USA Today published their interview with author JK Rowling, who, among many new comments, admitted that the idea for The Casual Vacancy came nearly immediately after the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows five summers ago. Rowling also comments, for the first time, on whether or not she believes The Casual Vacancy can be adapted into a film. Much more on the book itself - containing spoilers - and her life as a celebrity in her hometown of Edinburgh, can be read here.

On Pottermore: "That's a nice giveback to fans, and it's nice for me too because it's a very low-pressure way of doing it. I can release material when and as I want. I'm also generating a little new material on the site for free, and I've loved that."

On her participation in the London Olympic opening ceremony and seeing the massive Voldemort: "when that section arrived and the huge Voldemort grew up out of the middle of the stage, I had one of these moments that I have every so often when my entire body goes cold and I think, 'How the hell did this happen?' And I'm staring at this 18-meter high Voldemort or whatever he was and I was thinking, 'That was once an idea in my head that no one knew about.' It was a few scribbled lines on the back of an envelope, and now it's represented on arguably the biggest stage in the world."

Rowling won't set in stone when she'll next publish. "I don't want to commit. I was simultaneously devastated and liberated actually by finishing the Potter books. I truly was devastated -- 'My God, it's over. I will never again write Harry, Ron and Hermione,' but at the same time there was a massive sense of liberation so, selfishly, I don't wish to promise I will produce a book a year from here on in. I feel free now. Maybe that sense of freedom will mean I produce books more frequently. It could be. I just don't know."

On where the idea for The Casual Vacancy came from: "I can't remember what triggered it," she says. "It just came to me. It's hard to sum up the idea, but it was for a disrupted local election, and I could see immediately that that was a perfect way to get into a small community, of examining a lot of different characters of different ages. I'm very drawn to that type of book. I like to get in among a set of people and get to know them very well."

"I don't think everyone will like the book," she says. "But I'm proud of this book. I like this book. It is what it's meant to be. As an author, you really can't say more than that. I don't mean this arrogantly, but if people don't like it, well, that's how it should be, isn't it? That's art. It's all subjective. And I can live with that."

"As much as is possible I wanted [The Casual Vacancy] to be a normal book publication. Some of the furor that surrounded a Harry Potter publication was fun. I always loved meeting readers. I always loved doing events where I got to speak to readers, but some of it, candidly, wasn't fun at all.

"[The Casual Vacancy] took on a life of its own. Some of it was just sheer insanity, and I couldn't control it. I couldn't stop it. I couldn't rein it in. Incredible as it is to look back on it, I'm never going to be chasing that again. It was an amazing time, but it was also often stressful, and it felt like a massive weight of expectation. This is a very different kind of book, and I'm very happy that we're just doing it differently."

"I think there's a possibility that some people will not enjoy the book. It is a very English book, and it needs to be a very English book, because I'm talking very specifically about a society I know very well.

"I do think the themes in the book do translate across any national border because ultimately we're talking about our human responsibility, whether you think we should all be entirely self-reliant and people sink or swim, or you think we should be extending a helping hand and whether that should come from government and so on. And these are very contemporary themes in a lot of countries, particularly in the financial mess in which we find ourselves."

On adapting her book for adults into a movie: "Personally, I don't think this is a very filmable book. That is one of the things I like about it. I think it's a very novelly novel in that a lot of what goes on happens internally. You need to understand what's going on inside people's heads. So even though a lot happens in the novel, part of the appeal of it for me is that so much of it happens in people's interior life, and film isn't necessarily the best medium to portray that."

Her next possible book, one aimed at kids ages 7-8. "I think the next thing I publish will be for children, but I don't really want to be held to that because I also know what my next book for adults will be and I really like that too so it depends. I've always had more than one thing going."

Pre-order J.K. Rowling's 512-page book The Casual Vacancy now, via:

Amazon.com - The Casual Vacancy Hardcover | The Casual Vacancy Kindle
Amazon.co.uk - The Casual Vacancy Hardcover | The Casual Vacancy Kindle
Amazon Canada - The Casual Vacancy Hardcover | The Casual Vacancy Audio CD

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