Conjuring the Muse of Hogwarts by Connie Berry

If Harry Potter was born (as J. K. Rowling revealed recently on Twitter) in a tiny flat above a sporting goods store in south London, the bespectacled orphan-wizard gained his powers in the back room of The Elephant House, a charming red-painted tea and coffee house just off Cowgate in Edinburgh's Old Town. There, at a seat by the window, Ms. Rowling famously wrote much of her first two novels. With massive Edinburgh Castle looming above and historic Holyrood Palace a short stroll away, I can't imagine a more inspiring place to court the Muse.

In theory.

Fame, as Ms. Rowling has no doubt learned, comes with a price. The last time I was in Edinburgh, the queue at The Elephant snaked out the door and halfway down George IV Bridge Street. There wasn't a seat available, for setting up a laptop or sipping coffee or anything else. Ian Rankin and Alexander McCall Smith are said to frequent The Elephant. Maybe on a cold day in January.

So popular with Rowling's fans is The Elephant House that the proprietors have given up removing graffiti from the loos. The walls are now so plastered with messages that determined Potterheads have taken to writing on the windows, the ceiling, the door frames, the paper towel holder, and even the soap dispenser. The messages run the gamut from touching and profound to downright cheeky. One reads: "You taught me how to read, love and believe, thank you JK always." Another says: "I'd get sleazy for Ron Weasley." If customers complain about the mess, said House manager, Roxy Hessami, "We have to tell them we can't control it....It's not like we give them pens."

The owners used to repaint the toilets every year but have now given it up as a lost cause. "After it was painted once," Hessami said, "a note about who was in Dumbledore's Army had three tallies next to it. By the end of the day, it was at 83." One time someone wrote, "The service is so slow in here anyone could write a book." 

They did paint over that one.

I can't claim a writing space as quaint or historic as The Elephant House, but my favorite place to write is at my desk overlooking the lake and woods in northern Wisconsin. There's something about nature that fuels my imagination. Maybe it's the peace and quiet. I can't imagine battling Voldemort—or even Draco Malfoy—with noisy coffee-drinkers jostling at my elbow.

More power to J. K. Rowling. I wonder where she writes now?

Authors, do you have a favorite place to write?

Will you tell us about it?