So last night I was at this dinner with these really interesting artists, and we were drinking champagne. I told the story about how when Dom Perignon invented chamagne, he is supposed to have told one of his fellow monks, "Come quickly. I am tasting the stars."
And then one of the artists said, "Tasting the stars--that's what Britney Spears does for a living." Hey-o!

Here are your questions from last week, only now, they are answered:

Which Paper Towns cover would YOU choose if you were perusing a bookstore looking to buy a book?

It's hard to say. Probably the blue. But I like both, and I think they both reflect common misconstructions of contemporary teenagers.

You have a great fondness for Walt Whitman. What other poets do you like? Any current poets?

I answered this in last week QT video also, but yes, of course. Among contemporary poets, I like this book Atlas by Katrina Vandenberg in a somewhat obsessive way.

Will you please, please go on a book tour for Paper Towns?

Yes, I will.

Why do teachers make less than actors?

Most of the actors I know make precious little, but I do think that teachers and librarians are the most underpaid people in the American workforce. I mean, on the one hand, I would like to live in a world where teachers and librarians are feted like celebrities. On the other hand, that George Clooney sure is dashing.

Do you think Pam and Jim will get engaged?

Yes, although sitcom engagements fail about 92% of the time.

So which cover of Paper Towns should I get for my library? I suspect the answer will be "both". ;>D

My answer is, in fact, that you should get several of both.

Do you think it's true you have to lose yourself in order to find yourself?

I'm not totally convinced that the self is findable in any kind of lasting way.

John, do you consider yourself lucky that you get to be a writer for a living, or do you think it's something anyone can do given the right amount of talent and perseverance?

I consider myself very lucky, but I also think that there are many, many people who write for a living (I worked for Booklist for six years, and we reviewed hundreds of books every other week--all of them were written by somebody).

Who would win in a fight? Numbers or words?

w0rd5

I've found myself wondering what college you (and Hank, for that matter) went to?

I went to Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. Hank attended Eckerd College in Florida. We both like both schools.

Favorite city?

Amsterdam. Then Chicago. Then New York.

Blue or black ink?

Green, a habit I learned from my boss at Booklist, Ben Segedin.

What happened to that book you were co-authoring with David Levithan?

We're working on it. It'll come out in 2009.

What is your favorite poem of all time?

Tough one. Song of Myself, I guess.

Can you explain its origins, purposes, and any other clarification junk about nerdfighters. Like, Are you against nerds or what.

It's not possible to understand the whole thing unless you watch our 288 videos (which will only take you like fourteen or fifteen hours), but basically, nerdfighters fight _for_ nerds. (The name is based on a common misreading of an old arcade game.)

Why on EARTH do all YA writers have Mac computers?!

Well, there are a number of reasons. They're faster, more stable, and better for video editing (which is important to me, obviously). And there are really cool Mac-specific writing project managers that people like Maureen Johnson and Scott Westerfeld swear by.

Also, they are cooler.

Do you have a PO box that I could send my copy of the book to? If I include postage in my package, could you sign my copy and mail it back?

I can't do that at the moment (I don't have a PO box), but we are going to try to set something up before Paper Towns comes out.

If Hank, Libba Bray, Carroll Spinney, Mel Brooks and you got in to a fight, who would win?

Libba would win. Libba is a tiger!

How do you like living in Indy? Also, what are favorite places to eat in Indy so far?

We like it. It's an adjustment, but we like it. I ate last night at Meridian; it was excellent. I'm also pretty high on Elements, a restaurant downtown that mostly uses local ingredients.

I'll continue to answer questions with (hopefully) regularity, so leave them in comments. Thanks for all your questions!

I swear I am going to blog less about politics once the nominating contest has come to an end, but friend and excellent author Lara Zeises had a thoughtful post in comments I want to pull out:

"What I want to know is, why are Obama supporters so quick to dismiss the "big states" argument. Isn't the overall goal to get a Dem back in the White House? Haven't we learned from the Bush/Gore debacle that electoral votes are EVERYTHING?"

This is a fair question, and I think it's one of the main reasons that Clinton's supporters feel it's important for her to be in the race: The idea is that Obama can't win states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, which means that he'll lose the election in November regardless of the popular vote.

For the sake of argument, let's put aside that I think overturning the pledged delegate count would infuriate the base of the party and just discuss the electoral college facet of the electability argument:

History can't always be your guide for such things, but I looked at the last few competitive Democratic primaries, and there may be some correlation between primary performance and general election performance (For instance, in 1976, Carter lost primaries in California and New York; in the general, he won New York but lost California.) But let's talk about it state by state:

1. Important states that (currently) favor Clinton over Obama in a general election scenario: Arkansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Mexico. (I don't include Michigan; some would say I should, but 40% of Democratic voters voted for no one over Clinton.) I think Obama can win all these states except maybe Arkansas, which I don't think Clinton can win either, but no matter. 52 electoral votes.

2. Important states that (currently) favor Obama over Clinton in a general election scenario: Colorado, Virginia, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. 47 electoral votes.

