J.K. Rowling includes her own experience

J.K. Rowling includesher own experience
LONDON -- Author J.K. Rowling said in an interview published Tuesday that her mother's death while she was writing the Harry Potter books led her to make her hero suffer the death of his own parents.
Rowling said part of the pain of losing her mother Anne, who died in 1990 at the age of 45 after fighting multiple sclerosis for a decade, was that she never knew her daughter was writing the books.
"I know I was writing Harry Potter at the moment my mother died. I had never told her about Harry Potter," Rowling said in an interview with Tatler magazine that was published in Tuesday's Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Rowling, who was 25 at the time of her mother's death, said: "Barely a day goes by when I do not think of her. There would be so much to tell her, impossibly much."
The writer also said when her novels became world famous she had trouble dealing with the stardom.
"I've never said this before, but when I was repeatedly asked, 'How are you coping?' I would say, 'Fine.' I was lying to myself at the time. It was as though I had lived under a rock for a long time and suddenly someone had lifted it off and was shining a torch on me.
"And it's not that life under the rock was awful, but actually I was petrified and didn't know how to handle it."
Her tales of Harry Potter, the orphaned wizard, quickly became a literary success, selling more than 300 million books in 63 countries.
Pete Doherty chargedwith drug possession
LONDON -- Rock musician Pete Doherty has been charged with possession of cocaine and heroin, police said Tuesday.
The 26-year-old frontman for the group Babyshambles was arrested Nov. 30 and formally charged Monday.
Doherty -- whose on-off relationship with supermodel Kate Moss has made him a regular in the tabloids -- was scheduled to appear Wednesday at Ealing Magistrates Court in west London, police said.
A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman refused to comment on reports that Doherty had interrupted a live gig at the Koko club in London on Monday night to invite his fans to join him in court.
Brazilian musical starspatch up differences
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Two of Brazil's musical icons appear to have patched over a political feud that shocked the country.
Culture Minister Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso -- the team that created the Tropicalismo blend of samba, rock and protest music -- clashed last week when poet Ferreira Gullar said the ministry wanted absolute control over cultural projects, including the proposed creation of a National Cinema and Audiovisual Agency.
Gil's top aide responded by calling Gullar a former communist, "totalitarian" and "Stalinist."
Veloso sprang to Gullar's defense and appeared headed for a clash with Gil, his partner in opposition to Brazil's 1964-85 military regime and a symbol of the lilting music of northeastern Bahia state.
On Sunday, however, Veloso attended a show by Gil on Rio's Sugarloaf Hill and the two publicly hugged and made up.
"I didn't want Gil to be a cabinet minister," Veloso said in an interview with the Rio daily O Globo.
Gil said his aide shouldn't have criticized Gullar, and that his bond with Veloso had not been affected.
Today's birthdays
Jazz musician Max Roach is 82. Opera singer Sherrill Milnes is 71. Blues artist Eddy Clearwater is 71. Rock singer-musician Ronnie Hawkins is 71. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Willie McCovey is 68. Singer Scott McKenzie is 67. Movie director Walter Hill is 64. Singer Frank Sinatra Jr. is 62. Singer Rod Stewart is 61. Rock singer-musician Donald Fagen (Steely Dan) is 58. Actor William Sanderson is 58. Boxer George Foreman is 57. Singer Pat Benatar is 53. Rock musician Michel Schenker is 51. Singer Shawn Colvin is 48. Rock singer-musician Curt Kirkwood (Meat Puppets) is 47. Actor Evan Handler is 45. Rock singer Brad Roberts (Crash Test Dummies) is 42. Actress Trini Alvarado is 39. Rock musician Matt Roberts (3 Doors Down) is 28. Rapper Chris Smith (Kris Kross) is 27.