By Jim Knippenberg / The Cincinnati Enquirer

This much we know about J.K. Rowling's sixth Harry Potter book: It's going to happen.

When? Not decided. Title? Still a secret. Harry's adventures? An even bigger secret.

Cinescape, the fantasy fan Web site, has reported that book six will begin printing Sept. 8.

Not true.

Another site theorizes that since book five, Order of the Phoenix, was released on June 21, the summer solstice, we can look for the sixth to come out Sept. 22, the autumn equinox.

Also not true. Fans are in the dark, but even Scholastic, Rowling's publisher, has been left guessing: "I know she's still writing, but that's all I know for sure," said Scholastic publicist Chris Moran. "We have no idea of its title or length and no indication of when it will publish. I won't even take a guess."

Local fans won't roll the dice, either. "I haven't heard a thing about book six," says fan John Hacker, 61. "I just finished re-reading the 870-page book five and have started on book three for the third time to get ready to see the new movie. And yes . . . I just might go to a bookstore party and get the new book at midnight" whenever it comes out.

Fan Anna Sturm, who had her senior class picture taken in a Harry Potter T-shirt, hasn't heard a word about book six, but has heard that Rowling plans to write more books after No. 7, the supposed end of the series, and that maybe it will extend "into Harry's life after school. . . In book six it would be great if no one had to die. I hated to see Sirius die in book five since I really wanted Harry to be able to leave the Dursleys and go to live with Sirius."

The logical thing to do would be to ask Rowling, but she isn't talking except on her Web site (jkrowling.com): "Book six is well under way, horary, though I am still at the stage where I have a large and complicated chart propped on the desk in front of me to remind me what happens where, how, to whom and which bits of crucial information need to be slipped into which innocent-looking chapter."

The reason she's behind, she added in a March 15 entry, is because she took a break when her son, David, was born a little more than a year ago.

Her site doesn't give many hints about the content, but she did drop a few in an interview with www.wizardnews.com. Such as:

A new romance for Harry? "He'll be busy, but what's life without a little romance?"

More and stronger powers for Harry? Yep, "he's really progressing as a wizard now."

And the title? "It will be called Harry Potter and . . . Catchy, don't you think?"

Well, that's something, at least.

E-mail jknippenberg@enquirer.com