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OUR NEW CLUES SAGA We keep getting these ideas... Like -- "let's do a Hints Guide in 3 months." Why do we do this to ourselves? No sane person would have ever thought of such a thing...let alone tried it. (Then again, did we ever say we were sane?) That means we had to read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, (at least twice), research it, sleuth it, write the guide, get a cover for the guide, edit the guide, typeset the guide, and get it to the printer -- in 12-14 weeks -- we just squeaked it in there. Obviously, we're not sane, but at least we don't lead dull lives ;o) For the past 3 months we have been doing nothing else besides writing the book -- and a few mundane chores like going to work, taking care of kids, doing laundry, and buying groceries. On second thought...sometimes we didn't even make it to the groceries (unless the oatmeal ran out). Well... the Guide is done. It's at the printer. It should start to show up in stores by the 3rd week in November. It is one of the fastest turn-arounds for a book that you can do -- considering that we had to find all the clues before we could even begin to write it! Note: because of that, once again, the editing isn't perfect -- plus more than ever, you have to watch for our own puns and double-meanings, so don't assume something is an error. Thank you for being patient and waiting. It's been a rough three months. But please don't send the e-owls to us just yet... we have to put our lives back in order (translation - do some grocery shopping and get some sleep!). So, we won't be back online for a few weeks, but it's not long now. HOWEVER... For those of you who have not seen the description of this next Guide, it is called New Clues to Harry Potter: Book 5 and is a HINTS-ONLY Guide. It is not the kind of book you can sit down and read. It is intended strictly as a detective guide -- a reference pecked with clues. We can tell you that if you are ready to do the work, there are at least three (3) sub-plots we discovered in Book 5, which J.K.R. NEVER REVEALED!!! She is a tricky lady. Those are major sub-plots that will be exposed in Books 6 & 7 -- and if you do your HP Sleuth detective work, you can figure them out yourself! In addition, there are several intriguing new mysteries that could keep you busy for months having fun speculating about them. Our hints will guide you through it all, but you will have to connect the dots yourself. It was really difficult to write the clues so that you would have enough hints to solve it yourself - without just giving it away. We tested it on several people, so we found the best balance we could. What we are assuming is that you will all be comparing notes anyway and will spend fun time discussing it all and working it out together. Here is our new Guide Introduction - which is the rationale for how we put together this special version of our Ultimate Unofficial Guide: Welcome back, HP Sleuths, welcome back! Thank you for your support. It is because of you that we are able to continue publishing. J.K. Rowling has done it again! Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is not only big and mean, it’s a literary tour de force. And it’s pecked...that is...packed with clues on every page! Harry Potter fans have been given a difficult task if they wish to find and decipher all those clues. In a personal appearance at Royal Albert Hall, J.K.R. put up the challenge when she said: “I had to put in some things because of what’s coming in books 6 and 7 . . . I want you to be able to guess if you’ve got your wits about you.” Now, what self-respecting HP Sleuth could resist that challenge? Not us. ;) STOP! BRAINWORK AHEAD This Guide needs an explanation. Our New Clues Guide isn’t really a separate book. It should be considered either an addendum to the “Ultimate Unofficial Guide to the Mysteries of Harry Potter (Analysis of Books 1-4),” or a prequel to an “(Analysis of Book 5).” You can think of it as your “scribbler” sleuthing guide. It is not quite the same kind of guide as our first one, since this is a “Hints-only” edition. The purpose of this scribbler sleuthing guide is to help HP Sleuths who are trying to do some of their own detective work. Should you buy this Guide?
Did you know it took us almost two years to research and write our analysis of Books 1-4? As Book 5 is approximately the length (in words) of J.K.R.’s first three books combined, it would have taken us at least a year to research and write an analysis of it. We had some other difficult issues. We had considered just updating the original Guide by appending this new section to the end of it and making it longer. But then, that would be unfair to the people who have already bought it. We banged our heads (Dobby-style) trying to decide how to do it. Some HP Sleuths wanted us to wait until they had time to work out the clues for themselves. Others have been impatiently pelting us with e-owls for our analysis. If we were to give a lot away right now, those people who want to discover the clues for themselves would be miffed. However, those who want answers right away would have to wait about a year for a proper analysis. What to do? We conjured a win-win solution. This is a “Hints-only” guide. It includes a trunk’s worth of FAQs to explain some of the more complex events that have been bugging you about Book 5. It also points HP Sleuths to the right sections so you know precisely where to look for all the mega clues we have spotted, and includes the tools that you need so you can find the clues and start solving the mysteries. The HP Hintoscope, WWP Sleuthoscope and Rememberit Quill are all here to help – along with a new, very rare tool called a “Philological Stone.” But we won’t be openly exposing all of the answers in this “New Clues” Guide. This guide is different in some other ways too. Please note: New Spoiler Warning!
We think this Hints guide will be a lot of fun for HP Sleuths. Please keep in mind that it was researched and written in only three (sleepless) months. Our plan (cross fingers!), is to release the Ultimate Unofficial Guide to the Mysteries of Harry Potter (Analysis of Book 5) sometime later. That will have the same format as our original Guide. It will have the answers to these hints, cool observations, and all the Rowlinguistics – along with our popular summary of the mysteries. It also will have our famous “Restricted Area” - containing speculations about what will happen in Book 6 and Beyond. Any additional clues that we have uncovered by then will be included, as well. If you don’t feel like doing the legwork yourself, you can wait until later next year. However, if you just can’t sit still until then, dig your HP Sleuth Magical Toolkit out of your trunk and get crackin’ on these clues... WE’RE GOING SNARK HUNTING! |
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