But from afar, here are two writer-related items that just makes me feel incredibly happy to have a president that is so radically different than our last.

#1 – Obama sent Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi, a fan-letter. (!)

Martel says:

“If there was a way of tattooing it on my back, I would. What amazes me is the gratuity of it. As you would know, there is a large measure of calculation in what public figures do. But here, what does he gain? I’m not a US citizen. In no way can I be of help to President Obama. Clearly he did it for personal reasons, as a reader and as a father. And in two lines, what an insightful analysis of Life of Pi.”

There is irony here, since Yann Martel has been on a multi-year campaign to send Canadian Prime Minister  Stephen Harper a book a week, along with an inscribed letter from him, in order to raise arts awareness. This is all documented on the website http://www.whatisstephenharperreading.ca. In the most recent post (in which Stephen Harper receives a copy of King Leary by Paul Quarrington, guest author Steven Galloway gives a sort of nice tagline for the site:

“In a way, you’re in what must be the world’s most exclusive book club, albeit somewhat unwillingly. I bet Mr. Obama is jealous!”

Read Obama’s letter on Fiction Writer’s review

#2 – Look at the edits that Obama put on this speech. Just look at them.

I’m sure to someone receiving an edit like this on the job (speech writer Jon Favreau) it must be frightening, but right now the only edits I see are mine. Pages like this are gold — it means that the text has been worked, and worked hard. That someone cares about what is said, and how it is said. The piece has been honed. Bravo.

All other things aside, I really love having a smart president.

Original article here: Editor in Chief found via John Scalzi’s Whatever

Iraqi journalist throws shoes at Bush

is that his reaction time is better than I would expect! Those were some not altogether slouchy ducks.

I couldn’t count on both hands the number of times I would have liked to do that — I hope there’s some hope for the guy.

(from this nyt story)

In this case, a picture is worth about a hundred gazillion words.

But while the picture is fascinating, more than anything I’d like to know what those words were.

“So now, again, is this the way to the bowling alley, or the war room?”

Speaking of which, I’m guessing Barack will be improving his bowling. 

Correction! He already has a transition plan for that.

And now, for a bit of Couch news you can read between refreshing your poll trackers…

- My publisher is having a Couch carrying photo contest
- There’s an excerpt of the first 10k words of Couch up at Book Spot Central
- and also a contest there
- Powell’s is selling signed copies of Couch. Who signed them? I have no idea – I hope it’s a special robot with a calligraphic flare living in the basement. Named Robert. Who hums while he signs. But if you like signatures at the front of your book, that seems like a good way to get one if you’re not going to be in one of these places.

That’s all for now. Go vote and be merry.

Incidentally, we so voted for Omar.

Glorious, Gynoparadisiacal West Virginia

I mean, Virgina, Virginia Slims – there’s something to it, that must be it. I can’t think of any other factors that might have come into play…