Today’s Lake and Shed framed conversation is about J. K. Rowling’s second Cormoran Strike novel, The Silkworm. Nick and John discuss the date Rowling claims to have had her Lake inspiration for Silkworm, the first book idea she had for the series, and what that would mean, if true. The ‘Lake’ point that Nick reveals is the probable identity of ‘Jenkins,’ the mystery person to whom Strike 2 is dedicated, a revelation consequent to no little detective work (and a very close reading of Louisa May Alcott!). He also discusses some real-life literary infighting in contemporary London that might have been lifted from the pages of Silkworm. John argues that this ur-novel of the series, its point of conception, is Rowling’s not especially opaque guide to how to understand a novelist’s life and to appreciate their work, in short, her first ‘Lake and Shed’ discussion (albeit one embedded in story). He explores Kathryn Kent’s blog entry about Plot and Narrative as Rowling’s pointer to the syuzhet and Fabula distinction of the Russian Formalists, the key to understanding what writers do and create.

New to the Lake and Shed Kanreki Birthday series? Here’s what we’re doing:

On 31 July 2025, Joanne Murray, aka J. K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith, will be celebrating her 60th birthday. This celebration is considered a ‘second birth’ in Japan or Kanreki because it is the completion of the oriental astrological cycle. To mark JKR’s Kanreki, Dr John Granger and Nick Jeffery, both Nipponophiles, are reading through Rowling’s twenty-one published works and reviewing them in light of the author’s writing process, her ‘Lake and Shed’ metaphor. The ‘Lake’ is the biographical source of her inspiration; the ‘Shed’ is the alocal place of her intentional artistry, in which garage she transforms the biographical stuff provided by her subconscious mind into the archetypal stories that have made her the most important author of her age. You can hear Nick and John discuss this process and their birthday project at the first entry in this series of posts: Happy Birthday, JKR! A Lake and Shed Celebration of her Life and Work.

The nine HogwartsProfessor birthday videos posted thus far in this series can be read at the links below:

* A Lake and Shed Reading of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

* A Lake and Shed Reading of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

* A Lake and Shed Reading of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

* A Lake and Shed Reading of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

* A Lake and Shed Reading of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

* A Lake and Shed Reading of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

* A Lake and Shed Reading of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

* A Lake and Shed Reading of Casual Vacancy

* A Lake and Shed Reading of Cuckoo’s Calling

Tomorrow? It’s Career of Evil, the Comoran Strike novel unlike all others and one which Serious Strikers either love or love to hate.

Links to posts mentioned in today’s Lake and Shed conversation for further reading:

Does Rowling Merit the Nobel Prize in Literature?

* Syuzhet and Fabula

* Poeima, Genre, and Influence

* Literariness

Kathryn Kent’s Plot-Narrative Distinction

First Thoughts on The Silkworm

Beatrice Groves on Early Modern Revenge Drama and The Silkworm

* John’s Thoughts on the Poisoned Skeleton in The Silkworm

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