This is a transcript of JK Rowling's February 3 chat on the Scholastic site.
Q: When is your fourth book coming out and what will it be called?
Q: Is there anything that you can reveal about the fourth book?
Q: Do you now or have you in the past kept a journal? If so, do you believe that it helps in your writing?
Q: What is Nearly Headless Nick's last name?
Q: Why does Professor Dumbledore like sherbet lemons?
Q: Was it hard to think of the monsters' names?
Q: What do you think has been your greatest experience because of Harry Potter's success?
Q: What makes some witches/wizards become ghosts after they die and some not?
Q: How long have you been writing?
Q: What about the rumors of a movie?
Q: What would your advice be to any other young people that would want to write stories?
Q: I heard a lot of rumors as to why the fourth book isn't out yet in the U.S. What is the truth and when will it be out?
Q: What did the Potter parents do for a living before Voldemort killed them?
Q: In the first book you said Slytherin house Quidditch captain was sixth year Marcus Flint. If there are only seven years of Hogwarts, why is he in the third book?
Q: How do students at Hogwarts get educated in Muggle subjects? Do they even need to know other things besides magic?
Q: Since Harry Potter's parents were sorcerers and Petunia was Harry's mother's sister. Shouldn't Petunia be a witch or wizard?
Q: Do you think that you will write about Harry after he graduates from Hogwarts? Isn't there a University of Wizardry?
Q: Will we ever get a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who lasts more than a year?
Q: Is Harry Potter ever going to fall in love with Hermione or is he going to fall in love with Ginny Weasley?
Q: If you had to choose one teacher from your books to teach your child, who would it be and why?
Q: How many countries have you visited since writing Harry Potter?
Q: Will Harry ever get a break and not live with the Dursleys?
Q: Will we ever see Scabbers again?
Q: Will Harry ever get to go with his godfather (Cornelius Black)?
Q: Is it true you're doing 7 books, one for each year that Harry will be at Hogwarts?
Q: Do you have an actual floorplan for Hogwarts? Do you use it when writing the books?
Q: What made you think of the people's names and dormitories at Hogwarts?
Q: Do you take real people you know and put them in your books?
Q: How long does it take to write one Harry Potter book?
Q: How does it feel to know that millions of kids are reading your books?
Q: How did you come up with Harry Potter?
Q: Why are the gnomes bad? What do they do?
Q: Did you ever meet a boy like Harry?
Q: Are any of your female characters, like Hermione, modeled after your own daughter?
Q: Was there a particular teacher who encouraged you to write when you were a child? If there was, how did he or she encourage or help you?
Q: Where were you born and what was your childhood like?
Q: How can two Muggles have a kid with magical powers? Also how does the Ministry of Magic find out these kids have powers?
Q: Does Harry give Christmas gifts to his friends? The books mention only gifts he receives. I am interested in knowing whether he gives gifts and if they are appropriate for the receiver.
Q: What is your next book going to be called?
Q: Do you have a role model, if so, who?
Q: When you were my age, did you ever write a book? I am in the fifth grade.
Q: Where is Azkaban?
Q: We are Windy Hills Elementary. Do you write every day, and for how long do you write?
Q: How do you feel about receiving the British Book Awards Children's Book of the year?
Q: Where did Sirius Black and Buckbeack go after they went into hiding?
Q: Do you have any pets/animals? If so, did any of your ideas for monsters come from watching them?
Q: How many languages is the book published in?
Q: Would you get a mythical pet from one of your books? If you could, which one?
Q: Did you have any help writing any of the books?
Q: Why did you choose the lightning bolt as a trademark for Harry Potter?
Q: Do you still write in cafes, or do you have to stay out of public places while you write so people won't bother you?
Q: Will we see the Marauders map in a future book?
Q: Is the island that Azkaban is on located at the southern end of the U.K. since Black had to pass the Dursley's place on his way to Hogwarts?
Q: Who is your favorite character?
Q: How old is Professor Dumbledore?
Q: When the seventh book in the series is finished, are you going to start on a new topic?
