What I’ve Always Wanted To Say To JK Rowling (Part 1 of 2)

I’ve been struggling with this blog, and how to make it more personal. I feel like I’m standing on a ship’s deck, calling out of a far away island. Today, that changes. I’ve decided to post the letter I will be sending to Jo in the next few weeks. I’ve polished and polished…thought long and hard about what I wanted to say. You all, the Leaky faithful, and my friends, get a sneak peek…in 2 parts. Hope you enjoy, and get a more clear picture of who I am and why I’m here!

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Dear Ms. Rowling –

I’ve probably written this letter about 20 times, to the point where I have it memorized, so I will first thank you for taking the time to read it. It’s been a long time in the making…and you taking the time to read it means the world to me.

My name is Mary Jane Harper. I work for Leaky…in more capacities than I can even count. I moderate the forum (spoilers beware…there were none on our watch in June/July!!), I moderate in the Corner Booth (which is Leaky’s Text chat), and, most recently was named Co-Lead Coordinator of LeakyCon 2009…a fan-conference we are organizing with all proceeds going to benefit the Harry Potter Alliance and Book Aid International. I’m sure, by this resume, it’s obvious that I love Leaky…but our family would not exist without you…without Harry. So, again, I thank you for sharing your vision with the world, and allowing a catalyst for us to find each other. It’s a pretty amazing thing to be involved in.

I wouldn’t be involved with Leaky if I had never picked up your books. I hated reading. It’s not that I can’t read, and it’s not as though I’m not smart, but reading was never introduced to me in my childhood to be something that was worthwhile, or even important. There was always something else to do. So, it really is nothing short of a miracle that I even found Harry Potter. I am a latecomer…I didn’t begin reading until about a month before Half Blood Prince was released. At 25, I was facing my third major abdominal surgery in as many years, because I had a knack for growing tumors on my ovaries and in my uterus. At 25, my doctors had finally decided it was time for a hysterectomy. Looking at another 10-12 week stint without living any sort of normal life, I was not relishing the idea of “time off” from work, school and friends. As much as I adore television, I couldn’t stomach the idea of trashy soap operas and The Oprah Winfrey Show sustaining me during that time. I had heard about the upcoming release of your sixth book in the Harry Potter series, and decided that there were worse things than reading…like suffering brain dry-rot from too many reruns of “Everybody Loves Raymond”. A week before my surgery, I went down to my favorite bookstore and purchased the first 5 books, and got on Amazon.com to preorder the sixth. I brought the books home and laid them out on the kitchen table, vastly intimidated by the number of pages I had just committed myself to reading. Then, the pessimist in me thought I had better start reading one (in case I didn’t like it…I would still need time to come up with something else to do if my original game plan didn’t work! A truly laughable notion now). Since I had seen the first 3 movies, I thought it would be safe to pick up Goblet of Fire and start there. The rest is history; I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it. I finished Goblet of Fire in about 3 days (which was no small feat, as I was still working 50 hours a week, going to school part-time and running Karaoke at a bar 8 hours a week). When they were rolling me into surgery, my mom had to struggle to pry Order of the Phoenix out of my hand. It’s a joke now, but I remember telling her, “just make sure it’s on my bedside table when I wake up, okay?!” She says the desperation in my voice was a telltale sign that I was addicted. After the surgery, I went back and reread 1-5 in preparation for HBP to land on my doorstep, and I haven’t stopped reading them since.

to be continued