JK Rowling finished off her New York City tour to promote the release of The Casual Vacancy on Tuesday evening at the Koch Theater in Lincoln Center. Rowling discussed the themes of her book at length, including its darker aspects and notable villains and non-heroes throughout. The Harry Potter author commented here and there about her famous series, noting that she had boxes of old notes about the Wizarding World still lying around, and that one of her most prized possessions was the first notes she took about Harry.

SnitchSeeker was at the event on Tuesday, and for those keeping tabs, mentioned highlights via our official Twitter throughout the night, including of meeting Rowling and getting a signed copy of The Casual Vacancy.

Photos of Rowling at the Koch Theater with moderator Ann Patchett can be seen here.

"I did feel the exact same powerful need to write the book, and need is the right word," Rowling said. "I think that I have had a very odd life and that I've moved through, economically speaking, I've been through virtually every variation you can have."

"It left me with me with an abiding, several abiding feelings about how we talk about the poor, how we discuss them, what it feels like to be poor, which can be a humiliating experience in ways well beyond those you may imagine if you've never been in that situation," Rowling said. "And all of that experience, though this is not a biography or memoir, could be used in this book."

"The biggest challenge wasn't, as many people suppose, 'you're writing in a contemporary world', 'you're writing in a real world', 'you haven't got magic to go to'," Rowling said. "No, and it sounds very dull, but the challenge was the structure of the book and I put a huge amount of work into that."

“People have sex in this book, but nobody really enjoys it. That’s the difference,” Rowling said of The Casual Vacancy, comparing it to 50 Shades of Grey.

The challenge was the structure of the book,” Rowling said. “I had a complicated diagram — arrows going in all directions.”

“Children are very familiar with fear,” Rowling said. “And children’s literature gives them a place to explore that.”

“There are a couple of scenes in the book that I dreaded writing,” said Rowling. “Dreaded writing. Which is how these things happen!” Rowling said. “That is the catastrophe in some people’s lives, to be powerless.”

“Discussing an idea before I’ve written it is the best way to kill it stone-dead,” she added.

“In an off-camera conversation with Jon Stewart about this... He asked, ‘when there are no limits, is it harder?’ It’s a vast canvas for grown-ups, where you have to find your own structure. It has its own cast-iron rules.”

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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