If you missed the live stream of J.K. Rowling speaking at Queen Elizabeth Hall today about The Casual Vacancy, check out our recap.

First, Rowling and Mark Lawson spoke about J.K. Rowling’s appearance at the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony. She revealed that Danny Boyle had to ask her several times before she agreed to appear. And said she felt that, “No one is even going to remember I was there,” but was proud to be a part of it. She was also shocked when she saw the giant Voldemort they used during the ceremonies. Rowling said, “After 15 years, after being the author of Harry Potter, to an extent the appearances of Harry potter become white noise,” but seeing that Voldemort gave her the chills.

When asked what she spent today doing, Rowling stated that she had spent most of the day trying to avoid newspapers and reviews on The Casual Vacancy. Although she does eventually read reviews on her novels, she revealed that she doesn’t like to do it on publication day. While she does use their criticism constructively, Rowling also says she usually feels that she’s done the best she could have done and it was done the way she wanted it.

In giving more details about her inspiration for The Casual Vacancy, Rowling said she got the idea while on tour in America for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. At the time, she was on a plane. She joked, “I know something about me and vehicles, I have to be moving to get ideas…the next thing will be a space shuttle.” But she also said she doesn’t know what made her think of the idea, explaining “I was just sitting there having a perfectly nice flight.”

Rowling also joked that she’s surprised anyone finds the book about local government interesting. When she first told someone about her idea she explains, “I cannot say that his face said, ‘ooh you must write it’.”

On the themes of the novel, Rowling said she would warn fans that her main characters are not Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Saying of the teenagers in The Casual Vacancy, “These are contemporary teenagers.” When questioned about the dark themes of death, sex, and drugs, she joked, “It’s a cheery book, clearly a comedy, a beach read,” but more seriously said that she genuinely thinks it’s a humorous read although some of the humor is dark. Rowling also revealed, “In many ways this book is about outsiders.”

Rowling was also questioned about writing for adults this time around and if it was hard for her. To which she replied, “It’s hard to say, because I have written for adults before…it’s not a voice I struggled to find.” Rowling also revealed that she had a sense of freedom writing for adults, but that it was also a bit challenging. Still, she loved it and thoroughly enjoyed writing the novel.

Rowling also joked a bit about her obsession with death. She laughed saying, “I kept killing people” in the Harry Potter novels. And said that death obsesses her, but she can’t explain why. She wonders if it was because so many people around her died when she was a teenager. Or if it’s because her mother died when she was only 45 and Rowling was in her twenties at the time.

The topic of controversy was also brought up. In the past, many have accused her books of being satanic. When asked about it, she joked, “Would this be a good moment to confirm that?” and then went on to say, “I wrote this cheery book about wizards that I thought was so moral.” More seriously, she said that she doesn’t want anyone comparing Harry to Christ because she never meant it to be looked at in that way, although she does admit there are Christian symbols in the Harry Potter novels.

Rowling also tackled the topic of comparing characters from The Casual Vacancy to Harry Potter. She said that she did not purposely rhyme Harry with Barry or Robby with Dobby. She said the Harry Potter novels have a ludicrous amount of characters and “it’s very difficult not to rhyme with any of the characters, I can’t spend my entire life trying not to rhyme with the characters from Harry Potter.