The thou in the subject line, of course, refers to Iowa. I have returned from my book tour (well, for a couple days--later this week, I head to Austin) and can now report with authority that Iowa is an underrated hotbed of young adult literature fandom.

Anyway, the whole tour was a lot of fun, although one does get tired of living out of a suitcase after a while, and one also gets tired of not being able to hang out with one's wife. One also tires of the kind of food that passes for room service at some hotels (I'm looking at you, Memphis Marriot). But it was great to see "An Abundance of Katherines" making its way out into the world, and it's always fun (and instructive) to meet some of the actual people I actually write for.

At some point, I will learn how to take images that live inside my digiital camera and transport them to my computer. And then I will post a photo essay about my travels. But for now, you will just have to live with the following textual highlights:

1. I got to eat dinner with friends from middle school, including my preschool girlfriend. PRESCHOOL! And Colin Singleton thinks HE got dumped a lot. (Allison doesn't remember dumping me; she remembers us drifting apart, "the way four-year-olds do," but I'm pretty sure she did dump me.)

2. My trip to Iowa involved a hilarious balloon.

3. I was reminded of how highly I regard librarians, which made me feel better about Keir Graff basically calling me the world's biggest librarian suck-up.

4. I spent a total of 23 hours in airports over the course of 9 days. I've forgotten more about the Moline, Illinois airport than you'll ever know.