• Rowling “Strikes TV Deal for Spin-off!” Maybe

    ByNick Jeffery
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    The UK’s Daily Mail has a “scoop“. According to Alison Boshoff who seems to concentrate entertainment and celebrity articles, her sources in London have confirmed that a deal was struck six months ago and writers are currently working on the project. Current rumours have been sparked by the change a of management at Warner Bros, now led by David Zaslav, however:

    The company’s corporate spokesman refuses, rather aggressively, to comment on any ‘private meetings’ which Zaslav (known as ‘Zas’) may have had. All most peculiar, given that the ‘meeting’ would concern the largest asset Warner has — the intellectual property (IP) covering all things boy wizard — and would thus not really be personal at all. Rowling controls the Potter ‘IP’, and every decision has to come through her, whether it’s about merchandising, theme parks, video games or anything else.

    Warner has been criticized in the past for providing limited support for J. K. Rowling, however in the aftermath of the latest threat to her, the new management were quick to issue a supportive statement.

    ‘Warner Bros Discovery strongly condemns the threats made against J.K. Rowling. We stand with her and all the authors, storytellers and creators who bravely express their creativity and opinions . . . the company strongly condemns any form of threat, violence or intimidation when opinions, beliefs and thoughts might differ.’

    I have a ‘rule of thumb’ that any anonymous source used by the Daily Mail celebrity pages are largely fictitious. Is the world yet ready for a non Rowling written spin-off? (Fantastic Beasts 3 not withstanding). Let me know you thoughts down below.

  • Strike on Twitter – Poetry Please

    ByNick Jeffery
    6 Comments

    Since J. K. Rowling tweeted the epigraph to chapter 1 on Friday, our curious cast of twitter accounts have been busy posting their own verses. Friends and Faculty here at Hogwarts Professor are divided on what these accounts are. Could they be directed by Rowling? Are they a marketing campaign guided by advance copies of the book? Are they super-fans teasing knowledge they don’t have? Either way they are incredible fun. After the jump, review the tweets yourself, and let me know what you think!

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  • Ink Black Heart – the Dedications

    ByNick Jeffery
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    Sunday morning the super fans at The Tottenham posted on their Instagram account a clip of Robert Glenister reading the dedication page from The Ink Black Heart.

    It is a short clip, but allows us to begin our investigations.

    To Steve and Lorna, my family, my friends, and to [two]  bulwarks against Anomie, with love.

    Steve and Lorna are almost certainly the same as Steve and Lorna Barnes from the acknowledgements in Silkworm.

    Lorna and Steve Barnes, who enabled me to drink in The Bay Horse, examine the tomb of Sir Marmaduke Wyvill and find out that Robin’s hometown is pronounced ‘Mass-um’ not ‘Mash-em’, saving me much future embarrassment.

    The Bay Horse and the tomb of Sir Marmaduke are all located in Mashem, so it’s reasonable to assume the Barnes’s are local to this area. It’s also reasonable to assume this Lorna is the sister to Neil Murray, who acted as bridesmaid at the Rowling-Murray wedding and teased her about meeting Morrisey.

    There to more than one way read the dedication:

    To Lorna and Steve, [they are] my family, [and they are also] my friends, and [they are also] two bulwarks against anomie.

    To Lorna and Steve, [and to:] my family, [and also to:] my friends, and [also] to[:] bulwarks against Anomie.

    The first credits Lorna and Steve as being more than family and friends, it credits them with being her moral centre, despite the opportunities that money and influence might present. See Prof Freeman’s excellent primer to anomie. The second gives a broader dedication to all who help against anonymous trolls and internet ne’er-do-wells. Which it is will finally be revealed on publication.

    Speaking of internet ne’er-do-wells the twitter account for Anomie has found this dedication, and thanked the author for the mention:

  • Strike on Twitter – Sixteen Characters in Search of a Story

    ByNick Jeffery
    16 Comments

    Last week, while idly scrolling through Twitter, I came upon a fun bunch of accounts created after characters from the Strike novels. Two in particular caught my eye: Anomie was apparently created very quickly after the new plot synopsis was released, and Roddy Fforbes, who we never meet and is mentioned only twice in Troubled Blood. 

    I have collected below the new accounts, while we are waiting for The Ink Black Heart why not follow? They are all acted in good humour, and not above poking fun at the ‘official’ accounts. I predict lots of shenanigans, as these accounts discover how their new story unfolds.

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  • Highgate is New Rowling Twitter Header

    ByJohn
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    Rowling switched out her Twitter page ‘header’ this morning with a shot from Highgate Cemetery. For a history of her Twitter headers and the relationship with the work we learned later she was writing, see Nick Jeffery’s comprehensive posts on those subjects, All J. K. Rowling’s Twitter Headers and The Rowling Headers – in Context. For thoughts about the April header just replaced, read about it at New Rowling Forest Twitter Header: Beasts 4, Strike 7, or Project X?

    Oxford’s Beatrice Groves, author of Literary Allusion in Harry Potter, wrote about Highgate Cemetery most recently in her post, The King of Beasts: Fantastic Beasts and the Beast Within, and will share her thoughts here tomorrow on this new picture, to include ideas about what it suggests about Rowling’s current project. Stay tuned!