Solar Flare: Science Fiction News

According to an update on J.K. Rowling’s official website, she is getting ready to star writing the seventh and last book in the Harry Potter series. Rowling has been firm (so far) that this will be the end of the Harry Potter stories, though whether she will be able to resist the lure of money forever is something only time will tell. According to the update on Rowling’s site:

“For 2006 will be the year when I write the final book in the Harry Potter series. I contemplate the task with mingled feelings of excitement and dread, because I can’t wait to get started, to tell the final part of the story and, at last, to answer all the questions (will I ever answer all of the questions? Let’s aim for most of the questions); and yet it will all be over at last and I can’t quite imagine life without Harry.”

It seems that Rowling has spent several months preparing the ground before starting on the final Harry Potter book. She goes on to say:

“I have been fine-tuning the fine-tuned plan of seven during the past few weeks so that I can really set to work in January. Reading through the plan is like contemplating the map of an unknown country in which I will soon find myself. Sometimes, even at this stage, you can see trouble looming; nearly all of the six published books have had Chapters of Doom. The quintessential, never, I hope, to be beaten Chapter That Nearly Broke My Will To Go On was chapter nine, ‘Goblet of Fire’ (appropriately enough, ‘The Dark Mark’.)”

As usual there is no indication when the book might be finished or published.