Rather than a tradition blog entry, which would be boring and stupid, we are going to go ahead and run an interview I recently conducted.

birdlives1: state your name for the record.
sarah: Sarah.

birdlives1: What is your relationship to John Green, the creator of this web site?
sarah: do you want me to just say that you're my boyfriend?

birdlives1: That is precisely what I want you to say. What can you tell us about John Green that we don't already know?
sarah: one sec, phone call

birdlives1: oy vey. Does this happen to Terry Gross when she's interviewing people?!
sarah: A. Despite his insistence that he is: John Green is not fat! B. John Green's hometown is really Orlando, FL

birdlives1: Wow, both of those facts are contestable, and we have photographic evidence to the contrary with regards to Point A.
sarah: You are not fat!
sarah: And please don't post a photo of your belly
birdlives1: You've given me no choice!

[At this point a lengthy discussion ensued, the long and short of which is that I am not going to post a picture of my belly.]

birdlives1: Now, as much as we like talking about John Green, and God knows it is our favorite way to pass time, let's talk about you.
sarah: ok

birdlives1: When you were a little girl, what did you want to be when you grew up?
sarah: I wanted to be a graphic designer

birdlives1: That's funny, because when I was a little boy I wanted to marry a graphic designer. Weird coincidence.
sarah: Crazy.
birdlives1: I did not, at the time, realize that if I was a writer and my wife was a graphic designer, then no one would have any health insurance.

sarah: What did you want to be?
birdlives1: I wanted to be a writer.

sarah: Did you think about it practically, or just the vague notion?
birdlives1: I wanted to be a writer, but I didn't understand that in order to do that, I was going to have to write a lot.

sarah: When did you realize that?
birdlives1: Around September 15, 2001, and believe me, it was depressing.

sarah: when you started to write Alaska, yes?
birdlives1: That's when I started to write Alaska seriously, yeah. I remember getting to about page four and realizing, "Oh, man. Books are long."

birdlives1: I'm guessing that when you thought about being a graphic designer, you thought about it quite practically.
sarah: I did think about it practically. I liked the process aspect.

birdlives1: The process of creation still appeals to you, does it not?
sarah: Yes, it does. While I'm not really a graphic designer, I still design things. And I still make art.

birdlives1: Do you find the process of artistic creation fulfilling or are you primarily focused on the finished result?
sarah: I find the process fulfilling, as long as i'm sure that there will be a finished result eventually (i.e., if I ever finish the project).

sarah: What about you?
birdlives1: I don't really enjoy the process. It's lonely and frustrating. But I do find it fulfilling, I guess. Or at any rate, I keep doing it and don't want to do anything else.

sarah: So, writing is hard but you still want to do it. Is it a "calling"?
birdlives1: Yes. It's a calling. It must be. It's just that my writing is unimportant, so it's difficult to think of it as a calling.

sarah: Oh, come on. You're writing for kids. How can you say that's unimportant?
birdlives1: Right. Well, that's why I write for kids. When you're writing for kids, you are allowed, in some ways, to lay bare your desire to help people.

sarah: Are you trying to find excuses not to write Katherines?
birdlives1: Well, look. I know what I was trying to accomplish with Alaska.

sarah: what?
birdlives1: Without giving away plot twists, I was trying to explore the question of how we live with real guilt, and how misremembering helps us to survive. And trying to celebrate that, find hope in it. I mean, admittedly, Alaska is mostly jokes about pee. But still.

sarah: But I think you know what you're trying to accomplish with Katherines too. It seems to focus on the hope too.
birdlives1: Yeah. I am sort of obsessed with hope and forgetting.

sarah: So I hear your a finalist for Chicago most fabulous 20somethings.
birdlives1: Yes, it's a contest RedEye is having. I wonder who nominated me.
sarah: Hmm, yeah. I wonder as well.