JK Rowlings it my new hero for a reason none of you would suspect

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

I've never read any of the Harry Potters series.

Full disclosure; when I was in fourth grade I tested at the same reading level as a college sophomore. I was put in an advanced reading class where we read macabre & scifi, It totally put me off all those subjects. I know that fantasy is different than scifi, but I still lump them in the same category. I never even got through Dune. But I just heard that Rowlings made sure that the Braille edition came out the same day as the sighted version & she insisted that the Braille edition did not cost any more. My nephew was blind. Braille editions always came out much later & cost way more. I will always respect Rowlings & wish her well.

BTW, I just heard she's worth 1 billion & is the richest woman in England. Is she richer than Liz? Just wondering.

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[alphafemale]

1. That is cool. She's probably bankrolling that.

Wonder if whe has someone close to her that's blind.

[Zomby Woof]

2. She IS richer than the Queen

But the money isn't what I admire, what I admire is she was self-made. She was a single mother "on benefits", who had a dream of writing this series. She would go to a café and work on it day after day.

The dream came true far larger than she could have ever imagined. I am sure she would have been thrilled if it was published and only sold 1,000 copies. She did it for the love of storytelling.

I hadn't heard about the Braille edition request she made. With her clout, it is good to see she puts it to its best use.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

3. That's how I feel.

She had the clout. I don't know why she chose to champion the blind, but she did.

I'm also thrilled with her success. Years ago when the second Harry Potter (or maybe the third} had children lining up for hours, there was a story on 60 minutes (I think). She showed this cardboard box where she kept all her notes that she had written over the years for the Harry Potter series. She had written them on legal paper, backs of envelopes, receipts, etc. In fact, anything she had on hand when an idea for the story came to her. She also said that when the first book came out the bookstores had no idea where to place her books. Children's? Scifi? Fantasy? Adult? There was no 'push' from the publisher & no book tour. Nothing. The books sold word-of-mouth from children who read it & talked to other children. That makes her success all the more remarkable. I was happy for her but really wasn't all that interested until it hit close to home that she's now using her clout for the blind & disabled. That makes me a very shallow person I know.

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[wakemeupwhenitsover]

4. Zomby, as an aside.

A few months ago you started a thread about Tommy's Original Chili Burgers (something like that). DH I were traveling down to SoCal in a few days & I made particular note of the restaurant. You should have mentioned that they were not meant to be eaten in the car! We loved them but I've never had a bigger mess!

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[Zomby Woof]

5. LOL!

That never occurred to me. Nini has a new car, and there is no way we would eat ANYTHING in it. I took it for granted the burgers would be eaten in the California sunshine at a table. :o Sorry!

:yoiks:

[blondeatlast]

6. She did the same with the Large Type edition, too.

Same day laydown (very unusual, usually a month passes before LT laydown), same price.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

7. She's obviously a class act.

Nice to see good people finish first.

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[Lisa]

8. that's neat

I had a blind classmate in college, and I know how difficult and expensive it was to get hold of Braille books for him. Kudos to JKR.