as huge as Rowling, for plagiarism, for the love of god be sure you can substantiate your claim so you don't look like an ass. Jealousy is not a good motivator, even if her idea did better than yours. Publishing has a lot to do with timing and luck and not everyone can win that game. If you can't substantiate your claim, just take the hit and write another book. Maybe you'll get lucky next time.

Obama Starstruck

As it turns out, there is something that could goggle President Obama.

While at the G20 summit, the president made a beeline for Harry Potter author JK Rowling so he could introduce himself and tell her how he read her books to his daughters. Have I said lately how much Obama rocks my socks?

Among other Rowling fans at the summit were Russian president Medvedev and his wife Svetlana who actually asked for an autograph. Wouldn't you?