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  • good morning tickets Tuesday.

  • So you're currently trying to sort through titles for the sequel to your Number one New York Times bestselling novel, An absolutely remarkable thing.

  • And in trying to assist you, I have re realized something important, which is that I am terrible at titles like In a college creative writing class.

  • I once called the story.

  • Things remembered things for gotten, and my professor said, That's it, Green.

  • We're putting a moratorium on your titles.

  • I'd like to think I've improved a little since then, but only a little.

  • All of which is to say, nerd fight area that I need your help.

  • My first book was called Looking for Alaska, which arguably isn't a great title for a book that's not about the state of Alaska, although on the upside I know that I'm in for a great TV interview.

  • When the host begins by asking, When did you first visit Alaska?

  • My friend here actually came up with the title because all of mine were so bad.

  • I wanted to call the story white flowers and warm malt liquor, which is a nice title for a country song.

  • But not so much for a novel or else Famous Last Words, which is a little on the nose.

  • Alaska was also the first novel I attempted to title more light than Heat.

  • I'm very fond of this line from Hamlet about how some love blazes with more light than heat.

  • And every time I write a book, at some point, I think you know what this book should be called more light than heat.

  • And then my publisher, Julie Stress Cable, says No, just no, right.

  • So then there was an abundance of Katherine's a title I actually quite like, not least because I wrote it before I wrote the rest of the story.

  • Although in the end of the Italian title, the Katherine Theorem is much better, paper towns ended up with an okay title, but only after I tried to call it The Life and Hard Times of Margo Roth Spiegelman.

  • The copyright trap end, of course, more light than heat.

  • I also still like the title of turtles all the way down, although it is slightly confusing in a book that is not about turtles but is kind of about a different reptile.

  • It has, however, allowed my kids to make a lot of jokes about how my next novel will be called Wizards all the way up, which, I don't know, maybe it will be.

  • And then there is the fault in Our Stars, which was very nearly titled The Sequel or else the Sequels plural.

  • Because somehow that's going to make it better.

  • Like I have all these emails that Julie and I exchanged in April of 2011 in which she's like the sequel is not a good title but more polite than that.

  • And then I would reply with lots of information that I'm sure at the time seemed super relevant.

  • Like, for instance, once I wrote, I am increasingly convinced that it is not our place to assert either the temporary nous or the permanence of the universe, but that the meaning of life is basically bearing witness to creation and its inhabitants, which is like a nice sentiment.

  • But what the hell does that have to do with calling a novel that is not a sequel of the sequel?

  • At any rate, I was eventually convinced that the fault in our stars was a better title, and because it's a play on a Shakespeare line, it nearly quenched my thirst to call the book more light than heat.

  • I should mention that Rosie Ana called my attention to that line in Julius Caesar about the fault in Our Stars, which is relevant because Rosie Ana is great at titles.

  • For instance, she came up with the top notch title for our book club Life's Library, which, by the way, has some slots open for our new book, Isabel Allende's House of the Spirits.

  • If you want to sign up, you can find out more of Life's library book club dot com.

  • You get to read good books with nice people, and all the proceeds go to Partners and Health's work in Sierra Leone.

  • Speaking of which, I mentioned all of this because we need a title for Nerd Fight Areas project with Partners in Health here we own.

  • The idea is to provide ongoing funding to improve the health care system there because long term problems need long term solutions.

  • So if you have a title idea for that or for that matter, a title idea for Hank sequel, please let us know in comments.

  • Wait, Hank, wait.

  • Have you considered calling it the sequel?

  • I mean it is a sequel.

  • Another idea.

  • Just gonna throw this one out.

  • More light than heat.

  • Hank, I'll see you on Friday.

  • Oh, hi, PS.

  • I've only wanted Twitter in the last month.

  • A couple times have I mentioned that I'm not on Twitter.

  • I'm not on Twitter.

  • It's the I went to Harvard of Internet citizenship.

  • Anyway, I only wanted Twitter a few times in the last month, mostly so that I could weep and gnash my teeth with worry over football.

  • But also because I really want everyone in the world to read Cava Akbar's new poem, The Palace, which is a great title.

  • It's so good.

  • Even if you don't like poetry, I think you'll like this poem link in the Dubai Dubai.

good morning tickets Tuesday.

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