Harry Potter prequel to be auctioned
LONDON (AP) - May 29, 2008 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.
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On the Net:
www.waterstones.com/whatsyourstory