JK Rowling makes here big announcements on her personal website,
www.jkrowling.com. You have to go through puzzles and riddles to get to her big announcements. Today, she finally announced the completion of
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book in the series. An announcement of the release date is expected within 24 hours from her publishers. Here's the exaxt message from her website.
20th December 2004
I know you all expected this to happen on Christmas Day, but I was sure that those of you who celebrate Christmas have better things to do on the day itself than fight your way into my study, whereas those of you who DON'T celebrate Christmas would definitely prefer not to wait until the twenty-fifth- so...
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is COMPLETED and has been delivered to my English language publishers, who hope to announce the publication date within 24 hours.
Although I have joked about HP&THBP racing my third baby into the world, I have in fact had all the time I needed to tinker with the manuscript to my satisfaction and I am happy as I have ever been with the end result. I only hope you feel that it was worth the wait when you finally read it!
Wishing everybody a wonderful holiday and happy and peaceful 2005,
With love from,
J. K. Rowling