When I first read J.K. Rowling's hard-luck story about being on welfare and writing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in longhand in a coffee shop, I thought it was a very effective selling point for the book, although the story is true.

Can you imagine the determination it took to write under those conditions? JKR was at a low point. I read that her ex-husband kicked her out of the house when their daughter was a few months old; the next day she came back with reinforcements to get the baby and leave the cad forever. She and the baby lived with her sister and brother-in-law for a while, then she lived in Scotland on welfare while she wrote her book, attended classes to earn a teaching certificate, and eventually taught classes. JKR said the story about writing in a coffee shop because her apartment was too cold isn't true; she just liked the coffee.

I was surprised to learn that JKR still writes in longhand. She's writing the final book on lined paper. How charming! On her site, she writes about running out of paper. From her "diary" (via the Scotsman):

"Why is it so difficult to buy paper in the middle of town? What is a writer who likes to write longhand supposed to do when she hits her stride and then realises to her horror she has covered every bit of blank paper in her bag? Forty-five minutes it took me, this morning, to find somewhere that would sell me some normal, lined paper."

Book 7 is being written (in longhand!) as I write this. Will all of John Granger's questions be answered, or will JKR leave us hanging? How will our theories pan out? How far off the mark are we? How close? Whether you love them or hate them, JKR and Harry Potter have changed the culture. Even if the "Boy Who Lived" dies in the book (Don't stone me!), he will live on.