The run-up to the publication of Ink Black Heart last year coincided with the viva voce examinations for my PhD. The day of those exams, in fact, was the same day as the publication of Strike6. I passed the exams, glory to God, but the months and weeks before and after that event are something of a blurred memory; I eventually disappeared from this site post viva to complete the necessary thesis corrections which I was given six months to make. When I came out of my cave of semi-isolation at the beginning of this month, I tried to pick up where I’d left off in Rip Van Winkle fashion with a list of posts germinating in my head. Readers here obliged me by voting for their preferences.

The consensus pick was discussion of the Running Grave Elephant in the Chat Room, namely, the question of whether Strike7 is the seventh book of a seven book ring, the seventh book in a series of at least ten novels, or both somehow. I wrote up my thoughts on that last week.

The other topic to receive significant reader interest was the use of Tarot card spreads in Troubled Blood, specifically the Celtic Cross spread on page 248 and the embedded three card spreads in the True Book illustrations on 537, 632, and 774. I recalled I had written something about the Celtic Cross spread during my first reading of Troubled Blood and I had a vague memory of taking some notes about the True Book before my oral exams and both recollections turned out to be true.

Join me after the jump for a review of my hypothesis and premises with respect to reading the True Book and the Tarot card spreads in it as well as my introductory notes for interpretation of the Celtic Cross spread in Strike5. [Read more…]

Like you, I hope, I watched the 2014 video ‘Dylan Thomas: A Poet’s Guide’ yesterday, one I posted with Chris Calderon’s thoughts. I was struck by three things during its run in light of the idea that Strike7 will be somehow the finale of the series’ first set of novels, all in correspondence with their analog numbers in the Harry Potter series. If Rowling, per this hypothesis, has written the series to climax in some fashion at the seventh instalment, why would she choose the poetry of Dylan Thomas as her epigraph source? 

Join me after the jump for three thoughts inspired by the introductory critical-biography-video, thoughts about the congruence of pube-haired Thomas’ life and the themes of his poetry with Rowling’s life and work. [Read more…]

Hat tip to Chris Calderon for this find! Anything and everything to understand the likely source of the Running Gave’s epigraphs is more than welcome here as we prepare for Strike7. After the jump, I include Mr Calderon’s notes about Thomas and the Romantic poets — and why Serious Strikers should be excited about this poet being the theme-writer for the seventh book. [Read more…]