We are on the day before July, 2007, begins - aka "July's Eve." July, 2007, is the month Harry Potter fans have been looking forward to, and simultaneously dreading, for most of the past year. We look forward to the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix film and to the publication of the seventh and final novel in the Potter series: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Obviously, we have mixed feelings about this final book. On the one hand, the arrival of a new Potter novel is always an occasion of happiness. On the other hand, so long as the final novel had not appeared we were part of an on-going story involving characters about whom we had learned to care. With the appearance of Book 7, it would seem that the story ends. Author Rowling has said she wrote the final chapter, the denouement, of Book 7 some years ago. In it she indicates what happens to all the characters in later life. That seems to preclude any sequels, although prequels might be possible.
Presumably Potter fans would like there to be subsequent novels concerning the characters and "wizards' world" of the Potter books. Were Rowling not the wealthiest woman in the United Kingdom, as a result of her book/film/game royalties, we might have hoped for more Potter. However, as those of us who've done it know, writing is very hard work that doesn't get dramatically easier with practice. JK Rowling has very little need for additional money and is likely to write, if she writes anything at all, something quite unlike Potter to demonstrate that she is more than merely the modern world's best loved children's author.
Jo Rowling could do what many best-selling authors have done (c.f., Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Janet Evanovich, etc.), that is, take on one or more collaborators to carry on the series and extend the franchise. She could do this, but seems unlikely to do so based on the insights into her persona which have appeared in the press.
