J.K. Rowling

J.K.Rowling's real name is Joanne Rowling.  She had to change it to J.K. because Bloomsbury thought that her book Harry Potter and the  Philosophers Stone would not sell as well if boys thought it was written by a woman.  J.K. does not have a middle name but chose the 'K' for her grandmother Kathleen.  She was born on the 31st of July, 1965.  She will be 50 this year.  J.K. first got the idea for Harry Potter in a train.  She didn't want to forget her idea so she wrote it down on a napkin.  J.K. Rowling filled 5 notebooks with 'Q' words trying to get the right word.  She ended up with the word 'Quidditch'.  After she released her first novel Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone in 2001, she won the Order of the British Empire.  Her parents, Peter James and Anne Volant, met at Kings Cross, where Harry took the Hogwarts Express.  J.K. Rowling went from unemployed to a multi-millonaire in just 5 years.