Q: What would you think if a person made one of your Harry Potter books into a computer game?
Q: How do you visualize Hogwarts in its entirety?
Q: Were you ever involved in a school like Harry Potter's school?
Q: Would you ever want to consider another job if you had the opportunity?
Q: Do you already have titles for all seven Harry Potters?
Q: Does your daughter help you with ideas for the books?
Q: Who is you[r] favorite author?
Q: What kind of books did you read when you were young?
Q: When you were stuck on the train was there anything that triggered your imagination, and did that incident inspire Book III?
Q: Scholastic says: We are almost out of time Ms. Rowling, thank you so much for joining us. Do you have any parting words you would like to share with our audience?
Q: Did you make up the plot in every aspect first by charting the characters and knowing exactly what you would do with them, or did you just piece a lot of it together as you wrote?
J.K.: I always have a basic plot outline, but I like to leave some things to be decided while I write. It's more fun. :-)
J.K.: It's coming out in July. I prefer not to say the title at the moment. I'm superstitious about my titles.
J.K.: Yes! Harry goes to the Quidditch World Cup, and you also find out about some other Wizardry schools.
J.K.: I've never managed to keep a journal longer than two weeks. I get bored with my life. I prefer inventing things.
J.K.: It's in Book I: De Mimsy-Porpington. ;-)
J.K.: Because I like sherbet lemons! And he's got good taste. :-)
J.K.: Some of the monsters are from folklore, so I didn't invent them. In Book IV you'll see some creatures I did invent, and I had fun making up their names. But I'm not going to say what they are. :-)
J.K.: The last American tour. Because for the first time I realized how many children love Harry. It was a moving experience for me.
J.K.: You don't really find that out until Book VII, but I can say that the happiest people do not become ghosts. As you might guess, Moaning Myrtle!
J.K.: As far back as I can remember. The first story I finished was when I was six years old.
J.K.: There is going to be a movie made by Warner Bros. But it hasn't gone into production yet, so there's no more I can tell you about that one.
J.K.: The most important thing is to read as much as you can, like I did. It will give you an understanding of what makes good writing and it will enlarge your vocabulary. And it's a lot of fun! And also, start by writing about things you know -- your own experiences, your own feelings. That's what I do.
J.K.: The reason it's not out yet is because I haven't finished it. :-) The first book took me five years to write, so I'm speeding up, a lot! But I still can't produce a novel in six months.
J.K.: I'm sorry to keep saying this, but I can't tell you because it's important to a later plot. But you will find out later!
J.K.: He had to do a year again! :-)
J.K.: They can choose to study Muggle subjects. In the third book, Hermione takes the class Muggles Studies, and that's where they learn about Muggles in school.
J.K.: No. As Hagrid explains in Book I, sometimes a witch or a wizard occurs in an otherwise Muggle family, just as a Squib is a non-magic person who occurs in an otherwise magic family.
J.K.: No, there's no University for Wizards. At the moment I'm only planning to write seven Harry Potter books. I won't say "never," but I have no plans to write an eighth book.
J.K.: I'm not telling you. ;-)
J.K.: In Book IV Harry does decide he likes a girl, but it's not Hermione or Ginny. However, he's only 14, so there's plenty of time for him to change his mind. ;-)
J.K.: It would be Professor Lupin, because he is kind, clever, and gives very interesting lessons.
J.K.: Um...let me think. Spain, Italy, France, America. That's all. I will be visiting lots more, but because my daughter's still so young, I don't like to travel too much. Unless I can take her with me.
J.K.: I'm not going to tell you! ;-)
J.K.: Yes. You will see Scabbers again.
J.K.: He is in contact with Sirius Black in Book IV, but as Sirius is on the run, it's difficult for them to be together at the moment.
J.K.: Yes, it is true.
J.K.: I haven't drawn it, because it would be difficult for the most skilled architect to draw, owing to the fact that the staircases and the rooms keep moving. However, I have a very vivid mental image of what it looks like.
J.K.: I invented the names of the Houses on the back of an airplane sick bag! This is true. I love inventing names, but I also collect unusual names, so that I can look through my notebook and choose one that suits a new character.
