Technical writing didn't exist 50 years ago, but like journalism or copy writing, it provides a "great, practical, roll-up-your-sleeves" practice to creative writing, said Scott Hatch Tuesday night to a dozen members of the Intermountain Chapter of the Society of Technical Communicators. Before becoming an academic, Hatch was a technical writer in the software industry. He also writes poetry. Signature Books this year published his collection of poems, "Mapping the Bones of the World."

During his presentation Tuesday, Hatch alternated reading his poetry and sharing his ideas about technical and creative writing. And there isn't much of a difference between writing forms, he said. He tells his students to "observe, observe, observe with all your senses. And document." Good writing, regardless of whether it's poetry or technical, is precise and clear.

"I think in the technical writing world, we are trying to create a one-to-one correspondence to reality," Hatch said. "In poetry, that one-to-one is paramount as well, but it doesn't end there. That is the gateway" to transcendental ideas. "I think technical writing is probably in some ways, in many important ways, a better education for a creative writer than creative writing," he said. In class, Hatch does not assign readings from Microsoft or Adobe manuals. The manuals are tedious and he's afraid they will discourage would-be technical writers from entering the field. "Although, that might convince them, 'Hey, there is a place in the world for me. I can make a difference,'" Hatch said, and the audience members laughed as they considered examples of poor writing.

Instead, Hatch requires students read "Young Men and Fire," by Norman Maclean, author of "A River Runs through It." The book is about a 1949 wildfire in rural Montana that left 13 firefighters dead or severely burned. Maclean started the book nearly 30 years after the fire, yet critics admired its thoroughness. Hatch believes the book is "good solid writing."

It's something about the actual Harry Potter narrative that makes it cross the boundary. It's a very specific type of Hero's Journey, the most potent sub-case. It's told over and over again, and it works, over and over again. Dorothy Gale, Buffy Summers, Harry Potter, Charlie Bucket, Luke Skywalker, even Peter Parker, they all fit a very specific pattern. They're living a life, sometimes a fine one, often a troubled one, but certainly one governed by ordinary rules, when suddenly the curtain is pulled back and a whole new world, or a new set of rules of this world, is revealed. And what's more - and this is the important part - in that new world, they are something special. They are The Chosen One.

I would argue that these stories have a more universal appeal then, say, "Star Trek" in its various incarnations, or "Firefly," or "Battlestar Galactica," as much as those shows all own my heart (and to some degree, pay my bills). And it's no wonder. The Chosen One paradigm is the most positive, most comforting, most affirming metaphorical version of change, of growing up, that I can imagine.

The iterations of Potter fraud and imitation here are, in fact, so copious they must be peeled back layer by layer. There are the books, like the phony seventh novel, that masquerade as works written by Ms. Rowling. There are the copies of the genuine items, in both English and Chinese, scanned, reprinted, bound and sold for a fraction of the authorized texts. As in some other countries, there are the unauthorized translations of real Harry Potter books, as well as books published under the imprint of major Chinese publishing houses, about which the publishers themselves say they have no knowledge. And there are the novels by budding Chinese writers hoping to piggyback on the success of the series - sometimes only to have their fake Potters copied by underground publishers who, naturally, pay them no royalties.

No one can say with any certainty what the full tally is, but there are easily a dozen unauthorized Harry Potter titles on the market here already, and that is counting only bound versions that are sold on street corners and can even be found in school libraries. Still more versions exist online. These include Harry Potter and the Half-Blooded Relative Prince, a creation whose name in Chinese closely resembles the title of the genuine sixth book by Ms. Rowling, as well as pure inventions that include Harry Potter and the Hiking Dragon, Harry Potter and the Chinese Empire, Harry Potter and the Young Heroes, Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon, and Harry Potter and the Big Funnel.

Some borrow little more than the names of Ms. Rowling's characters, lifting plots from other well-known authors, like J. R. R. Tolkien, or placing the famously British protagonist in plots lifted from well-known kung-fu epics and introducing new characters from Chinese literary classics like Journey to the West. Here, the global Harry Potter publishing phenomenon has mutated into something altogether Chinese: a combination of remarkable imagination and startling industriousness, all placed in the service of counterfeiting, literary fraud and copyright violation.

Wang Lili, editor of the China Braille Publishing House, which published Harry Potter and the Chinese Porcelain Doll in 2002, one of the Chinese knockoffs, said: "We published the book out of a very common incentive. Harry Potter was so popular that we wanted to enjoy the fruits of its widely accepted publicity in China." The attitude reflected in Ms. Wang's comment goes a long way toward explaining not only the explosion of unauthorized Harry Potter literature in China, but also the much larger problem of rampant piracy in China, where travelers can find six different knockoffs of Viagra, without prescription, on display at airport drugstores, and where bootleg DVDs, fake Picassos, and even near-identical copies of famous-brand automobiles are widely available.

• Autographed copy of The Silver Moon Elm by MaryJanice Davidson and Anthony Alongi (Berkley Jam), the exciting new adventure in the New York Times bestselling Jennifer Scales urban fantasy adventure series. Jennifer is a normal teen with abnormal problems: she's half-weredragon, half-beaststalker.
  
  
• Inspired Creative Writing: Pokes and Prods for Scribblers of All Stripes by Alexander Gordon Smith (Perigee), the offbeat and accessible guide to help aspiring authors get their imaginations flowing.
  
  
• Unaccompanied Women: Late-Life Adventures in Love, Sex and Real Estate by Jane Juska (Villard), the funny, sexy and frank story of a woman who refuses to give up dating, fun and adventures just because she's passed the big 60.
  
