| EmmaRiddle | 01-31-2005 05:51 PM |
UPDATED: Rowling updates website
A few weeks ago a site claimed it had copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Jo Rowling, author of the books, now warns us against falling for any further online scams. Quote:
You should NEVER trust any Harry Potter e-books offered for download from the internet or on P2P/file-trading networks. Setting aside the fact that these books are illegal (there are no authorised HP e-books to date), they may infect your computer with viruses, leave you vulnerable to the dangers of hacking and/or credit card fraud and may also contain content that has nothing to do with Harry Potter.
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Please, please protect yourselves, your computers and your credit cards and do not fall for these scams. The only genuine copies of Harry Potter remain the authorised traditional book or audio tapes/cassettes/CDs distributed through my publishers.
| Jo has also added a piece to her rubbish bin, under the category of 'Starting to Smell'. Quote:
I was deeply amused to read recent reports in UK newspapers that we have just applied for planning permission to create a fifteen-bedroom-home - after all, even Dudley only required two bedrooms. It’s quite true that we have been doing building work on our house in Edinburgh, but as we are not setting up a hotel we went for a slightly more moderate number of sleeping quarters -divide fifteen by three and you might find yourself a little closer to the truth.
| There is also an update in her Extra Stuff section, in which she makes a comment on the assumption that the rise in the popularity of owls as pets, is down to Harry Potter. Quote:
If it is true that anybody has been influenced by my books to think that an owl would be happiest shut in a small cage and kept in a house, I would to take this opportunity to say as forcefully as I can: YOU ARE WRONG.
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The owls in the Harry Potter books, which deliver the mail by magical means, were never intended to portray the true behaviour or preferences of real owls. If your owl-mania seeks concrete expression, why not sponsor an owl at a bird sanctuary where you can visit your owl and know that you have secured him or her a happy, healthy life?
| UPDATE: Jo has now edited the section concerning owls: Quote:
In Britain there is a superstition that it is unlucky to see an owl by daylight, a superstition I had fun with in the first chapter of ‘Philosopher’s Stone’ where, of course, the sudden explosion of owls flying by daylight represented something very lucky indeed, though the Muggles did not know it.
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Poor Ron gets Pigwidgeon, who is a Scops (these are very small owls with ears – cute, but distinctly unshowy). Poor exhausted Errol is a Great Gray, which in my opinion is the most comical-looking owl in the world – just Google the Great Gray to see what I mean.
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Naturally I gave my hero what I consider to be the most beautiful owl of the lot: the Snowy Owl, which also goes by the name of Ghost Owl. These are not native to Britain, so I felt that she would give Harry kudos at Hogwarts (there is no other snowy owl there, as I trust you have noticed).
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Only after Philosopher’s Stone had been accepted for publication did I realise that Snowy Owls are diurnal. I think it was during the writing of ‘Chamber of Secrets’ that I discovered that Snowy Owls are also virtually silent, the females being even quieter than the males. So all of Hedwig's night-time jaunts and her many reproving hoots may be taken as signs of her great magical ability or my pitiful lack of research, whichever you prefer.
| Source: Mugglenet | 