J.K.: The closest I've come to putting a real person in my books is with Gilderoy Lockhart, who is an exaggeration of someone I once knew. John Weasley is a little bit like my oldest friend, a man I was at school with, whose name is Sean. But neither of them are accurate portraits.
J.K.: It depends. The quickest, so far, was a year.
J.K.: Amazing! I don't think I really realized how many there were until I visited the States in October, and met thousands and thousands of people at book signings.
J.K.: Harry just sort of strolled into my head, on a train journey. He arrived very fully formed. It was as though I was meeting him for the first time.
J.K.: Gnomes eat the roots of your plants, and make little heaps of earth, like moles do. They are also a bit of a giveaway that wizards live in a house.
J.K.: I probably met a boy like Harry, since I've been meeting readers of the Harry books. But he wasn't based on anyone real.
J.K.: No, if Hermione was based on anyone, she was based on me when I was younger. But my daughter is turning out to be a bit like me, so she is a bit like Hermione. :-)
J.K.: I had some wonderful teachers, but I never confided that I wanted to be a writer. So, no. Writing for me is a kind of compulsion, so I don't think anyone could have made me do it, or prevented me from doing it.
J.K.: I was born in a place called Chipping, so perhaps that explains my love of silly names.
J.K.: It's the same as two black-haired people producing a redheaded child. Sometimes these things just happen, and no one really knows why! The Ministry of Magic doesn't find out which children are magic. In Hogwarts there's a magical quill which detects the birth of a magical child, and writes his or her name down in a large parchment book. Every year Professor McGonagall checks the book, and sends owls to the people who are turning 11.
J.K.: Ron is very sensitive about his poverty, and Harry knows that Ron might be offended if he tried to give him too much. You will see in Book IV that Ron feels awkward accepting too much from Harry.
J.K.: I'm still not going to tell you! ;-)
J.K.: I don't really have a role model, but I have a heroine! Her name was Jessica Mitford, and she was a human rights activist.
J.K.: Yes, as a matter of fact I did. I wrote a story about seven cursed diamonds. I thought it was a novel. I think now it was really a very long short story.
J.K.: In the north of the North Sea. A very cold sea.
J.K.: I write nearly every day. Some days I write for ten or eleven hours. Other days I might only write for three hours. It really depends on how fast the ideas are coming.
J.K.: Very, very honored. :-)
J.K.: Somewhere nice and warm!
J.K.: I have a very violent rabbit. ;-) If I'd known what her personality was like, I would have called her Fluffy, after Hagrid's dog!
J.K.: Oh goodness! Twenty-five, I think!
J.K.: If I could, I would choose a Phoenix, because they have such useful properties, as Harry finds out in Book III.
J.K.: No, I did it all by myself! :-)
J.K.: Just because I decided that it would be an interesting and distinctive mark.
J.K.: I still write in cafes, but I go to different ones now!
J.K.: Yes, you'll see it in Book IV. :-)
J.K.: No, he didn't have to pass the Dursley's place. He just wanted to.
J.K.: I love, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, and Professor Lupin.
J.K.: Wizards have a longer life expectancy than Muggles!
J.K.: Yes, but what it is, I don't yet know!
J.K.: I'd like to play it!
J.K.: A huge, rambling, quite scary-looking castle, with a jumble of towers and battlements. Like the Weasley's house, it isn't a building that Muggles could build, because it is supported by magic.
J.K.: No, I wish I had been! :-)
J.K.: No. I'm doing the thing I love best in the world! Although I did enjoy being a teacher. :-)
J.K.: Yes, I do. And I'm still not going to tell you what they are. ;-)
J.K.: No, the ideas are all my own. But my daughter does love the books. :-)
J.K.: Jane Austen. I find her un-put-downable. :-)
J.K.: My favorite books when I was younger were by Paul Gallico, Elizabeth Goodge, and E. Nesbitt.
J.K.: I have no idea where the idea came from, it just fell into my head!
J.K.: Don't let the Muggles get you down! :-)
