JK Rowling tells story of alter ego Robert Galbraith

Harry Potter author explains how she gave her crime-writing alter ego Robert Galbraith his name, and why she went undercover for projected series of novels

 JK Rowling chose her alter ego of Robert Galbraith by conflating the name of her political hero Robert F Kennedy and her childhood fantasy name "Ella Galbraith", the Harry Potter writer has explained on her alternative persona's official author website.

The author, who was outed last week as the writer of detective novel The Cuckoo's Calling, also confirmed that she has "just finished the sequel" – the first of a projected series featuring sleuth Cormoran Strike – which is to be published in 2014.

Amid the FAQs on the official Robert Galbraith author website, Rowling declared "I successfully channelled my inner bloke!" when editor David Shelley, who first read the novel without knowing who its true author was, said, "I never would have thought a woman wrote that."

The Cuckoo's Calling, shot to No 1 in the hardback fiction charts last week, selling 17,662 copies after Rowling was revealed to be its author, charting above Dan Brown's Inferno at number two, and Second Honeymoon by James Patterson at number three. In the overall UK book charts, it reached third place, behind paperbacks of John Grisham's The Racketeer at No 1, and Rowling's previous adult novel The Casual Vacancy, which also climbed rapidly following the news, at number two.

Writing on the Galbraith website, Rowling reaffirmed the line that the pseudonymous story "was not a leak or marketing ploy by me, my publisher or agent, both of whom have been completely supportive of my desire to fly under the radar. If sales were what mattered to me most, I would have written under my own name from the start, and with the greatest fanfare."

The decision to choose a male pseudonym was driven by a desire to "take my writing persona as far away as possible from me", Rowling said. By choosing as her hero a military man working in national security – taking a lead from former SAS solider and bestselling author Andy McNab – she created an "excuse not to make personal appearances or to provide a photograph".

"When I was a child, I really wanted to be called Ella Galbraith, I've no idea why. The name had a fascination for me. I actually considered calling myself LA Galbraith for the Strike series, but for fairly obvious reasons decided that initials were a bad idea," Rowling said.

"I know a number of soldiers and I'm close to two people in particular who were incredibly generous as I researched my hero's background," Rowling wrote. Her military contacts also helped to construct a fake CV for Robert Galbraith. "One of these friends is from the Special Investigations Bureau. So while Strike himself is entirely fictional, his career and the experiences he's had are based on factual accounts of real soldiers."

Rowling also reveals that lead character's first name "was a gift from his flaky groupie of a mother, is unusual and a recurring irritation to him as people normally get it wrong; we sense that he would much rather be called Bob."

The character of Strike's assistant, Robin, a temporary secretary, grew "largely out of my own experiences as a temp, long ago in London where I could always make rent between jobs because I could type 100 words a minute due to writing fiction in my spare time."

The book's title is taken from A Dirge, the mournful poem by Christina Rossetti which is a lament for one who died too young.

Rowling was "yearning to go back to the beginning of a writing career in this new genre, to work without hype or expectation and to receive totally unvarnished feedback. It was a fantastic experience and I only wish it could have gone on a little longer," she said. Most of the Harry Potter books are "whodunits at heart", she added, saying that she "loves detective fiction".

Its London setting was chosen above Scotland, where Rowling lives, because "you could write about London all your life and not exhaust the plots, settings or history," she said.

Rowling's identity as the author of The Cuckoo's Calling was leaked last week by a friend of one of her lawyers. At that point, the book had sold 8,500 English-language copies across all formats (hardback, eBook, library and audiobook), and received two offers from television production companies.

"The situation was becoming increasingly complicated," Rowling admitted, "largely because Robert was doing rather better than we had expected … but we all still hoped to keep the secret a little longer. Robert's success during his first three months as a published writer (discounting sales made after I was found out) actually compares favourably with JK Rowling's success over the equivalent period of her career."

Steven Soderbergh donates $10,000 to Spike Lee's Kickstarter campaign

The 'Behind the Candelabra' director pledged a hefty chunk of cash to help Lee's new project get off the ground.

Spike Lee's Kickstarter campaign only launched on Monday, and he already has a celebrity 

donor.

The "Red Hook Summer" director revealed that fellow Hollywood filmmaker Steven Soderbergh 

pledged $10,000 to the campaign, the maximum donation amount available.

