Wednesday, 28th June 2006 at 7:34 pm

To Kill A Character (Or Two) And To Come Back To Publishing Life

J.K. Rowling is going to prove that the pen is indeedmightier than the sword in the seventh (and final) instalment of her phenomenal Harry Potter children’s book series when she wields it to kill off two of the characters.

During a June appearance on a British talk show, the author admitted that two of the characters are going to die in the final book, but she refused to disclose any clues as to their identities, only saying that she had always known how it would play out, since she had already written the ending in “something like 1990.”

That is sad news on so many levels, and not only because we stand the chance of having to endure an unhappy ending, but because in 1990, while she was plotting the demise, many of her readers and biggest fans weren’t even born yet.

Including us. (Yeah, yeah, all right… but it was worth a shot. We DO still look that young though, really! Just turn off all the lights and then you’ll see.) (Via)

Speaking of the death of a character… we truly believed that Harper Lee, author of the Pulitzer-winning novel ‘To Kill A Mockingbird,’ was dead.

For starters, that book, her only novel, has been around for what seems like eons and it has been a classic for just as long. So imagine our pleasant surprise and relief when she appeared in print again for the first time in years courtesy of the almighty Oprah Winfrey.

In a special summer reading issue of Oprah’s O Magazine, the elusive, reclusive Lee wrote an essay about her lifelong love affair with reading and books.

The article, which appeared in the form of an open letter to Oprah, proofs that at age 80, Lee is still alive and well and hip enough to know a bit about pop culture, writing that in an age where ‘people have laptops, cell phones, iPods and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books.’

Now Ms. Lee, if only you’d put those books down long enough to write another of your own. (Via)