  
• Dead Ex by Harley Jane Kozak (Doubleday), the fabulously fun mystery set in the fascinating world of soap operas.
  
  

Emissions from office laser printers can be as unhealthy as cigarette smoke, according to an Australian professor who is now calling for regulations to limit printer emissions. Office workers breathing easy since smoking was banned in public places in the United States and the United Kingdom have new reason to worry, according to research from the Queensland University of Technology's Air Quality and Health Program, led by physics professor Lidia Morawska.

The average printer releases toner particles that can get deep into the lungs and cause respiratory problems and cardiovascular trouble, according to Morawska's team, part of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health, and specialists in atmospheric particles. The team tested 62 laser printer models--all relatively new--and found that 17 of them were "high emitters" of toner particles. Despite using similar technology, office photocopiers do not emit particles, the team found.

The particles have not had a full chemical analysis, but some are potential carcinogens, according to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald. Several of the high emitters were Hewlett-Packard LaserJet models, such as the 1320 and 4250, although eight HP LaserJet 4050 series printers were shown to have no emissions, according to reports. The printer emissions data were discovered by chance when an investigation of office ventilation systems, carried out jointly between the university and the Queensland Department of Public Works, found five times as many particles indoors as those produced by traffic outdoors. Using an electronic sniffer, researchers traced the emissions to printers. The emissions were found to increase during the day, when printers were left on standby or in full operation.

Following the revelation, Morawska's team tested their own printers and moved the unhealthy ones away from people. The researchers are now calling for regulations on printer emissions. The study included Canon, HP LaserJet, Ricoh and Toshiba printers. The university had not released comprehensive results by the time this story was published. HP said it was currently assessing the study's findings.

In the years since Voldemort's defeat, Harry and Ron have revolutionized the Auror Department at the Ministry of magic and Hermione is "pretty high up" in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. By the time of the epilogue when Harry is married to Ginny and has three children, he has risen to head of the Auror Department, but still finds time to go back to Hogwarts to give the odd lecture on Defense against the Dark Arts.

"Harry, Ron and Herimone don't join the same Ministry of Magic they had been at odds with for years; they revolutionize it and the ministry evolves into a "really good place to be. They made a new world."

*****

Luna Lovegood, the eccentric Ravenclaw who was fascinated with Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and Umgubular Slashkilters, continues to march to the beat of her own drum. "I think that Luna is now traveling the world looking for various mad creatures," Rowling said. "She's a naturalist, whatever the wizarding equivalent of that is." Luna does recognize the truth about her father, eventually acknowledging there are some creatures that don't exist. "But I do think that she's so open-minded and just an incredible person that she probably would be uncovering things that no one's ever seen before," Rowling said.

Butler begins the details of his missive: "Put down your cup of coffee or you might spill it. Elizabeth is leaving me for Ted Turner." This is clear, if a little dramatic, and if it had ended here, as a means of conveying sad but relevant news to close friends, then all would be fine. But, um, there's more.

He then tells readers that, as Dewberry has spoken about publicly, she had been sexually abused by her grandfather and that the abuse was "tacitly condoned by her radically Evangelical Christian parents." He says he was able to help her for a few years: "She says I saved her life." Still, she had issues, mainly that she was never able to "step out of the shadow" of his Pulitzer, even though "everyone has heard me proclaim my sincere high regard for her as an artist."

Then, he goes on to say, Dewberry "nearly died from an intestinal blockage in Argentina while on a trip with Ted" in March. This uncomfortable experience led her to leave him for said media mogul, he writes, perhaps because "it is very common for a woman to be drawn to men who remind them of their childhood abusers. Ted is such a man, though fortunately, he is far from being abusive. From all that I can tell, he is kind to her, loyal, considerate, and devoted to his family, and perhaps, therefore, he can redeem some things for her." (The thrice-divorced Turner has long been reported to have a vital and varied love life.)

In case -- and this is hard to believe -- his readers still wanted to know more, he let them know that "she will not be Ted's only girlfriend. Ted is permanently and avowedly non-monogamous. But though he has several girlfriends, it is a very small number, and he does not take them up lightly and he gives them his absolute support when he does. And Elizabeth's leaving me is as much about the three weeks a month she is alone as it is about the week a month she is with Ted. She will find her own space and her own light in which to create the great works of art she is destined to create."

He writes: "I will keep my house. I will keep my dogs and cats. I will keep virtually everything." He says, "I ask you not to think ill of her in any way."

Q: What do Israeli readers think of your hero, spy-assassin Gabriel Allon?

A: Unfortunately, because Israel is in a tough neighborhood, Gabriel Allon is inspired by truth. If you watch the movie "Munich," you know that there are people like Gabriel. I do get wonderful reaction from people in Israel. All too often they have become accustomed to being demonized simply because they are Israeli. They like seeing one of their own on the best-seller list in America.

Q: They don't think he's too cold?

A: Oh no, no. I think they recognize him as dead-on, actually (laughs). They don't see him as being too taciturn, misanthropic or melancholy. He's a child of Holocaust survivors. I talked to a clinical psychologist who has studied second-generation Holocaust-survivor syndrome. ... I apparently nailed it dead-on with Gabriel.

Q: What are some of the personality traits?

A: He's an art restorer and always covers the painting with a work shroud so people cannot see him working. He doesn't like people to see him when he's restoring. He does suffer from a bit of melancholia, as it were. His personal relationships are somewhat troubled.