She also spoke about life after Harry: "On the one hand, I am going to feel sad. Harry's been an enormous part of my life and it's been a turbulent phase of my life and he was always the constant. So there will be a sense of bereavement. But there will also be a sense of liberation because there are pressures involved in writing something as popular. Wonderful though it's been, I think that there will also be a certain freedom in escaping that particular part of writing Harry Potter.
"I feel quite liberated, I can just resolve the story now. And it's fun in a way that it hasn't been before, because finally I'm doing my resolution."
A surprise appearance by Jon Stewart stoked the crowd up when he came on stage to introduce JK Rowling. Typical Jon Stewart, in his speech, he described how his five-month-old son has been standing outside of a bookstore waiting for Book 7 for three months now. At the end of his speech, he said he should be sitting out there with all of us.
With that said, a video to introduce Jo had her in her home holding a yellow portfolio. In it, she said, was the final chapter of Book 7. "I feel like the camera will be able to see right through this if it's too close," she remarked.
A gigantic standing ovation met Jo as she walked out onto the stage in her special high-heels (with a snake on each). With the warm welcome out of the way, she grabbed her US paperback copy of Half-Blood Prince and began reading at the part where Dumbledore takes Harry back in time to when he originally found Tom Riddle.
After reading, Jo took five or six questions from the audience. The first one asked what Hermione would see in the Mirror of Erised, to which Jo replied she would probably see Voldemort dead, and herself and Ron living happily ever after. Another question had Jo responding that we'll find out more about how potions and the connection between a wand and a wizard work in Book 7.