In short, I think the "big states" argument is kind of a wash, at least from the perspective of the electoral college. If Obama doesn't win Ohio or Pennsylvania, he might be in trouble. If Clinton doesn't win Wisconsin or Colorado, she might be in trouble. (You will note I have given up on Florida. Sorry, Florida.)

Okay. Answers to questions to come soon. Oh, and if you're a dork like me, you can look at some state-by-state head-to-head general election polling at the (annoyingly conservative but nicely laid out) realclearpolitics.

1. I don't understand why people are acting like the democratic presidential nomination is still a race.

Here's how the delegate math is going to work out: Clinton will net 14 (maybe two more, maybe two less) delegates out of Pennsylvania, meaning that she is still well more than 100 delegates behind). As I've said before, if the positions were reversed, I would be begging Obama to get out of the race. As it is, I am begging Clinton to get out of the race. There is nothing to be gained at this point: Her five percent chance of winning the nomination does not go up if she campaigns through June.

By the way, I only mention this because it is a well-known fact that Hillary Clinton reads my blog.

2. The paperback of An Abundance of Katherines will be published in August of 2008. With a fancy new cover! And an incredibly low price! (Seriously. Incredible.) More information to come.

3. The loyal few who frequent this blog but for whatever reason refuse to join the Nerdfighting juggernaut have been asking: You answer dozens of questions weekly in your vlog; why can't you do something similar over here?

Fair enough. Leave your questions in comments. I will post the answers here and as a blog post at the ning.

In which I discuss the dual covers of Paper Towns in video blog form. If you want to put your name in the hat for the advanced readers copy of Paper Towns, comment at nerdfighters.com or at youtube.

So for those of you who didn't navigate the wilds of omnictionary to find the covers of my new book, Paper Towns, which comes out on October 16th:


(I am sure that you already know this and everything, but just in case my grandparents are visiting my blog: You can click on the image to make it bigger. No, Nanny. Click on the image! Right, with the mouse!)

I am really psyched about the covers, and really psyched that there are two of them. And now, to celebrate, I will have a conversation with my 11th grade self.

Me: Hey, John.

11th Grade Self: What's up? Other than your cholesterol, I mean. Jesus, you are possibly even fatter than the last time spoke.

Me: Right, yeah. Listen, I wanted to show you the cover of the new book, Paper Towns.

11th Grade Self: What's it about?

Me: Orlando. Whitman. That kind of stuff.

11th Grade Self: God, I hate Whitman. He was such a tool. I'm a leaf of grass. No, wait. I am many leaves of grass. Oh, whoops. Now I'm just one leaf of grass again. I mean, come on. I could write that.

Me: No, you couldn't. Trust me. You come around to Whitman eventually. Anyway, check out the covers.

11th Grade Self: Wait, which one is the cover?

Me: They're both the cover. Same book, two different covers.

11th Grade Self: Dude, why not just have one freaking cover like a normal freaking book?

Me: A lot of reasons. First, because they look kind of awesome next to each other. Also, we felt like they'd each appeal to a different audience. And we wanted the cover design to be part of the book in a way it too often isn't; we wanted it to capture the ways that this person is wrongly imagined by the people all around her.

11th Grade Self: Weird.

Me: Yes, well, it's not unprecedented or anything.

11th Grade Self: Uh, well, I like them. I like the blue better, I guess.

Me: And I the yellow.

11th Grade Self: Hey, while I have you here, when do we really marry Sarah Urist or were you just screwing with me?

Me: We really marry her.

11th Grade Self: Christ, that's so awesome. Now that I know she's a chubby chaser, I think I'm gonna go hit the Taco Bell. I'll see you later, fatty.

Milowent writes: "I am suddenly struck with remorse for counseling Brotherhood 2.0 NOT to make a presidential endorsement early in 2007. if they had, clinton would probably be out by now."

It's true! Blame Milowent!

Sandy writes: I also still have a little bit of a problem with Senator Obama. I'm a Michigan Democrat, and it still bothers me that he pulled his name off of my ballot when there was no cause for him to do so.

The primary system in this country is so screwed-up I don't even know where to start, but the solution to the screwed-upedness is certainly not for all the states to start moving their primaries up. All the candidates signed a pledge, at the behest of the DNC, saying they would not "participate" in the Florida or Michigan primaries. They couldn't remove their names from the ballots in Florida (it's illegal), but everyone but Senator Clinton and Dennis Kucinich interpreted "not participating" as "not being on the ballot." I don' t think this constitutes ignoring Michigan or leaving Michigan behind. If anything, Obama's economic stimulus plan is better for states like Michigan than it is for states like New Hampshire. Also, the Obama campaign has backed several efforts to seat the delegates from Michigan at the convention. I agree with both Clinton and Obama that we need to find a way to seat the Michigan and Florida delegates at the convention, and I'm confident it will happen.

Devin writes: "Hey Umm kinda off subject but i just read looking for alaska and i would just like you to thank you for writing such a good book it has helped me."

Hey, Devin, thanks for reminding me that this blog is about books and writing and not about Presidential politics. Also, compliments are never off-topic. And thanks for reading Alaska. And thanks for making my day with the last four words of your comment.