J. K Rowling is widely known for being New York bestseller of her series of books. Writing her series started with one simple thought, no pen, paper, watching out the windows of a train. The four-hour train ride coming home from London was a life changing moment, brought her from rags to riches. Inspirations and motivations is what gets the bests authors to connect with there writings. A life experience is what leads Rowling to be such a great writer with such a big heart.
She made dramatic changes just to please the eyes of her readers, so that all readers would have the opportunity to step out of there day to day lives and experience such a thrill of another life, in a different world. Joanne Rowling was born at Yate General Hospital as Joanne Rowling on July 31, 1965 in Gloucestershire, England. Her parents are Peter James Rowling and Anne Volant. They met on a train on their way to join the British navy. They got married a year later, when they were 20, they became parents to Joanne Rowling, and they also had another child named, Diane “Di,” 23 months later.
The two children were very close. When the girls were young, the family moved twice. At age four, Joanne and her family moved to Winterbourne. There she met a brother and sister who lived in her town with the last name Potter, which stuck with her for many years. “Pettinger, T. ” Her parents pressured her into becoming a secretary and she went to college and studied French at University of Exeter. She took a semester of classes in London and loved it; she later worked on and off there until she found a stable job she worked at Amnesty International while there. “Rosenberg, Jennifer. Joanne was looking for apartments in London around 1990, on her way home the train she was on had a delay.
Rowling was on the train for over four hours; this is when she came up with the idea of Harry Potter. She spent the entire time thinking of the plot and story line. There was just one negative out of the entire ride, she did not have a pen or paper with her, and being to shy to ask she just kept the ideas in her head until she arrived home. As soon as she got there she went strait to work writing her ideas down and started writing the first book of the series shortly after.
Although not done with the entire series she continued to write and add parts to her thoughts. When her mother died on December 30, 1990 it was devastating to her and it affected how her book was written, with Harry’s parents dead. “Rosenberg, Jennifer. ” With the recent loss of her mother, she took a job teaching English in Portugal, to try and cope. While in Portugal she got married to Jorge Arantes and had her first child, Jessica in 1993. The marriage was not successful and she moved back to Edinburgh to be close to her sister. Joanne was living off of welfare trying to support both herself and her daughter to just make it by.
In 2001 she was married again to Dr. Neil Murray. They had two additional children; their names are David Gordon and Mackenzie Jean. “Rosenberg, Jennifer. ” Joanne was determined to finish her first Harry Potter book. Once she had completed it, she typed it and sent it to several literary agents. After finding an agent Christopher, he started to search around for a publisher. After a year of searching and a many of publishers turning it down, the agent finally found a publisher willing to print the book. It took around a year to find a publisher. Bloomsbury made an offer for the book in August 1996.
The editor Barry Cunningham also agreed to pay her an advance of £1500. The decision to take on the book was, due to his eight-year-old daughters anticipation the first chapter. He advised her to continue teaching, as writers of children’s books don’t tend to get very well paid. He also recommended her to use a different pen name, as a women author would not be appealing to they teenage boy audience they were trying to sell to.
That is when she decided to use her grandmothers name Kathleen to come up with J. K. Rowling. She thought that she should honor her grandmother because she was so close with her. J. K. Rowling. ” The first print run was only 1,000 books and 500 of them went to libraries. First editions are now supposedly to be worth up to £25,000 each. She also received a grant from the Scottish arts council, which enabled her to write full time. After the books initial success in the UK, the American company Scholastic agreed to pay a remarkable £100,000 for the rights to publish in America. The entire series was completed in 2007. “Pettinger, T. ” In 1998, Warner Bros secured the film rights for the books, giving a seven-figure sum.
The films have embellished success of the books, making Harry Potter into one of the most well known media products created. Under the close guidance of Rowling, the films have stayed close to the original plot; also at Rowling’s request all the actors are British. “Pettinger, T. ” Although the Harry Potter series was finished she was not done writing, she also has completed The Tales of Beedle the Bard, they were mentioned in Harry Potter, and her recently published book The Casual Vacancy, which got mixed reviews. She also announced that she will write “an encyclopedia of Harry’s world”. J. K. Rowling Biography. ” Rowling is said to be worth $53 million, as of now due to all of the profit made from the Harry Potter series. She donates to the Multiple sclerosis and Anti-Poverty charities, those are just a few but she does a lot of charity work herself, knowing how hard it is to raise a child alone and not having any support.
“Pettinger, T. ” She is the President of the Gingerbread foundation, which was once known as “One Parent Families” they feel as if she is the best role model for single parents and gives great advice due to experiences she has had. J. K. Rowling. ” She now donates all of the profit made off of her most recently published books to the charities. “J. K. Rowling Biography. ” Joanne supports the Labour party donating 1 million euros to support them in the past years. The Labour party is equivalent to the U. S. Democratic Party. Her role model for political views is Robert F. Kennedy. She considers herself to be a Christian and attends her local church almost every Sunday. Rowling has always had an interest in religion and would go to churches alone when she had the chance when she was younger.
Although she is a big believer in God she sometimes doubts her faith at time when her life is challenging. “Pettinger, T. ” The media has affected her family in many ways both good and bad. Some occurrences have made her life and her children’s lives hard finding reporters outside her house and the schools her children attend, finding it not safe to let her children go to school, she also found a letter wrote to her from a journalist in her daughters satchel one day after school.
Joanne felt driven out of the first house she had ever owned due to reporters being camped outside the yard and in their cars in the streets, they would ask neighbors about Rowling’s life, that made her feel very un safe. Pettinger Pg. do it like this Joanne was voted author of the year in 1999 at the British Book Awards. She has won the Booksellers Association Author of the Year award two years in a row 1998 and 1999. She won the WH Smith Children’s Book of the Year for 2000 and again in 2004, she also was awarded the WH Smith’s Fiction Award.
In 2006 Joanne was Winner of the Nibbie’s Children’s Book of the Year for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Joanne was awarded an OBE for in June 2000 from His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, for services to children’s literature. In 2003 she received Spain’s prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for Concord. In February 2009, she was inducted into France’s prestigious Legion of Honor and given the honorary title of “knight”. Rowling also received the 2008 British Book Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award. “Author J. K. Rowling…” Letting the readers enter a completely new life is what keeps the readers coming back for more.
The talent of J. K Rowling has been admired by millions of readers. Not only is this women known for her unique attributes but also known for her thoughtful actions, which we can thank her past for. Being a single mother is bound to put a woman through many obstacles of hardships. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, the hardships took a toll on this women and she changed many lives of other single parents and put books on the shelves of unfortunate libraries. From rags to riches, not only did that train ride change her life but many others.
