The quest to actually come face-to-face with John Green in Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall was like manoeuvring through a video game. Level one was negotiating through a hive of Nerdfighters; level two was descending down countless floors – I was surprised not to find the Earth's core – and passing through eerily darkened corridors; the final stage was when we hit the green room to find it empty.
I was left in a strangely surreal scenario: sitting rather nervously in John Green's dressing room. A tower of Marks & Spencer goodies sat awaiting its consumer while a piano was nestled in an alcove to my right.
After I spent far too long deciding on a comfortable position to sit in, Hank Green, John's brother and tour buddy, appeared, rather confused as to why a 15-year-old was sitting on their leather sofa.
When I spoke to Hank, in retrospect, I feel I was a bit unresponsive (probably a side effect of being overwhelmed. If I had let my emotions show I think I would have fainted) and watched, embarrassed, as Hank decided on which sandwich to eat.
John eventually arrived, looking like he was expecting me and, like a professional, delved straight into the interview.
Teenagers are doing so many things for the first time, says John Green, and asking big questions about life, loss, love and politics. He is clearly very interested in teens and what they experience and encounter in their childhood. When he replied to my question about what makes writing for teenagers so interesting, I felt like I was talking to another adolescent.
All of his novels have had young protagonists and he has given us the lovesick Miles Halter, the anagrammatically nuts Colin Singleton, the inquisitive Quentin Jacobsen, the Will Grayson duo and finally the terminally ill Hazel Grace Lancaster – all relatable and interesting characters formed around well-shaped storylines. Each of the characters is unique in their own way and it is obvious Green did his research on them all. He feels he is privileged to sit around the metaphorical table with teenagers. We're pleased to have him there because John Green is the ultimate penman writing for our generation.
If you're expecting another book from John soon, I suggest you don't hold your breath. When I asked him about his next one, he hesitated and sighed. "I wish I knew," he tells me "I don't know… I'm working on a few things and I never know which one is going to end up being a book."
He goes on to say that, before he wrote his latest book, The Fault in Our Stars, he contemplated penning a zombie apocalypse novel (in the same the vein as Charlie Higson's The Enemy series, is my guess). That idea fell through and what surfaced was an altogether drastically different book. As for his next one, he really doesn't know what's coming. So it looks like fans of The Fault in Our Stars, will have to wait a while before the next novel from Green.
Earlier this month, the Daily Mail took it upon itself to publish a rather scathing critique on the so-called 'sick-lit' genre. They claimed that books about teen terminal illness, death and bereavement are becoming a worryingly popular phenomenon, and that youngsters are too undeveloped to deal with issues such as cancer. I asked John what he thought of it and he had this to say:
"The thing that bothered me about it… was that it was a bit condescending to teenagers. I'm tired of adults telling teenagers that they aren't smart, that they can't read critically, that they aren't thoughtful, and I feel like that article made those arguments."
Green was pleasantly honest when I asked him if he cried when he was writing any of his novels and he told me all of them, except An Abundance of Katherines. He was most tearful, he claimed, when writing Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars because the former was so autobiographical and the latter reminded him of friends who'd passed away.
When he wrote Paper Towns, he cried when he finished the first draft - he thought it was so good. Then, when read it the next day, he thought it was awful. Green's admission that cries a lot seems perfectly reasonable considering the emotional oomph he packs into his novels.
John Green clearly likes being out on the road meeting fans. So what's the weirdest thing a fan has ever said or given to him? He sounds like he's struggling not to tell me about the really weird stuff. But there are always surprises - the night before Green came to Glasgow, he was in Manchester. A man asked him to write "Will you marry me?" in a signed copy of The Fault in Our Stars so Green obliged. The man's girlfriend said yes and John was very relieved - it would have been rather awkward otherwise.
Malorie Blackman, Markus Zusak, Mal Peet and Meg Rosoff are often cited as brilliant authors writing for teenagers. John Green concurs and feels that some of their novels are just wonderful.
However he says that a novel not well-known in the UK, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by MT Anderson, is perhaps his all-time favourite. It is evident through what he says that he just enjoys the experience of reading, as he seems to relish the fact that his favourite book spans 700 pages split into two volumes.
As I'd asked John Green what weird stuff fans had given him, I wondered how he would react when I gave him a DVD of one of my favourite Doctor Who episodes. He seemed really pleased to have it and promised to watch it.
Whether he thinks I fit into the category of weird fans or not, I'll never know.
Then Green was off to sign a pile of books for some of the 1000 fans waiting outside for their hero.
Read patrick's preview of the Imagine festival and his review of the Edinburgh festival, with author interviews.
Want the chance to interview your favourite authors, like Patrick? Join the site!