JKR's note
JKR's note

'Half-Blood Prince' finished; release date expected Tuesday

  December 20, 2004 at 7:42 PM ET
  Cheeser     The Leaky Cauldron (via JKRowling.com)
  jk rowling, do not disturb sign, jkrowling.com, jkr, harry potter 6


The author of Harry Potter has given her fans an early Christmas present: a note on her official site stating that her sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is completed and turned in to publishers, who are expected to announce a release date within 24 hours.

UPDATE: Release date has been announced.

To get the information, visitors to JK Rowling's online home had to solve three riddles and answer three questions:

Those who answered the above correctly were rewarded with a message from JK Rowling:

I know you all expected this to happen on Christmas day, but I was sure that those of you who celebrate Christmas have better things to on the day itself do than to fight your way into my study, whereas those of you who DON'T celebrate Christmas would definitely prefer not to wait until the twenty fifth so...

'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' is COMPLETED and has been delivered to my English language publishers, who hope to announce the publication date within 24 hours.

Although I have joked about HP&THBP racing my third baby into the world, I have in fact had all the time I needed to tinker with the manuscript to my satisfaction and I am as happy as I have ever been with the end result. I only hope you feel that it was worth the wait when you finally read it!

Wishing everybody a wonderful holiday and a happy and peaceful 2005,
With love from,

JK Rowling

Thanks to The Leaky Cauldronopens in new window.

The Associated Press reportsopens in new window that Scholastic will make an announcement Tuesday morning.

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