EVANNA Lynch, the young actress from Co. Louth currently co-starring in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as Luna Lovegood, has been spending her time since the movie's hectic opening honing her talent as a writer. Evanna, who'll turn sweet 16 next week, has spent part of the summer at an Irish school for promising teen writers, but competing with Harry creator J.K. Rowling isn't in the cards, she says.

"I'm doing speculative fiction and it's very challenging but it's very good," she told the Irish Independent. "I don't think I would be good enough to write a book like J.K. Rowling though. Her way of writing is so brilliant. She is my idol.

"It's nice to have a challenge like this. I do three to five hours of part-time tuition on the set and it's quite hard because it's very intense."

The program is run by the Irish Center for Talented Youth, and at the end students have to complete one full story or chapter that will be read to submit for publication.

Evanna is obviously one smart cookie, as admittance into the summer program is based on a system of testing similar to our SATs; eligible students must rank in the top 5%.

Evanna will also have a role in the next Potter film, which is due to begin production next month.