The lawsuit claims that the RDR title Harry Potter Lexicon, scheduled for November 28 publication, edited by Steve Vander Ark, and largely culled from items posted on the Harry Potter Lexicon Web site,will infringe on Rowling’s intellectual property rights. Rowling has openly praised the efforts of fan Web site creators over the years, including Vander Ark, and several speculative books about Harry Potter’s world, some also written by fan site creators, have already been published. But putting this particular lexicon in print—for financial profit—is clearly another matter.

Most importantly, however, the proposed RDR book would also clash Rowling’s own announced plans to create the definitive Harry Potter encyclopedia, which will contain new material not found in her novels, based on the author’s extensive background notes. Her book is slated to benefit a number of charities. In a release from Warner Bros. Rowling emphasized, “I cannot, therefore, approve of ‘companion books’ or ‘encyclopedias’ that seek to preempt my definitive Potter reference book for their authors’ personal gain.”

Pullman, in a rare New York appearance. Photo: Matthew Arnold.

Each person has a story, according to Pullman, and that story begins the same way for all: “You find yourself in the wrong family by mistake. We’re all princes and princesses in exile,” he said. “Then we begin to discover the world around us.”

Pullman started out in life believing he would become a poet. He knew he “wanted to do something in the field of the arts,” but didn’t attempt writing a novel until he’d finished his studies at Oxford. At university, he discovered that he actually “wasn’t very good” at being a scholar, and instead became a schoolteacher, for kids ages 11–13, and taught for 12 years. In teaching, he said, he learned how to become a storyteller, beginning with telling stories to his classes, such as ancient myths, and The Iliad and The Odyssey. “I learned what sort of storyteller I was and wasn’t,” he said. “I couldn’t make them laugh, but I could describe a scene, build up suspense. That was my apprenticeship as a storyteller.”  

Christopher Paolini. Photo: Perry Hagopian.

The books will be edited by Knopf executive editor Michelle Frey, who also edited Eragon and Eldest. Book 3 will be published simultaneously by Random House Children's Books U.K., and will also be a simultaneous audiobook release from Listening Library.

Paolini began writing Eragon, the story of a boy named Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, when he was 15; his parents self-published the book in 2002, when he was 18, and Knopf published it a year later.

In a statement, Paolini said that he had conceived of the series as a trilogy, but realized as he was writing Book 3 that he would not be able to fit the remainder of the story into one volume. "In order to be true to my characters and to address all of the plot points and unanswered questions Eragon and Eldest raised, I needed to split the end of the series into two books."

A video message from the author about Book 4 is currently airing on Paolini's Web site. —Diane Roback

For Pierce, the Melting Stones production just seemed like a natural progression. “I was already working with Full Cast on my Circle of Magic books,” she says, “and I enjoyed working with them so much that I thought it would be fun to do something just for them—family-friendly books focusing on the students of the four kids from Circle of Magic. I knew I wanted to start with Evvy from Street Magic.”

About three years ago, Pierce approached Full Cast Audio’s publisher, Bruce Coville, with the idea—and 100 pages of text already in the can. In Coville’s view, it was the kind of offer you simply don’t refuse. “Once I realized she was serious, I thought, ‘Wow, if you really want to, then yes! Absolutely yes!’ ” he recalls.