since it was an honor to be on a list of books like this, a list where I loved every single volume. Lucky to be writing at a time when that is possible.
After sitting for two and a half hours, I was happy to join the line in the men's room (where Michelangelo Signorile was two guys in front of me, looking dashing). I set my trophy -- an engraved piece of glass in the form of a book -- and my program down on a convenient shelf, and when I came back from washing my hands I picked it up and whoosh, my trophy slid onto the hard washroom floor, and several wicked-looking chunks of it broke loose. The line gasped. I felt mortally embarassed, and said something like, Oh, easy come, easy go, which probably wasn't the right thing to say in that particular company. Oh well. Then I said, well now my award has more character, and when I got it home and saw it in the light this turned out to be true. Before it was a trophy, now it has a kind of chipped and dented handsomeness to it, which of course is the kind of handsome I like best.
(Also in the house: Jericho Brown, Tiphanie Yanique, Alice Quinn, Jill Bialosky, Donna Masini, Ed White, Scott Heim, Michael Lowenthal, Eddy Sarfaty, Andrew Holleran, Furry Wayne, Tom Healy, Honor Moore, Thomas Glave, tout le monde.)
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UPDATE: At BEA today I ran into the handsome and dashing mystery writer Scott Sherman, also a Lammy winner. "All that excitement last night," he said, "and what's everybody talking about but that you dropped your Lammy."
UPDATE #2: Some comments seem to have disappeared into the electronic ether somehow. If yours is one of those, apologies, please try again!
4 comments:
Okay, i have to admit I do the same thing. Easy come easy go makes these kinds of things bearable. It's the most tiny things that get me all twisted like
waiting for someone for over five minutes, or miscommunications that can be the big whammies. Congrats, and sorry about the Lammy!
You told me it was a mere dent. Mon dieu!
Lammy needs to go to the hospital.
Yay to James and you! xxx
Years ago, I too broke a trophy I'd won for growing an orchid to a high standard of beauty. The broken trophy reminded me of how little I had to do with the whole process, as a higher power had created the genetic material that many people had selected to create the lovely hybrid. My hand in all this was only the latest to share the joy. I broke the plant up and gave away divisions to several friends to share the joy of winning the fragile trophy.
Hi Mark,
Congratulations on the Lammy.
I re-read Murano the morning I browsed the article on the broken Lammy. I think the line perfect for your chipped and dented trophy, "Broken, the better to glitter."
Janet
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