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J.K. Rowling Confessed To Writing A Secret Manuscript On A Party Dress

J.K. Rowling Confessed To Writing A Secret Manuscript On A Party Dress

For years, diehard fans of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series have wondered whether the powerhouse author will grace the world with another game-changing fairy tale.

In an interview published Monday with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Rowling revealed that yes, she has already penned another original manuscript. And at this very moment, it’s hanging in her closet.

Rowling explained that for her 50th birthday she hosted a party with a theme of “come as your own private nightmare.” Her costume? A lost manuscript for a “political” fairy tale for children. (She’s spoken about this particular story before.)

“I wrote over a dress most of that book,” Rowling revealed. “So that book, I don’t know whether it will ever be published, but it’s actually hanging in a wardrobe currently.” Rowling gave no additional details about the story, aside from the fact that it was written on fabric. We’re just grateful it’s a party dress and not an invisibility cloak.

The iconic author has previously discussed her predilection for writing by hand. She famously wrote the first draft of “Harry Potter” in notepads throughout various Edinburgh cafés. But when there aren’t any notepads handy, Rowling isn’t afraid to get experimental.

I have been known to write on all sorts of weird things when I didn’t have a notepad with me,” she told Amazon. “The names of the Hogwarts Houses were created on the back of an aeroplane sick bag. Yes, it was empty.”

In the same interview with CNN, Rowling, whose given name is Joanne, once again shared the reason she goes by J.K. as her pen name. Not too surprisingly, Rowling’s publisher advised she disguise her gender to help the book appeal to both boys and girls. Eventually, Rowling joked, she was “outed as a woman,” and now savors the opportunity to be a role model to young girls.

However, she does not regret opting for an alternate author name in the first place. “I actually quite like having a pen name,” she said, “because I feel that’s ― to an extent, that feels like an identity and then I’m ― in private life, I’m Jo Murray. And it feels like quite a nice separation.”

Read the entire interview on CNN.