I was lying.

I wish I knew how to quit you, Lonelygirl15. The latest news, very briefly (those of you tired of Bree and Daniel can just skip past the numbers to the other stuff):

1. Lonelygirl15 and Danielbeast have started posting their videos at Revver.com, which is exactly like Youtube, only A. terribly designed, and B. clunky, and C. ugly, and D. horrible. Oh, and E. Revver pays you a tiny bit of money for each time someone watches one of your movies. This seems to lend credence to the idea it's a small group of young people who made the movies as a project and now that they are popular want to make a bit of money off of them. In short, it seems unlikely that this is a promo for Lost, or for a video game, or for the new Harry Potter. (Although that would be brilliant.) But why has no one recognized them yet? Do they live in an Alaskan village or something?

2. The New York Times' indefatiguable Virginia Heffernan tracked down the man who appears to be lonely girl's lawyer, and he said--this is pretty exciting, so brace yourselves--"I have nothing to say." By saying nothing, Mr. Ken Goodfried, you have spoken volumes. (More credence lent to the group-of-kids theory.)

3. Theories about for what's going to happen on 10/12/06 abound. (10/12 being the date that subtly appears in one of lonely girl's videos, the very same date that happens to be the birthday of Aleister Crowley, the opium smoker who founded Bree's occultist religion.) It turns out that there is an actual thing called Crowleymas, which is like the occultist version of Christmas, and it is celebrated on 10/12. If this lasts until October 12, it may kill me. I have a book to write, Lonelygirl! This isn't just about you and your strangely compelling Satanic mystery anymore. It's also about me and my languishing manuscript.


Okay, enough about Bree. Let's talk about me:

Buscando a Alaska, which looks approximately like this,


was recently published in Mexico by the really great people at Castillo. (With some foreign publishers, you never hear anything from them, but with others, they really involve you in the process, and Castillo has been great to me, and so supportive of the book, and also I really like the labyrinth on the cover.) They threw a big release party for Alaska in an old theater in Mexico City recently, for which I produced a short (and stupid) video. I wish I could have gone to the event, becauase apparently some people did the Takumi raps in Spanish with someone really beatboxing, which is fantastic. But anyway, the bookstore chain in Mexico City that sold books at the event publishes a weekly bestseller list:

1. Relaciones Publicas. Jorge Rios Szalay, Trillas
2. Buscando a Alaska. John Green, Castillo
3. Todas las Familias Felices. Carlos Fuentes
4. Ines del alma Mia. Isabel Allende, Arete

And yes, that is my name alongside Carlos Fuentes and Isabel Allende (for one week at least).