AP - HARRY POTTER PREQUEL TO BE AUCTIONED

[MattBrady]

by RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Writer

LONDON (AP) An 800-word Harry Potter prequel is one of 13 card-sized works to be sold at a charity auction in the British capital.

Waterstone's Booksellers Ltd. says the cream-colored A5 papers - each slightly bigger than a postcard - were distributed to 13 authors and illustrators, including the boy wizard's creator J.K. Rowling, Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing, novelist Margaret Atwood and playwright Tom Stoppard.

Rowling used both sides of her card to hand-write a prequel to her seven-book Harry Potter saga, while Lessing penned a story about the power of reading. Stoppard wrote a short mystery and Atwood was due to fill out her card remotely using a robotic arm controlled by computer linkup.

Other cards were completed by children's author Michael Rosen, illustrator Axel Scheffler, graphic novelist Neil Gaiman, Lisa Appignanesi, Richard Ford, Lauren Child, Irvine Welsh, Sebastian Faulks and Nick Hornby, who plastered his card with a collage.

The cards will go on sale at the ``What's Your Story?'' auction at Waterstone's flagship store in central London on June 10. The proceeds are to go to English PEN, the writers' association, and the British charity Dyslexia Action. Copies of the cards will be collated into a book to be made available at the bookstore and online in August.

Organizers refused to comment on the content of Rowling's Harry Potter prequel, but Hogwarts fans hoping for another book to add to their collection may be disappointed by her signoff.

``From the prequel I am not working on - but that was fun!'' Rowling wrote.

Rowling has previously said she had no plans to write another Potter novel, but in December she sold a handwritten, leather-bound book of fairy tales she described as drawing on the series' themes, for nearly $4 million at auction. The money went to The Children's Voice, a charity Rowling co-founded in 2005.

[grendel25]

That's a really cool idea. I'm glad to see Rowling using Harry Potter for some great charity events. I wonder what Gaiman put on his card.

[President Kang]

Kind of a bummer prequel, eh? "Dear Diary, today I, Lilly, met this jerk named James Potter. I predict that we'll get married and then die horribly at the hands of Lord Voledemort. The end."

[ahaman85]

Originally Posted by President Kang

Kind of a bummer prequel, eh? "Dear Diary, today I, Lilly, met this jerk named James Potter. I predict that we'll get married and then die horribly at the hands of Lord Voledemort. The end."

Oh, something similar would be great to explain why Dr. Orpheus's wife to have left him (in Ventura Bros).

[The Escapist]

Not that I don't have the Rowling love, but what the hell was Gaiman's story about!??!?! (you know, since I'll never be able to read it...)

[elgato]

I'm very interested to see what she writes next. Will it be genius or just a colossal failure.

[Michael Mayket]

Originally Posted by The Escapist

Not that I don't have the Rowling love, but what the hell was Gaiman's story about!??!?! (you know, since I'll never be able to read it...)

I don't know this line from the article makes it sounds like you will be able to read it:

Originally Posted by Associated Press

Copies of the cards will be collated into a book to be made available at the bookstore and online in August.

[swol]

Originally Posted by elgato

I'm very interested to see what she writes next. Will it be genius or just a colossal failure.

On the other hand, the Harry Potter works could be considered one entity and the next publication would be her sophmore effort. Thus pone to the "sophmore slump.

Let's face it, how do you top the Harry Potter phenomena?
Anything she writes will be considered a let down.

Some authors have one or two really really great stories in them and everything else is lost as inconsequencial in a historical sense. Even if these other stories are perfectly fine in a stand-alone sense, the public does not embrace them with the same fervor. Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jules Verne, L. Frank Baum and any number of others had one or two well accepted stories or characters and the rest of their work is pretty much ignored by the public.

I think that JKR will be historically viewed the same way...as the writer of the Harry Potter books (and some other, lesser books).

She would probably live a happier life if she would quit now, that is if she really cared what the public thought. Most writers however, simply need to write. It's their reason to get up in the morning.

[The Escapist]

Originally Posted by Michael Mayket

I don't know this line from the article makes it sounds like you will be able to read it:

Thank you for actually reading the whole article (I'm clearly not able to...). Just pre-ordered my copy from the website!