RELATED: SODERBERGH HAPPY THAT 'CANDELABRA' LANDED ON HBO

That means that Soderbergh has earned dinner with Lee and a courtside seat at a Knicks 

game.

"I'm taking him to dinner and we're going to the game together," Lee told NextMovie. "I 

don't even know if he likes sports! So I'm gonna pick the game for him. But I'm giving a 

huge shout-out to my man Steven Soderberergh for the support and I'm really humbled with 

Steven coming on board and doing that."

RELATED: SO MUCH FOR STEVEN SODERBERGH'S RETIREMENT!

Lee is seeking $1,250,000 to fund a mysterious new film project, which he describes as 

"funny, sexy, and bloody (and it's not 'Blacula')."

"I have a different vision of what cinema can be, a different vision of what some under-

served audiences might want to see," Lee wrote. "That is why I am here on Kickstarter, to 

raise the funds for the new Spike Lee joint, to get this bad boy financed."

RELATED: SPIKE LEE SUPPORTS MADISON SQUARE GARDEN STAYING PUT

"I promise on my mother's grave and right hand to the almighty-ever red cent, every wooden 

nickel, every dollar will go up on the screen and not into my pocket," the director 

continued.

As of publication, Lee had raised $107,434, with another 28 days to go to reach his goal.

'The Wolverine': Movie Review

Hugh Jackman has the role of the mutant superhero down pat, but the rest of the film is the same old slice and dice

Logan's (Hugh Jackman) adamantium claws are more than a match for ninja steel.

• Title: 'The Wolverine'
• Film Info: With Hugh Jackman The clawed mutant hero fights an evil dynasty in Japan. Director: James Mangold (2:09). PG-13: Extreme comic-book violence. At area theaters, in 3-D where available. Opens Thursday night.

In a summer of seemingly ageless superheroes, Wolverine stands alone.

Unlike Superman, the Lone Ranger, Capt. Kirk and Mr. Spock, this eternally young mutant has  been played by only one actor, Hugh Jackman. Good thing the Aussie star has the role down to a science, since the rest of  “The Wolverine” is a howler.

Jackman rolled out Wolverine in 2000’s “X-Men.” In 2009, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” was all backstory, forcing this new flick to follow-up 2006’s “X-Men: The Last Stand.” (You need to have mutant powers to keep it all straight.)

Rila Fukushima as Yukio in "The Wolverine."

A prelude shows the stogie-chomping, bone-clawed mutant known as Logan helping a Japanese soldier survive the atomic blast at Nagasaki. Then we flash-forward to the present day, with Logan living in the Yukon to escape his memories of having killed his true love, Jean Grey (Famke Janssen, who cameos here as a ghostly vision from beyond).

Then a mysterious woman, Yukio (Rila Fukushima), finds him to say the now-aged soldier he saved in 1945 is on his deathbed and wants to see him. Once there, Logan gets embroiled in a melodrama involving the yakuza, the snake-like mutant Viper (Svetlana Khodchenkova), the old soldier’s family and a plan to steal Logan’s fast-healing power.

Jackman, like Sean Connery after six turns as James Bond, wears Logan like a second skin — his scowl alone says a thousand words. Logan is both the ultimate X-Man and the audience’s stand-in, and Jackman never loses sight of either side of his signature role. It’s put to best use in a scene where he has to extract a weapon from his own heart.

The claws come out more than once for Logan (Hugh Jackman) in "The Wolverine."

Unfortunately, the rest of the film becomes standard slice-and-dice, all the way to the ridiculous ending involving a baddie in adamantium armor. Director James Mangold (“Heavy,” “Walk the Line”) deals with human-scale emotions, and as much as he and the screenwriters try, there’s a constant battle between Jackman’s wounded, mutton-chopped masculinity and the requisite silliness of a superhero flick. They never gel.

There’s the usual villain problem (too many of them — and none of them memorable) and a tone that may take parents of young Wolverine fans by surprise: In the first 10 minutes alone, a nuke goes off, Jean is gored by Logan in a dream and someone gets an arrow through the hand. This is comic-book stuff for adults, not kids.

Wolverine himself remains a haunted figure — lonely as a werewolf, deadly as Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name — but there’s only so much sympathy we can give him. He thinks he’s out, and people obsessed with mutants pull him back in. Then he snarls, they’re gored and we’re bored.