Origins: Open-end for "Half-Blood Prince"

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was released on July 16th, 2005. I remember the date because it was also my sister Carrie's birthday. We had a "Carrie-Harry" party later that week, but the day of, for reasons I don't fully recall, wasn't a convenient day for it. Just as well, because everyone wanted to read the book. I remember there was a local spoiler. Near the nearest Shopko there's a highway overpass with a chain-link fence, and somebody Dixie-cupped "SNAPE KILLS DUMBLEDORE" into it. My sister was outraged, but I was not... because I had already read it by the time I saw it.

We-- me, my father, and my brother-- obtained our own copy at one o' clock that morning, and I sat down immediately and began to read. I couldn't put it down. I was intrigued by the situation with Draco Malfoy, fascinated with the unfolding Horcrux story, and pleased with the growing Harry/Ginny Ron/Hermione romances. Finally, I was absolutely stunned by Snape killing Dumbledore at the end.

I finished the book and went to bed at around three in the afternoon (I would have finished it earlier, had I not been called away to help my grandfather fix his roof), but I didn't sleep long, because I kept turning everything over in my head. What would happen next? Where would the Horcrux hunt take Harry? How long would it take him? Whose side was Snape really on? What would Ginny be doing? What if HARRY were a Horcrux? So it went. I wanted answers, but I remembered the two-year gaps between previous book releases and I was too impatient to wait for that long.

In her introduction to Frankenstein, Mary Shelley made the remark, "Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos; the materials must, in the first place, be afforded: it can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring into being the substance itself. In all matters of discovery and invention, even of those that appertain to the imagination, we are continually reminded of the story of Columbus and his egg. Invention consists in the capacity of seizing on the capabilities of a subject, and in the power of moulding and fashioning ideas suggested to it." In other words, regardless of what formalists would have us think, imagination does not come out of nowhere. Something always conditions it, then inspires it. It was no different for me.

One day, while re-reading a portion of HBP, I had the image of a battle-worn Harry Potter standing at the parapet of a tower on a hidden island, looking out to the sea as he carefully plans his enemy's downfall, training daily for it, no longer innocent. He has taken lives, and has resigned himself to it, to doing whatever it takes to put an end to the awful evil, depravity and bloodshed happening in his home country. Meanwhile, he wonders about her, his beloved, fighting on the front line, but he has little further knowledge of her. Meanwhile, she undergoes her own journey, fighting for him but with no knowledge of his whereabouts or if he is even alive.

That was my prompt. And unable to wait for Book 7's release, I built a story around that image. I slowly developed an ending to the series, the way I would end it, were I J.K. Rowling. Many things helped me build this world. I felt it doable. During high school (and later university) I had studied World War II and Nazism extensively. I had seen fascist propaganda, had read extracts from their literature. I had read extensive (and disturbing) details from the concentration camps and the battle fronts. I took special interest in Germans who opposed Hitler, and were often killed for it. I was especially touched by the stories of the White Rose and Helmuth Hübener. They became part of my inspiration, both for this story and the novel I intend to later base on it.

My father worked in a university library, and I'd spent many hours of my childhood there, encouraged to read in any genre or area that struck my fancy. I'd always had an inquisitive nature, and in addition to modern history I'd also grown up learning about physics and natural science, and later philosophy and religious thought as I progressed in my education. When I began developing this story, I studied the classical elements and the medieval theories about the humors. I learned a little bit about alchemy. I read fantasies and became particularly fascinated with dragons, faeries, goblins, and the World War II folk story of the gremlin.

I also harbored a guilty enjoyment of computer games, typically from the science-fiction and fantasy genres. As a teenager one of my personal favorites was the Myst series, which offered a wonderful blend between the two genres. I also loved The Elder Scrolls and Halo, among other games.

I was equally drawn to literature, reading classics in all time periods. My favorite was Pride and Prejudice (and remains so), but I also loved the works of Goethe (particularly the first part of Faust), and the poetry of T.S. Eliot and Siegfried Sassoon. In popular literature, I also loved The Lord of the Rings and Ursula LeGuin's "Earthsea" stories. I read whatever crossed my fancy, and of course, all that my history, German, and literary studies classes required.

All of these provided ideas that enabled me to write this story, one that currently is a Harry Potter-themed story, but which, after its completion, I intend to rewrite as a publishable series of novels. The key to being able to write well is being able to write and read well. I had wanted to be a writer since I was very young, but it was this idea, what became the "Penumbra" series, that really put me into practice.