That Was Then, This Is Now

I slept late again this morning; it felt absolutely lovely. I have an appointment at 11 today, and I have to get the mail at some point–I may not bother until next week; we shall see how I feel; I might just go to my appointment then turn tail and come back home. The windows are covered in condensation this morning and my coffee tastes amazing. (Time for a second cup, methinks.)

Yesterday was a bizarre day; I woke up late then too, banged out a quick blog entry, and then went over to Facebook as I drank my second cup of coffee preparatory to going to work; I was stunned to see Art Taylor’s post, tagging me, about his own nomination for a Macavity Award and congratulating the other nominees, including ME. Still not thoroughly awake and aware, I clicked on the link, assuming “oh, Blood on the Bayou must be an anthology nominee.” I scrolled through the list quickly and got to the end, completely puzzled; there wasn’t an anthology category. “How can this be?” I thought, and then started looking at the nominees in each category, gasping so loudly Scooter took off running when I saw my name listed under Best Short Story! The story was from Blood on the Bayou, “Survivor’s Guilt,” and as I looked at the other nominees–well, it was humbling and shocking. How on earth was something I’d written in competition with work by Craig Faustus Buck, Paul D. Marks, Art Taylor, Lawrence Block, and Joyce Carol Oates?

I mean, seriously? It didn’t seem like it could be real…and then came all the posts, tags, congratulatory comments, tweets…I felt like I’d slipped into The Twilight Zone. I’m still processing the fact that I am nominated for an Anthony Award (anthology for Blood on the Bayou) and now for a Macavity for short story. It just doesn’t seem quite real to me, you know? And then, after I got to the office, the Internet went down all over New Orleans. As I joked to one of my co-workers, “apparently, my being nominated for an award broke the Internet.”

I’m nominated for an award for a short story. Me. A short story.

The insanity of it all hasn’t completely sunk in  quite yet.

All right, I’m off to the shower now.

OH! The Steinbeck set arrived yesterday.

Isn’t it lovely?

And now back to the spice mines.

 

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