"I'm afraid not," Howl said. "You've had your time."

Today I heard some unfortunate news; Ms. Diana Wynne Jones passed away on March 26th, having suffered from lung cancer for a few years.

Diana Wynne Jones

16 August 1934 – 26 March 2011

So, one great fantasy author fewer in the land of the living. Fortunately her stories will live much longer. However, it's sad there will be no more stories featuring my dear Howl Jenkins, who's simply an awesome fictional character. Ever since I read an interview with her in which she said she might still write yet another story (after House of Many Ways) I had really been looking forward to it. I would have loved to read something with Howl as the main character again.

But time's our enemy, so rest in peace, Diana.

Howl's Moving Castle is the only book that has ever insprired me to write even remotely good fanfiction. Genereally, I neither read nor write fanfiction remarkably often, but a few years ago I started writing a HMC fic, which exploded from a planned two-shot to a long story with 13 chapters and 20k+ words. And its success has really surprised me. o_O I still keep getting email notifications when people add it to their favourite stories or whatsoever. I kind of promised to write a sequel – but yeah, it's been a year and a half already. I've been so awfully busy, and I don't even enjoy writing so much. However, I've had an idea all along. Maybe I will, one day (after graduation?), write that short story, just to honour Ms. Jones' memory and keep my promise to my readers?

And last but not least, one of my favourite Howl quotes:

"I give up. I see no point in living if I can't be beautiful."
— Howl