This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
JK Rowling has revealed plans to write more crime novels, published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, than she did for her beloved Harry Potter series.
Speaking on stage at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival with fellow author Val McDermid, Rowling was asked whether it was true that was going to write seven books under her alias.
“It's not seven,” she replied. “It's more. It's pretty open ended.”
This is quite different to her Harry Potter series, which was always set to culminate with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Firmly embracing her male crime writer nom de plume – with a brand new website, social media accounts and suit and tie for special appearances no less – the author has already penned two crime novels to acclaim. The second of the Cormoran Strike detective novels, The Silkworm, was published in June as Galbraith, a pseudonym originally utilised to keep her real identity secret.
Speaking about hiding her identity, Rowling said: "I wanted to prove to myself I could get a book published on the merits of the book. You probably have to be a writer to understand it. I wanted something that was just for me. While it lasted it was a lot of fun."Looking forward, Rowling hopes that her crime novels offer a modern approached to the “genuine whodunit style”.
“I love crime fiction. I've always loved it. I read a lot of it and I think, in many ways, that the Harry Potter books are whodunits in disguise,” she said.
“One of the things I absolutely love about this genre is that, unlike Harry, where there was an overarching story, a beginning and an end, you're talking about discrete stories. So while a detective lives, you can keep giving him cases.”
We’re thrilled to hear there’s plenty more to come from Rowling. Not to mention, it’s nice to know that the billionaire author of the best selling book series in history still requires validation for her work, isn’t it?
Have you read the Cormoran Strike detective novels? What do you think of them?